Lamentable Nights: Act 05.1 - "Enjoy the little things"

Pasonia
Posts: 175
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43 am

Re: Lamentable Nights: The RP

Post by Pasonia »

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 9:30 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Sanae's Home at 35 Reinfield
PCs: Sanae, Martin
================

"..."

Once Sanae opened the door, she felt something terribly odd. The atmosphere was heavy at home, and it struck Sanae as being really uncharacteristic to see all four of them quiet and completely silenced, on the sofa or at the dining table, and doing absolutely nothing.

Well, maybe not so much for Mitsuki, but the rest had unhappy, pale faces. A deep frown across Asuka's usually impish, expressive face; many long sighs from Chihara; studious Mitsuki sprawled across the table; the landlady holding on to a lit cigarette she most likely confiscated from Asuka yet again, but without actually snubbing it out; everything seemed so out of place.

... they are so distressed by the molesting... it seems unfair that I'm the only one who got away with it.

Martin, who was at the door expecting to be allowed in by the landlady, was a little hesitant to remove his shoes upon realizing that the entire household was unresponsive to his appearance.

"...it seems like a bad time for me, isn't it, Sanae?" Martin spoke at near whisper volumes as he noticed, too, the totally down atmosphere.
"Ee... I think it is not a good time..."

Martin hand-signalled his departure, gesturing to Sanae's mobile phone. Sanae nodded in a dainty manner, after which Martin felt secure enough to leave Sanae for the night and wave her a goodnight. As she turned around though, looking at the unchanged state of the women whom she'd gradually started to get accustomed to, she decided that she can't leave them alone to wallow in their self-pity.

...I'll do something for them. Now.

So off she went into the kitchen, with everyone still as they were, upset and all.
--- Fifteen minutes later... ---
Sanae, tired as she was, was still able to do something in the kitchen, with the makisu she was using quickly churning out five balls of rice filled with whatever she could find - in this case, pre-grilled chicken from the supermarket.

Onigiri is the best way out for everyone now...

As she stopped, however, she was disappointed to find out that one of the balls was too loosely rolled up, and had ended up breaking apart where the seaweed was supposed to be. Setting that one aside, she brought the four remaining rice balls to a still-staid living room, starting by palming one into Chihara's hands, which Sanae noticed was streaked with tears for quite a while. Reaching into her skirt pocket, Sanae quietly took out one of her tissues and slowly wiped it across Chihara's face.

"Here, Chihara-senpai. I made this. Don't go hungry..."

It took the usually bubbly woman a while to register Sanae's gesture, but as she came to realization, she gripped at Sanae's fingers and pried the tissue away from Sanae's hands.

"...I'm fine, thank you so much Sanae."

Sanae smiled a little, knowing nothing was fine but at least Chihara was trying to get over the problem. Sanae then headed over to Asuka, who had noticed what Sanae was doing.

"...Can I have that?"
"Sure you can! It's for everyone!"


Asuka grabbed one, but then stopped. "There's only two left."
"Ah... don't worry about that! Please be well, Asuka-senpai!"
"Um... well... I don't know about that Sanae..." The usually hot-tempered woman's mellow, off-tune response quite nearly freaked Sanae out. Thankfully for the lady, Sanae remembered what her mother liked to tell her whenever she felt uncomfortable about group situations:

"If everyone is unhappy, everyone will depend on you not to be unhappy, too."


And so she put that to great effect, replying Asuka with an assured upward curl of her lips that, as Sanae would notice, put Asuka a little more at ease as she began to chow through her onigiri like it was the first meal she had in months, gnawing and munching in an ugly fashion.

Just as Sumire snapped awake noticing Asuka's ugly eating manners, Sanae was already beside her.

"Onigiri for you, Sumire-sama?"
"Eh... well... why not..."


Letting out one long sigh again, Sumire took the onigiri from the bowl and began to nibble on it slowly, using her fingers to wipe away the tears that had dried up at the eyelids. Sanae handed her a tissue at this time, then smiled again at Sumire before heading for Mitsuki, who still remain slumped on the table limp.

"Mitsuki-senpai. Mitsuki-senpai?"

Mitsuki, wordless as ever, did not answer Sanae, only raised her head to acknowledge Sanae. Her spectacles and face, too, were smeared by sobbing from hours ago, but her hair was also made messy by having leaned on top of it with her face for what seemed to be hours, and her face left slightly reddened as a result.

"Mitsuki-senpai, here's an onigiri... don't go hungry, okay?"

Mitsuki blinked at Sanae for a bit. Then she quickly sat up, bowing in apology before taking the last onigiri out of the bowl.

"Are you not eating one, Sanae-chan...?"

Sanae shook her head. "Don't worry, senpai! I have my own in the kitchen!"

