the flashbabes of february

[notahobby]

Who: Flashstep & YOU!
What: Multiple Prompts: The boys talk about recent developments and continue with their lives since the hauntings.
When: February
Where: Multiple Locations
Warnings: None!

Although the boys made it through the most recent series of unfortunate events at Pride Records mostly unscathed, they're still dealing with the aftereffects just like everyone else. The return to life as they know it is swift thanks to Mr. Patil, but they still have time to get up to a whole new set of shenanigans...

Comments

2/8 - 2/12

[consocius]

02-08-55. 3:15AM. FLASHSTEP PENTHOUSE. [ for Jamie ]

At this point, it doesn't strike Sora as unusual at all when Jamie can't sleep and seeks him out to do something in the middle of the night. Sometimes Sora just pulls him into his own bed with him instead because Jamie can only go so long without sleep. But then other times Sora can't sleep either. It's been easier this past month, but the feelings he gets from Pride higher ups is still unsettling enough to make him restless some nights.

In the wee hours of this morning, they'd decided to watch some sci-fi series on the television instead of sleeping, something with robots. Sora actually doesn't get too far into it, sitting close up and comfortable against Jamie's side with a blanket thrown over their laps, before he falls asleep with his head on the other boy's shoulder.

ALL WEEK. ANYTIME. ANYWHERE. [ open to all ]

Doodling has been a hobby of Sora's from the start, though ever since he'd gotten called into Lesedi's office he seems to be far more secretive about what he's doodling. And he stops whenever there's a Pride presence other than his friends around. Previously it was just pencil and pen or whatever, but it seems he's gotten colored pencils involved now. His artwork still isn't anything to write home about, definitely deserving the label of "doodle" more than anything. But he's not drawing to show others, he's drawing for himself.

Mostly this happens in the Flashstep penthouse, and most often when he's in his room or away from their manager's eyes. When there is a Pride presence around other than close friends, his doodles seem to stick to inconspicuous landscapes. A beach. Some jungle. Underwater scenes. A city. The doodles he's more secretive about appear to be vague outlines of people: someone with white hair, green eyes; someone with red hair, blue eyes; two people with blonde hair, one short and one long, both with blue eyes. There are also keys of all assorted shapes and sizes, sometimes dark creatures with yellow eyes. And, possibly most odd of all: a clothed duck and dog that appears to walk on two legs. Occasionally, some sort of wand is drawn with the duck, and a shield with the dog.

[band mates are free to see any of the above drawings if they come into his room, but anyone else will only ever see the scenery drawings, which really could be anywhere or mean anything. he's very careful about this.]

02-12-55. 10:11AM. FLASHSTEP PENTHOUSE. [ for band mates ]

It's a breakfast gathering like any other, and Sora's chewing thoughtfully on a piece of bacon from his plate piled with food when he asks a question directed to anyone in the nearby vicinity: "Do you think Mr. Patil would let us have a pet?"

[I'm okay with making the time/date more fuzzy on any of these if needed. And as always prose or action spam style tags are both cool, I'll follow your lead. Other than that, hit me with something else if you wanna?]

2/8

[mildwildchild]

Jamie feels guilty sometimes for pestering Sora when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and intensely grateful to the other boy for humoring him like he has tonight and coming out to the living room to binge on Netflix. After a few episodes of robot mayhem Jamie's feeling more relaxed, too, especially with Sora's warm weight leaning against him. He's not quite asleep yet, though.

"These guys need to change their tactics," he points out, during another chaotic battle sequence. "They keep charging in headfirst and getting smacked around instead of trying to get around the bad guy and strike from the rear where its defenses are weaker." Robot battle tactics, he knows intuitively, are serious business.

He looks to Sora for a response, only then noticing that the other boy is out cold. Jamie smiles and murmurs an affectionate "Dork," before settling in to let him sleep.

[consocius]

Maybe it's the robot battles on the television entering his subconscious while he dreams, or maybe it's just the fact that Sora has weird dreams a lot anyway, but while lying here with Jamie quite peacefully his dreams somehow still manage to shift to fighting.

He's had a few dreams about fighting odd creatures before, two huge ones and several small ones, but none that look like this. They're armored and wielding swords, and there are hundreds of them. And there's no "Goofy" or "Donald" there to fight with him this time, not in this dream, they're off fighting their own battles. He's on his own, and he charges in headfirst, keyblade already in hand.

