open

[unhappy]

🧙 WHO: Emerald & YOU!
⚔️️ WHAT: Top is open prompts, individual prompts in comments.
🕒 WHEN: Early to mid-March
🗺️ WHERE: Various
⚠️ WARNINGS: None yet, will add as needed.

A. Flowers and Dragons (TDM Prompt)
[ Emerald isn't much of a flower person. She doesn't mind them, but in the grand scheme of things, she's more a fan of realistic wants and needs-- she's not the type of person to get drawn in because something is pretty. The baby dragons are kind of a menace though, and without her aura to protect her, she'd rather do things the peaceful way...

At least her particular style of magic is especially useful for this kind of a mission. She may not have mastered hard light by any means, but in the months she's been here, she's become very adept at illusion and glamours. It's more a focus of familiarity and want, but right now, it's got her with one hand up to hold an invisibility illusion up while a dragon is mere feet from her and she's kneeling down with a basket full of little purple chive blossoms. She's doing her best to fill up the basket with one hand, but it's obviously a little messy.

If you come near her, she'll stop to put her fingers up to her lips. She can't control what the dragon hears, after all. Please don't alert the baby, she's trying her best to get this done without disaster. ]

B. Homesick or sick of home?
[ While Emerald's happy that they have inn rooms to fall back on, it's a stark reminder that it's still not a home. There's no one there waiting for her, and the longer she's here, refusing to let anyone get close (even if some people are clearly trying) the more it reminds her that she's alone. It also leaves her to think a lot about what a home means to her, and why she wants one here. It would be natural to want to stay in that inn if she felt like she had a place back in her world. Because the inn should be temporary-- a reminder that this is not forever, that they'll all go home one day. It's getting harder and harder for her to see why that's a good thing, the longer being here reminds her what it's like not to spend every day in a constant variable state of terror.

And yet, she finds herself wandering around an open house. The place she's at is too big for her to live at alone, for sure, but anyone can wander in easily and see her looking caught up in her own thoughts. If she does catch you looking though, it'll quickly be covered up with her narrowing her eyes. ]

Do you want something? You're supposed to be looking at the house, not me.

[ Well, she's still got an attitude problem whenever she's caught having feelings. ]

C. Wildcard
[ Write your own prompt or contact me and I'll whip up something for you! I can be contacted at tartetatin or taylotjelly#4556 on Discord. ]

Comments

offers starbucks as she finally arrives

[ensuredsurvival]

[Raven would have opted out for this event if she had known who she'd encounter. She had wanted to practice her magic, so she had opted for trying these games out and this is what she gets as a rewards. Yikes.]

Maybe... but I'll still kick your ass. Just like Cinder's.

[She's intentionally trying to make her angry, yes, how did you know?]

[trustheart]

Chris blinked, before looking around. Almost shiftily.

"You could say that," she said with a nod. "I can't really get into the specifics of just how, though."

[morns]

( that's a sensible choice, honestly. Kate can understand that, but she's not opposed to Emerald's own particular brand of sensible either.

there's a whole load of pilfered notebooks and pens which would need declaring if she objected to that kind of thing. )

Bit pointless to care about fudging the details if we're already doing this.

( who goes through the trouble of accepting dark web requests and then grasses up the ammo counting? )

the best gift

[unhappy]

You ran without bothering to even check if you finished the job, so I'd watch your back if I were you.

[ Emerald's eyes narrow. It's obvious that she's more than a little defensive of Cinder. But she's decidedly not as upset as she would be if Cinder were actually dead. ]

You don't have any more magic than I do here.

[ The countdown to start begins! 3, 2.. ]

[unhappy]

I don't know about luck. We've got a similar sense of uh... [ What do you call it? ] Schadenfreude?

[ A side she tends to keep to herself here. Most people don't really appreciate it. ]

He was heading that way before I lost track of him. There are two pop-up cafes in that direction.

[unhappy]

I was worried for a second.

[ She looks relieved. She's still getting used to hanging around people who aren't awful and she's still used to expecting them to be dumb as doornails. ]

Snagglefoot, right? [ She sits down next to him, folding her hands in her lap. ] We can either compete on this or we can team up and split the reward.

[unhappy]

"So... superhero team, villainous conspirator, or secret agent."

She's joking, but honestly, it seems like that's the case on a lot of worlds. Emerald sure fits into one of the categories, technically.

[unhappy]

We're not lying, just embellishing.

[ That's definitely lying, but whatever. It'll make up the cost of a split fee, either way. ]

What are your limits? I guess we're not supposed to kill the guy.

[unhappy]

I think those are chives that I grabbed.

[ She'll probably save whatever they don't use for dinner. But, you know, not the flower part.

