[OPEN]

[justscribing]

WHO: (justscribing) & you!

WHAT: October Catch-All (open + closed)

WHERE: Poison garden, University, Around

WHEN: all through October

WARNINGS: TBA + marked in threads as necessary




OPEN PROMPT LINKS [UPDATED AS ADDED]

Poison Garden

University

Feel free to reach me by PM or plurk (monochromic) if you want to plot for something specific!

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[OPEN: POISON GARDEN] OCT 4+

[justscribing]

[Tea Party]

[Another month, another grand opening of some particular city building. This time, it's one they've seen but haven't been able to get into: the massive greenhouse. There is a pattern, that things happening at the beginning of the month are generally safe as long as one is careful. They don't target and trap like those that seem to occur in the middle of it.

So here he is, snooping around the greenhouse. And here he is, sitting in a chair at the tea party with one les crossed over the other and a journal laying open across his lap. Mind, he isn't actually drinking any of the tea.

No, he's watching other people drink the tea.

Very obviously staring, waiting, witnessing. Anyone who stares back, he gestures to continue.

Because he knows people will drink it, and if anything's wrong with it (there's definitely something wrong with it) he can learn through the consequences of other people's actions.

... He will, at least, assist with antidotes as necessary once he has his notes down.]

[Carnivore]

[The left is much less inviting than the right, which is ultimately why he pivots down to it first.

The first time is meant to be a simple observation, taking photos of the plants and making notes of what details he can't get clearly on the screen in his journal. That's all fine, even under the dark light, until one of the plant's long vines slips down from the shelf and slaps the journal right out of his hand.

Alhaitham stares at it. And then he stares at the tendril wrapping around his wrist and slowly pulling his arm toward what seems to be a venus fly trap with too solid teeth. Excuse?

Later times he's a little more prepared to avoid getting chewed on (not that the plants are big enough to cause any real damage). If someone else is struggling, he pull them out of the way. But when things are in the clear he can be found... throwing pieces of meat to the plants while video recording their behavior. That's a normal thing, definitely.]

Closed for Heine

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham catches Heine by happenstance, as one often does in situations such as these. By the fork in the greenhouse that diverts between the darker and the lighter path. Alhaitham takes a longer step, which turns into a louder click of his heel before Heine can make a decision which way he's going to go. Because why call out by a normal person.]

Which one do you think is deadlier?

[kampfgeist]

[ heine has been lingering for the better part of half an hour, probably. first, outside the greenhouse to make sure that it's not a one-way trip the way the mall had been, and then inside the greenhouse at the fork in the path to see whether one was more likely than the other to cause trauma.

by the time he turns at alhaitham's voice, heine thinks he more or less has his mind made up. ]

The left. [ he points. ] Somebody screamed down that way earlier, sounded like pain. The right side has had some yelling but it sounded angry.

Closed for Kaveh

[justscribing]

[There are many things Kaveh doesn't want people to know.

There is a Kaveh who has to live with himself every night, with every sore and bruise and ire, and this is a Kaveh that he is careful to not show to the world at large. This is the Kaveh that this place keeps trying to wretch out in front of everyone against his will. Alhaitham guards his privacy to keep people from getting near. Kaveh to keep them from getting far. And to chase is such a difficult thing. The consequences of ripping open Kaveh's bleeding heart haunt. He had given it to Alhaitham, once, by accident, and Alhaitham hadn't known how to be gentle. The whisper of these flowers, similarly, won't be gentle.

Which is why, at the flash of red and gold, Alhaitham turns and chases. There are things he does not want Kaveh to know. Not many, but they are there. And so with the movement of pushing back overgrown daffodils to the sight of Kaveh's back in view, he immediately moves to catch Kaveh's hand in his before they have the chance to redirect their vulgarity to his secrets again.

Which is also the only warning of his presence Kaveh really gets. Certainly not a hello.]

[fussiest]

[ there are too many things kaveh doesn't want people to know.

it isn't the first time that kaveh's contemplated the two alternatives. one is a life where there is nothing to know. one is a life where everyone already knows. both are extreme aspirations born of a cornered animal's dreams. neither of them are attainable, because kaveh cannot live a life where he is nothing, and kaveh cannot live a life where he is something. in either scenario, kaveh would no longer be himself. and so kaveh walks down the path of the wending flowers and listens to them hiss.

in truth, the first time kaveh heard the rustle of the whispers, he'd mistaken it for his own inner voice. that's the thing, when you're used to self-condemnation, that even the condemnation of the world begins to take the form of your own voice. what is an architect without a house to build becomes what is an architect without a house? what is a house that is not a home, and what is an architect without a home? home had been a sanctuary of warmth and light, and so of course it follows: who was it that dimmed the light and doused the warmth? and the endcap of it always comes like this: and who is it who is still doing so?

kaveh ought to have learned, is the thing. he ought to have known better than to plunge into greenhouse. he hadn't meant to come. not really. but kaveh had learned from the mall - that those who didn't enter were the ones who survived on the corpses of others. you had to enter the flames to pull someone out. you couldn't be afraid of the burn if there were others depending on you. and so kaveh had entered, and kaveh had looked, and the flowers had looked back - and there he was. and there they were.

someone is coming, the flowers whisper. someone who knows your secret. kaveh's breath hitches. it comes in shallow gasps. cold sweat prickles his back. adrenaline courses through his limbs. kaveh makes to run. because the words that always follow is thus: someone who knows that you kill everyone who's ever had the misfortune of being loved by you.

a hand clasps his.

as if the truncating of a breeze, the entire world stills. the flowers shift in silent ease. kaveh's hand is warm. inertia turns him. kaveh's eyes are wide, and bleak. ]

Alhaitham?

