raisetheearth | 039 ♦ mostly open

Entry tags:

039 ♦ mostly open

[A | action: open ocean off America's west coast | closed: Lily, Jasmine, Rakka, Marina, doppels to taste | 7/25, morning (NZST)]

She'd thought it would be like any other day. When she'd seen the story about the cruise ship burning for no apparent reason in the middle of the ocean, she'd figured they could go and help, and she could go home and sleep with another successful rescue mission under her belt. So she'd assembled her team, transformed, given everyone their wings, and they'd opened a portal into what sounded right. Really, the smoke was easy enough a marker. And there was even another ship already there.

In her best official tone, Winter clicks a button on a headset she'd put on before they left, connected to a radio attached... somewhere. She's trying not to think about how belt clips work with her costume. "Attention, vessel near the accident site," she starts into the headset. "My name is Winter Tsukuyomi, alias Cure Diamond; my team and I are here to assist in whatever capacity we're able. I expect that will be via flying victims off the wreck, since we have wings. I'll stay on this frequency; designate me-"

She's cut off as something dark blue and fast jets past her, taking time to stick out a tongue on the way. "Less blabbing, more work, honey. Daylight's wasting!" The voice - her voice - comes over the earpiece. Summer's flight continues as she reaches the cruise ship, before she disappears from sight into a doorway. Winter is silent for a long moment as she watches the girl disappear, her hand falling to her side, before she starts to squawk. "How dare she!? Come on, let's go!" All thought of introducing herself to the other ship present falls to the wayside, as she jets off in a streak of blue, and possibly cursing.

((Mostly just a set piece for the slime to be discovered, and for shenanigans. Jump in and do whatever~))

[B | network: video | open | 7/25, late morning (NZST)]
[At the conclusion of the mission, Winter returns to Shepherd's Haven, thoroughly annoyed, but also concerned. She absently slams the door shut as she pops her laptop open and kicks the network on. She looks a little disheveled, but not particularly worse for wear, if hastily dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Although... there's a worried look in her eyes.]

What's going on? There's... something's happened. This... weird green stuff... it's almost sticky. And it changes. [She holds up a pink plushie, kind of like Raquel, except with a heart motif, and looking mildly like a bunny.] This shouldn't exist. Not in this world, not without a certain person that isn't here. I-

[She looks lost for a moment, staring into the plushie's eyes, torn. After a second, she looks back up at the camera, a helpless expression on her face.] I don't know what to do. This hasn't happened before.

[C | action: Gateway City | open | 7/24, early evening (local)]

At some point, Winter decides that getting out of the house and doing a little walking might be a good thing. That brings her to take the teleporter - which is, itself, a surprisingly novel experience; when one can teleport at will, using a device with restrictions feels different - to Gateway City, and just walk around the city a little bit. She's changed out of the things she'd thrown on this morning, into a dark top, a light jacket over it, and her usual long skirt. As she roams, she keeps looking back at the odd pink plushie - Cheryl, her mind supplies; Raquel wouldn't like being called hey, plushie all the time - and wondering why it's here. If her being here means Mana is here somewhere. And that's enough to throw her seriously out of whack. Enough to probably run into someone or something, with a brief and stammered apology, before she ends up in much the same state a few minutes later.

Eventually, she ends up sitting on a high ledge, looking up at the night sky. The stars are hard to make out from here, but... it's still kind of comforting. Even when everything else changes, there are certain things that stay the same... and she has to cling to that fact to keep herself steady as the waters of life get rough.

This is about the time Cheryl returns to slime once more, and Winter lets out a loud shriek in shock. Oops.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Huh???

"Summer? But, you look just like her." He peels himself off of her a little to examine her. The long skirt was different than the last attire he saw her in. But, can't girls' wardrobes vary? "I'm Blaise, remember? Err, or, maybe not, if you're not really Summer. Split personalities, maybe?"

He completely let her go, wondering what to think or do at this point. If it's not Summer, then who?

Of course I look just like her, she's a copy of me! ...is what she wants to say. But she knows better; while Summer's already put her in a bad mood today, that's no reason to go off and be mildly bitchy to people that haven't earned it. "I look like her, and she looks like me. We're... duplicates, in a way." It comes out in a tone that seems a bit more like forced calm, but it's better than nothing. She does, at least, appreciate that he pulled back while he figures out what's going on.

