vatheon | orange crush adventure

Entry tags:

orange crush adventure

Who: Dirk and anyone!
Where: around the bubble, between the Plaza and the Heartvoid house!
When: Backdated to Thursday of the curse week!
Status: open
Style: Starting prose, but I'll follow you.

The effects of this curse, thanks to some rather unfortunate network posts, have been obvious from very early on. It's irritating to say the least. Dirk isn't a pathological liar, but he's usually in possession of a brain-to-mouth filter. The lack of it hasn't led to any spectacularly horrible conversations, which is his only consolation. Then again, there aren't any embarrassing secrets he could blurt out to ruin everything with his friends. That ship has sailed, after breaking up with Jake.

That isn't to say the curse hasn't had unfortunate effects. Dirk has checked the network a few times too many, and ended up in some unfortunate conversations, so it isn't long before he just sets his SFC aside and does his best to ignore that the curse is happening. A lot of the time he spends doing what he does best, making robots.

Being a hermit for the entire week just isn't possible, though, because some things can't be avoided, and grocery shopping is one of them. So, on Thursday, Dirk can be found headed back toward his house, arms full of orange soda. (One of the inconveniences to his modus's storage system- he can only have one row of each kind of thing. The rest of the groceries fit, but not the soda.) To everyone else, it probably looks like he's just really bad at eating healthy, though they're probably not wrong.

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Do you know who else likes unhealthy foods? Small children do.

So at some point along his way from the store, Dirk will pick up a tiny shadow. She's not sneaky at all, though, so it is very obvious that she is following him. But she won't speak to him, not until he addresses her presence in some way. She will just keep following him until then.

She is not sneaky, particularly to someone who considers himself a ninja and has at least some of the skills necessary for it. But he doesn't turn around immediately when he notices, either. Instead, he keeps going for a little while, just to check that she's one, actually following, and two, how long she'll keep at it.

When it's obvious that she's not going to stop, he isn't sure what to do, at first. He's never really dealt with a kid this young before. Maybe they're around Vatheon, but he's never quite paid attention to that, and he certainly never got the chance before coming to the city.

So what does he do next? He slows his steps for a moment, as if he's deciding which way he turns. Then he flashsteps- so quickly it almost seems like he teleported- until he's standing behind Yotsuba. "Boo."

When Dirk slows, Yotsuba does as well, not wanting to bump into him. But then he's gone so fast that it looks like magic, and Yotsuba can't believe her eyes. She blinks a couple times, then runs forward a few steps, up to where Dirk had just been. She looks left, then right, then left again, and she's absolutely dumbfounded.

Then there's a voice behind her and Yotsuba lets out a yelp of surprise as she jumps forward. She stumbles and nearly falls over, but she regains her balance, and she turns to look at who's behind her.

For a moment, she looks startled. But it only lasts a moment, because the startled look quickly changes to a teary-eyed one, right on the verge of actual crying.

It's probably not a good idea to scare a small child like that, Dirk.

It's definitely not a good idea, but he's realizing this belatedly, now that he can see the look on her face. Now he just kind of feels like an ass. Sure, he wanted to startle her, but... he didn't actually mean to make her cry.

"Shit, don't cry," he blurts out on automatic. "Jesus tits, it was supposed to be a prank. Look, if I share this with you, will you not cry?" He holds out one of the small bottles of soda. Apparently, Dirk Strider has met his match, and it comes in the form of a small child's puppy dog face.

Fortunately being startled is something that quickly passes, especially with the promise of soda. So she sniffs a bit and nods as she moves to take the bottle of soda from Dirk. She won't be able to open it but that is secondary here.

She has also not realized just how powerful her tears can be, which is probably a good thing for Dirk.

Crisis averted. He almost sighs in relief. This is probably why it's a good idea that he told Roxy he wasn't interested in having kids. He'd end up traumatizing them, or something.

When it comes to it, he'll probably offer to open the bottle for her. For now, he just crouches over his heels and watches her from behind his shades. "So why were you following me, kid?" he asks finally.

