paralethe | Week 1 Afterparty / Friday

Week 1 Afterparty / Friday

[ ~~I hope y'all didn't expect a serious picture to go with this, because...~~

Percy's still kind of pissed off over everything, but he made a promise to Svin. He's gonna give everything he can to help get everyone through this twisted mess of a "game". One of the most important things for that? Trust and morale.

Everyone's gonna need as much of that within this group as they can get, which might be funny coming from him, since he doesn't have much of it himself.

But . . . that doesn't mean he can't still try. That's why he's in the kitchen now, grabbing ingredients, food coloring - whatever he can. He's gonna make some blue food because blue is a happy color, okay. And it helps cheer him up.

So... enjoy a bunch of blue pancakes, blueberries (and/or other berries that happen to be blue), blue macarons, purple potatoes, and... purple corn?

Also he's staring down some blue lobster, but heck if he knows how to make that. Maybe somebody who knows how to make lobster can show him what to do, though... ]

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[For a while after the trial, Fukuzawa is nowhere to be found. It seems like he's busy?

But later, he can be found out and about. He's actually pretty calm and collected, all things considered. He does approach a couple people for quiet conversations, but he's mostly doing the 'gruff guy lurking in the background' thing that older men in JRPGs tend to do.]

There’s a lot of food in the kitchen, you know.

[ it’s weird to lurk around, fuku! especially when the dog can sniff you easily! ]

It’s all blue.

[Hi Svin.]

...blue?

[Well now he's curious. Time to head to the kitchen and see. Come with him for Blue Food.]

Blue. Like someone went crazy with the food coloring.

[ he’ll follow behind fukuzawa, like a puppy following their new owner. once they get to the kitchen, he’ll point to all the blue food. ]

It even smells blue.

I didn't know colors had a smell.

[Then again, Svin would be able to tell, with his good nose and all.

btw Fuku isn't going to eat any of that, he just wanted to see the spectacle. Instead, he's going for the cabinet with the liquor in it.]

They do. Smells have colors and shapes of all kinds. Yours is...a warm gray. Square, but soft, too. It’s a good smell.

[ svin on the other hand, is going to go to brew himself some tea. it’s chamomile, because he’s heard enough about their calming properties. and despite his serious expression, he is an anxious mess on the inside. ]

[A good smell, huh? Part of him wonders if that was why Atsushi took to hanging around Ranpo so readily. Fukuzawa is only a semi-present fixture there- he's just the uncool dad, after all, and he doesn't want to pry too much into Ranpo's friendships beyond making sure everyone is fed and happy- but Atsushi had to stay for some reason.

It eats at him, though. He feels like he's forgetting something important, but it slips through his fingers any time he tries to think about it.]

I'm surprised it's a good smell. My hands aren't clean.

[It was in the past, sure, but the past informs the present and all.

He's grabbed two small glasses for his liquor, by the way.]

It’s surprising to me too. But you have something that attracts people to you. You smell trustworthy, more than you smell bloody.

[ svin does look a little shocked at the second liquor glass though. is it for someone else? no, there’s no one else here—so this is meant for him, huh?

he turns the stove off. well, it’s not like he’ll have the chance to do this once he’s dead. ]

I probably wouldn’t have been able to confess if you hadn’t asked.

I thought as much.

[Which is part of why he feels guilty. He knows people trust him, so much so that they admit to things they would otherwise keep secret.

He's pouring two glasses of the liquor now, and when he is done he slides one glass over to Svin. Drinking is probably bad for teenagers but this is likely his last night alive, so yolo.]

I was a soldier once. There was a terrible war in the past, and I reached adulthood right in the middle of it. Like many my age, I was drafted into the army as soon as I came of age. When we lost the war, there was a culling in the ranks. Only the loyal and inoffensive could remain, or so the superiors said.

The war didn't bother me any more than a war might bother anyone. I killed, but they were the enemy and I needed to protect my homeland. Those battles were fought with honor. The months after, those were the darkest days. Many of those slain by my hand did not deserve to die, I know that in my heart.

[There is a point to this story, honest.]

[ svin takes the glass of liquor like it’s something foreign and new to him, even looking at it with a raised eyebrow.

nevertheless he sets it down in favor of listening to fukuzawa’s story. and though he listens close, there is very little that he feels that he can sympathize with. he has never known war, never had a need to protect his country or family—though he supposes that his protectiveness of gray may be something similar.

but the idea of falling from an honorable place and turning into a murderer... well that’s something similar to his situation, isn’t it? to hear that it affects fukuzawa to this day is a bit shocking too, but it gives svin insight on the man’s nature: a good person who has simply done bad things. ]

What did you do after that? You don’t smell like a murderer still—something must have changed.

