tushanshu_logs | [EVENT|4TH WALL] THE NEWCOMERS’ ARRIVAL

[EVENT|4TH WALL] THE NEWCOMERS’ ARRIVAL | APRIL 15-22

Characters: ALL and plus ones.
Date: April 15-22 2015 (2016 in-game)
Location: Farmlands outside the city walls, but this log can also be used for locations within the city.
Situation: Spring planting - fourth wall event, week one!
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The days for the festival dawn sunny if a bit chilly, but the air is clear and the soggy ground has dried enough that there isn’t too much mud in the lanes between fields and homesteads. The broad dirt path to the Woodsmen’s land leads past the tram-line construction, lined with waving ribbons on sticks along the sides. The Woodsmen’s territory circles the city, separated from the city’s walls by five hundred yards of neutral land.

The festival’s central area is Liangken’s Clearing, and this is where the festival will begin and end each day. Liangken is an ancient tree, among the oldest on the turtle’s back. Though it doesn’t flower or bear much in the way of leaves anymore, the kedan have cultivated it carefully and now it’s an excellent representation for the revitalisation of old wisdom.

The lanes between the fields and homesteads will house the stalls, contests and walking areas. The Woodsmen will be keeping an eye on these to prevent anyone from walking off the marked paths. The homesteads provide ‘hotspots’ in among the lanes and fields, with Woodsmen families lending their yards to the comfort and entertainment of their guests.

In general, the Woodsmen are a taciturn, soft-spoken lot who nevertheless take great pride in their work. Their lands are all but sacred -- they accept no attitude, no trespassing, no attempts to thwart their authority. This causes some noticeable tension with the Snakes, who are accustomed to being the sole enforcers within the city; but though there may be some ill tempers and raised voices, at no point will anyone come to blows. It’s hard to argue with someone built like a brick wall and carrying sharp farm implements.

The Woodsmen are a touch anxious about having strangers on their land and this shows in them being overly officious or bossy, but at the same time their pride shows clearly and they are eager to show off the state of their lands, their greenhouses, and their farming processes -- practically without being asked. The residents of Keeliai tend to think of the Woodsmen as ‘cowards’, and the Woodsmen are taking this opportunity to prove themselves otherwise with feats of strength and tall tales.

Due to the farmers’ hours of “early to bed and early to rise”, the festival ends in the early evening at sundown, but begins again before dawn -- usually by greeting the sun with a song.

LINKS
Heojin, Ran and Lin | Liangken’s Clearing | Stalls and Lanes | OOC Information post | 4th Wall Character Check In

OOC
While Heojin and his bodyguards are open to everyone (including fourth-wall characters!), they are not available for small talk and general directionless CR. For the integrity of the mod’s inbox, please only request a thread with him if you already have an idea of what you’d like your character to ask/do. Other NPCs can be requested by sending a PM to the appropriate journals directly, with the same guidelines.

The top-level comments are for the festival, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the city of Keeliai itself! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She doesn't hear anything but the general din of the festival until he's right behind her, as he's grabbing her arm, and if her arms weren't full of cat her first instinct would be to turn around and swat whoever this is as hard as possible. Preferably with her purse, but her purse isn't here. Just Mochi, who probably wouldn't take too kindly to being flung at some would-be attacker.

But then she hears her name, and she knows that voice, and as she's turning it's--

"Hiro!"

--and she opts to drop Mochi anyway, because she needs her arms to throw around her nephew and hug him as if their lives depended on it.

(Mochi plops down onto the ground with an indignant look but doesn't bolt. That would require effort.)

But thankfully for Hiro the stranglehold is brief, and then she's holding him out at arm's length to examine him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Tell me they didn't hurt you--" She lifts a hand to brush his hair away from his forehead, make sure there are no lumps or bruises. Stares into each eye. Squeezes each arm. "I'm so glad to see you!" Okay cancel that, she wasn't done. Hug time again.

Like he wasn't already winded enough, and then - oof - she's hugging him tight enough to knock all the air out of him. Hiro stiffens and then makes an awkward attempt to hug back, patting his Aunt gently on the shoulder while Mochi weaves himself between their ankles and mrrrs, questioning.

