Atraumatic

Home Economics Classroom

Here is where all threads set in the past belong. This is the place to post your characters' memories, good or bad, major or insignificant. Handlers may have one active memory thread at the same time as their normal active present-day thread. Memory one-shots are always acceptable.
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Cicada
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Atraumatic

#1

Post by Cicada »

((Gyu-ri Christensen continued from Prophylaxis))

How long had it been since Jiji's first suitor had let her slip through his fingers, it must have been four years and six months to the day, give or take a few days extra with the slight hourglass slip of sand grain in the wrong order, wrong place of her memory. Gyu-ri still spoke to the younger brother, sharing in common with him the needy consumption of the grapevine for dubious benefit. She filed away the names of all involved, it was unimportant information, but it still haunted her all the same: Lucas Diaz, Milo Diaz. Sycophants. Lovely people, all the same.

Gyu-ri's memory continued to diverge along kaleidoscope patterns in the most agonizingly slow of recollections among the many others just as slow that burnt the wick in her brain, as it flickered around in every cardinal direction. Needlework, at least, was coded deep enough into her unconscious that it was only likely in her own flippant over-exaggerations that she would prick or peel or scalp herself with a slip of the finger.

The home economics room was as familiar to her as any other room- whenever she knew a room, she knew it with intimacy and could thus constantly be barraged by the inescapable sensation that everything was out of place. She had a favorite and only chair in the room as the day class was too small for seats to be overbooked, in the loneliest corner of the windowless room that was an afterthought of the English department, the one classroom every teacher likely hated being assigned for how it strove to resemble an overgrown storage closet come to full bloom. Industrial walls of the most pristine degree of creatively sterile suffocated the hapless student. It was atrocious geomancy, a confluence of wasted and malevolent energies that sat like gawi nulim on the chest. Gyu-ri, prototypically, could not help but be overwhelmed by it, constantly drinking it in, in all it's brusque glory, with paranoid sweeps of her eyes.

Her latest of which confirmed she was still alone.

Gyu-ri's machine sat unused. The blistering tempo rattle of the machine was aggravating, acutely, extremely, much like the banshee squealing when styrofoam cracked. Too mechanical and too incessant it was, and Gyu-ri always being too close to the loud wherever it was, she would run the machine only with a death wish in the form of her grade point average being duly threatened. Implicit, of course. Gyu-ri did as she was told long before she was ever told to do it, she reluctantly prided herself on that fact. For example, in the now her reason for using her lunch break in this room hunched to scoliosis over the thin sliver of needle her right hand fingers were cramping around was one of prevention. It was the winter season and Jiji's favorite winter accessories frayed regularly, and Gyu-ri was pursuant of their health and vitality at the cost of her own. Wool would be thick as her blood would run thin.

She meticulously threaded another needle in one go, slightly trembling pointer still managing to blunder thread through cat's eye. The cotton weave of mitten, she set about to patching.

All the while she contemplated that this needle would break skin with bloody results, in graphic detail, though that was mostly irrelevant and a function of the usual oddities angrily chatting away somewhere not deep enough in her own skull. The unwanted and not-asked-for imagery of sewing needle ending lives both abstract and familiar played out in real time, but she handily continued her work through it all the same, shivering slightly as the room was too cold and ought to her contracting of some grave form of hypothermia that she would work through just as everything else, her clothes or skin were too thin, she couldn't be sure which, and as usual she was vaguely miserable and vaguely hated everything. Par for the course, really. She diligently played with her needle, attentive not much to her surroundings yet all too sensitive to them all the same.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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Fenris
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#2

Post by Fenris »

It was that time of year again!! The time of year that was Cold, and also full of all sorts of birthdays of important people that deserved Important Presents! And Zen was 1000% all in on making Important Presents. They saved all summer long doing Waitress Things which were pretty terrible but at least there were nice people sometimes and also there was Money and they saved that money for wintertime and blew like most of it on a whole lot of fabric and lace and also Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- which was unrelated but like also exciting. They had a sewing machine at home and they used it lots cause their appetite was i n s a t i a b l e But when they remembered they'd come sew at school instead cause they had like, thread and buttons and stuff and they didn't usually get mad if you used a lot of it.

