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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"Probably. That's how the first ones I got back happened," they agree. "I saw a person who looked like a former target, and had a full memory malfunction. I forgot I wasn't the Asset in 1989 and I shot her." A pause, vaugely embarrassed. "I bandaged it up after. We're friends now. Other ones came from strong smells paired with similar positioning. That's how the Sergeant got his name. We learned his rank through a memory malfunction."

Sora looks dismayed... but laughs at the addition. That's one way to make friends, at least. "I'm glad she's okay."

Sora thinks. Okay, this is very familiar territory for him. It's going to be hard - after all, they don't have an entire network of people stuck in the same position, throwing out eerily specific memories into the void to help connect others to them - but there are ways to swing this that even he can do with what's available in Beacon. "Can you tell me about the memory where you got the Sergeant back?" And he's mentally keeping track of that year, mister. 1989 is pretty far from 1945, you know.

"He was already there, we just didn't have anything to call him," the Soldier corrects, without judgment. They weren't clear. "I just called him 'chatty guy' or 'asshole'." (Love you too, pal. Shut up, Sergeant.) They have no idea how the Sergeant can make a kissing-noise without actually having a mouth, but he does, somehow. "But it was. A month and a half? After we got here. There were these flowers that smelled like dead people. Crowley had broken his leg, I was helping him back to the cabin. And then suddenly I was him, and back on the battlefield in the war, trying to escape from a HYDRA attack."

Sora grins. Always there, huh? At least he seems kind enough; the soldier would be very different if they didn't want him around, at least. "That sounds nice, actually. You always had a friend around."

Sora nods. That's really graphic - it almost feels like they were thrown into the memory instead of having the memory tossed over them like a blanket, blinding, filling in extra spaces. It doesn't have to be the same, but the distinctions are pretty important, Sora thinks. It's good to keep track.

"Escaping from HYDRA... Did you have someone else with you? Not Crowley, uh, I the memory matched, does that mean the memory was there because the sergeant had someone with him too?"

"One of the other soldiers from the battle, I don't remember his name," they admit. "Just kept calling him 'private'." And that's exactly how it was. Full memory malfunctions are literal, fully-immersive flashbacks. Partial memory malfunctions just show them pictures-- usually bad ones, often with accompanying emotion, but not usually without them forgetting where they are, let alone who they are. "Was trying to get him back to base to report. Got Crowley back to the cabin, and then got confused."

Sora feels like he wants to take issue with the word "malfunction" at this point - if the soldier is getting back something that actually belonged to him, wouldn't that be a... function? Or whatever the opposite of a malfunction is.

Well, at the very least, that doesn't seem like a situation where he would have shot Crowley, either. "Huh. So it was just the name?" He looks out on the long road to downtown, as far as the little globe of light from their lanterns can reach. "Can you get a feel for like... anything more important than other things? When it started happening to - to Skyler, there were parts that came back that were like, actual memories? But sometimes he'd get stuff like - oh, there was a puppet, that was important, or there was one time I got hit by a spell, and the person who cast it was important to me."

"I get whatever is immediate." Which often doesn't include such helpful things as names and dates. They only know 1989 for the first full malfunction because they remember the briefing, and it had a date on it for required termination. "Always specific, not impressions. Whatever I thought about specifically in that moment. Sometimes it's useful. Sometimes it's not."

(Unless it's just knowledge. Good point.) "Sometimes I get knowledge without a memory. How to play dreidel. I chased those memories for days, and never got any." It was supremely disappointing.

Specific, right. Sora chalks it up to the nature of their lost memories being different than his own. The knowledge bit is interesting, though. "Just out of the blue, huh. For Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever you guys did right before I got here." Makes sense. The soldier probably wouldn't have had a chance to celebrate it before they got here.

"Have you told anyone about these before? Like Misty or Mr. Javert? I know Misty's probably not from the 40s, or the 80s, but maybe she'd spot something that connects to something she'd know about what you know."

Sadly... not those two, not much. Javert being a handler and also not super warm and welcoming, or anything, and Misty being... Misty. And also a handler. Sort of. "Crowley. And Scarlett-- the one I shot. Aziraphale helped with memories from Before, so he knows. Rosinante knows some things." They shake their head a little as they walk. "You know, I think everyone knows a little. People ask." And it doesn't really occur to them not to share.

Sora chuckles. "Yeah, I feel that." He feels like if everyone in Beacon put together what they knew about him just from what he's told them, they'd probably have a better idea of who he is than he does.

"Where I come from, there were a lot of people sort of in my situation." Sora tilts his head. "Our situation. It got bad, for a lot of them, but we all got by together." He pauses. "We were sort of... connected. Through like, a magic network, I guess? By numbers. It's kind of hard to explain. But we used the network to tell each other stories about our others, and other people who remembered those things could get reminders of what their others saw, and then they'd be able to help each other remember things."

The real problem is, almost nobody knows the whole story, everyone has bits and pieces, so no one completely understands where the Soldier is coming from. (Hell, neither do we, most of the time.)

"I wish I could do it on purpose," they say, staring out into the dark. They're coming up on the museum, at least, which means they're about halfway there. "Find my own memories. Good or bad. But I don't know how. Familiar things don't work if I want it." They glance sidelong at Sora, and adds, "Our network here is basically magic. No other way to explain we understand each other."

Not everyone around here is speaking English, after all.

"Oh, true." Sora pauses. "Something's gotta be magic if we don't have to charge the tablets, anyway."

The numbers network was a very different kind of magic, though. Maybe he'll get to explain it one day. "Familiar things don't work if you want it? So, like, it's a reverse psychology thing? It has to like, sneak up on you?"

