bee beez in the trap [ partially open ]

[arsarcanum]

characters: Sora, Bucky, Misty, Jason, and you!
location: All over Beacon with a focus on the amusement park exploration!
date/time: Backdated to Feb 27th for the exploration, stretching all the way up to the 19th just before the event.
content: March catch-all! (Even though the amusement park exploration is in February technically!) This is the official Sora gives your character a cupcake for his birthday post! Like the Valentine's chocolate, if you want to handwave your character receiving a cupcake, please do so! They're all chocolate, vanilla, or blueberry (the latter courtesy of Soldat.) That will be on the 9th, so if your character was outside when they got their cupcake from Sora, there's a very good chance they got colorbombed by the Birds of Paradise event on that day as well. Also in this post: a dinner, some stops at the gacha machine and the library, some cooking, some crafting, some note taking, some rain.
warnings: Discussion of the cybernetics and the stuff he had to do to get the cybernetics might get a little gross and scary but everything else should be pretty okay!

[ A: Amusement Park (02/27); closed to Bucky, Misty, and Jason ]

Explorations with Team Wolf Pack are for fun only! Imminent death all around notwithstanding, Sora wants this to be a good time! (And maybe a test run for that unsupervised launch into the unknown him and Jason are still planning. Hey, he'd still like to know how far he and Jason can go into the darkness, just the two of them!)

So, here's him, walking along, occasionally striking up a hiking game or asking questions of his fellow explorers. It's not going to be a long journey, but he'd like to keep their spirits up just in case whatever happens to meet them isn't friendly.

Good thing it is. And boy, isn't the amusement park a treat! It's basically all the games at the Night Market and nothing else except for that eerie old rollercoaster, huh? Very picturesque. Let's enjoy the ambiance while we can before heading back home.


[ B: Misty's Cabin; Closed to Bucky and Misty ]

They're almost done getting Soldat's stuff over to Misty's, so they're having one last "hey we should probably eat some of this food since we're going to be serving three instead of four to five from now on" meal. That's a little depressing, but they're a unit and know how to keep that kind of depressing nonsense out of a conversation by now!

So they talk about other things. Like what they're up to in Beacon these days. The B&B! Their patrols! Dancing lessions! The fistbump report! And, like, you know, more small introductory things that they have missed about each other two months into their weird little group dynamic. Like, how Misty's really into gators? And how Soldat's a little more casual with their language now. (Too casual. Misty chides them for using strong language around the child. Sora's like, man, Misty, I'm twenty now, you can swear around me.)

Anyway, Sora is also a cyborg, right? No arm, though. Sora brings up that his eyes are just for aesthetic at this point. (He may have traded the reticles away during the last Night Market, oops.)

"Yeah, so now it's just my heart and lungs that are metal? And my bones are reinforced. And like, everything else. There's a spike in my brain, too, but I don't think it does anything." Sora takes a bite of his pasta and thinks nothing of it. Sometimes, people just have spikes in their brains? It's 2020, do what you need to cope.


[ C: All over Beacon; Open ]

(i. just kind of everywhere)

[ March 9th is Sora's birthday! Or, well, it's close enough. He's having a quieter celebration with the wolf pack + Jason and Naminé later on, but he and Soldat made a ton of cupcakes and he's assuming everyone attending his birthday is only going to have one or two. So, this is an excited dude here with a big Tupperware tub of cupcakes. He'll be stained with bright colors from the bird spirits chucking colored powder in the air, and once he changes into his novelty bongo card shirt, he'll probably get increasingly giddy about it as the day goes on. Hey, it's fun! ]

Hi! Do you want a cupcake? Today's my birthday, I made too many. Here!

(ii. gacha machine)

[ It's the same prompt as i except your character can comment on Sora putting slices of cupcake into the gacha machine and, like, talking to it? Like it's an actual person? What's up with that? He's also going to put a little party hat on top of its little dome and some festive curled ribbon on its handle for his birthday.

