auroraexpress | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Grabbing Jusis by the shoulders.]

I'm so sorry.

[Startling a little, drawing back a bit.]

What?

I mean, if he's still like that, then...

[He'll catch a clear flicker of her feeling before he pulls back.

If crow's always like this, does he trust anyone?]

...He probably teases you the most, right?

I wouldn't know about that.

From my interactions with Crow, I think I can probably say it's a certainty.

[You're stiff and hot-tempered, Jusis. Crow's...Crow.]

[On the other hand Crow is uncomfortable with how much Jusis knows that Crow doesn't so.]

Do I seem like an easy target or something?

You're...shy, uncomfortable around others, and very proud.

[So, yes.]

Also you seem like his type.

[You have a pulse.]

Since when am I shy?

[Since always, Jusis.]

At any rate, I think you're a bit wrong on a few points. It's just he doesn't remember much of note so it's not my business to say anything.

I have yet to meet a single person on this train he wouldn't hit on, save for one.

[And she knows he's only not hitting on Lucien out of deference to her.]

But it's a fair assessment. I certainly can't ask him what he doesn't remember, and he's unlikely to just tell me without a reason.

Being lewd is just his way.

But yes, it's not as if I can talk to him normally either.

[She just sighs, a little. What can she say? That's...Crow.]

Well, he is how he is.

I suppose that's true.

[She's deeply concerned.]

You care for him I take it?

We're friends.

[She emphasizes friend a little. She's not sleeping with Crow, Jusis, please understand.]

Or, at least friendly. We arrived at the same time, and he's on the same team as my...as someone from home.

Well, he always did charm people.

Ohhhh, no, I don't take any of his shit, I have to insist on that being understood.

You misunderstand. Not taking his shit just means you really have been charmed by him.

...Speaking from experience, Jusis?

[That was the name in the memory she's pretty sure it's his.]

He reminds me of my brother, a little.

So what if I am. Anyone who was fond of him would absolutely insult him until dawn.

[Great now he still doesn't know her name but she knows his.]

You must have a very interesting brother.

He's a brat. An incorrigible tease, a horrendous flirt, and likes to pretend he has no more moral compass than a grapefruit.

[So you can see the similarities!]

My name is Naeva. Queen Naeva Schakal dos Martos, if you want the full title.

[It's only fair. She knows he's a baron's son, she might as well share the whole thing.]

[He sighs. Royalty. He supposes he should do the full titles thing too.]

Jusis Albarea, acting Duke of House Albarea.

Now if that's out of the way, I'm not calling you Your Highness.

I wouldn't expect it. I'm hardly in my kingdom, now am I? And it's not as though you're my subject.

[...Is nobility allowed to be this laid back?]

It just seemed more...fair, to give you the full thing.

[Considering the royals he knows best are Prince Olivert and Princess Alfin, and his peers in the four Great Houses are Angelica and Patrick, he's not shocked even remotely. Sure he knows plenty of stuffy nobles too, but the amount of eccentrics in his close circle is high.]

I appreciate it I suppose.

[Jusis maybe you should just lock Machias in a closet with all of them?]

Well, it's out of the way now.