rough winds do shake the darling buds of may | open, with starters

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Eyebrow Squad Gene, Jackie, Deon, and you!
Date: Throughout May
Location: Keeliai and the rest of the shell
Situation: General May drama and doings for Eyebrow Squad.
Warnings/Rating: None initially, but subject to change.

A. [Gene] Midnight Hotel | May 2 | closed to Tony

Gene hadn't taken the disappearance of the new influx of Foreigners well. But he'd taken it better than he'd expected; he'd always known, in his heart, that Bianca being back had been too good to be true. And Amelia hadn't returned, either. He'd been seized with a rather unusual and rather unfortunate sensation of missing all his friends who'd come and gone from Keeliai.

And it occurs to him that Tony might be feeling even worse. Howard had been swept away too. Gene hadn't been particularly heartbroken to see him gone - he still isn't too sure where he stands with the man - but he knows Tony's devastated by it. So he's tried to be as supportive as possible. He doesn't like seeing Tony upset.

B. [Gene] Sky Sector | early-mid May | open

Gene's been going around the Sky Sector and helping finalize some of the construction, making himself known among the kedan in the area, checking out the stalls in the artisan area. Sometimes he's putting the finishing touches on the little house he'd built for himself and Tony, and if he's not actively using tools - or secretly using the orange ring to manipulate matter, honing his control of it - he's probably open to talking.

C. [Jackie] Teahouse in the Water Sector | early-mid May | open

When he's not doing Snake stuff, Jackie's become quite fond of hanging out in a little teahouse in the Water Sector. Most of the time he has his Snake badge off, not wanting to intimidate any of the kedan, and just enjoying a quiet cup of tea. Tea had never really been his...well...his cup of tea, back home, but here he was starting to enjoy it.

D. [Deon] Metal Sector | early-mid May | open

Deon, meanwhile, is scouting out any technology he can find, buying up scrap wherever he can find it and writing out code by hand in a cheap notebook. Even if he can't test it, it's at least a decent exercise.

He's been dissuaded from dismantling a console - but he really wants to know how they work. Not worth pissing off the kedan, though; he's heard they don't take well to that.

But it looks like he knows what he's doing, or at least what he's after, either sitting on a bench and going over his handwritten code, the end of a pen in his mouth, or haggling with some kedan over some busted piece of looted Foreigner tech.

E. [Deon] Fire Sector | May 16 | closed to Shay

Deon's tired, and in need of a drink. He doesn't normally drink, but he's interested in seeing more of the kedan culture, and he figures that's worth the price of a beer or the local equivalent. Thus he sits at the bar, drinking an oddly sweet concoction that still has a mildly alcoholic fire to it, occasionally writing in his notebook as more ideas occur to him.


F. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | May 8 | closed to Tony

Tony's been acting weird the past day or so - more cagey than usual. Something's up, but Gene hasn't deduced what yet.

"You okay?" he asks, setting a mug of tea down in front of Tony, some concern in his voice. Still mopey over Howard, perhaps? The grief happens in waves, he knows that well.

G. [Deon] Stark Industries | late April | closed to NPCs

The staff at Stark Industries has been busy of late, but not too busy to finally see Deon for a job interview. He hasn't had one since college, so he's a little apprehensive, and visibly fidgeting.

H. [Deon] Wood Sector | mid-May | closed to China and Shay

Deon should really know better than to cut through gang territory by now. As it is, he's been cornered by some kedan from a smaller gang who are pushing him around and demanding his juulan. For someone so tall, he's a bit shit at defending himself or being at all imposing.

I. [Gene] Sky Sector / Earth Sector | early May 9 | closed to Skul

Once Gene manages to get his heart down from pounding like hell in his head, he grabs his radio and makes a call to Skul, like he'd promised Tony.

"Skul? I know it's late, but I need your help."

---

OOC Note: If you want another starter, please hit me up over at Chatvert and I'll pull something together for you! :>

Comments

[jinzhong]

Jackie shakes his head. "I dunno how you found some peace in a warzone, man." Because it's always been a warzone, even when the hatchlings were here. Now at least it's the kind of war that Jackie knows about and knows how to deal with.

"So is that why you're collecting stories? To prove to the kedan we're just like them?" Jackie isn't sure he sees the merit of that, but he also knows that Enj is a hell of a lot smarter than him. There's probably some angle he's not getting. "But yeah, I'm with you on getting our respect and dignity back. We're gettin' disrespected all over the place."

