rainbowlounge | The Villa Is Open

Zephyr had a plan. "We are gonna make you the best electric milkshake that ever was!"

"Or will be!" Pip joined in, clapping her hands over her head as she danced along before him and Roa and generally got in the way of where they were trying to walk.

This gave Zephyr plenty of excuse to pause at the end of the hall and make himself a sweeping gesture. "In the historya... ah..." one that should have ended with him banging his hand on the wall.

Except for the part where the applicable wall had disappeared and not in the usual behold the busted drywall kind of way. It was just gone. Likewise, the hallway and the entirety of Sky Plaza.

Zephyr stood on some low, sweeping stone steps. That happened to be outside, while just a moment before been /inside/ and headed to the kitchen. "OK, what the hell?"

Roa took in the sudden sky all golden up the flanks of the villa before them and held her finger to her lips in curiosity. "I don't know, actually." Then, she attempted to walk down the way they had come. This got her over the steps and almost to the spray from the fountain in the drive before it became quite apparent merely turning around wasn't going to accomplish much besides dampening her shoes. Back up she went. "This *looks* like where they held the last Court of the Manor."

"You dunno?" his next sound was an odd one, not a moan and not a laugh, and awfully feline besides. "Yeah, that's not freakin me out or nothin. Dun you know everythin?"

"Zephyyyr. Same to you."

"You guys," interjected Pip, her bare toes rapping on the stone. "Think this's kinda the same thing happened to Seb."

"Hm?" Zephyr craned himself her way, and their hands tangled together, wires all a-flash.

"Mm!"

"Mnhn."

"Nnn~."

"Well, I like your theory so far," Roa nodded. Mostly, she wasn't being silly right back at their latest ridiculous display. Mostly. "Happened to Siebenkas...?"

"Yeah, he had this dream," the elder of the two evokers almost began to explain, digits working.

Whatever he meant to coax out of the recollections between them, Pip took over, swaying as she did. "He thinks was a dream, but is totally notta dream. I know. I touched him thinkin about it an it was all wrong fora dream. Still didn't make any sense, but not the same kinda way dreams do."

"Also, Seb never dreams he's nekkid. Fun fact."

("So useful, too," Roa remarked, quite to herself.)

"But, he walked outta his bathroom an alla a sudden, he was in this bar in Old New York an there were all these other people an he was almost kinda sorta mebbe flirtin with this mob boss lady over gin an tonic and then there was this real cute muddy guy. Seb didn't think he was so cute, but I did. He got way more distracted by the other lady evoked with her eyes and the booze was good an there were pretty blond polyamourous peeps bonkin in the restroom an... an... an..."

Her not so little description might have gone on another few hours, except that Zephyr reached around with his unoccupied hand and tickled her. The way they'd tangled up together, she must have known it was coming.

Which left Roa to conclude Pip wanted tickled more than she wanted to discuss any washroom adventures. "On one hand, that sounds very much like a dream to me. On the other, if there's some sort of precedent for people in our manor suddenly disobeying all known laws of physics. And you're not playing some sort of elaborate prank."

"Hey! I had my heart set on givin you your first electric milkshake an that's not somethin I'd go back on for any money." Next thing she did know with any certainty, Zephyr had play staggered over, clutching at his shirt, "'m so disappointed it /huuurts/."

"Well, you can make it up to me when the universe goes back to normal."

Grin for the time being, too.

"It is going to go back to normal?"

"Did last time. 's why we still gotta Seb an notta portal to someplace called Dan's," said Pip.

"Alright, so why don't we...?"

"Make the besta it?"

"Yes!" Roa swung from Zephyr's grasp. He only then reached for her, trying to find that place in her moments where the best meant [concrete] he could play after and with her. As it was, he missed her as she skipped the villa steps instead, swirling her skirt in her hands and calling back after: "We're going to get company, right?"

"Woul, that'd be nice, but if not," he shrugged. "We get blitzed an watch the stars come out." A quick little sigh and a pop of his shoulder after, he followed.

Pip watched the space in the sky where the clouds should have been. The end of her nose twitched. "We're so gettin company. Can smell it, almost. Somethin's zactly not right out there." Laughing then, she blew past them both and straight through the doors.

Stuff you actually need to know available in this direction:
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Have fun!

ETA: This post has not been up thirty-six hours and we officially have more than 500 comments. SO I SUPPOSE THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL AMMIRITE? XD

ETA II: I am really, really touched that everyone wants to take care of the deceased fellow in the pool. I'm sure he appreciates it (he didn't even have a name in the story where he first appeared ;_;). But, alas, there was only one of him and he's currently being handled. He may be installed in a bedroom shortly, and should that happen, I will give him his own thread for poking purposes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not silly at all," Gina said. "We're a little less of a subsistance culture, though. But yes, living with people breaks down prejudice and fear faster than anything else I've seen, assuming it works at all."

Which it didn't always.

