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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Memory adjustments...? Sora thinks about this for a second. Aziraphale does some pretty neat tricks and he thinks he read somewhere that he can heal, which isn’t a normal party magician’s bag, but... maybe he’s a doctor too? Some kind of magic psychiatrist? He supposes that it’s okay to be a little distant from your doctor. After all, you don’t have to be bffs with your psych for them to care about doing a good job.

Sora hums a little bit. “So... he only cared about Aziraphale? Or was Aziraphale the only one telling him to care about other people before you and his other friends came along? Both?” He kicks some snow along, looking at the treeline and wondering if the soldier is seeing something different from what he sees.

Oh, Sora. The Soldier is gonna blow your brain if it comes out what Aziraphale and Crowley actually are; they know, and aren't particularly shy about telling people. Most if not all of Beacon knows at this point, except the newbies. "Crowley's job before his death discouraged friendships," the Soldier explains. "Discouraged caring at all. He did anyway, he just hid it. Aziraphale was his only friend for a very long time."

Oh, Soldat. Sora already knows that they're best friends! Silly. What kinda secret is that, anyway? It's not like they could possibly ever have anything else to hide, even if Crowley is trying to stay cagey about something Aziraphale told Sora not to be nosy about. Sora's pretty sure that that's the thing. Introverts can be so shy.

"Was he a secret agent or something? Or like... royalty?" Sora nods. "Those would be pretty lonely, I guess. He's lucky he had Aziraphale to keep an eye on him."

"He's a demon. He was supposed to tempt human souls to hell." The Soldier pauses, then adds before Sora can say anything, "Apparently he was always very bad at it. He got fond of humans. And of Aziraphale, who is an angel." There you go, Sora, there's the informational bomb everyone's been avoiding telling you. Sorry for all the secrecy, the other two are still a bit dumb about it.

"Oooh, a demon. From hell. He likes us. And Aziraphale's an angel from heaven. Okay, gotcha."

Sora will walk along for a few steps, casually, then stop and sit down on the snow, looking down between his sprawled legs and putting both hands to his head. "Okay, wait, they're what?"

They don't laugh. They don't. It would be rude. But their mouth does twitch a little, thankfully from out of Sora's field of view, and by the time they come to crouch beside him, their expression is mild but kind. "A demon and an angel. I've seen the wings. They use magic to keep their hair and clothes clean, to heal, to make things just appear out of thin air, and sometimes to make bland food. When Aziraphale ruins dinner in the kitchen. They're just like people. They just are very old people with magic, wings, and strange jobs."

Please enjoy this video of a Scottish man named Limmy not understanding that a kilo of steel is equal in weight to a kilo of feathers. This is where Sora is right now. (link)

"Wings. And magic." Sora remembers seeing wings, long ago - one wing on one guy, and then two wings on another guy, who was either an angel, literally God, or just some kid from Shibuya who happened to be god level omniscient - so these aren't things that are completely alien to him, but he is also vaguely Roman Catholic and also dead, so this is simply! A lot! At the same time.

"-- Wait, Crowley was with you? On the boat?" Sora looks up at the soldier, wide eyed. "Did Aziraphale get here on a boat too?"

The Soldier was apparently Jewish at some level before HYDRA, so their perception of angels and demons are colored appropriately. Not quite the same level of reverence and fear, and not quite the same connotations of ultimate-good, ultimate-evil.

They smile a bit. "Kid. Everyone comes in on the ferry. Everyone. He and Aziraphale and Misty came on the same one I did. That's how I met Crowley. He needed protection and I needed a handler. So I would actually do something instead of cowering in the ferry room." They can talk about being scared out of their mind easily enough, particularly since Crowley isn't a handler anymore, and they aren't particularly scared now. Just the normal on-edge feelings, kept hidden through long decades of practice, and need to keep alert for danger, not kept hidden at all because it's reasonable while on patrol.

Angels and demons can die? God doesn't, uh, rescue them? Sora did not really think about the existence of a god outside meeting Matt Murdock in the chapel that one time! He is, in fact, a bit overwhelmed by several elements of this, not the least of which is surprise, but the metaphysics of being in a place populated by the dead who can apparently include beings that he'd just sort of figured would be alive... in death... Ay Diyos ko. He could probably use some Jewish level headedness at the moment. Maybe he'd talk about this with Mrs. Maisel, too.

-- The soldier? Scared? Crowley, the demon, needing protection? This is some deep lore. Sora is now massaging his temples. "Okay. Okay. I think I get it. I feel, uh, stupid, but that's normal, that's really normal. I think I just need to. Calm down." Deep breath in. Deep breath out. "This is at least five elves in bathtubs. At least."

"You don't need to feel stupid. You didn't know. Just breathe for a minute. Think of something easy." They hesitate, then admit, "I usually think about folding paper. But whatever helps you is enough." Origami is one of their coping mechanisms, okay. It helps when in a panic to think about it.

"Folding...?" Sora stares up at them for a moment, blankly, before - oh, right! Origami solves all problems. It clicks, and Sora laughs. Yeah, that's simple. Folding paper. Simple, memorized, something they've done a hundred times. What's easy? What's simple?

He breathes obediently. What's easy? What's simple?

