savetheearth | the "p" doesn't stand for pretentious, FYI. [art gallery, may 6th

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

[ 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! ]

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[ For your character to run into anyone and everyone at any point or place within the gallery! Please put your character's name, the day, and optionally the time you are visiting in the title. ]

[ For more, ahem, private interactions, with your character and someone else's within the gallery. Please put your character's name, the other person they are interacting with, and the day/time this is occurring in the title. ]

[ Exactly what it says on the tin. Feel like hitting up the gift shop? Trolling the upper echelon? Or just being a free spirit, man, and not doing any of the above? Well, whatever floats your boat. All interactions of that nature go here. As above, please put your character's name and the day/time they are up to shenanigans in the title. ]

[Blending in with high society is proving to be harder than Elle thought. It's hard to pretend one isn't fallen from grace when you're wearing a dress that's too new to qualify as extravagant vintage chic and too old to be in season. Her white chantilly dress has yellowed a bit with age, turning more of a cream color. When her mother had left, she had the decency not to empty her closets. No, she left a few things for Elle. Sadly, those had to be auctioned off for the most part, leaving very little in terms of high-fashion attire. Elle found that she didn't mind all that much though. The dress suited her just fine, wrapping her in patterned floral lace that accentuated her curves. Standing out is less about what you wear and more about how you carry yourself.

At the moment, she's gliding from statue to statue, looking around and trying to chat up whoever might look like they have a deep pocket. Social climbing's her sport of choice.]

Edited 2013-05-07 03:09 (UTC)

[Clad in a black Armani suit with a navy blue silk tie, Dick's doing his best to work the crowd. He always seems to have a lady friend on his arm while keeping one hand free to hold a champagne flute. One minute he's walking around with a giggly blonde while the next he's whispering to a stern brunette. Got to keep things moving, you know? His call girls are out and about, mingling and eavesdropping on his behalf based on the orders he gives them. Gaining leverage over the snobs is always his top priority, after all. ~~It's the climb.~~]

[Although neither of them was the type to be on top of the art world, and it would've taken something special to get either of them to set foot in a gallery in the first place, the news of just what the new statues were had been too much to pass on.

Or at least, that had been how Hajime felt when he'd talked Souji into coming with him, the afternoon previous.

It had all seemed to make plenty of sense at the time, even if part of him was a little ambivalent about maybe remembering worse things he'd done - remembering what Toshi had told about...but he'd had relatively little trouble pushing that to the back of his mind and reminding himself that his wants weren't really what was important, and maybe there was something to be learned here.

After the events of last night, though, he found himself much less eager to be here now than he'd been before.

They've been around for a little while already, and though he'd looked at the statues in question at first, he was starting to get a little uncomfortable with staring at them - especially the wolf. So he'd drifted across the room, still in close enough distance to get that odd feeling at the back of his mind, but where there was something else to look at. Anything but that wolf.]

[Sasame's already poked into the art gallery once before--he has a snobby art friend that couldn't stop talking about that new, wonderful sculptor. He can't help but be curious about the statues, since he's heard about how people with numbers have reacted to them. Particularly since ever since his conversation with Tamara, he can't help but wonder about what a new, sudden heartbeat will bring with it. More memories of her, or at least a girl that looks like her? A new piece to the puzzle?

But he hasn't gotten the guts to touch them yet, particularly since he knows he's already somehow called attention to himself once before, so all he's gotten is the weird feelings the statues are giving off. He's made a note to try that forum eventually, but hasn't had the guts to try that either.

So here he is at the art gallery, dressed up all classy like he actually belongs there--even wearing a tie!--and expressing interest in the new statues but not TOO much interest, occasionally wandering around to look at the other art, but always returning back to the statues in the hopes that he might find some sort of new clue. That's where he is now, examining the wolf statue with a feeling of dread at the pit of his stomach. He pushes his glasses up his nose and leans a little closer, memorizing the web address.]

Edited 2013-05-07 03:45 (UTC)

[Toushirou hadn't exactly intended to come here at all. But Granny knows he likes sculpture, and had insisted that they go see the new pieces together. As he doesn't want to raise any red-flags in the form of suddenly not doing something he normally would, he'd agreed to it.

[It honestly disturbs him to hear Granny talk about what a fine work of art that snake statue is. He can feel the pull of it, knows it's artificial, and can resist. But Granny can't. That settles it: they may be here, but they're not staying too long. He doesn't like the influence the statue is having over her.

[Every now and then, they'll head separate ways for a few moments to check out different things that catch their interest. It's during one of these points that he comes across the statue of the wounded wolf, and he just has to stop and stare for a few seconds before shaking it off.

[He's just being oversensitive about the fact that he'd injured one of the "werewolves" with a sword. A little too paranoid. That's all, right?]

[[OOC: If you want, specify whether you'd like Granny to be present at any point in the thread. Otherwise, I'll assume they're looking at separate things for the duration.]]

[Souji stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking rather unimpressed with the whole affair.]

