pedalbike | 2nd Event: Choices We Make

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2nd Event: Choices We Make

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Arrival

Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

C-C-Changes

Thankfully the fog has gone down to what it was before, a slow creeping crawl over the ground. And too, the monsters of before are gone, leaving the town much like it was before. Well...close to what it was before.

For now the season's have changed, from a lingering summer to a cooler fall.

There’s new foods to try, even if some things like lattes cause people to slip into warm boots and tie up their hair, and soups make people curl up under blankets on the couch. And it also means decorations of all sorts, made of the leaves from the forest, orange, yellow and red things and...we can not forget...

Pumpkin overflow

Pumpkins! They're everywhere. Wickies will find pumpkins infused into all sorts of things, like coffee, ice cream, even spaghetti options! It's wild.

There’s also many jack o'lanterns. They have been placed everywhere in town, outside homes, and even small ones have been made into table decorations. The Jack o lanterns have very cheerful faces, and seem to watch Wickies every single move.

That is, until a Wickie bashes or otherwise abuses a pumpkin. That's when it changes- there seem to be more of them. Their expressions change to that of anger, sadness and disgust. None of them attack- yet. But their faces become more and more horrifying, as they follow the Wickie more and more- outside of the bathroom perhaps, or found on top of them as the Wickie wakes up in the middle of the night.

It shouldn't matter right? They're only pumpkins.

What a ride

Funny enough, with the pumpkin invasion, there also comes a dull colored horse wandering about the island. Its head is drooped, and it looks depressed and lonely. The horse is tame on approach and will accept pats and treats, even from those who are obviously not human.

But it also wants something, for all that it seems to be begging for attention. It wants someone to ride them, seems to even be begging for it with its big eyes. The horse will help Wickies to figure out how to mount; it will even stand beside the Town Center benches, rocks, or even go down in order to make it possible for the Wickie to get onto the horse’s back.

That’s when it changes. The Wickie is immediately wrapped in chains from their barrel to the Wickie’s waist. The horse turns a coal black and the Wickie’s clothing changes into that of a soldier's uniform, with a hand either holding a whip modeled after a human spine, or a jack o'lantern.

The Wickie cannot get off the horse on their own, no matter how much they struggle. As the horse moves throughout the town, they will go anywhere from a walk to a full canter, seemingly impervious to any magic or physical attacks. The same cannot be said for their unfortunate rider.

If the rider is hit, or simply in pain, the Wickie will feel an impulse that grows and grows until they scream a name of someone in town, someone they know.

And the named will drop, paralyzed. Paralyzed wickie are likely to die within minutes, more so if they are too close to horse and rider. The horse will happily trample anyone on the ground to death.

Even without the impulse, should the Wickie rider use anyone’s name, that person will drop, paralyzed, and unable to breathe.

There is only one way to possibly save the rider: scatter golden objects in their path. The horse will shriek, and promptly buck the rider off, before running away. Just make sure to catch the rider, or at least cushion their fall: they have no way of saving themselves until they hit the ground.

Heart game: confession

Current residents of the island may remember this particular beeping alert, and how it doesn’t go away, no matter what they do! That is, unless they open up the Heart Game, and answer the question.

Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you again! Now let’s play that game, Confession! And the question isssssss…

How do you celebrate the changing seasons! Don't be shy!

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[a: arrival]

[While Mikumo doesn't exactly sleep as often or in the same way as a normal person does, after the ordeal she just lived through in her own world, she takes the very first opportunity she has to lay down her head.

And then opens her eyes in a bathtub, with a stiff back and not feeling a whole lot more rested than when she closed her eyes. She watches the ceiling for a few moments before sighing, faintly irritated but perhaps not as much as one would expect from someone waking up in this situation.]

Not again. [She sits up, checking herself over as she steps out of the tub, and then calls out to anyone else who might be in the house.] Is someone there?

[She sounds a bit wary, but relatively calm considering.]

--

[b: pumpkin overflow]

[Mikumo's knowledge of traditions and celebrations is relatively sparse, and Halloween is one she hasn't really encountered at all in her lifetime. So the jack-o-lanterns just seem like a bizarre design choice at first - Ragna doesn't really have enough land-based agriculture for the pumpkins and autumn link to hit, and that's the planet she's most familiar with - but the way they seem to be watching makes her spine prickle. Being designed for war zones doesn't really help her in this situation, because being watched is one of those things that she picks up instinctively and can't really let go of out of wariness.

