auroraexpress | (no subject)

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(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

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.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[ Yes he does. ]

[Reaches over... and shoves him over.]

[ He lets himself get pushed over, laughing all the way down. ]

And it's exactly that attitude that attracts people to you.

[The good humored prankster with a heart of gold part. What a really troublesome guy.]

You know...

[ He's still lying down on the bed, it's a comfy bed. ]

...You called it a mask earlier. That's not entirely true.

Well, I know that. This is also just your personality, right?

Mmm. Pretty much, yeah. It's the real deal.

[ He just uses the real deal as a mask, but... Jusis already knew that. ]

[He leans back on a hand, looking down at Crow with half-lidded eyes, thoughtful. This feels more comfortable then it was keeping a total distance, but it's also hard. It's more awkward in other ways. And Crow still barely knows him back, while he doesn't know that much about Crow's business here on the train.]

That's why it's so troublesome you know. You show enough of yourself that people genuinely come to like you. Even if they don't see all of, it's not like what you show is a total lie. How do you expect to avoid entanglements that get deeper with such a strategy? Really I can only conclude that part of you really does like it, people being close to you, being close to people. Even if you don't feel like you can truly allow it.

Is it any wonder you had so many people attached in our world? That, no doubt, you have more attached in this one?

[ Hey wow, don't fucking call him out like this it's rude??

He looks over at Jusis, still lying casually on the bed. If Crow's perfectly honest with himself, he hadn't really been thinking about entanglements or consequences. He'd been thinking only of... himself. ]

I mean... I don't hate people.

[ He just doesn't trust them. ]

...It's been eight days. I doubt anyone's going to get super attached in just over a week.

[ But... it is something to keep in mind. ]

If you think that then you're a fool.

[He braces both hands behind him an drops his head back a bit, sighing out a bit.]

Well, no matter. I know you don't hate people. I just don't know what you're doing. I don't know if you know it either.

[ It's more like he wants to think that.

He has no idea what he's doing but like hell is he going to admit it. Not to Jusis, not to anyone outside of his own head. ]

Well... you can bet I know one thing for sure.