Like, really, he is just chatting at this thing about the finer details of his birthday like it's gonna talk back to him. What's his deal? ]

(iii. library)

[ After delivering the Librarian's cake, Sora can either be caught sweeping up (it's a Monday, and Mondays are for cleaning the library) or seen later at one of the tables, still somewhat colorstained but with arms mostly wiped off so he doesn't have to clean the table. He's got a couple of notebooks with him and he's writing in them - letters, notes, recipes, schedules - and switching between notebooks so he doesn't get too bored with any one task. He also has a couple of weird reports stacked in front of him that he refers to every once in a while, wiggling his pen around in some thought.

However, if he sees another person in the library, he's going to grin and turn away from his work. And yes, he's going to stage whisper at them. ]

Hey! Here! It's my birthday! Have a cupcake!


[ D: The Landmark's restaurant kitchen; Open ]

The spirits are tittering as Sora slides his second pie into the trash, sighing. Okay, so he wants to think he's getting better at this whole pie thing, but clearly the first pie was a fluke. Or maybe he's just gotta make sure he actually pays attention to the pie while it's in the oven? (Good thing no fires can catch in Beacon. That would have been kind of messy.)

There's a passable blueberry pie cooling on the counter nearby, but man, he really did want to have two pies done today so he knows he's got the hang of it before the end of the month. After all, Maes' birthday is important too!

If anyone enters the kitchen and even so much as looks at the pie, Sora will smile at them, looking a little frazzled. "Hey. Want some pie?"


[ E: Patrol (North Beacon); Open ]

[ Sora's doing that weird thing where he collects rocks and stashes them near the torch posts again, except it's only the one near the lake, and he's not doing any further renovations to the torch he already put there. Instead, he's making sort of this weird oblong mound of rocks next to the torch that just keeps getting higher and higher and higher as the days go on. Eventually, it'll start evening out at knee height! What is this thing?

Sora keeps working on it during his patrols, and can also be seen wandering Downtown, checking the storefronts, but the majority of his time will be spent dutifully on patrol, picking up rocks and adding to his weird long pile. Hey, 2020, do what you need to cope, etc.

It also might be raining! ~*Ambiance*~. ]


[ F: Wildcard ]

[ If we set up something for March and want to put it somewhere I'll put it here! Will match format, pm me, etc. ]

Comments

[vampirella]

( she's so transfixed in her own worst nightmare that his approach isn't registered. her dark eyes are stuck on black blood, swirling the drain. the touch might have snapped her out of it sooner, truthfully, though it's probably for the best he didn't touch her when she couldn't pay any mind to the approach. she's not... great about being touched. specifically, when she doesn't have any room to refuse it. she's not above wanting to be touched on occasion, Carmilla just is inherently fixated on controlling it when she does.

the words snap her out of it instead. her heart doesn't race anymore, hell, it barely beats. it's almost a sluggish, confused instinct held over from her humanity. she finally snaps her attention from the bloody sink to notice him, again, as if he hasn't been in the room this whole time. though, she doesn't have much of an answer, she almost seems too perplexed to form coherent thought until he's talking about going back to her room and mopping up her bad lunch from the sink.

Carmilla almost isn't sure this is reall — it just seems so bizarre. and that's saying a lot, because after three centuries, she prides herself on having seen everything. )

What the hell is wrong with you? ( she finally manages, voice even darker and raspier than usual. puking up a gallon of dead blood will do that to a girl.

whatever reaction she was expecting, it wasn't this. somehow that doesn't make it any easier to accept, however. why is he not appalled, disgusted? she's disgusted, and she's the one that ate the damn spirit. this is what she's been for centuries, though not without a great deal of shame. she can't imagine what he's thinking, but it almost doesn't compute that after all of this, he'd see some value in being nice to her. her fingers curl in the dishtowel he placed in front of her, and even weak as she is she manages to tear the thing in the anxious wring of her fingers. )

If this were a horror movie, you'd be dead. ( truly, after such a grotesque showing, she cannot imagine why he didn't run immediately out of her presence and possibly recruit a small mob to burn her alive on the way. ) How more obvious do I have to be? I just puked up an entire sinkful of dead blood, you can't actually believe that there's something redeemable here.

