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!

Comments

[underwraps]

[At her order Aizawa immediately begins running towards the tents in the far distance, pace quick but not so fast to pull ahead of his company. Fortunately, she seems to be able to keep up without too much difficulty, thus allowing him to focus on keeping their path clear. He deals with every stray Risen as quickly as possible, often times shoving them backwards into the ever growing horde chasing after them.]

[pursestrings]

[Hmm, this brings Okuyasu's list of people who get it up to, like, two. Maybe three. That's more than he ever anticipated, so-- great. No idea what to do with this knowledge.]

...Yeah, you're probably right. Lemme just grab some shirts or something and we can get outta here.

[Mission: Dad is a failure, but maybe the real mission was the sad backstories we shared along the way.]

[tendershepherd]

[ooc: Continued over here!]

Captcha also happens lol

[tendershepherd]

[ooc: Continued over here!]

[messianic]

Oh... yeah, I guess so.

[Gotta raise that charm stat somehow--but also...]

I used to work here sometimes, actually.

[Sometimes. When his schedule permitted.]

But I did come to this mall a lot. It's a pretty popular hangout spot where I live.

[messianic]

[It's fine, it's fine... he doesn't seem to mind her laughing at him, anyway.

(It's a much better expression on her face than some of the worry and tenseness she'd had before. This is much better, isn't it...?)

So ultimately, he just gives her a smile in return, shaking his head.]

You don't have to thank me for that. We're friends, after all. And... you deserve to be able to hold peoples' hands.

[Because Shiho is a good person, no matter what powers she has.]

[osuni]

[Okuni looks thrilled at being so close to danger, but she finally pops back into her seat to prevent Lupin from getting any heart attacks. She immediately stands up on her knees though, because she has to at least violate one safety rule at a time.

This is a lot smoother than riding a horse or a wagon, which is all Okuni has to compare it to. She’s never been fortunate enough to be carried in a litter, not that she’d ever want to after being in A CAR]

Let’s pretend something’s chasing us! Try and go faster!

[LET’S DO IT, FAST AND FURIOUS TOKYO DRIFT!!]

[youwillbeunequaled]

Continued here

[good_ideas]

[Computers were easy because they usually involved someone who has been sitting at them and knows their ins-and-outs. All Shiho has to do is read it.

Everything else involving technology? Not so much.]

Put it in a... robot? That kind of seems like the plot for a scary movie though.

[good_ideas]

Someone who invited me out to see a game of his when I was a kid. [Why is it that all the guys who want to date her back home are kind of like this? Has she ever gave anyone the indication that she’d step on them if given the chance??]

[good_ideas]

I’m not interested in eating the raw ingredients though~

[She wants the added flavour of suffering and the hard work of the chef.

As he instructs her, she starts putting the shogayaki together, adding pork and ginger as well as all the other seasonings.]

[good_ideas]

But then.... how is he sane when everyone else isn’t? [And why didn’t Dex include himself?]

It’s fine, no worries!

[good_ideas]

I think it depends on what kind of place it is. Mine... It makes me miss home but I’m not bothered about it.

[Though what she won’t admit is that she had been a little bit shaken to see it empty. Never in her life has she ever seen BABEL that empty.]

[guideyouhome]

Whenever you get the chance to go home, you can thank them then. And you can show them what you learned!

[guideyouhome]

Ah... th-thanks.

[Kairi is surprised when she blushes a little, but she tries to shake it off quickly.]

Same to you too! I don't really know anything about being a princess, so it'd be nice to learn a thing or too.

[osuni]

All you have to know is that you look a bit wimpy, so I imagined you came from a nice place... But I suppose I've seen the error of my ways.

[congrats ruva, for being the only person to get any sort of real apology from Okuni.]

I mean, you still look wimpy, so it's even more impressive that you're surprisingly tough.

[heartsteals]

Uh - are you sure?

[ Lupin looks back over at Dextera, eyes sympathetic; Sisi, meanwhile, takes the break in eye contact as a sign that he definitely just won out over Lupin and can therefore do what he wants. He pads (or, well, clanks) a few feet closer, poking his snout out to sniff at Dex more intently. Where are the chicken snacks, he can smell them... ]

[heartsteals]

[ standing up on her knees is fine, it's 1853 and traffic rules are nothing but a faint twinkle in the hearts of concerned citizens. Her enthusiasm is a little infectious; he flashes her a grin. ]

Faster? You better hang on.

