You're at the reintro. You're at the heartgame. You're at the combination reintro/heartgame.

[idolpro]

Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.
- Pablo Neruda

✦

bought a bubblegum scented sword so the last thing
my enemies realise is how fun and cute i am
- wolfpupy

Comments

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[okay, that was pretty nice.

let's see what touching the roses gets him]

[ninuanni]

You cup a small bloom in your hand, and—

You are different—something that has never fit in. But has anyone here in this new Familia really fit in? You wouldn't be Familia BAD END if you had.

So why is that now you feel.... longing?

There's still that distance between you and them, after all—and for the first time, you have reason to wonder at what you have been missing…

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[trying to follow the wild roses back to where they come from. are they rooted in anything in particular?]

[ninuanni]

They're rooted... all over the place, actually—twining around furniture, climbing up the walls, and down the hallways. Some of them sprout around clusters of scattered tsum tsums, almost as if they were seeds.

But the briars seem to grow most densely in the direction of the dorm's kitchen, and down the hallway that holds everyone's bedrooms.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[...is there a Crow tsum tsum. can he pick it up.]

[ninuanni]

You look around a bit, sorting through the little piles of small, bean-shaped plushes. (Yam-shaped, some instinct in you instantly corrects.) There are a few odd ones out—including one of Shrike???—but the majority are definitely BAD END members.

No luck, at first.

But at some point in the search, when you shift from wondering if there's a "Crow" to wondering if there's a "me, like the other BAD ENDs"—that's when you find it, almost instantly.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[he doesn't recognize Shrike yet, but he will note that there seem to be some non-BAD ENDs mixed in there. he is a little surprised to find one of himself, seeing as how he's after Kiri's time and everything.

looking at the stuffed yam of himself, though, he looks back over the tsum tsums that seem to be sprouting the roses. is there any pattern to them?]

[ninuanni]

The roses seem especially inclined to sprout where there are multiple BEDE member tsums in clusters (or at least multiple tsums in BEDE coords, even if you can't identify the actual person).

Still, it's not a strict rule—you can also find some sprouting amongst pep!pep!- and avante-wearing tsums, for example.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[it feels like he is maybe getting an inkling as to what is going on here... putting his stuffed yam down amongst the other BEDEs that he can recognize, and heading toward the kitchen]

[ninuanni]

You enter BAD END's kitchen. There's no one here.

—But wherever they've gotten off to can't be far, if the state of things is any indication: there's a whole row of spices out on the counter, some already in a mixing bowl, plus a pot of rice on the stove.

From the look and smell of the spice selection, curry is on the menu. Next to the ingredients is a handwritten recipe in what seems to be a combination of Lumen's handwriting, and that of someone else.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

Hello?

[he'll pick up the recipe as he calls out; he doesn't recognize either of those handwritings, but maybe there'll be something interesting in there.]

[ninuanni]

Uh, well, maybe the "recipe" description was a bit generous after all: despite the handwriting, whoever wrote this clearly has next to no idea how recipes work.

CURRY !!!!

spices
different spices
rice on the stove!!!

mixing stuff together, probably?

also meat!
carrots i think?
definitely potatoes

don't bother Silk while she's cooking be patient ok

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[looking around as he calls out again. do the wild roses seem to be rooted anywhere in particular?]

HELLO? Your rice is about to fucking burn.

correct journal this time

[ninuanni]

No answer, though some part of you feels comfortably certain that everyone has only stepped out for a moment—so in the ways that matter, you're certainly not alone.

One of the roses brushes against your hand, almost like a dog nosing for a treat. It, and the rest of the briars, don't seem to sprout from anything specific, but rather twine about the kitchen, twisting in and out of cabinets and growing densely up the side of the countertop where the "recipe" and ingredients sit.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[he reflexively pets the rose before following it back to the spices. he'll take a closer look at the ingredients, picking up each one in turn to look at them more closely.]

[ninuanni]

Your fingers brush against the rose, and you feel it again, but more fully. You know its name.

Wild Rose, Key of Something Different.

Caring about "difference" at all, though... that's the sort of thing you can only feel if your difference matters; if it is part of the story in which you truly find your place in the world.

The spices are simply that: spices. You've seen similar in BAD END's kitchen before. But studying them fills you with a kind of warmth. Even if you didn't need to eat—not food, in any event... maybe it would be worth it, to taste this.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[Valor doesn't remember how to cook but...this isn't a real place and this isn't real food, so maybe that won't matter. Because he's going to try and finish making the curry.

Starting with chopping up any meat/carrots/potatoes, since that part seems easy, at least.]

[ninuanni]

How hard could it be, right?

(No, really—how hard could it be? This ?dream? would certainly like to know.)

You chop the things. A few of the roses grow taller, as if to peer over the edge of the countertop.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

Don't get too excited, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, either.

[ok, things are chopped. next thing a curry really needs is spices and different spices. time to start blending things until he gets something that smells enough like curry.]

[ninuanni]

Of course. Spices and different spices. It says right there, after all.

Somehow this... actually seems like it might be working? Or at least it doesn't look like it's going to be inedible or anything.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[...well. he's got a plan if it turns out inedible, but. let's see how it goes first.

next step is probably...some kind of liquid? he'll find a pot and fill it up with water, whatever seems like enough to cover the meat/potatoes/carrots he chopped, and put it on the stove to heat up, before checking on the rice.]

[ninuanni]

Everything seems to be going well?

—Going well for the roses too, actually. Somehow they've begun twining around your legs as you cook. It doesn't hurt or anything, despite the thorns, but. Well, that's certainly happening.

[carrionmywaywardsun]

You know I can't fucking walk when you do that, right?

[once the water seems to be boiling, he'll dump the meat/potatoes/carrots in, give that a stir, dump the spices in, give that a stir

and then, uh

well what he remembers is that curry takes a long time to cook, so he'll turn the heat down and put the pot cover on]

[ninuanni]

The roses only sway a bit as they're jostled. I mean, they're just roses!! It's not like you can talk to them.

(Unless?)

But okay, the pot is covered and nothing is on fire and maybe it even smells kinda good, so... now what?

[carrionmywaywardsun]

[they're alive enough to nudge him and watch him attempt to cook, ok, so he figures they're fair game to talk to. it's not like there's anyone else here to hear him talking to them anyway.

curry needs time to cook, so he'll explore a little while the ?dream? curry finishes ?dream? cooking. maybe keep following the roses in the other direction toward the bedrooms?]