( she'd be the first to inform him there's not, and since he can't seem to connect the dots on his own... maybe she'll have to. yes, even sick as a dog, she's willing to blow holes in her own ship to make a point. )

[arsarcanum]

[ Sora's friends with Soldat. He's found ways to be friendly without initiating any touch. It's the spirit that counts.

More blood down the drain. He wrings out the dishtowel, then takes the strainer from the mouth of the drain and starts shoving more chunky bits of viscera in, wetting the towel as necessary. There's still a bit of scrubbing to do, and it smells like someone's slaughtered a pig, but it's starting to look a bit less like the disaster it once was. Anything's better than nothing! ]

Redeemable? [ Sora doesn't really pause, but he does look at her, noting the torn rag. Shucks, uh, she's really torn up about this. (Pun. Bad. Do not let her know you just thought of a pun, Sora.) He looks at her, a bit lost, then down at the rag. Tries not to smile, because he's pretty sure that won't fix anything. ]

I dunno. You just look kind of sick? I don't actually know what's going on. [ Yes, Carmilla. He's chalking this up to some kind of illness that she hadn't told him about yet or another example of Beacon-grade creepiness. The word "vampire" has not crossed his mind.

Back to scrubbing. He wipes his cheek with the back of his hand, thankfully avoiding any black smears on his face. Carmilla lives on the sixth floor, right? Probably going to have to take the elevator, then. He pauses suddenly, then opens a cabinet under the sink with his foot before going back to mopping up the sink. ]

There's a bucket in there, last I checked. Might not be in there anymore. [ Hint, hint. He drops the dish towel near the drain and picks up a sponge, soaking up the last of the blood. Better. Now it just looks like someone murdered a squid in there and cleaned up kind of badly. Almost done. ] Anyway, if this was a horror movie, I'd've been dead an hour ago. That's how it works, right? The jock goes down early so you know that the serial killer means business.

[vampirella]

( you just look kind of sick. well, she does, and that's fair. but how on earth could anyone think puking that much blood is some normal kind of sickness? she looks at him like he's grown a second head, and on her end, that sort of bizarre complacence in the face of something inexplicable and rather horrific is less understandable then a potential magical conjoined twin situation, so maybe it's fair. )

You aren't the jock, you're the naive dumb one that doesn't pay attention to all of the warning signs and dies first. ( she can see the hint painted in broad strokes, as if he's helping her clean up after a kegger and she can't keep down her tequila. it's bizarre, it's almost like she is the moody goth co-ed she tries to convince people she is, for a moment.

but ultimately, she refuses to let it, because Carmilla of all people knows how artificial it really is. )

What's going on is I fed on a spirit because I need blood to survive. And after getting spooky green eyes and scaring the shit out of the waitstaff it looks like I'm going to puke up every last bit I put down. Who knows, maybe it'll even kill me. ( she huffs a laugh that is completely devoid of humor. this is what she gets for trying to skirt the system. if she'd just fed on a human like she was made to, none of this would have happened. )

[arsarcanum]

[ Sora sort of grins painfully at first. Too naïve to live? Yeah, that's pretty on the nose. Maybe someday he'll tell her about the time he followed his heart into a trap and the bait was just a vague sense that someone was in pain, and Sora being Sora wanted to help, so he followed it. Granted, the pain was real and did need to be fixed! It's just that the crazy old man who wanted to steal his body was also real and also waiting for him at the end of that particularly stupidity rainbow.

He didn't get himself out of that one.

He was absolutely playing the part of the designated driver, and is about to banter back as such, but Sora is anything but a stone and the next thing out of Carmilla's mouth is, um. Hey, that's vampirism! Okay, that's fine! One of his closest friends from New Jersey was a zombie once upon a time. It's fine. It's fine.

It's really not fine as he goes over mental options as quickly as he can, his hand stilling under the stream of water from the faucet. It's getting uselessly waterlogged. He forgets to wring it out because if Carmilla's going to die without blood, that means that someone needs to give her blood or else she'll die and that's not really an option to him. And then he goes down his mental checklist of everyone he'd be okay with Carmilla drinking from here and it comes to a big fat no one because there is absolutely no way he'd let Naminé even consider it, and Hana would be fine, but he couldn't ask her when she's just gotten to a point where she doesn't need someone to lean on when she goes to forage for parts for Tokki at the junkyard. She has so much to do, she doesn't need to be someone's food bank. Not Bucky, not Misty or Jason, even though he thinks Jason would be okay with it if he asked.

