[OTA] When it all comes down to dust

[treadwater]

Who: Undine Wells and You
When: The last couple of weeks in October (Post-Explosion)
Where: Pool deck, Sand Dollars, wildcard
Summary: This month is a lot, and Undine is Holding It Together
Warnings: Discussion of child soldiers and death possible


1. Have mercy on our uniform [Pool Deck or Areas of Mess]
The ship is in shambles, and it must be the duty of those who can to clean it, right? Right. Undine has water powers, and back home she was known to use them for cleaning tasks like washing dishes. This is no different.

See the girl with blue hair, her frills and ribbons just so as she manipulates masses of water, sometimes as much as fifty gallons at a time, to get the ship back into...well, as good a condition as water can get anything. She can empty the trash out of the pool, mop away spills on the Promenade, clean graffiti off walls. But she doesn't really have the ability to put anything together again.

Isn't that an apt metaphor? To be able to polish, but not mend what's broken?


2. Man of peace or man of war [Sand Dollars]
Without the ghosts in the cafe, there's no one to make Undine's bubble tea. Look, look, it's a tiny thing that made her days a little brighter, so she's attempting to make it herself. Except she doesn't know where half the ingredients are, and the tapioca turned out wrong, one large gummy mass and when she tried to blend the ingredients to make a blended smoothie-style bubble tea, the lid wasn't on firmly, so it went everywhere and she can clean it up, that's not a problem at all with her powers, but it's all a bit much. It's all way too much.

There's a burst of loud profanity that comes from Sand Dollars. And then Undine freezes, because she's built up this. This reputation on the ship. Undine Wells is friendly and sweet and easygoing and helpful and the least troublesome of the teenagers on the ship, and if someone hears her cussing up a blue streak, if someone sees her mask slip and something unpleasant peek through, they might think she's possessed. She couldn't stand it if that happened. So she needs to keep it up. She just needs to suck it up and handle everything with a smile.

...right?


3. The peacock spreads his fan [Wildcard]
Open to any ideas you have! Hit me to plot at darkersolstice#9463 on Discord

Comments

2

[mooninthewater]

Mizuki does, in fact, catch the profanity. And, you know what? Mood, Undine. He has to stop and do a double take at the restaurant a moment, cautiously poking his head into the doorway with a couple taps against the doorframe while he works up what to even say to that??

“Undine…?” It’s been a stressful month. Mizuki would gladly choose to rip this month out of a calendar — especially if that meant it’d actually delete it. So, bright side, he isn’t immediately assuming possession! Yay, little victories…? “Are you okay? What happened?”

Re: 2

[treadwater]

"I'm fine! I'm fine. I just...made a mess." She has half-blended berries dripping down the side of her face and in her hair (too purple, luckily, to be mistaken for blood). The tapioca blob is in a pot of water, now cooling, there's other small disaster zones behind the counter.

And she bares her teeth in something that is absolutely not a real smile anyway.

[mooninthewater]

“Oh.” Certainly not something to get so upset over. Mizuki has never been very good at picking up on how people are feeling based on tone or expression, but… the situation as a whole has him worried.

Or maybe he’s just naturally worried about Undine in general? Inconclusive.

“I can help you clean it up, no problem. And… maybe I can even help with what you’re trying to do here…?”

[treadwater]

"I was...trying to make bubble tea. But everything went wrong." She looks sort of defeated. "You...don't really need to help if you don't want to, it's really not really a big deal." Really.

It's just. Last-straw-itis for her.

[mooninthewater]

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to!" He reaches forward to wipe away some of that puree from her face, and shuffles around to find something vaguely towel-esque he could use to wipe away some of the mess from the counter as well. "You know, I used to be a chef once upon a time. Working with food and stuff is a lot of fun for me! Would you like me to show you a few tricks?"

Aaaand maybe afterwards, he can give a penny for her thoughts. She seems so tense…

[treadwater]

"I mean, this isn't really a real kitchen. But. What you can show me, I'd like to see?" She steps back, letting him take over the situation. That's sure easier, isn't it?

1 || Pool Deck

[crushed_pearls]

Roaming the ship alone (against advice but it's hard to take the heavy out of a lass, isn't it?), Erin is struck by the urge to visit the pool and listen to the water there. When she arrives to find Undine cleaning up she sighs to herself and mutters, "Fate is a fucking clown," to herself louder than she thinks she does.

And then she approaches, because her friend is here. Because she's curious about the way she can see the water moving with the blindfold's help, the way it both goes to and comes from Undine, tangled with her story.

Because the taste of the Glamour on the air is sharp and bitter.

"Heya youngblood," Erin calls out over the sound of the water, tipping a wave to go with it. "Potentially fun fact, I can see that uniform on you! Almost like it's Hedgespun or...a part of you, maybe, it's lovely. Feelin' civic-minded?"

[treadwater]

"I've got to find some way to be useful around here, with everything...everything."

The chipper note in her voice is absolutely forced, but the sentiment behind the words is utterly sincere. Of course she has to be useful. Of course she has to earn her place, and show she's contributing even though she's not patrolling nightly.

"But it's cool that you can see my uniform. It does weird things in the captain's realms sometimes; when we were at summer camp, I had a shorts-and-tshirt uniform that was kind of interesting."

[crushed_pearls]

"Yeah, you mentioned last time we were here." Erin frowns slightly and steps a bit closer. Her hand hovers uncertainly near Undine's shoulder, not quite sure if she's welcome to touch. "Undine...you don't have to mask up for me. I'm the last person on this hell boat who can give anyone shit for stressing."

