vatheon | July mingle log

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July mingle log

[The mingle party this month is taking place in the field on the North end of the park. There are balloons, streamers, flags and signs all showing the way to the gathering. There is a table set up with fresh fruit, cookies, cupcakes, sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers. Another table consists of various beverages and pretty blue jars to use as drinking glasses.

In the middle of the field one can find a large ball pit with inflatable sharks inside. There are also a couple of bounce houses and buckets full of water balloons. Towels and reclining lawn chairs were close by for anyone who needed to dry off or sunbathe.

Last but not least, there is a large tent full of pillows of all shapes and sizes. There is a movie projector set up to use a tent wall as a movie screen. Bring your own movies or choose from the great classics like The Count of Monte Fishto and The Seven Samuray. Outside of the tent was a photo booth set up with a box of silly props. A whole bunch of silly props.]

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"They ruined a classic." Albert can't help but grouse at the undersea adaptation being projected on the far wall. The Count of Monte Cristo - the book, that is - is a personal favorite story of Albert's and to see it lampooned with fish puts him in a bit of a sour mood.

Honestly he hadn't really wanted to come out tonight at all. The curse already had him feeling irritable. He doesn't like being forced into anything, even something as innocuous as physical contact, and it just drives home the sense of helplessness in their being here. But Jet had been talking about it and even in his irritation, Albert felt he was still on rocky ground with his teammate despite assurances that bygones were bygones. Even if the fight had been months ago for Jet, it's still fresh for Albert. So he'd relented.

He just really hadn't expected... this. There are't even any proper chairs. He feels ridiculous reclining against all these pillows like some sort of self-styled sultan, not to mention if the curse acted up again he'd be forced into cuddling again in public.

Really, guilty or not, he should have stayed in the hotel room.

Jet, for his part, was perfectly at home reclined on the pillows, he saw nothing wrong with the lack of chairs. Just as he saw nothing really wrong with the movie. Sure, the fish puns all over the place were ridiculous, but he still liked the story. Then again, he'd never even laid eyes on the book before, much less read it, so he didn't have any other point of reference.

His companion's complaint didn't come as a surprise, Albert was notoriously One Of Those People who always said the book was better than the movie. Jet was pretty sure that wasn't always true, but he'd never read any of the books either. "Don't be so crabby, it was. Probably the best you can expect here." Jet smirked a bit to himself as he remembered the Jellyfish-styled game that was apparently based on Pac-man that Leo had shown him how to play. "Besides, that's kinda this place's thing, the fish puns."

"Well it's idiotic." On another day, in another mood, Albert might have been mollified by Jet's easygoing manner, or even found the fish puns funny in their own way. He does like puns, usually, but tonight the atmosphere around Albert is gloomy at best. He sits hunched, arms crossed and shoulders up as if he expects an attack.

"There's absolutely no reason to theme everything based on the environment. We know we're underwater, they don't need to remind us right, left, and center."

Jet didn't bother hiding the look of confused irritation he gave the other cyborg, although he didn't move from his spot on the pillows. "You're more surly than usual, what's eating you?"

Honestly, Jet could probably name a few things and any one of them could be right, but he was hoping Albert would just tell him instead of making Jet guess or pry it out of him.

"I just have no patience for this tomfoolery," oh lord, his age is showing. Really though, he knows it's not the movie that's got his goat. Its the fact that everything around them is so obviously an attempt at placation, to make them comfortable and distract them from the fact that they're all here against their will. It's only marginally better than Black Ghost's captivity. They weren't being tested or tortured, true, but at least that had been honest in the sense of being used. Here they try to pretty it up and it simply rubs Albert the absolute wrong way.

Jet wasn't bothered by the setting or the movie, so he didn't recognize them as annoyances for the other cyborg. All he saw was his attempt at doing something fun and simple with Albert being swept away by the very person in his company, and that annoyed him.

In an instant, his body language changed. He sat up a bit more, pulled his knees to his chest, and crossed his arms on top of them. "Well what the hell else do you want to do? I get you don't like it here, but the fact is we're stuck and no amount of bitching's gonna change that. Can't you just relax and have fun for five seconds?"