And then the rest of the definition of the word "vampire" catches up with him and he catches himself on the knob of the sink as he tries not to think about all the stupid vampire stuff he knows about living forever and turning into bats and sucking people dry, because this is Carmilla, not a vampire, and she may be mean and broody and selfish but she's Carmilla and she helps, sometimes, when she feels like it.

For a very brief moment, he hopes she's never talked to Naminé, and then he feels like the absolute worst human being alive. That's so stupid. That's so stupid and defensive. Naminé and Carmilla can talk to whoever they want.

So this? This is a long pause, with Sora hovering over the sink, because he thinks slowly and can't hide it, so Carmilla can have fun watching all those emotions play out in his whole body because it's not like he can hide the fact that he's suddenly not as lighthearted as before, and he's worried, and. Yeah, okay, it's not for himself, but he's still scared. ]

You. [ He keeps looking at the sink. It's mostly better. Just looks like someone's broken a pen in there now. ] You've been. Hiding that one for a while, huh? [ It's not... hysterical, but it's that sort of edge where he's about to have an emotion and it's a big one and he absolutely cannot let himself have it because for crying out loud, someone needs his help and it's not like how he feels about it matters. ]

[vampirella]

Of course I have. Because the second anyone knows, they look at me just like that.

( like she used her teeth to rip open the throat out of a defenseless bunny or something equally adorable right in front of them. or like she might just consider necking on someone they know, like maybe she already has. if she were trying to feed on the populace, she wouldn't be puking dead spirit blood in a kitchen sink, but of course, that's lost on someone instantly panicked what might happen to the people that actually matter with a bloodthirsty monster roaming around in the dark.

it doesn't matter. it shouldn't even bother her. but it does, oh it does. it just reminds her of the way Elle looked at her. all their weeks, months together — all their promises, little words like l o v e, gone in an instant. their plans to go away together, run away and finally be free, them against the world... suddenly it meant nothing, because she was secretly something she never asked to be. it reminds her that she is still a monster, which she does try and forget and somehow never seems to.

she doesn't have to watch it all play out on his face. she's seen it all before. he has no idea how many times she's seen it. she miserably swabs up the rest of the putrid black blood, though the vigorousness of the act makes her feel dizzy, or to be fair, dizzier, and goddamnit the last thing she needs or wants right now is to seem even weaker in front of this kid. but as much as she'd like to fall back behind standoffish disinterest, she can hardly manage to stand up. so instead Carmilla grips to the front of the sink, white knuckled, trying to keep from falling over or worse, puking again. )

Just... just leave me alone. ( it doesn't come out like a sharp demand like intended. just a whisper of someone who has already given up and would really like to spend the rest of her misery by her lonesome. )

[arsarcanum]

[ Immediate regret. Truthfully, he hasn't even started to work through the logic of why she would feed on a spirit instead of a perfectly available human being, much less to the possibility that she'd been refraining from touching anyone else in Beacon at all, but it doesn't matter. Carmilla said the exact opposite of what she should have said if she actually wanted to be left alone; Sora's head immediately shoots up, and this time, he does reach out for her before he can stop himself. He'll draw away almost straight after, remembering what he promised himself he wouldn't do, but he did try for a touch in the hand or wrist area. ]

You don't just get to do that.

[ Which is an entirely selfish, silly thing to say, and he instantly feels even worse for being impulsive and letting himself speak in absolutes. Carmilla is not only allowed to do whatever she pleases, but she will whether he likes it or not, and he believes it. Sure, he can try and beg her to forgive him, but that'd be for his own peace of mind, not hers. He could tell her what was actually going through his mind, try to convince her that he wasn't actually scared of her, but not only would that be a lie, it also wouldn't matter. He's not entitled to her trust.

