Rosamund is taking refuge in places more familiar to her. She needs something grounding, not more of these echoing steel and searing lights. If Shu wanders in though, he finds himself at a decidedly unpleasant locale: the middle of the ocean, by way of a derelict floating amusement park. An ancient one at that, and empty, littered with donkey bones and rotten wood, barnacles, and the odour of what can only be described as "rancid hotdogs" in the air.
Rosamund has taken refuge at a wee shack labelled "Slappy's Bubblegum and Whisky", where she is wearily pouring herself a shot from a bottle with a crayon label. The "k" in whisky is backwards.]
Oh. [She freezes on the spot.] ...Sorry. Did you want the room?
[ me like we need to have them stop meeting on the worst days and i’ll start the next pc sldjslkgd.
this… isn’t actually what he expected to see when he walked in here, but honestly what can anyone expect to see if they wander into the simulation room unprompted? anyone could be in there and it’s well established now that so many of them have very different lives and homes and backgrounds. he could be underwater, or in some weird magic tower for all he knew.
but an amusement park? that’s different. even if the smell is making his nose wrinkle a little. ]
… [ somehow, rosamund freezing like he just caught her doing something bad makes him feel even more like he’s intruding, actually. ] No, not really. Kinda came here on auto-pilot. Can you get drunk off simulation room drinks?
[ because why else would she be tiredly pouring herself shots of whiskey-rotated-k? ]
I suppose I'll find out. [The effects aren't supposed to last outside of this room, but supposedly they feel real enough while you're here. She'd felt the illusory thorns bite into her skin back when Luke caught her panicking in here, before she knew better, before she knew how to use it.
Rosamund pours a second shot and holds it out to him.]
It's terrible stuff. It was made by children. Fair warning.
Am I about to get a sugar rush on top of a headache?
[ well, he did barge in here unannounced, so he can at least accept a drink he’s given. even if it comes with the warning it sucks and was made by kids.
he’s not a coward though so— he’ll take the shot. how does it taste? ]
[There's another shack across the wooden rafters boasting just that.
Rosamund herself pops in a piece of bubblegum first, chewing several times, then knocks back her whisky and swallows it on the way. Without the gum the whisky is harsh, young and one-dimensional, but manageable.
With the gum it's just preceded by a swill of sugar.]
[Becks tell me how it is that dw loves to delete your notifs specifically, shakes in 3 days late tags]
Well, they didn't have very long to do it, I don't think. [She gestures broadly at the scattering of animal bones on old salt-sprayed planks.] I think they all turned into donkeys after...a few months? Three or four? I'd have to ask again, I don't know the specifics. I wasn't here when this place was all hip and popping.
[Very much not the case now. But it has alcohol and the sweet memories of friendship and victory. Nice things to cling to in times like this.]
Turned into donkeys. [She shrugs.] I think it was a sort of..."business" before? Lure misbehaving little boys to a fun park in the sea where they can drink and smoke and play and party, and then they turned into donkeys. Which probably got sent to work somewhere. Or it's just some terrible punishment that has no point.
[Except to make Pinocchio suffer. Mostly likely that if we're being frank.]
Same. And I feel just awful about it, that Viktor died so terribly and I didn't make the time to know him. And that he wanted so desperately to live, and was fighting for that right even before he came here.
[She loses herself in a thought. Then pours a second shot before it swallows her whole.]
... Like that story, the one with the puppet and the kids being turned into donkeys? [ are we allowed to fourth wall her? otherwise i'll edit. ] Whoever came up with this probably just wanted some kind of cheap or easy labour, that's usually the reason for conning people and trapped them most of the time. Profit or labour.
[ #all my threads end up talking about capitalism. ]
... [ and then she kissed the killer. ] None of it's exactly fair. I don't think how much you want to live matters in the moment, if you're targeted. But, Viktor didn't seem particularly threatening.
[You are simply batting the balls I pitched to you, fourth walling extremely welcomed.
Though for Rosamund it's cause to go still. She's still got the shot glass and bottle in hand, facing the back of the shack.]
...Something like that. Yeah.
[Something indeed. She knocks back the whisky without the bubblegum this time. For Todomatsu to recognize her was one thing. Quite another to hear casual comparisons off the cuff. She's been wondering where she is for a while now. Is this within the borders of the realms of story, or has she been plucked from her pages and wedged into the cogs of reality?
If Shu knows of her friends as only stories, then the rest might too. She needs to be careful.]
No. No he didn't. As far as I could tell, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
[Unlike Eunhyuk. She'd misread him in so many ways. Twice a fool, two weeks in a row latching herself onto men who went mad in the middle of the night.]
It's not his fault. Theirs. They...if things had been different, none of this would have happened. We wouldn't have to fear them, or hate anyone. They're being led into doing these things by something none of us understand.
[ he just blinks at that reaction, but-- doesn't press it, given how she freezes so quickly.
it's something though. but everyone has secrets, and things they don't want to share or talk about. he's not particularly open, so he understands that. ]
The only people we can really blame here is Nut & Bolt, and whatever's going on with the ship. Doesn't really give you someone to pin your ire on, because it's hard to be mad at anyone wrapped up in this.
That you don't blame them for what's happened. I'm not...part of me still wants to. Even if it breaks my heart to hear it from someone else. Is that strange?
Where I’m from it’s against the law to kill someone. I don’t know about other places, whether or not that’s the same there? But it means talking about it challenges a lot of people’s morals and perceptions.
