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 Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 8:26 pm
Quote: The Leaves (7) - With the changing seasons, there are piles of leaves all around Destiny City. It’s a difficult job to try and keep up with them all, and sometimes the allure of these leaf piles is impossible to ignore. Maybe they just need a good kick? Or, who doesn’t want to relive the childish joys of their youth? And no one’s around to see, right? So why not jump into a pile of leaves? Oh–because, when you do, you jump through one pile and come out of another somewhere else across the city. The leaves all seem ordinary, but there’s a few odd seconds between when you jump into the leaves and when you jump out; it feels like falling, tumbling, somersaulting through the air. It’s not scary, just odd. You see walls of leaves–brown and orange and yellow and red–and they crunch magnificently. Overall, it doesn’t seem menacing, just a bit of trickster fun. If you try to step into, or jump in a pile of leaves again, you might wind up somewhere else entirely–or right back where you started. Stribor was amazed at the sheer amount of life on Earth as he walked back with the people he'd met—people he trusted to keep him safe. So much was going on, as though nothing bad could happen again. It felt so lively. Filled with warmth and joy. The opposite of his own world as it slowly choked to death. The piles of leaves were lovely, and he couldn't resist the childish impulse to make like a rabbit and hop right into one. Moments later, he was very much wishing he had resisted such an impulse, because suddenly, he was on a compeltely different street, having popped out of a clearly different leaf pile. The falling sensation had sent his stomach into knotted swoops and he barely didn't vomit from it, feeling dizzy and very disconcerted. So much for life being carefree, but of course it never would have been—still, he'd have liked a little bit of time to keep that silly fantasy. Just for a bit. "Ugh," he groaned, sitting on the ground and sticking his dizzy head between his knees to help soothe himself.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:11 pm
Yuki had expected a lot of things when he’d left Minnesota to move out East. He’d expected a lot of things when he’d wound up settling in Virginia instead of Boston or New York. But basically none of his expectations had wound up including……pretty much everything that happened in Destiny City.
For the most part, Yuki liked to think that he did okay with accepting that his adoptive hometown would do whatever it felt like, whether you wanted it to or not, regardless of whether or not it was a particularly good idea because cities, unlike people, could not really fathom the concept of anything being a “good idea” or a “bad idea.” After all, cities lacked the sentience to do so, or Yuki was pretty sure they did. As he wandered through Southside Park—the direct opposite park of the one he usually wandered through, since North End Park was only a few blocks off from home—some part of Yuki felt half-convinced that Destiny City might have enough of its own mind to smack him around for thinking that it wasn’t sentient enough to tell the difference between a good idea and a bad one.
Mostly, this was frustration talking, and unfortunately, Yuki found solace for that frustration in none of the snackies he’d picked up after leaving his editor’s birthday party. Several of the packages in Yuki’s plastic bags had gotten opened, sampled out of, and then put back in the bag because these mini-Oreos, or those mint chocolate-covered pretzels, or the other sour cream and onion chips simply weren’t helping soothe his nerves any. Part of him—not the same part as the one who believed Destiny City would b***h-slap him, probably—itched to go pick up a vape pen again, even knowing what sort of face ******** would make when Yuki got home and ******** smelled that on him instead of smelling pizza party and maybe public transportation.
Unless ******** wasn’t home when Yuki got there.
He’d noticed this since ******** and Haruhi had moved in: even on nights when ******** didn’t have a show—and Yuki knew what his booking schedule looked like, because even if Reiki got scatterbrained and forgot for any given week, Sybil and Cherry kept him abreast of these things because part of loving Reiki Disobedience was keeping track of things and trying to keep him from working himself into the ground—but even on nights when he didn’t need to get kitted up as Miss Sayuri, ******** might simply……not be home until fairly late. Cersei would always be perfectly taken care of, because no matter what else was going on with him at any given time ******** loved his dog more than life itself, but the best explanation Yuki would get was that ******** had gone out, loved him, and would be back later.
Annoying, Yuki fumed aimlessly, and if he thinks it’s going to stop me worrying that he’s backsliding more than he’s admitted to—a thought that only got cut short by the sound of something rustling rather loudly in the nearby leaves.
