Event Eight.

[awashmods]

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care; The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there. No more from the cottage again will I roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

he Town is quiet this week. No sudden quests on the forum post, no roars of werewolves in the distance... just peaceful, peaceful quiet. Of course, it's hot as hell right now, but that aside, it's pretty pleasant. You probably don't want to wander around the Town right now, but... Naturally, now's when the Town is going to start thoroughly encouraging you to do just that. You do want to find your doorway back home, don't you? Better get searching! And don't mind the other worlds you might end up stumbling into first. Welcome to Awash's eighth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. You are welcome to start your own posts or logs for this event as well. If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

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[osuni]

[SUCH SUBTLETY...]

At least put some effort into your own words...

[but Okuni wanders on over to peer at his box of ammo.]

Oh? You know how to use guns, Sakamoto-san?

[tosa]

(Stop don't blame him for things, he's a naturally guilty spirit. This is triggering his fight or flight response and he can't fight a girl because he's been raised right so????

He books it. Bye, Okuni, he's just taking off down the hallway screaming,)

I didn't do anything!

[asano_san]

It's in my closet. My place isn't too far away.

[He inclines his head in the direction they need to go, and is completely unaffected by being called defenseless, delicate, and powerless. He is powerless!

But something does stop him right as he's about to start leading the way.]

You're not going to be weird about being in my room, are you?

[asano_san]

You'd do that?

Come with me. Not make fun of me. I know everyone will make fun of me if they get a chance!

[asano_san]

You like the rows of desks?

[It's not like he has a problem with rows of desks. It's just where they go when you're not pulling them together to eat lunch or something. But it's not something he thinks of as a selling point, either.]

[asano_san]

"The place you live has an onsen? That's sounds amazing." It would take away from the potential for "trip to the onsen" camaraderie and romance, but he could accept the sacrifice.

"There should be some storage over here." Now he worries the room might be locked, but the door opens easily for him. It's probably because in his memory it was lways unlocked and ready for them to get what they needed for class, but he just appreciates his good luck.

"And here's a cart!" He wheels one out proudly.

[scooptimistic]

I know. It didn't even make an appearance until after dark, but...

[ A shrug. ] That doesn't mean people will be able to avoid running into it.

[ And yeah!! She does feel pretty down, but that's annoying, so she's trying not to be! ]

[scooptimistic]

Too old for your age. Come on!

[youwillbeunequaled]

Tonbokiri, in turn, is glad to have come to a topic she is so clearly happy about.

"To fight together with one's friends is always a pleasure and an honour, isn't it. As you use the same skills, did you study together as well?"

[osuni]

[that jUST IMMEDIATELY TRIGGERS OKUNI'S CHASE INSTINCTS so she nyooms on afTER HIM!!!!]

Running is a sign of guilt!

[Okuni's no tsukumogami, but she's at least had lots of practice running!!! You can't be a trickster that indulges in punkshittery without knowing how to RUN!!!

The tour she had earlier makes it at least easier for her to keep Mutsu in her sights, but she's not THAT familiar with the citadel yet... She's waiting for her Chance to Tackle Him... WAITING!!!]

[osuni]

[Okuni can't tell if Kamui's Intense or actually easygoing...]

Rematches? Does that mean you're going off to fight samurai who already beat you once before?

[scooptimistic]

Along with... Cat?

[ what was it again. ]

Sure, I don't mind. I'll pretend not to listen if you kids get too loud.

[osuni]

[A god-level weapon...]

...Your home sure is intense, Ruru.

[AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!]

I don't have anything remotely godly on hand, but I can at least be a shield for you if it gets that bad. You'll just have to keep running. You can do that much, right?

[whereabout]

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, as they say.

[ Trite as it may be, it's pretty legitimate. ]

Have you had any trouble there yet?

[ Not that it's a guarantee of anything, but a general pattern isn't bad as a guideline of what to expect. ]

[tosa]

(But Mutsu is the sword of a man that ran for a living. He's the sword of a wanted man! A robin! A rebel wanted for dead! Mutsu isn't going to make it that easy to catch him. And look.... he's making a lot of sharp turns down hallways and he even cuts through a few rooms, jumping over tables and other bits of furniture, heading deeper and deeper into the citadel until he gets to one closed room at the end of a hall that he starts to run towards and

suddenly changes his mind, stumbling over his feet and staggering a little bit in place. Aaah, no he doesn't want to go into that room. Abort, abort, abort.

This is it. Her chance to tackle him.)