I met a young boy, one about your age when our paths crossed. Before that, I had just been meandering through life with little care for the world outside of what I lived. But this boy, he was an idiot. Too smart for his own good, no parents to help guide hin, and no sense of self-preservation. I couldn't just leave him there, someone would have taken advantage of his genius.

[Picking up his own glass, Fukuzawa swirls the liquor around in it.]

And after him was a young girl, one with a broken soul and eyes searching for someone to help her. After her, a bookish educator-in-training who wanted to find order in the chaos of his life. And along with him, a shut-in with too much time on his hands. And so on, and so on, and so on, for twelve years.

What changed isn't myself alone, but the people in my life. And through those people, I began to change for them. People can certainly change on their own, but it is much easier when they open up their hearts to others.

[ while listening, svin feels like he understands fukuzawa more and more, like it's something that he has seen happen before. someone that brought him and other misfits together, giving them a new life when the entire world had turned their backs on them. hell, even the talk about a genius idiot brings back bittersweet memories of one of his classmates.

svin looks at his own glass of liquor, taking a sip of it as a test. it tastes horrible and it burns down his throat--well that's one thing he won't miss when he's dead.

but he looks up at fukuzawa when he talks about opening up to others. it's a complicated subject for him, especially in consideration of the society he grew up in. a place where there could be no show of weakness, where magi were constantly at each other's throats for whatever drop of power they could get. opening one's heart in such a society was nothing less than dangerous. ]

I was a test subject for most of my childhood. Because I took my family's Magic Crest so well and didn't immediately go insane from it, the other Magi in my family realized that I was the perfect person to use as a study. And when they got all the information that they needed, I was tossed in the Clock Tower to study--but nobody wanted to take in a kid that was neither a beast or human. I can't blame them either.

[ if it were him, he'd have done the same, to be honest. ]

But one person...they did. I can't remember them, but I know they took me in. They treated me like I was just another student in their class and I even managed to surpass them and everything. So...

[ svin looks down sadly. ]

I can only imagine that that person would horribly disappointed in me if they found out what I did.

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allmenare - 2019-12-15 21:54 (UTC) - Expand

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pallidamors - 2019-12-16 00:03 (UTC) - Expand

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allmenare - 2019-12-16 18:09 (UTC) - Expand

[ waves from the kitchen! the blue wasn't his idea. ]

[Hi there. Fukuzawa will nod in Keiju's direction.]

[ Hey old man, don't mind if this guy approaches you. ]

...Y'know, it's good they had you out there.

Some may see it that way. Others don't.

[He isn't specifying which one he is though.]

[ That's not quite the response he expected. ]

...Others like who?

[That is a question Fukuzawa isn't going to answer. Instead, he's going to start walking. Follow him, Crow, he's going somewhere important.]

[ ...He'll hesitate, but he'll continue to follow the man. ]

So, where are we headin' to?

[It's not very far. It's just to the door they all went through to go to the trial.]

You didn't see it, but a key was inserted into this door, and when the door opened it went somewhere else. Not to a bedroom, but to a large room with many desks in it.

[ He'll take a glance at the door and grimace. ]

...A large room, kind of like a classroom? I saw what was inside since they were apparently letting me see the whole thing from my room.

Edited 2019-12-15 02:54 (UTC)

[...Hm. Now that's interesting.]

I was wondering what happened to you. Did they just lock you in your room?

Yeah, though I didn't find that out until I woke up, which was admittedly pretty late. I'm the type of guy who isn't an early riser at all.

[ He gave a shrug. ]

On one hand I wasn't feeling all that great, so it was kind of a plus in a way, but on the other...I had to watch you guys fight for your lives, and be unable to do anything about it. I didn't know what they were thinkin' but, I guess they thought I'd be troublesome even if I left my room.

It wasn't really a fight for our lives, he crumbled as soon as he was asked directly. I didn't even have to use any persuasive methods.

[Not that he would, this group is too Soft. Well, Kawase aside.]

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azurechevalier - 2019-12-15 03:56 (UTC) - Expand

[Mina will drift on over eventually -- she's not usually the life of the party, herself, preferring to nip in and out of the crowds (even though... there aren't technically that many of them, are there, and less now) or stay a wallflower. Whether voluntarily or because she's too busy daydreaming.

She's a little distracted and vague in the aftermath of the trial, but it's not because she's daydreaming.]

Fukuzawa-san... [there are questions in her eyes but she's going to start off small; or off-topic, maybe] Is it true that you're also from Yokohama?

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