Just as Sanae was about to head back to the kitchen, though, she noticed that everyone is now back to life, at least a little bit. Everyone was busy eating the onigiri, so Sumire was no longer taking long sighs, Asuka and Chihara were no longer quietly sobbing, and Mitsuki sat up at last.

"...as long as everyone is not so sad now..." Sanae thought it would be a bad time to mention about Takao's arrest that she had personally ensured, but before she could even formulate a proper response, Mitsuki had already reached for the television remote and turned it on.

"---come back to Pebbleton Channel News at Ten with me, Traynor Baxter."

"...it's the news."

"Today in Pebbleton is the start of the three-day Festival, but this year's festivities has been fraught with much logistical difficulties and increased severity of incidents..."

A face Sanae was too familiar with, suddenly popped up onto the screen.

"One of the performers this year, Takao Maeda, of fame in Japan and belonging to the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, has been arrested in connection with a serial molester case that struck more than twenty women today. Broadcasting Corporation of Japan has not responded to our queries at press time..."

...nandeyanen?

The unbelievable timing of the news report left Sanae slightly exasperated, but the neutral expressions on her housemates' faces brightened a little upon the news, thankfully for her.

It was then that Sanae's phone rang. Hurriedly, she ran back up to her room.

"Moshimoshi?... Eh? Father?!"
--- And later... ---
"...yes, Father. Yes. Yes. Yes, that's right...... but why? I'm settling in outside of Japan. No, I told you before, father - I don't want to be stuck inside Japan!"

By this time, Mitsuki, the first person to rise from her self-induced catatonic state and to walk up to her room, found Sanae's voice rising in volume with each line she spoke.

Just as she approached Sanae's room, however, the call was ended abruptly without any preceding "goodbyes", and the next she saw was Sanae quickly reaching for the power button on her desktop computer.

"...Ah, Mitsuki-senpai... are you alright now?"
"... Yes."
"Do you want me to make some miso soup? I think we still have enough materials."
"... No."


Mitsuki looked at Sanae's mobile phone intently. Sanae realized that Mitsuki must have heard at least part of her argument on the phone.

"Ah... please don't worry about that, senpai. My parents in Japan are just worried too much for me..."

Mitsuki blinked, but said nothing more. Sanae took that to mean "Oh, okay, I guess thanks for telling me", which made Sanae a little upset inwardly for being slighted after answering earnestly; Sanae swallowed her displeasure before it showed up on her face, though.

"... Sorry to disturb. Thank you for the food. I am going back to sleep now."
"Please have a goodnight, senpai!"


Sanae watched Mitsuki exit her room without so much as a shuffling in her footsteps, and heaved a sigh of relief - Mitsuki is back.

But so are the homework submissions from her day-class students.

"...gosh, I have forgotten to check on the homework... I need to be marking all these papers now... and the administrative work... Maybe I'll leave it for Monday night."

Sanae then cupped her hands around her forehead.
Too much on her plate had rendered her entirely confused and out-of-focus.
When will all the madness end and all the things settle down?
Pasonia
Posts: 175
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43 am

Re: Lamentable Nights: The RP

Post by Pasonia »

[this is a partial post to indicate that there is still activity for the night.]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 11:00 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Between 13 and 14 Peddington Lane
PCs: Melvin J.
Other PCs: Hailey G.
================

"...This is callsign Mike Juliet zero one, reporting in, over."

As Melvin strolled his merry way down the road with a six-pack of the most expensive beer he could buy, he buzzed himself into the patrol network that all Executive Order agents were required to check into when in the vicinity of several known hotspots.

Soon, as expected, someone was online to respond. Executive Orders, after all.

"This is EHQ, copy you over at Location Sign Papa Lima zero one, confirm copy?"
"Confirm, copy."
"Alright... you're confirmed for Night Watch in this area, yes."
"Solid copy, over."
"Advisory: Watch yourself out there, there are reports of a Level Four non-Rogue threat in the area, Mike Juliet zero one."

Melvin smirked. Level Four "salient threat" levels for the area? Perfect cover story then. "Copy over."

Now all he gotta wait was to walk slowly enough down the road. With the cool sea wind rubbing across his nose, he couldn't help but feel that the night was a little cold for summer. Brushing off the random thoughts, he set out to do what he had meant to.

Talking to Hailey.

Melvin wondered briefly if convincing Hailey that he was on her side was such a good idea. On the one hand, he's definitely on the side of the fence that wants her dead or alive. On the other hand, he doesn't want to see Hailey dead.

Melvin rationalized it many times to himself; he needed some far smarter than he is, who dislikes the government as much as he does, and Hailey was it, but unfortunately fate does really like to pull the odd cruel trick.

"Trust. Huh. Things get strange when you're alone and you let your mind wander," mused the veteran, still tutting along Peddington Lane with his six-pack. Beside and around him, he could already feel the presence of several Blights, and they were clearly wary of the new presence.

