lastofthebog: (Bright)
Galla (Amaia) ([personal profile] lastofthebog) wrote in [community profile] maskormenacelogs2018-05-12 02:59 pm

May Swear In

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: Nonah's Fairgrounds
WHEN: May 12th
WHAT: May Swear In
WARNINGS: None expected; please warn in threads if necessary

Spring is finally beginning to fade into summer with weather starting to warm, and the trees and flowers beginning to blossom into their peak, and what better way to celebrate the welcome change in weather than with a FAIR?



The fairgrounds have been transformed overnight with a swath of rides and attractions filling the field from one edge to the other. There is, of course, a booth for imPort registration that's positioned near the entrance of the fair. Even so, imPorts with an interest in registering may have to ask a fair worker for directions. The signage on the registration booth is, for some reason, faded and easy to miss among the bright and bold banners and lights drawing attendees to the different game booths that line the paths further into the grounds. Must have just been poor planning on someone's part!

Further into the park there are a wide array of the standard carnival games. Games include from balloon pops where you can win your very own "signed" copy of imPort photographs, but does anyone actually remember signing any photos…? There's also a ring toss that no one can seem to win, but the prizes include items like a water bottle discarded by Tony Stark, or dried flowers from one of Persephone's actual vines! Or maybe you'd like to prove your sharpshooter skills by knocking milk bottles down with a pellet gun? Prizes range from cheap, poorly painted figures of popular imPorts, to a handful of detailed and poseable figurines of both imPorts and famous media characters for the very best shooters.

Past the games are the many, many different food booths. You can chow down on Fried Stuff On Sticks, offering fare ranging from deep fried cheesecake on a stick to deep fried corndogs on a stick to a variety of tempura on sticks. (It counts!!) Or perhaps you prefer a healthier roasted meat? There's no shortage of options for that: roast turkey, roast beef, roast bison, roast alligator? Strangely few, if any, of these booths offer any vegetable options, but intrepid imPorts can find a booths offering superfood smoothies, quinoa bowls, or fruit parfaits tucked away at the very end of the food court.

And don't forget the main attraction (at least, the attraction Galla is most pleased with): CAPTURE THE FLAG. A parcel of land roughly the size of two side-by-side American football fields has been fenced off, and a brightly colored banner that looks like it manifested directly from the 90s is hung across the entrance, inviting all to enjoy! Inside, there is a scattering of trees to provide some natural cover in addition to man-made structures like sections of wall, pieces of large construction pipe to crawl through or hide in, and, of course, the different flag bases:



Yes, those are inflatable dinosaur heads inside an inflatable Jurassic Adventure. The flags are located inside of the temple the top of the "mountain" which, conveniently, has a rock climbing facade just in case climbing to the top of an inflatable hill is too difficult for some players.

Capture the Flag games are held hourly, and imPorts can choose to compete against each other, against natives, or even to team up with local native attendees! When competing against or with natives, imPorts are asked to refrain from flight, mind-reading, or teleportation, but it isn't a rule being strictly enforced. In fact, apart from those requests, imPorts are encouraged to use their powers as much as they like! There are natives lined up around the perimeter to watch the games play out, so why not give them a show to remember?
stretchy_girl: (woolyhat i like it)

[personal profile] stretchy_girl 2018-05-22 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Language!

[Gemini says giving the kid a shocked look, before gesturing to all the others and shouting with a wide grin...]

Doggie pile! [Which is their cue to jump onto Magnus while she gets to work.]

Or maybe I'll put my arms into it! [She grins, as her arms start to stretch under Magnus, Gemini biting her lip in concentration as her arms flatten and squirm under him toward that flag.]
stabbyfingers: (REACH for it)

[personal profile] stabbyfingers 2018-05-22 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Indistinguishable from the real thing.

[ Trained restraint keeps Negotiator from circling Jonathan like he were a show dog. ]

Has anyone detected it on their own?
knaval: made by <user name=buttadventure> (*on orders from him)

[personal profile] knaval 2018-05-22 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I think so.

[he shrugs, looking at how own wrist. he's never actually checked if it's there when he's in his natural form...]

