[ Honestly, if Rita isn't expecting some random person she's never met knocking at her door, then what is she even doing with her life? If this random person also happens to be a 5'2" idiot with a dorky smile on his face and a very normal looking box in his hands, that's also fine, right? ]
[5'2" idiot, meet 4'11" skeptic opening the door with a very questioning look, because clearly...he isn't here for her, right? (He should clearly be grateful she was nice enough to even answer the knock, okay!)]
[It takes her a bit of time to find the phone in the mess that is her cabin, but when she sees who it is--she's immediately typing a furious response that does not at all answer his question.]
where the hell are you???
[If she cared at all about How To Text, she would put this in all-caps just to show how angry she is about. Everything.]
[The summer camp joke is over, no one died and Natsuno's back to daily ship business, namely shopping. He washes the clothes from home because he wants to keep something that's his, but spare outfits? It's easier to pick up new stuff from the stores than bothering with laundry.
So there he is in the infinite tommy bahama, going through the racks. The white polo shirt he picked is mild enough, but combine it with pink cargo pants and this vest - well. At least it's got pockets.
He runs into Rita soon enough.]
Hey. [A nod.] That one's pretty cool.
[What is "that one"? No matter what Rita's holding, she and Natsuno are probably the only ones who think it looks good.]
somewhere on the ship, jade is blissfully oblivious to the oncoming fashion disaster
[It's really, really weird that nothing went wrong during the camping trip. Rita can only assume the captain is trying to lull them into a false sense of security...but they'll go crazy if they just sit around waiting for him to make his next move.
So. Tommy Bahama.]
Oh, Yuuki.
[She turns to greet him, dressed in something bright and obnoxious herself, vaguely noticing and approving at his own bold choice of colours.
And then she looks back down the delightful shirt she's holding.]
You think so too? Mister Four-Eyed Professor could use it.
[Of course, that means Jade. They did tease him--rightfully--over how ridiculous he looked at camp. And it sure doesn't look like he's spent much time shopping for himself, going off of his boring wardrobe now that they're back.
Which might be why Rita's in the men's section. (Not that she wouldn't wear some of the clothes over here. Those "boxer" shorts look comfortable.)]
Skulduggery Pleasant talked to the captain. The water thing is because one of his spells backfired. Also, there's a good chance next excursion will be bad. Be careful if you decide to go.
[Oh, a kitty--is that kitty holding a knife?? Yeah whatever, she is ripping that thing open (but not damaging the sticker because she's not a heathen).]
[ Hey, let's compare letters! Most of all, Fio just wants to show off how adorable her letter is. The next time she sees Rita in the hall, she runs excitedly to the older girl, holding a note.
Disregarding some of the doors with the bloody writing on them as she wanders past... that's not really blood, is it? It smells a little weird though. ]
[Rita is...not exactly ignoring the painted doors but not reading what's written there, either. It's clearly another stupid fake-spooky prank from someone trying to unsettle them all...as if it's going to work!! Deep in thought about other things, she almost doesn't notice Fio calling her--it takes a moment before she blinks, a small shopping back from the gift shop in her hand.]
Huh? ...Fio?
[Ah, she's so excited to see Rita... Meanwhile, Rita's feeling a little more--awkward around friends lately. She hasn't really figured out how to process everything that happened with Natsuno, and she can't stop thinking about how the people she cares about really could disappear at any time... Still, even if she comes off a little distant, she still stops and tilts her head curiously, wondering what she's holding.]
So...what's up? Is someone playing pranks on you, too?
[She squints. Like...this is a text, so "I heard you the first time" shouldn't even need to apply, and yet... Why is Clarke getting all weird about her name, anyway? Her name is fine!]
Yes, I got every message with my name in it.
'Magic food' isn't really the correct way to describe them, though. But what did you find?
[Right, she should ask the important question before lecturing on the finer details of JRPG recovery items.]
[After everything else, there is still one important person to address, isn't there? Rita had been focused on apologizing to Clarke, but she can't exactly forget which face her real killer was wearing.
But that's the thing--it was just wearing Tear's face. It's clear that it hadn't actually been Tear.]
We can talk.
Just know that if you're thinking you're going to apologize for something a ghost did, there's no need.
[Natsuno had some of the Dioscuri's wine, and then had some more. Obviously he didn't get drunk, because alcohol doesn't affect shiki, and there's a perfectly logical reason he's texting Rita now.]
[ Who's spent the entire four hours back to the ship completely ignoring their roommate and is now at the door to their cabin with a bundle of fabric in one arm and a shopping bag from the gift shop (filled with even more fabric) in the other?