"No, no, it's fine, I'm fine, nobody hurt me -" Nobody lately. A couple of weeks ago, maybe, but that's long since passed and healed up. He lets out an anxious, breathless laugh; he's happy to see her, but all the wait, whats and the oh nos are starting to descend and he has a dozen questions he needs to ask.

And Tadashi. Hiro sucks in a breath.

"Aunt Cass, there's something you should...okay, wait." A pause. He holds his hands up. "How long have you been here? What's the last thing you remember?"

With some reluctance she loosens her grip on him, stops questioning him long enough to consider his questions in return.

"I've been here for... an hour? Two? I don't know, I don't have my phone. I don't have anything, except Mochi." She glances down to reassure herself that the cat is still nearby and safe, even though she knows he hasn't gone anywhere. "Why would someone kidnap a cat? None of this makes any sense! One minute we're at home watching a movie, then we're in a ditch. A ditch!" Her voice rises enough at that last bit to startle several kedan passing by. Cass doesn't even notice.

It occurs to her, however, what Hiro's exact words were just now. "Something I should...?" She frowns. "Hiro, what's going on? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Her eyes narrow suspiciously.

"Is this some bot fighting thing again?"

"What?" Hiro's taken aback for a second, because he hasn't even thought about - well, he has, but with no established rings or much in the way of tech in Keeliai, it's not like he could even if he wanted to. He waves his hands, hastily trying to reassure her.

"No! No, no bot fighting, I promise, this is...well, it's a good thing. It's about...Tadashi."

Hiro swallows a lump in his throat. He's only guessing - because she hasn't asked about Tadashi at all - but. He glances around, quickly making sure Tadashi hasn't figured out where he went yet. "Look, this might be a little tough to take in, but this place is like...nowhere near home. It's a whole other universe. And Tadashi's here."

It's her turn to be taken aback at hearing Tadashi's name. Her elder nephew has remained a constant presence in their lives since the fire, always on their minds if not actively spoken of quite so often, but...

It's a whole other universe. And Tadashi's here.

It breaks her heart to hear it. Whatever's going on, kidnapping or... whatever this is, the strain has clearly been too much for Hiro. She almost wishes he were joking but she can tell when he's pulling her leg most times, after years of it, and he just seems too earnest right now for that. She puts a hand to his forehead again, checking one more time for bruising, for a fever (maybe he's just hit his head, maybe we can fix this).

"Oh honey. We need to get you inside, get you some water. Are you seeing double? How many fingers am I holding up?"

(Hint: It's three.)

Hiro has this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Yeah, okay, so that's exactly what he'd thought too when Tadashi had showed up at his hotel room, but it's been long enough now that he thinks, he's just about certain, even with the nagging doubts and worries, that his living, breathing brother is real and not just a hallucination.

"Three fingers, Aunt Cass," he insists stubbornly, taking her wrist and tugging her hand gently away from his forehead. "I told you, I'm fine. And yeah, I thought I was imagining things at first, too, but he's real. I'm not making this up. Time does weird things, here, and sometimes people you thought were gone...they come back."

Is this situation more than a little strange? Yes. Is she going to need some ice cream and Excedrin when they get back home? Definitely.

Does she stop for one second to consider that maybe Hiro's right, that Tadashi might be alive in this place, wherever it is? Absolutely not.

As much as she's been surrounded by geniuses for the last decade of her life, and as weird as things have gotten at times, people don't come back from the dead. No matter how badly an aunt or a brother might wish for it... or a sister, going back a few years more. She smiles sadly at him, grips his shoulders lightly and tries to remember if she still has the numbers for the therapists that were recommended after the funeral. The drawer of her nightstand, maybe. She's fairly certain she didn't throw them away.

"We need to figure out how to get home, sweetie. Everything will be fine. It'll be better once we get home."

Cripes, he turns his back for a minute to get his own rice and veggie bowl and Hiro's already run off.

