Locked in a Room

[dishevelment]

Who: Everyone stuck in Pride HQ
What: This load of crap.
When: Nov. 1-5
Where Pride HQ
Warnings: Pg-13 minimum because Carnies. Tag if it gets over that.


Everyone got the same call-- and now we're all stuck in HQ with no hint of release in sight.

The reason? No one knows.

How are you coping?

Comments

OTA

[cleartranquil]

Nov 1

[Yuffie's dreams aren't really bad. That's the strangest part of them. She wakes up several times that night and finally just stares out the window. She's sitting there in the chair she's dragged over, impossibly quiet for the longest time, watching the sky and wondering what exactly feels so wrong. She doesn't know. It feels like every time she closes her eyes there is a bright light that's impossible to escape. She doesn't know what it is, but the images drive her to sketching them against the glass.

A huge, looping snake like creature. It makes her smile. It's beautiful. Her drawing can't even begin to match how it looks in her dreams. It somehow makes her proud and happy and want to cry all at once. But dreams are weird like that, right?

That done, she wraps her arms around her knees, and stares up and out, trying to figure out what is making her so uneasy. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she thinks the stars are all wrong. She shakes it off. What sort of silly thought is that?

Stars can't be wrong.

Yuffie doesn't sleep the rest of the night. ]


Nov. 2-5

[After that first night, Yuffie keeps waking up with her dreams flooding green and blue, sometimes they make her her smile but mostly she just wakes up with a sense of ominousness. Like something's coming, and she can't escape it. She takes to bothering everyone, the other carnies are mostly in a quiet mood so she moves to everyone else from desk clerks to waiters.

She keeps stealing and turning the objects back in like she's found them or returning them to the pockets she took them from, her bad mood making her more terrible habits reappear in new and interesting ways. She keeps shooting tiny bits of paper out of straws or flinging small objects at people as well, a bit like she's trying to prove her own aim to herself, though when she's distracted from it she mostly seems to shrug it off, like this isn't odd at all and like she's not attempting to drive most of the Pride staff into the mad house.

Yuffie is also often found in the gym, attempting round offs and handstands and things that most would expect from someone who had spent most of their young life in gymnastics classes. Each time she falls, or executes something less than perfectly she loops back around and does it again until she gets it right with a drive most would expect from an overzealous drill instructor.

Other than that she can be found in the Carnie's suite, practicing her guitar on the stairs or attempting to get some kind of sleep that isn't riddled with strange things she doesn't understand. Yuffie's getting sick of all of it, and it clearly shows.]

Nov. 3

[dishevelment]

[....His fan was missing.

It was a simple, almost inconsequential item, but the little paper fan that he kept tucked deep in the pockets of his ostensibly vintage jackets was missing and Koumei felt strangely insecure without it.

Surely he misplaced it in his insomniac haze. Not even his usual remedies were working now.....he might have to hit the harder stuff just to have an effect.

Yuffie might spot him wandering around Pride HQ, searching high and low for said fan. Perhaps it's underneath that lavish sofa in the lounge? Or maybe high up in some decorative plant that someone had placed in the hallway to add a little calming influence on the otherwise chaotic and wild population?

Or, perhaps Yuffie herself might have it-- a fact that is unknown to the disheveled Pianist of Cosmic Indulgence?]

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie doesn't steal from her friends most of the time, and really someone that helped save her is considered a friend, but Yuffie is in a very strange mood, and she's a little more unsettled than usual which means everyone's possessions end up in her pockets.

Now, the interesting trick, a lot of the time, is putting them back without someone noticing. That's the game right now. She's got a lot of random things shoved in the pockets of her leather coat and in the tops of her boots and other odd places, but right now the fan's up her sleeve. ]

What's up, piano man?

[Yuffie pops up behind him with a grin, stopping him in one of the lounges as he looks. If she knew there was an actual point to having the fan, she might not have taken it. She might even feel bad but right now she's mostly just playing her game of taking and giving back, and Koumei is the poor target.]

[dishevelment]

[Koumei started at the sound of her voice, jumping in his crawlspace and hitting his head on the bench that he was searching under.]

--Ah! Yuffie?!

[He crawled out, casting her a look of embarrassment.]

I'm just under here harvesting dust bunnies to sell online, [the words tumbled out before he fully realized what he was saying, part of him not wanting to admit that he was looking for something as frivolous as a little fan-- even if the weight of it in his coat pocket was a strange little comfort for reasons he couldn't quite define.]

[cleartranquil]

Piano man's dust bunnies. Think they'll get much on the black market?

