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

... That's not going to happen. Even you don't like me that much, what do you think the odds of anyone else standing my personality are?

....You know, you're not actually that bad when people get to know you a little better. I'm sure there's someone willing to crack past that Ice Prince exterior to see the guy underneath.

I don't need reassurance, I'm fine with myself the way I am, and I've never cared to be popular. But thank you all the same, for the sentiment, I suppose.

[ Does he want to correct Jusis and explain he was trying to express that he does actually like him a little better now?

...Nah. He'll keep that close to himself. He's going to want to keep those emotional walls up when he's recovered a little more from this shock, after all. ]

Well if you're fine with yourself, that's really the most important part.

[He's already taken the "you're not that bad" as a compliment, it's just embarrassing.]

If there's anyone who's good at not caring what people think it's certainly you.

[ That's fair enough, especially when you're bad at receiving compliments. ]

I care very much about what I think. As for everyone else, screw 'em. If I care too much what everyone else thinks, I'll end up pleasing no one.

You should care a little about what one or two people think at least, you know.

Even I give my friend's and brother's opinions weight.

[Which means when it's serious he'd listen to Crow too.]

I'll take that into consideration.

[ No, He Won't. ]

No you won't.

[ Pffft. ]

No, I won't.

You're such a pain.

I wouldn't have me any other way.

[ Well. Maybe with his memories back, but other than that. ]

Hmph. I suppose your unique personality has its own good points. Sometimes.

I'd say all the time, but I may be biased.

Perhaps.

Maybe.

[ He finishes off his tea and sets the cup carefully down on the bed. ]

[He's not sure what to say now, there's so many things he wants to tell Crow, but Crow still doesn't remember things.]

...I wasn't the only one, who missed you. You affect far more people then you likely guess.

[ That's almost definitely true. Crow has been spending his entire time since he woke up coasting, floating day to day with meaningless conversation and moving towards his one goal: Remembering his past. It was important to know where he came from so he can move forward. He hadn't really been thinking of the people he'd left behind in those memories. ]

You all looked so... upset. [ The words come out thoughtfully. ] Gotta admit, I wouldn't have expected it... Though maybe the guy I was back then knew better.

[ He really does think he's pretty cool, those aren't empty words. But he hasn't been lying to himself about his own feelings-- just everyone else. He's been deliberately keeping people at a distance, and the scant few memories he'd retrieved hadn't given him any reason to believe he hadn't been that way Before. ]

We weren't the only ones. You--well, you're the type of man who ended up hurting a lot of people by leaving them behind in one way or another. You may have had your reasons but regardless of that, the end result is that people loved you, even when you yourself never intended to get close.

I don't think even with amnesia you're all that different.

[He's speaking kind of vaguely but he means it.]

At the very least, you should be aware that your own attempts to keep others at arm's length won't keep you from being welcomed into their hearts. What you do with that is another matter.

[Speaking like he wasn't also devastated by Crow dying.]

[ He knows you were devastated, Jusis, he felt it in that memory. But Crow's not going to call him out on it. ]

Awww, you're concerned. That's so sweet.

[ Well, not going to call him out on being devastated, anyway. He reaches up briefly to ruffle Jusis' hair. ]

I'll try not to forget that, though.

[ And he means it, even if he doesn't know what to do with that information just yet. ]

[Just don't call him out on it! He huffs and waves a hand at the one ruffling his hair. Don't headpat him he's not Rean that's lewd.]

Hmph. Well if you're keeping it in mind it's fine. Take responsibility for your actions and words and how you charm people.

[Jusis may keep people at at distance but he's also a cactus, he never fools anyone into getting attached.]

[ Rean isn't here to get headpats and Crow barely remembers him anyway. Jusis is a replacement goldfish for headpats. S U F F E R. ]

When you put it that way, you make it sound more like I've got some secret ulterior motives.

[HASN'T HE SUFFERED ENOUGH. Giving Crow a really flat look.]

Don't you? I know it's cheating, knowing you better than you know yourself in some ways, but I don't recall agreeing to play fair with a man who counts cards. Literally and figuratively.

[ He can't help it, he laughs at that. ]

You only get in trouble counting cards if you get caught!

It's exactly that attitude that makes you trouble.