With his own lunch in hand, Tadashi takes a few steps into the crowd and scans around for his little brother (not an easy task considering Hiro's height), calling out once or twice, much to the annoyance of some of the nearest kedan. He blends in a little better than he used to, wearing the local's clothes (except for that hat of his, gotta keep the hat on) and doing his best to respect their customs, but he's still pretty easy to pick out of a crowd.

He's looking around for a few minutes before said crowd parts and he finally spots a familiar head of unruly black hair.

"Hiro!"

He's already making a beeline for Hiro when he realizes that his brother isn't standing alone. He's close to someone else, obviously talking. Someone who becomes rather more familiar as he draws closer to the pair. He stops about ten feet away, blinking in confusion and growing excitement as his mind adjusts. He doesn't spend very much time looking for people from home. That he and Hiro are both here already is apparently some sort of statistical anomaly (and that's not even counting Professor Callaghan), so the chances of anyone else were pretty slim, but that's...

Yeah, it has to be.

"Aunt Cass?"

"Aunt Cass..."

He hits a note just shy of pleading, because he doesn't know how to convince her. It sounds too crazy to be true, yeah. He knows he has a little bit of a history of lying, and he knows he's barely said a word to her since the fire, she doesn't have any reason to believe him or think this is anything more than a bad coping mechanism but nobody is prepared for this and if he could just explain -

Oh, no. Tadashi. Hiro winces, freezing in place at the sound of his brother's voice and then turning half toward him. Mochi's already there, weaving through the crowd and repeating a one-note mrrow? Because of course the cat doesn't understand and he only knows that he hasn't seen Tadashi in a long time, and where have you been?

And Hiro - Hiro casts a quick, guilty glance at Tadashi, and then drops his gaze to his sneakers, biting his lip and wringing the hem of his shirt, rooted to the spot. He's gonna be sick. Tadashi doesn't know, Aunt Cass doesn't know he doesn't know, and he can't fix this, can't warn either of them now. Too late for that.

"I tried to tell you," he mumbles.

Edited 2015-04-26 18:59 (UTC)

It can't be. It can't be.

For a moment all she can do is stare, because none of her senses seem to be cooperating. She's looking, but what she's seeing can't be right. She's hearing, but it sounds like Tadashi's voice and it can't be this cannot be him.

She glances back over at Hiro, the look in her eyes almost pleading, please explain this in a way that makes sense, then looks back at him.

Tadashi.

But he feels real, when she hesitantly approaches and places a hand on his shoulder. It is him--she's close enough now she would be able to tell the difference. Her nephew, one of her boys. Alive. A hand goes up to the side of his face and she isn't certain whether she wants to caress his cheek or smack him. There's an undercurrent of anger. He's alive? He's alive, and he didn't come home? Where has he been? Here? How could he do this how is this possible--

Her head is reeling and she just isn't sure whether to be angry or happy or to scream or laugh. A hand goes to her mouth to stifle a sob and the emotional overload finally works itself out as she bursts into tears.

Mochi serves as only a very temporary distraction, drawing the elder Hamada's attention for only a few moments before his focus is right back on the amazing statistical anomaly before him, but...

Tadashi's eyes flick between Hiro and Cass several times, that growing excitement quickly fading as concern and confusion turning down the edges of his mouth and forming a furrow between his eyebrows. Tried to tell her what? Why was she looking at him like that? He risks a quick glance down at himself, searching for some sort of abnormality that would explain the absolute shock he's getting from his aunt. That guilty avoidance from Hiro.

"Aunt Cass? What's wrong? I-"

He cuts off when he feels the slight tremor in the hand on his cheek, one of his own larger ones automatically rising to cover hers. To support. Something's very wrong and he doesn't know what, but then suddenly Cass starts to cry and the only response he can come up with is to try and pull her into a hug.

"Hey, it's okay..."

Except maybe it's not, but they'll find a way to make it okay. They always have.

Edited 2015-04-28 03:23 (UTC)

Hiro opens his mouth, tries to say something, but he doesn't know what to tell her. He can't explain it, because it still doesn't make sense even to him, and he's been here for more than a month now. He's silent, waiting for anybody else to explain, only he looks between his confused brother and his sobbing Aunt and he realizes there isn't anybody else to explain. It has to be him.

