tushanshu_logs | (OPEN) All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go

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(OPEN) All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go

Characters: Wild Tiger

oyaji, Barnaby Brooks Jr.

baniichan, and YOU!
Date: 10/26
Location: Around the Wood Sector
Situation: Still dressed in his Hero suit, Wild Tiger acclimates to his new life on the back of a turtle.
Warnings/Rating: Goofiness?

A;
Most of the Kedan are giving Wild Tiger a wide berth as they pass him to go about their day. It's no surprise since he sorely sticks out of place in his white and neon green armor sporting logos for a Japanese cellphone company and a convenience store chain. He's found himself slumped over a richly carved bench that's set underneath the shade of a great tree. It's a pleasant enough place to switch between childish excitement and an existential breakdown right in front of everyone.

B;
There's a really excited forty year old Japanese man in a Hero suit practically running circles around one of the tree houses in the Sector. Apparently it's his and he can't be more thrilled! Obviously, because he's squawking about it to every Joe Blow who mistakenly walks by. Sorry neighbors, you're stuck with this oaf.

C;
Phase One: Find Partner is complete. Phase Two: Figure out what in the flying fuck to do about it. Well, that's seems normal enough, but together they are quite the spectacle. One looks like some seasonal Iron Man and the other is just a green and white nightmare. They are beginning to stop traffic in the Wood Sector as Kedan start to rubberneck in droves around them. Come watch the sideshow act!

((ooc: With C, your character can play with both Barnaby and Kotetsu in one thread. ))

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Considering how new they were to this place, Barnaby wouldn't have been surprised if his partner accidentally sent him on a wild goose chase. Thankfully, Kotetsu was exactly where he'd promised, which meant less of a headache for Barnaby.

Of course, with all the attention they were drawing to themselves just by standing around, there were plenty of other headache-inducing things about their situation, so he wasn't out of the woods just yet.

...The woods. Ugh, he was so glad he didn't say that one out loud. Kotetsu would have never let him hear the end of it.

"You know," Barnaby said with a barely-contained frown, "now that we've found each other, I'm starting to think we ought to just go inside."

That familiar blase voice was a godsend as far as Wild Tiger was concerned. After parking himself under the tree, his excitement began to dwindle as the minutes ticked away. Boredom was something that rarely featured in his dreams (unless they were nightmares), which finally squashed the last of his nonchalance. They were actually stuck here. There was no going back, whether that meant physically or mentally. Either way, they were in this world until they found out how to break the illusion or hitched a ride home.

The only anchor he had now was his partner, and that was fine. There was no way Tiger would be able to leave this place by himself, but with Barnaby... Yeah, they had a real chance of figuring this out.

Lifting his head up from where it hung dramatically between his knees, the older Hero smiled warmly before it turned wicked with childish exuberance. "Yeah? We can go inside my new treehouse?"

"Are you still excited about that?" Folding his arms over his chest, he glanced toward the large wooden structures around them. Barnaby wasn't sure why Kotetsu's childlike wonder irritated him. Maybe it was because he felt like nobody ought to be happy about what basically amounted to the sleeping quarters assigned to them while they were held here against their will.

He has to admit, though, their respective Sectors seemed to fit their personalities well enough. Which made him wonder just how much research these people had done on them beforehand.

"Well...it's not like we have anywhere else to go without leaving the Sector," he added before giving a resigned sigh. "Fine. Do you even remember where it is?"

Edited 2013-10-28 18:25 (UTC)

"uh, yeah! Once you see it, you'll understand." Tiger was sure of it. The stubborn blond could try his best to remain unimpressed in the face of a house carved out of a grand tree. No one could resist! No one. He'd bet money on it, in fact.

Self-satisfied after his inner pep-talk, the Hero got off the bench and pointed down a paved path leading further into the forest. "Of course! It's right... over in this direction." Alright, so his voice betrayed his bravado, but they would find it again! There were only so many trees! The two of them just had to find the one that wasn't immediately occupied obviously. More confident than he should be, he led Barnaby through the Sector like he kenw exactly what he was doing.

"Okay, uhhh... SO I think we go this way and... then... Hmm..."

With no other option, he took to following Kotetsu through the Sector as the older man tried to remember where they needed to go.

Barnaby didn't look convinced that his partner knew what he was doing, though, and the last thing he wanted was to keep drawing unwanted attention to themselves by wandering around. It was already uncomfortably obvious that they were foreigners. They didn't need to look lost on top of that if they could help it.

"Don't tell me you forgot the way already," Barnaby sighed. "Do you remember what suite number you're in? Maybe we should ask for directions."

