the "p" doesn't stand for pretentious, FYI. [art gallery, may 6th—??? ]

[theearth]

[ Welcome to Locke's very own Taste de Louvre, everyone! Predictably, the unveiling of the new set of statues at the magnificent Hugh P. Thadson Gallery of Fine Art has turned out to be a rather fanciful affair. The upper echelon of snobby society, in their snobby society attire, has come to mingle amongst one another—and is endeavoring to ignore you, fair citizen, as much as possible—and discuss this fantastic addition to our city's fair culture.

The first statue is a touchingly metaphorical piece, the prominent carving of a snake coiled around a human heart that looks so real you can almost hear it beating within your ears. This statue appears to be the most popular; the crowds drawn around its base simply can't stop going on and on and on about how wondrous it is, along with the rest of the works on display tonight.

The second statue also depicts a snake, but has its blush-brushed scales cut dramatically open to display its own wicked black heart. The Thunder Corporation and its latest line of tacky memorabilia is the primary subject of discourse here.

The last statue is strikingly different from the other two, and features a wolf howling at the open sky,* dying in apparent agony with a sword driven through its chest. You get a distinctly unsettling impression from it that the other, ordinary folk don't seem to notice—that perhaps your adventure to meddle in recent affairs is ill-advised. Inscribed below the pained wolf's paw is a link of sorts to a peculiar forum that, when accessed, bears only the topic "Let's Negotiate" with the same message enclosed within. Strange, but since no one else is talking about it, you wonder if you can't have just imagined the whole ordeal... and yet stranger things have happened, right? Perhaps it's worth looking into, in any event.

There's plenty to do with the statues about and the gift shop buzzing, with lots of familiar faces to run into. So what's your agenda for the evening? ]

(( General mingling post for the plot as related to art gallery affairs! There will be base threads for OPEN INTERACTIONS, open to all as implied, CLOSED INTERACTIONS, for planned out one-on-one interactions between player characters, and a general purpose EVERYTHING ELSE, for characters who wish to explore the gift shop, just mull about. Just as a general reminder:

1) Touching one of the snake statues will grant you one (1) Echo, for two (2) Echoes max. However, touching a second statue will definitely arouse suspicion, so be prepared for that. One safe Echo, two potentially risky ones up for grabs here! No Echoes from touching the wolf statue, though, so slither your way towards the snakey-snakeys for those.

2) If you'd rather not touch the statues themselves, hanging around them for awhile -- about an hour or so -- will grant one (1) Echo.

3) Accessing the webforum will not grant an Echo, but posting a reply to it will. It will be possible to get a second during conversation, but as for how it happens... it's a secret to everybody!

4) Little statuettes are available for purchase in the gift shop, but do not grant an Echo themselves in any way.

You may also handwave the mingling NPCs being snobby snobs at you, just for fun. Because why not.

As before, please wait for all base threads to go up before posting. OPEN FOR BUSINESS! In your character's subthreads, please put your character's name, the day, and optionally the time you are visiting in the title so things remain nice and neat. Remember, open to all interactions in the open section and one-on-one time in the closed section. Everything else goes in Everything Else. This post will remain stickied throughout the entirety of the plot duration, for easy finding.

The plot post for this week, detailing about the art gallery and more, can be found here.

*This awesome picture drawn by our very lovely Lucas-mun! Thanks, MC! ]

Comments

[wordsgate]

[That sounds...complicated. And he's not quite sure what to say. His general psychology classes don't really cover this sort of thing.]

Well...at least you know that you could probably handle yourself in a fight. If you get enough of your skills back, at least.

[chalicejoker]

[At the mention of getting some of those skills back, Hajime noticeably tenses. He doesn't want any skills that would come with being a monster back, thank you very much.]

I don't need any skills back to handle myself in a fight.

[Which is easy enough to say away from actual threats like those werewolves.]

[wordsgate]

Oh...right. You were one of those guys that took karate as a kid.

[chalicejoker]

Yeah. Comes in handy sometimes, even if I haven't taken a class in years.

[Got pulled out after he kept getting into fights with other kids. Whoops.]

Maybe I should start it up again. Keep my skills sharp.

[He's doing better with a slight topic change there, it seems.]

