006 — text/action.

[argents]

( TEXTED )

A while ago, I got back a laser sword.

[ PICTURED: A LASER SWORD. Steely-white hilt, pink blade. Robot not included (for now). ]

I've only used it twice since the echo, three times if you count taking that picture. But it's not as intense as it was when it first appeared. It might have to recharge, but I don't know how, or what it's even made of. It left some scorch marks on stone, but I think that it's really meant for cutting into other robots cockpits metals.

...I need to know what to do with it before it goes out for good.

[ DON'T SUGGEST AN APPLE STORE ]

I'll be out all day, so if anyone has the time to take a look at it, I can come to you.

( ACTION, OPEN )

OPTION A: LCU

[ School, boooo. He has precisely one morning class on Thursdays, and at 11am when he trudges out into the cold morning sun thrown about LCU's grounds, he looks a little... rough. Like in dire need of coffee or breakfast or the peace of mind a good night's sleep brings type rough. In truth, he needs the lowdown on this laser sword business ASAP, so he's brought it along in the bag slung over his shoulder. Just having it on his person when there were still police officers sniffing around makes him a touch nervous, however.

He looks at his watch. Stick around and brave the gauntlet, get breakfast, slug back home in the cold? ]

OPTION B: PUBLIC LIBRARY

[ Work, slightly less boooo. He's only offered to come in and help for an hour to two. Increase in traffic, increase in people actually looking stuff up in books. So he's on the second floor, perched on a ladder while he shuffles nonfiction titles into order.

Every now and again, one will slip past him as he works, clattering to the floor in a whip of pages. ]

OPTION C: PARK

[ Obligations met for the day, zero boos! So Banagher has decided to take it to the park for a few hours. There's a crisp bite the air, but there's still plenty of people milling about, enjoying the sidewalks sprawled throughout the park. And if not, there's still the park's center, crowned in a gaudy white fountain and decked out with festive strings of little gold lights. Local vendors are already set up to sell hot chocolate and the like.

Banagher, meanwhile, has parked himself at one of the basketball courts to shoot hoops for a little while. He wasn't quite comfortable enough to go at a punching bag in the dojo without Regina yet, so it was the next best thing to blow off a little steam. Plus, he hasn't done this in forever.

Haro sits on the bench with his coat and bookbag, also enjoying something that wasn't the inside of his room. Every so often he chimes in with a cheeky, "Missed! Missed!" when Banagher botches a shot. ]

I could throw you next, you know.

OPTION D: DOWNTOWN

[ On his way back home, he's drawn in by a crowd milling around a square drenched in outdoor spotlights. It's gotten darker earlier, but the time of year meant that establishments were open later, and the people followed suit by staying out later, too. Approaching, he realizes it's not the square itself that's got everyone's attention — it's the ice rink!

And he'd forgotten completely about it. Was it done already? ]

(ooc. open post! pick a place and a time and go wild! mix and match or make up your own, i'm not picky. ♥)

Comments

[argents]

[ He has to smile at that, however demure. There wasn't much he wasn't avoiding nowadays, he thinks, even when he talks like he isn't. It's just a hurdle he'll have to jump when he comes to it — the situation didn't exactly lend itself to considering the future at length. ]

Just decided to get some fresh air, yeah. Being out here like this, it's hard to tell there's even anything going on.

[ And it's true. Life was still going on all around them. It'd probably snow, given a week or two. ]

I used to come here more often, when I didn't need to think about anything in particular.

[ He scuffs his foot against the basketball. ]

[argents]

[ Haro pauses, or gives the illusion that he is by not immediately answering, and the hydraulics of his ear-flaps whir again, beating along with his answer: "Not! Not!"

Which was about what he'd expected. ]

Oh, so that's where her name comes from. Sixes.

[ Banagher catches sight of the band momentarily as she's shifted between Julien's hands, and his gaze follows her off for a quiet moment until she settles in the adjacent tree. ]

I'm glad some of them are making it.

[ Which was probably about as thin as the smile Julien had made, but he knew it couldn't have been easy, or even very rewarding, sometimes. Sniffing, he buries his hands in his jacket pockets and faces forward again. ]

I wouldn't call it a hobby, exactly. Just something to do to keep my blood flowing out here. The air helps me think, but I'd get too cold if I just sat still.

[argents]

[ His expression pinches. ]

We don't even know how they're doing any of this, or why. No one person just comes into so much power like that, to have the police and the military in on it. We're doing what we can, but... it doesn't change the fact that we're still threatening them. Of course they're going to try and cut us short!

[argents]

Alright! If we can wing that, it sounds like it'll be as good as we can get.

[shiromadoushi]

Tch...

[[Bakura focuses on just tossing and catching Haro a long moment]]

I'd like to be able to do more than just threaten them... people like that... they shouldn't ever have power.

[espigeonage]

[As he fakes this laugh Julien has an odd pang, wondering if this would have been a very long laugh, if it would've been the kind that made it hard to breathe, to the old him. He doesn't know. He pushes that down and shakes his head at the robot, grinning.]

Not very imaginative, I know, but I don't think she minds. And... yeah. Things are going a lot better now. Of course, there's fewer sick, too. [The survivors all still have it. For all he knows the symptoms will come back. It's not something he'd be able to prevent, though, and he hates dwelling on that kind of thing.]

[Julien shifts his feet on the ground and from there kind of half bounces upright, spinning to smile brightly at Banagher.]

Play with me, then! Just a couple hoops.

[worldmother]

[It took a moment before she finally retained her composure, and she nodded simply.]

I think so. ...That's really disorienting.

[ladyofluminosity]

[She smiled knowingly, giving a nod. It was easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the Numbers business that it was hard to separate that from everyday life.]

Same here. It's hard to find time to do much of anything anymore.

