( open ) if you're brave enough you'll just let it happen

[corviform]

WHO: GILBERT and YOU
WHERE: Heropa, specific places.
WHEN: 4/14 ― 4/18
WHAT: Pseudo-Victorian man going about one of his last couple to few weeks before moving out of the city.
WARNINGS: Super brief mention of an old and violent event. TBA otherwise.
NOTE: You are also free to wildcard if you have a more specific scenario you would like to play. PM me on this account and we can work something out.

---

➊ MONDAY | grocery store

[ Gil is a man who is far more likely to bark rather than bite, unless pushed to certain extremes. However, those extremes are limited, if not rare, without his young master to follow everywhere like a lost puppy. He whines about his fellow housemates "not" taking on responsibilities expected in a shared housing situation, but proceeds to carry the bulk of the work, even without yet announcing his intentions to move out in the next few weeks when he's ready to do so.

It's that illogical thinking, but heightened responsibility toward others that puts him at the grocery store near evening time after another long day at work, pushing around a cart already loaded with some of the necessities. There's bread, milk, eggs, and butter so far. He's kept his cardigan on as he wheels through the fruits and vegetables section of the large store, the cool air that keeps the products fresh nipping at the corner of his hands. He stops by the packaged strawberries, lifting one of the containers to peer around the corners and determine whether or not they're fresh enough to purchase. He instantly recoils in disgust seeing a white fuzz growing in a corner anyone could have missed. Without wasting a second, he puts it down and goes for another plastic box. ]

➋ TUESDAY | smoke shop

[ And sadly, he is still a man with his own undefeated vices. He's slowly begun to ease properly into work at the tea shop, but part of it remains stressful when he can't conceal the fact he's an imPort and a gaggle of young women show up around coordinated lunch breaks just so Gil can specifically serve them.

It's stressful and he's going through his packs quickly, accompanied by the fact smoking isn't banned in public areas like they had been in the City, and so every now and then a man around his age or older approaches him to ask if he's got a cigarette to spare. He partly feels like a cigarette charity when it happens multiple times in a week.

There are some young boys who ask him just before he enters the shop to buy them a pack, but none of them look older than fifteen and he easily refuses, much to their chagrin. They groan and one of them says, "Thought you imPorts were s'posed to be cool" before they wander away perhaps in search of another adult who will get them what they want.

He enters the shop, heading straight for the counter and pointing to a pack of Marlboro Red. ]

➌ WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY | coffeehouse

[ Overpriced caffeinated drinks are one of Gil's many pet peeves about modern society, but he finds himself at one of the more popular shops today, waiting in line patiently for black coffee. Some other days he only comes for a bottle of water, given how warm it gets and his inability to endure the humidity for long. There may be drinking fountains available in the parks, but there is no way he is sticking his mouth or hands near anything anyone and everyone drinks from.

It really does not help that he's often wearing a light scarf around his neck in this weather, but between suffering insufferable Floridian weather and revealing a certain reminder from HABIT's "game" that one November, Gil would much rather suffer. Often, he wonders if there are imPorts with the ability to heal the skin, but first it would require trusting someone enough to do it for him without asking questions.

He's not sure if that's a possibility. ]

➍ ANYTIME | residence #004

[ Whatever the housemates want. ]

Comments

[axemeaquestion]

What kind of 'kind'?

[Honest question. Now that she had some rest and cleared her mind, she was starting to realize how manipulative it all was.]

[corviform]

[ It takes him a moment to parse Rochelle's question. His eyes flick to the edge of the table first, lost in thought temporarily as he mulls over it. Then he looks back at her, something in his expression hinting what most people thought about this world so far: it's not all it seems and there's something underneath its surface. ]

Thoughtful.

[ They didn't just give them a roof over their heads ― they gave them clean, up to date houses with all the utilities readily available and clean sheets and mattresses. It's awfully thoughtful. ]

They haven't been cruel or impatient with those who decided not to register. I haven't heard anything about unsettled imPorts having to vacate the houses.

[axemeaquestion]

Thoughtful.

[She repeats it like she's tasting the word in her mouth. And by the uncertainty on her face, she's not sure if she believes it.]