[solo_patria]

"Well, it was not always directly one." Enjolras might as well explain. "It was good for...quite some time, actually. There were times before the war itself kicked up into high gear." Which is technically true. "At least, until we KNEW we'd been under attack, it was very different. We had friends among the kedan, some of us. The months the war picked up were...no." He shakes his head, expression grave. "I can't think of much peace in those."

There are snatches of moments, maybe. Flights on Iskierka, talks with Midii, celebrating the hatchlings' six month birthday at the beach, bonfires. In terms of the general day to day, though? The possibility that at any moment he might fall unconscious without his will and be interrupted with a video proclaiming something horrible that had happened while they slept, or being in Malicant's clutches again... no, the awful overrides it.

"Things were good here, once, for us as well. And that, in part," Though his eyes gleam a little more than that. "But to show our contributions too. A reminder, if you will, of how they've come to be safe. A good deal of the reason there has come at our own hands." But no, not only hands. He's shaking his head good naturally a moment there.

"Or claws, or talons and paws or robotics or whatever else have you. We've done quite a lot with those, you know."

[jinzhong]

Jackie'd arrived relatively late in the game, so he hadn't experienced that time. Only the simmering tension.

"Man..I hope you're right," Jackie says. "But the kedan do owe us big-time for saving their asses. They wouldn't even be close to so high 'n mighty if it wasn't for us. We risked everything!"

[solo_patria]

As time's gone by, Enjolras has become aware of the fact that he is, for all intents and purposes, an old hand at life here by now, even among those who spent the year in the Dreaming. He may not exactly be the person who has been here longest, by any stretch of the imagination, but long enough that there's a good chance those he speaks to may not remember the old days, back when the biggest concerns were food rationing and trying to find alcohol enough to help Grantaire through it, or when soul lanterns were the unknown things that hung in the palace itself, and not the broken pieces that made up their charms. It's an odd feeling, that.

And there are the other moments too, worth remembering. Parties with ghosts that he and his friend awkwardly attended, his body being reverted to the age of fourteen while most of his male friends became women, or Eponine a child, rescuing Camille The Tribble, who he still misses, the holiday with his adopted kedan family, dream rituals in which he spoke to those he missed the most from life in Paris...

For those who haven't seen those things, it must be harder indeed to see the good, when it was not exactly making itself known. There ought to be something done about that, when they can. A way to prove life here can still be good. Enjolras hopes it can be touched, at least.

"I hope so too." he admits, ducking his head a little, "It seems a reasonable reminder to make. I know there are some who seem to believe life was better under...before we walked into the Dreaming, but the world would hardly BE here now, without our efforts. Therefore... I should think we're owed respect at least. How much more must one do to earn it? A reminder of that, and of the other work we did to help...it's only reasonable to deliver, I should think."

[jinzhong]

Jackie had been here almost a year - well, almost two, if you count the time spent in the Dreaming, which he's not sure if he should. He'd been there for some of those things. His adopted kedan family still makes him smile when he thinks about them, and sometimes he tries to look out for them. But he knows better than to think they'd remember him with much fondness. Not with the way kedan attitude to the Foreigners had soured.

He snorts a little. "Yeah, well. It's a bitch of a time tryna get respect from people who just don't wanna give it to you. I get the feeling that we coulda tied up old Big Ugly and destroyed him in front of all the kedan, and they'd still say we hadn't done enough."

[solo_patria]

Yeah, Enjolras isn't sure what to make of that either. And he can't quite remember exactly WHEN each person's gotten here, or if he even really knows offhand. It's okay, though, really. Well, no, it isn't, but that's part of what he's trying to make happen with the book. It's not his main goal but a side one, along with the one where he wants new Foreigners to feel less isolated if they're able to read the stories of others. Some things might as well have a couple purposes, right?

He's seen his own kedan 'siblings' a few times. Less so with most of the others, though they still slip him his usual order when he happens around that particular cafe, rebuilt as it is, now, even if he doesn't linger inside the way he used to anymore. Lingering in places that cater to Foreigners is safer these days than the out of the way places he used to like, after all. He doubts they'll risk anything more than quick nods and such, and they haven't gone beyond it yet, but he sometimes suspects they would if it felt safe to. Wishful thinking, but...it's nice anyway.