Well, that, and also it's kind of boring? People are always going on about the Porter's whims this and Lachesis that like... okay? I don't care. Deal with it instead of crying about it.
stabbyfingers: (none of you are free of sin)

[personal profile] stabbyfingers 2018-05-22 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Hmmm.



It's... not a bad argument. To be fair, any argument that involves "shut the fuck up and deal with the problem" sounds good to Negotiator.
]

True. The Porter is out of our control. [ Despite himself, he's bitter about that. ] Talk does nothing.

[ He finishes his deep fried alligator, casually licking his claw clean like a normal, regular person. ]

Then the question isn't "why were you given human form". It's "why do you use it"?
knaval: made by <user name=buttadventure> (*on orders from him)

[personal profile] knaval 2018-05-22 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[riptide just shrugs.]

I don't hate it, and my natural form is far too big to fit places. It's convenient.
am_i_a_monster: (Default)

[personal profile] am_i_a_monster 2018-05-22 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
One more way that they don't really trust us. 

  Not that she blames them.  She has trouble trusting too.  As long as she can live her life, she's okay with certain restrictions.  She has no desire to be in a military.]   

With all the strange stuff that happens here, I'd say practice is necessary.   

  [Now that she has a second chance at life, she wants to do everything she can to hang on to it.]      

I haven't thought about visiting a shooting range here.   I guess I'm more used to a moving target.  Is there a range that you recommend?
darkpants_warmfeeling: (Back)

[personal profile] darkpants_warmfeeling 2018-05-23 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. At least I can say it's my job to worry about things going wrong."

Jacob idly tosses a couple of his now-empty meat sticks in a nearby receptacle. He wonders what it must be like to be the natives showing up to these things. Are they blissfully unaware of the dangers that might burst onto the scene without warning, living lives where they aren't expected to be 'heroes?' Or are they more anxious and vulnerable than Jacob could ever be, fully aware that they don't have the same advantages, powers, and resurrection potential as the mighty imPorts?

"Besides, I can still defend myself without my full equipment... and you've got your Pokemon with you just in case, don't you?"
ambasciatore: (9)

[personal profile] ambasciatore 2018-05-23 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
It's... certainly a thing.

[ Freeing at times, but stifling at others -- like he was constantly looking over his shoulder. ]

He is the son of Apollo. Sunshiny is an accurate description.
heliophilic: M- (Used to taking orders from men in black)

[personal profile] heliophilic 2018-05-23 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Yeah whatever. All bats are small children to him. Blame teen!Dickie.

Batman he is not but a hint he can take. He does his best to minimize a surprised reaction as he finally catches her drift. If she's going to read him, she's going to have to work for it.
]

Oh I don't know, she seems maybe about yea high.

[He places his hand square on the top of her head, smirking all the way.]
heliophilic: M- (Accelerated healing. Foiled again.)

[personal profile] heliophilic 2018-05-23 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
[M gives Angus his very best innocent smile. It barely looks believable.]

The cotton candy isn't crunchy.
heliophilic: M- (Default)

[personal profile] heliophilic 2018-05-23 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
[M hasn't completely forgiven, and thanks to the computer brain he'll never forget, but he's still determined to at least try to move past this like an adult.]

Dealer's choice.

And do know there is only one correct answer.

[There is not one correct answer.]
khajidont: (Jaime - sheepish)

[personal profile] khajidont 2018-05-23 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
...that explains a lot, doesn't it, [ Jaime says quietly. Of course. Of course. He should have thought of that first but the last Jaime seems more like a ghost than anything else, someone that's only come up with one person, someone he only ever expected to come up with one person - who seems worse off for it.

The Negotiator won't have any such problems. ]


No. As far as I know, it's not that I don't remember - it's that that version of me is totally different. You two had a truce in the City too?
khajidont: (Jaime - Mild)

[personal profile] khajidont 2018-05-23 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. [ Jaime offers her a small smile. ] He'd like that. That's, um, what he told me a lot about? His time in the school, and how he needed help controlling his powers. [ And what happened when he didn't - couldn't, how much that dictated the rest of his life.

