⚡ LIGHTNING (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
struckout) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
savetheearth2013-06-23 08:31 pm
struckout) wrote in savetheearth2013-06-23 08:31 pm
I heard it was hot and people like to do things when it's hot, so I made this post
What: Big summer festival/party/fair/run/concert/etc.
Where: Locke City University campus.
When: June 21st - 28th.
SUMMER-TIME.
Every year at this time of June, various groups cooperate to bring together Locke City University's "Streaking Summer" event, bearing practically every sort of entertainment imaginable-- that one could expect to be adapted to a college campus, anyway. There is food - free and otherwise. There is music. The morning of the 28th, there is a 5k sanctioned run. Inflatable jump castles are present, as is one of those temporary ferris wheels. People from the arts college have dragged out myriad pieces of their soul to look at or sell and--
No, none of them is one of those weird pink statues. Bummer.
While LCU's campus is a few miles from the beach, some have even attempted to duplicate the experience of going there with kiddie pools full of sand and seawater and seashells for any children brought along to dig out. Scores of young adults who are still in town wander loudly about, and inevitably a few people do in fact take the 'streaking' part to heart and attempt to show off far more of themselves than necessary. Needless to say, mildly exasperated and slightly sunburned members of security and/or police officers are quick to take care of them.
The final event? An epic mock-battle, where people are encouraged to wear white and get colored with the offered balloons, water-guns, or outright buckets full of diluted, environment-safe paint sold by the school's students. All in all, it's a week full of fun, and despite the heat, at least it's not something like being crushed by tons of rocks or torn to bits by various nasty beasties...! There's a reason why "Lightning" decided to advertise it.
[ Yep, this is just a general post for people who want to get their stress-free summer-time on... if they don't run into something funky, anyway. Even if something's not mentioned here, if you feel like it might possibly be a thing at a place like this, go ahead and assume it's there!! ]
Where: Locke City University campus.
When: June 21st - 28th.
SUMMER-TIME.
Every year at this time of June, various groups cooperate to bring together Locke City University's "Streaking Summer" event, bearing practically every sort of entertainment imaginable-- that one could expect to be adapted to a college campus, anyway. There is food - free and otherwise. There is music. The morning of the 28th, there is a 5k sanctioned run. Inflatable jump castles are present, as is one of those temporary ferris wheels. People from the arts college have dragged out myriad pieces of their soul to look at or sell and--
No, none of them is one of those weird pink statues. Bummer.
While LCU's campus is a few miles from the beach, some have even attempted to duplicate the experience of going there with kiddie pools full of sand and seawater and seashells for any children brought along to dig out. Scores of young adults who are still in town wander loudly about, and inevitably a few people do in fact take the 'streaking' part to heart and attempt to show off far more of themselves than necessary. Needless to say, mildly exasperated and slightly sunburned members of security and/or police officers are quick to take care of them.
The final event? An epic mock-battle, where people are encouraged to wear white and get colored with the offered balloons, water-guns, or outright buckets full of diluted, environment-safe paint sold by the school's students. All in all, it's a week full of fun, and despite the heat, at least it's not something like being crushed by tons of rocks or torn to bits by various nasty beasties...! There's a reason why "Lightning" decided to advertise it.
[ Yep, this is just a general post for people who want to get their stress-free summer-time on... if they don't run into something funky, anyway. Even if something's not mentioned here, if you feel like it might possibly be a thing at a place like this, go ahead and assume it's there!! ]
Open as the openest thing (27th/28th)
[But here they are, for the final two days of it. You will not find them by any of the kiddie setups. Toushirou is eleven and thus too old and mature for that kind of thing, thank you! But they can be found near food stalls, sitting down for some of the music, or over by the art displays where Toushirou has a tendency to pick apart any mistakes he sees. For her part, Granny looks amused at his critical analysis mode, and the students often look a little stunned that this tiny child sounds like he knows what he's talking about. If he gets too harsh, however, Granny scolds him with a mere pointed utterance of his name. And contrary to how he behaves when nearly anyone else scolds him, he ducks his head and apologizes.
[And on the last day, he may even be persuaded to get in on the paint battle. See? He does fun things occasionally.]
Sometime on the 28th
HELLO there!
[He's now waving cheerfully.
No escape.]no subject
[Or not. He actually cringes when Arthur calls out to them. (Which is followed by a soft "Oh, come now, Toushirou. It won't be so bad.")
[Being the generally obedient grandchild that he is, he manages to get at least a neutral look on his face. No smile. His fake smiles are horrible and hell only knows what Arthur would do if he saw one.] Hey, Arthur.
[Only teachers get more formal terms of address. Though he doesn't expect Arthur cares.]
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One can only hope.]What a surprise running into you here, Toushirou! And who's this charming young lady?
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[He rolls his eyes at how Arthur addresses Granny. Over the top, much? For her own part, Granny smiles in that indulgent way that's usually reserved for fanciful children. She doesn't let herself be taken in by flattery, at least.] "Oh, we haven't properly met, have we?" [There's a faint hint of a Scandinavian accent in her voice; while the family had moved to the States when she'd been young, that little bit of her old home is still present in the way she speaks.] "I'm Toushirou's grandma, Vivi."
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[And he will still give Granny a charming smile, because that's just how he rolls, even if she's not at all impressed.]
It's very nice to meet you, Vivi! I'm Arthur, a bus driver at the school! Toushirou's a great kid!
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[ Kallie doesn't really want to be helping out at a thing like this, knowing from experience that it's hardly in the realm of things people wanting to protect their sanity from the wrath of belligerent festival-goers should be doing. In the end, however, while she technically had a choice, it wasn't a very open one.