"I don't know. I don't know if there are rules or if it's just whatever my brain decides that day." All they know is they haven't managed to pull a memory on purpose without magical, celestial help, but they also know they've only actually tried with one set of memories, really.

Sora grins. "Okay. I have a couple of ideas, then. They'll have to wait until I meet up with you in Beacon again, though." They involve pictures! Stories! Possibly memes!

He wiggles his fingers in his pockets. The rubies inside are keeping his fingers very pleasantly toasty. "There are only three other people living in the Landmark. It's gonna be kind of weird, living so far away from all of my other friends." Oddly enough, though, he is already familiar with all of the other residents of the Landmark. They're going to have so much fun. "At least I can fly back if things go south either way. Are you guys going to be okay with that parade around?"

The Soldier fishes in a pocket with their free hand, produces a couple pieces of wax to show Sora, clearly handmade earplugs, probably created from something melted at a torch or a stove. "I heard them from a distance. Compulsion is resistible at first. Put these in and hide." The Soldier is used to random compulsions, but not generally even attempting to resist them. In this case, it's good practice, since they know the parade is potentially dangerous.

They add, "I'll visit. Every day on my patrol. Ask you for what you oserved that day." Because they haven't forgotten that, and will not forget that. They have ideas of their own.

Sora blinks, but extends his hand for the earplugs automatically. At this point, the soldier could give Sora a live grenade and he'd just take it without any questions.

"So I'm getting daily homework and check ins from my teacher." He'll stick one of the earplugs in his coat pocket, but he'll try out the other one, easing it into his ear on the soldier's side. "Anything else? Tests? Finals? What's my GPA so far?" He's not annoyed - he's just having fun with the metaphor.

It may or may not fit well, given it was made using the Soldier's own ears. If it doens't, they'll just have to make Sora some, themselves. "Don't know what GPA is. But I won't give you tests. Just have you look for things and then tell me. If I didn't visit I'd ask on your tablet. Visit seems better." Besides, they're friends. Friends visit each other. Right?

Friends do visit each other! Sora catches that distinction and grins, pulling the plug out of his ear and examining it. It's a tiny bit big, but he figures it should be all right. Less room around it means less space for sounds to get in, right? "Right. No GPA, no grades. I'm cool with that."

He pockets the other plug too. "I guess I was kind of... worried? It's been a while since I've had so many friends. I guess I'm kind of nervous about being left out." Sora reviews that and laughs. "That's so stupid, though. There are less than a hundred of us, right? What would I be left out from?"

The Soldier considers this. Making the trek from downtown to Beacon is a pain. But there are ways to make it better. "There are skis in the general store. To travel on the snow more quickly. Make the trip take less time. When the snow melts, there are bicycles. And people will come here even if you do not go there. And I will." Because still not a person, for all they know Sora will want them to be around some.

"You know, I don't know if I've ever gone skiing before. I - he didn't, in New Jersey, he wasn't bougie enough. And I don't remember if Sora did either." He says that very smoothly, for once! However, it's not as good a feeling as he hoped.

People will come to him, huh... Sora turns to the soldier. "Will you really come all that way? Not for a patrol. Just to see me." Sora stops, thinks for a second. "I mean... I'd come for you! All the time, whenever! That's what friends are for."

So why doesn't he assume that people wouldn't do the same for him?

"I... don't know what I'm saying anymore!" That's it. Temporary brainfart. "Sorry, wow. Thank you. I really want you around. I hope everyone else feels the same!"

"Kid. Slow down." That's a lot of excited rambling all at once. No wonder he doesn't pay attention to his surroundings, he is too busy chattering. It's cute, but also worrisome. Sora seems to spend far too much time in his own head.

At least the ramble is kind. "I'm not worried about you visiting or not. It's okay." Even if Sora doesn't make the trek all the time, one can still be friends without constant contact. They're pretty sure.

Sora closes his mouth, takes a deep breath through his nose - he doesn't really know why, but if the soldier thinks he needs to slow down, he probably should - and realizes that he has been thinking so quickly about the worst things that could happen that he hasn't been able to give himself a chance to think about the good things. Huh. That... definitely is weird.

"Thank you. I really will visit. I know how to ride a bike, at least? And if I can't do skis, I can just glide." He nods, mentally putting a pin in that. "And if I keep thinking of you, and you keep thinking of me, we'll be there for each other anyway."

"I don't think I know how to use skis, either," the Soldier admits, giving an approving nod as Sora settles some. "I just trudge around." And they're heavy, given all the metal. It's mostly just careful clearing of snow on their route, watching where they put their feet, and plowing through on sheer superserum power. "It'll be all right. It's not like there's room in the village anymore."

They look skyward, amused. "Link in our bathtub."

He looks out at the snow and shakes his head. Well, that's one way to take advantage of being heavier than the next guy. He does know this from personal experience. "You're like a snowplow, my guy."

Sora grins, remembering not a week back when he tried to use the bathroom at Aziraphale's. "So, like, were you guys gonna tell me about the elf in the bathtub, or was that gonna be a surprise?" He sneaks a glance at the soldier, then back at the road. "Don't get me wrong - that was literally the funniest thing that's happened to me this month." The gacha machine thing was also a little funny, but he came out of that more worried for the poor thing than anything else.

They do know what a snowplow is, apparently, because the comment makes them snort a little with exasperated amusement. Aziraphale did make snowshoes, but they're too heavy even for those. (Damn arm. Useful arm. We manage okay, Sergeant.)

The question makes them duck their head a little, though. "Thought you knew," they say with some shades of embarrassment. "Took a bowl up to him, while you were eating. Sorry."

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