He's heard all of the other stories about vampires too. About sticking around a little longer than one is supposed to at someone else's expense. About vampire hunters. About immortality. He'd told Jason a month ago that outliving everyone he ever cared about sounded like a nightmare to him. Sora still stands by that, even if it's hard to separate Carmilla from the word "vampire" and all the other baggage that comes with it.

He can't imagine what she's been through that she feels like she needs to take care of whatever this is alone. She needs help from someone better than him. She is allowed to want something better. She is, in fact, entitled to wanting better.

And yet. And yet.

He shakes his head furiously, as though he can take that back if he wants it hard enough. The water's still running. ]

I won't leave. But you can. You should stay, though. Don't - I can't fix anything. I can barely keep myself together, so I'm not going to - to say trust me or something stupid like that. Just. Stay for a minute.

[ He's going to cling onto this part of the argument as long as he can, even though he can't think of why he wants her to stay, or of what use he could possibly be. He just wants to help someone who is totally opposed to being helped, and that's so hard to do, because he's only one guy and he's failed more than once at this before. (Let's not remember Vanitas here.) So this is him just asking her to wait while he turns off the sink and hastily collects the blackened, bloodsoaked rags. He hopes that she stays, no matter what the reason might be. It doesn't even have to be to humor him. ]

[vampirella]

( she's got plenty of speed and reflexes when she's well fed and not slowly giving up the only meal she's had in weeks. she's not exactly preforming at max capacity at the moment, however, and so the reach and touch both land. his skin is warm and dry against hers, which feels even colder than usual. maybe a little clammy, apparently vampires can still sweat. once it lands, she definitely has the strength to pull back, she just doesn't.

as much as she avoids being close, it's not quite the same as disliking. she can train herself to be distant, though she can never quite convince herself she really wants to be alone. )

I can do whatever I want, ( she's still obliged to correct, even half falling into the industrial sink thanks to the mortality of her own free will. still, she's lost her ability to refuse and decide for too many centuries of her afterlife, now that she's grabbed her independence by the horns she will not let anything take that away from her. occasionally to her own detriment, but hey, it's still better to make a shitty choice than to have all your choices made for you.

he's really not making a compelling argument, truth be told. in fact, sticking around for him to not fix anything and not be of any help to her is really not persuasive. she considers, distantly, using what little strength she has to teleport back to her room, to puke out whatever of the dead spirit was left in her. she's really not sure what will happen after, and despite being willing to kill herself to stop her mother, Carmilla still manages to be a little scared to find out.

it might be worth noting that she has not, in fact, gone anywhere, as he collects the mess. she has no idea what he's going to do with it, nor why he's still bothering. she's not sure why she is still bothering, either, but it turns out he might have a point, and she doesn't exactly want to be alone, even if it's what she knows is safer. easier. )

It's been a minute. ( more than, probably... time tends to slur together when you're feeling like death barely warmed over. ) Look, I don't know what you're overcompensating for, but if you are this fixated on helping... ( she pauses, half for the oxygen that feels very short in her lungs, and half because she doesn't want to finish the sentence, that she could use some help, and even worse, that she might have to ask for it. ) We both know there's no fixing this. ( she can't eat some saltines and hope that will settle her stomach. her body is rejecting every bit of spirit she put back, and karma is absolutely against her for being such a glutton about it. there's no fixing it, just accepting it and hoping it'll be over soon. )

If I'm going to spend my night puking I don't want it to be in the kitchen. ( if he can't connect the dots on his own she is going to literally disappear in a plume of smoke and do it herself. )

[arsarcanum]

[ When Carmilla reconfirms that she's going to do what she wants, Sora nods, head bobbing in meek contrast with his former conviction. This is what happens when no one is there to tell him that words mean things, that he needs to think about them before he opens his big mouth and lets them out. It shouldn't be this hard to say kind things when he intends to say them, but here they are, in this kitchen with a black-smudged sink, and the one thing he's even half okay at - letting people know that he cares about them - is getting lost under how adamant he is about getting his way. Thinking before he speaks wasn't something he'd mastered in life. Too willful for that. Too used to getting what he wants. Too late for it to matter.