It's not unusual for Jet to snap at Albert, especially when he's in a mood, but Jet is usually the first one to try bashing his way out of any trap he's ensnared in. It isn't the acid in the American's tone that gives Albert pause, but instead the words. The same thing that had bothered him before about Jet having an apartment here, about how he brushed off any sort of planning to escape, not taking a lead role as he tended to, that same thing was driving Jet's words now and it's not simply strange, it's almost frightening, in a way, to see Jet that subdued.

Of course, Albert's in too much of a mood to unravel the knot that is Jet Link's psyche carefully. Apparently he'd rather take a knife to it. "No, I can't relax! We're here against our will, it's like Black Ghost all over again. You, if anyone, should be able to see that! Why have you given up?"

"I haven't given up!" The retort was scathing, hurt at the implication Jet would ever give up, especially in a situation like the one they were in.

But, more than that, he knew Albert was right. Jet wasn't spending every moment he could trying to find a way out. It was uncharacteristic and he'd be stupid to think it wouldn't be noticed, especially by the older cyborg. The truth was, as much as Jet hoped he could find his own way out and cheat the death he knew was waiting for him, he was just as afraid that, should he find an escape route, he'd still find himself falling through the atmosphere.

He was living on borrowed time and a part of him that had been growing ever since he arrived in this place just wanted to make the most of it.

All of that almost came tumbling out of his mouth in an angry torrent, but he gritted his teeth, hid his eyes and bolted from the tent as fast as he could. He didn't use his accelerator, but he didn't stop once he was outside either. He didn't know where he was going, but it needed to be somewhere else.

"Jet!" Damnit. He'd pushed too hard. Again. Albert still wasn't very good at relating to the younger cyborg, despite what they had between them. With a derisive noise at himself, the German gets to his feet and follows Jet's long-legged stride from the tent and into the night air, easily catching sight of the taller man's retreating form. He nearly has to sprint to catch him, grabbing his arm by the wrist when he finally gets in reach.

"Calm down. There's no reason to go storming off like that!" He'd intended to be gentler, but his frustration is high tonight, high enough even to rival his companion's. He doesn't understand how the teen can be so complacent in this place and it bothers him more deeply than he cares to admit. It irks him that Jet would so readily turn his back on their cause, on them, on the entire team when he'd been the first to advocate their banding together. It makes him feel betrayed, and Albert has never been good at dealing with betrayal. "What is your problem?"

Edited 2013-07-08 23:52 (UTC)

He was trying to cool off, he was aware there was a chance Albert would come after him and he was just trying to calm down enough in case that happened. As soon as he felt the hand on his wrist, jerkily halting his movements, his frustration peaked. Some part of him knew this wasn't how he wanted to spend what time he had left, but it was only a vague feeling he could recognize that aggravated his frustration. Aggravated it to the point of bursting.

He whipped around to face Albert, getting into his space instead of pulling away like he probably should have. "Everything! You, this place, the shit back home, all of it! You want to know what my problem is? I'm dead, Albert! Back home, before I showed up here, I stepped off the stage, okay?"

This time he did yank away and took a couple steps back, though he didn't try and run away again. That moment was all it took for his brain to catch up with his mouth. The fire fled from his tone, but his frustration was still loud and clear even as his eyes darted away from Albert's.

"The last of Black Ghost took this weird ship of theirs up into space to get away. 001 sent 009 up there to take care of them. It was a suicide mission. Frannie was crying and I just- I couldn't let him die alone. I couldn't just sit back without trying to do something." His frustration quieted again and his volume went with it as his hands clenched into tight fists. "I got there in time to catch him but...I guess I overestimated myself, I ran out of fuel. The last thing I can remember is us hitting the atmosphere and burning. If I'm sent back like some people are, that's what I go back to."

It's not the fire and the fury that stops Albert cold but the look on Jet's face. Anguish, pure and simple pain tints those brandy eyes and when Jet pulls away it's from slack fingers.

