A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk.
The main feature of the tourist center is the interactive kiosk installed dead in the center, right in the middle of a few rows of uncomfortable chairs that fill the small room. It's noticeably in the way of any would-be foot traffic through the tourist center, and something about the technology seems a little more modern than the computer behind the desk or the landline phone on the wall. The kiosk is a tall silver rectangle, about average adult height, and the upper half is a screen welcoming visitors to touch it to activate the kiosk. If you were to touch it, the screen would come to life with simple dialogue inviting visitors to ask it their questions.
However, residents should note that the kiosk is only programmed to assist with exploration within the available areas of the city. It may not be able to answer every question, and tampering with the kiosk may result in unreliable or inaccurate answers!
TO THE SOUTHWEST
The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.
As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.
Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.
TO THE EAST
The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.
A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.
You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.
The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.
As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.
Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
SO A TURKEY WALKS INTO A BOWLING ALLEY...
There's a bowling alley open in the newly-accessible district, and you're invited to come test your mettle!
Walking into the lobby, you're struck by a peculiar combination of scents—shoe polish, floor wax, pretzels and nachos, and something pungent and a little oily. On the wall behind the desk is a shelf full of pair after pair of shoes, in every size you could possibly imagine, and there's a low rack filled with brightly-colored, heavy bowling balls that are ready for the taking. You can also hear the low hum of machinery and the rattle of pins being reset every time someone knocks them down, the bowling alley a well-oiled machine despite the fact that no one seems to be manning it.
You can bowl alone, start a match play (1-v-1), or bowl as a team, but you'll quickly find that bowling is much more fun (and somehow easier) when you're playing with others. Maybe it's because being around other people raises your spirits, but you feel more confident when you step up to bowl, and you find that when you're playing as part of a team, the bowling ball travels faster and in a straighter line, and you seem to be making strikes and spares with much greater frequency. Teamwork really does make the dream work!
If you occasionally see what you think might be the shadow of someone passing behind the machinery at the far end of the lane, don't worry about it—that's probably just your imagination.
If you stop by the bowling alley at night, you will find the place totally transformed. There's a disco ball hanging from the ceiling and brightly-colored lights flashing and dancing around the floor and walls. Any white parts of your clothing glow a delightful blueish color, and you find that you're illuminated in all kinds of interesting shades by the blacklight bulbs glowing in the ceiling. This is cosmic bowling, truly not for the faint of heart!
When you've finished bowling, you may want to stop by the snack area for a pretzel or hot dog, a soda, or—if you're there for cosmic bowling—maybe even a more adult beverage from the food counter on the far end of the building.
There isn't anything especially spooky about the bowling alley—except, of course, being forced to wear shoes that have been worn by a hundred strangers before. Characters are welcome to find their shoe size, grab a bowling ball, and go to town! Characters who come during the day will encounter a normal bowling alley, but they can always come back at night to get the full cosmic bowling experience. There will always be shoes in their sizes, the pins will reset themselves, and the balls will always be returned. Just be careful, those ball chutes can crush your fingers if you're not careful!
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
JUMP TO TOP ↑
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-07-01 11:00 am
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[ ayup, that's her overly serious, diligent, and worrywart of a little brother, alright. not that the severity of the situation is lost on serval, just what sort of power out there can grab a bunch of people and whisk them away to a city? she's no Aeon buff, but she's skeptical that forces on par with the Preservation can pull off something like this. isn't it like a large scale kidnapping, too? he's right to be serious and worried, but a quick stroll around the place is also enough to see that there's a lot of other people trapped in the same predicament, and this isn't looking like a situation that's going to resolve itself anytime soon. getting too stressed out by all the unknowns is just going to tire you out, so she figured she may as well greet him like normal and roll with the punches for now. ]
Right back at you. It's not like my shop is particularly busy these days, so me being out and about is pretty normal. [ if they were still in Belobog, that is. ] To find the Captain of the Silvermane Guards who's NOT out patrolling though, that's a lot more unusual. But Belobog would melt and drown before you skip out on your duties, so I don't suppose you were ordered out to do some shopping today?