[wordsgate]

That might not be a bad idea. I've been considering taking some sort of self-defense class, myself. Not that I'm really built for that sort of thing...[He's not particularly impressive when it comes to muscle-build. If anything, he's a little delicate. Honestly, that's probably part of the reason why Hajime can intimidate him so easily.]

[chalicejoker]

You'd be better off with judo. It's better for guys with no muscle. And women.

[Oh, good, he's feeling better enough to insult Sasame...even though at 5'6", he probably can't say much about size. He's got a bit of muscle to him, at least.]

[wordsgate]

[He rolls his eyes.]

Yeah, judo would maybe work. That way I wouldn't necessarily have to hurt anyone, either.

[chalicejoker]

If this carries on the way it does, it'll probably be impossible to avoid hurting anyone after a certain point...

[He'll be hurting people whether or not he wants to, if that memory was any indication. He's looking morose again.]

[wordsgate]

[hesitantly] That might be true. But I want to avoid it as much as possible. All I'm interested in is protecting people.

[chalicejoker]

You ready to pay the cost of protecting people? Someone's bound to get hurt eventually.

[wordsgate]

[He doesn't even hesitate to answer--which is a bit of a surprise even to himself.] Are you asking me if I'm prepared to be hurt or killed to protect someone else? Because the answer is yes, if necessary.

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime's quiet for a moment.]

I guess you'd have no problems trying to kill monsters if you thought that was what was needed to protect someone, then. Probably be easier on you that way, not to have to worry about fighting another human.

[No, "killing" wasn't the right word. Sealing, that's what the guy in the bug-eyed armor had used...but "killing" worked well enough here.]

[wordsgate]

Yes--maybe. [He frowns. He knows that there are people turning into things that might not exactly be human. Even Tamara...he's not quite sure if her "other" is a human girl or not. She looks like one, but human girls can't grow their hair in an instant. And human men--they can't fly, either.]

I don't know. Depends on what you mean by "monster." A mindless beast that only wants to kill someone? I could. But...a thing that thinks and feels like a human? I don't know. I'd fight it, but...

[chalicejoker]

What if he started out as a human, but then turned into a mindless beast and couldn't help himself? If there didn't seem to be any way to stop that change?

[He is just totally making something up out of thin air here, he swears. The werewolves. He'll blame the werewolves.]

[wordsgate]

[Okay, he doesn't want to pry, but...now it's getting hard not to.]

Do you have someone in particular you're worried about?

[chalicejoker]

[The way he shakes his head is just a little too fast. Kind of guilty.]

Nah. Just thinking out loud.

[wordsgate]

[He sighs and turns away for the moment. He's not quite sure exactly what Hajime is seeing in his visions--although the question about physical changes was rather telling.

Even worse, it's making him think about Tamara's situation more, and whenever he does that all of those confusing, out-of-context emotions start flooding back.]

I guess I'd do whatever I could to help them get their mind back. If it was possible.

[chalicejoker]

What if it wasn't possible? What if that instinct to destroy was so strong, there was no stopping it?

[That's what he had known in the memory, at least. That he'd always feel that pull, and that succumbing to it would be inevitable...]

[wordsgate]

[He's quiet for a long moment. Because he knows what the answer is but he really, really doesn't want to say it.]

Then I guess...I'd have to find some way to prevent them from hurting other people.

[chalicejoker]

[There's a slow, almost satisfied nod. Like that's what he wanted to hear. After all, he'd rather die than rampage as badly as he'd seen that thing run around in the past...]

It's about all anyone can do.

[wordsgate]

...I guess so. [But Sam himself seems rather unsatisfied with his own answer.] I just hope it never comes to that for one of us.

[chalicejoker]

It...shouldn't. Not like there's much chance of that happening.

[He doesn't sound convincing at all, really.]

[wordsgate]

[Nope. Not convincing at all. Sam forces a laugh.]

What a depressing topic we've gotten ourselves onto!

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime awkwardly rubs at the back of his neck.]

I blame the damn statues. They're ugly enough to cause that sort of thing.

[wordsgate]

Hah, the general public seems to be quite impressed with them. [Of course, he knows WHY that is.] But they do have a sort of depressing air around them.