So here they were! With a pattern in hand. Luckily they'd had plenty of opportunities to get Myles's measurements in the past (WINK WINK) (no but actually he was a very good model!!!) (wink wink also tho) so they didn't have to ask him and spoil the surprise. Their project of choice was a knee-length black coat with lots and lots of big shiny silver buttons that they'd had to buy special. It wasn't super flashy or out there or anything but it would be comfy and warm and look Super dapper and also last time they'd sprung something unexpected on Myles they were pretty sure he was just being polite when he said he liked it so they'd decided to take a couple of steps back to something a little more Neutral but like still eye-catching cause Myles was still fashionable and he wouldn't be caught dead in something boring and what kinda friend would Zen be if they encouraged him to be boring anyway???? A bad one! That kind!!

Usually the home ec room was pretty empty. Not that Zen was the only one who did any sewing in this school cause they Knew they weren't and sometimes they'd run into Kayla and talk about that May cosplay that they were definitely 100% gonna make at some point, but mostly it was pretty quiet! They didn't mind. Sometimes they'd close the door so they could sing or play music without anyone knowing though one time they played music and Ms. Hoffman had turned up to pick up some costumes that the drama program was keeping in there and like luckily she was nice and all but like she Could have taken Zen's phone and that would be the Biggest Oof. So now they were a little more careful. Sometimes!

This time though, there was a different thing to think about!

Cause someone else was there, and it sure wasn't Kayla, unless Kayla had shapeshifted, or transported her mind into another body, both of which seemed kinda possible but Probably unlikely, so they were gonna go with Not Kayla. She looked familiar, but in a "we probably had a class together" way, not a "we talked at some point and I should know your name" way. That was okay! That made her a New Person. And new people were the best kind! They were friends that didn't know they were friends yet. Her hair was Orange. Zen liked it. They weren't wearing a wig today, cause long hair just got in the way when they were sewing, but now they felt like they were being outdone! Not in a bad way, though. Just in a "I'm impressed" kind of way.

"Hi!" Zen tried not to be too Startling with their presence, though they might have already messed that one up by bursting in the door assuming no one else was already there. Hopefully they hadn't caused Orange Girl to mess up! That would be a damper on their Incoming Friendship. They didn't really have a preference in sewing machines, though they knew all of their eccentricities very very well; the one closest to Orange Girl made a funny clicking noise when you worked with thick fabric but didn't have any other issues. They crossed the space between the door and the sewing machine of their choice in record time, dropping their backpack full of black wool to the ground next to their seat.

"Do you mind if I sit here? I can sit somewhere else if you want but I figured it's nice having company and also I wondered what you were working on!" They were working on gloves! That was pretty obvious. But every piece told a story more interesting than that, if you asked for it.
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
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Cicada
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#3

Post by Cicada »

and, if the needle were so sly as to be incompetently manhandled into her the narrow strip of flesh buried underneath her own fingernails she supposed the agony would be truly tortuous, both in the breaking of virgin flesh as in the visual of something which so brutally was in a place where it did not belong

Paranoid sweeps of her eyes. She was slow to the metaphorical punch but her ears took to attack faster. She heard the other one before she appeared in the periphery of her vision, a silhouette wraith's worth of Gyu-ri's spontaneous cardiac arrest.

This one had a face only familiar for how it was clothed in the most extreme and confusing of softly masculine drape, Gyu-ri was reminded of the dissolving of profiterole into sugar mush. Gyu-ri didn't know a name- she hated that, she hated not knowing the name- but she did know the face. Those eyes seemed to swallow the soul and all else, and Gyu-ri could have sworn a lesser woman than herself would have accidentally fallen in headfirst. For now Gyu-ri was already contentious of staring for too long. She returned the withered dark circles underscoring her gaze onto her project, shuffling her legs together defensively in the most inherently pointless of defensive body language.

Gyu-ri continued to stitch. Unheard beat of her motions was all too loud in her head, but this stranger was louder still with each triumphant footfall. She'd picked out the one machine that did not agree with stiffer muslin.