[Yuffie drops down before he can get up fully, partly to see if there is actually anything interesting and partly because she's trying to find the oppourtunity to help him "find" what she's taken from his pocket. She's pretty sure it's only the fan. She's collected a vast amount of change that she's less sure of the owner of, and the more obvious objects part of her game is remembering who things belong to.]

Really though, pretty sure under a bench isn't that interesting, ya' know? What'cha up to?

[dishevelment]

Plenty. People spend tons of money on silly things.

[He shook his head in an attempt to dislodge some of the dust bunnies from his hair, and only succeeded in making the problem worse. Man was going to need to take a bath at this rate, and that wasn't a chore he was looking forward to...]

I misplaced something, [he finally confessed,] and I can't quite recall what I did with it.

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie pauses and tilts her head, like she isn't perfectly aware of what he's likely missing.]

What'd ya lose?

[She sits back on her heels, and grins at him, eventually her attempt at innocence might kick her in the teeth but she's not really thinking about that.]

Nov 2

[variaboss]

Is that my shirt? [That sure is his shirt. Yuffie sure is wearing one of his shirts. Probably went into his room and took it right out of his closet. He was even willing to bet that the plastic package that it's kept in is open on the bed. Because he hadn't opened it to wear yet...ever.

He can't really be mad. Not really. At least not about the shirt. No. He's sort of mad that she invaded his space. There's a feeling that he's the Boss and you're supposed to ask him to go into his chambers...chambers...was there a castle??

But he approaches her at her favorite spot on the stairs, he just looks her over and chuckles] You know what. Fuck it. Keep it. It looks better on you.

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie doesn't answer at first, looking up at him innocently even though she is very clearly wearing a shirt that doesn't belong to her. It hangs off of her, and makes her look even smaller than she is, wearing the overlarge shirt with a pair of shorts and high boots mostly because she can. Her guitar's in her lap and she's got a pick in her teeth. ]

Oh?

[When he says she can keep it, her grin appears and she pulls the pick from her teeth to twirl it between her fingers like some people would a coin.]

I'm glad you agree. I think I look pretty damn awesome. And you don't need shirts, lets be honest.

[Yuffie all of this like a fact, and in her mind it very much is.]

[variaboss]

[That innocent look won't work on him. It might work on fans, but the Carnie's know their bandmates true colors. Yuffie might look sweet and innocent but she's a demon on Social Media. One wrong move and his head is painstakingly photoshopped onto and number of embarrassing base pictures. Which is funny as hell for other people. Not so much with him.]

[He walks over to her. Even up on the staircase, he's so tall that he could meet her eye to eyes. He reaches out and pokes her in the forehead for a moment. Almost like a big brother messing with a little sister.]

Of course you look awesome. I have really good taste in everything. Even in the things I don't wear. But I'm glad you think so. Seems like certain people don't approve. [Like he cares what anyone thinks]
Still, next time you sneak into my room to take my shit, you better leave me a present.

[cleartranquil]

[In true Yuffie fashion, she sticks out her tongue at him, clearly not appreciating the poking and likely only taking it because it's Xan and she tends to like the Carnies more than she likes everyone else. It's a thing.

That done, she rolls her eyes and drapes herself over her guitar to continue talking, proper placement be damned. Part of the fun is knowing even how tall he is she could flip over his head. You know. If she had the stairs for height. She's done it off the amps before at concerts. It makes the crowd go nuts.]

What, like you need anyone's approval but ours. [Yuffie says this very dramatically, because her high opinion of the Carnies is legendary.Then, Yuffie pauses, and the look on her face goes positively evil, give Yuffie an inch and she'll take a mile. Welcome to the inch.]

I think I can do that, yeah.

[variaboss]

[She sticks her tongue out and Xanxus actually laughs a little. Not one of his evil villain laughs, but a normal warm one. Something about Yuffie just brings out the best of him. He might be an asshole, but he's slightly better around her. Enough that he's amused more than angry at her pulling a face at him.]

Not even yours. I don't need anyone's approval. I don't know why they even put that shit in my room. It's like they're hoping I'll get drunk enough or high enough to forget I don't wear that shit.

[He leans against the stairs to look at the girl and her guitar.]

Make it alcohol. Those bastards are probably going to start monitoring me so I'm going to have to get it where I can when I can.

[cleartranquil]

If they're hopin' you'll start dressing more like a person then they're silly as hell.

[Yuffie grins, and laughs. She doesn't mind too much him saying he doesn't need approval, because it doesn't matter, she approves of him anyway. So there.]

I'll try and sneak you somethin', don't worry. They can't keep you out of the bars for too long, Xan. But, until then, I can always help out.