It's easy to start thinking of themselves as invincible. For all they can do, for all their super human abilities and the numerous things they'd gone through and come out triumphant, for how many times Albert had wished for death in the early days, he finds it all too easy to picture now. Francoise crying, all their heart's breaking, and Jet the only one with the ability to even possibly get to Joe in time... After what he knew happened to Pyunma and the Dolphin he thought nothing else could have possibly been worse.

He was wrong.

Albert clenches his jaw, eyes focusing on Jet with a steely determination. It didn't have to happen that way. It didn't have to happen at all. He's from before them, and if the information he's gathered is true, he'll get sent right back to where he was taken in the first place.

His voice comes out strong, hard and solid as concrete. "I'll fix it."

He will because the alternative is unthinkable.

His arms crossed across his chest tightly and he still didn't quite meet Albert's eyes. "Yeah? How're you gonna do that. You can't stop me from going after him." He wasn't actually being as challenging as he might normally be, more defensive. He wanted to believe Albert could do what he said. He wanted to believe that wasn't it for him. It wasn't necessarily a bad way to go, but that didn't mean he wanted to go at all.

"I know what happens and I'm from before then. We'll just keep the ship from taking off in the first place. That way, no one has to go." No one has to die. Not 009, and not Jet.

If anything, he's willing to die to keep it from happening.

"I'll change the future. Everything will be fine, just as soon as I find a way out of here." It goes without saying that Jet shouldn't come with him, not until that path is changed. They're trying to save his life not end it prematurely.

He keeps his eyes still on Jet, on that tight posture, reading Jet's hopes and doubts in the way he stands with his arms clutched tightly against himself and his inability to raise his gaze. Albert steps forward, putting himself in Jet's line of sight instead, voice quieter but no less determined. "...You don't have to worry."

It made sense. If Albert could get back to his own time and then recognize the ship for what it was and destroy it before it went up, that would be it. They would all just be able to go home.

His eyes finally sought out those paler ones, that tentative hope unknowingly in them, but he was pulling together his determination. Hope and optimism was more familiar to him than the hopelessness that had been flitting through him, so it was easier to cling onto. "Yeah. Okay." Slowly, his arms uncrossed and his posture relaxed a bit more as he forced himself out of it. "Thing about the ship is, it looked like some bird thing. A statue. Kinda hard to miss, but it didn't look like it could fly."

The thought briefly flitted across his mind that he should maybe tell Albert about the other things that were going on around that time, but he dismissed it. This whole thing was complicated enough without all of that.

He nods, trying to picture it. "A bird statue, got it. Are there any other details you can tell me? Every bit of information could be vital."

He keeps his tone businesslike, focused. This is just another mission, albeit possibly the most important one to date. But... no. While he tries to think of it that way, it's much more than simply a mission. It's a bid for survival, a fate he absolutely cannot let come to pass. There's no other option. It's simply unthinkable that Jet would go before he would.

No, if they're going to go down, it would be fighting, and it would be together. Anything else he refuses to accept.

Jet shrugged, there didn't seem to be too much else to tell. They'd gotten split up shortly after arriving there, so he didn't really know what else he should warn Albert about. 'By the way, don't get captured while you're down there' seemed like a really dumb and obvious thing to point out. "The place the ship is in is called the Yomi Kingdom. That's about all I can think to tell you, honestly."

Jet stuck his hands into his pockets and looked around at some of the festivities still going on. "Look, can we just find something else to do? Or just go home, talking about all this is a real drag." Recounting details about stuff that had a whole range of emotions attached to it was draining and he was only becoming more self-conscious by the second. Especially since there was still a part of him that couldn't decide whether to mention Bina or even any of the sisters at all. It was easier to just not think about any of it.

The need for information seems urgent from Albert's point of view. He has to know every detail of what happened, every little thing he could do to prevent this future from coming to pass. He nearly presses again, but there's something in Jet's posture, something in the way he slips into decades old slang that Albert has come to recognize as a sign of Jet's discomfiture. As important as it is for Albert to stop it, he realizes it's just as important for Jet, from the younger cyborg's point of view, not to think about it. They'd all faced death before, every one of them, but it's one thing to face it and not know the outcome and another to look it in the eye and think it's all that encompasses your future.