Eventually, she crouches down by a row of the pumpkins resting on a fence, frowning but more in confusion than anything. Any passers-by will get a direct, straightforward wave of the hand to draw their attention.]

What are these things, and why do they seem to be watching everyone? [She feels like they'd be better hidden if they were surveillance devices.]

--

[c: heart game (un: venus)]

[Mikumo is used to sleeker portable communication methods, but holographic interfaces are interacted with in about the same way, so she has no real trouble stopping the alert once it gets too annoying to bother with.]

There may be festivals for that where I come from, but I've never participated. I thought it was a bit of a strange thing to celebrate. Is this common in others' worlds?

--

[d: wildcard]

[[Feel free to hit me with something else!]]

(Tsurumaru really hadn't expected anyone to speak to him so it's a pleasant surprise when someone does. He looks down at her and then at the pumpkins before... dropping down next to her, crouching down as if they were just two friends having a good ol' chat. He also props his sword down next to him, leaning against casually,)

Pumpkins. (Of course,) I wonder if this region is famous for them.

[Whole pumpkins definitely aren't something Mikumo sees particularly often, but that answer gets a bit of an arched brow. She doesn't remark too much on it because she'd probably choose the obvious answer in this kind of situation too, but there's an awkward moment or two before she clarifies.]

I know the vegetable, I was just curious why they seem to be carved with these faces. I haven't seen a pumpkin like that before. [Jack-o-lanterns aren't really a thing on Ragna or any of the other planets she's travelled to, so that's what's getting her.] They do seem to have a lot of pumpkins to waste on something like these decorations, though, so perhaps they should be famous for them.

(Look, how he is he supposed to know. He's met people who have never even heard of Japan. Are there even pumpkins outside the country? His world is suddenly a lot bigger here.

Anyway, let that awkward silence sit and then--)

Hm? (Oh, he gets it and lets out a good natured laugh,) Hahaha! I see, I see!

I wonder. (He pokes at one of the pumpkins,) Perhaps to scare something away.

(Isn't that what most curious traditions are? A tradition to keep away spirits or misfortune or bad weather.)

Ah, but the faces are rather cute, aren't they?

(NOT REALLY.... some of them are kind of weird, especially when they're just watching but he doesn't have the same standards are regular people, oops.)

Hmm. Interesting choice of medium. [Mikumo doesn't sound like she disbelieves his reasoning, but she does sound a little doubtful that this would scare anything away other than perhaps in a representative way. She has seen festivals where they create things like this that are meant to represent something else, like Ragnan festivals with jellyfish-themed items.

She rests her hand atop one of them, then picks it up, as if testing its weight. Without remarking on the result, she sets it back down where it was, turning it very slightly more toward its companions.] Cute is subjective. I don't think I'd use that word myself, but they do seem quite well carved. A certain appeal comes from that kind of skilled craft.

[As someone who was designed to do a certain job and do it well, Mikumo generally respects good craftsmanship, and the faces at least aren't hack jobs.]

Mhmm....

(He hums in agreement. He still thinks they're cute! But as a sword spirit, he can appreciate good blade work, even if it's something like this. Someone who can use a blade to make art is impressive.)

They must be quite skilled with a knife~ (Assuming that's what was used because who would actually need special tools to carve a pumpkin!!) Ah, it sounds scary when I say it like that, doesn't it?

[Mikumo hums in some amusement at that remark. Apparently the idea that she'd find something that small scary is funny to her, though when she was literally made for combat it has certain effects on what few things are actually going to scare her.] Knives aren't so common as weapons anymore, where I come from. So when I hear skilled with a knife I'd perhaps think of a chef before a mercenary.

[Not entirely true, but the only kind of fighter that would likely still be using a knife in normal combat would be of the unofficial kind. Or a very desperate and stranded soldier, maybe.] Then again, a chef would be more used to carving food, wouldn't they? So maybe that's actually closer than I thought.

Oh?

(Color Tsurumaru interested. He looks up at his conversation partner for the time being and has to give her another look. She’d sounded so interested at his little comment and her own remark is so casual, it makes him wonder where she’s coming from.)

They’re quite useful where I’m from. (Though, they’’really less “knives” and more “daggers.”) I think they’d have a lot of fun doing something like this.

(Carving pumpkins. Especially some of the more softhearted tantou might prefer this to going into another battle.)

[Mikumo doesn't elaborate by choice, because she doesn't tend to speak about herself if she can avoid it, and doesn't give away much at all in her facial expression. Though in this case, it slips a bit, because the phrasing of Tsurumaru's response has her raising an eyebrow in obvious curiosity.]