"Sorry, Blaise, but you've got the wrong girl." Privately, she admits that Summer being a split personality of her own would be both really scary, and kind of funny. But mostly scary.

"Oh, so like twins, then?" He's back to smiling. He shows a slight bit of worry of her forced calm and mellows out slightly, holding his hand out to her and actually remembering why he came up a little while ago.

"I'm Blaise Pyre, sorry for the confusion. Uhm. I heard you yell a little while ago. Are you okay? It sounded pretty serious."

"Something like that, I guess?" Easier to not bother explaining it right now, probably. She's worrying him a bit, so it's better to just let it go. She starts to reach for his hand, before she realizes it's still covered in slime, and she wipes it off on her skirt... before realizing the slime is moving on its own, regrouping somewhere below her, lifting from the ground and forming a ball once more.

Staring at it for a second, she shakes her head, returning her gaze to Blaise with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Winter. Winter Tsukuyomi. Sorry to worry you; I was just surprised by something. I'm fine now." A lot of the somber mood from before is gone, and she seems more cheery now.

Blaise smiles back politely. If it weren't nighttime already, he'd probably drag her to his favourite hangout and get a soda. But that shop is closed, to his dismay. He looks a little confused for a moment before wondering aloud:

"What are you doing out so late, anyway?"

It wasn't condescending. I mean, he is a kid out at the same hour she is, so he has no room to talk. But his usual adventures at night didn't usually have additional people to be seen. And the ledge is out of the public eye where something could easily happen.

"It's not that late... ah. I don't live here. I live somewhere else, somewhere far away. It's afternoon there, even though it's starting to get late here." She says it calmly enough; Shepherd's Haven is definitely distant from here.

And at the same time- "And I'm old enough to make my own decisions, by now. I won't stay here much later, though. Someone's waiting for me at home." Or, at least, she would be. Something else to look forward to, once she's had a little time to recover here.

Blaise gave a confused look. Did she mean home here or home there? Surely, she can't be expecting to travel someplace 'far away' overnight. Something about her calm tone made him seriously question it, though, before he shrugged it off.

"Well, would you like someone to walk you home, then? I'm still getting used to the area, but I can't let a cute girl walk the streets by herself."

Hmm. Did she? That's an interesting question, and she considers it for a moment, closing her eyes and tilting her head back and forth for a moment while she thinks. "Thanks for the compliment," she eventually settles on with a small giggle, "but I'm not sure you'll be able to follow me all the way. There are some... mitigating circumstances, let's say."

Blaise chuckles a little, resisting his usual urge to glomp her. She seems more gentle than Summer, it was so different to him. He nods and gets ready to excuse himself, but remembers something at the last moment.

"Hey, you were playing with one of those slime balls a moment ago. I've noticed them all over town. Haha, I guess it's lucky I haven't hit one yet, since everyone else seems to be crashing into them. But you're the first one I've seen playing with it. Do you like them? Is it okay to touch them?"

It looks like he's going to go, and she prepares to raise a hand in parting, but he stops then, asking... a very interesting question.

"I don't know much about them, myself... but they change. If someone with numbers, like me, touches the slime, it turns into something else. Before you found me, I was holding a plushie. An extra plushie," she amends, realizing Raquel is still floating nearby. "And then it... suddenly turned back into slime in my hands. It surprised me."

"Plushie...?" Blaise looked dumbfounded at her response for a moment. It had been too dark for him to really notice it before, but he saw something floating near Winter. His eyes went wide with amazement and he couldn't fight this urge. He moved quickly and assaulted Raquel, wrapping his arms tightly around the small creature and falling to the ground with it.

"Let me fluff you up!" he yelled, overjoyed. Then he felt something very familiar. He blinked a couple of times. "H...huh?" Definitely weird. Where did that come from?

"Yes, plushie. He's really a fairy, but-" Her explanation cuts off before it really even begins, as she notices the pounce coming but doesn't even think to stop it. The phrasing, though - that's new. "Fluff...?"

Raquel is similarly not expecting to be accosted, and goes without a fight when he's grabbed, though he still attempts to struggle once he's caught. "L-let me go! Winter, help me!"