"They did highlight the threat level in this area. I don't suppose the people living here would've been very healthy..."

As he said so, an old man hacked and coughed loudly from his backyard, its walls short enough that Melvin was able to confirm his own musings.

"... The crossers in Pebbleton sure aren't doing a good job being good citizens to their own backyard, eh."

And then, finally, he arrived at the promised location. Between Houses 13 and 14 of Peddington Lane, a simple brick-paved road across grass adorned the path, with dumpsters along the sides. As Melvin had observed the night before, the lights along this particular stretch were a terrible mess of shoddy town maintenance, for some reason. It was as though the residents had a long-standing feud with the mayor's office or the residents themselves did not care for lighting at all, but whatever the reason, this entire stretch of road is close to pitch-black, with nothing but the light along either end to guide his way in, or out.

To a feline, it doesn't really matter. Everyone else can get the hell out.

"Hold, wait, what the? EHQ to---"

"Annoying radio guys," grunted Melvin as he cut short the radio contact. He had meant for this to be a deliberate occurrence, aware that the cover of darkness was enough to keep the rest of the E.O. Panzers from noticing that something was up.

"Also, my dear Madame Hail-e-Mary, you may come out now. I'm here."

Within the darkness, a flutter of feathers swooshed over Melvin's ears.
Pasonia
Posts: 175
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43 am

Re: Lamentable Nights: The RP

Post by Pasonia »

[Pictor has requested that I finish up. So this should be the canonical last post for the day.]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 11:20 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Between 13 and 14 Peddington Lane
PCs: Melvin J.
Other PCs: Hailey G.
================

Melvin heard the flutter, and then flashed a knowing grin. A raven sits atop his shoulders, then bounds off it and disappears in a splash of feathers within the shadows.

"Your yellow eyes kind of give you away, kitty," smirked Hailey, still slightly frazzled from the day from what Melvin observed. Apparently all Hailey opted for was a hairdo to fix the damage from the fight, but how she got the hairdo in the midst of a festival is anyone's guess, thought Melvin.

"Hah, the usual, eh. Shadows in, shadows out."

Melvin tossed her a pack of cigarettes that he swiped from his crew mate. "Glad you showed up on time."

Hailey picked out the cigarettes from mid-air, then swiped one stick out expertly and took a long puff from it after a quick light-up.

"That right? Damned. I thought I'll keep you waiting."

Melvin smirked. "I'm fast, that's what I am."

"Whatever, kitty. Let's be quick about this, hmm? I'm already off the clock, and good girls don't stay out after dark."

Good... girls?Melvin held his laughter in - there sure were ways for Hailey to crack jokes.

"You what? Pfftch, smarmy bitch."

Hailey shrugged mischievously.

"That reminds me. I snuck a peek at your opponent as I went to the toilet."

Hailey cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Really?"

"Yeah. She looked quite miserable and torn and tattered, but she's still kind of fierce about it."

Then, as he dropped his tone, he added a serious note: "Just saying - adding a Hindfell to our troubles ain't worth it, else we'll all be in for a bloody long ride. We walked kinda far for whatever we're looking for, so don't be wasteful. Especially since Z's True Endgame is just around the corner."

Hailey looked at him, somewhat nonplussed. "You don't speak of him and that openly, alright?"

"Area's buzzed by lots of other Ethereal activity. They can't probe in. I know their sound guy has problems with eavesdropping on us with all the Ether swarming about."

"Whatever."

Melvin tore opened what seemed to Hailey like a package, and when he was done, out came a can of rather refreshingly golden-looking can of booze - at least, to Hailey, that is.

"Is that beer? Toss me one?"

Melvin obliged, and once again Hailey stuck out her hands for a swift seconds as the can whizzed above her from Melvin's tossing.

And expertly she plucked the can open while still in flight, and proceeded to drain a long one from the can.

"Phew, that hit the spot. Since when do you get good taste?"
"Since you left."

Hailey laughed again. "Ha! Well, always so smartass, eh, you little pussy?"

Melvin thought long about that statement, but then, with that thing he needs done and five minutes before they start probing the area...

Perhaps it's time to pick a fight, for the sake of showboating.

"Whatever you want to say. Though, just wondering, do you know any Berries?"
"Berries? There's strawberries, there's raspberries, there's..."
"No, actual Panzers. I'm asking for a specific Palmarr Berry."

Hailey frowned internally, but she didn't let that show up. "I don't know him."

"Really? Isn't this guy related to a certain Noco Berry?"

Hailey shut her eyes in thought. "Alright, so, I might know a man or two by that name."

"He's so definitely here. I take it you know your friend's other half is here. You really didn't need to beat about the bush."

Hailey chose not to respond to that, continuing puffing on her smokes.

"...You should keep your distance from the Berries."