Are you saying the knives would be having fun? That would be a new one for me, unless we have a very different idea of what knives are.

[They certainly aren't sentient where she comes from, though she's seen enough strange things that she's not going to immediately dismiss the idea.]

I'm certain it's the same. (He muses like someone enjoying a fun little secret all to himself. He means it! They're both thinking of a short blade but there's just another layer there...)Sometime it's a dagger and sometimes it's a kitchen tool... but it's usually a short blade, isn't it?

But I wouldn't say a blade is just a blade, either.

How cryptic. [Mikumo seems somewhat amused by it, because she does this sort of thing to people from time to time as well. She's more used to being on the knowing end of it, though, so she's fairly quick to make the straightforward observation.] Are you setting up a riddle for me or building up to a dramatic reveal of some kind? I need to know where to set my expectations, after all.

[It's not impolitely said, but it could charitably be described as direct.]

Both sound fun.

(Still not answering directly. He's a vague sort of guy but there's no malicious air to him. Really, he's just a guy that likes to have fun and sometimes an air of mystery is just the thing you need,)

Really, it depends on you. Will it be a surprise? Even in my world, I think most would be never expect it...

Have you ever personified something that wasn't human? Seen a face in an object? Pleaded with a tool to work?

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stargazed - 2020-09-23 15:36 (UTC) - Expand

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cranelike - 2020-09-24 04:36 (UTC) - Expand

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stargazed - 2020-09-25 13:30 (UTC) - Expand

[ six is still getting used to his bearings by the time it feels like someone else has wound up in the same place as him. he was on his way to another area in the house when he is stopped short by a noise coming from the bathroom.

his hand hovers above where he keeps his daggers, just in case. it's hidden behind his cloak for now. ]

... Again? [ what an odd thing to say. ] This happens to you often?

[ waking up in a bathtub, that is. ]

[Well, she'll take someone else being here even if it's not someone she knows. Opening the door a bit cautiously, she looks out into the room beyond to see who else is here with her.]

Not this in particular. But waking up in unusual places happens often enough. [Often enough to be a bother, going by her tone, but she seems to move past that quickly enough since she doesn't particularly want to go into detail. Moving entirely out of cover doesn't seem like a great idea when she knows nothing about this place, but she's not getting anywhere else standing in the bathroom, so after a moment she steps out properly into the room.] Did you appear somewhere else in this house or were you already here?

[ if this was someone who wanted to attack him, they would have done so already, and that realization is enough for him to relax his stance a little, moving his hand away from where his weapons are. not that he drops his guard entirely— just in case.

he crosses his arms over his chest, left ear dipping to the side in consideration of the response given to him. how awkward it must be to wake up in strange places often... but it's not something he can judge someone else over.

he'll focus on the question instead. ]

I appeared the same way you did, not too long ago. There is no one else in this house.

[ no one else who at least knows what's going on. ]

[Mikumo scans the room briefly before her gaze settles on the other man, looking him up and down too. She notices the slight shift in posture, but she's not readily trusting when dropped into a situation she's entirely unfamiliar with like this.

Still, they're lost together, apparently, so she sees no reason not to be civil. Even if she frowns slightly at the revelation there's nobody else in here, looking as if she's considering their options.]

Well, at least we didn't drop in on anyone, but that doesn't help us find out what or where this place is. If you've checked the rest of the house for people, did you see any sign of useful information? We may as well go outside if not.

[More potential for things to go wrong outside, probably, but if they find other people then there's a higher chance they'll actually get some answers. She hopes.]

[ at her next question, six could only shake his head — nothing turned up when he did a full search of the house. it looks like a regular home, nothing out of the ordinary beyond the fact that two people woke up in here for no reason at all. ]

I found nothing that would be of use to us right now. Heading outside was my next move until I noticed your arrival.

[ at least her suggestion aligns with what he already has in mind. he jerks his head towards the left, gesturing that the front door is over here as he starts heading towards it. ]

Do you know how to fight?

[ might as well get that out of the way. ]

[Mikumo doesn't seem surprised by the answer she gets - she wasn't expecting it to be that easy. It's almost never that easy, in her experience, but it would be very nice if it could be once every so often.

Nonetheless, she doesn't hesitate, already starting to move as she answers his question. She has trouble staying in one place when there's things to be found out, but at least this time she's not wandering off as a lone wolf like she does half the time in her world.]