[passio]

[ this is terrible. dextera feels himself absolutely withering away under guren’s judging stare, and the fact that he doesn’t say anything makes it worse. wouldn’t he usually just scold dextera and let them move on? ]

Ngh…

[ he rubs the bruise on his cheek, more mortified by the second. ]

She was in… a swimsuit.

[ that doesn’t help ]

[whereabout]

[ It's the weakest, least convincing smile he may have ever offered anyone, but - it is an attempt at one, nonetheless. ]

[osuni]

[EYES ARE BEING ADDED!!!]

No, of course not! What I really want to knock down is the well. If whoever's taking people is dumping them there, then naturally they'll want to fix it if I blow it up, right?

[pleased!! it's a good idea!!! (not)!!! Okuni starts drawing a new picture, this time a human-like caricature that probably starts looking a lot like Okuyasu....]

[tosa]

Or that it won't come out some day. (They don't know what they're up against here! It could come out of the forest and for the town and what would that mean?) If we can't beat it, we gotta find a way to hold it off, at least.

(Hmm, this is serious.)

.... I'm glad you're okay, though.

(Obviously not okay-okay but at least it's not worse.)

[whereabout]

[ By that, Joshua supposes Noct is asking what happened then, not what happened when he found it now, and while it's never going to be a comfortable subject, the depressing upside of this entire ordeal is that it's gotten easier for him to speak about it. He'd spent five years saying absolutely nothing to anyone, and only in the days before they all wound up here had he actually volunteered anything - even to Estelle.

That's...progress, of a sort. ]

It happened when I was six years old. The village was massacred as a false flag to give our kingdom a pretext to invade Liberl.

[osuni]

[The more he runs, the more Okuni's impressed with Mutsu's skill... Running is only as fun as the person you're chasing, after all. Tsukumogami sure are impressive, or maybe that's just Mutsu's centuries old experience kicking in?? Either way, Okuni enjoys the half-chase half obstacle-course Mutsu is taking her through...

Okuni takes the opportunity as soon as it presents itself, kicking out with her legs to LAUNCH HERSELF THROUGH THE AIR hands out stretched to tackle Mutsu

hopefully the door to the room Mutsu wanted to Avoid is sturdy enough to endure two people crashing into it, because if not, then well -- HERE THEY ARE]

There!!

[Okuni is TRIUMPHANT!! too triumphant to properly gauge her surroundings, but still TRIUMPHANT]

[swordfucker]

...

[This is... so hard to respond to? He has friends like this. Goshi, namely. He doesn't think anything of it, he ignores it, rolls his eyes at it, but— it never affects him. Even when he's begging for Guren to make girls do things, Guren doesn't pay any attention to it.

This is... he doesn't know where this insecurity is coming from. He's never felt anything like it before. He's good looking, right? He's aware of that... So why does he care about Dextera staring at some boobs. He's aware of that desire, too...

He hesitates for too long and turns around to walk back to the vending machine. IT'S FINE... PROBABLY...]

Then you deserved it.

[whereabout]

[ Holy shit.

It's incredible, especially after a few months in the gray purgatory they've been stuck in, and that's enough to distract him from other things for the first half-dozen landscapes - he's content to just marvel at everything.

Eventually, though, he has to ask. ]

If you don't want to answer this, I understand. [ Because they've certainly all had their homes just...thrust on each other, with no regard to how comfortable anyone is about sharing them. ] But...what exactly is this place?

[ It isn't just anyone who has a big empty fortress full of technological and biological rarities hidden away from the rest of the world. In his world, it's the domain of some pretty bad people, in fact - and nothing about Clark has ever set off his spidey sense, but that only makes his connection with a place like this all the more puzzling. ]

[perfectennist]

I had breakfast. [ Not much, but enough to keep him going. He's been taking as good care of himself as he can, even in a place like this. It's not great in terms of nutrition, but he's not doing anything too strenuous, these days, even if he has started to work on his physical health for more than just dancing. ]

If it lets me take multiple things... There's a lot here, that's useful.

[ He'd like to take home a photo of his family, if he can, but he won't admit it to himself. ]

[whereabout]

...yeah, that'd be for the best.

[ He's been trying to head off any visitors before they were subjected to this, but sticking around to do so is hard. The only emotional defense Joshua ever learned was to shut down entirely, and doing that now, when he's finally been trying to learn how to - well, act like a normal person again - is counter-productive, to say the least.

Emotions are complicated, and it was so much easier when he thought he didn't have them. ]

Can I see yours? If it's not...

[ You know, if it's not a traumatic hellhole or something. ]