"We're fine!" he reassured his partner with a confident flick of his wrist as they continued to walk amongst the large grouping of trees that made up the suites of this Sector.

"... Besides, they'd sooner avoid eye contact than actually help us." Yeah, it was said out of bitterness, but whatever! He had been sitting on the bench for a good forty minutes, so he was already an expert on the sociology of the Kedan, and what it told him was that they wouldn't show them the way! Thus it was left up to him to get them home.

"So... There's C and mine should be--Oh! Right where I knew it'd be!" His bragging was quickly followed by a congratulatory laugh as he moved swiftly to the base of the massive tree. "Cool, huh?" Barnaby didn't even need to say anything. Tiger knew it was inarguable fact.

Barnaby looked up at Kotetsu's new abode. Though he had to admit that it was an...interesting architectural choice, he still wouldn't have chosen such a place for himself. Way too much natural and all the unpredictability that entailed.

"I suppose," he slowly answered. "If you enjoy that sort of thing, anyway..."

Barnaby turned to look at his partner somewhat expectantly. "Are you going to show me inside?"

"Eh? Oh! Yeah!" He was so caught up in admiring his awesome new quarters he completely forgot about the inside. With a sly smile just for his partner, Tiger held the door open for Barnaby, ushering him in with an outstretched arm like the perfect gentleman he was.

"So, first floor's kinda of a sitting area, I guess," Tiger described behind him once he closed the door. "Second's got the console, and the third's my bedroom! Aw, you should see the headboard I've got!"

A treehouse with more than one floor, huh. Barnaby made a soft noise in the back of his throat that almost sounded like a laugh. "It suits you."

Apparently Kotetsu thought so too, without how excited he was about all this. Well, if that was going to help him sleep at night, Barnaby guessed there wasn't any reason to rain on his parade more than he already had. This would all catch up to him soon enough.

Of course, for Barnaby, it was hard to distract himself with those sorts of trivialities. Although he was only satisfied with the best amenities available, he honestly didn't require that many things to be comfortable.

"Any place to sit down?" he asked after a moment. "I'm still feeling pretty tired, but I didn't want to let my guard down too much while we were outside."

"Oh, sure. I think there's a table down here... Only looked around once so far." Sliding past Barnaby with a hand on his shoulder guard, Tiger moved further into the expansive room where a lone window was carved out of the tree to catch the light. Right in front was a raw wooden table for three. Craftsmanship be damned, he just hoped the intricately designed chairs could stand up to two grown men in armor. Guess they'd find out... By letting Barnaby try first.

"Here, take a seat."

Barnaby was skeptical, and it showed in the dubious look he gave the table. "We have no idea who made this, or what kind of wood it is," he pointed out. "For all I know, it could smash apart the second I sit down."

He sighed, not wanting to have to think harder about anything than he had to right at that moment. "I'll just sit on the floor, I guess." It was all made of wood in the end, so why did they even need three chairs in here?

With that, he moved toward the wall and made himself a seat on top of the wood beneath his feet.

Well, that was a little uncanny. He thought his partner was going to call him out on his stealth attack, but they both came to the same conclusion. A Hero couldn't afford to make an ass of themselves, whether a camera was around or not. Because, honestly, there was always a camera! Always.

The last thing he wanted to do was break a chair, but a close second was sitting on the hard floor. Not everyone in this room was a spry young man!

Ugh, whatever. Sorry, but he wasn't going to be the first in his own chair! So, grudgingly and whining the entire time, he lowered himself onto the floor in front of Barnaby.

Honestly, with all the whining Kotetsu did as he settled down, someone might have thought Barnaby had forced the old man to join him. "The sooner we get this armor off, the sooner we can get some real rest," Barnaby admitted. "But I wanted to take a moment to collect my thoughts."

After all, taking off their power suits technically left them more vulnerable in case they were unexpectedly attacked, and it also signaled an acceptance that they were here to stay for at least awhile.

After everything he'd heard and seen, Barnaby realized that the sooner they got over that mental hurdle, the better. But he also knew himself well enough to understand when he was starting to feel overwhelmed, and there was still something to be said for allowing his mind to rest for a few moments before deciding what to do next.

Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the wall and allowed himself to just breathe.

There wasn't normally this much commotion outside; in fact the Wood Sector was by and large quiet, housing very little industry (obviously, given how it was constructed) and so the excited babbling doesn't take long to attract the winter spirit's attention. He leans out his window interestedly to watch the man in an unusual suit prancing about the tree complex. The antics quickly bring a grin to his face and, as Baby Tooth was sleeping soundly at the moment, he slipped out the window onto the branches and with a deft hook of his staff, dropped to the ground from two levels up.