[ smiles and jokes and her usual laid-back casualness aside, she does straighten herself a bit at his side at the mention of their youngest sibling. ]
Nope, I woke up on that train alone. I thought I was dreaming or somehow dozed off on the Express at first, but I think I've seen enough to say that was wishful thinking by now. You?
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after all, he would've been less concerned if it were just him. sure, his tasks would be set aside while he's m.i.a; that's the reason why there are contingency plans with the guards should he suddenly disappear. but serval being here too completely changes everything.
even if he's well aware that his sister is capable of taking care of herself. ]
I was on my way to the Underworld when I found myself here.
[ he was hoping to speak with oleg and the others further on how to utilize the guards in that area of belobog. he now wonders if he would've arrived there if he simply stayed on the train. ]
... One of the members of the Astral Express is here as well. Mr Yang, if you recall the name.
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in other words, they're gonna both keep an eye on each other, just in their own unique ways. ]
On business wide awake? You're not easy to catch off-guard no matter where, when, or what, no wonder I didn't stand a chance. They're bold to involve two Landaus though, or maybe it was blind luck that got us here?
[ it's compliment (albeit a little backhanded, maybe), boasting, and verbal nudge: they're in the same boat now and she's not
THATunreliableright?, so don't overthink things too much, she can help and do her part too! they'll figure something out, sooner or later. ]Mr. Yang? [ she blinks back up at him, now that's an unexpected name. not that she could have begun making any guesses, but with that and Lynx not being here (or at least, not to their knowledge), it does lower the odds of whoever or whatever responsible for this having it out for the Landaus in particular. ] Yeah, we've spoken before. What did he have to say about all this?
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[ it pains him to say those words because that's akin to admitting that he was caught off-guard despite his rock-solid defenses. and the last thing he wants is to show any kind of weakness, especially to his older sister who's just as vulnerable as he is here. if it were any other circumstance, he might have shed his supposed landau trademark of stubbornness, but as it stands, he's even loathed to find amusement in their situation.
what a mess this is. ]
It doesn't seem like a situation that he's encountered prior to arriving on Belobog. [ then again, he also said that there are many worlds out there, each one with its unique landscape and condition. ] Not to mention that none of the messages we send seem to reach their destinations.
[ it's alarming when someone from the astral express has no idea what's going on, given their experiences. ]
I don't suppose you've received the one I sent you?
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Not even him, huh. We've been mixed up in something really special.
[ at his mention of messages, she takes out the dinky phone lacking even a sliver of flair that woke her up in the first place. if they're stuck here for the long haul, she'll definitely have to customize it later. ]
I didn't have my own phone when I came around, can't check even if I wanted to. Only this, and the first thing it did is pester me for a display name and ask a bunch of privacy-violating questions. How was it for you?
[ her tone is light and nonchalant as she deftly taps the screen to minimize the map app and bring up the network app. ] So cluttered... Who designed this thing? [ ...that is, don't mind the muttering. ]
You didn't just give this thing your name straight up, did you Geppie?
[ ... ]
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his very chill face, however, scrunches into a frown when he hears that his sister left her phone behind. perhaps that's the one reason why he has not received a response from her, his messages no doubt going to a phone that's been dropped somewhere in her messy workshop. he wonders if molly or someone else would be able to find it and maybe address his worries about this place ...
in any case, gepard simply sighs under his breath. no point in lecturing serval about making sure she's reachable, especially during an emergency, when her phone can't be retrieved anyway. maybe later. ]
Why wouldn't I?
[ yes, that's a very matter-of-fact question, because why wouldn't he give his name to a strange device like he did with the smartphone the trailblazer gave them all. ]
It asked for my name and certain questions that felt a little invasive, but other than that, I didn't find anything strange about it.
[ ... ] Should I have not?