In reality, however, it's a minute of dream-fighting before the thing gets summoned by Sora's feelings. When it does, it's with a flash of light that's not at all subtle in the dark room with only a TV screen as competition for brightness. It appears in Sora's right hand that's resting on the blanket, held motionless but nevertheless there with no explanation as its wielder seems perfectly content to continue sleeping, apparently oblivious to its sudden presence.

[mildwildchild]

In that minute of quiet broken only by the noise from the TV, Jamie's starting to enter the sort of near-hypnotic state that comes right before sleep, and he sort of lightly pillows his head on Sora's hair, and then there's a flash that's near-blinding in the semidarkness.

He flinches away from it, out of pure reflex, and in the next moment looks to the source of the sudden flare of light. And just kind of. Stares. Because where the hell did the giant key come from.

"Dude," he whispers, then a little more loudly - not too loudly, because he doesn't want to wake up the rest of the guys - accompanied by a little shake. "Dude, Sora, wake up!"

[consocius]

The shake more than the noise is what wakes Sora, and he blinks several times before looking up at Jamie. "Wha's wrong?" is about all he gets out before he feels the presence of something solid in his hand and switches his gaze to the other side of him, and down.

He stares. Then he sits up straight, holds it up slightly, and stares some more. This really doesn't last that long before the hairs raise on the back of his neck and he's once again feeling like this situation is dangerous.

Grabbing the blanket off of both of them, he wraps it around the keyblade still being held by his right hand, and grabs Jamie's hand with his free one, turning again to whisper to him. "We need to go to a bedroom," is all the explanation he gets before he makes the attempt to yank them both off the couch and hurry out of the large, open living area and into the hallway leading to their bedrooms.

[lightthedarkness]

In the middle of his doodling there will suddenly be a sunflower in his face. It's missing a bit too many petals but if he follows the hand holding it, he'll come to the embodiment of sunshine herself, Usagi holding it out to him.

"Good morning, sunshine," she said in greeting. She had come over because she could practically see the heavy air around Sora. Besides, she promised Riku to keep an eye on him. As it was Monday which was Usagi's day off, she could spend it how she pleased. Heading to one of the many malls apparently had her come across Sora.

"I'll leave you back to your drawing, just thought I'd say hi." As they were in public, she wisely didn't say his name, not wanting to have one of his fans come around.

[consocius]

Sora seems to be only half-focused on his doodle, mostly just sketching out the beach scene and in particular a seashell as he waits for a nearby clothing store to clear out some so he can go into it without the possibility of too much fuss or too many people noticing him. He's never been very good at hiding who he is when out in public, the only precautions he's taking today being the hood of his jacket pulled up over his spiky hair. But in his defense, hats have never worked real well for him.

The sudden flower surprises him, but when he sees the girl holding it, he smiles. "Hey! Serena, right? Thanks!" He takes the offered sunflower with care, putting down the notebook he'd been drawing in.

"Oh, that? Nah, it's nothing important. Just something to do while I'm waiting for that store to be less busy, you know?"

[lightthedarkness]

"Yep! You got it right! Would you like some company while you wait? I'm just browsing the shops for fun, I'll be heading to the thrift store a bit later today." She was just glad she found the thrift store, some of the prices in the mall were ridiculous and she didn't know why.

"Although if you rather be left alone, I understand."

[consocius]

He shifts on the bench he's sitting on to make room for her. "No, I like company. Have a seat if you want. It's nice to run into you outside of the flower shop! Feels like I don't talk to many people regularly who are outside of the music business anymore, you know?"

2/12

[notahobby]

Maxxie's always chipper at breakfast, and this morning is no different. He's cheerily going about eating his food, reading twitter, when Sora asks his question. His immediate response is to make a thoughtful face, trying to picture Manny's reaction to that type of question.

"What kind of pet?"

[consocius]

Sora gives a little shrug and takes a sip from his glass of orange juice before he answers.

"I dunno. Any pet? A dog would be pretty great though. But like even something smaller like a bird, or a turtle, or a hamster... Have you ever had a pet before?"