It's Shi Qingxuan here, looking down at Rita as they both find themselves standing outside their door.
The look on Shi Qingxuan's face is pale and tired, as if he's just been told he has to babysit his least favorite cousin over a weeklong holiday, and he offers her a small nod in greeting while tossing out a few bland pleasantries: ]
Good afternoon, Rita. I pray you had a safe trip back.
[ Never mind they were on the same trip. Time to reach for the doorknob like it'll let him claim the room for himself! ]
[She's beyond relieved to be off the cramped, endless ride between realities and all its awkward silences, but the relief is overshadowed by the fatigue, anger, and horror from everything that's happened today. She's a little worried about Natsuno's state, but she needs to change and drop off her bag--unusually, she's considering a shower, too.
But she takes one look at Shi Qingxuan and makes a face, because ugh, that's right--they have to share the cabin again.]
What kind of stupid prayer is that? We were on the exact same trip!
[And she has no qualms about snapping at him immediately to point out the obvious.]
[When Rita leaves her cabin for the day, she'll find a box just outside the door, complete with a ribbon that someone went to great lengths to design like cat ears.
Inside the box there's a reddish-brown cat plush, broken out from the claw machine. A pair of swimming goggles is secured to the toy's head, and it's dressed in a hideously colorful Tommy Bahama print and mismatched socks. The print is identical to one of Rita's favorite shirts, and the clothes has been sewn rather than staple. Someone went to quilting class just to get help with the stitches.
[She wastes no time collecting that box and taking it inside, even spends a moment appreciating the way the ribbon was tied just so...and then she's tugging it open, because she's already showed tons of patience in the last few days, and if this is the promised gift from Natsuno-
And it is. She picks up the plush cat, glancing over the swimming goggles and little clothing set he made for it--is that proper stitching instead of staples, even?!--and finally realizing this is...her. To go with the drawings she'd made of Catsuno? Heh...how strange, that a children's doll should make her heart swell like this. And yet--she loves this sweet side of Natsuno, the one he's shown more and more, ever since that first gift he gave her. She suddenly feels the need to pair it with a second plush, if only she had a purple one...
Even that card--Meow. She wonders if he was blushing when he wrote it, or if he managed to keep a straight face--finds herself thinking about how much attention he must've been paying to crafting the outfit, and the concentration he must've had, and...remembering that expression after her promise.
A giddy rush goes through her, and she gently sets the plush on her nightstand before sending Natsuno a text:]
🐾 Your cabin?
[They're definitely not using her cabin, not with Shi Qingxuan being the third wheel pain he is. As an afterthought-]
We can kick Jade out if he's there. Old guys like him need to go for walks and stuff anyway.
Ava found Ebalon's corpse and used it to summon a spirit in one of the bars. The spirit ate the corpse, said "play" and disappeared. I don't know what it means but it can't be good. Be prepared for chaos.
( bright and early, out of the blue (because have they even really talked since the sunslime incident?) — )
You punched my mom in the face.
( can a seven word text properly describe the weird sort of hilarity clarke's finding in this situation? nope, not at all, it probably comes across as accusatory and she hasn't even considered it. )
[The sunslime incident was definitely a step back in their volatile relationship again, but Rita does try not to dwell on things that have already happened. Besides, Natsuno was equally at fault there, so she can't entirely blame Clarke for it...
Anyway...more importantly, it is hard not to read any accusation into that simple message, which is why Rita bristles defensively at the other end.]
Actually, it was her side.
You're not going to try saying you never wanted to do that yourself, are you?
[From the context, it can't be anything bad. Colour Rita intrigued--in addition to the usual fuzzy warm relief she gets every time Natsuno texts her. Sure, nobody's quite sure what to do these days, but...she's glad he's back.
And so here comes Rita, in typical Tommy Bahama tropical-wear, head cocked curiously.]
Hey, Natsuno. [She says his name because she can. Because she likes it.] So, what is it?
[Natsuno doesn't notice the change when he wakes up, just crawls outside the tent to start the night - only to be blinded by sunlight. He scrambles back under the tarp in horror, so used to fear it takes him a moment to realize there's no pain. His skin isn't burning. Could it be...?
He peeks outside again, carefully. The sun shines harmlessly through the window. Natsuno's heart is beating, his breath comes in surprised gasps, his eyes are purple when he looks in the mirror.
The relief is so sharp, his hand is shaking when he grabs his phone to text Rita.]