Hailey continued to ignore him.
Ignoring Noco? Does this cat even know what he's mewing about?
Hailey understood well that she wasn't one for ties, but being flatly told to distance herself from Noco was kind of intrusive.

"...what do you mean?"

"I thought you weren't listening. I hacked through the E.O.'s list, and it turns out they're looking to recruit Palmarr Berry in. He's planted in for so long, they figured no one would suspect he's become E.O."

"..."

"Aimed at you, perhaps. Probably a touching recognition of your friendship, but still, you know, watch your back."

Hailey flicked the cigarette right onto Melvin's face, but he dodged it quick.

"!?"

"You toss me a little bone to look out for me? Aww. Or is it that you are getting antsy that another cat's got me in his sights?"

Melvin's eyes went into a narrow, exasperated slit. "I'm not trying to start a bromance here."
"Then what's the point, Melvin, of you spilling your guts out to me like this?"

"I'm just looking out for ya."

"Really?" Hailey tossed Melvin a little booklet. "I already knew about Palmarr."

Melvin looked into the booklet before quickly tossing it back. "Not nearly enough to confirm."

"You missed the point, Melvin. I mean I'm not interested, and won't be unless you show something a little more interesting. But, you know, I got my own fish to fry, and you're just touting stuff I already knew which I don't really give two shits about. I'm not interested in any of your little ploys now, Melvin."

Melvin shut his eyes in exasperation. "Looks like I've got no choice but to cut to the chase then."

This time, Melvin tossed her a squarish-looking object, which hurt Hailey slightly as its sharp ends poked at her hand mid-flight.

"That."

Hailey stared at this piece of old tech. Despite knowing what it was, she couldn't help but blurt: "The hell's this?"

"It's a DataCube."

"Don't tell me the obvious, you dumb wad of shit."

"...Its data is corrupted, though."

Don't tell me the obvious, you dumb wad of shit,""repeated Hailey.

"It apparently has some things related to my parents when I took it from the rebel mook... you know what, why don't you try fixing it?"

"...um, wait, what was that again?" Despite knowing Melvin, his sudden change of direction in conversations never failed to throw her off.

"Fix it, place it at the bin at 24 Reinfield. I'll be expecting it on Monday."

"..." Hailey, expectedly, thought Melvin a rather terrible businessman if he ever were to become one.

"You know, Melvin... Let's get this straight."
"?"
"I'm not your friend. I was a peer, a teammate to you. A few years ago, I would have trusted my back to your knife... but we never were friends. I'm on the other side of the fence now, and I'm not one to do favors. If you want something from me, it's deal or no deal."

It was at this that Melvin tossed his can straight into Hailey's face, finally losing his patience.

"Keep thinkin' you're damn fine and strong, Hailey. I can only help you this much. You don't even know what's behind the efforts to nab you. I can only help as much as I knew."

"Hey, Melvin, I never asked for it. You show up out of thin air and handed me a pile of random shit. The world doesn't run the way *you* want it to be, Melvin Jack."

"Fuck you very much, Hailey, I'm the one playing doubles here. Stop complaining like the woman you are."

"It's my *business* to know, Melvin, but unlike you, I'm not one to stick my nose in places where it's likely to get lobbed off."

It was the shuffling out of the corner of his eyes that suddenly caught Melvin's unkind attention - his radio silence has gone on for too long, any second now they'll be looking for him. Urgently, he whispered to Hailey.

"Quick, punch me now! Just... take the effing cube!"

Putting up a show, Melvin suddenly shouted, "I'm so going to hit you now!" His wild gestures in the air had Hailey in a bind, but generally speaking it was clear what he was intending - get Hailey to punch and knock him out fast.

"I hope you realize, once I'm in, you're not getting me out of your hair that easily."

More silhouettes loomed from the distance. Melvin hissed angrily, "Yes yes, stop asking me to fuck you quite literally. Just punch me now for fuck's sake! They're rounding the fucking corner!"

Hailey had an idea what Melvin really meant when he interpreted her last. Of course, she was none too pleased about it, just as she was none too pleased with a certain Concealer calling her old.

"Mind out of the gutter, asshole."

Mustering up her strength, Hailey delivered a cracker straight into Melvin's left-cheek, the impact of the punch enough to send Melvin tumbling right into the dumpster while he was still holding his six-pack, and causing the panther to disappear right into it with a resounding clang.

As she witnessed her own handiwork, dusting off her knuckles and tossing the cube up and down with one hand, she broke into a crazy grin.

"Tch. Performers. They're all the same. Everything's gotta have flare."

Then, she melded herself slowly into the dark shadows, and disappeared into the skies with a flutter of her wings before anyone noticed her presence.

"Pleased to be doing business with you, Melvin. Don't mind the bill, I'll just take whatever juicy info's in this cube as payment!"
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