[notahobby]

Maxxie very nearly tells Sora that he has a dog. Presently. But that's not true, that's just the other life he keeps imagining he has, though the lines are getting harder to separate. Obviously he doesn't have a dog right now, not in the penthouse.

"No," he says, like he's unsure. "I dunno, would a dog even fit in here? You have to take them for walks and stuff. I think something smaller, maybe."

And that's if Manny says yes, which is highly doubtful.

[consocius]

Sora looks around a little, trying to imagine a dog running around the penthouse.

"Well they do come in different sizes... But yeah, walkin' it would be a pain. Have to take the elevator down all the time and even during the middle of the night probably. But like, my friend from Crown of Thorns got a bunch of cats recently, but his manager wouldn't let him keep one in the band's penthouse. So now he actually has a different place where he keeps 'em."

2/10

[inversekeyblade]

Where else is the drummer of Nuclear Parliament going to be in the middle of the week other than at home or practicing?

The mall, of course. But it isn't to stuff his face with mall food (because he did that at home before) or to check out the scene for potential hookups or even to go to the music store and catch some inspiration while listening to tunes. No, nothing that makes sense. See, he doesn't have enough black and white themed clothes, so he's out to get some more. Black and white and checkered pattern are the target here.

Just wanting to get in, get his stuff, and get out as soon as possible, it's unlikely that he'll slow to a stop at a drawing another guy is working on while sitting in one of those enormous, comfy chairs meant to relieve tired shoppers for a moment.

The drawings aren't masterpieces or anything, but something about them catches his eye.. maybe it's all the color used. In his world of black and white, it's nice to see that once in a while. Or maybe it's just that this particular guy caught his attention for some reason because he looks so familiar. Frighteningly so, actually. There's a pang in his chest even when he dips down a bit to get what he can see of that face hiding behind a drawing pad and abnormally spiky hair.

At this point it wouldn't be difficult to determine that Roxas is definitely staring. He's standing but a few feet from the guy and just looking. But he can't stop himself because.. why does this guy look so familiar? This is going to bug him all day, and it shouldn't because he has things to do. Sort of.

[consocius]

Sora is taking a break from picking up little Valentine's things for his friends and doing some clothes shopping for himself, sitting outside a nearby clothing store in a nice chair as he idly passes the time by drawing what would appear to be a simple but colorful underwater scene.

He stops when the tip breaks on his colored pencil and looks up, only to freeze in shock when he sees Roxas. He closes his eyes and shakes his head for a second, before opening them again, like he doesn't believe what he's seeing. Then he thinks, well why should this be a surprise, he saw the boy called Riku from his dreams, and literally ran into the blonde-haired girl he'd seen before too. Why not this guy? He sort of remembers how his voice had sounded, what he'd said. Which he still didn't really understand.

Great, so now he's staring too, but manages after a moment to give a sort of hopeful smile and a small wave in Roxas's direction.

[inversekeyblade]

Whoa, why is he smiling and waving? Yeah, Roxas was staring for a while, rudely so considering he hadn't said anything and was, at this point, gawking. But he didn't expect this guy to look up and respond in a friendly manner. Maybe this should be welcomed; he could've been nasty about all this. And the guy seems nice enough.

Fine, Roxas will be cordial and wave back. And immediately explain himself so as not to appear weird at first impression. "Hey.. sorry, I thought you looked like someone I know. Didn't mean to interrupt."

Getting a better glimpse of the drawing now that he has the other's attention, it's yet another thing that catches Roxas's interest for some unexplained reason. What is this, questionable nostalgia day? "Where is that supposed to be?" Referring to the drawing, of course.

[consocius]

There is a second after Roxas responds to his wave that he sort of worries, that feeling like he should be hiding the fact that he recognizes him, for the sake of both of them. But since it's too late to go back, he plunges forward and pushes the worry into a corner of his mind.

"Really? 'Cause I was thinking the same... Or, not like someone I know, but someone I talked to in a dream. Maybe I'd seen you somewhere before that." Well, it was a possibility. But wouldn't explain Riku or the other person showing up in reality after he'd dreamed about them. "Anyway, I'm Sora."