Closed for Tsuruno

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham thinks, at least he might be alone, swatting through oversize flowers to find the exit while they jeer around him. It isn't like he has (many) dark secrets, but Alhaitham has always been one to guard his privacy. It requires effort to get into his personal life, and anyone who isn't willing is someone who likely couldn't keep up with him enough he'd care anyway.

So flowers talking about his business is annoying, and what is it about everything in this place that seems designed to trap them within a maze? The flowers are too big to see the walls and there's nothing he can climb. He shouldn't have gone this way.

He slaps another one away with a little too much force, revealing between him and what's across from it--] Tsuruno.

[fanstheflames]

Al! Hi!

[ Tsuruno looks genuinely surprised to see him, if a little... tired. Not anything droopy or exhausted, just somewhat weary, but she still offers him a smile. She's always happy to see Alhaitham, much to Kaveh's chagrin (alarm, confusion, and so on). ]

You were checking out the new area too, huh? I figured you'd already have seen most of the new stuff.

carnivore

[cashewlater]

[ that cyno is also here should come as no great surprise. he's curious and desirous of investigation, sure, but also he's like, married to a botanist, so he's got to impress tighnari with his cataloguing skills.

also, you know, he likes to make potions, and some of these plants might be useful to that end. he wanders past a few whispering plants that aren't being too noisy for the moment. ]

New pet?

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham, still recording its slow devouring of the piece of meat, looks over his shoulder briefly at Cyno.]

I'm not interested in adding a carnivorous plant to the apartment. But with the lack of bug life in this city I was curious about their thriving. Do you think they're adapted to other forms of protein or is it just another thing kept in stasis?

tea party

[wreatharrow]

[ Now Alhaitham wouldn't have seen Tighnari. He had been there earlier. But Alhaitham will notice creature plopping down beside him. Looking irritable. Cranky. Ears folded back and wearing a far too familiar expression. ]

Closed for Midnight

[justscribing]

[You wouldn't think this place would be so hard to get out of, but the bending of the oversize flowers and the attempt to stay away from other people is spinning him in circles. Why did he come here. He can admit it, this was a mistake.

He's turned on his noise cancelling for the sake of blocking out the flowers, relying on sight to identify the shifting of plants and colors to divert from other people. Not a perfect solution, and he shouldn't care what flowers think more than people, which is already little. Their judgement of him as a person is of little offense: it's the constantly picking at the scab that he, hate to admit it, really hates hearing.

"Does he think those headphones really let him separate himself from his surroundings?"

"This isn't being very observant."

"If he treats our words like they're meaningless noise, does that mean he's the meaningless one?"

There is one problem with his current arrangement: he can't see anyone approaching from around his back.]

The Kissening [Closed]

[justscribing]

[OPEN: UNIVERSITY] OCT 2

[justscribing]

[Newsletter in hand, Alhaitham makes his way to the university, down the halls to room 312 in the social sciences building. Pushes open the door, and goes straight for the file cabinet.

It's a scene reminiscent of the day he arrived: stacks of papers everywhere as he's dug through every possible sheet for information. This time, many are actually legible, and he knows what's where but anyone just coming in may have a hard time sorting.

Presently, he has the [REDACTED] city document laid out on the table and is angling his phone to try and get a clear picture. His lips are pursed into a thin frown.

Without looking up:] Don't stand in the light.

[anthropophagite]

[ of course Kaneki heads to the university. He is trying to find out more about the place, but also he is much more familiar with universities... and he still hopes to find some books, in a way.

At the end of the day, when he spots the light of the office turning on, he heads there even if a bit nervous. This place can mess with them and he partially expects that to happen when he steps inside the office.

And then there is someone else. Kaneki isn't sure if he should say something, but Alhaitham speaks first ]

O-oh, sorry. [ he enters the room, looking around ] I didn't mean to bother, I'm just exploring.

What did you find...?

[blackabyss]

Sorry.

[Fumikage had come to investigate as well, drawn to the curious Office Hours outlined in the newsletter. He hadn't expected to find another here investigating, but he also is surprised to see it's a familiar face.]

Ah... you were the man in the mall. Al...haitham, correct?

[laserguy]

[Who doesn't want to read about potentially horrible things? That's why he's here (and to just investigate, but he has no fantasy in believing that anything is going to be too pleasant here).

At the comment, however, Scott turns his head-- his visor up to the light, as if finally noticing that he's blocking Alhaitham's source of light, before stepping out of the way. Sometimes, it's a little difficult for him to tell these sort of things, but he doesn't fault the other man for his blunt words if he's deeply invested in his findings.]