"Sure beats the kind of treehouses you build out of scrap lumber, huh?" he can't resist asking.

"Tell me about it!" Wild Tiger begins, his voice high and thick with excitement. He stops his running to stare up at his brand new tree house with panting breaths.

"If I'd had a fort like this as a kid--" The older man turns to meet the boyish voice behind him, only to find nothing. "Eh?" He turns back the other way, but there's still no one to be seen. "Uhh, where are you?" And is this guy making it hard on him on purpose? How rude! He's forty with a bad back, he doesn't need to be leaning back to look into the tree for this mystery voice! People could be so damn insensitive sometimes.

Jack offers a sheepish though unseen look, though his voice carries the expression well. "I'm right here, you just... can't see me. Sorry, this happens a lot especially with adults. Don't freak out, okay?"

Wild Tiger, thankfully, doesn't freak out, but he does squint in the voice's general direction as if that would somehow bring him into focus.

"So you're invisible? Huh." He leans closer, his expression warring between suspicion and acceptance. If he is really here, then that means he's probably a NEXT. Maybe a fledgling who just discovered his powers and didn't know how to control them properly. Man, that would really suck to get stuck invisible.

"You stuck like that or something?"

"Not... exactly. Kind of," Jack replied. "I'm invisible to some people but not to others. Are there stories of spirits where you're from?"

"Uh, of course! I'm Japanese, we have more spirits than we know what to do with!" His whole childhood was steeped in the mystical whether they were simply ancestors or true supernatural creatures. No one else held a candle to Japanese horror stories either. Those things would make anyone believe in monsters, child or adult.

"Wait, are you saying yer a spirit?" Really? Pulling back, the Hero crossed his arms over his chest. "What kind of spirit?"

"That's for sure," Jack answered with a bright laugh. "There's a lot of spirits that call Japan home! Like Yuki-Onna and Hanasaka Jiisan, those are the two I deal with the most. And I'm the Spirit of Winter."

"'The' Spirit of Winter? Not 'A'? Wha--How does that work?" It's not even a question of what would possess a disembodied voice to claim to be a seasonal spirit. No, what gets under Tiger's skin is that fact that he's claiming there's just one that encompasses all of winter. It's a pretty bold statement to make!

"The one with the title," Jack says, somehow turning the phrase into something wry rather than boastful. Like it had been pressed upon him without his permission or consent -- which wasn't actually that far from the truth.

"You're pretty chill with it!" he added playfully, thinking Kotetsu might appreciate the pun.

"Yyyeah, I'm pretty familiar with--" Oh. Ohhh, he so just got it! "Oooohhh! That was a good one!" he crooned, pointing in the direction of the voice. "Bet you been waiting awhile to use that gem!" Ah yeah, that totally made his day.

"So, you're the Spirit of Winter... But I can't see you..." This kind of put a damper on them hanging out. "Can you--I dunno--make it snow or... something?"

It was really novel to have a new arrival be so open to the idea and when Kotetsu laughed at the terribad pun, it pretty much sealed it for Jack: he liked this guy.

"Sure I can," he replied and with a whirl of his staff, kicked up a small cloud of flurries to whirl about the Hero.

"Whooa!" Startled, he took a step back, but soon enough his easy grin came right back as the flurry of flakes began to dust his Hero suit. "How cool!" It's a sight to behold as the snow forms from seemingly nowhere above him. And just like a child, he can't help but raise his gloved hands and touch it for himself.

"So you can seriously cover entire cities in snow? How many at once? Can you do a whole country?" When he turned back to the voice, a young boy stood right in front of him.

"Ahh--! What the--? Who--?"

"Wow," Jack said eloquently. "That's... a pretty fast track for believing, for an adult. Good job, guy."

"Eh? Really?" He supposed that wasn't much of a surprise. Although, did that mean he was just gullible? Well, he couldn't be gullible if it was actually the truth! Okay, so did that mean he was too trusting? Maybe, but he was a Hero! He was supposed to believe in the good of all civilians! Okay, Tiger would just take that as a compliment and stopped trying to find criticism in it.

"You're really the spirit of winter? You look kinda... young." Scrutinizing the kid's appearance, another thought occurred as he reeled back to a safe distance. "Wait, you're not one of those Japanese ghosts are you? They look all young and pretty, but then they turn into grudgey screaming banshees and are all 'Raaagh!' and then kill you! Like, like some kinda frozen kid who freezes other people to make himself friends! Is that what you are?!"