She said one thing. Gyu-ri paused long enough in her response for the train to be run over her conversational presence, as this girl seemed very competent at fitting many syllables into not so much space. Each overabundance of verbiage bounced around in Gyu-ri's skull without time to settle. Gyu-ri knew this type well, they did not coexist peacefully with silence. Typically the annoying sort, but for Gyu-ri everyone was the annoying sort in some arbitrary capacity or another. Anyways, questions explicit and implicit. Gyu-ri was once more cautious in putting together a response, both spoken and otherwise, her closed off body language was as much part of her speech as anything said.

"You can, of course." Polite eye contact, no more. The mitten was slowly beginning to purse its lips around the frayed hole gaping open the seam of its thumb.

"This is for my sister. Important to keep the spares healthy, and she likes this pair anyways." Gyu-ri nodded softly, but her eyes were going in both directions wrong- she needed to look at her work, she needed to look at this stranger, and she felt wrong glancing either way anyways. One way, then the other, then she swore she had vertigo even though there were no extra colors swimming through her sight yet.

"What about you?" Gyu-ri supposed she had to be polite. She kept her responses curt though, well aware that this one would happily consume the excess.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Updated Character Appearances - Updated July 2020
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Fenris
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#4

Post by Fenris »

Orange Girl was nice! That was........ nice!! Not that Zen was expecting anything else, most people were nice as long as you were nice first, but they would've been pretty bummed if Orange Girl had shooed them away. Orange Girl was kind of a clunky name to repeat over and over, even in their head. When they said it in their head enough times it didn't sound like words anymore. Orange girl orange girl orangegurl orangurl orangul. Orangutan. Et-cet-er-a. Orangutan was probably a rude nickname to give someone, anyway. Maybe if they had really long arms?

Zen smiled, settling into their seat next to Goldie, which is what they decided to name this sewing machine just now because it clicked like the clicker their mama's friend Isabel used to train her golden retriever, which they remembered just now for some reason. It was a good name! Just maybe not one they should try to explain. They reached into their backpack, pulled out a massive quantity of black wool, a smaller quantity of black polyester lining, a zip-loc bag full of inch-wide silver buttons, and, eventually, a bunch of not particularly neatly folded pieces of paper. They'd kinda had to improvise on patterns, but they had to improvise on patterns a lot, since they found a lot of very pretty pieces on Pinterest that they could just buy but that would be boring and not a challenge and probably cost more anyway but it wasn't like there were patterns available for most of those things so they just kinda had to Figure Stuff Out, which was a thing they were good at, at least when it came to fabric, and actually pretty much no other things.

"I'm making a present!" Conveniently they had a reference image to show her! Hopefully that wasn't too distracting. "It's a present for Myles cause it's his birthday in a couple months and I figured I'd get started early plus I can give it to him early if I finish early so he can have it for the winter cause it looks really warm!" Orange Girl might not know who Myles was, but that was okay, because he could just be Gift Boy to her, and that was fine.

"Gloves are tricky." Zen'd made a pair from scratch once but tried to go way too close to their exact hand measurements which turned out to be the wrong way to go and they ended up being too small and like, their hands were real small to begin with. They didn't know what to do with them and ended up leaving them on a bench in a playground they passed on the way of school cause it was cold and maybe some kid could use them.

"You seem like you know what you're doing, though! Are you here a lot? I'm here a lot but I've never seen you unless I did and I forgot, but I don't think that'd happen. What's your name? I'm Zen! I like your hair, also. It's very orange!"
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
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Cicada
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#5

Post by Cicada »

The intensity of her questioning gaze peaked into what she swore was her eyes crossing just hard enough to break each.

Additionally, Gyu-ri was further distracted- in that sense where whenever anything happened she just had to look at it despite a lack of any actually meaningful compulsion- by the supplies falling out of this other girl's backpack in a difficult to follow flurry. Gyu-ri didn't care much for the itch of wool, she could feel it just by looking at it, let along handling it with her own two fingers. Gyu-ri also swore she disliked polyester for similar reasons, just by looking at it she could feel it's cheapness almost as badly as if it were draped over her own skin and bone shoulders. The buttons she swore were just slightly skewed from the actual shape of 'round', slight distortions enough to ruin everything forever and forever... on and on. Gyu-ri's 'on and on' was a hundred thousand pollutants enough to diagnose the State of California with all the terminal cancers ever. She could, at least, ignore the inflammation of her own brain matter. As usual, it was irrelevant. Her company did not mean to cause Gyu-ri stress, so it was best Gyu-ri remain genial herself.