Yes, but I don't have a weapon. I might have prepared better if I knew this was going to happen.

[Lifting the gun of someone from Delta Flight seems like it would be forgiven considering the circumstances.] You're armed, aren't you?

[She's worked almost her whole life with soldiers, so telling a fighter apart from a civilian is one of the few body language related things she's good at.]

[ it takes six a moment to decide what he should do next before he trails after she left.

he reaches behind the same spot he'd went for when he first realized that he wasn't alone in the house, drawing out a light, thin dagger that he offers to her without much hesitation. if she wanted to kill him, she would have already done so much earlier, and if she's waiting for a later opportunity, then he would be ready for her regardless— but it's not in him to leave someone unable to defend themselves in an unknown world like this. ]

Here. [ a beat. ] Keep it.

[ that should answer her question too; two birds with one simple stone.

he doesn't bother overtaking her pace when they head outside of the house, opting to lag a little bit behind just in case someone tries to sneak up on them. their immediate surroundings don't look don't look all that dangerous, but he knows better than to be fooled by first impressions.

what's more unnerving is the insane amount of pumpkins everywhere, which he is definitely staring at, intensely so. ]

[That hadn't quite been her intention, and she seems a little surprised to be offered - she's not terribly used to dealing with random people who aren't enemies of late. But it would certainly be better to have a weapon than be without one, so it's only a brief hesitation before she takes it.]

Thank you. [She seems to test the grip for a moment, as if reminding herself how to wield a short blade, before tucking it away in a layer of her clothing where she can easily access it. Guns are vastly more common in her world, but she was engineered with a lot of seemingly incidental battlefield knowledge, including certain weapons that weren't completely outdated but only really used when one was desperate and had no other options.]

If I can return the favour, let me know. For now... [She eyes their current vicinity. It definitely looks a lot better than many of the places she shows up in for work, notably the active battlefield ones, but the abundance of pumpkins is...strange.]

...those are pumpkins, aren't they? [She sounds reasonably confident in her assessment, but also like she hasn't seen pumpkins carved like this before and it's throwing her off.]

[ six's ears dip from side to side as he considers the pumpkins for a moment. he heard what she said about returning the favour, but that's something he'll address after he finds out the truth about these things. slowly, he approaches one of the friendlier-looking ones and toes it with his left foot.

nothing happens, which almost feels anti-climactic. ]

That appears to be the case. I don't believe they can be a threat, but I have been proven wrong before.

[ case in point: the fact that he doesn't notice how some of the other pumpkins' expressions have slowly turned sinister behind him when he turns around to face the one he's addressing. ]

[Mikumo only gets a bit closer herself, but is content to let him be the first one to investigate them properly. That said, she's close enough to have full and glorious view when the pumpkins' expressions change as soon as he turns around, and the way her brows arch despite the lack of general expression change otherwise is hard to miss.]

Perhaps not a threat, but they don't look very happy all of a sudden. [She sounds somewhere between curious and amused. It's an interesting development, if nothing else.] I don't think I've seen a planet that grows sentient vegetables before. It seems like a bit of a moral problem.

[Particularly for vegetarians. Her home planet largely only grows things underwater, but a few of the others she's visited for work are more agricultural.]

[ six barely notices the shift in her expression but something about what she says gets him to tilt his head to the side, visibly confused. his ears twitch, mildly irritated, because he can tell when someone is amused or not... but when he turns around, he realizes it wasn't about him at all.

oh. those sure weren't the expressions these pumpkins were sporting earlier. ]

More often than not, sentient plants where I'm from tend to be monsters. [ compared to those, the pumpkins are a lot friendlier (?!). ]

It might be best to just leave them be.

[ he won't be touching any of them with his foot again. ]

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stargazed - 2020-10-01 14:04 (UTC) - Expand

It's not that strange if you think about it as celebrating you lived to see spring come, or whatever... people care more about their paychecks these days, but it's the same thing, in a way. I thought something called "Confession" would be more about secrets than something this mundane, though...

Doesn't that type of celebration of life come under a birthday? Unless you mean living to see the harvest, but this place seems past the need for that.

[It's quite old and quaint from her perspective, but with what little tiny bit she knows about the past, this feels maybe around the turn of the century.]

It does sound that way, doesn't it? Not nearly as interesting as they could have made it, but then we would have had to speak more personally ourselves too.

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2nd Event: Choices We Make

Mikumo Guynemer | Macross Delta

pumpkins!

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c. un: sickBoy

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