At that, Yotsuba gives Dirk the five-year-old equivalent of a shrug, which is a shrug but her shoulders stay up for a few seconds longer than they should.

She really doesn't have much of a reason, besides the temptation of soda. But hey, she can say that, right? "I'm hungry."

"So you follow me? There's plenty of restaurants around, why didn't you go to them?" He asks, still watching her. He glances down at the bottles still in his hands. "What, did you just want this shit?" He's getting the suspicion that she's new, or doing something on a whim, but he's not sure yet. Maybe both.

Finally, he just opens his own bottle of soda to take a sip. He does have the groceries with him, it's not as if he can't just go get more if he feeds her some. But will that make her go away, or will it just make her follow him around more?

Yotsuba just stares up at Dirk. Did he really expect her to just walk into a restaurant and eat food there? Her dad always had to give the waitresses money after they ate, and Yotsuba has no money.

Once again, she shrugs. She doesn't have an answer for him, he's just the first person she found that was carrying orange soda around. And instead of answering his question, she says, "I'm Yotsuba Koiwai."

Introducing yourself totally makes everything okay.

Well, of course he does, because he knows that the food in Vatheon is all free. But apparently she doesn't know that. He doesn't lecture her about it, because although it was in the pamphlet, he has no idea how well she knows how to read- he can't really remember how young he was, exactly, when he started, and even if she could read it he can't say for certain how long her attention would stay on it.

"Dirk Strider," he introduces himself in return, then holds out a hand for a fist bump- not a handshake, because Striders simply don't do handshakes. "D'you want to come with me? I want to show you some cool shit about Vatheon."

Yotsuba looks at the fist for a moment. While she does know what a fist bump is, thanks to tv and movies, it takes her a moment to realize that Dirk is offering one out to her. When she does realize this, though, she smiles widely and punches his fist with hers.

Yes, punches. She doesn't quite understand that fistbumps aren't supposed to have a lot of force behind them. But at least she's not that strong and couldn't possibly hurt anyone bigger than her.

"Okay," she says cheerfully, and she's all set to follow Dirk around and see what this Vatheon place is.

At least she knows what one is, even if she's ever so slightly inept. There are plenty of people around who don't or can't fist bump, and it's disappointing. Dirk's hand jerks back when she punches it, and he shakes it out a bit as he pushes himself back up to his full height, but fortunately it doesn't really hurt.

Little does Yotsuba know, Vatheon is the entire place, but he can't exactly break it to her when she hasn't given him a cue to. Instead, he just nods in the direction of the coral, then starts making his way toward one of the restaurants. "So, you gonna drink that?" he says, gesturing toward the bottle of soda in her hand.

"Yeah," she says as if it's the most obvious thing ever, except when she looks back down at the bottle of soda in her hands she realizes that she's not so great at opening bottles. She does try, but she's not strong enough to twist the cap on her own, not when it has an unbroken seal like that.

After a few seconds of trying, Yotsuba holds to bottle out to Dirk. "Open it for me please," she says.

He should have expected that. This time, he sets the rest of his armload aside, and reaches out to take the bottle back from Yotsuba. With a quick twist, he gets the cap off. He's had a lot of practice at it, after all.

With that accomplished, he hands it back to her, then picks up his things again. "What do you want to eat?" he asks. "Because if you don't care, I'm getting sushi."

Whether or not Mituna had been affected by the curse at all was up for debate. He was (mostly) unfalteringly honest anyway, even if his honesty was often perverted and sometimes difficult to understand even if you knew him well.

Not that much of a hermit, he'd been enjoying being back in the bubble. The number of old friends he had here had dwindled, but the number of new ones was growing and he was finding himself happy with that. Easily pleased, this yellowblood.

He was running, heading... somewhere, who knew, it could be nowhere, when he skidded around a corner and barrelled straight into a certain pointy-shaded Strider, sending himself straight to the floor. His future location went straight out of his head and instead he swore loudly, letting out an agitated little hiss.

Yotsuba takes a drink from the delicious orange soda first, because that is the most important thing here. She doesn't get soda that often so this is a treat for her.