"Ah, Myles. He's a friend of mine." Whose fashion was, indeed, that exact reference's worth of eyebrow raise worthy. Gyu-ri supposed she valued Myles in spite of the eyesores he wore, not because of them. Love was pain, et cetera.

She said, she was responded too. Gyu-ri was naturally attentive and she forced more attentiveness on top of that. She being not particular sure if the additional effort of migraine was worth it in actual return, but Gyu-ri at least perceived that she was fulfilling some unspoken social obligation, warding off the weight of Damocles' Sword in the very process of supplicating herself in the most inane and irrelevant of ways.

She filed the points, in order, and continued to respond while Ji-hyun's thumb was neatly looped shut. She carefully tugged the seam wide, peeling it's fresh layers back. She did so again, a bit stronger and more insistently. Then again. Repetitively, in microscopic fractions of carefully considered strength, up until with all her yanking she could finally be sure she'd gotten it right. Much as she was still pretty sure she'd messed it up and that the repair job would collapse with the spontaneity of the end of life on earth. All the while, she spoke with her eyes continuing to jump about, flighty swerves to the innumerable distractions called 'things to pay attention to':

"I don't sew clothes from scratch, I suppose. So I wouldn't really know..." Breathe, such that she didn't lose a single bit of the monotone of her voice to weakness. "But, ah... I'm here often enough, at this time. Perhaps you came with friends and didn't notice me." A theory as stupid as any other she could have proposed. "My name is Gyu-ri, and um. Thank you. Your look is certainly bold." Agonizingly so- the amount of buttons she adorned herself with were subtle enough that it was screamingly obvious to Gyu-ri. Gyu-ri was this close to ripping off a few of the shiny baubles with her own two hands. Doing the work that needed to be done, that nobody wanted her to do.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Updated Character Appearances - Updated July 2020
Pregame Relationships
User avatar
Fenris
Posts: 1529
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:56 pm
Location: hell probably

#6

Post by Fenris »

Gyu-ri! That was a name. A Familiar name. Hmmm. Well Zen had already thought that they'd been in classes together, so maybe they just recognized the name from attendance? But no, the name was Too Familiar. Like it had to be from something more important than that, right? But Zen thought they'd recognize that hair if they'd ever actually met before. So it had to be something else. This was a mystery for the ages, or at least for the next one (1) minute, which was how long Zen stared thoughtfully into the void while tapping their foot and not doing any sewing at all whatsoever.

...

...

"OH!"

Got it!!!

"You're Ji-hyun's sister!!" They clapped excitedly at their own realization. Victory was theirs! And they didn't know why they hadn't noticed sooner! ...Well, yes they could, because they looked nothing alike. Ji-hyun should also have orange hair, that would make it easier. It'd look really cute on her probably! Because she was cute and cute people looked cute with most things. That was how things worked!

"She's talked about you! I mean, she hasn't really said anything about you like, in particular, but she said she has a sister, and she said her name, which is your name, which makes you her sister, probably?? Unless there's two Gyu-ri's here and that seems kinda probably unlikely!"

Oh hey Zen came here to sew, probably. They should be doing that? But no. This was definitely more important.

"I didn't know you knew Myles but I guess Myles kinda knows everyone!! I don't know if he has a lot of people he can call a friend though so I'm glad he has you!"
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
User avatar
Cicada
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:51 am

#7

Post by Cicada »

One minute- precisely, Gyu-ri was pretty sure that her biological clock was artisan in construction- passed with work and irritation equally silent. The awkward, the loudest part of the ambiance, such that Gyu-ri heard the static buzz in her ear and swore she was struck down by noise-induced hearing loss. Her polite glare slowly inflamed her unblinking eyes, 'til Gyu-ri swore her eyes were watering like gardeners and unseasonably so, perhaps she needed to blink, or perhaps blinking at the wrong time was a crime only absolved by wanton separation of skull from spine.