"It IS at that." He frowns, shaking his head. "It's funny, how much they WANTED him destroyed, how obvious it was that it was going to be OUR job but now...I swear that something changed the year we were away. It's finding out what it is that I can't manage. If someone could, maybe we'd have an answer as to why." And the mention of tying him up then and there in front of people does have Enjolras smiling a different sort of smile, rather grim and cold, and scary. It's a smile he hasn't had til he was here.

"I think that would have been very nice, actually." He muses, thinking on the ways it could have gone, a darkness behind his eyes for just a moment there, before he stops suddenly, with it vanishing just as quickly. "That may have been uncalled for, sorry." he adds quickly. "Fighting him in the end was so personal that revealing the ways how might not have been for the best. But the idea of having him at our combined mercy...after all that he did...I must admit to how fitting it feels. And, then, surely, they could have understood and seen our sacrifices for them too, like you've said. I wonder if that may have been the better way."

[jinzhong]

Jackie makes careful note of that smile Enjolras is sporting. That smile, he knows that smile, he'd seen it on Wei before, and a lot more after the disaster that had been Winston's wedding. It was a cold smile, a cruel one, that spoke of no actual amusement.

He hadn't liked seeing it on Wei. He doesn't think he much cares for seeing it on Enjolras, either.

But...Enjolras does have a point. Thinking of Wei reminds him of the form Malicant had taken to taunt him, the seed of doubt that had been planted in him - or maybe it had been there all along, and Malicant's words had caused it to sprout.

Had Wei been a rat? No, he couldn't be, he was Jackie's friend! He wasn't some punk like the cop snitch Mr. Tong had taken care of earlier. Wei had come from Old Prosperity, just like Jackie, and Jackie would defend his honor to the death, had defended his honor to the death.

Don't make a liar out of me, dai lo.

"Yeah, well," Jackie says, looking down at his tea. "Can't really show them now, huh? Just gotta prove that we're useful." Which is part of why he'd joined the Snakes in the first place. He'd wanted to fit in. He'd wanted to belong again.

[solo_patria]

No, Enjolras himself is still terrified of the darkness that crops up in him sometimes, when he thinks about the fear and what it did to him, and the rage that he's not really had the chance to displace, though he knows he needs to find a better outlet for it there.

He means the apology, at any rate, even if he's no idea how one starts to find a way out of such a dark place. He's shaking his head now, hair flying around his head like some sort of a halo as he tries to displace the thought. A rather grim sort of an angel, perhaps, if ever there was. Saint Michael, with his blazing sword, but in a place he'd hope it was not needed...

"In the future that I saw," He starts, still unnerved a little by the mood that took him, "There was no need for tortures of the sort that... As Satan shall be no more, Michael shall be no more..." He muses, words soft. "And I believe them too, even now. I need to contain or be rid of it, this darkness within me. It does no one any good to cling to it, especially now, Your ideas are MUCH better than that. Becoming part of their lives, fitting in. Smarter by far, that's all I can say."

[jinzhong]

"Heh." Jackie says, smirking, and visibly relaxes once Enjolras seems to shake off the fell mood that had come over him. "Nobody's ever called my ideas smart before."

Sad but true. Jackie's always known he's no brilliant thinker, but he's quick, and clever enough to survive. Mostly. Mostly, he knows how to make himself useful, which is a whole other kind of smart altogether.

[solo_patria]

"Have they not?" Enjolras raises an eyebrow at that. "Perhaps you've not spoken to the right people, then."

It was entirely possible after all. "Sometimes the right people need to hear things before they are accomplished. Not that I am quite sure who they all ARE but..."

They are out there somewhere, he should assume.

[jinzhong]

Jackie shrugs at that. He's not smart, he knows that, 'cause he never really tried in school. He's street-smart, he's clever, but...coming up with heists is about as plan-y as he gets. And even those hadn't always been well-thought-out. He's a leap-before-looking kind of guy.

Still...it's nice, that someone has faith in him.

"So maybe some of us are the right people."

[solo_patria]

"Perhaps so..." Enjolras muses, studying Jackie a moment there. "I wish my friend Bahorel had been here to meet you." he adds, a little absently.

"You two would have gotten along well. He's...a bit like you." More confident, Enjolras thinks, but that's not something you say out loud. "Smart, but you'd never catch him with a book at hand. Knew the best way to work a crowd in Paris, how to talk to people, to survive...It would have been interesting. But so...the right people."

It IS a nice idea, in a way, going back to it. "I suppose we all DO have something to offer, don't we? Maybe that is why..."