Etraya [ inbox

[trebuchim]

un: lune
text | voice | video | action

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text | un: stendhal

[maellum]

The white walls of the apartment are dull, no?

[trebuchim]

They are kind of uninspiring, aren't they? I've half a mind to start writing notes on the walls of my room.

[ Not cute notes, obviously, but research notes. Alas. ]

Maybe we should get some paint. Or put up some of those photos you've been taking so diligently, lately.

[maellum]

[Notes??? Lune, no. Don't give Gustave ideas.]

That's the plan! Sciel and I were thinking we could paint our rooms whatever color we'd like. What color would you want your walls to be?

un: jaycetalis | text

[hexcope]

Hello, Lune.

I've been told by Maelle you could potentially help me with an injury. I have reason to believe it has a magically-charged infection. She mentioned chroma, but I have some concerns. Still, I said I would reach out.

[trebuchim]

Hello.

I do have healing skills, even some that are quite potent, but I have yet to test them in Etraya. I've only recently regained access to my chroma, but all my other chroma-based abilities seem intact and effective.

Magically-charged infection sounds... different, but I'd certainly be happy to help if I can.

What are these concerns, if you don't mind explaining?

[hexcope]

I contracted the initial infection through an injury I wasn't able to get taken care of. The magic part either happened shortly after, or simultaneously, given the environment I was in when I was hurt. It's something I've seen before in plants, but not in a person, and at first I thought it transferred through liquid contact. Now, I'm not sure. I also don't know the full extent of it's repercussions. I understand if this is considered more of a risk than you'd be willing to take on, but Maelle would be on my case if I didn't at least ask.

@justsophie

[sophielicious]

so, i asked sciel what she wanted for christmas and she caught on to me immediately and told me not to cheat, so, as i am here, not cheating, i decided to come ask the other adult woman in that household.

what do you think i should get sciel.

oh, i got you a thing, too.

[trebuchim]

[ Lune is slightly surprised by the message. She's had little contact with Sophie, the blonde more familiar with the others. Lune can admit that she's uncomfortable and suspicious about the thought of a mind reader, a telepath— someone with a power to intrude the mind of another and bend them to their will, take away their agency, plant foreign thoughts and ideals into their heads as if they've always been there. Why are they not questioning the potential for abuse such a power has?

She's bitten back any such comments to the others, not wanting to come across as a jerk who doesn't trust their judgment. She does. That doesn't make her personally much more inclined to engage. There are a few kneejerk reactions that spring to mind immediately. I'm not really the best person for something like this, for example.

But it's for Sciel, and Lune loves Sciel more than she's wary of Sophie. Even if Lune still doesn't think she'll be that much help, here. ]

Sciel appreciates anything with a bit of personal sentiment behind it. If the gift made you think of her, she'll like it. You've spent enough time with her to know that, I think.

If all else fails, you can't go wrong with wine.

Me? [ Why? ] You didn't have to.

[sophielicious]

(Sophie's tried, if anything. She explained some of what she can do, how it works, but it seems like their mutual friends are much more interested in the fact she doesn't than the fact that she not only could apply way too much harm if she wanted to, but has.

Lune's questions, though? Normal. She never spent too long amongst humans — she's not very fond of the concept, but she knows telepathy is something... Well, intrusive. Uncomfortable, and trusting her requires a leap of faith that not all will take. That's fine.)

and she also knows i'm shit at "personal sentiment", and we mostly drink and dance and talk shit, so i'm not like, super sure or anything. wine feels like a thoughtless gift at this point?

yeah, well. from the little we talked, i can tell you're weirded out. i'm totally used to it, but you know? you're loved by people i love, so, why the fuck not?

training days

[demainvient]

Sometime after lunch the day after a certain conversation, Gustave closes his book and considers Lune and Sciel, both conveniently home for the midday meal and now immersed in their own thoughts or projects. "Well, I feel like I've been sitting around too much," he states, without preamble.

This is bait they're both likely to snatch at; he doesn't need to be coy. "How about some exercise?"

[trebuchim]

Curled up in an armchair with a journal braced against her legs, Lune's lips move faintly as her eyes flick across the lines, every now and again scratching a new notation onto the page or crossing something out with her pen, frowning as she does. A half-empty cup of tea sits on the coffee table in front of her, long forgotten and cooling.

Gustave's announcement has her looking up from the pages, her free hand coming up to rub at the back of her neck; perhaps he's not the only one who's been sitting too much.

"You want to go for a walk?" she asks, arching a brow slightly. In her defense, with how reluctant he's been about training, it's hardly her first guess. "I wouldn't mind that."

[cache_coeur]

Sciel is currently sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, where she is one-by-one removing delicate pressed flowers from between the layers of the press. (She used to use Pierre’s books, but she suspected Lune and Gustave would be less thrilled by this.) She lays them out on paper one by one. This is largely boring but she likes it anyway. Gustave’s suggestion is much more intriguing, and she doesn’t care at all when she breaks a petal.

She looks up with a grin.

“Two on one, no foretell, no hard contact?”

Text

[cache_coeur]

[Sciel is out on a very stupid fetch quest, and has grown sufficiently bored to start Scheming something. And so:]

I have two very serious, important questions for you!

[trebuchim]

Oh? The fact that you have to specify like that makes me question the seriousness of these questions, actually.

But... ask away.

[cache_coeur]

If it wasn’t serious, I’d come to you in person, obviously.

A. What are you doing on Saturday?
B. How do you feel about a little blind date?

[demainvient]

[ Gustave has no idea that later in the day he'll be meeting Lune for a different sort of Valentine's Day celebration, so when she gets up in the morning she'll find a bouquet of fresh flowers in a riot of different colors, velvety roses and cheery carnations and other flowers he didn't recognize but thought were pretty.

