raisetheearth | {Joint Video}

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{Joint Video}

"Eeeeeew," Misa squeals, camera zooming in on what appears to be some sort of green slime clinging to the side of a house. Despite her obvious disgust, there is a series of clicking noises as she takes pictures of it from various angles. "It's so gross!! Is anyone else seeing these? What is it?"

"I wonder what happens if you touch it?" Comes Tony's voice from just off camera, as a pebble is tossed in the blob's general direction. It's not absorbed into it, so he figures that means it's totally safe enough to poke right?

"Stopit!!" Misa shrieks, video abruptly zooming out as she jumps away from the thing. The pebble falls to the ground harmlessly enough, but that does not comfort her much. The camera shifts, and she can be seen shaking a chastising finger in Tony's face. "We have no idea what it is, don't touch it!"

"Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Famous last words, someone make sure that goes on his grave stone. "Where's your sense of adventure? I'm gonna touch it." Chastising only seems to have made him more inclined to do the thing that he's being told not to do.

"It could eat your hand- no nonostop!" Misa grabs Tony's arm and attempts to drag him away from the thing, but her efforts don't even slow him down. The video feed now shows his hand moving toward the slimy globule, with sounds of a one-sided struggle in the background.

"It's a blob it's not like it's got teeth," Clearly Tony had never played a table top RPG. And no, the dragging was less than effective. Instead that just meant Misa was pulled along with him while he reached out to experimentally poke the thing.

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It is difficult not to notice the commotion. Shepherd's Haven is a very tiny, very quiet community. And phrases like "what's the worst that could happen" and "it could eat your hand" are a bit alarming.

So naturally, instead of actually going outside, Nathan just sticks his head out the window of his house to examine what is happening. Oh. Well. Tony is more likely than some to be completely fine even if something is dangerous, but that hardly means that he should just go ahead without considering that it might not be a good idea.

"Tony . . . are you certain that's a good idea?"

A question. Not a demand.

"IT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!" Misa yells back toward the window, still attempting to pull Tony away but also making sure that she doesn't accidentally touch the slime in the process. Nathan, please join her as a voice of reason.

"It's fiiiiiine," Tony insists, making a point to prod the slime almost defiantly. And in an instant, it isn't a slime anymore, but a silver amulet with a giant red jewel. By now he's accustomed to echoes, but the weight of the particular one that hits him now has him frozen in his tracks, holding the amulet with a vaguely awed expression.

Oh.

"Perhaps you should at least --" Nathan is still not very good at asserting himself most of the time. Always questions, always suggestions. In this case, he stops short because Tony goes ahead and touches the slime in the middle of his admittedly mild protest.

And so he just quietly observes the transformation. Okay. It seems fine, though Tony seems more affected than normal after what is clearly an Echo. "... What is it?"

Unclear as to whether he is asking Tony what the object is, or what has caused him to react this way. In any event, Nathan decides it's safe enough to approach at this point, so he ducks his head back in and exits out the front door a moment later.

Misa stops attempting to pry Tony away, letting go of him to stare at the amulet in awe. How did the slime do that? The shape, the size, the consistency; everything changed in an instant. She looks to Tony, and then back at the object. Obviously it means something to him.

"A necklace...? Is this your Other's?"

She is just going to quietly pull her phone back out and take a picture of it.

"I don't..." Comes the broken, half-answer to Nathan's question. It is definitely something from his other's past, though the specifics are lost on him. What isn't however, is how severely important this strange artifact is.

Overwhelmingly so, in fact. Tony steps back, almost right into Misa and then just... sits. Very suddenly, possibly tugging her down with him. And no those aren't tears he's totally just spontaneously had rain on his face don't ask.

He turns it over in his hand, tracing a thumb over the small inscription on the back "for Dante and Vergil", momentarily refusing to answer either of them. Please leave a message, Tony isn't home.

He stops, blinks when Tony suddenly sits down. The tears are not lost on him, either, and he vaguely feels like he's intruding on something too personal. But that's silly. Isn't it? Perhaps?

After a moment's hesitation: "... Is everything alright?"

"Ah- hey!" Misa protests as Tony bumps into her, knocking her to the ground. "What's wrong with...?"

She doesn't finish the question, noticing his tears as she sits up on her knees. Did he receive an echo? It's hard to imagine having such a reaction to the amulet without some sort of strong memory returning as well.

"Tony... It's okay," she states decisively, despite having no idea what is going on in his mind. She leans over to wrap her arms around his torso, giving him a thorough squeeze. Hugs make everything better, right?

Lazarus is another who hears the commotion before he sees it on the Network, and it brings him hurrying from the town hall where he's been diligently working to do something nice for the one-year anniversary of the move to Shepherd's Haven. Obviously if any community member starts to scream and raise a racket, it's a concern of his, but Misa, Nathan or Tony are all specific and cherished priorities and as a result, his steps are quicker.

"Hey..." he greets breathlessly, touching Misa's arm with the kind of comfort and familiarity that certainly didn't exist to this extent before they relocated from Japan. "What's this about?"

His eyes fall to the slime.

"...touch it," he suggests after a moment. "I've done so with about a dozen already, and frankly I want to see what will happen when Tony does."