[Yuffie's already planning to sneak a bottle or two in his room, because that sounds like it might be fun to try. See if he can find them or figure out what she moved. Works for her.]

NOV 4

[notahobby]

[Maxxie finds Yuffie in the gym. His workout routine is generally just dancing until he can't anymore, but not being able to go outside has him itching for something else. He wanders in looking for the treadmills, but then he spots Yuffie holding a handstand.]

[He sits on a bench, happy for the distraction from the incredibly boring task he's about to perform. He speaks when her feet touch the ground again. His attitude isn't his usual bounciness but he still seems happy.]

Hey Yuffie.

[cleartranquil]

[If it were possible for Yuffie to be even more stir crazy...well, she doesn't know it. She's been in the gym for probably a ridiculous amount of time today, and Yuffie holds the handstand for a very long time before rounding off and landing quietly on the mat with a pleased sort of grin. Managing tricks and feats of gymnastic brilliance makes Yuffie feel just a little better. It's her outlet in a way playing isn't and it makes her happy.

Hearing her name she looks up and over and Yuffie's grin grows instantly seeing Maxxie and she makes her way over to the bench, grabbing her water bottle on the way and hovering in a way that clearly says she's got too much energy to sit down. ]

Hey you. Are you bored stiff yet?

[notahobby]

[Maxxie sighs and leans back on the bench, resting his hands on the back edge.]

Pretty much whenever I'm not drinking I'm bored. Sometimes even when I'm drinking too.

[He shrugs his shoulders and looks up at her.]

What about you? Looks like you're having fun here at least?

[cleartranquil]

I'm....[Yuffie pauses, and makes a vague hand gesture] Sort of not the most bored ever?

[Then she sort of looks around the room and begins to stretch her calves, and glares at the front door of the gym. She's spent a lot of time in here and it's about the only place she's not horrifically sick of. But it's still pushing it. She wants out of the building.]

I want to get outta here. I am so sick of HQ, Maxxie, I could puke.

I want out, like yesterday.

[notahobby]

I hear you.

[Maxxie bounces his heel off the ground idly, looking down at his shoes.]

But something tells me we're not gonna get away with sneaking out this time.

[cleartranquil]

I got told if I tired they would shut me up for the next month.

[Welcome to the only reason why Yuffie hasn't tried to escape. Her manager is vaguely terrifying sometimes, and she got the idea that she might honestly need to worry about having some sort of accident if she tried to escape the building until lockdown was over. The look in her manager's eye had been enough to make her honestly worry.]

....The second this is over, you and me are finding the least irritating DJ in town and living it up somewhere outside the building. Okay?

Nov 3rd

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Ah, that was a good one.

[Luci can't sing, so she thinks that running will stop the buzzing in her head. She's practically sprinting on the treadmill while she watches Yuffie cartwheel around.] Good idea not to get rusty, the next time we perform, you'll want to do as many backflips off the amps as you can.

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie had been being a good girl and staying off her ankle. And then the lockdown happened, and now she's wrapped it as a precaution before running around the place but she's done with being still otherwise.

As Lucifer speaks, she goes from a cartwheel, changes her feet and hands, and flips into a back tuck.

Yuffie turns to give Luci a look that is ridiculously pleased with herself.]

Anyone says I have a double again and I'm gonna make them do needles until the end of freaking time.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Those bloggers are literal morons-- [Luci slows the treadmill-- running and talking are a surefire way to wind herself.] Who honestly thinks we need doubles? We play shows with plenty of bruises on us.

[cleartranquil]

Because they think a cute girl like me can't shred and can't do flips off an amp, that's why.

[Oh Yuffie. She says this with the utmost sense of confidence. After her threat of needles, she proceeds to go about doing it herself, first going into a scorpion and trying to figure out if she'd actually stretched enough to go ahead. Deciding she was she stretched her leg above her head, into a needle, an expression of intense concentration on her face. ]

Think I'm gonna practice on the beam later, not like we've got anything better to do.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Hence: literal morons. [She hops onto the stationary sides of the treadmill to wipe the sweat off her neck.]

They can't keep us in here forever. Eventually we have to go out and make them money, otherwise we're just extremely expensive prisoners.

[cleartranquil]

The most expensive.

[She pauses, leg up over her head and in a position most people couldn't hold at all, let alone comfortably.]

Since we're full on trapped, want me to see if I can dig up anything super embarrassing on our big scary pride siblings?

[Luci will probably guess she means Predator. Yuffie's practically asking for someone to please give her something, anything useful to do.]