[She was just starting to nod off without realizing; the buzzing of her phone startles her awake, and she blinks up at the bright sun--oh, probably a good thing she didn't actually fall asleep, or she'd end up with one hell of a sunburn later... Oh, wait, phone.
Her immediate reaction upon seeing that it's a message from Natsuno is the usual warm flicker, before curiosity takes over. It's still the middle of the day, so it's more unusual--though not impossible--for him to be awake and texting her now...]
Pool deck, but I was just reading. Something up? I can come to you.
[It's not like she's doing anything all that important--and even if she was, it wouldn't be nearly as important as Natsuno, now would it? And, naturally, she presumes that it's both more difficult and more dangerous for him to come up here than it is for her to head to him.]
A package arrived for me today. It contained a beacon. A genuine long-range Tradeline beacon, far more powerful than my makeshift effort.
Everything is coming together.
[ooc: Ari is sending this to everyone in the group, feel free to chat with her or just treat it as a standalone message if we already have multiple other threads ongoing - up to you!]
[It happens so fast. One moment it's chaos and Ava's brutal revenge on Number 2, and then everything blacks out and Natsuno wakes up in cabin 109.
After weeks in the Village, revival on the ship is more disorienting than usual. It takes him a few moments to realize what happened and that he's back. They're back, because Steve wakes up too. Natsuno throws off the covers and runs to Rita's cabin without even removing his Number badge.
[It is disorienting, finding herself waking up from unconsciousness to her quiet cabin, when everything had been chaotic and so much noise. She sits up quickly, though, noting that she can no longer hear that awful ringing in her head, lightly pressing fingers to her temples.
Then she hears the knocking on the door and heads over, pretty sure she has an inkling who's on the other side-]
Natsuno. Hey.
[She breathes his name, a relieved greeting. He's exactly who she wanted to see, and she steps back to let him in.]
So...it's over, huh?
[She hopes it's over. Is the mind-altering really gone from her head?]
The ship is ours and the rules no longer apply. Try it out right now! They can't stop all of us. Start a fire! Take some goods without a pointless charade! For fun, for freedom, just because you can!
[Yes you got this too! In case you should need a plausible reason for your involvement...]
( with the overarching vibe of clarke, gurl, what you been up to and how are you already in trouble? this text comes through after she narrowly avoids getting stabbed by darcy at the memorial.
and it comes with a picture, of the hippo breath token resting in her sweaty palm. )
This was for me, right?
( aka, please tell me i didn't fuck up too egregiously by picking a fight over it? )
[With no particular indications that anything is amiss, though, all Rita sees is an innocent--maybe even knowing--question. She has a little flash of embarrassment, because obviously she never expected Clarke to actually, like, know about this. But you know what? She'd much rather have Clarke asking about it than no Clarke at all.]
( at this point she's already texted natsuno and jade identical opening statements already bitten her tongue twice over about what she'd found in ari's cabin, teetering on the edge about what good promises of secrecy were actually worth at this point; continually waffling towards spilling the beans, but stopping short because at least no one could blame her friends for what they didn't know was about the happen. )
[It's the only thing Rita can type in response. She can't put into words the incredibly mixed feelings this news garners, has half a mind to speculate on the incredibly suspicious timing--maybe even think this means it's it for that red string plan, though maybe they ought to see if they can't find that string, but-]
A fruit of several months' on and off painstaking translations and conversions, ever since the aftermath of that particularly terrible Halloween last...no. Two years ago now? (Best not to think too hard on that.) Between the bouts of horrific events, downtime on the ship has always been a numbing thing, something to fill with as many time-consuming tasks as possible--and, in the wake of finding their artes to be surprisingly compatible, Jade has by this point spent a considerable chunk of that downtime poring over Rita's sample formulas and aligning fonic structures alongside them. A few sample artes had already been swapped between them, here and there, but this one...
Jade hadn't quite managed to complete it, before the Nothing had abruptly taken him those four months back. Rita had kept the notes anyhow--and now that sentimentality comes to fruition, with his own return against all odds. So really, in the end...this just feels like the very least he could do, to finally see this little project through to completion. To say nothing of the tactical merit, in accruing as much firepower as they possibly collectively can, before something eventually finds that beacon sent out beyond the barrier.
Yes, Jade thinks, he'll just cite that as the main motivator of his haste behind finalizing this at last. Nothing else particularly mushy involved, or anything like that--
Either way, he's in fairly high spirits when he makes his way to Rita's cabin door one morning. It's probably a bit early for her, but he's fairly certain this will alleviate any irritation about it pretty quickly--and besides, for Jade this feels more like an endcap, to a particularly long night spent poring over the notebook he now brings with him in hand.