If Jack could only hear Kotetsu's thought process, he would never lack for entertainment ever again. As it was, just watching the play of expressions across the man's face is delightful enough-- at least until he gets to the part about killing people to make himself friends. The spirit gives him such a wounded, horrified expression that he doesn't even need to verbally answer.

That IS a particularly screaming shade of neon green, and Armin can't help but pause at a distance on his way home from his job to wonder if that's some sort of new sculpture, or a new arrival. When it shakes it's, his question is answered, but brings up so many more-- Is that armor? How does it move? How does it breathe?

Despite not being able to see it's face, Armin think it looks a little lost. He approaches cautiously, but curiously.

"Hello?"

Ugh, someone is talking to him again. He swears if this is another one of the natives trying to get him to move or prod him, he is going to find himself on the wrong end of a knuckle sandwich! He has more important things to do than act a fool for an audience! Like... wallowing in self-pity. That is important!

He starts with his best imitation of Barnaby's stinky eye, which is decidedly poor, but he does his best all the same. The point is to drive the native away, not turn him into stone, so when he finally lifts his head, Tiger lifts his face plate up to glare through a black domino mask. What he finds, instead, is a kid. A pretty normal looking one at that.

"Oh--Uh, hello," he responds dumbly.

So there is a person under all that armor. It doesn't seem very practical to Armin-- why are there words written all over it?-- but who is he to judge anything anymore. It could help him fly, or walk through walls, or talk to animals, or something equally absurd. Never expect the obvious.

"Hi," he repeats himself, and comes a little closer now that he's more comfortable, "I haven't seen you in the Wood Sector before. Are you lost?"

"Lost?" Jeez, he sounds like a damn parrot! Taking a deep breath, Wild Tiger sits back on the bench like a normal human being. He can't let this kid think he is lazy on the job, even if his job is millions of miles away.

"Of course not! I'm a Hero! Hero's don't get lost," he clarifies with as much lofty condescension as he can muster. "I'm waiting for my partner to arrive, so we can uhh... You know, talk about Hero... stuff."

Hero? What's that supposed to mean? Of course, heroes exist, Armin won't deny it, but he's never heard someone refer to themselves as one. Isn't that a little presumptuous?

But all he does is cock his head a little at the thought. Maybe raise an eyebrow a little.

"You have a partner here? Does he know you're waiting for him?"

Tiger's brows come together. What kind of question is that? Would he really just sit here hoping Barnaby will happen upon him by chance? Please! Give him a little credit, kid!

"Yeah, he's just, you know... All the way on the other side of this place! It takes awhile on foot. That's all." Getting up from the bench, the older man grossed his bulky armored arms around his chest and huffed. "C'Mon, Bunny. Hurry up..." He's tired for being a damn spectacle for everyone to gawk at. It would be one thing if it were positive. But with Tiger's abysmal luck, no one knows who he is. Worse still is that everyone is too happy to stare, but answering his questions? Hell no! They just scatter or give him clipped answers that really don't help in the long run! IT's getting real damn frustrating.

Armin can see that Tiger is very frustrated, and he understands that frustration... Eren often went around with such a look on his face. He laughs a very quiet laugh under his breath, and stands next to the man, while still giving him enough personal space to gesticulate without smacking Armin in the face.

"It's good that you were able to get in contact with him. I'm guessing you're new here?"

Toro drops to the ground a bit of the way outside of this part of Wood Sector, because walking around a bunch of tree while on fire is a bad idea. He is heading towards his own "treehouse" when he catches sight of the...thing stretched out on one of the benches. He can't help but look it over because it's white and green and really, it begs to be gawked at.

"Who left a robot lying around?"

A robot? Hey! Lifting his head up with a sudden jerk, Tiger pulls up his face plate to scowl at the talkative punk rudely staring at him. Didn't his mom teach him better than that? Sheesh.

"I'm not a robot! This is my armor. I'm a Hero!" He says it like that should mean something to the kid.

"Woah!" Toro's eyes widen and he takes a small step back when the guy. He's heard of people who run around in armor before, especially since Bucky has become such buddies with Tony Stark, but he really thought this was a robot. "Uh, sorry! It didn't look like a person could fit in there."

Hero definitely means something to him, but now he's even more confused. "So you're a crimefighter?" he asks. "Soft Bank is kind of an odd name for a superhero."

So this is what his life has been reduced to. You build up your image for almost two decades, scraping away with bloody nails to stay where you are, and in a matter of seconds it all comes crashing down on the back of a turtle. Even if he has been chosen to fight in some holy war, it hurts to know no one cares who the hell he is. It makes a man real bitter.