Oh, well, he had it in his arms now. Ignoring poor Raquel's pleas, he proceeds to pet the cute little critter as one would fluff someone's hair. He snuggles with Raquel for a little longer.

"You're so cute! Where did you come from? Where can I get one? How do you fly without wings? Is the blue from dye? Are you a boy or a girl? Does the opposite gender come in another colour? Oh, you can talk!" He let's out an excited squeak for a boy, then he sits up, hugging Raquel gently, smiling ear to ear.

Raquel is unsure how to handle being cuddled, particularly by someone other than Winter, and especially when Winter isn't actually complaining too much, let alone when she's giggling at his plight. He's feeling exceptionally betrayed at the moment.

"Raquel is a fairy, a magical being from another world. As far as I know, there aren't any more like him, specifically; there are two other fairies in our world at the moment, and they both belong to friends of mine. Raquel is part of a set of five; they're different colors and genders." It's a fair amount of information, but it's also all she knows. "I think there are unofficial Raquel toys on the market, though."

Blaise gives Raquel a squeeze in delight before setting him gently on the ground.

"I'm so going to buy one when I get my allowance this week. Any chance I can meet your friends' fairies, too?"

He looks up at Winter with a sparkle in his eyes.

"I'm sure they live far away, too. I can't exactly pay for them to come up here. But, it'd be so cute. Especially having all three together. I could die happy!"

He stands up and dusts himself off, happy as a clam.

"Uhm. I can't do much, but I guess it's something. Let's be friends."

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his bunny-shaped rock, holding it out to Winter.

"I found this earlier, I thought it looked cute. But, you can have it, since you were so nice to me, and let me pet Raquel."

Edited 2015-07-29 06:28 (UTC)

"I... hmm. I don't know. I'll have to ask them." Which is not exactly a get out a cell phone kind of thing - she'd rather use the network, and if Blaise doesn't have numbers, it's going to get very awkward very fast. So she'll hold that concern for a little later. Meanwhile, Raquel, now set down, immediately takes flight, hovering a few feet over Winter's head, but not doing much else aside from glancing warily at Blaise, between glaring at Winter, who pretends not to notice.

Thinking about her home miles and miles away, Winter's smile turns warmer without her really noticing. "Mm, we live far from here, together. We'll come back. It just might be a little bit before that happens." Making trips to New Zealand and back isn't exactly a quick process. "But you'll see them, someday soon."

When he stands up and offers her the rock, though, she blinks. Having a new friend was nice, but somehow she felt like she'd fallen into an RPG, getting something she had no idea what to do with that apparently held personal value. Still, she liked being able to meet new people, so she accepted it in the spirit offered with a grin. "Thank you, Blaise. I'd like that." Reaching out to him, she clasps her hand around his, shaking it, palming the rock once she releases it.

Blaise laughs a little, somewhat apologetically, at Raquel, before turning back to Winter. Winter's smile brings a bigger smile to his already smiling face.

"I can't wait to meet them. I bet they're all as nice as you are."

As she takes the rock from him, letting his hand fall back down to his side, he tucks his thumbs into his pockets, a kind of casual stance.

"If we're going to be friends, do you want my number. The time zone difference might make it difficult for calls, but I can text whenever I can. Next time you're here, I'll take you for soda, my treat!"

As nice as her...? Well, generally, though Lily could get mildly possessive if the whim struck her. Almost as bad as Rose over Summ- Summer. "Yeah, they are. I'm proud to know them. And I think I'd like that... ah, I don't know if my phone still works where I live now, but you're welcome to the number, and we can try." Part of her really wants to give him her network number, but that'd cause all kinds of chaos if he couldn't actually use it... and special headaches if he could. Better not to poke that dragon.

She frowns as she continues. "I meant to ask, though - how do you know Summer, anyway?" Because that could be a potential problem.

"Oh, I met her a couple of months ago. I fell on the ground, and she made some backhanded comment to me. We started talking about echoes, and I hugged her much like I did you. She was really nice, I liked talking to her."

Blaise pulled out his phone, pulled up the contacts section, selected new, entered the name 'Winter' in the space, and moved it to the number section, handing it over to Winter.

"Go ahead and put your number in. Even if it doesn't work, I can still send you text so you have mine, when you come back. I've never texted too far, so I don't know, either."