My apologies. [...] Nothing good, I'm assuming?

[wordchain]

[ Arriving to a somewhat disorderly scene isn't ideal, but it's only to be expected that many people will be coming and going from this room, after receiving that newsletter. Regardless of what exactly they will find and what its existence means, these developments are unusual enough that they warrant attention. Once inside the office, Yesod stops some paces away from the table, taking care to keep his shadow from falling across its surface. ]

I'll wait my turn. I'm sure that there is a queue forming.

[ He lets his gaze roam from one stack of paper to the next. These documents aren't blank sheets for once, as far as he can tell. While he'd like to begin looking through them himself, he stays where he is for now. ]

Have you finished examining the other files?

October Event

[justscribing]

Closed for Tsuruno

[justscribing]

[It's two hours after the party has started that Alhaitham finally shows up, looking... well, outwardly, exactly as he always does. He's not here to stay, of course--it's just to check up on how they're handling things and if anyone's been facing any particular consequences. He hasn't seen or felt anything strange in or since leaving his apartment, but... there's plenty of time for it to happen.

He weaves around the crowd, sticking to the walls until he spots Tsuruno and makes a beeline right for her.] Everything going well?

Closed for Badou

[justscribing]

[It starts when he's standing in the kitchen with a pot overflowing. He doesn't know how long the water had been running while his knuckles went white gripping the counter. It's whispers of someone who isn't there in the next room, that he knows isn't there. It's a hunger sitting uncomfortable, insatiable, a need to devour that's never satisfied by food alone.

It's finding himself, suddenly, wandering off his path each and every time to head north. He starts with losing seconds, and then minutes, his focus dragged under as he's pulled along like a puppet on a string.

These are the consequences, then, of trying to avoid their little experiment. No, it's because of the rebelling itself, isn't it? It's a battle of attrition then, as it always is with this place: it attempts to unmake them. He won't accept that so easily. So he fights. He pivots when he shakes his awareness to himself. He blocks out the sounds of his apartment that shouldn't be there.

He stands in the convenience store, a statue with a wrapped sandwich in hand and his back to the door. The stillness is ice. It is not human.]

Closed for Kaveh

[justscribing]

[He makes it a week since the dueling parties occurred, which is pretty good when this place gets more and more determined to twist his brain around until he complies. He even got through it with minimal randomly biting people.

Unfortunately, it doesn't last forever. He finally isn't able to pull his wits about him before he ends up in some warping door to the first floor of the haunted house. It's day eight, Alhaitham's hasn't been able to sleep properly without audible hallucinations catching him just before he dozes off, and the strange compulsion trying to sleepwalk him. He almost considers tying himself to the bed if he didn't always wake up partway through the escape.

He doesn't actually know when he ended up in here. Time has slipped away from him. The days have blended together in some attempt to melt fragments of memories to fit the whole. He knows, regardless, he needs to get out. He also needs to get these plastic vampire fangs out of his mouth but they have proven unfortunately stubborn. He'd like to not injure his gums.

So, forward.

The footsteps coming out of one of the rooms makes him stop. He stares at the figure that walks out, framed by the flashing corded pumpkin lights that have been stapled to the doorway. It's Kaveh.

It's Kaveh... in a maid dress?

Alhaitham stares. He's dumbstuck. He's not totally sure he's not just having some new hallucination brought upon as punishment for having tried to stick it to the man.]

Closed for Onni

[justscribing]

[It is darker on the second floor.

The firm shut of the door behind him isn't surprising. The entrance had been the same. Testing the handle proves it to be locked tight. The only way is forward. Alhaitham starts forward.

His night vision is no better than anyone else's, but in the faintly flickering lights he does catch movement. It makes him stop. One foot shifts back and the slight raise in his shoulders is in preparation for a fight.] Who's there?

Closed for Tsuruno

[justscribing]

[Up on the second floor, the warning Tsuruno gets that she isn't alone is the steady click, click, click of boot heel against varnished tile. It starts from behind, the distant figure little more than an imposing shadow. The lights, at times, catch and reflect metal to outline pieces of his form. The swooping collar of an off-shoulder cape. The curve of a headphone.

He continues at a steady pace. There is no hurry. There's almost no thought about it at all.]

Closed for Nill

[justscribing]

[In the wise words of Kaveh: He hates this place.

The party at the end of the haunted house isn't really any more pleasant, but after getting knocked around by Heine he needs a place to recuperate. His noise cancelling has been clicked on to drown out most of the noise and he sits as far into the corner as possible with a single bottle of beer.

He watches, still, even if it's in a half-aware state. So he sees Nill, and when she sees him he tilts his head toward the chair next to him in a silent offering.]

Closed for Fearne

[justscribing]

[Once would have been enough. Twice is exhausting. But here Alhaitham is on the first floor of the annoying sounds and annoying lights. he hadn't even been out longer than an hour, but the city's mental punishment hasn't alleviated enough that Alhaitham was able to resist the compulsion before he'd even gotten out of the distict.

So, here he is, letting out a weary sigh.] This place...

[He opens his eyes again to track around the hall, and sets his gaze on Fearne as soon as he sees her.]