Gyu-ri, of course, continued to sew. The mitten's partner was also patched at the thumb in infinitesimal and redundant slips of her needle, back and forth, ad infinitum, the sands of an hourglass counting down each unbearably uncomfortable moment of nothing happening that Gyu-ri calmly waited out.

"Oh. Yes, I am." Was clapping an appropriate form of punctuation? Gyu-ri, ever eager to leave no thread unraveled- e.g, that threaded through her sewing needle, the double entendre she just had to explain to herself live after the fact of course- answered her own rhetoric in the negative sense. No, she really did not like the clapping. It was too loud, much louder than emphasis need be.

"Well, hm. Myles and I share that in common, I guess." She could genuinely smile- still uncomfortably, but there was no gesture on this earth not at least a little uncomfortable for her because they were all equally filtered through her own unreasonable awareness- as she mused on that. The oddity of a friendship predicated entirely on mutual lack of respectability. "That might be why we're friends."

Gyu-ri raised an eyebrow. Many reasons for doing so: the buttons, the clapping (she could still hear it, it was the worst of atonal earworms), the general lack of structure or coherence to the conversation...

"You did come here to sew, right?" Bluntly put, the most immediate and pressing of Gyu-ri's concerns. She'd hate to have been a distraction for Zen. Indeed, no person deserved to have their plans wrested from them, least of all by someone so inane.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Updated Character Appearances - Updated July 2020
Pregame Relationships
User avatar
Fenris
Posts: 1529
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:56 pm
Location: hell probably

#8

Post by Fenris »

She had a nice smile! Gyu-ri. That was her name. Not Orange Girl. Their brain kept trying to rewrite Orange Girl over her name in their head cause once their brain decided on a thing it kinda liked to keep rolling with that thing even if it was dumb. She was probably gonna be Orange Girl forever, or at least as long as her hair was orange, which probably wouldn't be forever? But it might be forever for how long they knew each other. Oh no, that was sad! They just met and now they were thinking about when they wouldn't be friends anymore. That was silly. Anyway, Orange Girl. But also Gyu-ri. If they never said Orange Girl out loud, it was probably fine.

They watched her sew for a moment. It was a hypnotic thing when it was in their own hands. It was pretty hypnotic in hers, too. She said she didn't make her own stuff from scratch, right? She looked like she knew what she was doing, though! She must have had a lot of practice. Maybe they could teach her! It was a good skill to have, they thought, in case there was an apocalypse and all the clothing stores were overrun with zombies or whatever. That was like a Bonding Activity. Right?

You did come here to sew, right?

They did!

Oh!

Oh.

Zen shrunk back into their seat.

"Oh, um, yes! I did. Sorry to... bother you. Didn't mean to. Um, I mean... sorry. I'll be quiet now! Sorry."

They had to sew now. That was why they were here. They kind of wanted to pack up and leave instead though? Because they'd been being a bother. They weren't supposed to do that. It was a bad way to make friends. Maybe if they left now Orange Girl would forgive them and want to be friends some other time but probably if they stayed here she'd never want to see them again, probably. They picked up a piece of black wool. They just held it. It was itchier than it had been earlier. They shouldn't use this. Myles wouldn't like it. They held it some more, eyes glued downward. Everything was itchy. They didn't like it.
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
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the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
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Cicada
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#9

Post by Cicada »

She had a natural gravitas to her silhouette, Gyu-ri allowed herself the opportunity to privately admit to herself and silently. Her astigmatic fashion sense aside- clothes made the difference, but the subtraction could only be so impactful from a number with value. Gyu-ri supposed she had to stop herself there, however, and crumple up that particular train of thought she did promptly. Her nursing any sort of attraction, even in the most vapid and shallow of terms, was a curse of Biblical proportions, locusts cast onto ripe and virgin fields. Horrible wording, that. Gyu-ri swore she wasn't attracted to women, anyways. As far as she could consciously tell.

She felt like she was slowly crisping under a spotlight, anyways. The little fissure wrinkles on her stubby fingers actually experiencing drought when Zen focused onto her like that. Gyu-ri rarely cared for attention so acutely, or even at all for that matter. She might have blushed if she wasn't doubling down on trying to come off as aesthetically neutral as possible.

