theafflicted | 3.0 - week three

3.0 - week three

WEEK THREE

Last night might have been exhausting for any number of reasons - maybe it was the emotional

toll of dealing with those ghosts, or maybe you stayed up too late after watching Jim Shrok. Who knows, but Saturday is over, even if some of you haven’t quite left it behind and half spirits that are still hanging on, tethered to you and weighing you down…

But that’s not going to stop a new week from starting. There’s no breaks in an eight week course.

There’s very little fanfare to the start of your third week of the course, though it does seem like the fog has lifted even more. It’s a bit more of a trek down the abandoned streets of Estelline, but surely a mile is walkable? Or you could grab a bike or try to hotwire one of those cars in the mall parking lot… Whatever you plan to do this week is up to you. All you know is you've got some new locations to explore.

As always, Florence and Lorelei are available.

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TASK LIST

( OOC Note: Luci, Mutsu, and Mae will each receive a small roomba! Congrats on the successful egg drop. It's a tiny little friend that cleans extra well, though this also means its trash compartment is a little smaller so it'll need to be cleaned more often. )

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[ Fai leads Madara outside and lo and behold... right outside the entrance is a motorcycle that just might be incredibly familiar to him. ]

Here it is!

[Madara has not shown people at large true joy since he got here, but Fai is about to get a glimpse.]

That's unexpected...

[He walks up to the motorcycle like he's not sure he believes his eyes, and runs his fingers over the handlebars and seat before turning to Fai, beaming.]

So, funny enough... this is mine. Fai, meet Baby-chan~

[ Fai honestly can’t help but smile when he sees the smile on Madara’s face. Being reunited with something like this in a strange world has to be nice. ]

Ah! It’s a lovely bike. I bet you’re happy to have it here.

[All grins.]

Didn't come with a helmet, did it? I'd love to take you for a ride, as thanks.

No helmet.

[ Which is a shame. ]

I’d love to go on a ride, though.

Well... That's dangerous, but maybe we can go slow? How's your balance?

[He's so elated, but he's checking over every inch of this bike, going so far as to get on the ground to look at it.]

[ Fai watches him. It seems like Madara knows exactly what to look for to judge the bike's condition. ]

My balance is great.

[This bike's been with him when nothing and no one else was. Of course she's getting treated right!

But she seems to be in pretty good shape, so he's satisfied.]

Theeen let's go for a spin!

[He swings a leg over and stands the bike up, then gestures for Fai to sit behind him.]

You can hold onto me, I won't let you fall off.

I'll trust you!

[ He hops on the bike behind Madara, placing his hands atop his shoulders. ]

[He takes off nice and easy, kind of slow at first because no helmets is ILLEGAL, but they'll get a little wind in their hair.]

Usually you want to wear a helmet, of course. I've done stunt riding, though, so you're safe with me.

[ Fai sits still, his hands firmly on Madara's shoulders as he starts to drive. ]

Stunt riding? Does that include things such as flips and large ramps?

[He laughs.]

I haven't done flips, but I've done some easier jumps and some tricks I reeeally can't show you right now!

I hope you get your helmet so that you can show me.

[ That'd be fun to watch, he thinks. ]

It's already pretty cool just riding on it like this.

That'd be something! A whole stunt show, right on campus!

[He picks up speed a little bit, not that there's far to go, but he's obviously adept at handling the bike.]

Imagine being on this out on the open road, on your way to a festival in the countryside... Leaving the big city and aaaall your worries behind. Or maybe escaping from the scene of an incident to chase somebody down, with your partner holding on tight behind you! It's way cooler than a car for that.

Hmm... that would be really nice. Do you think about those sorts of things often, Madara?

[ He briefly wonders if Madara has thought about riding out on an open road with Shizuku holding tightly onto him, but that might be Fai projecting, as he briefly talked to Hien about riding on the bike like that. ]

[He laughs.]

Maybe, but only because I've done it before. My partner and I back home got up to some preeetty wild stuff every once in awhile. And I loooove festivals! I'll go halfway across the world for one.

Ah, festivals are really nice.

[ Fai doesn't know if he'd travel across the world for one or not, but he does like them. ]

Tell me about your partner.

[ He... doesn't want to assume things one way or the other, since partner can mean a lot of different things. ]

Festivals are my bread and butter! That's where I do a lot of my solo work.

[Now that's a question he's somewhat surprised he hasn't been asked yet, and it's probably because he and Shizuku get sidetracked too easily for him to explain anything that actually makes him happy. Well, happy is a strong word. It's complicated. Maybe that's why he's sidestepped it when she has gotten near the topic.

The bike slows down a bit for a turn. Off to the mall?]

My partner... We haven't been partners for that long, actually, compared to the other units at ES, but we're doing okay for ourselves. Our unit's a detective theme, because we're always making everybody else's business our business. [A polite way of saying: We're meddlers and we get shit done.] His name's Kohaku. He's a couple of years younger than me and... well, Double Face isn't his main unit.

[That part's complicated, too. Because as Madara said previously to someone else: he's always second best. Double Face is secondary to Crazy:B, and always will be for Kohaku.]

Let's see, about him... He's really smart, and considering he didn't really go to school it's even more impressive. He's sharp, too, he catches on fast and he doesn't ask unnecessary questions. He's better at figuring things out on his own, in my opinion. He's really bad at telling people how he feels sometimes, but when he does, it's like... [There's a note of unmistakable fondness here.] It's like you don't feel like he's talking down to you. He could be all kinds of high and mighty if he wanted to be, but he's really down to earth. Don't make him mad, though! His bad side's the worst place to be.

[This is omitting an awful lot about Double Face and Kohaku, and why he's in Double Face to begin with, but it's a start. And it's nice to talk about.]

[ That fondness is incredibly obvious to Fai, so he can't help but smile a little bit himself. ]

It sounds like you're quite fond of him.

[ Madara seems to know him well, too, for having noticed so many things about him. ]

Do you work well together?

He's a regular ray of sunshine!

[He is not, actually, he's a morbid little assassin, but Madara is weird. And he tells him he's morbid, too. But then Kohaku tells Madara he's a pain and they're relatively even.]

Interesting question... I'd say we work well together, but at first we weren't sure how it was going to go. We were only supposed to be a temporary unit. Let's just say it ended up being a hell of a match. Complementary skill sets go a looong way!

That they do!

[ He thinks that's why he and Kurogane (and now Hien) happen to get along so well, despite Fai doing whatever it is that he does to annoy them. Complementing one another through skills or personality traits certainly makes or breaks a team. ]

It seems like it's gone quite well if you failed at having a temporary unit.

Yeah, I'd say it's a pretty great failure.

[He slows down as they near the mall.]

I've had a lot of time to think about it here, and I think I've got some things to say to him when I get back.

And what are you thinking of saying to him?

[ He's curious, especially if Madara has put a lot of thought into it. ]

[Normally he'd play coy and call it a secret, but. You know what? Why not?]

I'm going to thank him for putting up with me. And tell him we can make our own future, if we want to. Together.

[Madara laughs.]

And then he'll look at me funny and tell me I'm being weird, and not know who replaced me with an alien or something.

[ He laughs. ]

But he’d like hearing that, right?

[ If Fai were someone’s partner, that’s something he would cherish hearing. ]

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