+ Wanted to get it real home-like... +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE!
Where: EVERYWHERE!
When: ANYT-- Friday, February 20 to Monday, February 23
Rating: An average PG-13? (Consider warning for explicit sexual or violent content in your thread's subject line)
Summary:
For the duration of this event each character will discover that their room has been replaced with one of their own memories, one that they find themselves particularly happy or "at home" in. More information can be found here.

This log is an opportunity for your characters to describe the memory playing in their room, so that other characters might visit, and watch the scene unfold. To help browse the collection better, please include your character's name, and their room number in the subject line (e.g. Seta Souji - 100, 6th floor) of your top-level comment.

Rooms/Comments may be locked to certain people, or be available for all to see & visit. Log participation is completely and entirely voluntary.

Have fun!

Comments

George Lass | Room 6, 6th Floor | OTA

[akapeanut]

It's a normal morning in Der Wafflehaus. The reapers trickle in, order their food. Eventually Rube breaks out the post-its. There's golden early morning light filtering in through the windows and everything smells like grease and syrup.

If one didn't know any better-- and if they weren't such a mismatched group --they might look like a family having an average breakfast. Eventually the food and coffee disappears and each reaper heads out to their day jobs. Life, death, whatever it is, it goes on.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji doesn't have a lot of very close friends in Wonderland anymore, thus he doesn't have many friends whose rooms he'd go visit to check up on them. George is one of the few he can do that for. He knows her well enough by now to know that, if he's not too happy with this event, she might not be either.

Of course, there's another side to it. Since he isn't happy with it, he wants to be around someone who he knows him well enough that he won't have to explain why.

He pauses outside of her door for a minute and reassesses if this is really a good idea. But not for long. When he knocks, it isn't hesitant at all.

[akapeanut]

It's easy enough to break away from her spot in the booth. Easier than usual, actually. Something in her is sort of bubbly today, and when she opens the door she gives a broad, out-of-character smile at seeing Souji.

"Hey! How's it going? Did you want to see my room?"

She's bouncing on her toes. It feels nice.

[eatsyourscience]

This is not what Souji was expecting. He's starting to wonder what else this event is doing to them that he hasn't noticed in himself yet.

After a few seconds of blinking, he nods. He would like to see her room, if she doesn't mind letting him in.

"Is everything okay?" His voice remains neutral, though his expression shows a little of his concern.

[akapeanut]

George nods a few more times than is necessary as she leads Souji in. "Totally! It's actually a pretty great day. I'm getting to see everyone again!"

She gestures at the booth as they approach it. This is the everybody she means. Rube and Daisy and Roxy and Mason. Her friends. Her replacement family after she died.

They're important to her. It's been years since she's seen them. And now Souji gets to meet them too, sorta! Why shouldn't she be happy?

Kneeling in the booth next to the reapers', she reaches over and points at each of them, naming them and giving little descriptions to jog Souji's memory of who is whom from when she's mentioned them before. When she's done, she turns back to Souji, smiling brightly. "So, yeah! What'd you get in your room?"

[eatsyourscience]

The cheerfulness is still weird, but Souji's glad that at least this isn't painful for George. It's nice for him, too, getting to see more of the people he's heard about before, in their natural habitat of Der Wafflehaus.

His voice sounds a little lonely in the wake of George's tone. "New Years at the shrine in town. My whole team was there."

[akapeanut]

George lights up even more. "Oh man! You must be so excited to see them again. I mean, it's a little like watching them in a play, but...still!"

She glances back at her group, and for a moment she doesn't look totally elated. When she looks back, she's cheerful, but not as frantically so. "So, uh. Did you want to show me, or were you just coming to say hi?"

[eatsyourscience]

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." He looks over at the reapers. "I'm glad you're happy to see them."

She's been here a long time, like he has, and it can be hard to be reminded of that by seeing people that were left behind.

[akapeanut]

"Yeah! I guess I'd be sad about this, normally. Or mad at Wonderland. But I just feel really good?"

She shrugs, uses a quick head motion to flip hair back over her shoulder.

"Guess this is a feel-good event. I kind of like it."

[eatsyourscience]

It's not a feel-good event for Souji, though he does get an occasional odd bubbling up of positive emotions. He's not sure where those are coming from, but he's got enough voices in his head that he doesn't question it. Pyro Jack is in there, and he's always giggling about something.

He decides not to get into any of that. Not if she's doing okay with it.

"It's a nice change of pace. It seems like so many of them have been difficult lately."

