boxofsleep | Test driving in the Morgana car.

Test driving in the Morgana car.

Open post!

1) Let's Be Phantom Thieves. Even if there's no canon Thieves involved. Or just chilling in Tokyo. Or something. Inventing some new Palace or target works too.

B) Abusing Synodiporia test drive/Jaunt settings for fun and profit? Will probably play her as some degree of veteran in these for the sake of not faffing with introductions.

III) Texts From The Metaverse.

Δ) Are there any AUs or settings - from Plurk nonsense or elsewhere - that spring to mind for fun times here? Or any 'verses that might be fun to hurl characters into together?

🕔) Wild card! ... no, not that sort.

Notes:
I'm not playing from a romance route as of yet: I'd rather work out voice stuff before attempting any sort of ship with anyone.
I need to rewatch things like crazy - can anyone recommend Japanese voice/English text videos?

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As with everything else, Yusuke copes with surprise, especially with nasty shocks, through his art. It was his first emotional outlet; it was his only emotional outlet for far too long. And having gotten to the root of his slump, he feels much better about his work again.

There is no nasty shock quite like the one they all just got.

In this case, Yusuke's art is serving a dual purpose. As he sorts through his own feelings, he finds himself drawn to parks, to the fish pond, to what passes for natural space when you're in the middle of a city with a greater population than some entire countries. One of the others - probably Ryuji; when in doubt, blame him for learning something - mentioned that Haru is frequently found, at school at least, in the company of plants.

So he's been taking pictures of his work and sending her one or two each evening. She's got to be reeling the most of all of them, even if she constantly shifts the focus off herself and onto the rest of the group whenever they ask; how could she not be? He knows a thing or two about finding out your father (figure) isn't the person you held them up to be, and even then he didn't wish Madarame dead.

In the absence of the right words, he hopes the pictures will help some.

Put on a brave face. Keep going.

It's hard, sometimes, right now. Haru's mind's racing backwards and forwards, for all she's smiling through it the best she can - how everything'd gone so well, and then in a moment, everything'd started falling away...

In a whirlwind of official business and unpleasant reminders, of talk about the family's future and the company's prospects, it's ... good to have things to hold onto. Her friends, for sure. The people she'd come to rely on over this crazy month. But the feeling of the leaves and seeds and dirt in her fingers, or even the ache from dragging yet another haul of compost or tools up to the roof, is something real that ...
...well, keeps her rooted to the ground for now.

And in a quiet moment between her own works, she wipes the dirt off her hands and picks up her own phone, smiling at the pictures she hadn't yet gotten around to looking at. Of course, the composition's wonderful - how long must he have taken on each one?

A chuckle and she sends off a snapshot of her own. It's nothing so pretty to look at as your work, she adds in the message, but the sprouts look healthy. It's a wonderful sign.

Everything starts somewhere. There is beauty in the composition as it is. He's not just saying that, either. This is the kid who bought lobsters because he thought they were beautiful, and while Haru wasn't part of the group yet, she's no doubt heard about it.

Oh, she's heard. She'd even heard about '... why was that guy waving lobsters around on the beach' in passing, even if she hadn't exactly been paying attention to that guy tagging along with those second year friends of Makoto's...

Of course, it makes sense now. (As much as anything does these days). And there are worse things to find beauty in than sealife. She knows Yusuke wouldn't say anything about art or aesthetics insincerely... so she'll take it for what it is.

Thank you. Hm. I'm a little curious as to what you'd think of the plants I'm aiming to grow here.

Frankly, I'm impressed you've managed to grow anything at all, considering your base of operations and the time of year.

What were you thinking of planting next?

It's difficult, yes, but I do enjoy the challenge now it's presented itself. It's much like our activities in that way, isn't it?

Most of these are varieties of vegetable, but I've heard that you can find species of carrot with quite the range of colours to them. I shall have to find images...

I can hardly argue that logic.

Carrots grow underground, do they not? Perhaps if you had a planter with a glass side, to better show off the variations as they grow...

(Don't mind the art nerd, he's having possibly-impractical thoughts. It happens.)

It might not be possible with these, as I'm using a lot of the school's supplies, letting him down a little gently there, she hopes, but it'd be an interesting project for the future to see if any plants would respond well to something like that!

What a pity. Why don't most people understand the need for good aesthetics, really. But it's not Haru's fault that she's limited by the materials available to her.

It would indeed - let me know if you come across an opportunity. I've also heard that plants respond well to human voices and music.

I have been talking to them already... it felt a little silly, but in some ways, it's quite nice. After all, at least a bunch of plants aren't exactly going to go around telling the school about her worries and stresses.

In the absence of another confidant, you vent your frustrations and concerns where you can. I quite understand the feeling.

He gets it, huh. She nods quietly to herself before sending off the reply, a thought crossing her mind- Your paintings? she asks.

Madarame certainly didn't listen as he should have done - how could he, when he was most of the problem? I have always been at a remove from my peers at school, and it was safest for the other pupils who left to cut ties rather than risk further haranguing.

He first displayed my work when I was ten. If nothing else, I suppose putting my turmoil to canvas prevented him from thinking I'd surpassed my usefulness.

The fact that you were that good at ten ... that'll never cease to amaze me.