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THAT IS. w-well... what's wrong with just leaving her phone on a random counter or pile of Aeons know what in her own workshop? it IS her place, she can put her stuff wherever she wants! it's not like she was expecting to get whisked away to someplace else entirely out of nowhere, who could blame her for such an otherwise inconsequential oversight? this is just really bad timing okay, don't get on her case (again) about it!!
...anyway. it's her turn to look back up at him with a small frown of her own. ]
Because we don't know where these devices come from, or what's gonna be done with any information we give it. There was no getting off that train without playing along with what it was asking, gave me a creepy vibe right away. [ she briefly considers teasing or jabbing him about his selective cautiousness, being so Stern and Stressed the moment he saw her yet not batting an eyelash at giving away his own private information at the first prodding, but ultimately decides against it. maybe it stands to figure that an ex-researcher would be more sensitive to details like that? she'll just explain herself a bit and leave it there. ]
Sure, it doesn't raise alarms right away like a stranger asking for your identification card or keys to your home would, but it still forced us to share personal details with an unknown party. This could be going to whoever's responsible for all this too, I'd say it's reason enough to hold back when we can.
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still, who likes being scolded, anyway? and this feels like being scolded, the way serval lectures him about the cons of unwittingly answering the question thrown at his face. gepard's forehead creases yet again, his mouth pursing sternly. then again, he gets the concern she expresses; they have no idea who they're dealing with and he might have just given them information that they'd be able to use against him.
against them. ]
They were innocuous questions, anyway.
[ except he doesn't plan on sharing what those questions are because it doesn't matter. but!! he will ask her what questions she got, instead. ]
What kind of questions did you get and what answers did you provide?
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ran awayjoined the Express back then. she didn't intend to scold him over this, but she can't deny it came out sounding that way....oh well. he gets it now, and that's the important part. besides, it's only a matter of time before he catches onto something that's escaped her notice instead. their very different personalities and way of doing things do help them better cover angles the other wouldn't consider, that's bound to come in handy again sooner or later. ]
Just food for thought the next time you use this. See what names some people are using?
[ taking on a lighter tone, she holds out her phone to him with the network app open and scrolls over display names such as AbyssalBlade and 013. her face also doesn't twitch as she brightly smiles back at his question, of course every rock star's got a well-honed one at their disposal! ]
Hm? Are we trading?
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his expression remains impassive as she practically rubs his own carelessness in his face, the corners of his mouth tugging sidewards, his lips thinning. typical serval, making sure she's able to take a jab at him even in the most ridiculous of circumstances. as if it's not enough that she's the only person who could actually tease him.
also, what kind of a name is AbyssalBlade? are they not supposed to provide their own name so people would recognize them easily?
gepard pushes the phone away, turning his stony expression towards serval. ]
It depends if you try to bluff your way through this, so why don't you tell me first?
[ what, he asked her first? it's only fair she answers first, too. ]
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chuuninondescript (and sometimes silly) these uns are! she didn't say or do anything else. with her point proven, she also willingly lowers her phone and drops her grin, then goes back to tapping through the device while he continues drilling her being the fussy little brother that he is. ]Let's see... There was something about what keeps you up at night?
[ two can play at that! but while it may seem like she's half-ignoring him, he's also going to receive a notification on his City-issued phone with her verbal answer. will he check it while they're supposedly in the middle of an Important Conversation? spoiler: it's a dm by the sender "rocknroll", and the message consists of "🎸😁✌". there's nothing else, how mysterious... 🤔 ]
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still, that's a question he also got in that survey, which was easy enough to answer. after all, only one thing keeps him and the rest of the guards all night, especially when they're assigned to defend the frontlines of belobog. if anything, he's more curious about serval's answer to the inquiry.
as he's busy frowning at the way his phone starts chiming, pulling it out of his pocket: ]
The questionnaire had a hypothetical scenario: I'm seven and I stole sweets from the kitchen to sneak them into my bedroom. Except Father caught me, so he hit me ...
