The Hollidaze is Here Again - Open To All

[forgeabettertomorrow]

WHO: Darin Altway and you!
WHERE: All around
WHEN: Throughout the month of December
WHAT: Various shenanigans
WARNINGS: Mentions of extreme insomnia and holiday stress

-A- Nonah: Darin's Forge
[It had been a few weeks since the events of the swear-in ceremony on the moon. As the days wore on, Darin went from being his usual, upbeat self, to someone far more withdrawn. After working things out with Allura, he made an appoint to work normal hours at the forge. But that still didn't change the fact that he'd been averaging only a few hours of sleep per night, thanks to the fact that he can feel Diomuhr's presence now.]

[Anyone who comes by to see him will find him distracted. He has bags under his eyes and he's slightly off-color; paler than normal, despite not being sick.]

[Distracted by his thoughts and the presence lingering around him, he's also doing something he's never done before: making simple yet egregious mistakes. It's one such mistake that ends with Darin taking the piece he was hammering away on, a shield, and picking it up in his bare hands and crumpling it like it was nothing more than an aluminum can. He then pivots and pitches the solid ball of crumpled steel through the roof like a missile, complete with high pitched whistling sound as it disappears from sight.]

...Great. Now I have something else to fix...

-B- Maurtia Falls: Aegis Force HQ
[Darin was no stranger to exercise. In fact, before he was driven away from his home, he made an appoint to train his body every day. It helped maintain the illusion that his strength was natural, but it also helped him learn control and restraint. He'd more or less restarted his regiment again when he was Ported in, but Aegis Force HQ really gave him a place to cut loose and blow off some steam. And this blue-haired idiot was a kettle ready to boil over. Thankfully, someone showed him how to calibrate and use the Danger Room, which meant less time trying to figure the damn thing out. With all of his mental frustrations, Darin wanted to really go all out. After setting his opponents to 'robots' and cranking the difficulty to maximum, Darin enters into the simulation.]

[What follows, for about half an hour, is the sound of what one might assume is just explosions going off. Apparently 'maximum difficulty' is no joke when it comes to Danger Room settings, and Darin isn't taking the challenge lightly. Peek in on him, and you'll find him tearing through robots of all shapes and sizes with a ferocity that he's never shown before. The booming echoing out from the chamber isn't from the robots, it's from the force of Darin's kicks and punches. He's not even using his dao today, and at the rate he's going, he's going to destroy his limbs.]

Leave me...alone...! WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!?

[From his tone, it's possible he's not talking to the endless stream of robots.]

-C- De Chima: Shopping Center
[With Christmas fast approaching, Darin's taking a trip to De Chima's largest shopping center to get some ideas for presents. He's likely going to make most of the presents he wants to give out himself, but he's in some desperate need of some inspiration. He wanders from store to store, glancing over a list of names. Try to sneak a peek to see if your name is on the list? He might be too distracted to notice.]

[Or maybe you're in the food court, watching as shoppers bustle around. There's a hell of a commotion heading your way though. If you happen to squint, you'll notice a blue haired doofus running full tilt as a mob of angry shoppers chases him through the mall.]

YOU'RE ALL FREAKIN' CRAZY!! IT'S A DAMN TOY!!! YOU TICKLE IT AND IT LAUGHS AND SHAKES!!! KIDS CAN ALREADY DO THAT THEMSELVES!! WHY DO YOU NEED A TOY FOR THAT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?!

[Yup]

-D- Dawn of the Delts: Closed to Keith
[Okay, so the Danger Room might have been a bit too much. At least he can still hit the gym like normal. The only problem here is that he still has to make an effort to hide his power.]

[He yawns as he goes through a 'routine' that would make most people want to collapse. Now that he has a place where he can really push himself, this place seemed like small potatoes. What he really needed was a challenge.]

...Huh. Wonder if Keith is around. Last time we sparred, he was in demi-god mode.

...I wonder if he remembers me going toe-to-toe with him.

Comments

[forgeabettertomorrow]

No, it doesn't.

But doesn't a competition just make things more fun?

[fauxmarth]

[she shakes her head with a little chuckle.]

I can't actually argue that, can I...

[forgeabettertomorrow]

If you did, I'd be giving you such a look.

Anyway, you said you were shopping for your cousin too, right? He recently contacted me and wanted me to make his dog armor. I thought for Christmas I could make him something that matches. Think he'd be into something like that?

[fauxmarth]

Dog armor? [she looks a bit...concerned. the idea of Lissy and Lonny being able to tackle...in full plate...]

I-I mean, he'd be over the moon about it, of course...

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Yeah, I gotta say, your cousin? He and I have so much in common it's kinda scary. I thought I was the only one with a notebook full of attack names.

[fauxmarth]

[fonder:] And a separate one for potential names of weapons, and a separate one for armor... [she shakes her head, slowing down to eye a window display. fuzzy hats...

ah, right:] But you're right; before you, I'd never met anyone with such a similar enthusiasm. I'm glad you two can be friends.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Yeah! He promised to help me name some of my pieces and attacks. Nothing I come up with seems to roll off the tongue.