Generally, killing people is wrong. And if you’ve lost someone you cared about you want someone to blame. [ his eyes shift to look at her. ] But it’s not easy when you know they’re probably not in control of their actions. I can’t blame them for not being able to wrestle back control from something determined to use them, and I can’t blame people for being mad about it either.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
WEEK 1: Sunday
Rosamund is taking refuge in places more familiar to her. She needs something grounding, not more of these echoing steel and searing lights. If Shu wanders in though, he finds himself at a decidedly unpleasant locale: the middle of the ocean, by way of a derelict floating amusement park. An ancient one at that, and empty, littered with donkey bones and rotten wood, barnacles, and the odour of what can only be described as "rancid hotdogs" in the air.
Rosamund has taken refuge at a wee shack labelled "Slappy's Bubblegum and Whisky", where she is wearily pouring herself a shot from a bottle with a crayon label. The "k" in whisky is backwards.]
Oh. [She freezes on the spot.] ...Sorry. Did you want the room?
no subject
this… isn’t actually what he expected to see when he walked in here, but honestly what can anyone expect to see if they wander into the simulation room unprompted? anyone could be in there and it’s well established now that so many of them have very different lives and homes and backgrounds. he could be underwater, or in some weird magic tower for all he knew.
but an amusement park? that’s different. even if the smell is making his nose wrinkle a little. ]
… [ somehow, rosamund freezing like he just caught her doing something bad makes him feel even more like he’s intruding, actually. ] No, not really. Kinda came here on auto-pilot. Can you get drunk off simulation room drinks?
[ because why else would she be tiredly pouring herself shots of whiskey-rotated-k? ]
no subject
Rosamund pours a second shot and holds it out to him.]
It's terrible stuff. It was made by children. Fair warning.
no subject
[ well, he did barge in here unannounced, so he can at least accept a drink he’s given. even if it comes with the warning it sucks and was made by kids.
he’s not a coward though so— he’ll take the shot. how does it taste? ]
no subject
[There's another shack across the wooden rafters boasting just that.
Rosamund herself pops in a piece of bubblegum first, chewing several times, then knocks back her whisky and swallows it on the way. Without the gum the whisky is harsh, young and one-dimensional, but manageable.
With the gum it's just preceded by a swill of sugar.]
Cheers. [A beat.] I should have said that first.
no subject
I see what you mean about it being made by kids. Ageing's not really a thing in their language.
[ he'll set down his glass definitively. he will avoid more if he can. ]
Cheers.
no subject
Well, they didn't have very long to do it, I don't think. [She gestures broadly at the scattering of animal bones on old salt-sprayed planks.] I think they all turned into donkeys after...a few months? Three or four? I'd have to ask again, I don't know the specifics. I wasn't here when this place was all hip and popping.
[Very much not the case now. But it has alcohol and the sweet memories of friendship and victory. Nice things to cling to in times like this.]
Did you know either of them? Viktor, or Eunhyuk?
no subject
... They did what now?
[ rosamund you can't just drop the donkey lore and then carry on like you said nothing. deets. ]
I knew Eunhyuk better than Viktor, if you can call two weeks of chatting sometimes "knowing" someone.
no subject
[Except to make Pinocchio suffer. Mostly likely that if we're being frank.]
Same. And I feel just awful about it, that Viktor died so terribly and I didn't make the time to know him. And that he wanted so desperately to live, and was fighting for that right even before he came here.
[She loses herself in a thought. Then pours a second shot before it swallows her whole.]
no subject
[ #all my threads end up talking about capitalism. ]
... [ and then she kissed the killer. ] None of it's exactly fair. I don't think how much you want to live matters in the moment, if you're targeted. But, Viktor didn't seem particularly threatening.
no subject
Though for Rosamund it's cause to go still. She's still got the shot glass and bottle in hand, facing the back of the shack.]
...Something like that. Yeah.
[Something indeed. She knocks back the whisky without the bubblegum this time. For Todomatsu to recognize her was one thing. Quite another to hear casual comparisons off the cuff. She's been wondering where she is for a while now. Is this within the borders of the realms of story, or has she been plucked from her pages and wedged into the cogs of reality?
If Shu knows of her friends as only stories, then the rest might too. She needs to be careful.]
No. No he didn't. As far as I could tell, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
[Unlike Eunhyuk. She'd misread him in so many ways. Twice a fool, two weeks in a row latching herself onto men who went mad in the middle of the night.]
It's not his fault. Theirs. They...if things had been different, none of this would have happened. We wouldn't have to fear them, or hate anyone. They're being led into doing these things by something none of us understand.
no subject
it's something though. but everyone has secrets, and things they don't want to share or talk about. he's not particularly open, so he understands that. ]
The only people we can really blame here is Nut & Bolt, and whatever's going on with the ship. Doesn't really give you someone to pin your ire on, because it's hard to be mad at anyone wrapped up in this.
[ :( ]
no subject
[She looks at him then, smiling weakly.]
That you don't blame them for what's happened. I'm not...part of me still wants to. Even if it breaks my heart to hear it from someone else. Is that strange?
no subject
Where I’m from it’s against the law to kill someone. I don’t know about other places, whether or not that’s the same there? But it means talking about it challenges a lot of people’s morals and perceptions.
Generally, killing people is wrong. And if you’ve lost someone you cared about you want someone to blame. [ his eyes shift to look at her. ] But it’s not easy when you know they’re probably not in control of their actions. I can’t blame them for not being able to wrestle back control from something determined to use them, and I can’t blame people for being mad about it either.