The heart is kind of cool. Looks like it could start beating any second, huh? [He laughs, a little too easily, and cast Hajime an aside look]

Hm? What's up? [He looks around as if expecting for it to jump out at him--and it almost does, when he looks at the wolf again. It makes him flinch and hastily turn away, rubbing his arm] Besides that ugly statue of the wolf.

[ Colette wasn't used to high society. At first she had been a little nervous to go, unsure of what she should wear and less certain of how she should act, but in the end she decided that she simply had to make the trip. She had gone to see the snake statue down near the Dead District with friends about a week or so ago... and while nothing strange had happened to her, the fact that these statues were so similar had to mean something.

She's dressed in a simple yet pretty white dress, with black tights and a wide brimmed hat. On her neck, however, is a beautiful piece - a necklace that wraps around her neck and extends down to her chest with a bright red gem in the center. Her golden hair falls over her shoulders and curls at the ends, swaying with her movements as she moves through the Gallery. She certainly doesn't feel like she belongs among such high class people - she'll leave soon. Avoiding people and not bumping into them is a tough feat, but she really does want to see the statues while she can. She won't touch... just stare at them a little awkwardly when she finds them.

A wolf with a sword through it... that's a little sad. She doesn't like it much. ]

[He hears Souji, but he doesn't really hear him - for a moment, it looks as though Hajime is in another world completely.

Maybe another world isn't the most accurate way to put it. Maybe it would be better to say another time.

But after a moment, he stops, shakes himself, and stops thinking about - pulses and red light districts and whoever that man was that was talking to Souji. He glances at Souji, finally looking like he's in the present again, and shakes his head apologetically.]

...sorry, what did you say?

[She doesn't mind the snooty rich people with their turned up noses--in fact she hardly notices them. She's not really dressed for the high society, instead opting for variations of her usual outfit. Of the 5 days straight she goes, Rei sits in roughly the same spot, occasionally getting up to circle the statues, then sits back down.

In her hands is a large sketchbook and a pencil she's using to do rough sketches of the statues--except the wolf, which she can't bear to look at for longer than a minute or so.

If not sitting in her spot by the statues, drawing away, she's wandering the gallery and analyzing the various works of art. Occasionally she gets so lost in her thoughts and ideas she'll bump right into someone.]

[Hajime, on the other hand, is anything but comfortable or looking like he belongs there. He doesn't want anything to do with these statues, not after the memory he got back after touching the one in the Dead District.

But Mitsuko had heard from some of her friends how great the exhibit was, and she was still convinced he was working too hard. She'd dragged him out to the gallery, intent on getting him to think about something other than work for a while. Not like she knew the reason he'd been focusing so much and so hard on work was to stop thinking about other things, like anything involving the network.

They've been there for much longer than Hajime would like, and he is already picking up on the oddities surrounding those statues.]

Sasame?

[Mitsuko sounds surprised when she spots Sasame there at the wolf statue. Hajime doesn't quite manage to suppress a groan as he realizes what's happened. Mitsuko warningly grabs his shoulder to hold him back, like she's somehow under the impression that Hajime might go all overprotective big brother right then and there even though he's done nothing but groan a little.]

[While Brendan had at least made a token effort to dress for the occasion, he's keenly aware of his distance from the majority of the other gallery-goers on this fine afternoon, and frankly, that suits him just fine. The less they notice him or whisper behind gloved hands at him, the better— not that any of them are, as far as he can tell. The sunglasses still perched on his nose are doing wonders as far as obscuring his vision is concerned, especially seeing as how he's just stepped inside and hasn't adjusted to the change in lighting.

There is a second reason for the sunglasses, of course; his thrice-damned contacts had been an absolute nuisance all day, probably because of all the pollen in the air. It had been aggravating but necessary to remove them after that. Annoying as trying to navigate in artificially darkened rooms would have been, it would have been even worse with puffy and streaming eyes. Maybe now that he's inside and away from the nauseating explosion of reproductive plant cells, he can try putting them back in, but he'll need to find an empty bathroom first. Right, because that's going to be likely with how packed the place is.

He pauses a moment in the entryway, willing the room into focus, but just as it seems as though the amorphous blob of humanity is ready to split into individual, overdressed socialites, someone crashes into him from behind, sending him teetering off balance and the sunglasses flying from his face.]

[Souji pulls his hands out of his pockets to put them on his hips, brow furrowing in a mildly aggravated, but concerned, manner]

I asked what's up. Why're you so out of it? [He rapped his knuckles lightly against Hajime's head] Anyone home in there?

[Sasame's eyes widen as soon as he hears that voice, and he straightens and turns towards the sound. He never forgets a voice, so he knows even before he sees her who it is--although he's a bit surprised when he sees her brother is with her.]

Mitsuko! And Hajime too, huh? [For a split-second his eyebrows are drawn downward onto his forehead with worry, but it's gone so quickly that it might be hard to catch. In little more than an instant his expression has slipped into a pleasant, if slightly distant, smile.]

It's been a little while. [His tone is friendly, but cautious. He's carefully testing the waters, unsure just how warm he's allowed to be.]

It's...nothing, really. I was just...thinking.