It's all right, Jaime, he tells himself. Maybe Kaidan's in danger now, but that doesn't mean he's dead. That's a different Kaidan, in an entirely different world, and entirely different timeline. ]


But yeah, they made it work. Kaidan's actually the guy that lived with me when I first came - god, like, four years ago? He really helped me get settled in, made sure I was okay. [ What he says next is embarrassing but, he thinks, necessary for setting the mood. He raises a brow at her. ] Not that he was used to people my age. He even tried to give me the talk once. It would've been funnier at the time if it hadn't been so awful.
girlybruiser: (you didn't even have dibs!)

[personal profile] girlybruiser 2018-05-23 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ Haru is distracted in that moment by Mitsuru's calling out of the carny, looking over to see him with other milk jugs in his hands, though they look... heavier, almost. It doesn't take long for her to put two and two together, frowning at him with great disappointment.

The carny looks embarrassed to have been caught, but mostly to be called out by a girl more than half his age. He grumbles something, placing the jugs down. ]


Excuse me, but that target looked much heavier than the previous ones. I would also assume that transparency would be offered should the challenge be changed. Doing so without the player's consent would be dishonest.

[ Her tone is firm, but neither cold nor aggressive. ]

I will not be playing a second round. I would like a refund, thank you very much.
girlybruiser: (that would make me... uncomfortable)

[personal profile] girlybruiser 2018-05-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ He's certainly an enigmatic one, this one. ]

R-reptilians?!
stabbyfingers: (roh)

[personal profile] stabbyfingers 2018-05-23 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
You're not as different as you assume. But yes, he was the one who insisted on the truce.

[ His eyes flash, quite literally, as the glow brightens with anger. Reyes had been the one to instigate the truce. ]

I kept my end of the deal. The Scarab did not.

[ Which was the most enlightening thing to happen. He doesn't really know very much more about Reyes than he did in his original reality. Other than seeing him as older, this is the main takeaway: the knowledge that the Scarab is aware. This is why the Negotiator had made it very clear that the Scarab was to be included in the terms this time around. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. ]

You rely on technology far outside your understanding, corrupted beyond the point of return. Is it as prepared to be as civil as you are?
khajidont: (Jaime - Mild)

[personal profile] khajidont 2018-05-23 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
Ten Things I Hate About You would have to be in first, right? Total classic.

[ That's his job - making things easy, putting others at ease. And the easy way he talks, the easy way he ambles along, just as eager to make a joke out of himself as he is anything else except other people, all lend itself to that. Sometimes it's hard for others to suss out what's genuine and what he's just doing to get a laugh out of someone else.

The trick is, it's all genuine in its own way. Others' happiness makes him happy. Anything he can do to help that happen is as earnest as can be. ]


And... just the way you described it, I guess? [ He tilts his head skywards, thinking. ] I guess I've been thinking of it in the same way that I can feel what Khaji's feeling, even if he's not saying anything. I know it's not coming from inside me, but I feel them anyway.
patchricide: (94)

[personal profile] patchricide 2018-05-23 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
A carnival on the moon?!

[Her expression lights up, as she starts picturing how the lowered gravity would affect the rides. The physics are all familiar to her, it's just normally for work instead of pleasure—]

[And a moment later, she realizes her mistake.]


... oh! You meant the swearing-in ceremony, not the activities, didn't you? [She clears her throat and regains her composure.] Still, that must have been a lot of fun. Was it just the one occasion, or is it still possible to visit?
devoutish: (put your money where your mouth is)

[personal profile] devoutish 2018-05-23 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
They've got some sort of base, but I haven't been back. It's amazing what becomes old hat, eh? But you, I'm sure you could go.
dragony: (❥z - 03)

[personal profile] dragony 2018-05-23 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
Is it? If Will Smith isn't in it, I haven't seen it.

[ The naturalness of it is what's so dangerous. She doesn't want that kind of easy pleasantry — not when she knows how little she deserves it, and letting her own mood shift to mirror his only feels parasitic. She doesn't want to be as selfish as she wants.

