logsinthenight | we jumpin! we poppin! we joppin!

Entry tags:

we jumpin! we poppin! we joppin!

characters: Sora, Mewtwo, Link, Carmilla, and you!
location: Various locations around Beacon and the Landmark hotel!
date/time: January 10, then 13-20-ish! Activity for the end of the blizzard, the yarn bomb, and a tiiiny bit through the Lights Off event (Sora will NOT be affected by the lantern effects in this post unless specifically requested! It's going to be one day of the illusion of normalcy :))
content: Sora continues to make friends! Get his hands dirty! Settle in at the Landmark! Stay busy so he doesn't think about things! (Will match tag format!)
warnings: Moderately low self-esteem and identity stuff, but nothing above a pg-13 rating!

[ A ]: Armory; Closed to Mewtwo

The soldier told him to leave the giant psychic cat alone, so he's going to! Seriously! He doesn't want to infringe on their space, especially if it's been through the same kind of life that the soldier has, so he's been dutifully going to the armory, going right down the steps, moving through the knife forms that the soldier had taught him followed by some unaided magic practice (because there's no telling if his cybernetics will always be there to help him aim), then leaving again without searching too much of the area. The routine has been good for him, helped him keep his mind off things.

But. He does hang back every so often to see if a giant fluffy tail suddenly whisks out of view. Or if an ear pops out from behind a display. Okay, so he doesn't want to disturb the cat, but he does still want to see if it would be open to being friends. He and the soldier started clicking pretty quickly, after all. He doesn't see why or how being a cat in a similar situation would make much of a difference.

So there he is, in the basement of the armory, going through the motions of the knife forms slowly, then quickly. He keeps messing it up, having to go back to the beginning of the drill. It's a bit annoying how he can't pick up things as easily as... others can, but he's doing his best. He's also not paying much attention to whoever might be around him, large cat or otherwise.

[ B ]: Miner's Castle #3, Bathroom; Closed to Link

After the meal on the 10th, he excuses himself to go use the bathroom. (Seriously, the soldier gets the bathroom all to themselves? To be honest, he has half a mind to make them share with him if only so their karma balances itself out.)

He opens up the bathroom door, all ready to go, when he stops dead. Uh. Those are certainly a lot of blankets in the tub. Did they adopt a pet? Wait, there aren't any animals in Beacon, are there? Is there someone else camping out here, besides Duster on the couch? Man, they really have a thing for strays, don't they?

Sora will furtively move forward, not wanting to disturb what's in the tub. Or who's in the tub. His bladder is forgotten by now; he just wants to know who this is.

[ C ]: Moving between Beacon's public library and the Landmark; Open

The walk between Beacon and the Landmark takes a few hours, but he figures that he's gotta walk it sometime if he's going to get moved into his new digs. So that's what he's doing! This is one of two trips he's taking between the two locations; on one, he's carrying a cot over his shoulder and a backpack, and during the second he's carrying just a backpack. Not much to carry if he's only been here a couple of weeks or so.

He already thinks he might regret the distance from so many of his new friends - the separation from Hana, the Librarian, and the inhabitants of Miner's Castle #3 is going to be the worst, he can already tell - but the promise of being able to become neighbors with some new friends, Rhys and Carmilla included, isn't a terrible exchange. You can't be too far from your friends if they're always in your heart, after all.

One will notice that he's not taking a bike during either of his trips. This is because he does not know that they exist. Oops.

It's a pretty long walk. It might be better with some company? Or at the very least, if there are two people on the road at the same time, it's kind of awkward to not at least say hello. Sora, at least, is very good at saying hello.

[ D ]: The Landmark; Closed to Carmilla, somewhat open

He wasn't sure who is living in the penthouse suite, but they went gone ahead and ordered chintzy decorations for their door - little balloons twisted into bats hovering over the copious lack of a welcome mat. He isn't really sure if they're supposed to like, have an aesthetic? But after he figures out that Carmilla's living there, he's decided that they're cute, no matter what their intended aesthetic was supposed to be.

So. He can fly, and he can jump up really high and float where he's hovering, and the concierge very kindly let him borrow a permanent marker as long as he promises to give it back (he will!). So there he is, hovering by the door of the penthouse suite, drawing a little fangy smile onto each and every balloon. Is this sabotage? Vandalism? Defacement of private property? Yes. Sora is living life on the edge.