While his hand on her arm is placating, it isn't enough to save Lazarus from a glare at his suggestion. The news that he has already been poking the stuff sours her mood further.

"Don't encourage him!"

He returns the glare with a pointed look of his own, though it's sans ire. Lazarus, as a rule, tends to be pretty good at keeping a cap on his kneejerk emotional reactions. He's no robot, but sometimes in contrast with Misa, he could pass for at least a realistic android, just like he's a regular hothead at times when compared with Nathan.

"Our relationship is largely defined by my encouraging him," he mumbles, fully aware that it's beside the point. "...but I'm serious. Touching them turns them into things that are presumably from where our Others came from."

"But," Misa protests, without anything to follow it. She looks down at the slime again, wary though curious. "Maybe that's... it should be private. What did you get?"

He quirks a brow... but manages not to say like the tattoo? Somehow, he's managed not to bring that up yet. Maybe a part of him would rather not know, even though he dedicates a lot of time to wondering about it.

"If we're sharing, it's all or nothing," he says with a one-shouldered shrug. "We respect privacy, or we combine our knowledge. Your choice."

"It's not all or nothing," Misa protests, giving him a reproachful look. "We can have our privacy and still share some things."

"I mean where echoes are concerned," Lazarus says. "It's on a different level than leaving the door open when you're brushing your teeth, wouldn't you say? It can help both of us to know what's happening with our Others and how they're influencing our lives."

Confusion gives way to setting her jaw as it hits Misa what he is talking about. So that's it. He's calling her lie.

When they were first intimate, the fact that she had told him she echoed back a tattoo in an intimate place hadn't occurred to her at all; it was only later that she realized he now knew for certain that wasn't true. But he hadn't said anything, and she let herself believe that maybe he had forgotten about it just as she did.

Misa knew better, but wouldn't things be nicer if they both ignored it?

"Even lovers are allowed to have a couple secrets," she mutters stiffly. This is not a conversation she wants to have now. It's not a conversation she wants to have ever, but especially not with an audience.

They do have an audience, here, which makes it feel that much more like it's happening on the edge of a knife. But he is always thinking, considering and noticing details, and the tattoo's absence had been distracting.

Not quite enough to interfere with the intimacy they did end up sharing, that time and others, but certainly enough to be significant and stick with him.

"Of course," he agrees quickly. "I know that I'm happier keeping certain things to myself, but if your Other was in love with a man who wanted to kill me, doesn't it make sense that I'd be interested in what you're getting back? I've never hidden the contents of my pulses from you, in the interest of informing and protecting us both."

"My Other was in love with a man who may have wanted to kill L," she corrects, and the rest of what he said goes thoroughly ignored. "L tortured my Other, a man like that probably had lots of people who wanted to kill him. So let's not confuse ourselves with those people, huh? You are not L."

The correction is actually a very fair one that Lazarus can't immediately argue with; he's guilty of this, sometimes, blurring the line between himself and his other. After around 50 echoes, it's understandable that it happens, but still not kind of unwieldy in an argument based on facts or feelings.

"And you're not Misa, at least not that Misa. So there's no reason to hide," he says. "Can I ask what you're afraid of if I do see it? The worst case scenario?"

"The only thing I'm afraid of is any of us turning into bad people," she answers tersely, turning away from him. "Touch it if you want, I don't care."

It's something that he's afraid of too, and he doesn't need to say it to make it clear.

But he does reach out toward a glob of goo.

"OK," he says, stroking fingertips over it. "I'm not afraid."

A cupcake falls harmlessly to the ground.

Misa glances back, eyes zeroing in on the cupcake, before staring ahead again.

"Don't eat that," she advises, before beginning to walk away.

He watches her go, torn between staying behind after having made his point and chasing after her to apologize.

I've done nothing wrong. She's sulking; let her.

He opts to stay, picking up the cupcake and taking it inside to throw away.

[Luca doesn't want to be left out if there's trouble. He dashes over from the building they keep the vehicles in, where he's been tinkering experimentally with his motorcycle. He figures it can't be so different from cars, but he's still afraid of breaking something.]

H-hey! What's happening? What are those slime things? Did you get them back from an echo, Tony?

What, the slimes? Naw, of course not, they're everywhere they're not mine!

[Don't blame this on him, Luca! He's not that awful. He hopes.]

Well they're not mine either!

[Said defensively. Luca wants everyone to know that his echoes are legit and harmless, and not gross at all.]

I touched one. Got these goggles...

[He holds up a pair of fairly steampunk-y driving goggles.]

Don't know if that helps any.

... You guys okay? You seem to be in...

[Jasmine pulls some sunglasses from off-screen, and puts them on]

... a sticky situation.

[This face. Just this face. That pun does not merit an actual response.]

Aw come on, don't give me that face. You guys walked right into this one.

We did not! You're the only one throwing around puns!

Yeah, but your actions are the reason why they stick so easily!

Edited 2015-08-06 03:17 (UTC)

[Long, drawn out groan.]

I'm hanging up on you...

Well if that's how it's gooing to be, good evening to you!

[Have a tired wave. She will talk to you again once she has recovered from this pun barrage.]

[and Jasmine does sign off, wondering if Misa missed her goo pun or not]

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{Joint Video}

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