"It's interesting," Yuyan said, "because once you do live with them, you find that they're really not that much different from you. One of them took me in as his little sister because at the time, we were the only ones there that weren't...normal, like the others. It took a little getting used to, since I'm the eldest in my family, but I like it very much now."

"I'm sure it's not the only reason he did," Gina said, and it couldn't be. Yuyan was just such a sweet girl. In some ways she reminded Gina of Summer; all big eyes and shy smiles and palpable desires to be liked. "I'm glad you have someone like that."

"It's nice," Yuyan agreed. "Where I'm living right now, I'm very far away from my family, and it's been years since I've seen or heard from them. So it helps a little to have someone like that. That way I'm not as homesick."

She nodded, sympathetically. "That's a very long time to go without seeing home. Can I ask why?"

"It's hard to explain," Yuyan said, "but I'll try my best. I'm...I'm actually going to be the next oracle of my country. The oracle they have now saw me in his visions, I suppose, and they summoned me to the palace. But before I could be appointed, they sent me traveling around the country to learn about it--and it's very big, so the journey takes about a year."

"Usually I would have been back and appointed a couple years ago, but...well, there was a war that ended when I was born, and there was still trouble. Rebellions were happening everywhere, so the emperor somehow found a foreign ship that was very far from danger, and sent us with them. And we can't go back until we get word that it's safe again."

Ouch. Gina winced. So she was not only homesick, she was probably worried about her family as well. "That's rough," she said. "I'm sorry."

"It...it can be difficult," Yuyan admitted. "Especially since I'm so far away, so I can't really use my clairvoyance to see if my parents or my siblings are doing well." Mengli might still be in their village, and Yuyin had to be almost grown by now.

"But I'm really very lucky--I've got so many friends where I am now, and they care about me a great deal. Even though I try not to be a burden to them." She smiled sheepishly. "Sometimes that doesn't go over so well."

"Well," Gina said, slowly, "I think... I think it's almost important for you to be a burden on your friends once in a while. That's what they're there for. I mean, you help them, right? They probably want to help you once in a while too."

"Mmmm." Yuyan looked down at her knees again, swinging her feet to and fro. "I've always thought I help them because that's what I'm supposed to do. For example, I had a friend with me, and she's a princess from another country. She can speak our language well enough, but she can't cook, and she can't defend herself, so it's only fair that I do it, because I know how to do those things. But I suppose you're right--I like helping her, and I don't see her as a burden at all, because she's my friend. Maybe it's the same way for the others."

"If they're your friends," Gina said, "then that's how they feel."

She hesitated a moment, then added, "I have this friend who has... a lot of problems. Emotional ones, mostly, and... and I'm there for her. It's all I can do for her. And when I need her, she's there for me. That's just how friendship works."

"Yes," Yuyan finally said, after a long time, "you're right. I suppose that where I am now, I'm the youngest, so I feel like I'm...being more of a burden because of that. Everyone else knows much more than me, and there's only so much I can do."

She nodded, sympathetically. "Well, you are valuable. I can tell you that. You are giving them something they don't have, or they wouldn't be your friends. I can tell you right now that you are a good and kind person, and that alone is important."

Yuyan smiled, blushing. "I...well, thank you," she said, remembering that people in the West preferred gratitude over denial when accepting compliments. "You're very kind."

"You're welcome," Gina said, "but I'm only telling the truth."

Edited 2012-07-08 01:51 (UTC)

"I--oh." Yuyan blushed even more, her long hair hiding her face as she bowed her head. "Thank you, then."

Poor embarrassed kid. Better change the subject, quick. "So tell me about your friends," Gina suggested. "This one who adopted you, he sounds very interesting." Mostly because she wanted to hear if he was like Lars at all, or if adorable young girls like Summer and Yuyan just attracted big brother figures.

"He wasn't that friendly, at first," Yuyan replied, grateful to be talking about Saith and not herself. "We didn't know why, but he didn't--he didn't want to talk or be friends with anyone, and when another friend of mine didn't leave him alone they got into a terrible fight."

"We found out why, later--he was one of the Serpent Folk, but he'd been raised as human. He didn't know he was one of them until he changed for the first time, and he had to leave his home and family. Before he came to us he'd been moving from place to place, trying not to get caught." She shook her head sadly. "I guess he was surprised when we didn't kill him or chase him out, even when we all knew the truth."

She crossed her legs on the couch, thinking carefully of what to say next. "Even after that, though, it wasn't easy to be friends with him. But we all wanted to be, so...I guess we kept trying? He let me see what his past was like, eventually." She held up her hands. "I can do that, if I touch someone long enough, but if that person doesn't have a peaceful life, it's...not at all pleasant. So I got a little sick." She shrugged. "But in the end, it was worth it, because he trusted me, and before he didn't trust anybody."

"And some time after that, he decided I was his little sister. I'm still not really sure why, but it makes me happy anyway."

The Villa Is Open

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Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

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Re: tw: implications of torture and fantastic racism

tw: fantastic racism