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[savante]

Inbox

538 - 7763

Voice — Text — Deliveries — Action

“This is Lune. Leave a message.”

CONTACTS

AGLAEA 💃

618 – 5257

CID ⚡

799 - 3797

CLOUD 🍔

715 – 0279

JASNAH 💡

381 – 0183

JAYCE 🛠️

981 – 6153

JOHN DOE 👑

619 - 2113

KIMIKO 👋

822 - 2762

MARC 🌙

213 - 7826

SCIEL ☀️

007 - 8719

SHADOWHEART ✨

232 - 6651

STEVE 💪

987 - 6543

VERSO 🎹

222 - 1879

WADE ⚔️

420 – 6969

Code Source

Comments

text.

[pse]

Hello.

Want to take a day trip?
I don't have any fights scheduled. Feel like getting out of the city.

[ Not alone, obviously. Kimiko is not programmed to do anything alone. ]

[savante]

A day trip?

[ For a second, Lune's lost on context. There had never been anywhere to go from Lumière, and thus no concept of a pleasant excursion; only the Continent if you wanted to tempt death, and only the occasional brief jaunt outside the Dome to repair the shields or tend to the outer hydro-farms, but that doesn't really sound like what Kimiko has in mind. But Lune's quick enough to guess at the meaning: ]

Where to? The other strongholds are longer than a day's drive, from what I've gathered.

[pse]

There's a place in the fringes I want to check out. About two hours toward Quadrant 3.

[ Rumour on the forums is: they have an infant dragon in a cage. Kimiko might be imagining a dashing jailbreak for the little guy, orchestrated by herself and her New Bestie™. ]

I'll pack snacks. :)

[savante]

[ 'Snacks' implies something cozier, something picnicky, but Lune instantly tends to assume the worst: ]

On a scale of 1-10, how perilous is this place you have in mind?

[pse]

Five.

Six.

Five.

[ Reassuring, no? ]

[savante]

Hm. That's not too bad.

[ She might have a pretty skewed frame of reference— ]

I don't have anything pressing at the moment. Pick me up and fill me in on the way?



[ And Kimiko does. ]

action;

[searingbond]

[ On Valentine's Day, there is a small, wrapped package sitting in the common area of their shared flat. Sciel leaves it there on her way out, though its presence is explained with a note:

Joyeuse Saint-Valentin, mon amie!
I wasn't sure if you'd got another one yet, but you'll need this for your new mission.
Try though to spend more time having the experiences then writing about them, okay?
~ Sciel

The wrapping is halfway decent, and within is a green leather journal. Simple, not particularly fancy, but more than functional for Lune to write in. ]

[savante]

[ When Lune sees Sciel next, the other woman gets an actual big hug(!), and a sheepish explanation that the green leather journal will now become the start and official home of her bucket list for fun life experiences, and she’s open to suggestions. ]

delivery!!

[recreatable]

[ Left at Lune and Sciel's door are two flowers. Alongside Sciel's marigold is a daffodil for Lune—symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings. The tag reads Bonne Saint-Valentin, mon amie. - V ]

[savante]

[ When they’re next at rehearsal, Verso gets a quick friendly kiss to the cheek, without context or preamble. Shut up. That’s all. Now back to practice. ]

222-1879; gommageiversary day

[recreatable]

[ Very, very, very casual, like it's any other day: ]

How's it going?

[savante]

[ On this, the fated morning, Lune has done the unthinkable and stayed languishing in bed longer than usual, after Sciel’s already up and gone to work. There’s the nagging sense that she too should probably get up and get moving and stay busy, but she’s already been doing that all month and it hasn’t exactly been helping. And the headache is still throbbing at her temples.

So the answer, when it comes, perhaps isn’t what Verso expects: ]

Je crois que j’ai une très mauvaise gueule de bois

[recreatable]

[ Oh. It's far from what he expects. He'd thought she might ignore him—he'd been prepared for the possibility—or maybe snap at him, irritated. Or maybe she'd pretend nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all. He definitely didn't think that she'd have gotten drunk last night.

—Lune, inebriated? He can't believe he missed it. ]

Your healing doesn't work on hangovers, huh?

[savante]

No. Which is tremendously unfair-- why can I mend a spurting artery but not this?

[ Hungover Lune is a miserable creature, but also a little more loose and casual and talkative with it. (Sciel's tolerance is also tremendously unfair--) ]

[recreatable]

Hey, we're in the same boat -- I still get hangovers, too.

[ Which is tremendously unfair, also. ]

You went out drinking last night?

[savante]

Stayed in. But yes. I thought it could be a good distraction

Which worked, but.

[ But now the whole next day is stretching out in front of them, and the clock is still ticking, and the minutes are starting to drag with intolerable slowness. Maybe the girls should’ve called out from their various responsibilities and gone day-drinking today instead. ]

on gommageversary, you can blame verso

[coraza]

( be nice cloud be extra nice today ughhghhhh )

Are you going to play the guitar somewhere again?

[savante]

[ The message is well-timed: after Verso leaves, so Lune is a little more settled, but that restless itch had just started sinking in beneath her skin again… at which point her phone pings, with a welcome distraction. She doesn’t think to suspect why Cloud is reaching out. It just feels fortuitous. ]

Of course.

[ that is, if she doesn’t vanish today— ]

It’s not an ideal timeslot, but you ought to be able to find us at the Odd Duck Bistro again later this week. How did you like the concert?

[coraza]

( okay, this seems to have landed just as planned. )

Give me the day and time and I'll be there

( nailing this! )

I had heard Verso playing before, and the piano I'm familiar with
The guitar seems like a whole set of more advanced skills

2/2

[coraza]

( uh, that is to say,, he should try to answer her question )

I liked it

[savante]

I couldn't say which instrument is more advanced or not. They're both complex in their own ways.

You play piano as well?

[ As for their next performance— Verso's been optimistically pounding the pavement and securing gigs for them, even though it feels uniquely strange to plan for the future after today, this particular day, this massive looming question mark over her head. She'll work up to letting Cloud know the time. Just can't decide yet if it superstitiously feels like counting her eggs before they're hatched, and if she ought to wait to say something until tomorrow morning, lest… well. ]

[coraza]

( he's trying to pay ya a compliment )

I don't think I could ever learn to play the guitar, is what I meant
I learned the piano as a kid. My neighbor had a piano and I took lessons with her mom
Not a lot going on in a small town like that as a kid I guess

[savante]

[ listen, ]

What did you prefer doing as a child instead? If the piano wasn't a passion?


[ Clearly, the easier distraction here is pivoting and turning to interrogate Cloud. ]

text;

[searingbond]

[ The day after their conversation, after getting one of the worst nights of sleep yet, Sciel goes about her day. Puts herself through the motions, the paces, and feels almost like she's suffering under John's maddening influence again the way time drags, then lurches forward.

Somewhere in the early evening, when she's gotten jittery to the point of needing something to help channel her thoughts, she sends a text: ]

i can't stop thinking about it.

and if i copied kai... what then

[recreatable]

Can't make it. Sorry.

[ This message comes, of course, fifteen minutes into a scheduled Vagabonds rehearsal that he has not showed for. ]