She can't help it. Winter gawks at Blaise when he mentions Summer being... nice. It's impossible. She doesn't do nice. The nasty comment makes sense and is her general MO, but how did her duplicate get from there to being friendly? It's... weird, and she shakes her head hard to force herself to start processing it. That's about when she accepts the boy's phone, putting her cell phone number into it.

After a moment, she passes it back, but adds, "Take this number, too; it might not work right, but it's worth trying in a pinch." She waits a moment for him to be ready, then rattles off her network number; there's a brief sense of the world leaning in to listen as she finishes it, but as the echoes of her voice fade, sound returns to her. It doesn't exactly look like a normal number, but... eh. If he figures it out, all the better.

"Please understand," Winter continues, "I'm not used to Summer being anything other than dangerous. If she's nice to you, I'm happy to hear it, but that's not exactly normal. So... good luck, I suppose is what I want to say."

Blaise stares at the number he copied down as Winter said it. It looked really weird.

"Is this like an area code to a foreign country?" Well, even if it is, it still seems like an off the wall number. Nothing he would ever recognize. But he briefly thinks back to a number he had in a dream some time ago. He furrows his brow in confusion, hoping this isn't one of those fake numbers girls give out to people they don't like, then puts the phone back in his pocket.

"Dangerous?" He tilts his head in thought. "Nah, she seemed as harmless as a grumpy kitten." He laughs a little as he says that. Then he nods his head. "So, does this number go directly to a phone you have at your home?"

Edited 2015-07-30 06:13 (UTC)

"It's... special." There's really no other way to explain to someone that hasn't figured the network out yet. "If it's truly an emergency, you can find both Summer and I with it. That's a promise." A beat. "Though I can't promise Summer will actually pick up. It rings a bunch of phones at once." Her cell phone, Summer's cell phone, her Kindle, her laptop...

"I'm still not sure how to react to being told Summer's harmless." She'd seen a very much malicious Summer just that morning, so either Summer was putting on a special act just for her and Lily, or Blaise had done something to endear himself to her. She wasn't sure which option she liked less.

Blaise looked like a happy puppy at the promise of being able to reach Winter and possibly Summer.

"It rings a bunch of phones? Can I text to it? But I guess that means if I text you, Summer gets it, too? Does that make private conversation a problem, like if I just want to talk to you? I guess I can still try your personal number. Emergencies only, you said? How come it connects both of you? Will my name appear with the number so you know it's me, or should I call it right now so you have it?"

Blaise stopped at her last sentence.

"Why, is Summer not nice to you, or something? I can talk to her, if you want. Try to make her play nice."

It's a torrent of questions, but she's keeping up. What gives her pause as she starts to answer is the last offer of help with Summer, and her gaze becomes a little more distant, a little sad, almost. "She and I are like fire and ice. It's... not often that we agree on anything, and most of the time, she doesn't want anything to do with me. It's a very long story I won't bore you with. Suffice to say- well, I don't mind if you're friends with her. She needs those. But bridging the gap between us takes a disaster, or an alien invasion. I'm happy you want to help, but I think we've learned to just agree to disagree." She'd like to be friends with Summer, but there's just no way it's going to happen. Not as things are now, not while Summer is a free spirit that answers to no law beyond her own.

A little happy to have another subject to talk on, she continues, "You can text it, though the number itself can be a bit picky. No, you can't keep messages on that number to just one or the other of us, and we'll see each other's messages, too. Of course, that means that if a problem needs both of us, use that number, and we'll be there." She pointedly doesn't answer the question about his name; she doesn't want to see what happens if he tries it right now. At the moment, this feels like the long, ultra-beginners' version of how to use the network, while not actually talking in those terms.

Blaise stands there, unsure of what to say for a moment. He'd like it if all of his friends could get along. But, obviously, Summer and Winter have known each other longer than he's known either of them. You can't really kindle something that isn't there.

"But the fact that you two can rely on each other in disasters means something right? Even if she doesn't want to admit it, maybe she really does care about you somewhere. You guys are related, it's only natural. Maybe she'll come around someday. No, I'm sure she will."

As he says this, he wraps Winter in a much more compassionate hug.

039 ♦ mostly open

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)