it started out as a feeling; [open & closed]

[imperfectwish]

🧙 WHO: Machi Kuragi (imperfectwish) & others
⚔️️ WHAT: Catchall for August w/ TDM & quest prompts
🕒 WHEN: All of August
🗺️ WHERE: All over Camelot
⚠️ WARNINGS: None for now.


I. FRESH WATERS;

[This was what Machi got for her determination to explore, to help and to change for the better while here. When she had thought about change she had meant becoming more open, more honest, less abrasive perhaps. More confidence at the very least.

What she hadn't meant was a change like this -- tentacles and pointed ears. Not to mention the gills too! At first all she can do is look absolutely aghast at the very helpful nurse but she's shuffled off soon enough to find her own way back to the surface.

... Once she can figure out how to operate -- well, all of this. Did she have to have so many tentacles? They all seem to respond just fine but it's definitely a mental adjustment to go from two legs on land to eight or more tentacles underwater. She just seems so flustered by it all it's... kind of cute to watch in a way? Not her fumbling around but the stern frown and wrinkled brow that accompanies it all.

Help a girl out? Or at least don't get too offended when she outright bumps into you or one of her tentacles ends up grazing your tail / tentacles.]

II. OPEN HOUSE -- ROYAL BATHS;

[Though Machi hadn't quite expected water park levels of attractions going on here she had shown up in a bathing suit. Odd for a public bath? Maybe. But she had been more curious than wanting a bath to begin with so it seemed to make sense to her at the time.

She's sort of marveling at just how big the slide is though.]

... This doesn't seem suited for a bath.

III. OPEN HOUSE -- GLOWING COLORS & ROSE GARDENS;

[The library had been fascinating. Some of the books hadn't made much sense to Machi while others had been so dense she didn't think she could finish them anytime soon.
Could she check things out like a library back home? She wasn't sure and had ended up tucking all the books back after a glance over.

Then there was the forbidden section. Machi wasn't one to break rules typically but well... curiosity and all that. That was why she was out in the rose garden now, more or less hiding away among all the flowers -- at least until someone stumbles across her.]

Ah, pardon me.

[She's an entertaining shade of red. And not just her face either. The glow isn't blinding or deep but there's this subtle shade of red to her that can't help but be eye catching.]

IV. DON'T TREEP, MAN;

[When the call goes out for green mages Machi knows the right thing to do is go and offer her help. She's been trying her best in classes all month and succeeding rather admirably to be honest. She's a decent student back home and here she's become quite devoted to her new studies. Without the pressures of others to perform to a perfect standard she's found school is actually pretty fun, particularly the magic courses. Studying for them definitely isn't a chore for her.

She's still green with her green magic though and it definitely shows. On the first few days she's directed to the orchard given several people can work on the trees and such at one time. She's pouring herself into helping one of these trees alongside someone else when the tree just starts budding out fruit like mad on Machi's side. She flusters, quick to draw back her hands and stop herself, eyes wide as she glances upward.]

A little too much then...

[On some other days she's directed to the fields and there she's having a hard time getting anything to sprout. She looks rather frustrated too.]

V. WILDCARD;

[Feel free to leave other prompts under this. Plurk and PMs open for plotting!

Comments

[imperfectwish]

[Okay, now she's a nice deep red, thanks.]

Yes! I'm fine!

[The color only grows as she realizes fully what's got Makoto intrigued.]

Stop looking at me!

[imperfectwish]

[In an instant Machi's head snaps in the kids direction.]

Are you done being rude?

[She says it so deadpan with such a blank expression that it's downright comical compared to moments before. The kid himself isn't exactly impressed or anything but equally Machi doesn't look like she cares.

Also they might be having a staring match for the next few moments. Or until Machi sighs out.]

Let's go then.

[Okay, gotta brave this long slide now. Machi looks resolute and unintimidated at least -- probably because of still being fired up by the bratty kid.]

[imperfectwish]

[... This guy has an interesting way of talking, doesn't he. He's being nice though and for that Machi smiles. Just a little.]

I'll try not to. Thank you.

[roseeclair]

[Okay NOW she's snickering a little.]

Aw, come on... you don't need to get that embarrassed~

[How much of that is sincere and how much is trolling is Machi's guess.]

[imperfectwish]

[Mmmph.]

It's not something I can help.

[Her emotions just being on such broad display like this is so -- at least Kakeru isn't here to see this.]

[roseeclair]

[Another laugh, and then Makoto brings up her hands in a placating gesture.]

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Seriously, though, are you okay?

[Usually Machi is a lot calmer than this, at least from what she's seen.]

[imperfectwish]

[At least the red eases out of her pretty much immediately. Now she just looks... well, sheepish.]

I'm fine. I just...

[She flicks her gaze back to some random rose nearby, worrying the hem of her shirt with her fingers a little.]

It's awkward like this.

[You know, colored with her emotion of the moment. It's so open and out there that it's a little terrifying.]

[roseeclair]

Well, yeah, I can imagine. But I mean is it just blushing?

[Or MAGICAL blushing, aka more than the average anime character would experience?]

[reloves]

Aww.. Machi-chan, come on!

[ Look at her whine. Like somehow convincing the other girl that what she did is okay is just that important to Minako. ]

I was fine! I went up fine, came down fine. [ She gestures over at the tree. ] This isn't even close to the tallest thing I've ever gone up!

