(no subject)

[hot_mess_express]

Who: Everyone
When: Day 20, evening
Where: The train and surrounding terrain

[So after all the earlier excitement.... dramatic organ music starts to play through the cars. There's no obvious source. It's just... There? All around you for a while, before fading.

Of course before the music fades there's more things going on. A mist seeps up from the earth outside the train and within the train simply seems to form like it's produced by invisible fog machines. As the mist grows into a thick fog, you can hear eerie noises. Distant wolf howls, the screech of a fox that sounds like human screaming, owls hooting hauntingly, the leathery flap of bat wings, and other, less identifiable noises of the night, strange and otherworldly.

If you go out in it, breathe it in, the mist will chill you. Make you desire... Touch.

The need to hold another person is an almost growing compulsion, but it can be fought.

However things that are harder to avoid are the flowers, night blooming wisteria in white and purple seems to have grown from nowhere in the train cars, hanging down to brush the heads of passengers with sweet scented blossoms, and the floors of the train and ground around it have become endless beds of gently glowing moonflowers.

The only places the fog and flowers don't reach are team cabins.

Effects:

Mist:

Cold that cannot be dispelled without touch, a desire to touch others.

Wisteria:

Purple blossoms cause an empathetic bond with the next person you touch.

White blossoms cause arousal and a mild to powerful aphrodisiac effect.

Moonflowers:

Share memories or thoughts with the next person you touch.

By morning the mist and flowers will vanish.]

Comments

[saddleclub]

Why do people keep saying that?

[He can't see his own face.]

[bad_crowmance]

It's the whole pale, shaken thing that does it.

[saddleclub]

I am not shaken or pale.

[He is pale, but he's just really cold. Which does give him that wan look.]

[bad_crowmance]

You're definitely pale. What's the matter, need your old buddy Crow to warm you up?

[ He could have made that sound better but he didn't want to. ]

[saddleclub]

I'd ask if everything need be innuendo with you but I already know the answer.

[bad_crowmance]

C'mon, it wouldn't be me if there wasn't any.

[ Search your feelings, Jusis, you know it to be true. ]

[saddleclub]

You know you don't remember it but I have seen what you look like when you're serious.

[bad_crowmance]

Now that sounds scary!

[ His tone's pretty breezy though as he flops down next to Jusis. ]

You're actually talking about that stuff, huh?

[ He means "before." ]

[saddleclub]

I don't intend to give you your life history but I don't wish to act like a stranger, either. Even if I am one, as far as you're concerned.

[bad_crowmance]

Nah, I don't expect any of that shit.

[ He shrugs slightly. ]

It'd really be better to remember it myself. Anyway, let's be real here-- everyone's a stranger to me.

[saddleclub]

Because you keep them at a distance.

[Pot don't be hard on the kettle.]

[bad_crowmance]

Hello pot, you're looking very well-polished today.

[saddleclub]

I'm open enough to my friends.

[ARGUABLE. And don't ask him if he has friends he's open to HERE.]

[bad_crowmance]

Oh yeah?

[ His tone's innocent enough unless you know him as well as Jusis does. ]

How many friends you got here, anyway?

[saddleclub]

You ask that like you doubt I could have any.

[bad_crowmance]

You've gotta admit, you give off a really strong "keep ten feet of distance at all times" vibe.

[saddleclub]

At least I'm honest, unlike your flirty, casual, laid back "all I've got to me is this joker's attitude" mask.

[bad_crowmance]

Whoa, retract the claws! I come in peace, you know.

[ Did you mean THAT laid-back mask? ]

[saddleclub]

You've never come in peace in your life.

[Muttering. But also trying not to shiver.]

[bad_crowmance]

Well there's a first time for everything!

[ He casually drapes an arm over Jusis' shoulder. There's no overt motions that lead to an ulterior motive, just moving closer for body warmth. ]

Major spoilers for the end of Cold Steel 2

[saddleclub]

Hmph...