They're accompanied by a fresh kouign-amann on a plate and a short note: ]

I hope these brighten your day as much as having you here always brightens mine. Je t'adore, mon ami.

– Gustave

— a blind date in the sky

[demainvient]

[ True to her threats, Sciel had plied him with instructions — dinner first at a restaurant he hasn't been to yet, followed by some mysterious outing at a location he doesn't recognize. Even the writing on the notes feels self-satisfied, but that could simply be his own mood coloring his perception.

Still, he obediently dresses in a reasonably nice suit — one that reminds him of the suits he'd had back home, blue fabric and a trim waistcoat worn beneath a tailored jacket — and he collects a flower on his way out: a solitary but beautiful flower of a type he doesn't recognize, petals pale purple ghosting into white. Whatever else this might be, however he might feel about it, there's no reason not to be polite.

It takes him a little while to get to the restaurant, and he's wary to find it almost completely empty. Sciel's doing, too?

But not totally — footsteps sound, and he turns with a faintly resigned expression that dissipates into a relieved smile in the next moment. ]

Lune, hey. Decide to have an evening out?

[ Save him, Lune. The last thing he wants to be doing right now is going on a blind date. ]

[trebuchim]

[ Lune feels uncharacteristically nervous as she approaches the address in Sciel's instructions, but maybe also... slightly anticipatory? In a good way. Maybe this could be a nice night, a chance to meet someone and see if there is anything there. Maybe she does need to look beyond work and duty and tend to her own self, something that has always gone neglected for most of her life. What's one small life in comparison to many, an entire civilization, after all?

Maybe she's getting ahead of herself. Maybe they won't get on at all with this mystery person. Still, Lune makes an effort, like she promised Sciel she would. She puts up her hair and slips on some earrings, does her make-up; a nice red lip and neat eyeliner. She picks a black dress of some soft material that has a bit of a sheen to it, nothing too outrageous— long sleeves and modest neckline, but the back plunges a little and there's a slit on one side up to the knee. Winter is so inconvenient to someone who hates wearing shoes, but she dons stockings and heeled booties with only minute annoyance against the chill. On impulse, she breaks off one of the flowers from Gustave's bouquet and tucks it into her up-do before slipping on her wool coat.

She does think it's a bit strange that there was nobody at the apartment when she leaves, but she doesn't dwell on it further.

Stepping into the near-deserted restaurant only to come face to face with Gustave has her frowning slightly in puzzlement. This is a coincidence. ]

Gustave? No, actually I was supposed to meet...

[ She trails off slowly, confusion giving way to a jumble of mixed emotion, something chagrined rising above the rest as the pieces begin to suddenly fall into place.

Oh. Oh, Sciel. You didn't. ]

You wouldn't be here because Sciel set you up with a blind date, would you?

[demainvient]

[ There's one long blissful moment before the penny drops, while Gustave gives her an admiring look — she looks nice, he can't remember the last time he saw Lune dressed up like this — that's also a little sympathetic. Another of Sciel's victims. ]

You, too, huh?

[ He wonders idly who the intended person might be and why Sciel had chosen them, more curious about who Lune might be meeting that who he—

Wait.

Realization trickles down the back of his neck like cold water, and his expression shifts into something wide-eyed with surprise, followed by an instant internal cringe of awkwardness. ]

Uh— wait, am I — I mean, are we supposed to, uh...

[ Help??? ]

Post-Alicia conversation

[cache_coeur]

It’s late when Sciel gets back, just after one, but it feels much later. She usually tries to be quiet when she comes in, but this time it’s not so much about keeping her heels from clattering on the entryway floor, or stifling a half-drunk giggle. Tonight, she sucks back a deep breath and blinks rapidly. The overstuffed bag on her shoulder is too cumbersome to put down to take off her coat, so she just nudges her boots off best she can and tiptoes down the hall to her room to unburden herself there.


But Lune’s door is open a crack, and light spills out. Reading, maybe. She finds out a second later, poking her face into the crevice and spotting the back of Lune’s dark hair. She lingers for a second, contemplating whether to carry on –– she can smell the gunpowder on her hair and coat –– but she gently nudges the door open a bit further anyway, on impulse alone.

She says, barely above a whisper:

“Have you even tried to sleep?”

Her voice is steady, and she’s smiling, but she knows she’s compensating; there’s tear tracks down her face.

[trebuchim]

At least Lune has changed into pajamas, intent on getting some sleep. At least that had been the plan a while ago, before she'd grabbed a book and figured she'd read just a chapter or two, the time crawling by unnoticed. Faint sounds of movement catch her ear before Sciel's hushed question does.

"I sleep enough," she replies in a murmur, something wry in her tone at the old excuse, too often used. Any amusement falls away when she puts aside the book and turns her head to properly look at Sciel, sharp eyes taking in the smile but also the tear tracks, the slightly smudged make-up.

"Sciel?" Lune frowns, concern flickering within. "What's wrong?"

[cache_coeur]

Look at Lune, all cozy with a book. Sciel's smile broadens just the tiniest bit, even with the itch in her eyes.

"I'm okay," she promises.

But she can't lug a bag full of fireworks into Lune's room for a myriad of reasons, so she raises a finger in gesture –– one sec –– and eases the bag off her shoulder and sets it down in the hall, leant up against the wall, and she shucks her coat off after it. She nips into Lune's room right after. Her pants are still wet from sitting in the snow, her hair still smells. She comes right over anyway, a big breath caught in her lungs.

"I spent some time with Alicia tonight," she says. "She approached me."

@justsophie

[sophielicious]

hey! you should come over.

[trebuchim]

[ #confusion ]

I think you sent this to the wrong person.

[sophielicious]

no lune i didnt

snake island, huge crystal mansion by the cliff

don't get bitten for the love of god