[redactable] catchall for alex

[dawnblushed]

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w0, saturday

[dawnblushed]

[i'm going to say they're in the (spins wheel) penny arcade, unless alex would never set foot there for some reason.

anyway, yona stumbles across her while sipping at a mug of tea.]

Oh, it's you... hello again. [she smiles.] What are you doing?

[chanteuser]

[ she has never seen an arcade before she got here so there's a high, high chance she will have wandered back here to have another look around the place. ]

Hello.

I'm just looking around. It's... quite a lot, isn't it? This place.

im going to throw gmail out the window i never got this notif

[dawnblushed]

It really is. I don't understand most of the things in here.

[wtf is a video game]

britt just doesn't love me :pensive:

[chanteuser]

I... [ hm ] I've never played them before but I know what they are, to a point? Maybe not how to play them though.

BECKS NO

[dawnblushed]

What are they, anyway?

:pensive:

[chanteuser]

Games, mostly? I think. I haven't seen any where I live so I couldn't give specifics.

[dawnblushed]

They definitely don't look like any games I've seen before...

[hm, indeed.]

w0, monday

[dawnblushed]

[IT'S STARGAZING TIME. yona has helpfully shown up with two mugs of tea. (belatedly, she realizes that maybe she should have asked to see if alex even likes tea, but she figures if she doesn't, she can just drink it herself.)

but. hm.]

...there aren't as many stars as I expected.

[chanteuser]

[ tea is good! alex likes tea. and she likes sitting there, curled up with her hands wrapped around the warmth of the cup just as much if not more. ]

You're right.

I think this is even less than I would see in the city... [ hm. ] Does space just look different when you're in the Realm?

[dawnblushed]

I don't know. I guess that's something we could ask the Leaders...

[she sips at her tea.]

I wonder if they'd even be able to answer us, though. Or if maybe they've forgotten.

[chanteuser]

We won't know until we try.

[ ... ] At least the ones you can see seem pretty. Even if there's so few of them.

[dawnblushed]

[yona nods. yeah, they'll just have to try it.]

...mhm, they do. [...] If all of our worlds are connected, somehow, do you think this is the same sky we saw back home? Just... it looks different because this world is in a different place than ours were?

[chanteuser]

But... there weren't this few back home?

[ she points up at the sky, fingertip tracing the sparse stars in the sky like a dot-to-dot. ]

I don't know them specifically, but there were definitely more. Even with all the light pollution.

WEEK 0, the other sunday

[chanteuser]

[ throws a dart they're on the bridge

alex is specifically trying to look for yona, so ... when she does come across her, she's a little out of breath, like she's been running a few times during her search.

she stops next to yona, one hand on the bridge railing and takes a couple of seconds to catch her breath before she speaks. ]

Are you... holding up okay, Yona?

[dawnblushed]

[yona's looking down at the water, leaning against the railing. she looks up as alex approaches, and then shrugs lightly.]

...I'm okay. [she bites her lip.] I'm going to be okay.

[chanteuser]

...

[ she moves to lean against the railing herself. ]

Don't force yourself to be if you're not.

[dawnblushed]

I don't want to not be okay.

[she sighs.]

...it's frustrating. That it happened that way.

[chanteuser]

...

[ "frustrating", she says. ]

I wonder why it picked you? Were you close to Virid?

[dawnblushed]

...I thought we were friends. I tried to help him out the first day we were here, and he was nice to me during the week.

[so. there's that.]

But I think... probably, he didn't feel any closer to me than he felt to anyone else.

w4, monday

[dawnblushed]

[Wow how have we not PCed since w0, wtf.

Anyway! Yona is doing her level best to avoid popping the memory bubbles, or at least to avoid popping them around other people. That's why she's out in the woods, practicing with her bow. She takes aim at a tree, shoots, and -

Just as Alex appears nearby, a bubble drifts into her arrow's path and pops.]

...you have got to be kidding me.

[Why!!

Anyway, the next thing they know, she's being shoved into a dark room (timestamp: 2:20). there are many other young women in this room, looking downcast and rather worse for the wear - but all them are very, very pretty. Yona flinches as she tries to get up from where she's been shoved onto the ground, and her companion points out that it looks like her ankle was sprained when she fell.

Will I be able to carry out our plan like this? If we fail...

The door opens with a creak, and a large, imposing man steps in through the doorway.

"I see... you're all excellent. Awa still has some value left in it."
"Lord Kum-ji, what is the meaning of this? We came looking for work..."
"There is work. Work so fun, you may not be able to handle it."

The man is, obviously, a sleazeball. He takes a few steps into the room, and then grabs Yona roughly by her hair, yanking her up to her feet.

"Red hair? Unusual, indeed. Your face isn't bad, either. I almost regret having to sell you. ...with so many excellent goods, keeping one for myself would be no great loss."

Gross.

Yoon, clearly, is not having it, and ends up getting kicked and coughing up blood for his troubles. You tried, Yoon.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm having fun!"
"Lord Kum-ji, you'll damage the merchandise..."

The other man gets smacked around for his troubles, too. The young women gathered in this room are, clearly, terrified, but Kum-ji doesn't seem to give a single shit, and presses Yoon's head into the ground with his boot.

"Good, good... Nothing pleases me more than obedient women who tremble in silence. Just like this redhead."

He looks down at Yona, whose expression is murderous, and drops her in shock. She hits the ground hard. He looks from his hand, to her, and then asks if she's from Awa. She says that she is, but he doesn't seem convinced.

"Long ago, I once saw red hair like yours at Hiryuu Castle. For just a moment, in the distance, I saw her hair reflecting the sun. The girl was Princess Yona."

Yona stares up at him in silence.

"Are you Princess Yona?"

She moves, quietly, until she's facing him, and lowers herself in a respectful bow.

"I am the daughter of a poor Awa merchant. I came because I heard you were offering work. I don't know your red-haired princess, but if being her would please you, I will call myself 'Princess Yona'."

She stays like that, silent, not looking up at him.

"I let myself go too far. Unlike you, Princess Yona would be too self-respecting to rub her face on the ground and grovel before me for work, filthy wench!"

He turns away, and she stays still, exactly where she is, until the door shuts behind him at a timestamp of about 6:38, when the memory ends.]

[chanteuser]

[ because time is fake and also a blur. anyway, here we go.

for the sake of getting a double whammy of memories, the arrow makes her jump and stumble-- right into a bubble of her own.

and of course, triggering another memory in the process. ]

...

[ there's no real recognition, or sign that alex is aware of what she's just seen, or that she recognises it. she's too busy looking for yona, trying to figure where the arrow had come from that had triggered what she'd just seen beforehand ]

Yona, where are you?

[dawnblushed]

[wow, i hope whoever that is beats the shit out of those jerks! yona thinks that too, but like, in a more yona-y way.

anyway, she looks a little dazed as they come out of the back-to-back memories.]

...Alex?

[she's here! right here.]

[chanteuser]

[ he did, no worries. ]

[ well. time to rush right over to her and just hug her. immediately. there are no explanations here, only hugs. ]

[dawnblushed]

[maybe she should have expected that, from alex.

but - she wasn't expecting it. she looks startled, for a few moments, but then she hugs her back.]

...are you okay?

[chanteuser]

[ she wasn't not going to hug her--- it's impossible not to. she sounds a little shaky when she talks: ]

What happened to you, how did you end up somewhere like that?