( closed ) i'm at the librarian meeting. i'm at the bowling alley party.

[worldexecute]

WHO: Miss Boss Lady & her employees (Angela, and Roland, Gebura, Netzach, Yesod)
WHAT: A fun and friendly work party........
WHERE: A bowling alley, just some regular one in District 2
WHEN: Early September (wiggles hands)
WARNINGS: Library of Ruina spoilers, probably.

( Angela technically put the onus on Roland to invite everyone bowling, mostly because she didn't think any of them would want to go with her—so he's probably responsible for gathering them all... but she's responsible for getting there early, despite also telling him "tell me when you go bowling". Her managerial talents just can't leave well enough alone—

Anyway, there's bowling (obviously), so go bowl. She's also been helpful and put out all available food on the counters and tables here, so go crazy. And... for drinks, there's the regular water and soda and such, but there's also several bottles of champagne and matching flutes for it.

She's also taken some CDs and a stereo from one of the shops around the city, so instead of just eerie silence or whatever, there's music. She just grabbed whatever she could find. Don't judge her.

... ... ... ... ...

Anyway, have fun. )

Comments

🎳✨

[wordchain]

[ Take good care of your human teeth, Angela... Yesod, living up to his unfun image, is still just standing there with the bowling ball held between his hands, as if there are multiple factors to take into consideration before the ball can be released to roll along its lane and strike the pins arranged at the far end. The floor composition, his own stance, the point at which the ball leaves his hold, the distance to cross, the ball's rotation speed...

But he glances over at Angela upon hearing her question, visibly surprised. ]

...No.

[ Certainly not during their time in Lobotomy Corporation, needless to say, and if he tries to sift through what he knows of Gabriel's life, memories that include bowling are nonexistent. ]

Perhaps only Roland has experience with it. Are you waiting for your turn?

[ After a moment's pause, contemplative, he approaches Angela to offer the bowling ball to her instead. ]

[worldexecute]

( OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO. Angela stares at the offered ball, then reluctantly takes it. She's not entirely sure what she imagined it to be like, but it's... heavier? It's heavier than she expected it to be. She mimics the way he held it and swings her arm a few times, getting used to the weight... Hmmm. )

I wasn't. ( But she took it anyway, so. She stares down the lane like he had, then looks at the ball in her hand. Mmmm...

Unlike his careful deductions, she just chucks it down the lane, the loud crack of it on the floor making her jump a little. It's a gutter ball, and it returns to their side just as quickly. ) ...Ah.

( ah. )

[wordchain]

[ Ah indeed. Yesod's gaze tracks the journey that the bowling ball takes after Angela releases it to signal the start of her bowling era, and when it's within reach once more, he stoops down to pick it up. If Angela wasn't prepared, only nearby to spectate, he supposes that he caught her off-guard.

This is something a little different again to witness. Of course, Angela might react badly to that observation. ]

As most of us are new to bowling, the need to warm up is to be expected. Did you and Roland envision a contest between teams or a free-for-all, after we've familiarized ourselves with the basic techniques?

[worldexecute]

...I don't know what he thought, but probably a free-for-all. Otherwise, perhaps a teamed match between him and Gebura, and you and Netzach...

( Purposefully leaving herself out of the proceedings despite, well, everything. She'll take a seat on one of the couches nearby, hands folded in her lap as if to take up as little space as possible. )

I only agreed to come if he managed to convince the rest of you, so you could say I held no expectations whatsoever.

[wordchain]

[ Angela delineates the possible teams as if these stated pairs are a given, leaving a glaring outlier unaddressed. Once, in far more consequential circumstances, she'd verbalized something that seems echoed now: no one is by my side as I expected. Only this time, she reinforces it herself, as they have done again and again, making their positions clear — but they've since encouraged the changes they've noted as well.

Yesod watches Angela claim a section of her chosen couch to sit there primly. He arches a brow as she elaborates. ]

Then Roland organized all of this on his own?

[ Lifting one hand, he indicates the refreshments, and then the stereo. ]

Nevertheless, now that he has succeeded in persuading us to join him, we all have the freedom to decide what comes next. Does that not include you, Angela?

[worldexecute]

( Her face flushes slightly, though her expression doesn't move, when he indicates her work—the refreshments, the stereo. Roland probably would have provided some of those things, but certainly not to the extent that Angela had—she hadn't even meant to, but she had had more time before any of them arrived, and left to her own devices she had just... )

That... it does, and I've decided to observe. ( Does she deserve to join them? It would probably be nice to get along, and the friendliness they had begun to grow, minute as it may have been, after they'd seen her at her worst—it had been... not unwelcome, even if she felt some resentment for how late it had started.

Could she have blamed them? No one remembers the way she does, the way she was built to. It seems unfair to blame them for it, and yet, she can't help but do so. Oh, she wishes that man were here if only to demand an apology from him, to ask him what she had done wrong outside of simply existing, to see if he would look at her now that she didn't resemble the woman he loved and who had felt so fondly for him in return—

She wonders, still, if she deserves it, when she had chosen to end it all so quickly after being betrayed. ) I'll join when I feel certain that I've learned all there is to learn about this game.

( or until their inevitable roland-angela and gebura-yesod-netzach battle, apparently. )

[wordchain]

[ It's subtle enough that it could be a trick of the light, but it seems as though a hint of color has crept its way across Angela's cheeks. It gives the impression that although Angela is carefully and deliberately restraining any outward reaction to appear unreadable, there are faint cracks in that mask — they are quite aware by now that behind her customary demeanor, she is anything but emotionless. It's possible that she feels embarrassed by her lack of bowling expertise, accustomed to her role as a purportedly perfect AI, or perhaps that conclusion oversimplifies much more complex feelings at this juncture.

Angela has made her decision, in any case. Observing experienced players is one way to gain the knowledge required today. ]

While I intend to learn through observation and practice combined, I will ask Roland to provide a demonstration first.

[ Before the inevitable bowling battle and whatever outcome lies in store... ]