Out with the old....

[sundead]

Who: Everyone
What: New Year's.
When: Dec. 31st, New Year's Eve, to Jan 1st, New Year's Day.
Where: Everywhere
Summary: It's New Year's, and the people of Luceti have a lot to reflect upon, and to look forward to. And on a more meta level, new journal names.
Rating: We'll see...

New Year's brings images of crowds, and songs, and fireworks; staying up til midnight and watching balls or bells being rung. But Luceti is a different time and place. Whether you're partying with friends or watching the sunrise, what are you doing today?

Comments

[daisy023]

[She raises her head. Daisy didn't know how many people would she find in here, secluded from where everyone else was watching.

More people are around the village than she thought. She feels regret to be seen like this.]

Hi, Robert.

[Her arms are tightened around her. Her voice is steady, but she expected her body language to be more reserved.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Time and familiarity with Daisy have let Robert at least know that she's ill-at-ease, even if he can't tell exactly why or how.

Still, it's enough to make him sidle in, trying to be comforting or at least trying not to add to the anxiety she's feeling.]

... Are you... quite alright, here by yourself...?

[daisy023]

[Daisy shrinks a little once Robert sits near her, either to give a greater sense of security, or because it is given by Robert.]

Just a little nervious. It's the fireworks.

[Damn this place.]

[semper_cogitans]

[He'd hug her, but he's not certain if that would make it worse...]

... The... the fireworks...?

[Why would they frighten Daisy? He's certain she must understand them...]

... M-Might... might I ask why...?

[daisy023]

[How can she explain this? The fact she expects a battle just by hearing gunshots. She is grateful she had received enough therapy for it to be uncomfortable... and not a full-blown trigger.]

They sound a little like weapons. It takes experience to tell one from the other.

[Some silence. Robert is calmer than her right now.]

It's just the explosions. how the feel.

[semper_cogitans]

[For once, yes, Robert is actually more relaxed. But hearing this makes a pang go through him...

Almost shyly, he offers Daisy one small, thin hand to hold.]

... I... I am sorry...

[For once, he's cognizant of how disturbing that must be.]

... Should... should we go... e-elsewhere?

[daisy023]

[Daisy looks at the hand. A girl curious by the offer. But she takes it.]

Yeah. I'd like that.

[For someone of her size and ability, she walks too close to Robert.]

Maybe we can get someplace covered. Just to hamper the sounds.

[semper_cogitans]

Of course... do you s-see anywhere suitable, Ms. Daisy...? [Robert is, of course, already searching; somehow, Daisy's presence doesn't feel oppressive, but it does make it a little hard to look.]

[daisy023]

[With her height, she has an easier time looking. One of these places catch her attention.]

Azzip?

[semper_cogitans]

... Certainly, if you wish... [Robert has only been there a few times before, and he's nervous, but he'd rather Daisy be comfortable... and it's not too big a deal.]

... Are you fond of pizza...?

[daisy023]

[She looks a little puzzled with the question. She only smells the cheese, tomato, spices, and meats from the store. But as for tasting it...]

It smells good.

[It's a very strange combination, that one, come think of it. So she approaches alongside Robert.]

[semper_cogitans]

It... certainly does...

[Robert sidles up to Azzip, betraying his awkwardness with short, truncated steps. As he goes to hold the door open, he talks, almost idly and more to fill silence than anything.]

... Such food would be... rare on Terra... and expensive.

[daisy023]

[After Daisy lowers her head to cross through the door, the statement makes her guess a few things about Robert's world. The smells directs her instinctively towards where the pizza should be.]

Why, sir? ... Resources? Couldn't animals be raised for that?

[semper_cogitans]

[... And Robert looks a little horrified for a moment, before he clarifies this particular point.]

... Domestic animals are... essentially nonexistent on Terra, and... [Awkwardly:] ... b-before Luceti, all meat was... well... ... derived from c-cell cultures.

...

I had... never even thought they would... truly kill animals...

[daisy023]

[Part of Terra's culture... She's heard of synthetic meat existing in her world, but it never compares to the taste of an actual animal. The Food industry would have never thrived so much without farms of Moa.

A part of her thinks it makes sense they'd develop the market for synthetic meat... But it would mean the dive of many food-processing companies.]

There's the survival instinct.

[She has eaten scorpions and crickets before without even flinching. It's necessary survival methodology.]

[semper_cogitans]

[It's a lot different when you're not used to having to exercise this survival instinct... which is mostly dead in Terrans, being so accustomed to everything being comfortable.]

... I... I suppose that is t-true, but... it still came as a shock, to me...

[He looks a little ashamed, almost, that it never occurred to him before then.]

... Doctor Robotnik had to... inform me otherwise...

[daisy023]

... It's just necessary.

[It's all she has to say. Beside living animals continuing to be used, every survival measure dictates for it to be done, lest one dies not by the battle, but by the field.

She eyes the ingredients to be added to a pizza, but turns to Robert. Daisy was going to add everything in the menu, but for him...]

[semper_cogitans]

[Well, he won't stop her. But it's difficult to imagine doing so now...]

... I... I kn-know other worlds are... different...

[He hesitates, though, looking up at her.]

It... must be... s-strange, sometimes. For you. To... listen...

[daisy023]

[Ah, of course. Listening to the animals.

Disturbingly enough, just as she could hear the voices of Covenant Grunts and Jackals pleading for mercy, eating talking animals does little to faze her either.]

... I just cope.

[Instead, she makes two pizzas. One with everything, and another for Robert.]

[semper_cogitans]

[He doesn't know how he could deal with that. The idea of harming something that couldn't respond is disturbing enough - it's even worse picturing something that would vocalize zir distress.

Robert is quiet a moment, while he ponders his own pizza.

Finally:]

... Do... do you s-sometimes... wonder what it would be like, if you had come from somewhere else...?

[daisy023]

[Daisy stops moving. She stands still for a long moment.

Then, she continues.]

I do it sometimes.

[More than Robert would imagine. More than she'd like to.]

We are all products of where we come from.

[semper_cogitans]

[Slowly:] In... in s-some ways, I feel as if... as if I would have... l-lost something, had I come from somewhere else...

...

And yet... I... I m-might have... gained some things, too.

I... I gained things here, after all.

[And Luceti is so different from Terra as to be almost dizzying.]

[daisy023]

We all did while in here.

[Long ago, a friend insisted Daisy instead gained more out of her second chance. She wonders how to explain this.]

I come from a difficult universe, Robert. I was someone needed where I'm from. For a long time, all I knew was how to win and survive.

When I first arrived, I literally didn't know what to do.

[semper_cogitans]

...

[That sounds far too much like him.]

On Terra, I... I h-had a job. A s-structured life. A... a place in my society...

... I had e-expected roles of me, and nothing more. [No connection with people outside of the bare minimum required.] ... I...

... I did not know what to do here, either...

[daisy023]

[She puts the pizzas in the ovens. A process someone of Daisy's body and taste can hardly wait.]

Sounds like me when I was ripped away from the UNSC. My world's human military.

[A girl sitting alone in the Welcome Center. Too confused by the way the normal world worked, too alien to the way the supernatural ruled this place, and too naive to know what should she do in a world not ruled by military nor warfare laws.

A weapon with all of her senses overwhelmed and everything she thought she knew challenged in her very first hours. Too terrified to even know how to act. Worst of all, she doesn't even have enough knowledge on civilian lifestyle to even compare herself to Robert.]

In a way, it's just like survival. You just learn how to live and adapt. Few here were prepared for this world.