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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[good_ideas]

[Maybe you’re one of those people who makes “falling into the well” a thing you do every day. Maybe you were clowning around and got pushed? Maybe you’re just trying to escape the heat.

But whether it’s for cool water or some other reason, the moment you pass the lip of the well you’re taking a spill right onto the cold floor of a foyer with a big sign sitting right over a reception desk. Welcome to the headquarters of B.A.B.E.L., the BAse of Backing ESP Laboratory.

There would normally be security here, but hey let’s just jump straight over the railing. No one is about to stop you.

Now where to go in this big building full of technology?]

If you’re by yourself:

A. The Staff Cafeteria

[For some reason this place is way too fancy. If you didn’t know better you’d wonder why there was a restaurant serving cuisine from all over the world. Go raid the kitchens, you have Shiho’s blessing.

Or not, as she pops up behind you with a smile as you’re looking at the fake food on display in the cases. It’s helpful for when you can’t decide what you want, right?]

See anything you like? The cooks here used to be pretty good. I could manage something if you want, for a price~ [Her price is that she needs help emptying this kitchen of its condiments and rice. Filch all that fleur de sel that Fujiko probably imported from France. Steal every bottle of sriracha. Walk off with the Worcestershire. Swipe the soy. Pilfer the ponzu!

Don’t forget the sugar and salt either.]

Of if you’re with Shiho (who actually has access to a lot of locked areas):

B. Some Quack Doctor’s Office

[It’s well-stocked though Shiho wouldn’t have expected any less. It’s just a regular clinic, looking as if it were staffed by a run-of-the-mill general practitioner. On the wall though are certificates for a Komerican University for one Shuuji Sakaki, PhD.

What is important though is a room to the back, now unlocked where Shiho is looking through bottles, not quite staring at the bottles themselves but past them.

...How else is she supposed to know what any of these do without psychometry??

And then without warning, she’s making a face at the bottle and looking as if she’s going to drop it on the ground and start a makeshift “reject” pile. Stop her, volunteer she dragged here.]

B

[queenofminiskirts]

[She's tilting her head as she sits on Sakaki's desk (something no one lets her do, normally.

She may have also pushed a few little things off just because she could.]

Why don't we just take the whole cabinet?

[good_ideas]

[And Shiho wasn’t really going to drop this medicine. It was just fun to think about since no one ever let them in here. Sakaki is supposed to be “working” or something, who knows.

She does turn to Kaoru with a bright look though when she hears the suggestion:]

Yes! Let’s steal that quack, I mean, Sakaki-sensei’s cabinet.

[queenofminiskirts]

All right!

[She pushes off the desk and doesn't even let her feet touch the ground.] Which one should we take?

[This is sort of fun!]

[good_ideas]

Hm... one with medicines we’d need. Like... things that help to drop fevers, bandages, stuff that fights infections?

[Maybe they could mix and match... Shiho points to a row of orange bottles.] We need those. Let’s move everything that we might need into one cabinet. There’s that new weird doctor, right? We can bring these to her and if there’s anything missing we’ll come back and get it.

[queenofminiskirts]

Ah, Yosano-san, right? She's such a beauty!

[She reaches out a hand and the row of orange bottles fly in a neat line from wherever they were.] Where should I put these?

[good_ideas]

Hm... Is she? [She seemed nice enough and had good intentions? Shiho is still going to give her a hard time though because that’s just how she is.]

Let’s put them all in one cabinet.... I’ll pick... [at random] This one! [She picks the one closest to the door, filled with sterile bandages and tongue compressors... which Shiho reaches up to remove and place on the floor somewhere.]

And now for some anti-infection stuff. [Give her a moment while she looks for them, probably making a mess as she goes.]

Closed to Minato

[good_ideas]

[hey do you have time
I have something i want to talk to you about
Also i found a place full of condiments if you needed some ketchup or something

She had actually thought of writing a ransom note, something unserious and silly to hide how worried she actually was about talking to him about being a psychometer. But then what if it was too silly?

Maybe she should have just had Kaoru help her kidnap him or something.

But instead she’s telling him to meet her at the well which is where he finds her now, sitting at the edge and wondering if it was too much if she just jumped in and hid in the BABEL headquarters instead.]

[messianic]

[Then Minato would've been kidnapped twice in Awash, and that's the start of a trend. Nobody wants that.

But. It's fine. Minato gets the message when he's thankfully resting inside (read: hiding from the sun), and so he's quick to respond, acknowledging the message and accepting the meeting. And after that, he'll quickly go to meet her in the meeting location (despite the aforementioned melting), hair clipped back and out of his face for once as if to try to keep himself a bit cooler.

It's...working a little, sort of.

He's still quick to lift a hand from his pocket to wave when he sees her--too late to escape now, Shiho.]

Sannomiya-san, hey. Good to see you.

[good_ideas]

[It’s too late to escape now so she stays put as if she’d never thought to run in the first place. She has her hair up in a ponytail to keep it off her neck and is wearing clean, actually cute clothes from home for what feels like the first time in months. So what if it’s just a tank top and shorts, she needed this. If she had been melting from the heat and worried, that would have been too much.]

Hey. Thanks for coming even though there’s all... this. [Waving a hand at the sky, the weather, the trees, everything as if it had all offended her in some way (it had) as she stands up.]

So. I thought.... it would be faster to show you than to just... tell you. [That and she still feels a bit more reassured with the big BABEL sign behind her sometimes. BABEL is her family, after all.]