[ E ]: The Invincible's Tavern; Open

Sora's got two things lined up in front of him as he sits at the bar at the tavern, ocarina up to his mouth as he busts out those spirit-communication blues; one is a line of orange slices on a plate with a few whole oranges sitting next to them for good measure, and the other is his tablet, open to the spirit communication guide Daylight posted a week ago.

He seems to be wanting to communicate something specific, in the spirits' language, to them, but every time he tries he gets the equivalent of sniffed at and ignored. After a moment, he puts down the ocarina and puts his chin down on the counter. He sighs deeply. He is SO put out.

"C'mon. It was one glass." Ignored. The spirits go on doing what they do; mixing drinks for other people. Mixing drinks for the people around him, actually. He turns to the nearest person in the room, looking distraught. "Am I doing something wrong? I don't know if it's the ocarina or if it's me."

[ F ]: The Invincible's kitchen; Open

This one's a pretty simple task, but there are a looot of moving parts to cabbage rolls, apparently, and Sora would like to get all of them right. He might be taking up an appreciable amount of kitchen space as he boils heads of cabbage and combines the filling. (The recipe is kosher! Always thinking of you, Midge Maisel.)

He either needs to get past you for something in the pantry - that is a whole seven or eight spices on this recipe, he's forgotten one for sure - or he is very, very obviously struggling with the "rolling up the rolls" step of the instructions. He's made twice as many leaves as the recipe requires because he knew that this step would be, hm, difficult! But he's bombed three of them so far and he's starting to look a bit frustrated. He thought he knew his own strength, but apparently not!

"Hey, are you any good at like..." He scrunches up his nose and makes a rolling gesture with his hands. "Rolling? Things? Can you help me?" Please tell him you have sushi roll experience or something. He is bamboozled.

[ G ]: Yarn Bombed locations; Open

Sora's been out all day, dashing around here and there to look for something extremely specific! He's been up trees and on top of buildings, basically a cartoon as he crawls all over the yarnbombed place to look for something, uh, extremely specific? He's already got a couple of things under his elbows - a few scarves, a hat, and a sweater - but there is one last thing that he needs. One last thing!

If you're here just to spectate, spectate away, If it's the end of the day, though, apparently you have it. Whatever it is is pink and blue, and Sora needs it. Sora will come up, full of hope, and say, without any preamble, "Hi! So, is there any way I could trade you for that?"

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Maes had a dark blue and grey hat on his head, a blue scarf with happy yellow ducks on it, and a pile of riotous rainbow colors in his arms.

Now that he knew the Night Market was a thing, Maes was often keeping his eyes out for interesting items that could potentially be worthy of trade. Today when he had woken up and seen the hats, scarves, mittens, and lord knew what else draped over every surface he had realized this was certainly a prime opportunity.

He paused in his collecting, looking over to see a familiar face, "Oh. Hello Sora." Maes looked down at his pile, "One of these of interest to you? Which one?"

"Hey, Mr. Hughes! Good to see you. I want that!" And Sora will dramatically point at one of the scarves Maes has in his armful of knitwear - it's very pretty, hot pink and blue, patterned with stars. It matches the hat he has on his head, although his has bunny ears on it. A bit of a design clash, but he knew it was perfect when he saw it.

"What can I trade you for that? I've got a bunch too. Maybe you can make a matching set?" Sora has indeed been collecting gifts all day, but he'll extend them out to Maes for his perusal. "The hat is the only thing you can't take. That's gonna be a present!"

Maes shuffles around the pile until he can cleanly produce the indicated scarf. It had caught his eyes for the pattern. He hadn't picked it up for anyone in particular, though he was glad he wasn't the only one making a small collection of it. "Hmm. A trade sounds fair. I've been trying to find some dark purple knitwear. Got anything like that?"

Maes starts eyeing the pile to see if there is a hint of purple in the mix.

"Presents? That's nice of you. I was collecting extras to trade at the next Night Market, but I guess getting presents wouldn't be a bad idea either. Can I ask who it's for?"

"Dark purple, huh..." Sora rummages around his little armful of knit objects, then pulls out... exactly one dark purple glove. "Hm. Well, that definitely came in a pair." He can't seem to find it, though... "Maybe I dropped it?"

Stuff to trade at the Night Market, huh? That's really smart! Sora had only thought about the yarn bomb in terms of gifts, but he might need to start thinking more... opportunistically about it.

He'll grin, anyway, trying not to seem too proud of himself. "It's for Hana. We came here on the same day! I've been visiting her every day since then."