[treadwater]

"Are...are you sure? I've been scared that people might think I'm possessed if I don't manage to keep it up like I have been. Because I've been so good at it."

She takes a tiny step forward, butting her shoulder against that hand like a dog at a shelter desperate to be petted.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin squeezes Undine's shoulder and gets down to the lass's level. The urge to hug runs through her and is swiftly restrained and throttled to death; a twinge of guilt crosses her face. "Undine...not to be a stone cold bitch but I don't have the standing to accuse or clear you either way. Even if you are possessed right now you can talk to me. You're a passenger, like the rest of us. You shouldn't have to bear up all alone, and...I know Darcy's...been a bit occupied with things. I'm not mad to see you working to make the ship better but the ship is just...objects. They can wait."

[treadwater]

"Darcy's great, she's amazing. She's just got a lot on her mind, and a lot of people who she's working with. And...mmh. So she tried to introduce me and Dimitri, one of her best friends aboard? It was the most awkward thing ever! We were so stiff and uncomfortable and awkward around each other. Like...she's got a lot of really good friends, and I don't begrudge her that at all! But..."

But. She shakes her head, curls wobbling.

[crushed_pearls]

"...But they feel like her friends, and not yours," Erin finishes. She wavers, hesitates. "A part of her life where you feel like an intruder?"

Erin bites her lip.

(Did our mother raise a little bitch or not?)

|You say out of this I swear on her fucking grave.|

Her other arm moves.

To open up for a hug.

2!

[selenokinesis]

Oh, dear. It's not every day Ebalon is out of his room not doing science for once walks past Sand Dollars and hears someone cursing. A now-familiar voice, too! And so he slides into the venue casually, looking around for the source, and— ah.

"Is anything the matter? You didn't hurt yourself trying to make something, did you?" It's his first assumption, anyway. There are hot burners and such back there.

[treadwater]

"No, no! I'm not hurt, I'm just a mess." Pause. She tries to inject her usual chipper into her voice. "I mean, I've made a mess. It's not a big deal, really. It's fine, I'm fine. No used crying over spilled...bubble tea."

[selenokinesis]

"Well, it could be said that everyone aboard is quite the mess in some ways right now, huhu." Yeah, he noticed that slip. "That said, it is perfectly fine to be upset if it bothers you so. Almost anyone will tell you to own your emotions, not shy away from them."

Said the man who got mad that his boyfriend was killed and then murdered three people about it but yeah sure dude.

[treadwater]

"Owning my emotions sucks, because my emotions suck."

Well, that's a completely honest answer she hasn't given most people. Surprise, Ebalon. She respects you enough to be that direct.

[selenokinesis]

"Ah, I resonate with you there. I don't quite enjoy mine, either."

He used to be so cold, calculating, and uncaring... and now some fucking jellyfish and a couple feral women made him seemingly have a heart. It's so annoying, he just wants to go back to burning every bridge he's ever built and blowing up important artifacts for fun.

"I've been told," because he wouldn't natively know this, "that keeping your emotions locked up is unhealthy. You ought to just scream, pitch a fit, or curse up a storm to get it all out. Afterwards, I can help you clean up this mess."

[treadwater]

"You shouldn't have to stand here and watch me throw a tantrum, that'd be a little weird...right?"

Though she definitely might kind of need it.

2. Man of peace or man of war

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri is so tired.

He is so fucking tired.

He's so fucking tired that he doesn't launch into panic mode the second he hears shouting. In the split second between registering the sound and reacting to it, he recognizes that it's frustrated shouting, not panicked, and so he's (relatively) calmer when he wanders into Sand Dollars. He's even too fucking tired to be anxious that it's Undine and their attempted introduction was an awkward nightmare. Anyone who knows him would definitely think he's possessed -- there's a deeply uncharacteristic looseness to his movements, to the crooked flash of his teeth when he leans on the counter.

So it's a good thing that Undine doesn't know him, and he doesn't know her, and they're approximately clean slates for each other.

"Me, too," he says with an exhausted sigh. "Are you alright? Can I help with that?"

[treadwater]

There's a pause and an almost guilty look, though even she isn't certain if it's more for the swearing or for the fact that she's about to accept help from one of Darcy's friends after breaking up with her.

"I'm not hurt. And...yeah, if you want to help me mop this up. That would be...nice. Real nice. I could. Use a little nice right now."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Anytime. Do they keep mops in here? Some of the restaurants have washcloths, but I don't think I've ever seen a full mop. There's the napkins, at least." Dimitri hops over the counter, sliding on his hip. " -- oh, that was satisfying. I've been wanting to do that since I turned up here." He passes a handful of paper napkins to Undine, and runs his own under the sink which I'm assuming exists to begin wiping down the area around the blender.

"What is this thing, anyway?" he asks, giving the blender a dubious look. It's obviously the source of the mess, but otherwise ... "It looks like something I'd find in my professor's laboratory."

[treadwater]

"It's a blender. It grinds ice down real fine for drinks. I didn't have the lid on tight enough. I was...distracted. My head's all over the place."

She might as well be up front.

"Darcy and I broke up."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Ah. So not unlike laboratory equ -- " Dimitri's mind catches up with his mouth. "What? Oh -- I'm so sorry. Um -- " He doesn't have any scripts for this! Fuck! " ... may I ask what happened?"

[treadwater]

She takes a deep breath.

“I tried to talk to her about feeling bad lately, and she assumed me talking to her about it made it a her-problem, something she had to apologize or fix and it wasn’t, but she didn’t seem to be listening when I said that. And then we sort of…I said some stuff about what I want for myself, and it she got weird about it and…we got snippy with each other and she walked away and I let her go.”