"A-Aunt Cass, he doesn't know," Hiro begins, haltingly, feeling that same numb sort of detachment that hung over him all through the funeral and the weeks after descending again; where everything seems far away and not quite real. Implicit: Tadashi doesn't know, because Hiro didn't tell him. "It's this place, it's...we're in some kind of an in-between...where time outside is relative, and he fell through a crack in the timeline somewhere before...before...I thought it'd be better if he didn't..."

Somehow he starts making excuses for himself before he's even told the whole story, guilt slipping in between the cracks. He bites his lip and shoves it down, far, far down where he doesn't have to think about it for a few seconds.

For maybe half a moment, he makes eye contact with Tadashi, and then looks away again.

"There was," he starts, taking a deep breath and swallowing a lump in his throat before he can continue - oddly calm and straightforward, "a fire. After the expo. Professor Callaghan was still trapped inside, so you went in after him, only you -"

Hiro takes another breath, but this one's more shaky, and his calm and his voice both crack together. "- you never came back."

She doesn't often indulge in letting herself cry in front of the boys--boy, now, before all of this craziness. She is ostensibly the adult, the parent, as much as she doesn't feel like she deserves the title some days. It's her job to keep it together, to be strong for them. After that initial outburst she forces herself to get a grip, inhaling deeply, brushing the tears away before she lets Tadashi fold her into a hug.

He's warm, solid. He even smells like the Tadashi she remembers.

It's Hiro that finally breaks her out of this, forces her back to the immediate issue. Tadashi doesn't know. Or, well... didn't know. She pulls out of the hug just far enough to be able to look at both of her nephews without actually letting go of Tadashi, still resting a hand on his arm as if he might vanish otherwise.

...Alright, maybe they won't make it okay.

Once you make peace with the idea of living on the back of a giant turtle, it gets much easier to believe when other strange topics come up. Tadashi's seen shapeshifters, people who can control the elements, and animals that don't exist in the world he comes from. Even the topic of multiple universes and distortions in time isn't a new one, but somehow that suspension of disbelief that he's been cultivating since his arrival chooses this moment to fail him utterly.

Something he doesn't know? The expo and a fire and Callaghan and-

Independently, all the words Hiro's saying make sense. Strung together, Tadashi can make out the message they're meant to convey, but he doesn't understand because... that's not what he remembers. Hiro made his presentation and got his acceptance letter and they were all going to go back to the cafe to celebrate, so this? This does not compute.

It doesn't make sense and it shows pretty clearly on his face. His grip on Cass tightens a little, though he doesn't seem entirely aware of it, his focus almost entirely on Hiro for several long moments. On that tight posture and that cracking voice and that match up so eerily well with all the other strange behavior that Tadashi's observed over the last month or so.

"Hiro, but-... I'm right here." He looks down at Cass, searching for confirmation. Hiro wouldn't lie about something so serious, but maybe he isn't. Maybe he's confused somehow. Hiro's confused and Cass is just upset and worried by her and her nephews' sudden relocation, right?

"Aunt Cass?"

Oh, don't look at him like that. Don't look at her like she won't tell you the exact same thing. Hiro stares right back at his brother, tight-lipped, the grief all over his face and he's not even bothering to hide it anymore. It's too late now, isn't it? May as well let it all out.

"Yeah, you're here, but if you go back you'll be dead!" Hiro snaps, interrupting before Cass can get a word in. He's so far past caring - or he's telling himself he doesn't care, that these are the facts and everyone's just going to have to deal with them now, even if it hurts. "Ask her, ask Krei - they know. You can even ask Callaghan. He knows, and he's dead too!"

The outburst is obviously garnering attention, Kedan glancing, giving strange looks, giving their little group a wide berth now. Hiro's almost sorry. They were here to celebrate and now this thing that has nothing to do with them is happening in the middle of their festival.

"You get it? The you that's here is all that's left." His voice shakes. He doesn't care if it shakes. Fine. "You didn't stop, and I didn't stop you, and so now outside of this weird in-between place you're dead. Okay?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[EVENT|4TH WALL] THE NEWCOMERS’ ARRIVAL | APRIL 15-22

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