[imperfectwish]

[... It's not?]

What do you usually climb up then?

[imperfectwish]

[... Well, she has a point. Machi's lips tug into this pouting sort of frown.]

It's blushing but it's everywhere.

[Like a glow all over her, y'know?]

[roseeclair]

[. . .]

Ah, magic? What happened?

dw loves to eat notifs right now

[imperfectwish]

There certainly isn't much instruction to any of it.

[Even the schools were sort of easygoing in Machi's opinion. Not that it wasn't effective, she certainly was learning by attending classes. There just wasn't near as much competition. Or perhaps her view on how competitive school was was simply warped. She was willing to believe that.]

... I'm not used to such laidback attitudes.

[In someone like Kakeru, yes. In someone with far more authority, no.]

[imperfectwish]

... I tried to look in the forbidden section.

[conciliant]

[2B is built to be a quiet, level-headed android, meant to not care about such trivial things like waterslides or bratty children, but she isn't perfect. She has a bit of a petty streak, so she joins Machi in the staring contest, even if she forgets in that moment that he won't be able to see that she's staring daggers into the center of his face.]

Go ahead, [she tells him in a steady voice, but beneath that, there's some resentment there for ruining a perfectly interesting conversation about fairy tales with her new friend. Then, she nods to Machi.] I'll be down in a moment.

[The kid pushes past her, mumbling something about them taking forever under his breath, and waits for Machi to go first while 2B watches on, lips pressed together in silence.]

[roseeclair]

Really? [No wait, really? Machi always seemed so... well, normal. Law-abiding.] Why?

[reloves]

[ There's a slight pause. Though it's definitely not long enough to be the sort of pause where Minako is frantically trying to make up some answer.

No, instead her answer sounds shockingly genuine when she says: ]

Tall buildings?

boy does it ever

[impostorsyndrome]

[He nods a little, considering that. It's come up in his thoughts now and again here over time, but the world he came from feels distant sometimes already, with how immersive and bizarre this whole experience is. It's so strange that it's overwhelming to question sometimes.]

Yeah. Where I come from, everything about all this would be heavily locked down behind endless societal rules and red tape. You can't let just anyone touch secrets like this. They've gotta come from the right family, or get lucky, usually both.

[imperfectwish]

[The right family, hm. Her expression evens out.]

Mm. Here everything is so ... free.

[Open and out there. No one pressed her in school to make top grades, recipes weren't hidden away 'for the worthy' -- well, besides the forbidden section. She'd gotten one when she arrived for drinking a margarita she didn't much enjoy, for goodness sake!]

I've been feeling directionless, I think.

[Then again she had been feeling that way since her mother and father turned her out. Things had begun to change at home since she decided she wanted to change like the President had but then she had come here and well...]

Or... if it's alright. To be this free.

[imperfectwish]

... Buildings?

[She... climbs buildings? Like straight up just climbs. A building?]

[imperfectwish]

[...?]

I was curious.

[Why else would she try to look there? The notion of books they really didn't want her seeing... yeah not going would be perfect behavior. And she hated perfection.]

[imperfectwish]

[One moment Machi is sitting there and the next -- yep, there she goes!

What goes on next is sort of a blur. Machi doesn't have the time to be angry at the kid anymore because she's going at a pretty decent speed. The slide isn't just a straight down affair but it has twists and turns, loops that one manages to stay on somehow? A magic slide maybe??

By the time she's spit out into the pool at the end Machi looks frazzled to say the least. She gets dunked down into the water and after she resurfaces she just sort of gazes back up the slide in amazement.]

... It really doesn't look like it has that many twists and turns though...

[roseeclair]

[A blink... and then a soft chuckle. It's not like she can judge, given how oven the girls have had to barge into or infiltrate places in order to investigate enemy activity.]

I guess that's as good a reason as any. I didn't know you had such a rebellious streak.

[Maybe that kitsune fits her better than Makoto thought.]

[reloves]

.. yeah?

[ Same energy. ]

That's why this tree is no problem for me! It's nothing!

[conciliant]

[It's quite the trip down, judging by how long Machi took to get there. From the outside, it looks like a normal slide, and by virtue of that, she should have hit the water much quicker, but it's several seconds after 2B expects her to emerge that she actually does. She raises a brow, confused by the look she's giving the slide, but—

"Alright, my turn!"

Ugh. There goes the kid, hardly waiting a beat for Machi to collect herself at the bottom. He's down much faster than she was, just by being smaller, and hopefully she's moved out of the way before he splashes down!? Because here comes 2B, doing the same to him.

...

Her speed is unlike anything else, and she's surprised that the slide can even hold up against the 325 lbs of steel android scraping over it. Although there are indeed more twists and turns than she was expecting, the bends surprising her when she's whipped around each one of them before she's forced out the end. And what follows is a giant splash—one that sends giant waves of water that force those near the edges of the pool out of it, and soaking everyone else, including the boy.

The water is shallow enough that he and Machi, as well as the rest of the guests, are in no danger—thanks to her tactical visor, she'd made those calculations before she climbed onto the slide—and all he can do is sputter water and wipe it from his eyes when he rises from the waves again, several feet away.]

Next time, don't be rude.