Maes chuckles, shaking his head bemusedly. "That's alright. Maybe we can retrace your steps and find it. Or maybe you have something in your pile you think would look good on me?" Maes tilts his chin up teasingly, as if posing.

It's hard to be grumpy when there is all this yarn everywhere. Not that Maes is ever really grumpy.

"That's sweet of you Sora. Here. I have plenty of items, obviously, so you can have it." He pulls the scarf out and offers it over.

"Hmm," Sora says, pretending to appraise him... before mock-sadly shaking his head. "I dunno much about clothes, but there might be no helping that mug of yours." It's a joke, but he figures that Maes can handle it. He'll feel REALLY bad if that one sinks.

Sora takes the scarf, but he'll put on a very determined face! "Nah, I want this to be a fair trade! Follow me. I don't think it could have gotten really far, I only found it a few minutes ago." And off he'll go, stomping down back where he came from.

"Do you think the people at the night market will really go for these?"

Maes makes a noise between a snort and a scoff, abruptly looking away as if he's offended. He frowns and looks back at Sora. "That's no way to speak to your elders, kid," Maes is a good actor, but he doesn't want to think he's actually hurt by Sora's comment. He holds it just long enough before tossing him a wink and smiling again.

He has nothing else to do, so Maes holds his lantern higher and follows after him. He keeps his eyes peeled for the glove. Purple might be difficult to see in the dark, but on the other hand there IS a lot of snow on the ground still.

"They've only been once so far, but they seemed open to trading a lot of different items. So, I figure we try and if they say no then we just find other items to trade."

Sora flicks Maes a double thumbs up. "Don't give up though! Miracles happen!" Good, same wavelength on this. He'll be gentle!

He'll follow Maes' lead, unhooking his lantern from his belt and shining it down his little section of the path. (Maes may be military enough to see that next to the carabiner for Sora's lantern is the hilt of a pretty large military style knife, which is also buttoned to his belt. Just things to note!)

"Hmm..." Sora is trying his best not to take his eyes from the path, but walking and thinking and talking at the same time is hard enough. He may just peek at Maes just to give himself some mental breathing room. "What kinds of things were they taking last time? Do you know?"

Maes thinks about that for a moment. He hadn't done much trading himself, but he'd hung around the market to kind of people watch. "I saw a lot of people pulling in scrap metal or building materials. So they need supplies like that. I heard a rumor they were asking for captured spirits too, but I don't think anyone was quite willing to deal with that." He might have his own mixed feelings towards the spirits, but even he had a sour taste from the idea of trading in beings.

"I used information, but I tend to gather a lot of it, so I have some to spare."

He shrugs, falling silent and trying to remember if anything else stuck out to him from their visit. "They seemed fairly open to bartering anything though. You just need to know how to haggle."

Sora reels back at that. Uh, in spirits? "Yeah, no, I'm not going to hand a spirit to them. That's crazy." No matter how angry the bartender spirits get at him, he is not willing to trade in people, and Sora can personify anything given even less than half a chance! He is now wondering what kind of people the Night Market people are.

"Anything, huh..." Thus the clothes. Sora pauses, looking at his little armful. Maes has the right idea, he knows, but he's not certain about his ability to haggle. Maes must be pretty smart, goofiness aside. Maybe this is what saving multiple worlds does?

"Did you get anything at the last night market?" Sora looks back at the road, redoubling his efforts to find that purple glove. He definitely wants to help! "What kinds of things were you looking for?"

"Most of us thought so too. At least, I never saw anyone dealing in spirits."

They may have their differences, but for the most part they were harmless and sentient that trading in them seemed wrong.

"The last time they came was also their first visit for our group. I mostly wandered around to get ideas for what they had and how they traded. I did visit a phonebooth that proportedly could answer any question. I didn't realize I should be more specific or careful with my wording though." He sighs, shaking his head, "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer was my lesson there. Other than that I only visited one other booth to get anything -- we had decided we were going to do a Secret Santa exchange -- I bought a present for Rosinante."

Sora sighs in relief. Well, he's glad to see that people around here are of the same mind.

A phonebooth that answers any question... candies with random effects... really good coffee shops? Sora's really looking forward to the Night Market, whatever it ends up being. High expectations, here! (He's also going to have to think about writing down his question for the phonebooth, if it comes back? He may also just go in and ask the first thing on his mind. Hey, Sora is a wild and crazy creature.)