"You're not bothering me," Gyu-ri confirmed. That was the truth by omission- Gyu-ri left out the fact that her entire life was perpetually bothersome, and the remainder wasn't so bad. Gyu-ri surprised herself, rather. She hadn't expected herself to rebuke Zen's self-defeat with that much vigor- as in, Gyu-ri still sounded politely dead inside as usual, she was sure; somehow it at least felt different. Her mind could make up the excuse pretty quickly, at least. Fast enough to condone itself as quickly as it condemned.

Zen seemed so spirited, so insistently burdensome with energy that washed Gyu-ri out by the pore. Probably impossible to handle in any amount of exposure, much like Gyu-ri's pale and ripe skin underneath the dry pig corpse of Tennessee summer sun. But somehow, soothing.

"Anyways, I should apologize. I know I'm a bit too irritable." Yes, but did she do anything about it? Blasted rhetorical questions. Gyu-ri deserved to let herself be shelled by the firing squad one of these days.

"I welcome the conversation," she continued. "My thoughts tend to become sour the more I'm allowed to have them to myself."
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
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[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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Fenris
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#10

Post by Fenris »

Oh!

Again, but better this time.

Zen tugged nervously on the wool in their hands, glancing up at Orange Girl and back down at the wool. Gyu-ri. Not Orange Girl. Gyu-ri. They'd have to say it a bunch of times later, to make sure they'd gotten it right. Gyu-ri was maybe not mad at them? But she might also just be trying to be polite. But also she said more than she had to, if that was the case. She could've stopped at "you're not bothering me" and then gone back to her work which would have made Zen feel a little better but also would've been a pretty obvious "but also please don't talk anymore" and then Zen would have felt good enough to not run crying or anything but not good enough to say anything else. But she'd said more things than that. Things that made Zen feel like maybe she actually did freak out a little too much.

Still, though. Maybe reel it in? Just a teeny bit? But try not to apologize too much either! That was annoying, probably!

"No, no, you're fine! I mean, you don't have anything to apologize for, or anything, I should—I mean, it's fine!" Nice save!! "You're right, though, I should probably get started with the thingy. The coat." The wool didn't feel that itchy, now that she was feeling it again. Huh.

She smiled at Gyu-ri, which was her name and not Orange Girl, and settled back into their seat. They'd cut the fabric at home where they had more space, but everything was kinda just piled up in their backpack with no sense of order, so they'd have to figure out what was what. It sure would be nice to be better at organizing stuff! But they'd tried and then they'd stop trying because it was boring.

"You said you don't sew stuff from scratch, right? You should totally try it something, it's really fun and good for making gifts and stuff and you seem like you already know what you're doing so it shouldn't be too hard?"

Zen had already decided not to say the thing they were about to say but then they said it anyway because sometimes that's just how it was!

"I could show you some stuff sometime maybe if you wanted??"
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
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Cicada
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#11

Post by Cicada »

Polite, and too much so. Zen's was a rickety social construct that reminded Gyu-ri of herself, just with a more tolerable voice and more generally pleasant atmosphere.

It was nice. Gyu-ri had met the rare person who was earnest and in a way completely suffurable sans the prefix in-. For once Gyu-ri realized she didn't have too much to really harp on about with this one, she didn't invite the reflexive musings on trauma. Ji-hyun, Andy, Ivy, they were to a man still utterly impossible to survive in spite of how much Gyu-ri threw herself at them with some reluctance likely mutual. This moment in time was...

Serene. The relative calmness that set like weather forecast into Gyu-ri's headspace was in and of itself alarming in how unfamiliar it was.

"I..." That question, for example. So completely out of the blue, the sort of verbiage Gyu-ri would have been contact poisoned by, to itches and hives like poison oak. She hated not being prepared, but not now. Seemingly, the run-on sentence's worth of inquiry was actually welcome. And it was certainly a run-on, Gyu-ri could hear the grammatical dubiousness before she even needed to imagine it, that was just how the many wires in her brain all pointlessly interbred. For once Gyu-ri just didn't seem to mind the flaws aplenty.

"It does sound fun. I'd only want to impose on your schedule if you'd allow me to, but I would appreciate the guidance." Gyu-ri nodded, still of course busily multitasking because repetitive work was something no amount of charm could take her overly zeroed in, hawk's eye swooping in for the kill attention away from.