[ he pulls out of the mansion gates and onto the street - the mansion is secluded enough that there are rarely people around anyway, but in this version of London, there's nobody around. Which means it's totally fine for him to put the pedal to the metal. He drops his foot, and the car sputters out a big puff of steam as it kicks forward at a much faster speed, zooming past hedges and fences. Now that they're out of the house, Steel London is more easily visible - smoke stacks reaching up into the sky, tall buildings surrounded by an even taller wall that encircles the city along with the two of them. ]

[heartsteals]

[ lupin would protest very much if he knew they were thinking that. he's not fragile, he's a manly man!!

but he doesn't, so he just offers a little laugh in return. ]

You're lucky you can't. It's freezing out here. But it was hard for you too, huh...?

[ on the other end of the spectrum, from Lupin's point of view, they seem almost comically unflappable... but he supposes, as he said earlier, that they do like to sleep. ]

What do you mean, winter duties, anyway? I never asked. Did you take care of the others while they were... hibernating? [ that's what they said, right? like bears... ]

[heartsteals]

[ well, victor does basically take care of everyone in the house, and impey did build a bunch of stuff around here, so they're not even wrong?!

At Cairngorm's comment, he makes a sort of chagrined expression, smiling faintly at them in profile. ]

Well... They're not really a different species back where I'm from. Most of those stories about them aren't true. They're just a race of humans. Like... hmm... [ how to explain this to a gem. ] There are probably other "quartz"-type gems like you, right? Humans come in different types, too. We're all basically the same, but we look a little different. Vampires are like that.

[ a beat. He hesitates, then continues: ]

But I did know someone who wasn't technically "human" the way the rest of us were. She might have been more like you, actually. [ he shrugs his shoulders. ] Rather than getting used to it, it's more like that kind of thing never really mattered to me.

[heartsteals]

You worked here?

[ he pauses, looking at Minato, then looks over at the counter again, trying to imagine him back there. After a few seconds, he nods. ]

Hmm... I can picture that perfectly. Your boss probably loved you.

[ he's so quiet and diligent!! once he's spoken, he takes a bite of his cake, and his face immediately lights up. Chocolate... It's been so long!! ]

[unghost]

Vampires? You mean those human predators.

[ That gets them to look at him with a raised brow, pausing their search. They've met a few, read about some, but for some reason they hadn't anticipated Guren bringing them up like this. ]

Were you comparing gems with them? I don't really see any commonalities other than immortality.

[unghost]

[ While Dextera might think of it as a dream, it was definitely more of a nightmare for Cairngorm. Honestly, they're pretty sure them and Ghost's relationship would have been a lot better if it had been the way Dextera's life was...maybe they should've just switched. ]

...Right. It's not a problem.

[ There are other things they'd like to ask him, but, they have all the time they want, as far as they're concerned, given the nature of that place. They make the decision to aloofly avert their eyes before continuing, not wanting to come off as soft or nice or anything like that. ]

If you ever have questions about it... Ghost Quartz, me, whatever. I won't care.

[ If it gets to be too much, you can ask me, is written between the lines here. ]

[unghost]

[ A nod. ]

You could say that. Aside from dealing with any Lunarians that show up, I have to—

[ Uncannily, as they're speaking, there's a loud screeching that echoes through the building, not loud enough to shake the room but loud enough that they can't talk over it without shouting. It's almost like the cross between a horrible crashing sound and a ghastly wail, but as awful as it sounds, they only grimace and wait for it to cascade down into a rumble to continue. ]

...Break ice floes, so they don't scrape against each other and wake the gems.

[ They move to point out the window, to the masses of ice near the frozen sea where the sound originated from— but they stay mostly to the side so he can look out, too. ]

[unghost]

[ His comparison is successful, since there are indeed other quartzes... even if the gems don't separate themselves by gem type, but rather through hardness level, they get the gist of what he means. They're a little lost still, on the vampire issue, but they suppose at the end of the day, they're not here for an history lesson on vampires. So they don't prod him about it, letting it slide. ]

Like me? [ What's more interesting here is the person he mentions. They definitely can't imagine this person being a living sentient gem in the way that they are, given how much they've had to explain about their own livelihood to him, but they must be special somehow. ] You mean...an immortal? Or in another way.

[ It's nice to learn things about him for a change, to be the one asking questions, so they look on to him with genuine curiosity. ]