...You know, he actually acts a lot like how my brother used to. Believe it or not, when I was a kid, I was the shy one.

[fauxmarth]

[mildly:] Is that why you're so boisterous now? All that energy you never used is all coming to the forefront?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Nah. To be honest...I'm like this for Dromas' sake.

I mean, he was killed when we were five. He never got to live his life the way I am now.

When we were kids, I was always hiding behind him. I was scared of people because of the way they'd look at us. But he never backed down. He was always the first to leap into a fray or to talk back at the other kids who made fun of us. Hell, he's the one who was so gung-ho at figuring out what we were capable of with our powers. It was his idea to one day be the greatest heroes our world had ever known.

[His smile is there, but it's distant. What Dromas had become was so different than what they dreamed they could be during those halcyon days.]

After I lost him, I decided I would act more like him. I'd forget about my weaknesses and just plow forward like he would have. It was the least I could do, really.

[Which raises the question: Can Darin tell the difference between himself and this mask he's worn for most of his life?]

[fauxmarth]

...

[Lucina feels a stab of guilt for having inadvertently brought up such a sad memory. part of her resonates, though; is that not what she did when her parents never came back? take on their roles, try to be like them to move forward...

she's quiet for a few steps.]

...I hope he's pleased with you. I'd like to think he would be.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Actually, he hates me.

He framed me for murder so I was forced to leave home, knowing full-well I'd try and track down the culprit so I could clear my name. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was him and that he was back from the dead.

[/RECORD SCRATCH]

[fauxmarth]

W...What...?

[she stops, looking horrified.]

But--why would... [why would someone hate?? a five-year old??????]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Yeah. I guess twenty years of being dead makes you bitter. And also having been murdered. I didn't get the chance to really ask him before I watched him level a city in a show of strength.

...Talking about this all out loud makes me sound insane, now that I think on it.

[fauxmarth]

No, not...insane. It's not that. [she purses her lips for a beat.] It's just...taking so many awful circumstances in such stride... [shaking her head.] I don't think I ever could. It's so much.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Nah, you're way stronger than I am. After so many bad things happen to you, you just become...numb? After awhile, I just stopped caring and letting it get to me. There was no real point.

[Yes, because totally shutting off your emotions is super healthy.]

If I were really strong, I never would have given up on becoming the hero Dromas and I both wanted to be.

[He looks in at a display of mannequins in ski-wear, his reflection painted on the glass. The dichotomy that is Darin is pretty jarring once one realizes he's not just a boisterous idiot.]

[fauxmarth]

A wish you made when you were a child... [she glances at the reflection of him as she talks.] Isn't it natural that it would change? After all this time...

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[For a moment, the mask cracks. Darin's gree-eyed gaze goes distant. But just like that, the moment's gone.]

Well, sure it does. I grew up. Had to happen sooner or later, right??

[There's that grin again. His staple. Always smiling, because when you smile, people don't prod.]

[fauxmarth]

[she makes a faint, affirmative sound, withdrawing, hugging her arms to herself.]

That's right. That's how it is everywhere, it seems. Kind of inescapable.

[but time doesn't stop, so all people can do is keep marching forward. or stop...and sink.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

... ... ...

What about you? Did you always want to be a great hero? You always made it sound like you've done the things you've done out of necessity. If things were different, would you have done something else?

[fauxmarth]

[she walks on, glancing up at the lights dangling from the upper floor.]

I wonder about that. I can't really remember what I wanted before I knew about the war; I could believe that I still wanted to be a warrior like my parents, but I'd be lying if I said that was exactly it.

[smirking:] I probably wanted to be a paladin, like my mother. But a swordsmaster like my father. Both.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Whoa! Your mom was a paladin?! She must have been crazy strong!

I did some sword training with one of my Kingdom's paladins once. I got laid out flat!

[fauxmarth]

[she chuckles.]

Very strong. If I remember right, she had aspirations to be renown the way the legendary paladin Cain the Bull was. She used to remind me to not let anyone tell me I couldn't do what I wanted just because I was a girl...that the only one in my way was myself in the end.

...She'd say that, but still get flustered by my father all the same.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[That last bit makes Darin chuckle.]

Looks like even the strongest of warriors have a cute side! Sounds like that's universal. My father would talk like a sappy poet whenever he spoke about my mother, despite being a hardened mercenary.

But it sounds to me like you've got heroism in your blood. I know I used to give you some grief, but now? I don't think I can see you as anything but a hero.

[fauxmarth]

[she flushes, speeding up a bit without thinking. like mother like daughter???]

Y-you don't have to say things like that. It's kind, but...very far from the mark.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin just lengthens his strides to keep up.]

Ah, humility! Perhaps the greatest and most seldom seen trait of a true hero~

Methinks that mark is closer than you thought~