Perhaps she'll recognize the knock on the door easily enough, if nothing else: a polite and concise set of three, as has always been Jade's habit.]
[Rita's sleep schedule is usually a rather esoteric thing: she could be wide awake since the middle of one night and blearily stumbling from bed the next dawn, or anything in between. Today, though, she woke refreshingly early; a good habit to attempt to maintain, despite her research, and definitely nothing to do with the glasses that were somehow already on her face when she awoke.
So the knock comes as she's reading a review of some notes, and she does of course recognize it, a brief, unbidden smile coming to her face at the familiarity. It is...nice, to have these meetings again. At least, that's what she presumes he's here for--though she should verify, hm?
She promptly answers the door, already dressed and with her hair brushed and everything. And still wearing glasses that appear identical to his own, too, which will surely not be anything to worry about.]
Well, good morning! An early one as always, hm? [Yes, this. Is a rather cheery early morning greeting from her. She's already stepping aside in case he wishes to come in, though not without a follow-up question.] So, to what do I owe the pleasure?
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action;
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...Don't you have the wrong cabin?
[Yeah, that's her greeting. Sorry, Mizuki??]
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text;
Hello, Miss Goggles? Are you there?
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im here
whats up?
[Yeah she's not the best at typing properly right now. It's not a big deal to her, though.]
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text; un: lowell; day 4 of the battle royale
you good?
[ Yeah that sure is the text he's sending ]
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where the hell are you???
[If she cared at all about How To Text, she would put this in all-caps just to show how angry she is about. Everything.]
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action; after camp (it's tommy bahama time)
So there he is in the infinite tommy bahama, going through the racks. The white polo shirt he picked is mild enough, but combine it with pink cargo pants and this vest - well. At least it's got pockets.
He runs into Rita soon enough.]
Hey. [A nod.] That one's pretty cool.
[What is "that one"? No matter what Rita's holding, she and Natsuno are probably the only ones who think it looks good.]
somewhere on the ship, jade is blissfully oblivious to the oncoming fashion disaster
So. Tommy Bahama.]
Oh, Yuuki.
[She turns to greet him, dressed in something bright and obnoxious herself, vaguely noticing and approving at his own bold choice of colours.
And then she looks back down the delightful shirt she's holding.]
You think so too? Mister Four-Eyed Professor could use it.
[Of course, that means Jade. They did tease him--rightfully--over how ridiculous he looked at camp. And it sure doesn't look like he's spent much time shopping for himself, going off of his boring wardrobe now that they're back.
Which might be why Rita's in the men's section. (Not that she wouldn't wear some of the clothes over here. Those "boxer" shorts look comfortable.)]
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text, july 8-ish
The water thing is because one of his spells backfired.
Also, there's a good chance next excursion will be bad.
Be careful if you decide to go.
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So he's not just a jerk, but an incompetent one at that!
He'd better not think we'll all be racing to go, knowing that.
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( A letter with a peculiar cat sticker slides under rita's cabin door one evening ...
Does she open it? )
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action 10/12-ish if that's ok!
Disregarding some of the doors with the bloody writing on them as she wanders past... that's not really blood, is it? It smells a little weird though. ]
Miss Gogglesssss...!
always welcome!
Huh? ...Fio?
[Ah, she's so excited to see Rita... Meanwhile, Rita's feeling a little more--awkward around friends lately. She hasn't really figured out how to process everything that happened with Natsuno, and she can't stop thinking about how the people she cares about really could disappear at any time... Still, even if she comes off a little distant, she still stops and tilts her head curiously, wondering what she's holding.]
So...what's up? Is someone playing pranks on you, too?
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looks up at the above thread....rip...
rip...stay safe, fio...
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nov 7th-ish
Reta.
Rita
Ritaritaritaritaritari you have magic food in your world right? like Those candy things yo have
i found more, new ones
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Yes, I got every message with my name in it.
'Magic food' isn't really the correct way to describe them, though. But what did you find?
[Right, she should ask the important question before lecturing on the finer details of JRPG recovery items.]
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[ it had taken her a while to reconcile her feelings about
the past month -- in particular, the ones concerning her body being
used to murder rita.
eventually there had to come a time where she'd approach the topic though...
especially with other events happening later this month, too. ]
I can understand if you don't want to. Please don't feel any
obligations.