You don't think there's anything... manipulative about it? Like they want something out of us? [Then again... if they weren't assholes to the people who said no, maybe it wasn't so bad.]

[corviform]

Sorry, that was probably the wrong word.

[ Or the wrong explanation to go along with it. He furrows his brows once more. ]

I'm not entirely certain what it is, but they must want something. I'm not familiar with this "Cold War", though I've heard in other worlds it ended many years ago. Both nations never actually fought either, they only used scare tactics.

[ Which is probably what they are. Like living scarecrows from other universes planted on US soil to ward off the Russians. ]

[axemeaquestion]

The Cold War never ended here? [The military explained a little bit about their history, but a lot of it went over her head at the time.] And it got violet?

... Damn. This place is more screwed up than I thought.

[corviform]

I'm not familiar with its origins.

[ So he can't be certain what differences there are politically or socioeconomically besides the obvious ones. He tells himself he needs to take a trip to the local library and check out the archives, what exactly happened in this world's history. ]

I don't believe either country have fought here.

[ Yet? ]

[axemeaquestion]

Oh, they haven't? [From the way she said it, she assumed they did.] Well, that's something. But it's seriously gone on this long here...?

[corviform]

Apparently.

But as I said, I'm not familiar with this world's history. [ And presumably hers. ] My world never had a war like this.

[ The Dukedoms had their grab for power plays among other high society families, but nothing on this level. Some foreigners had been successful in their climbing of the social ladder, like the Barmas. ]

[axemeaquestion]

Never?

[corviform]

Not really. However, there's been many conflicts, especially in the past.

[ He shakes his head, finally shifting a bit closer to the table. ]

The geography between my world and this one isn't quite the same.

[axemeaquestion]

Yeah? What's yours like, if you don't mind me asking?

[corviform]

Most of the technology that exists in this world doesn't in mine.

[ That had been the biggest change for him, though he is fond of some leaps in technology, like the cleaning products and washing machine. And luckily, the washing machine isn't so difficult for someone like him to learn. ]

The clothes are also... [ Not as modest. ] Different.

[axemeaquestion]

Technology and clothes, huh? What year is it where you come from?

[She's just guessing that he could be from the past or something.]

[corviform]

[ Pandora Hearts and its lack of information, man. ]

Nearly... two hundred years from the current year. Maybe a little less.

But I'm not from a version of this country.

[ The English accent clarified that from the start, hopefully. Of course, he doesn't think he has the accent: it's Rochelle and everyone else from America who does. ]

Is your world like this one?

[axemeaquestion]

Jesus. [Yeah, the accent tipped her off, but...] Okay, yeah. I could see where you're coming from if that's the case.

[As for her:] Kind of. There's not nearly as much retro stuff or super powers.

[corviform]

Even in the City, the cars didn't fly. The medicine wasn't as advanced either.

[ Pills that could remedy problems in under a minute. Incredible. ]

Where did you say you were from?

[axemeaquestion]

Our cars didn't, either. What about the medicine?

Cleveland. It's a city in the U.S.

[corviform]

Some of them work instantaneously. Pills for... cosmetic surgeries and such.

[ He hasn't tried himself, though he now begins to wonder if there's something that can help with the scar he's had to conceal since that fateful November. It also beg the question: why didn't Lachesis heal him properly? ]

Sorry, it's not familiar. I haven't traveled much in this country.

[axemeaquestion]

Seriously?

[... well, that's just another weird thing for her to believe then.]

It's okay. I'm assuming it still exists here.

[corviform]

[ He assumes it does. Back in the City, the US's locations were supposedly in the same spots save for the City being "fake" New York and Jersey having Big Ben which had been stolen from the United Kingdom.

He watches Rochelle carefully. At length: ]

Will you go there?

[axemeaquestion]

I know it wouldn't be "my" Cleveland, but... yeah. I wanna go.

[corviform]

[ He nods. It may not be a city he's familiar with, but he is with the sentient. He wonders if he can consider Rochelle lucky that there's something similar enough to her home here. ]

What state is it in? If it's in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or North Carolina you can use the Porter to travel.

[axemeaquestion]

Ohio. What about there?

[corviform]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I don't think so. Is it near any of those states? You could save a lot of money if you ported to a closer location and then took transportation from there to Ohio. A train, maybe?