[Thinking. You know, about places we've never been and stuff we've never done, that still feels just like happened.]

[Souji frowns more and looks at the statues suspiciously]

Yeah? What about? [There's almost a challenge to his tone, like he's daring Hajime to spill it right now]

[ Casval, on the other hand, had made... well, no effort at all to dress up, to be frank. He already strikes quite the figure in his captain's regalia, so he saw no need to fancy himself up past that. Suits and ties weren't really his cup of tea, itched too much and reminded him of things he'd rather forget, and therefore the classy coat and matching boots remain, pristine as usual even if his face is anything but in spite of the make-up.

He'd been only half-paying attention to the exhibits, mostly, glancing down at his nifty little iDevice and doing his utmost to avoid any conversation with the celebrity and big shot names mulling about him, but for whatever reason or another Brendan escapes his notice and so winds up collided into—from behind, fittingly enough, because no matter the incarnation you are still pretty gay Lelouch and this is never not going to happen to you, sry2say.

Casval's immediate impression post-impact is that the frame is slight; natural instinct kicks in, thereafter, and he winds a steadying arm about the waist of the poor woman he just knocked off kilter, aiming to keep her upright. ]

My apologies, madam, I hadn't meant to—

[ ...wait a second.

That is not a bosom.

That is also a suspiciously flat ass.

Well, fuck. ]

Pretty, isn't it? Mad dogs need to be put down.

[Dick has a way of sneaking up on people, standing behind them without having them realize it until he announces himself. He doesn't have a girl on his arm at the moment. All of them are out on patrol, being his eyes and ears all over the gallery. The champagne flute in his hand is half-full and he takes a sip, eyeing the back of Colette's head over the crystal rim.]

[He catches that look Souji gives the statues, and looks away, a little awkwardly.]

It's...it's nothing.

[It's not even that specific memory that bothers him so much as the fact that - the last time he talked to someone about remembering something they were in...well, that night with Toshi went about as badly as anything possibly could've gone. What if Souji remembers something like that, too? What if it's something else he doesn't want to know about who he used to be?]

[Sasame missed his chance to see the statues in the Dead District, so as soon as a snobby artsy acquaintance of his started to babble on and on about the statues he knew he had to go. He just can't give up a chance to get involved in things, now that he's gotten a few tantalizing hints from Echoes.

On both days he's attempted to dress up as if he fits in, wearing his glasses instead of contacts and a tie, although a bit of his personal, trendy style is showing through in splashes of color and patterns in his clothing. A purple, paisley-printed tie compliments a pink-colored shirt that he's got on underneath a sweater vest and an understated sports jacket on the 7th. On the 8th, he's instead decided to make his blazer the statement, wearing a linen-and-emerald colored checked blazer that he's thrown over a crisp white shirt and paired with a much more understated brown tie. Both days he's wearing slacks and his favorite pair of brown wing oxfords.

Honestly, he's probably dressed to impress a little TOO much, but he can't just let go of his sense of fashion for the sake of looking unremarkable, particularly not for something where you're expected to dress up a little. He's hoping that he'll just look like the eccentric artsy sort.

He'll be spending a lot of time around the statues but trying not to be too obvious about it, occasionally wandering off to enjoy the other artwork before being "drawn" back to Pride's work. He's more than happy to strike up a conversation as well, particularly if he notices someone he recognizes from the Network.]

[He wasn't quite sure why he was back again, but, well, there he was! Big surprise that Souji couldn't keep his nose out of anything for too long, especially if it might mean trouble for him.

He bought a little wolf statue (at least, one hopes he bought it), and seems to be trying to compare the little one to the real one and growing bored.

He takes a step back, holds up the mini-statue, aims as if he's about to throw it... And tosses it so it completely misses and meets the ground on the other side with a crack. Souji tosses his head back with a loud laugh at the startled expressions and dirty looks, before sauntering over to pick up his mini-statue, still chuckling to himself]

Well if it isn't the man of my dreams.

[Don't mind him slowclapping at you. He's a little drunk. Good show, chap. Scare the mortals.]

[ She blinks at his voice in surprise and turns, moving her hand up to her hat to hold it in place. Of course Baelish would be here - this was probably the kind of place he frequented very often. He looked good in a suit and tie. ]

Oh! Mister Baelish, hello.

Um... I don't know. Maybe I'm not very good at understanding art. I think it's a little ...sad.

[ Unsettling might be a better word, but it is sad as well, so it works. ]

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

OPEN INTERACTIONS

CLOSED INTERACTIONS

EVERYTHING ELSE

Elle @ May 6 | Evening

Dick @ May 6 | Evening

souji + hajime, 5/9, mid-day

Sasame and Hajime (Aikawa), 5/8, evening

Toushirou | Evening of May 8 (Most likely by the wolf statue, but can be anywhere)

no subject

Colette @ May 6th | Afternoon/Eveningish

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Rei | May 6th-10th | Evening all those days

no subject

Brendan Blake | Casval Mass | Monday afternoon

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herp

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Sam, May 7th or 8th (whichever you'd like!), both in the evening

Souji | May 10 | Afternoon

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