Albert sets his jaw and nods, forcing the tension from his shoulders and attempting to quell the panic roiling behind his still-placid gaze. "Alright. let's go back to your place. It's gotten somewhat chilly, anyway."

That much is true, though since he's distracted by the previous conversation, he doesn't recognize the curse for what it is.

The teen nodded, relieved the conversation had come to a close for the moment, at least.

He didn't say anything in response, just turned and headed in the direction of the apartment, confident Albert would follow along.

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copesetic - 2013-07-10 20:40 (UTC) - Expand

Despite the squishiness of the pillows, Pyunma apparently managed to find a comfortable way to sit during the film without laying back, and he's stayed in the same place, cross-legged, for the entire thing.

When he hears Albert's comment, he glances over toward the other cyborg. "How did they?" he asks, then adds belatedly, "other than the fish." That's probably something that needs to be stated, though he's not familiar with a non-Vatheon movie or the book.

His posture doesn't exactly reflect the casual, slightly amused tone of his voice. He's got his arms crossed, as if he's pulling the jacket he's wearing closer around him. It's true that Pyunma grew up in a place generally much warmer than Vatheon is right now, but even as sensitive to cold as he is, it's not often that Pyunma actually looks uncomfortable because of it.

Jet laced his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. Although the movie was over, he was perfectly content to stay where he was, as comfortable as he'd gotten. Though it had gotten markedly colder.

"Ignore him. He always thinks that when it's some movie based on a book. He's a stickler for 'the classics.' Personally, I thought it was fine." Of course, unless it was some sappy romance movie, Jet wasn't all that picky about which ones he liked.

"The book is always better. You would know that if you'd ever read one in your life," Albert grumps at Jet for his comment before turning back to Pyunma. "They rearranged some key plot elements leaving a hole where Dantès-..."

He stops short, finally noting Pyunma's tell-tale posture. He'd been subject to the same earlier when Jet had been trying to get him to come out so he recognizes it for what it is; that damn curse. Albert had staunchly attempted to wait it out earlier but finally had to relent when his internal temperature inexplicably reached sub-zero and caused havoc with his mechanics. True, his cybernetic organs were running at peak in the cold, but anything organic suffered for it. He suspected it would be the same for Pyunma if they didn't do something quickly. Hesitantly, he rests his left hand on Pyunma's shoulder. "Are you cold?"

Pyunma glances from Albert's hand on his shoulder to the other cyborg, before seeming to realize why Albert is asking. He straightens up and uncrosses his arms, but didn't pull away from the hand on his shoulder. "Some," he admits. Albert never feels particularly warm to the touch, but the casual hand on his shoulder does help, if only a little. "I don't think it's reason to worry yet."

Yet is probably the key word here, but as far as Pyunma knew, Albert hadn't been in the best mood before the movie, either. And although he has been feeling as though the temperature has been quickly and steadily dropping, it doesn't yet feel dangerous, just uncomfortable enough to get him close to shivering.

Jet glanced over at Pyunma, a bit of concern in his expression. "Yet. These curses or whatever they are aren't really forgiving."

The lanky teen stood and moved from where he'd been sitting next to Albert to re-settle next to Pyunma, purposefully sitting close enough to allow their legs some contact.

Albert watches Jet resituate himself with Pyunma in between, his frown still in place but less deep. "Physical contact does alleviate it, but I can't really say what they're are trying to accomplish with this."

Embarrass them seems to be the plan. Grown men and women, hugging each other in public. It's just not really done. Excuse Albert, there are certain things in the 21st century he has a little trouble adjusting to.

Pyunma shifts to allow Jet to settle in next to him, not enough to move their legs out of contact as he does. It's plenty of contact for him, but discreet enough, in a dim tent where people are more likely to be paying attention to the screen-wall of the tent than the people around them.

"It's an irritation, rather than a direct danger. When I first heard about the curses, it reminded me of Black Ghost, but this isn't how they work." After all, if Black Ghost had come up with a method to control the way people feel or think, they would have used it on their renegade cyborgs the moment they had the chance.

With Albert's hand still on his shoulder, Pyunma doesn't insist that the other cyborg move closer. Even with the curse affecting him, he isn't looking to make Albert uncomfortable.

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