I found a... portal, I guess, to my home. Well... my... workplace, I guess? You don’t have to go though... if you don’t want to. But it’s cooler in there than here. [Aaaand now she’s rambling, someone help her.]

[messianic]

[She looks...cute, honestly. He'd have told herself so if she didn't immediately lunge into her explanation--maybe it's for the better he didn't get the chance. But honestly, she looks a bit more her age, like she's able to just enjoy the sunshine and weather.

Well.

Sans the nervousness on her face, at least. So he patiently waits until there's a bit of a pause or gap in her rambling, and then peacefully he'll cut in:]

I'd love to, Sannomiya-san. Thank you for inviting me--I'm excited to see it, honestly.

[Getting to know her a bit more by seeing what her workplace is like, and the things she deals with on a daily basis is something he's absolutely grateful she's willing to share.]

[good_ideas]

[Normally she’d like to be called cute. Her appearance is part of her whole image, after all: Cute, Fluffy, Harmless. But if he’d said it while she was worried? She’d be a mess and definitely think too much about it. For now she can take a deep breath when he cuts in, thankful for his calmness in all this.]

It’s... just a regular office. K...Kind of. [Not really, though, she supposes.

Another breath and she’s sure she can do this, turning around to look down into the well.]

I’ll go first. We’re going through the front door like this, so it’s a little weird. [And if she goes first she can hopefully catch him.] Just count till three and then jump.

[With that she’s pushing off and dropping into the well herself, disappearing and falling to the cold marble floor on the other side, sliding doors closing even though there’s no one walking through them. Shiho pushes herself into a standing position before turning around to look briefly at the big sign behind the reception desk. B.A.B.E.L. BAse of Backing ESP Laboratory. (The sure sign that someone had come up with the acronym and then tried to make the rest of it fit after.)

Okay, she can do this.]

[messianic]

[It definitely is a sign of the trust he has in Shiho that he really doesn't hesitate to just shrug and hop over the lip of the well. Granted, he's already told her as much, so it's probably no major surprise. He flops to the floor, slowly pushing himself up as well, tilting his head with clear curiosity as he looks around.

Huh...

Well, she did say it would be an office, right...? But he's not sure what he was expecting, with how nervous she's been.]

Down the well... how did you even find it? [HE CAN'T HELP BUT WONDER, that's quite the place for this to be hiding.]

B

[whereabout]

[ Well, she clearly has an idea of what she isn't looking for, at the very least. ]

Do...you want help finding something?

[good_ideas]

[She brightens suddenly and cheerfully at that:]

Nope! I’ve just always really wanted to break everything here. [....why does she sound so happy about that? Mostly because this place has always been off-limits to them.]

[whereabout]

Do you have a specific grudge against pharmaceuticals, or do you just like the sound of breaking glass?

[ The real question here is, because something hurt you or just for the hell of it, but trust Joshua not to be quite that blunt about it. ]

[good_ideas]

Hm, not really? But I know the guy whose clinic this is. [And while she’d sit at Sakaki’s bedside while he was laid down with psychic flu, she’d also be the first to draw a moustache on his face while he was passed out.]

And it seems like it could be fun to mess around with his stuff while he isn’t here. [Come to think of it... does he keep a calendar or something around here?? She’s curious.]

[whereabout]

The stuff that won't be useful, at least.

[ He hopes.

Which is why he's leaning in to look at the bottles. ]

[good_ideas]

What, like his calendar? [She really just wants to deface his calendar.

There is a lot of medicine though, neatly organized but illegibly labelled since Shiho has never bothered to read those long, scientific names. Why read when you could use psychometry and didn’t intend to ever become a doctor?

Besides, she’s always wondered if Sakaki reads them since he’s also a psychometer.]

B

[inheritance]

[Yikes, don't drop it, Shiho! Izuku hurries back toward her, realizing it might not be a good idea to wander off when he has no idea what the place's layout is.

And he'll just hover near her, ready to catch the bottle if she drops it.]

So, are we looking for something in particular?

[good_ideas]

[Having him hover nearby kind of makes her want to drop it all the more?? (Sorry, Izuku...)]

Just stuff that’s useful. [Nevermind that no one can read any of these blurry labels and Shiho can only tell what everything is because she’s a psychometer.]

Or should we bring everyday items instead? [Even as she says it she’s dangling to bottle like she’s thinking of dropping it. (Sorry, Izuku............)]

[inheritance]

Why not both? [Finally, Izuku reaches for the bottle before it drops. He holds it up curiously, looking just a little put out when the label isn't really legible.]

What does this one do?

[good_ideas]

We could do both. [This time it’s her turn to make a big show of looking at the label as if she could read any of the illegible writing on it.]

It’s an anti-inflammatory. [Which she had already gotten from holding the bottle earlier but it’s fine.]

I know where there are blankets and pillows too.

[inheritance]

I know we have healers in Chroma, but having medicine that we could carry around would be helpful, too. [He sets it aside.]

What's the rest of this for? [And, curiosity getting the better of him, Izuku reaches for the bottles on the shelf, pulling two of them down to peer at.]

[good_ideas]

[...She has to touch those since she has no idea what they are. Shiho reaches out, avoiding his hands to take the bottles from him if he’ll let her.]

Who knows? Who even labels stuff like this? That lazy quack. [Though she knows this isn’t Sakaki’s fault even as she peers at the bottles again.]