"So you guys do celebrate holidays here." Sora sticks his loose hand in his pocket, lifting his lantern higher. "I knew about the dreidel stuff, but do you know I've asked three people so far if they wanted to celebrate their birthdays? And they all said no?" Sora shakes his head. C'mon, people! Parties are good!

Maes chuckles, shaking his head. "I think it might be more accurate to say the spirits celebrate holidays and then we sort of just...go along with it. They're the ones usually putting up decorations and things. Although, Eleven was the one to set up the gift exchange. So, maybe it isn't just spirits after all."

Still no sign of the missing glove, but Maes is happy he is wearing all this knitwear. It really is making a difference in terms of keeping him warm. He might keep more for himself than he originally planned.

"I think you're forgetting the nature of us being here, Sora. If regular holidays are difficult when you've lost a close friend or family member, I would think birthdays would be difficult when you're the person that's dead." It was one advantage Maes had over most people here. He'd technically been "living" with his death for a whole year longer than anyone here in Beacon. "Of course, usually I don't think you have to worry about it. Since, you know, dead usually means dead. I wouldn't stress too much about it...you can't make them come around if they don't want to celebrate.

He considered suggesting switching to Death Days, but he wasn't sure if that joke would be in good taste or not.

Eleven is a bit of a strange name... Well, no more or less strange than Aziraphale, he supposes, but there aren't a lot of people in general who go by numbers. Maybe they'll meet someday!

Sora nods, understanding, but not really... particularly.... agreeing? He puffs out his cheeks. "Yeah, I know I can't make people come to a birthday... It'd be weird to give someone a present or a celebration they don't want. Even I know that." He sort of swings his lantern around, trying to see if the glove has blown off the path somehow. "I... remember a lot of dead people, I guess? Who kept living like they were alive. And a lot of alive people who didn't know if they had birthday, or didn't want to celebrate them even if they were alive. So I know there's a lot of ways of looking at, you know, aging, especially if you're dead."

He grumbles. "But if we're still here, and time is still going on, and we're still learning and changing and stuff, what difference does it make if we're dead? Another year older is another year older. It's good to celebrate that."

He supposes Sora has a point. Some people who were alive often didn't celebrate or honor life that much either. For someone who doesn't seem all there all of the time he can certainly be astute about some things. Perhaps it's just an understanding of people, which is a different kind of skill.

He thinks back to waking up at The Temple. To realizing he had a new lease on life, even a temporary one, and how he started spending his time in pursuit of a way to make it a little less temporary. Maybe he hadn't thrown himself a birthday party when the time came, but he also refused to just give up and accept that 29 was his last one. He'd certainly found himself thinking about how he was now 30 and probably getting closer to 31 since being here.

"I think you have a point. Whether we're dead or not, we still exist in some way right now. We're having this conversation...meeting new people that should be impossible to meet. If that's not continuing to live, then i really don't know what is."

There's a beat and then he asks, "So when is your birthday? If you're so gung-ho on learning everyone else's seems only fair you should share yours."

Sora looks back, kind of... looking both surprised and delighted that Maes agrees. "Right? I know! It's... kind of painful to know that I'm not gonna meet so many of my friends again. But I've already met people here that I don't think I could live without anymore." Sora pauses, then makes quote fingers. "Well, 'live.' It's weird. If we keep making connections like this, I don't see how we could be dead in a way that matters. I like to think that we're just... very, very far away."

And that'll be a grin! "I have two answers to that question!" It's definitely more than one! But he'll stick a finger up. "One: I, uh, sort of technically have two birthdays? But I only remember one - August 14th. I don't remember the other one, but I think it might be the same day. I don't know."

"Two," he says, raising his other finger. "If we're counting days that I've been alive... that's kind of complicated, but on March 9th of this year, I think? Leap year's a thing this year, right? I'll have lived twenty years. Sort of. It's close enough." And he'll put his fingers down and give a thumbs up. "And now you know. Two birthdays! How lucky am I?"

Maes wonders how a person winds up with two birthdays, though quickly he can think of a few reasons. He figures he can ask in a few minutes, though it seems for the time being Sora is excited to share this news.

"That's pretty lucky. August 14. I'll have to remember to write that down. How'd you wind up with two?"

Oh! Maes is gonna remember his birthday! That's a good start. Sora almost forgets to keep an eye on the road, he's so excited about the possibility of someone else on the birthday train.