[A pause.]

They didn't go for it. The college class idea.

[That wasn't the reason for her mood, of course, but the silence, although mutual, felt far too heavy to leave alone.]

[flamberge]

[He gives a soft hmm at the first comment. The perk of teaching chemistry rather than say english is a nice lack of essays.

The question gets a brief moment of silence as Richard glances down at where the gem hidden under his clothes rests. The hearing and sight been decently gotten used to by now, but the strength is another matter. One never realizes how mindlessly they pick things up until those things can be easily snapped in half if not paying proper attention.]

The process is taking longer than expected, but I've mastered not accidentally breaking furniture, if nothing else.

[His coffee table at home had, thankfully, been the last unfortunate victim.]

[talkshitgetsis]

No.

[Raises an eyebrow.]

I guess I found something, though.

Do you normally work here? I'm here almost every day.

[argents]

Yeah, I'm sorry. It's not something you can really warn for. Since we still don't know what causes them...

[ Though, for what it's worth, he does look sympathetic. ]

You remembered a sword like that too?

[worldmother]

[She nods simply.]

I did, although the blade is different, not a, what would you call that? Anyway, it was used like a rapier, so quick, sudden thrusts. The other me used one, although I get the impression she wasn't as good with it as she was with other things, combat-wise.

[argents]

[ While the new topic was obviously meant to throw a gloss over the previous one still hanging between them, it's no less disappointing news. Part of him wants to tell her to hell with it, and part of him just doesn't have the heart. It's in there, somewhere, but sitting in the calm and quiet keeps him in check. ]

You sound like you about expected it to go that way. Did they give you a reason?

[ladyofluminosity]

[Her feet bob a bit at the ankles, and she takes a deep breath. While she may not have known what was on his mind, the thought had occurred to her as well, albeit very briefly.]

They don't think I'm ready for it socially.

[argents]

Combat-wise... so you used it? [ Yes, Banagher, that is what she just said. ] I mean, yourself. I get the feeling I never held one in person.

[ A beat. ]

I had something else to do it for me.

[argents]

[ Unable to contain a sort of awkward laugh-snort, he leans forward a little, dropping his gaze down to the sidewalk. ]

Out of all the reasons they could have given you.

[ Which is him being polite about the fact that he thinks that's bull. ]

[worldmother]

I did, but... [She mulled the question over in her head for a moment.] There's something I don't quite understand about it.

[She pauses, looking a bit confused.]

Something else?

[ladyofluminosity]

[She sighed. She wasn't angry at him, but amused by his reaction. She probably would have had the same one, if the roles had been reversed.]

I know. I hate to say it, but it felt like a bit of a cop-out answer. I can understand, since they've been frustrated with me lately, but they could have come up with something better. I thought I found a way to do something I wanted and still play by their rules.

[argents]

Looks that way.

[ Hopping off the last rung, he bends to scoop up the fallen book. Some self-help book playing on David and Goliath. ]

And yeah, I do. Just around classes now, since I started by helping out after school when I went to LHS. I think I've seen you a few times, but you seemed really focused on what you were doing.

[ ...What, he's not always out to bother people. ]

[argents]

[ Quieting, he starts checking the work on the first sheet, marking off and circling here and there. He tries to imagine that, having that kind of resolve and control. It doesn't exactly some easily to him, because for a while, all he's wanted to do is avoid what it was that potentially made him strong. In whatever life came before this one. ]

You fell into it so easily. That's pretty amazing that you've learned this much.

[argents]

Not all memories come with context, or clarity, I guess.

[ Which is something that's frustrated him to no end over these months. They weren't what he'd call long, and they weren't what he'd consider short, either. It was funny how his perception of time changed when he was just trying to go about existing. ]

Yeah. Everyone's seen a mecha cartoon or two, right?

[ He is really going there right now. ]

[worldmother]

I get that. At first, I could believe they were past lives. I saw the other me in a forest, so I figured that that idea was viable. [Although she was holding a rather sophisticated gun.] But this time, it seemed, how do I put this? Almost futuristic.

[Elly looks a bit stunned at that comment, eyebrows furrowing.]

You mean like robots?

[argents]

[ To his credit, he does feel bad for a second afterwards, pressing the incredulous smile out of his expression as quickly as possible. Everything just seemed so ridiculous as of late that parental cop-outs on innocent enough matters tickled him in a way he wished it didn't. It was unfair.

Clearing his throat, he considers her answer. ]

I'm more surprised they thought you'd buy it. Even without — [ shrugging vaguely ] — all of this, you couldn't have been very satisfied with that answer, right?

[ There's a scuffle of activity off on a different path, through a row of trees. He glances off at the group of kids carrying on about shoving one another in the fountain for a moment. ]

But it's not like all those rules are going to help us out now, or even be enough to keep us safe. Just because they can't see the full picture any more than we can. I don't really like thinking about it that way though.

[ Mostly because it meant giving up another tie to normal life. ]

[argents]

You're one of the few like me then. Who remembers something about the future, rather than a past.

[ Which meant they were more likely dealing with an alternate universe of some kind, but he doesn't say as much. This discussion always made him feel like an idiot enough, no matter the gravity of it, or how often it came up. ]

Like robots. Big ones. I think I used to be a pilot.

[ladyofluminosity]

I wasn't, and I think they know that, which was why my father told me not to ask again. I think I startled them more than anything. They weren't ready for it.

[She shakes her head.]

No, but we leave them in the dark like this, so they don't know. They can suspect that something is going on, I mean the warning signs are there. But, past a point, there isn't much you can do on other side except for butt heads about who's right. The downside is that we can't give them all the evidence they feel they need without causing trouble, so they see you as troubled, or acting out.

[Looking over at Banagher, she smiles apologetically.]

And now I'm venting. I'm sorry.