"W-What? Of course not! Soft Bank's my sponsor! Same with Family Mart!" Just in case that isn't obvious too, kid! "I'm Wild Tiger, Crusher for Justice!" Although that title is more of a consequence of his constant collateral damage, but he stands by it all the same!

Toro knows a bit about sponsors himself considering the All-Winners did get part of the funds to stay running from places other than Namor's treasure chests. Still, he's never heard of a hero who would actually wear the sponsor's name on their chest like that. It's a bit odd. Still he can't help by smile a bit.

"I haven't heard anybody talk like that since I got here," he says brightly. "But putting your sponsors name on your chest like that makes you look more like a poster than a hero. Haven't you ever heard of subtlety?" Says the guy who turns himself into a human torch and runs around in a pair of boots and short shorts.

"Of course!" he whines glumly, holding his face in a weary hand. "It wasn't always like this, but when they're shelling out Stern Dollars by the truckload, our sponsors expect their name plastered all over the TV when we're on call." It's never really sat well with Tiger, being a walking billboard just to increase a sponsor's stock price. But, he also wants to keep his house, his job, and the means to pay off all those damage fines he racks up every season.

"It's better than doing commercials, believe me."

While Scott doesn't live in the Earth Sector, he definitely likes visiting every now and then. It's calm, the treehouses are gorgeous--and there is currently a man motioning and talking excitably about his own.

Well then.

The sight brings a smile to his face because it's been so long since he's seen anyone be so excited about anything, let alone a man his age. It's very charming and he can't help but be swept into the conversation.

"Have you decided how you're going to decorate it yet?"

"Nah, not yet," he sighs wistfully, still staring up at the grand tree as if mesmerized. "It needs some posters real bad, though. Like maybe Bob Marley right in front room--" It finally dawns on him that the person hasn't wandered away yet. They generally do about five words after Wild Tiger gets going.

"Oh, uh, ehh, hello?" he greets lamely. "You live around here too?" The older man figures he must be a refugee as well since he is actually making eye contact with Tiger.

"Not sure they have any Bob Marley here but that is a great idea all the same."

His voice is easy, relaxed. It's kind of amazing how much of a change a single person's arrival had had on him. Then again, Bob Marley is always an excellent choice and who wouldn't be happy in the company of a guy who clearly has good taste?

In response to the question, Scott nods his head in what he thinks is the direction of the Metal Sector. "I'm actually in Metal but I have some friends here I visit now and then. Plus, you have to admit the treehouses are pretty cool. I'm kind of jealous you live in one."

"Oh. That sucks." What is he going to do about chilling out with good music? Do they have any music here? Oh man, this whole fantasy world is starting to get claustrophobic now! At least he has found one person who seems cool. It's still up for grabs, though.

"Right? What kid wouldn't want to live in one of these? I'm livin' the dream: Treehouse and a Hero." Yeah, he's pretty much two for two at this point. When Tiger became a Hero, he thought he hit the pinnacle of all that life could be. Clearly he hadn't known he needed a treehouse as well to fully complete him.

The other guy's words catch him a little off-guard and Scott blinks in surprise.

"Treehouse and a hero?"

Mostly, the hero part. The domino mask probably should have been a giveaway, but the remnants of Colby's words ring in his mind. Everyone's a fucking superhero here. Scott had laughed off the words at the time but as he'd stayed on the turtle longer and longer, there'd been a decided ring of truth in them. And true, this guy could've just been playing pretend, but that didn't change the fact that everyone and their mother seemed to have a very 'truth, justice, pizza' type bent to them.

"What's your superhero name then?"

"Wild Tiger!" he says without hesitation. It obviously fills him with self-satisfaction if that smug smile is anything to go by. But it quickly wavers a second later. "Uh, ehhh, have you ever... heard of me?"

Please say yes! It would make his whole world if just one civilian knew who he is on this damn island.

There is absolutely no recognition in Scott's eyes at the title, just confused blankness. He shakes his head a second later, reaffirming his expression.

"Nope, sorry. I haven't heard of a lot of people here though." Scott frowns, pursing his lips. "Must be the whole different universes thing."

Has someone explained that one yet?

"Oh..." Wild Tiger sags with a suffering sigh like a disappointed child. He shouldn't have expected anything more than a confused shake of the head, but that's him: Forever the optimist with open arms! It's truly a curse to be so faithful in mankind.

But then the man keeps talking, and then he's just damn lost. "Different--Eh, eh? Different... what nows?"

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(OPEN) All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go

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omg I fail at life sorry!

nah, you're cool!

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