So even if a little bit of a smile shows in pieces in her expression, for little jabs like that (and what a weird qualifier to have, for rom-coms), she keeps her grip tight on the umbrella, her other arm remaining crossed, shoulders tense. She doesn't look at his face, either, his soft and thoughtful expressions, instead opting for the premise of looking for a game they can play.
]

Anyway, it's... sort of like that. I can feel how everyone around here feels, even if I'm not trying to. It's noise. But when I pull emotions from objects, they don't... they don't pick up your feelings, just by being around you, like I am right now. The emotion has to be a lot stronger for an object to take it, and it has to be from touch. Like...

[ It's something she should have explained at the outset, before he got it in his head to make this offer. It's something she should have explained, at any earlier point. It's something she shouldn't be bothering with, now, when there's so much else on the table.

And yet, she explains:
]

Let's say you have a photograph of someone you love. You want to protect it, so you keep it in a frame, with the picture behind glass. And you love her very much, and you miss her, and maybe sometimes you wish you could talk to her, so you hold onto it and talk to it like you'd talk to this person. You pour a lot of your heart into it.

But, while you think it's the photograph that's capturing your feelings, you never touch it. You always hold it by the frame. When you get upset, and cry, your tears only reach the glass. So... if you took the photograph out of the frame, and gave me that, I wouldn't be able to feel anything about that person. But if you gave me the glass, and the frame, with no picture in it... my power would react.

If I want to use it to drown out anything else, it has to be an incredibly strong emotion. Most people don't reach heights like that unless they're in pain.

[ My anchors were vessels for pain, she says, with pieces to a puzzle held in separate hands. ]

So ... it's hard for me to see you having something like that. That you'd really be willing to part with it. ... I don't want you to be disappointed when it doesn't work, the way you hope.

[ She forces a shrug. ]

That's all.
khajidont: (Jaime - seriously unimpressed)

[personal profile] khajidont 2018-05-23 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Jaime wonders, momentarily, if the Negotiator ever found out that there's a future in which he succeeded, in which the Earth was drained of all its resources and its people forcibly enslaved, in which Jaime had successfully become a captive in his own body, forced to aid and abet in the genocide of his people for decades on end until they became desperate enough to send a child through a time travel machine. Would it bring him joy? Or would he simply be angry to know that that future is not his own?

It has little bearing on what they're doing here. It just brings back old memories seeing the Negotiator again and again, old fears he'd thought he'd managed to bury for good. The more important part is how aware the Negotiator is that the Scarab is his own entity, and that he would gladly see the Negotiator dead ten times over. ]


The Scarab respects me enough to listen to me, [ he says carefully, aware that to any listeners they must sound absolutely insane. ] And he isn't corrupted - he's alive. As long as I'm around, he's in on the deal.

[ Which begs the question... ]

What happened the last time?

[ Oh, Khaji. What did you do? ]
khajidont: (Beetle - Cheerful)

[personal profile] khajidont 2018-05-23 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ Jaime accepts the hand, fluttering to his feet. ]

I guess you haven't heard of me, huh? It's my uniform! I'm the Blue Beetle. [ He flicks his hands across his torso, brushing off some imaginary dust. ] I hang out at these things sometimes to make sure everything's going okay. Which, for the record, this seems to be.
patchricide: (What a wonderful day for Altea)

[personal profile] patchricide 2018-05-23 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
It's all relative to what you've seen and what you haven't, I suppose. I do still want to see it, but I can't say Earth's moon is the first moon I've visited.

But never one that had rollercoasters on it. [She smiles. ... that's actually almost poignant now, right? And not just her being overly excited about the ride.]
devoutish: (it's impossible to be killed by a gun)

[personal profile] devoutish 2018-05-23 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
This one doesn't have rollercoasters on it. You'll have to build one.

[He says it almost seriously enough that he might not be joking... but there's a little smile playing around his lips.]
functusofficio: (p: i can't decide if it's a choice)

[personal profile] functusofficio 2018-05-23 01:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Foggy! [ She is delighted to see him in turn, if lacking in memorabilia in comparison and also much, much more dubious of some of this food. ]

Piraguas? No, I haven't. Are they anything like --

[ She points at what he's looking at, making a slight face of wariness. ] It says it's chocolate, but I'm not at all sure it can be called ice cream.

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