This is an interesting way to stumble into this particular end of his... situation. "Well, uh... I guess the easiest way to explain it is that I'm a bodysnatcher?" He laughs! "No, I'm kidding. There is more than one person in here, though. August 14th's the other guy's birthday."

Sora might not be paying attention, but Maes is good at talking and working. He did it all the time back home. He keeps his eyes peeled for the purple gloves along the road, especially whenever Sora seems to get distracted.

The reference doesn't quite hit for Maes, though perhaps just the context of the two words is enough. Either way, it's hard to tell if the face he makes is one of confusion or uncertainty on how to respond.

"You're a what? What other guy?"

Sora is going to have to learn how to do stuff like this by himself someday... but for now, it's good to have someone watching his back. At least he keeps his lantern up? Visibility is as good as it'll ever be.

"Bodysnatcher?" Oh, they probably don't have those wherever Maes is from. Hm! "Basically... Um. Hm." He thinks about it for a second, then points at his sternum, at his heart. "If there are split personalities where you're from? I guess that's kind of close to what I'm talking about. Or if reincarnation's a thing. There are two people inside of this body! I'm the only one awake right now, though."

They do have the concept of split personalities, but the way Sora used that phrase makes him think this is something a little more peculiar or magical related. It makes him think about one of the stories Roy had shared with him about the events that took place after Maes had died -- some kid from Xing who had taken one of the homunculus for himself and became one of them? Apparently he'd been a friend of Edward's or something, so Roy hadn't given him much. He'd said something about the kid and the homunculus were both inhabiting the same body though.

"One body. Two minds. Okay, I think I understand."

But if they had one body, wouldn't that body have just one birthday? No, wait, he'd mentioned reincarnation as well. Maes didn't know a lot about that, he wasn't very religious nor had he ever really been interested in studying religion. But he knew enough to know what it meant. So it probably meant that one soul existed before the other in a different body, that body was destroyed, and then it went on to inhabit Sora's current body.

"If August 14 is the other guy's birthday and you don't remember your own...is there a date you want to celebrate it on or are you okay also celebrating on August 14," he paused then asked, "You did mention March 9."

"I, uh." Sora pauses. Gee, that's a good question. "Well, that's just the day that this body turns twenty. I don't know if just choosing a birthday is a thing? Is that allowed?"

He's also grateful that Maes is pretty chill about this? Must come with the territory of being dead, going to another world, dying again, and then going to another world. Huh. Would he be as chill about this? (After a second of thought, Sora thinks he probably wouldn't really get it if he hadn't lived through it, but he'd also be pretty chill about it.)

"I mean, if we were just counting by, you know, how much I remember? Between two lives?" Sora pauses. "I guess... I'd be a little older than that. More like twenty-five?" He's lowballing by a lot, the actual number would be more like thirty, but twenty-five already seems too old to Sora. "But it's mostly, you know, kid memories. I don't think that counts."

Maes stops dead. He stares at Sora for a moment, adjusting his glasses and then shakes his head.

"No. No I absolutely refuse to believe you are anywhere NEAR my age. Let's go back to the other age, that seems more appropriate for you."

It's not said in a mean way just in an 'there is no way I am accepting this' disbelief. He shakes his head and his lantern light catches on something in the trees. He turns, deciding to focus on this new discovery, and finds that every single branch of a nearby pine tree has a sweater or sweater-vest hanging from it.

"Oh. Those are nice. Hey look! There's a purple one."

Sora's eyes crinkle as he laughs. "Agreed. I don't think I'm ready to be one of you guys yet."

-- Oh, hey, he remembers this tree too. "I remember stopping here to check out all the sweaters - yeah, that's gotta be it!" He walks forward, snags it off the branch, and walks back to Maes, trying to suss out a good place to put it on his pile. "There you go. Fair trade."

Maes shakes his head. That sort of response is definitely something someone under 20 would say. He could respond, but he'd rather not open that can of worms at the moment. Instead he watches as Sora scampers over to the tree and fetches the sweater. It wasn't the original mitten they'd been searching for, but it was nice.

He sets the pile of knitwear he'd been carrying aside and takes the offered sweater. Best try it on now if he plans on keeping it. He pulls it on and ta-dah, he looks even more like a dad than before.

"Thanks. So are we just celebrating your birthday then or are there plans to start figuring out when everyone else's birthday is?"

we jumpin! we poppin! we joppin!

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