The touch does very little to convince him that her range of ability includes getting herself back to her place instead of portaling herself into the flooded mall or something, but it is reassuring to him, personally, that she waits for him. While he runs over to the cabinet for aspirin and hurriedly stuffs blackened rags into his backpack and slings it on his back, she waits. It's a lot kinder than he deserves. Too late, too weak, too fragile, too gullible, too prone to catastrophizing when left on his own, skin as thin as paper. It's kind of comical that he ever thought he'd be a hero someday.

Enough. He shakes his head furiously. His self-pity is background noise and he knows it, needs to get used to reminding himself that he's doing it again. Someone needs his help now. She's been kind enough to wait for him. He needs to set his stupid hangups aside. Enough. ]

It's not gonna be in a kitchen.

[ Sora finishes cleaning up and turns to face Carmilla finally, eyes making contact with hers before he remembers the hypnotism thing, then makes an executive decision to stop thinking about it. By now, he's gotten the whole vampire thing registered, if not internalized in a way that will freak him out again. He needs to internalize it at some point because it's not kind to just ignore that it's there, but boy, if there's anything he's good at, it's ignoring reality until it's convenient, or until it bites him in the ass.

He doesn't know how to say this (especially in light of the overcompensating bit; hey, Carmilla, if you're gonna get real in your last hours, you gotta warn a guy) so he's just gonna. ]

If you're gonna need blood, I think we'd better be sitting down. And I think you're gonna wanna be close to your place for it. And I dunno if you can take me with you if you take your shortcut, especially right now, so let's get you to the elevator.

[ Sora is going to take her by the arm and sling it over his neck as long as she doesn't struggle. He'll be nice about it, because nice is about the only thing he's good at, but he will persist until he gets his way. Then he'll tug her along to the door like he's done this a hundred times. (It's more like twice, but at least he doesn't insist on a piggyback like with all the other girls.) ]

wrap here or on yours??

[vampirella]

( she's really not the right person to help reassure him that anyone can be a hero, if they throw their whole heart into it, if he really believes it'll all work out for the best. as far as she's concerned, the concept is a convoluted obsession on seeming important. true heroism, the kind that is selfless and valiant, probably only exists in epics and stories. deep down, everyone is selfish, everyone has their reasons, and nobody does anything without getting something out of it. it's better to not pretend to be a hero. it's unsustainable and sooner or later you'd wake up from delusion realizing you weren't quite as cut out for truly altruistic choices, after all.

she thinks it's far more honest to admit nobody is a hero. if anything she'd like Sora a little better knowing he had so many gaping holes in his self esteem. stop trying to be a hero, kiddo — be a selfish little asshole like the rest of the world, that makes so much more sense.

Carmilla, for her part, doesn't think much about the eye contact. she's a little too far gone to sort through all the possible vampiric tendencies he could be worried about — and even if she was, he'd find that she's not much like the ones he's read up about or watched acted out in a hip new YA adaptation. there are rules to being a blood sucking parasite, and when she's weak she isn't at all able to pull out her bag of tricks. the long and short of it is most of her power comes from being fed, and if she's puking up every last bit of her last meal, she's not going to have any power at all until she can get it out of her system. and any energy she has is not going to be spent on compelling some kid that is already attempting to help her, for some unknown reason, anyway. )

Feeding isn't going to help right now. ( just like eating in the midst of a bout of food poisoning, it was probably just going to come back up as the body automatically assumed the worst, rejecting everything just in case.

he reaches for her arm and she can't help a slightly annoyed huff of breath. not really at Sora, though, it might seem that way. more that she has no other choice but to take it. she winds an arm around his shoulders and leans on him for the support she desperately needs, even though she won't let herself want it. <

and he's smart to not try for a piggyback, there's just a limit to how stupid and weak she can look at once, okay??? ) Elevator, ( she confirms breathlessly as he starts pulling her that way, because while she's not confirming or denying she has magical vampire girl powers to get places, she will at least agree that not risking them right now is probably the best call. he's honestly right, she'd probably poof into a wall or into the river or somewhere equally undesirable.

as much as she hates it, she's going to have to see this through. and maybe when she starts wretching dead black blood again, he'll get spooked and bail. she just hopes that she can get back to her penthouse before that happens. )