"The seaweed is always greener," he sings, under his breath, only mildly offkey. "In somebody else's lake. You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake...."

The song is completely unfamiliar, possibly a bit silly, but far be it from the Soldier to judge anyone for singing. Music is great. Even silly music if great. They look aside, let Sora get himself under control again, set their bundle down at last since it looks like they're doing to be sitting in the snow for another minute more, at least.

After a bit of singing, Sora will get up off his butt, brushing the snow off his pants, then shove his hands into his pockets, continuing the song as he restarts their walk downtown. He'll hum a few parts, but it's clear it's he knows all the actual parts to the song and only hums because he's got, uh, choreography? He'll just dance by himself though. No need to pull the soldier into the number.

"Hey, do you know what 'beguine' means," Sora asks suddenly in the middle of the song. "It's a part of the lyrics, but I never ended up looking it up." He sincerely doubts they know, but it's something that has always been on his mind when it comes to this song.

Sadly, Bucky Barnes wouldn't have known that kind of dance, and the Soldier doesn't remember dancing, at all. They're curious, though. "No. What is the sentence it's in."

Sora will back up, humming a little to get back into the rhythm of the song. "Under the sea, under the sea. When the sardine begin the beguine, it's music to me!"

He snorts a little, then laughs. "I dunno why, but this song is about a bunch of sea animals, you know, jamming and having a good time. Playing instruments and dancing and stuff. They don't even have thumbs." Sora grins, trying to imagine it. "I've always wondered what this song was all about."

The Soldier thinks about it for a minute, then shakes his head. "Something related to music or the ocean. It might be a kind of dance or a kind of swimming stroke. It's probably a children's song. Those don't have to make sense." They know that those tend to be non-sensical and about intelligent animals. (No real memory of how I know that. Probably not that important to worry about. Probably not.)

Probably not. Sora pauses, trying not to let the rhythm carry him away again, then... Eh? "You're right, it is kind of a kid's song? But I feel like there's kind of a story to it. I don't know. It's something I - Sora - remembered." Sora frowns. "I think it's definitely more of a dance more than a swimming stroke. I'm supposed to dance to it." One more beat. "I don't think I'm supposed to have legs when I'm dancing to it?"

"No legs." The Soldier looks at Sora sidelong, skeptical. "Your world is weird." Not that they suppose theirs is a lot better, but. No legs. Seriously? What is that even supposed to mean? They aren't familiar enough with mythology, as they are now, to remember what mermaids are-- if they even knew, Before-- so the only option they can think of is random amputation. Or maybe being a ghost?

Sora shakes his head. "Must have been a transformation thing. My friend, Donald - Sora's friend - used to make us, uh, look different if we needed disguises on different worlds." Sora frowns. "At least, I hope that's what that was." He is in full agreement, man. His world - the one in his memories, anyway - was definitely weird. Feels like home, though,

That sounds harrowing. The Soldier has been many things, many of them horrible, but at least their body has always been theirs, not something unfamiliar. (Metal arm, pal. Oh. I. Guess that was kind of unfamiliar, for you. That's an understatement. I wonder if there was a time we had to be. Trained with it.) The Sergeant apparently doesn't want to think about it, and so says nothing more.

"Did you travel a lot?" they ask instead, moving on to something less uncomfortable. "If you needed disguises."

Sora... doesn't really know how to respond to this in a way that takes what he's learned about himself into account, but he's going to try!

"Yeah! I mean, on maybe half the worlds I remember, we were fine to just walk around, but on the other half Donald had to change us to look like we fit there. He's a magician, like, probably one of the best in the entire universe, so it wasn't hard. Just surprising sometimes. He'd never warn us." He sighs. "There was... a spaceship. I remember the spaceship. It was made of something that let us travel to worlds that shouldn't be connected to each other, but were. We were trying to stop the Heartless from taking over... or something."

He shakes his head. "We were doing a lot, but I don't remember the order well."

Oh, that's not fair. The Soldier wants to see a spaceship. (I want to see a spaceship!) They glance over at Sora with an expression of clear interest, rather than an expression of subtle interest like usual. "What was that like? The spaceship."

Sora's trying! He tries as hard as he can! But eventually, he sighs. "I remember sitting in the driver's seat a few times? It was pretty small. I think I might have been the captain, too. We were just floating around. And I've seen it from the outside once - it was really colorful."

He scratches his head. "We... must have been a mechanic or something, because I don't think I knew how to take care of a spaceship, but I don't know who it was. And I can't remember us actually flying anywhere? I remember us crash landing a couple of times, which is how I know we always flew places, but I don't remember what things were like on the way." He sighs. "Space is really beautiful, though. Lots of stars."

Aw man, now they're really jealous. That sounds amazing. The Soldier wants a spaceship, however improbably that's going to be, given they're dead and probably going to vanish into nothing even if they do solve this World Eater problem.

But space. That would be so fucking keen. "I. Used to love science fiction novels," they realize suddenly. "Read 'em all the time."

Sora whirls on him, eyes alight. "Hey! Hey, that's something! Do you remember which ones? What you liked about them?" Hm. Pause! "Does the sergeant remember things the same way you do? What does he think about them?"

Sora is making some plans, baybee. They mostly involve him pulling some strings with the Librarian.

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