[ He does lean a little into it though. This memory is from Jusis's perspective. There's a strange spacial distortion in which a blue robot and a grey robot face off against a red one. Crow seems to be in the blue mech, and just as they're winning that robot is impaled. Crow claims he's fine and the grey mech finishes the battle, liberating the core from the grey mech as the spacial distortion fades into a large room.

Jusis rushes with everyone to check on the prince and Rean, feeling a lot of relief. There's some talking, and some noble in the distance elicits some annoyance. But Jusis is focused on Vita talking about something known as the Orpheus Final Plan. And then they all finally notice the vast hole inside the blue mech and there's a sinking sense of dread in Jusis.

Crow materializes with a gaping chest wound, everyone rushes over, Rean holds Crow and Emma and Celine channel mana into him, while Jusis stands back. He already knows, in his heart, that that wound is fatal, and it hurts his own chest so much to watch.

He's used to keeping a stoic expression, but even he can feel how his eyes are stinging and his expression is wavering in grief. Crow makes jokes, saying karma's a bitch, trying to reassure Rean whose tears are in his voice. Crow pats Rean's head, looking at him with naked adoration, love even, and then starts saying his farewells to each member of Class VII.

Jusis's voice wavers as he answers Crow's words, his smile strained with sadness but still managing to smile no matter how painfully. Each person Crow says farewell to has a look of deep loss, some openly crying. Crow is surrounded by people who truly, genuinely, openly adore him and are devastated by him dying in front of them. Crow tells them to keep going forward, relentlessly, without looking back, and then he dies.

Once he's dead the tears really start and Jusis has to turn his head away and mutter "that fool" in a watery voice as he tries to keep from joining the others in crying openly. In his heart, he's as devastated as the rest of them, hurt and mourning.

Before the loss has time to sink in, the annoying noble from before speaks up, ranting about how Crow failed him and what a waste of time giving that "waif from a fallen country" his favor was. Everyone is furious, Jusis calls him utter scum, rage hot in his chest as all of Class VII except Rean respond with fury. But before Jusis can pull his own sword, Vita deals with it with her own rage. Throughout this Rean continues to hold and cry on Crow's lifeless body.

Before more can be revealed of the drama following Crow's death, the whole memory ends.]

1/2

[bad_crowmance]

[ What Jusis gets in return is this-- a conversation between Crow and 80H... about Jusis. Crow expresses frustration about "someone from the same place he is" knowing more about him than he does himself, even going so far as to admit it pisses him off a little bit. 80H very calmly walks him through it-- "that person" isn't malicious, they're probably just awkward and don't know how to handle an amnesiac. Crow refers to Jusis obliquely as a masochist at one point. Crow eventually ruefully concedes that 80H is probably right, and maybe she makes too much sense sometimes. "I might as well use this processing power for something," 80H says, and the memory mercifully cuts off before they start flirting with each other. ]

Re: Major spoilers for the end of Cold Steel 2

[bad_crowmance]

[ That's what Jusis gets, anyway. Crow doesn't pull away from him precisely, but his breathing catches just a little bit. That easy grin fades away, slips away. He feels like he's going numb. He feels like the world is falling away from him. He doesn't even really see Jusis, doesn't see the lounge they're in. All he can see is his own lifeless body resting in the arms of a boy he barely even remembers.

He nearly forgets to breath, does forget for a full moment before he forces himself to breath in, out. In and out. He can't get his mask back on just yet, he's still too numb. ]

[saddleclub]

[There's a lot going on. On the one hand, cuddling up to Crow is dispelling the bone deep chill and he wants to lean in more. On the other hand, there's a memory that's definitely not his. That's bad enough but it's consternating to see 80H defending him and discussion of him in such a way! Rude!

On the third hand, if he's seeing a memory of Crow's... Crow is probably seeing one of his. And he pulls away, looking at Crow's face, nervous because that's a worrying expression.]

Crow?

1/3

[bad_crowmance]

[ He turns to look at Jusis, but he's not really seeing him right now. ]

You....

[ Grief and devastation and pain and sorrow, all of it coursing through Jusis as Crow--

--as Crow-- ]

....Jusis...