When she's done she says, "I like sushi!" Truthfully she likes most things that aren't spicy, and sushi is a food she's eaten before, so she's more likely to eat it.

She's got good priorities. Dirk's obviously a fan himself, considering how much of the stuff he has with him, and how much of it he drinks on average, so he's inclined to be patient and wait for a response.

When she finally talks, he nods. "Cool shit. C'mon, it's just over there." And it is close by, because it doesn't take long to get there. Once they're at the restaurant, Dirk turns back to Yotsuba. "Pick a seat, then choose your food."

See, the problem there is that Yotsuba can't read. Well, that's not completely accurate, she can handle hiragana to some extent. But any Kanji besides the kanji for her own name is beyond her, and English words are definitely impossible. So she's just left staring at the menu, not able to figure out any of it.

Eventually she just randomly points to one thing and says, "I want this!" Even though she has absolutely no idea what she just ordered, she doesn't want any help. She is a big girl and can do this on her own.

[Speaking of unhealthy foods, guess who's finishing a box of nachos virtually drowning in cheese? That's right, it's Dirk's alternate self. And where's he at? His favorite place to chill; the edge of a rooftop. Bro just can't help himself. There's something to be said for looking down on a city and watching the people bustle about without actually having to interact with them. The roofs around Vatheon aren't as high as his apartment building back home, but it'll do. The few citizens who do notice him up there just give him an odd look and keep walking.

There's a good chance Dirk falls into the category of people who do notice him, but just in case his presence isn't noted by conventional means, Bro will flick a nacho his way.]

Meenah feels disgustingly domestic in Vatheon, mostly because boredom has reduced her to either stealing or taking home increasing amounts of ingredients to bake with. She's whistling some strange troll tune as she heads back toward home, catching sight of Dirk a little ways ahead. Huh. She guesses even he needs to eat sometime.

She jogs forward a little, calling out to him as she does. "Yo, Shades!" She juggles the food in her arms so she can nudge at him. "That is a shell of a lot of orange fizz, yo." She gives him an incredulous look, as if questioning his life choices.

Of course she can, even if her order ends up with a lot of wasabi on it. Because as far as Dirk knows, Kids can totally take care of themselves even at Yotsuba's age. (He really has a lot to learn.)

But with Yotsuba's food chosen, Dirk gestures to a waiter, then just shoves up the sleeve of his t-shirt to show the Vatheon tattoo on his arm, rather than hand them money like Yotsuba might have expected.

The impact wasn't enough to knock Dirk down, but it was enough to send him staggering back a few steps under the force of it, and almost made him drop his armful of soda (and what a disaster that would have been.)

As soon as he's regained his balance, he looks down at the person- troll- in front of him. It's easy to see the similarity to Sollux, and also that it isn't, so. Dancestor. That isn't about to spare Mituna a reaction, though, especially not with the truth curse.

"Jesus, dude, do you always throw yourself bodily around corners? It's like you're trying to get yourself hurt."

[People-watching, in Dirk's opinion, is a good way to get used to people without having to actually interact with them. He did it a lot, in the first few weeks after coming to Vatheon. Not being used to having something more "up" than his apartment, until the game, he pays attention to what's going on up there, as any good wannabe ninja should. Of course, the nacho kind of seals the deal.

He dodges easily enough. Nachos aren't the best of throwing weapons. Then he glances up and nods toward Bro, because a wave is difficult to accomplish when carrying soda.] 'Sup?

"Yo, Fishgirl," Dirk says back, leaning away from the nudge and not retaliating for the moment. "It lasts a while." Also he goes through it quickly, but with that look, it will probably start a ridiculous argument. Besides, there are better things to discuss.

"You headed anywhere important?" he asks instead.

Yotsuba sees Dirk show people the tattoo, and she's curious about it. "Why'd you do that," she asks, pointing at Dirk's arm where the tattoo is. She doesn't understand why tattoo equals free things but she would definitely like to learn more about it.

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orange crush adventure

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