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But that's the thing--it was just wearing Tear's face. It's clear that it hadn't actually been Tear.]
We can talk.
Just know that if you're thinking you're going to apologize for something a ghost did, there's no need.
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mid-november, the embarrassing saga continues
are you cold?
YES...ready for natsuno to unleash his cuteness
Hey Yuuki. Why are you asking?
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It's Shi Qingxuan here, looking down at Rita as they both find themselves standing outside their door.
The look on Shi Qingxuan's face is pale and tired, as if he's just been told he has to babysit his least favorite cousin over a weeklong holiday, and he offers her a small nod in greeting while tossing out a few bland pleasantries: ]
Good afternoon, Rita. I pray you had a safe trip back.
[ Never mind they were on the same trip. Time to reach for the doorknob like it'll let him claim the room for himself! ]
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But she takes one look at Shi Qingxuan and makes a face, because ugh, that's right--they have to share the cabin again.]
What kind of stupid prayer is that? We were on the exact same trip!
[And she has no qualms about snapping at him immediately to point out the obvious.]
mid-january, before sunslime
Inside the box there's a reddish-brown cat plush, broken out from the claw machine. A pair of swimming goggles is secured to the toy's head, and it's dressed in a hideously colorful Tommy Bahama print and mismatched socks. The print is identical to one of Rita's favorite shirts, and the clothes has been sewn rather than staple. Someone went to quilting class just to get help with the stitches.
There's also a card, saying only "Meow."]
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And it is. She picks up the plush cat, glancing over the swimming goggles and little clothing set he made for it--is that proper stitching instead of staples, even?!--and finally realizing this is...her. To go with the drawings she'd made of Catsuno? Heh...how strange, that a children's doll should make her heart swell like this. And yet--she loves this sweet side of Natsuno, the one he's shown more and more, ever since that first gift he gave her. She suddenly feels the need to pair it with a second plush, if only she had a purple one...
Even that card--Meow. She wonders if he was blushing when he wrote it, or if he managed to keep a straight face--finds herself thinking about how much attention he must've been paying to crafting the outfit, and the concentration he must've had, and...remembering that expression after her promise.
A giddy rush goes through her, and she gently sets the plush on her nightstand before sending Natsuno a text:]
🐾 Your cabin?
[They're definitely not using her cabin, not with Shi Qingxuan being the third wheel pain he is. As an afterthought-]
We can kick Jade out if he's there. Old guys like him need to go for walks and stuff anyway.
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text, february after the carnival
The spirit ate the corpse, said "play" and disappeared.
I don't know what it means but it can't be good.
Be prepared for chaos.
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Thanks for the heads-up.
backdated to march madness
You punched my mom in the face.
( can a seven word text properly describe the weird sort of hilarity clarke's finding in this situation? nope, not at all, it probably comes across as accusatory and she hasn't even considered it. )
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Anyway...more importantly, it is hard not to read any accusation into that simple message, which is why Rita bristles defensively at the other end.]
Actually, it was her side.
You're not going to try saying you never wanted to do that yourself, are you?
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may, before the darcy fight
I have something to show you.
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Be right there.
[From the context, it can't be anything bad. Colour Rita intrigued--in addition to the usual fuzzy warm relief she gets every time Natsuno texts her. Sure, nobody's quite sure what to do these days, but...she's glad he's back.
And so here comes Rita, in typical Tommy Bahama tropical-wear, head cocked curiously.]
Hey, Natsuno. [She says his name because she can. Because she likes it.] So, what is it?
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[Text] July, Shortly Before The Excursion
🐟
feesh!! also sorry for slowness...
[.....]
🐱
Happens!
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1/2
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Don't Worry Rita She's Already Attacked Zelos Once
yes good he deserves bullying
HE DOES
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Text, 1st week of august, just past noon
He peeks outside again, carefully. The sun shines harmlessly through the window. Natsuno's heart is beating, his breath comes in surprised gasps, his eyes are purple when he looks in the mirror.
The relief is so sharp, his hand is shaking when he grabs his phone to text Rita.]
Where are you right now?
feelings time feelings time
Her immediate reaction upon seeing that it's a message from Natsuno is the usual warm flicker, before curiosity takes over. It's still the middle of the day, so it's more unusual--though not impossible--for him to be awake and texting her now...]
Pool deck, but I was just reading. Something up? I can come to you.
