EVERYBODY! EVERYBODY!

[lucetimods]

Who: Everybody! Everybody!
What: It's a beach! There's fruit! Love in the air! Classy private rooms in the mountains!
When: From sunrise to midnight! (AND IT'S TODAY! FEBRUARY 18th!)
Where: Out on the beach, centered around the teleporter/tunnel exit area. But it feels like July out there! Ain't that just the shit?
Summary: Summary? Why does this need a summary. I said everything up there. And then I'm gonna say even more after this. Why do we need this field? Seriously, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Rating: KEEP IT CLEAN, KIDS. Take your dirty smut to an appointments post!

Long Ago In A Distant Land, Akai, the fully functional fonbot, unleashed a fairly standard mod post. But a foolish player kept asking questions and come on, do you really need to know that much? Now everyone wants to play out their ships and get into fruit shenanigans and undo to evil that is AKAI.

((No, but seriously guys, look at the mod post, you know what to do. Everything you need is there. Mass log post, remember to tag your characters name here, and do your thing.))

OH YEAH! So like, assume there is stands (or you know, beach-appropriate huts) here and there that are stocked up on bathing suits (and curtains you can change behind), stands with beverages, and snacks. Nobody's really operating them, new stuff just gets Shifted there (BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE NOT WATCHING). The Malnosso are the most considerate bro-ginization ever.

Comments

[fleurdesel]

Come to terms with you being a bastard? [She shakes her head and huffs a laugh, massaging the bridge of her nose.]

I have no choice but to do so. It is either come to terms with it, or terminate our association entirely. And even without this shift, and without this fruit? I do not think I would be able to. I'm much too selfish Ben, I'm certain you've noticed by now.

[averybadfeeling]

"... I had meant to come to terms with whatever emotional response leads you to call me one. That said, I do not believe you are selfish for wanting a friend who has thus far tried, if with limited success, to help you."

[Limited success. No success, he thinks to himself.

Self-pity. He really needs to stop that. This is about her.]

[fleurdesel]

I call you that because you are, in fact, a bastard. You say what needs to be said without reservation. You are harsh, and you are blunt, and then you smile afterward and offer to leave me in peace. Ergo: you are a polite, friendly bastard. It is more logic than it is lingering echos of that...[She waves a hand over her shoulder at where she'd knelt, all but weeping earlier.]

Breakdown. Well. Not quite. Breakthrough? Something here has broken. For the better, I dare to hope-

...[She blinks, looks back down at the teapot, and then over to Ben in surprise.]

You utter bastard. You. You're making me hope. [For what, it didn't matter. The fact that she had any at all was nothing short of a miracle. Her voice is two parts incredulous and one part joyful. This was...something she hasn't had in over two decades.]

[averybadfeeling]

"The phrase 'polite, friendly bastard' would indicate that being polite and friendly are simply a veneer over what is truly an unpleasant or untrustworthy person. I do hope you don't believe me insincere."

[He smiles, though it's a bit weakly.]

"And I did not make you hope. I have simply shown you a reason to hope."

[fleurdesel]

Ben, you are many things. Insincere has never, and will never, be one of them.

[She sits back on her heels, still more than a little stunned by her mini revelation. Hope. She hopes. For improvement, for centering. For peace. For things she has been convinced, for decades, she did not deserve and now...she has hope.

It's a small thing, what she does next, but still significant. She flips through the teas available and instead of the black, bitter tea she pulls out two of the white. She dumps the water out of the teacups and sets the bags in the bottom, pouring water from the kettle in to steep.]

It is more than I have had in...since I was a child. Literal decades, Ben.

[averybadfeeling]

"Then it sounds to me like perhaps we have a bit of catching up to do."

[Assuming she let him help. Somehow he thought she would. His smile becomes a bit more firm with the return to his friendly snark.]

[fleurdesel]

It died with my father, for the most part. [She lifts a shoulder, not at all certain it was something to be shared...but. Still, it would be relevant.]

He would find this hilarious. Growing up? He was my Obi-Wan. My guide, my mentor. It's a pop culture term from the films.

[averybadfeeling]

"... My name has become a household reference for a revered mentor?"

[... Well. What precisely does one say to that?]

[fleurdesel]

It has. I have told you that you are well known and respected Ben. No matter what you think to be your failures, after this you will go on to do well despite them.

[averybadfeeling]

"... So Luke has assured me, but there is a difference between one's pupil respecting them and one's... audience? Adapting their name into a positive reference."

[fleurdesel]

That there is. Just as I've found there to be a difference between respecting a character for what they endured and survived, and respecting the person they truly are after you've met them.

[averybadfeeling]

"I am honored to be found worthy of such respect. I only hope I can live up to it in your case."

[Every conversation they have seems to reinforce his refusal to fail her. Curious, that.]

[fleurdesel]

You've helped me find hope for the first time since I was nineteen Ben. You've helped me learn to accept and let go, if not everything that I should, enough that I am not so burdened. You've just finished explaining how my continued determination to view life as something to be endured, rather than accepted and enjoyed if possible, is harming myself and frustrating those around me.

[She removes the teabags from the cups and picks them both up, standing in one fluid motion to walk over to Ben and offer him his teacup.]

I think you are more than worthy, and more than living up to it Ben.

[averybadfeeling]

"Thank you."

[For the tea, or for the compliment? The world may never know, as he's sipping it now. Despite it being really, really hot.]

[fleurdesel]

You are going to burn your tongue, and I am going to laugh.

[Adele shakes her head and moves to settle on one of the sofas. If she's to be here, she may as well be comfortable. And now? With the teacup warming her hands, the delicate aroma of a subtly sweet white tea in the air, the sound of the ocean? She was a little more at peace than she had been in a long while.]

[averybadfeeling]

[He simply gives her a somewhat enigmatic grin over the top of his teacup before sitting beside her in silence, sipping his tea and gazing out at the ocean.]

[fleurdesel]

[She quirks a brow up at him, but doesn't say anything more. If he has not already burnt himself, he will be fine. She sips her own tea, habitually syncing her breathing, and in time her heartbeat, with the swell of the ocean.]