So there she is after her summer classes have wrapped up for the day, selling off numbered bracelets that can be used for discounts, entering raffles, and that sort of thing. Long pink hair pulled into a ponytail and an LCU ball cap set on top of it, she leans over a plain white table at one of the possible points of entry to the whole thing, looking bored and ignoring any attempts to flirt... and even though she's no trained medical staff, keeping an eye out for anyone who might look like the heat or fun is getting just a little too heavy for them. ]
[ 28th ]
[ The actual run is what Kallie is really interested in. Running has always been a passion of hers, a way to get away and clear her mind... something that's been all-too-important the last while.
That said, despite getting second among the women of her age group, she quite obviously pushed herself a little too hard. She's a lot more exhausted than she thinks she should be, scowling as she slouches on a picnic table bench, sullenly dragging in gulps from a water bottle as she tries not to grow too annoyed at the apparent drop in her level of fitness.
... And then she sees it: a orange, mangy-looking cat, staring directly at her... with too-human eyes. ]
Oh no. No.
[ All at once she's aggressively defensive, sitting up straight and nearly lifting a hand to point at the cat... but then pauses, realizing that making a scene is not desirable. Instead she stares hard, then whips her gaze around her suspiciously, pressing down the sense of cold nervousness and the spiky feeling of irritation that overlays it.
Little do the people who glance at her outburst know, for a moment there, she was feeling absolutely prepared to call down some rather shocking measures if the animal even looks like it might attack her. She remembers all too well the consequences of being too lenient the last time she saw some odd-looking animals... ]
28th
She kind of does this a lot.*
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Her body language is stiff but she attempts to stay calm, trying to avoid staring in the direction of the cat without letting down her guard. ]
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-- But that cat ain't sticking around if someone gets close to it- it arches its spine and starts backing away immediately, teeth bared in a silent hiss. ]
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Something that might have been a relief to Kallie, if she weren't already so on edge. Where there's one, there's more, and there's no telling where they might go off to in the absence of witnesses.
-- And abruptly she's angry, finding it a battle to keep the emotion off her face. The glare, however... that's not going away. ]
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28th
She had been sitting on a bench during the race, watching the runners while sorting through her new problems when she heard the sudden outburst, and turned her attention to what seemed to be the cause of it. A very peculiar looking cat.]
Damnit.
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Maybe it's actually nothing, but she's not really an optimist even on her best days.
The curse earns a glance, but Kallie is a lot busier wondering just how smoothly she can get out of here as soon as possible. Surreptitiously, she starts to unpin the number stuck to her front, distracted. ]
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It isn't hard to spot the person freaked out amidst the people around her, she was probably the one trying to look like she was calm. So, great, fine, let her blow her cover and just walk away and let it play out. None of this was her problem, right? It didn't make a difference what happened to somebody else she hadn't even talked to on the network yet, right?]
[... Damnit.]
[Somebody plopped a bottle of water down on the bench beside her to free up their hands for a text message and in one move, Vanessa snagged it and stood up, making her way over to Kallie's picnic table and sitting down across from her with her back to the cat. Drinking from her water again, she set it down on the table and spoke quietly without actually turning to Kallie.]
It's been looking at you since you noticed it. Stop looking like you want to bolt.
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Needless to say, as innocent as it may seem, the rosy-haired woman is hardly in a mindset willing to take coincidence at face-value- especially considering the words that slip out of the stranger's mouth a couple beats later. ]
Excuse me?
[ Would-be natural, but... not quite. ]
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And all that went right out the window when the thing she was trying to avoid was some kind of monster that, for all she knew, might be able to smell the goddamned numbers club on her. Just the idea of it looking anywhere in her general direction made her skin crawl--
No. Focus. Deal with the problems you have now, not the ones that you might have later.]
842617935 [It was probably the fastest way to introduce herself. She lifted her head, just as if she had noticed something and turned it just enough to catch a glimpse of where the cat thing was looking now before focusing back on the table.] Pretend I'm asking you about the race and follow my lead. Okay?
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Well. That's one thing, but Kallie is still a hard sell when it comes to trust here. After all... those military guys or whoever they'd been were willing to kill Paul Ben and his family, but even though apparently they hadn't known anything about the network then, that was a good solid couple of months ago now, right? There's no telling what they might have been able to find out in the mean time.
It's not like Kallie hasn't noticed the distinct absence of some of the people who used to be rather prominent presences among the people caught up in all of this.
She dips her chin, staring at the woman in a mixture of bafflement and suspicion. ]
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[Plus, the more time this woman spent being annoyed and suspicious of her the less time she spent worrying about the damned cat.]
[Still, there wasn't a whole lot of time for convincing her and Vanessa was already feeling way too exposed at this table.]
Believe me, if I was trying to trick you I would have come up with a better plan than this.
[After another moment of thought, she held her hand out, still making it look as casual as possible.]
Vanessa. Better?
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Her mind is racing, trust nonexistent, and in a fit of paranoia she focuses instead on behaving as she thinks someone who wasn't in on the whole numbers club business might. She shakes her head, still looking utterly confused. ]
No. [ She turns her head slightly, looking around her at the people here and there. ] What are you talking about?
[ At the same time though, she's no master liar, and her eyes drop to the table's surface, lips pressing together. If there's the chance of reeling her in, this is probably it. ]
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She was suspicious, distrustful. As far as Vanessa was concerned these were both good things, she could respect that. Now she just had to work on deflecting suspicion a little better.
Might as well go in for the kill.]
You know what I'm talking about, you already gave yourself away three times since I sat down.
[She took another drink from her pilfered water bottle, letting that sink in.]
You want me to go away, say the word and I'll be happy to. Or you can follow me and lose that thing.
[She tilted her head back to where the cat was perched.]