Or someone, more accurately, though……? Stopped in the middle of the park path, Yuki tilted his head bemusedly and waited for the rabbit ear headband to fall off.…… That had to be a rabbit ear headband, didn’t it? Because even in Destiny City, normal people did not have rabbit ears. That didn’t happen, it wasn’t a thing, the guy in the leaves had to be a furry and his normal human ears were simply hiding underneath his hair……and Yuki very much wanted to simply leave well enough alone and ******** off down his own path to mind his business, but……goddammit.
The cute furry boy down in the leaves looked really out of it. And as frustrated as Yuki was with all the mysterious and largely unexplained nonsense that his ******** had been getting up to recently? Reiki still did that……that thing of his. That ******** thing where he made the big, earnest, sparkly eyes and believed really hard about Yuki’s ability to be his best self and make choices that benefitted people other than Yuki himself, his queerplatonic ********, their family, or very close friends.
Ignoring the out-of-sorts rabbit furry would not be the actions of the Yuki who Reiki believed he could be.
Sighing heavily, Yuki skulked toward the bunny-boy. “……Hey,” he said, trying his best to keep his tone gentle and not let any frustration come through, even though he wanted very much to just go home and couldn’t, because the mental image of ******** doing his sparkly, earnest face was making Yuki feel bad for wanting to ignore a stranger in distress. “Hey, are you……” Well, he obviously wasn’t okay. Stupid question. “My name is Yuki. How are you feeling?”
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:28 pm
Stribor took another shaky breath, ear twitching to the sound as the civilian approached and asked if he was okay. There truly is so much gentleness in this city, he mused to himself. That was good news. Very happy news. The sheer amount of concern two random strangers had already shown for him was amazing, and one of them was even a fellow who probably had no idea what all of the magical stuff was! He liked that very much. Slowly, he pulled his head back up to look at the man—aw, he was kinda cute!—and smiled. "Bit dizzy, bit sick," he said with a slight nod. "Nice to meet you, Yuki. I'm Stribor. Jumped in a pile of leaves... and ended up here, very much not on the same street I was one in the first pile." He shrugged. "Is that rather normal this time of year?" he asked breezily, as if any level of magical bullshit was normal (and it was, for him, at least).
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:48 pm
……Okay. Okay, the bunny boy’s ears definitely moved……more like real ears than like a headband. Offhand, Yuki wasn’t entirely certain if there was any tech that could do all of that natural-seeming ear-twitch stuff.…… Maybe Grumpy or Hikaru-papa would’ve known, since they were both more into robotics than Yuki’s preferred kinds of tinkering, but neither of them were here right now, and it wasn’t like Yuki was going to call them and ask while he was in the middle of a conversation with somebody else.
Thinking like the Yuki who Reiki believed he could be, he decided that……eh, he’d worn jeans to the party anyway. They’d survive a little contact with leaves and grass and dirt. So, Yuki joined the little bunny boy—Stribor, apparently—and kneeled beside him, nodding at what he said. At least, even if very little else about the situation made sense, the whole thing with the leaf-piles did.
“In most places around here? No,” Yuki explained, “but you’re in Destiny City, so……yeah, actually, leaf piles might decide to do that to you.” A brief shrug, and then he ruffled his hand over his hair. Helped him think a bit better. Grounded him in the moment and reminded him, however distantly, of ******** messing with his hair for fun—which, in turn, reminded Yuki that he was doing this, apparently, so he needed to commit all the way to being the Yuki who Reiki believed he could be. No random jaunts into Renegade Shep, Dark Urge, or Fallout Sarcasm answers off the dialogue wheel tonight. “Not all of them will, but……things can be a bit weird in Destiny City. Happens a lot, all of the time, but especially around midsummer—we call it ‘Star Festival’ here—and the start of autumn, and some of the winter holidays.”
Stood to reason that the poor bunny boy was new to town, if he was out of sorts about having fallen into one of the leaf piles. So, it made sense that he needed some things explained. First time encountering them and all that. But if he was feeling dizzy and sick, then……probably better to address that first. Triage things out, even if Yuki had to begrudgingly acknowledge—to himself if no one else—that his ideas about triage may not have aligned with anybody else’s.