[ hitting too close to home? maybe, but gepard doesn't expound on it further. ]
... Am I supposed to decipher these images right here, Serval?
1/2
...hah. that's what he got? she maintains a good poker face at his answer, and without making him wait, gives her own. ]
"Your best friend betrays you."
[ short, simple, and just like him, she doesn't dwell. he was there with her, for her, against that Fragmentum monster and at Everwinter. he already knows, has the right to know, so all the more reason she won't
rundance around it either. she's honored her part of their 'trade' now, nothing more needs to be said. ]2/2
Come on, aren't they obvious? Nowhere near as cute as the Pomp-Pom stickers, obviously, but they're plenty good enough to liven texts up too~
[ she's beaming back up at him and holding a V sign with her free hand to match that emoji he got spammed with. yeah, this is much better than mulling over those extremely suspicious questions. that "hypothetical scenario" did instill in her a very healthy dose of skepticism right off the bat, so don't worry (she knows he will anyway, but still), she's very aware this is serious! ]
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his gaze flickers at her face, noting the minute changes that tell him what's going on in her head. and for a moment, he's tempted to reach out and find a way to comfort serval, but gepard stays his hand and simply glances back down at his phone. it's not ... the landau way to easily get so caught up in their emotions.
they understand each other's baggages; there's no reason to talk about it anymore. ]
And here I thought your strange experiments would've kept you up at night.
[ meaningful look because look, he knows about that chainsaw, neesan. no need to hide it when the trailblazer practically namedropped her. ]
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Huh? W-well, I have always been a night owl. The time of day doesn't matter anyway when you can set your own schedule, it's the questionnaire maker's problem for sticking to stereotypes!
[ a what now? she has NOOO clue what he's talking about, or why he's looking at her almost like a disappointed parent he takes WAY too much after dad (affectionate). totally doesn't relate to why she is NOT making eye contact, and has gone back to aimlessly scrolling through the network instead.
--except oh wait, she doesn't need to do that! blinking once before looking around as if she's just realized something important, she continues without missing a beat (while still pointedly NOT looking at him): ]
Soooo, District 2! That's where we're at right now. Are you out shopping? Watcha looking for?
[ pink fluffy handcuffs, right, ]
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gepard simply stares at her flatly before he shakes his head, exasperated. it's so tempting to call out her bullshit, and if he were a little more belligerent, he might've done so already. she's lucky he's fond of her enough that he's not about to make fun of her; then again, it's not in his nature to do so, either.
at her question, he clears his throat and starts walking away from the window he was so fixated on earlier. ]
... Nothing that would interest you.
[ because why would a pair of handcuffs interest someone like serval. anyway? ] Let's go, let's find shelter for the evening.
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I'm interested in plenty of things! An open mind and a healthy curiosity are great tools for finding inspiration, I'll have you know.
[ oh, they're leaving already? bummer, that's no fun... but while serval may be an atrocious liar, she's not tone deaf to social situations - including those of her own creation. she's probably pushed her luck far enough for today, and she's really not out here to cause her one and only little bro more headache than he already has. pocketing her phone, she follows alongside him after giving that curious store one final glance over her shoulder. gotta have to come back here sometimes later, something about curiosity and cats as an age old saying goes...!
but until then, it's back to business. ]
Do you have somewhere specific in mind? The digital map was surprisingly detailed about where the residential apartments are.
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That wasn't— It's not the kind of interest I meant—
[ it seems like a family trait, digging a hole for themselves.
he quickly turns back around, determined to put this behind them! no point in talking about something that's nonexistent and irrelevant for someone like him. ]
... No, but it seems everyone's congregating in those residential apartments. It would be best to stick with the group for now.
[ there's safety and comfort in numbers, after all. and it would be easier for him to ask more questions if there were people around. ]
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Putting it like that just makes your big sis worry more, y'know~ And here I was thinking I could use the inspiration for a new song, subjects like restraint and temptation are timeless after all. Should I secretly dedicate the next one to you? Ooor maybe there's other stuff I could help you out with?