[It's not like she's doing anything all that important--and even if she was, it wouldn't be nearly as important as Natsuno, now would it? And, naturally, she presumes that it's both more difficult and more dangerous for him to come up here than it is for her to head to him.]
flame kitties feels~
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A package arrived for me today. It contained a beacon. A genuine long-range Tradeline beacon, far more powerful than my makeshift effort.
Everything is coming together.
[ooc: Ari is sending this to everyone in the group, feel free to chat with her or just treat it as a standalone message if we already have multiple other threads ongoing - up to you!]
December, 6:03 post-Village
After weeks in the Village, revival on the ship is more disorienting than usual. It takes him a few moments to realize what happened and that he's back. They're back, because Steve wakes up too. Natsuno throws off the covers and runs to Rita's cabin without even removing his Number badge.
Time to bang bang bang on the door.]
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Then she hears the knocking on the door and heads over, pretty sure she has an inkling who's on the other side-]
Natsuno. Hey.
[She breathes his name, a relieved greeting. He's exactly who she wanted to see, and she steps back to let him in.]
So...it's over, huh?
[She hopes it's over. Is the mind-altering really gone from her head?]
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text
MUTINY!
The ship is ours and the rules no longer apply. Try it out right now! They can't stop all of us. Start a fire! Take some goods without a pointless charade! For fun, for freedom, just because you can!
[Yes you got this too! In case you should need a plausible reason for your involvement...]
text, still her first day back on the ship
and it comes with a picture, of the hippo breath token resting in her sweaty palm. )
This was for me, right?
( aka, please tell me i didn't fuck up too egregiously by picking a fight over it? )
getting into trouble immediately as always
Yeah.
I'm surprised you could tell.
it's like trouble is all she knows
girl please
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december, two days after ari vanishes
( at this point she's already texted natsuno and jade identical opening statements already bitten her tongue twice over about what she'd found in ari's cabin, teetering on the edge about what good promises of secrecy were actually worth at this point; continually waffling towards spilling the beans, but stopping short because at least no one could blame her friends for what they didn't know was about the happen. )
I think I need to go find Sparkles.
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[It's the only thing Rita can type in response. She can't put into words the incredibly mixed feelings this news garners, has half a mind to speculate on the incredibly suspicious timing--maybe even think this means it's it for that red string plan, though maybe they ought to see if they can't find that string, but-]
What do you want to talk to Sparkles for?
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sometime end of jan probs, waves hands vaguely;
A fruit of several months' on and off painstaking translations and conversions, ever since the aftermath of that particularly terrible Halloween last...no. Two years ago now? (Best not to think too hard on that.) Between the bouts of horrific events, downtime on the ship has always been a numbing thing, something to fill with as many time-consuming tasks as possible--and, in the wake of finding their artes to be surprisingly compatible, Jade has by this point spent a considerable chunk of that downtime poring over Rita's sample formulas and aligning fonic structures alongside them. A few sample artes had already been swapped between them, here and there, but this one...
Jade hadn't quite managed to complete it, before the Nothing had abruptly taken him those four months back. Rita had kept the notes anyhow--and now that sentimentality comes to fruition, with his own return against all odds. So really, in the end...this just feels like the very least he could do, to finally see this little project through to completion. To say nothing of the tactical merit, in accruing as much firepower as they possibly collectively can, before something eventually finds that beacon sent out beyond the barrier.
Yes, Jade thinks, he'll just cite that as the main motivator of his haste behind finalizing this at last. Nothing else particularly mushy involved, or anything like that--
Either way, he's in fairly high spirits when he makes his way to Rita's cabin door one morning. It's probably a bit early for her, but he's fairly certain this will alleviate any irritation about it pretty quickly--and besides, for Jade this feels more like an endcap, to a particularly long night spent poring over the notebook he now brings with him in hand.
Perhaps she'll recognize the knock on the door easily enough, if nothing else: a polite and concise set of three, as has always been Jade's habit.]
this is going to be a cursed one for sure
So the knock comes as she's reading a review of some notes, and she does of course recognize it, a brief, unbidden smile coming to her face at the familiarity. It is...nice, to have these meetings again. At least, that's what she presumes he's here for--though she should verify, hm?
She promptly answers the door, already dressed and with her hair brushed and everything. And still wearing glasses that appear identical to his own, too, which will surely not be anything to worry about.]
Well, good morning! An early one as always, hm? [Yes, this. Is a rather cheery early morning greeting from her. She's already stepping aside in case he wishes to come in, though not without a follow-up question.] So, to what do I owe the pleasure?
1/2 closing my eyes........but i already can't unsee it, help,
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all very fine and very normal of course
yeah...normal...................
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