He drops his gaze back down to his drawing after Roxas asks about it. There's a lot of colorful coral, and vague colorful outlines of fish, swimming in groups. A large open clam shell is in the center. "Oh, this? I don't really know the name of it or anything... Just somewhere in the ocean, I guess."

[firelotus]

He probably caught sight of the underwater scene by accident as he passed on his way home from work with his little monkey hiding in a pocket of his jacket.

He doesn't know the boy, but that doesn't matter. He still stops, interested.

"That is a lovely picture," he says with an honest smile. It might be a simple drawing but he still likes it.

[consocius]

Sora had just finished the drawing, working on it a lot longer than he usually spends on these things. He's surprised when someone takes notice of it, but is clearly pleased about the compliment, looking up at the man passing by with a smile in return. People rarely compliment him on stuff he draws.

"Thanks! I think I put a lot more into it than my usual old doodles," he explains with a laugh.

[firelotus]

Now that he gets a closer look on this boy, he realizes that he’s a person that one of his new acquaintances has come to save. He has tried to memorize all the faces and names of both the rescuers and he has found out what some of the people that they’re looking for looks like.

It didn’t matter who was here to save who to Fon though, he intended to help any kidnapped person that he could, even those not from his own world.

“Is that so?” perhaps it meant that the pictures motif was more important then his other doodles? Or that he knew them more closely? “Would it be alright if I asked if I could see a few more of your pictures?”

[consocius]

Sora tenses at this question. A normal, non-brainwashed Sora wouldn't. Normal Sora is fine with sharing these things. But there's a part of him now that is on high-alert, has been increasingly so over the last few months. Especially after the CEO of his label had brought him in to talk to him about what he's pretty sure were his drawings (though the memories of their "talk" are still pretty fuzzy), since afterward he'd been reluctant and almost afraid to draw any of his visions or dreams again for an entire month. And he's still reluctant to show them to people now that he's doing it again. And this notebook's not just full of random things or landscapes that could very well be perfectly normal, or taken as such. It's also got people, creatures, weapons, landmarks. Special things. So he can't just hand it over to some guy who just walked up to him.

Awkwardly, he brings the notebook up to his chest and looks around. Rubs the back of his neck with one hand. Then looks back to Fon with a sheepish smile. "I... I don't know. Sorry, some of it's kind of personal... They're not much to see anyway, just like stick figure stuff, you know? Nothing you're missing out on."

2/12

[rising_wing]

[Riku's out, he's gotten the day off and he's just bumming around the city on his bike. He's at the park, sorta checking out what's around. Like the bank. Getting the lay of the land if he and Mammon decide to go with their current plan.

He's not really watching where he's going, and he bumbs into Sora]

Oh, shoot. Sorry.

[consocius]

[Once again, Sora's only "disguise" while he's out in public is to pull his hood up over his hair, and it stays in place for most of his run around the park. He's just here to blow off some steam and be in nature as much as is possible when you live pretty much in the heart of the city. He'd stopped, though, distracted by watching a dog playing fetch with its owner a few yards away, when Riku bumps into him.

He stumbles just slightly, far more surprised by the collision than hurt. He's about to tell the person "no worries," then he sees who it is. Before he can catch himself, he says his name instead:]

Riku?

[rising_wing]

[Instinct is what causes him to look up when he hears his name. That and the sound of Sora saying it.

He stops himself from saying anything stupid though, as much as he wants to answer that yes, it's him, yes, he's Riku, and he's hear to rescue his best friend

He schools his face into a mask of polite confusion]

Sorry, what?

[consocius]

[Sora laughs at himself quickly, immediately trying to give their surroundings a scan with just his eyes to make sure no one else had heard. But it was only the two of them in the immediate vicinity, and besides that there was an impromptu musical performance going on not too far off.]

Sorry, you surprised me!

[He doesn't even bother trying to explain the name slip up. He still remembers that aural hallucination and the emotions along with it just seeing this guy at the charity concert had triggered. He still doesn't want to think this is normal or just a coincidence, even if there's also still a part of him insisting that it has to be. It's undoubtedly gonna give him another headache if he thinks on it too much though, so it's better to just drop it. Probably for multiple reasons.

Blinking, he looks around suddenly, this time not at all covertly, patting his pockets.]

Hey, do you see my phone? I think I dropped it... [It wouldn't be the first time.]