[ they're still moving at a decent pace towards the right direction, even if it may be beginning to feel like the longest walk gepard's had in recent memory. serval's cheeky wink probably isn't helping either, but oh well!! ]
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it was a mistake, definitely a mistake to try and address that offhand comment; he should've realized in the first place that it was an offhand comment in the first place. now his face is burning and he's just given his sister ammo to use against him. as if this place isn't enough to unsettle him, he simply has to make his own bed and unwittingly force himself to lie in it.
but really, restraint and temptation? does she have to say it out loud? even if no one can hear them, it's still mortifying, coming from his older sister.
sputtering: ] Oth, other stuff?
[ what other stuff is she even talking about? ]
I don't know what you're talking about, Serval.
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a lack of function for Gepard Landau, Captain of the Silvermane Guards, and a lack of responsibility for he who is always working tirelessly to uphold his oath. right now, it's just Gepard Landau, baby brother to Serval Landau, with a completely empty schedule on his hands like he probably hasn't had even before he enrolled with the Guards. if not now, when else would she EVER get another opportunity to get on his case about these interests he would have a myriad of (albeit legitimate) excuses in not entertaining back in their own world?
this is what fuels serval's boldness, shamelessness even. but it's like she's told the trailblazer, how little this serious and uptight brother of hers pays attention to his own affairs IS a very real source of concern for her, so of course she's going to pounce on this chance to... broaden his horizons, so to speak! ]
We don't have shops like that in Belobog, it's pretty obvious why, but you don't need to have studied economics to get all businesses are generally founded over the concept of demand and supply~ [ "generally", because she herself dubiously qualifies. ] And since it got your attention, that just proves you've got a 'demand' of your own, even if it's just budding curiosity for the time being! Don't think too hard about it, it's totally normal for instincts to override reason sometimes. My music is pure instinct, y'know! [ don't dwell on why she sounds so proud about that. ] Anyway, what really caught your attention? Was it the cuffs~~~?
[ let's embark on a journey of self-discovery unhindered by the prestigious and troublesome weight of the family name and all the baggage that comes with it, geppie!!! ]
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his standards have always been held higher because of the name he carries, and he's never once expected to hold themselves against the same set.
but without his work, his responsibility, his oath, then what is he to do now? perhaps that's the very reason as well as why serval is adamant in pursuing this line of conversation with him, as if addressing it right now would change anything in the long run.
(spoiler alert: it won't) ]
I don't have a demand for anything, Sister. I was merely— [ he doesn't want to use the word curious because she's already used it against him. ] —surprised that a pair of cuffs would be brightly colored and covered in fur. It seems very counterintuitive.
[ desires and instincts are easy to curb when there are more pressing things to think about. like where they're staying for the night. ]
There's no other underlying reason behind it.
[ very convincing statement from a 30something-year-old otome maiden. ]
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save himstop her from dragging him along that sort of lifestyle now! ]Not at all, you're just not thinking about it the right way. Here's a different example for you: it's not that different from how my shop works. Why do I run a business, if I'm not making money?
[ she doesn't have say more, that's a rhetorical question he already knows very well the answer to. ]
So try again. "Why design a pair of cuffs that are pink and fluffy, if they're functionally bad for holding down law-breaking criminals?"
[ one step at a time, they got no shortage of it after all. ]
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gepard presses his lips together and closes his eyes, exhaling through his nose in exasperation. it's clear that his sister isn't going to let this go unless he indulges her against his own will and she satisfies her need for amusement at his own expense. ]
They're to hold down another individual except they don't wish for said individual to feel any kind of discomfort.
[ ... he's trying to make this as neutral as he can, but he's pretty sure the older blonde will keep hounding him about it. ]
That answers the fluffiness of the cuffs, but the pink color—
[ he shuts his mouth. ]
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