"My grandmother would have taught me, I believe. She never had the tolerance for working for long periods of time though- arthritis."

Had she just volunteered information that intimate so casually? Gyu-ri should have been appalled at herself if she could have brought herself to care- she should have been appalled at herself for failing to care, natch.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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Fenris
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#12

Post by Fenris »

"Yeah! I mean, it does sound fun! It would be. Fun. It wouldn't be like... imposing, or anything. I dunno if I'm any good as a teacher, I kinda just get into a zone when I start sewing and stuff, but I can try to like... not do that? Or maybe you'd learn better by watching anyway! It sounds fun either way we just gotta figure stuff out and all that!"

"Oh, that sounds awful! It would super suck not being able to do stuff you love like that. I've got like... three things I'm good at? And I need my fingers working for all of them!"

"My Auntie taught me. I was just really into anime I mean I still am but I was then too and there was one show I watched where I was like "wow these clothes are so cool"? But it was all street style stuff and you can't really buy that without importing and importing from Japan is suuuuper expensive. So Auntie said she'd help me make it myself! And it was kinda crazy cause I didn't even know she knew how to sew, and Momma didn't either, and you'd think you'd know that kinda thing living together like basically forever, but it was a lucky surprise I guess!"

"Sewing just kinda sounds like a thing grandmas do. Like making cookies, or whatever. But I guess I only really see grandmas on TV since I don't have one! Or I guess technically I have two cause everyone does but as far as I remember it's always just been Momma and Auntie and me."

"... Oh, whoops, I'm rambling!"
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
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Cicada
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#13

Post by Cicada »

What Gyu-ri had learned through experiences innumerable and involuntary was that her attention was always offered at premium. She rarely checked out of conversations because they always took over her head with force brute as the hordes of history's barbarians. Her gates, her walls, all collapsed much as she bristled with energies defensive as the most mediocre of offenses.

Zen, at least, apologized.

And Gyu-ri found herself desiring of their conversation. Much as it trampled deeply into her personal space, deep enough to wrestle with her own subconscious. There was something about the other girl's earnest nature that Gyu-ri could admire. This was no layered doll, bristling caches and laser-protected vaults of social expectation and unsheathed knives like with others she dearly loved, Ivy, Myles, whoever. This was...

Easier, by far. Gyu-ri didn't ever breathe too calmly, but she noted- as she always did, because everything always played slower than real time for her- that she was captivated by a quiet of the normally loud gurgle of her most visceral and most inner self.

"Well, um." And Gyu-ri had spent the minute of time Zen had stolen attentive in her stone-faced stoicism, cracking facade into a gently gross smile.

"You were a bit hard to follow, but a lot of your points were interesting. I guess both our homes are rich in stories? Different motivations perhaps, but we've both learned a lot from the matriarchs in our lives. Heritage, girl to girl, or... something." How banal, the way she'd put it. Gyu-ri had never assumed she'd be good at connecting with her fellow human being. She didn't like sounding so trivial, but she really didn't want either of them to stop talking for lack of interest. Gyu-ri wished her lips moved as smooth as her needle.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
ImageG065, Kelly Nguyen - everyone's friend - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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Fenris
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#14

Post by Fenris »

They still hadn't actually sewn anything.

And that was okay! Myles's birthday was still a ways off. They gave themselves a lot of time just in case; they had a habit of giving gifts a week or two early so if the recipient didn't like what they'd made they had time to come up with something else. So losing a day wasn't gonna put them in crunch time or anything, and besides, they had something way more important to do! Like 95% of the time they came to sew the room was empty, so letting that 5% chance of talking to a friend or making a new one slip by was Unacceptable.

Gyu-ri was different. Quiet-like. Zen could tell there was a lot she was thinking about, and they thought about asking what was on her mind, but they'd Just Met, so it felt a little early to ask questions like that! They were pretty quick to just kinda spill their whole life story all over the place but other people Weren't Like That which was a thing they had to remind themselves of a lot cause sometimes they forgot and made people uncomfortable and Zen didn't wanna make anyone uncomfortable ever because that was a very bad way to make friends!

She had a pretty smile and Zen wanted to see it more.

