EVENT: ~*~Heat Wave~*~

[trainmasters]

Who: Heroes! Old ones, new ones...!
When: Day 42, afternoon
Where: Around the train

[ Good news, everyone! Those pesky cicadas are gone at last! You might have even had a chance to relax, except....

Except for the heat wave.

It's like the worst parts of the last dregs of summer come to torture you with excrutiating heat. It's heat so bad you could swear that you've started melting yourself the second you step outside. It's terrible. At least with the cold you can add more layers on, how are you supposed to deal with heat?? You can't just walk around naked??

(That's not a suggestion.)

Here's the thing about the heat, though: It's bad enough that it's causing mirages-- mirages of people you may even recognize, people who are lost in the dark. People who will try to lead you into danger, people who don't want what's best for you after all....

That aside, you may or may not have noticed that there's some new teammates on the train! The notification appears cheerfully on everyone's Chains:

WELCOME NEW HEROES

And you may find yourself wearing a label you can't seem to remove until you've spoken to at least one other person: "Hi, I'm ______! Talk to me about ______!"

There's a mischievous giggle in the wind that you may recognize as the same one that ran the plants and secrets game. ]

[[ NOTES: You're welcome to make team posts if you like, or intro directly into this mingle if you haven't already. Until next month's placements, the heat wave will persist. Characters stand the risk of seeing castmates not in the game until that point, mirages from the heat. Enjoy! ]]

Comments

[voreaciously]

I suppose it is...worthwhile to disagree with them, yes.

[basically same, but she is being much more polite about it.]/small>

[bad_crowmance]

You know, you don't have to be so polite about it.

[voreaciously]

I am polite about everything.

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah, have you considered.... not?

[voreaciously]

Manners maketh man.

[she quickly, neatly finishes a row and begins another. sunset is momentarily distracted by the yarn and starts to bat at it, curling up on her back on Amane's lap. Amane continues, unfettered by the kitten's attention.

What a fickle mistress to abandon Crow so!]

So, no.

[bad_crowmance]

[ Crow's fine with Sunset's attention wandering honestly, letting her entertain herself with 80H's yarn as he puts his cat toy away into his inventory. ]

I've done pretty good without 'em.

[ That's not quite true, he can be polite when he wants to be. ...He just rarely wants to be. ]

[voreaciously]

Do not give me that. You can be whatever you wish when you mean to be.

[Like, please. ]

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah and you could too.

[voreaciously]

Eh?

[does not compute actually.



























she's SO DUMB CROW]

[bad_crowmance]

....Seriously?

[ HE THOUGHT BETTER OF HER THAN THAT. ]

[voreaciously]

[listen when you spend your entire life desperately being what other people want you to be this option is like not obvious even remotely.]

...Did I say something amiss?

[bad_crowmance]

I'd say you did! You seriously don't get you could be whatever you want to be?

[voreaciously]

Ah. I take your meaning.

[She sounds...not despondentk but just a little sombre, even if she is not quite bothered, either.]

I cannot, actually. It is fine, though.

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah you can. The only one stopping you at this point is yourself.

[voreaciously]

And my programming. Androids are made to be a certain way.

[bad_crowmance]

Name five things you can't do that any other person reasonably could. Me. Five things I can do that you couldn't given reasonable accommodations.

[voreaciously]

[be happy

but she looks up from her knitting to turn and face him]

Crow-han, you misunderstand me: I do not begrudge my lot.

[bad_crowmance]

[ He stands up and looks straight at her. ]

Answer the question.

[voreaciously]

[She...has never seen him angry before. It is quite a surprise, actually.]

Stop fighting, stop serving my function, change my element, change certain feelings, change my system permissions.

[bad_crowmance]

Elemental locks on battle orbments are part of tuning them correctly to me. I can't change those, not even if I change orbments. It won't work right.

[ He's still ticked off, still looking pointedly at her as he talks. ]

And hey, you wanna hear something about my feelings? Here's one-- I sure as hell can't change them. The most I can do is ignore them and I'm real damned good at that.

[ He probably should have done it this time too but he didn't want to. ]

You only have three.

[voreaciously]

Feelings...

[are a mess. she doesn't want to talk about them, she would let him have this, honestly. she should, but she needs to correct him on a certain point.]

feelings are often mutable. They can change in the wake of new information or circumstances. I literally cannot change mine in certain regards. It is a failsafe, likely. So that is four.

[bad_crowmance]

Really? And what about the feelings that can't change, won't change, no matter how much you might want them to? A fire that won't die no matter the circumstances, no matter the situation? You really think it's that easy to change them?

You're either giving me too much credit or not giving yourself enough. Denied. That's three.

[voreaciously]

I never said it was easy. Not once. I also said often mutable, not always. Sometimes, things are the way they are, but I do not have a choice in one case and that is fine with me, but I cannot change it. Four. Five: I do not age conventionally. Six: I cannot sire children.

[bad_crowmance]

[ Crow lets out a "tch" noise. ]

You really think I should be having kids? Look, as handsome and charming as I am, it's probably better if I didn't.

[ He crosses his arms over his chest. ]

...You're really just going to keep being stubborn about this, huh? Look, my point is this-- you put yourself down entirely too much. "I can't do it, it's fine that's the way it is, it's simply a statement of fact." You're so caught up in hating yourself that you miss the parts of yourself that are worth liking, actively spit in the faces of people who try to point it out to you.

And I've been ignoring it because frankly, the sex is amazing. [ None of this "adequate" bullshit. ] And you can be a lot of fun when I don't point it out to you.

But there's only so much self-depreciating bullshit I can take before I've hit my limit and guess what! So either try to sort out some of your bullshit or get better at hiding it!

[voreaciously]

[Why does this always happen?]

I--I do not hate myself, Kat--Crow-han.

[She feels compelled to say it. Because it's true, naturally. She does not hate herself. She treats herself adequately, it's fine, but the important part here is that she has been slipping up and causing trouble.

Any annoyance she had evaporates. She is not to cause anyone any undue frustration. This is the worst outcome.]

...My apologies, Crow-han. I did not realise I was causing you so much stress.

[she will be better at hiding it.]