[akapeanut]

George frowns deeply, more exaggeratedly than usual. "Yeah. It's almost like a treat, compared to some of the others. But I guess some of them aren't really so bad? Sometimes we get powers. I mean, other than the ones we have already. That's cool."

Of course, Souji has so many powers that he might not even think about it, in those cases. And something about making that connection, having that realization sobers her. It brings her back to her center. Now the part of her that is more cynical and bitter is louder. Her frown is more genuine than put on.

"Maybe it's buttering us up for something really bad."

[eatsyourscience]

Souji looks past her at the reapers, then back at her.

"Do you think it does that?" On purpose?

[akapeanut]

"Maybe. I don't know." George tries to think harder, but it's hard in the fog of happiness filling her brain. "We don't really know why it does anything, though..."

Her voice seems to be lowering in pitch. Growing more monotone. Somehow, she feels more herself.

[stoptheviolence]

"...oh, wow, it smells amazing in here."

The thought of intruding? Never once occured to her. This was not the room she had been looking for, but she couldn't help pausing in the doorway once that smell wafted all the way to her nostrils. Catching a glimpse of George inside, she lingered in the doorway just long enough for the other girl to notice her presence. And, hopefully, invite her in for breakfast.

[akapeanut]

George has heard this memory repeat enough times that the new dialogue catches her attention immediately. She turns to peer backwards over the booth and, feeling extra open and nice today, beams when she sees it's just Brittany. Her friend. She and Brittany are friends. That's nice. She hops up over the back of the booth and hurries over.

"Hey! I don't think you've been in my room before. Not that it's my room right now, I guess. This is Der Wafflehaus." She gestures around her, feeling sort of proud of it, like it's hers. "Did you want to, like, hang out?"

[stoptheviolence]

"Bless you," she offered reflexively at the sound of Der Wafflehaus.

(It sounded like a sneeze, okay?)

A tentative step inside the room was soon followed by another. And another. Her eyes darted about, trying to figure out exactly where they were.

"It looks a little like Breadstixx, actually."

[akapeanut]

George tilts her head, confused. "You mean the food? Like, with spaghetti?"

How does a place look like a food? Her head's a little fuzzy for some reason.

"This place does breakfast stuff. Like waffles! And bacon. And oatmeal with raisins." She sits on the edge of an empty booth, sticking her legs out in front of her in an uncharacteristically relaxed pose as she thinks for a moment. "I don't...think you can eat anything here? If it's a memory, it's probably not edible. Probably."

George peers over at a plate seated in front of her currently unoccupied seat. "We could try, though. That's my bacon, anyway."

[stoptheviolence]

"No, like Breadstix. The restaurant that we all go to. Actually, I think it's the only restaurant we have in Lima..."

(Come to think of it.)

Though the more George spoke, the more Brittany's mouth watered. It sounded really good. And fattening. She was so going to have to make up for all this later at the gym if she started sampling around.

"How can it not be edible? This is a breakfast place. That's, like, the most edible part of the day!"

[akapeanut]

"Totally!" George flails her arms with excitement. "But! I kind of think it's all like a dream? I mean. They're talking to me like I'm there, but I'm not..."

She hops out of the booth and looks at the food, uncertain. "What if I eat it and I die? I'm on my fifth death. Well, sixth, if you count when I died back home."

[stoptheviolence]

If that was true, then George looked really great for a five-or-six-times-over dead person. Huh.

"But people don't stay dead here, right? It's like Thriller. Only less heads rolling. And better skin care."

[akapeanut]

"No, but. I guess something happens if you die enough times. Phillip did and he said that he lost something."

She should really find out what that something was.

"What if I get even worse at dancing?"

[stoptheviolence]

This was new to her,

Then again, Brittany had never once died in all her time in Wonderland, so she really knew very little on the subject.

"Are you sure he lost it? It wasn't just, like, misplaced or something? Like keys. People are always misplacing their keys."

[akapeanut]

"I mean...it might still be here? I guess?" George fidgets, unable to keep still. "I think the Queen of Hearts had something to do with it, so maybe she, like, kept whatever it was. But also maybe she ate it. I don't know."

[stoptheviolence]

"...the Queen of Hearts eats keys?"

[akapeanut]

George blinks, confused for a moment, then laughs-- loudly.

"I-- hahaha, I don't think that's quite it. But maybe she used it for a spell or something like that? Haha, I didn't mean literally eat, necessarily. But just. It might be used up, somehow. Whatever it is she took."

George looks at the food again, sighs. "Seems like a lot of risk just to eat some bacon. We could get some from the kitchens just as easy."