She'd made a mistake, but that was okay, too. Gender things were complicated! Without a wig or contacts in they thought they looked pretty androgynous, and their voice was pretty ambiguous too, but they were forever cursed with a kinda girly face. Well, okay, that was dramatic! They liked their face. But most people still thought they were a girl cause of it. Probably the makeup didn't help! But they liked makeup. So oh well.

"I'm not a girl, actually!" Their expression didn't waver in the least. "I, uh, am nonbinary! I use they/them pronouns. Just, like, for the record!" Man, talking about pronouns was always awkward. They didn't get a clean reason to bring them up much except to correct people which was kind of a bummer. But if they didn't correct people they wouldn't ever know!

"No big deal though, don't worry about it. You probably have more stories than I do! Like I said, I don't have much family. But I'd like to hear more, either way!"
"Well, Fenris, the King of Gossip. We meet again."
[+] v7
the dead:
Image[B040] Dante Valerio - Fell asleep too early.
[V7] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: None Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G014] Apollonia "Nia" Karahalios - T-R-I-E-D.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: None Trip: [Start]
Image[B004] Axel Fontaine - Lost his place.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]
Image[G041] Ivy Langley - Together forever.
[V7] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start] Trip: [Start]

the living:
ImageArtem Fyodorov - Desperate.
[Meanwhile] [x] [x] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
ImageZen Alicea Feliciano - On vacation!
[Meanwhile] [x]
[Pregame] Then: [Start] Now: [Start] Prom: [Start]
User avatar
Cicada
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:51 am

#15

Post by Cicada »

Zen still wasn't sewing anything. Was this all Gyu-ri's fault, was she being a distraction, those among other questions raced for the finish line of Gyu-ri's racetrack mind in a photo finish's worth of ties with cars crashing into a discombobulated pileup. If Gyu-ri had any ability to shut her own mouth for a moment, she fervently reminded herself in parallel to everything else happening, she wouldn't be such a burden onto the innocents of society.

Gyu-ri at least, could keep smiling. Smiling small, but smiling. That came naturally enough. Made her feel somewhat gross, but that was to be expected.

"Understood," Gyu-ri nodded immediately, and took careful note. Of course she'd never been particularly fond of the oddities of modern gender identity, she couldn't up and ignore that factoid when it conveniently lived in her head sans paying due rent. Gyu-ri tended to imagine it from her own self-centric perspective, if she ever did anything except identify as a woman with all the trappings and trimmings she would have been inviolate and scandalized. What world was there where Gyu-ri Christensen was something besides a woman? She understood that the horror she felt at being taken for anything else- heaven forbid someone call her a man- was the horror those of other gender identities felt when identified as what they were by birthright. They were so cursed as to not be comfortable in their own skin.

Gyu-ri supposed she understood that feeling, though her perspective wasn't quite the same.

"Hm, well." She was most shocked of all that someone was un-ironically interested in the banality of her life. That seemed like doing a disservice onto one's self. Gyu-ri could have presumed there were ulterior motives at play, but of course she'd rather have immolated herself at the stake than accused Zen of anything less than the purest of intent. Perhaps this was what all those queer internet memes liked to prattle on about when cuteness and innocence was involved. Defend it with one's life- Gyu-ri literally feeling some kind of nauseated pain if she contemplated that this conversation was any sort of intentional ruse.

Was she getting too involved? She supposed that was in character.

"My grandparents live in the area. I often visit- I daresay between the both of them they've taught me most of what I know. I can't claim I'm carrying on their legacy with any competence, but I am at least doing so proudly." Put so disrespectfully in it's irrelevance, but the from-her-heart truth that she was willing to admit with an audience somehow captive to her for at least the moment.
V8 Vibes:
[+] Peace Only Under Liberty
Character Relation Planner! - I'll be responding to proposals and ideas in increments, please be patient!
V7 Vibes:
[+] Cicada Uses A Gun For The First Time
ImageB008, Demetri Futscher - Captain Of The USS Dekcuc - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
Image G018, Beryl Mahelona - Sleepyhead - 1 *
ImageG040, Camila Cañizares - Nightingale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 *
ImageG060, Princess McQuillan - a flimsy purpose - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 *
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