When I was younger, I was allowed to have more friends. However, as I grew older, my father became more concerned that they were a 'bad influence' on me. I was rarely permitted to socialize as I wished. She swallows, rubs her head. Running around playing in the dirt with the boys - what sort of behaviour was that for a future company heiress? The mix of anger and regret that has been running through her mind so much lately surges forward again, and she stabs at the 'send' button.

I was drawing well before I knew how to write. I'd had quite a bit of practice even then. Still, there's a limit to what someone Madarame's age can pass off as his own work; it took that long for Yusuke's work not to be plainly done by a child.

His priorities were not what they should have been. In chasing after his own glory, he lost sight of his child.

(Which of their 'fathers' is that text about? both, really.)

(She can certainly see that.)

Writing and drawing influence each other. Though calligraphy was never my strongest skill.

Sometimes I think I can tell when things changed for the worse. Sometimes I can't. Though I'm fairly sure the seeds were always there...

In both of our cases, they likely were, when one considers how far back their respective Treasures reach. Of course, Madarame was pretty screwed up well before his mother's painting entered into things, but... well.

Very true. A simple longing for nothing but a model... became this.

I'd like to think some of it was for your sake, but in light of the circumstances with your fiance, the odds of that drop considerably.

That's Yusuke, though, trying to find some spark of goodness in people who may not deserve it.

She drums her fingers on the phone's side for a moment, biting her lip in thought, before sending the reply onwards. Blunt, but ... true enough.

It would be nice to think so. At some point, perhaps. There are still many things I'm grateful for, but especially considering everything else that has happened, I would never have asked for any of it.

Nor would I, upon realising just how many of the lessons of my childhood were in fact what not to do.

That has her laughing slightly, if sadly. When I think about it that way... yes. For all I was taught, I can't say I had many good role models!

We're all very lucky to have turned out as well as we have, really.

And yet they have to turn to technical crimes in order to set things right. What a world they live in.

55:

Has Liminal Space ever been this ... this downright confusing? Seriously? Never mind that... The strange un-colours might have been interesting on their own, but the wind and the storm are frankly making Mementos' whispering gales seem a whole lot friendlier.

(Not that they're exactly something she could really revisit even if she wanted to.)

Haru's stumbling around for now, squinting and trying to make out just where she's going...
... and sliding down into a pit with a yelp. The way out's past that big rock, is it? Well... not like the first time she's tried moving weights that should really be too much for her...

33:

People hadn't really expected Helene to volunteer for the trip. The quiet little researcher from Environmental Sciences, whose best work had been on increasing the yields of crops grown in polluted soil? What would she be doing out there?

But progress was never made by staying where it's safe. Instead, she's huddled in the beaten-up old van that someone'd dubbed 'Morgan le Fay' after a legend half remembered, a rusted old axe strapped to her back, furiously sorting through notes with a grim look... aha.

"I- I think I've got something!" she calls out the sunroof in surprise. "Come quickly!"

Shinji really shouldn't be doing this. It's not the physical-strength perspective that's a problem - it's his general health. It's the simple fact that shoving rocks around is likely as not to leave him too exhausted to think for the next week.

But honestly, that sounds really nice right about now, after everything on the jaunt went straight to - well. Tartarus. Very fucking funny. (He's really glad he hasn't heard that asshole who stole the ambrosia on the network, or he'd be very, very tempted to go break his nose. Did the kid think for one second about what that place needed?)

So he steps up to the boulder as well. "Stays put at the top if there's two people. I don't think it knows what to do with that."

And then he can open a door to his room and get them the fuck out of Disco Hell. Seriously, it's colored like something that'd fit right in with the other Tartarus.

(Hey, is it her fault she was just being a merchant's daughter somewhere in a corner? Ugh, too close to home...)

"Oh! Divide and conquer?" she says with a bit of a relieved smile. She's not going to complain at the help, that's for sure; and once the door's open, she heads on through gratefully, wiping the hair back from her face again. "Thank you. That was ... quite troublesome."

(No, it's decidedly not her fault. He'd remember that hair if it'd come anywhere near the vines.)

"Fuckin' stupid is what it was." Shinji sighs and flops down on one of the couches, next to a snoozing white dog. (He's not as tired as he expected to be, after shoving a goddamn boulder up a hill... but he can think on that later.) "Could they be a little less thematically pissed off?"

Edited 2017-09-15 19:03 (UTC)

"I suppose at least they've learnt to be clear," she muses, trying to put a positive spin on things, but it's not the best job of a happy facade that she's ever done. She's definitely not smiling through it.

Dog's cute, though. That's something.

Koromaru is very cute, and he damn well knows it.

"They weren't exactly subtle in the lead-up either. So now everybody's pissed at each other and because some asshole went ambrosia-stealing, they're pissed at us to boot. Fun for the whole fuckin' family."

She nods, sitting down nearby, still looking more than a little tense in her bearing. "Ambrosia-? So that was what happened," she says with a frown.

"Yeah." Shinji does not glance toward the kitchen. As much as he'd love some stress-cooking right now, he has a stranger in his room and he does not want any more people than necessary finding out about what followed him back.

Who decided he needed that responsibility?

"That your first jaunt?"

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Test driving in the Morgana car.

1 - October

I need to review proper timings/calendar events but. Let's see...

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Synodiporia Sept. '17 TDM

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