Still, an easy place to start was getting the poor boy something to eat.…… “Would some snacks help settle you a bit? Maybe?” Yuki peered into one of his bags and hmm’d. “I’ve got……a lot of snacks right now, actually.… Lucky night for your path to cross with mine.……” After some consideration, Yuki pulled out the bag of S’mores-style Goldfish: a mix of little smiling fish-shaped crackers, some of them chocolate and some of them graham, with the crunchy breakfast cereal marshmallows thrown in too (also shaped like fish). “You ever had these? My best guy introduced me to them a couple years ago and they’re good.”
Once he had the package opened, Yuki held it out for Stribor to take some.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:56 pm
Stribor smiled as Yuki made his way over and sat down next to him on the ground—he already liked this fellow. So kind to a stranger, and probably one of the strangest strangers that Yuki had ever seen. And to be treated so nonchalantly... It warmed his heart. "I'll keep that in mind, when midsummer rolls around," he said a bit wryly. At least he had a whole year to wait for that and whatever nonsense it would bring. The winter holidays were much closer, though... He assumed, anyway. Ah, well, he'd probably be fine. "Ah, snacks would be lovely—I had been on my way to get dinner when the childish thought to jump in the leaves took hold," he admitted with a silly laugh. "I really appreciate it." He looked at the crackers curiously and shook his head in answer to the question. No, he hadn't had anything like this before that he could recall. But his mind did feel a little fuzzy right now, so maybe later he'd think of something. It did set off something in his brain, after all. He popped a couple of random pieces into his mouth and chewed, making a pleased sound. his foot slapped the ground. "Very good!" he enthused.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 10:24 pm
……The foot-slapping thing definitely seemed more like a rabbit thing than a people thing? Well, actually, on consideration, maybe some people did that? And Yuki didn’t know, he’d heard that rabbits thumped when they felt angry or upset about something, which Stribor did not seem to be either of those things? ……Yuki was probably really overthinking this. The bunny-boy was just……expressing that he liked the s’mores-style crackers, and they seemed to be helping bring him to a more settled place, which was the important thing. Who was Yuki Tsukiyama to question how somebody else roleplayed their particular fursona?
Nobody, that was who. Not his business, and anyway, being mean to furries was just uncalled for. Enough of the Internet did that already.
“Childish impulses will get you like that every time,” Yuki agreed, nodding sagely (when he really had no right to act sage about anything except running Doom on things that were not originally meant to run Doom). “But dinner’s important—” And if ******** hadn’t gotten any tonight, then Yuki was going to absolutely throttle him (with love), but that was neither here nor there. “—so……do you remember what cross-streets you were at? Or any landmarks? And were you with anybody?” Yuki was a certified Boy Scouts dropout, so he didn’t particularly trust himself with trying to survive anywhere in the wilderness, but he did trust himself in this weird-a** city with its weird-a** people. “I always heard growing up that you’re supposed to wait for somebody to find you when you’re lost, but the city’s a big place. If you noticed anything about where you were, we could try to get you back there when you feel up to it?”
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 1:56 pm
"Well, I would certainly appreciate a guide," he said cheerily, chomping on another cracker-thing. Delicious. He hummed a little, trying to recall any specific landmarks. Slowly, he began to describe the area, trying to note any distinctiveness between where he'd been and where he was—so much of the city just looked alike...Even when he'd been heading towards a specific restaurant. He was worried that he'd not be able to get back home. He'd just wanted to get dinner on his way home, dang it!
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 2:37 pm
Yuki nodded attentively, taking in everything that the strange, rabbit-furry boy had to say about where he’d been.…… Sounded like he was pretty new in town and still learning his way around, but……that was okay. Yuki could work with that. “Sorry this all sounds so overwhelming for you right now,” he said, genuinely if rather a bit tiredly (none of which was on the hands of this poor, lost furry or the whole this might as well happen character of the entire situation they’d fallen into here, though, so Yuki tried to just……push it aside for now). “I moved here from out-of-state too, and—yeah? Destiny City can take some getting used to? But once we get you back to your friends, you’ll be gucci. They can help show you the ropes and get you acclimated to everything.”
After pushing himself up off the ground, Yuki took a moment to dust off his jeans and everything. Then, he held out a hand to help Stribor up. “We might be shooting in the dark a little bit,” he said, “but I’ve got an idea of where you want to go. Let’s get you back to your people, huh?”
If nothing else, the fact that Stribor’s friends wanted to go to ******** favorite lesbian-owned diner was a good thing. Yuki knew his way to Gertrude’s in his sleep.
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