She balances cleanly while she waits for him to heal it. She lets out a breath she hadn't even known she was holding when the pain goes away. ]

Back home, I can just heal from stuff like that. I've felt a lot of crap so I can handle it, but it feels a lot better now. Thanks.

[kiss_it_better]

Chives meaning 'usefulness', if I'm not wrong.

[How nice that it's not something negative otherwise it would have been a waste of time.

When he was done with the healing he moved back to keep a respectful amount of space between them.]

Even if it's not the worst you've had there's no point in suffering an injury when there's an easy solution. [But also.] Were you a healer?

[morganknight]

You're only laughing if other people are crying, huh? [Seems accurate. Adds another piece to the puzzle that is Emerald, one he's cheerfully intent on solving.] You take one, I take the other, wabbit season ensues?

[divinereaper]

I don't mind spitting the reward if it means I get help on this. [ Naoto shrugs. It was also just nice to work with someone he knew. ]

Just depends if you want to work together, too. I'll even let you choose how we split the reward.

[trustheart]

... You have no idea how right you are, Emerald. Chris stares at her for a long moment, before shrugging her shoulders and trying to play it cool.

"Nothing so impressive. But, uh, you can think whatever you want!"

It's weird when you've been all three of those things.

[morns]

( admittedly, they never did specify... )

Would assume you'd want someone alive to understand the message you're sending.

( but there's an uncertainty to her tone there. sometimes a message can be the dead body left for everyone else to see, after all. they'll stop causing trouble if their strongest are eliminated is a piece of wisdom she's already heard one too many times in her life.

but, as for limits? ) Just don't end up on Camelot's Most Wanted.

( they can avoid that much, right? )

[unhappy]

Devotion and usefulness. [ Hahahahahaha. Story of Emerald's life. Maybe it'll work out for her this time. ] It's not the worst message to send.

[ Still, she rolls her eyes and gives him a little lip for his comment. ] It's not like I knew you were a healer before you said or I would've said something. [ She shakes her head. ] I had a thing called an aura-- a lot of people in my world have them. It's a way to bare your soul outward to use it as a shield, or to heal injuries you didn't manage to block.

[ It's not infinite, but something like this would've been nothing if she could still use it. ]

[unhappy]

I'll pass on the snot. Think more middle of the road on that. Like someone trips and falls on their face, that's funny.

[ SHE'S JUST AN ASSHOLE, REALLY... ]

Yep. I'll even give you like, 10% of the money for helping.

[unhappy]

90-10, you get 10.

[ She's joking, at least. ] We can do an even split. If we're competing, one of us isn't going to get anything.

[ And that sounds really annoying, since she's not used to this whole heroing thing. Well, "heroing." ]

[unhappy]

"Don't tell me you're just a side-kick."

A little smirk pulls onto Emerald's lips as she teases.

[morganknight]

[He hasn't given up on her. Somehow.]

A percentage in the double digits? This is how I know you see me as a friend!

[trustheart]

Chris blinked rapidly, before her expression turned angry.

"Who are you calling a sidekick?!" she exclaimed. "I'm part of a team!"

... That may have been too much to say.

[divinereaper]

[ He lets out a dry laugh. ] Gee, thanks.

Yeah, that makes sense. [ He keeps an eye out as he continues talking. ] So now all our job is looking for the man. Fun. I love stakeouts.

[ The sarcasm was palpable. ]

[kiss_it_better]

[He didn't mind the lip, really. Though he is a little concerned...would she only admit to an injury only if there was a solution rather than to let people know she had been hurt? But it was a small injury and it's hard to say if that wasn't the reason.

Either way, he only smiles in response.] Perhaps I should mention that first in the future.

[Aura...how fascinating. It wasn't a surprise that other worlds would have other forms of...magic, for the lack of a better word but he's still interested.]

I would like to hear more if you would be willing to share. [He holds out his basket.] Perhaps we can exchange some flowers and make crowns while you do so.

[unhappy]

[ Emerald isn't exactly the type of person people care about; she's grown accustomed to it. What she wants or needs will always come second-- whether because she's a street rat or because to get out of that life, she promised to devote herself to someone else, and that someone else didn't value Emerald at all.. even if Emerald herself desperately clung to the idea that she did. So the idea of bringing up an injury, a vulnerability, with a stranger who had no stake in her or ability to heal, seemed pointless for now. ]

We could always make all the healers wear little hats or badges.

[ She jokes, though it would be useful. Probably not for healers who just want to be left alone, though. ]

Like what? I'm not an expert so I can't get too technical with it. I know how to use mine, but.. [ She didn't go to school for it, not like most people did. She learned because she would've died if she hadn't figured it out. ] I can't tell you why it works, just that it does and how it does.

[kiss_it_better]

[There's a conversation they could have about that one day...though in his case, the person he's devoted himself to does care. But even if he didn't, Chang Geng wouldn't even mind.]

That's not a bad idea though I doubt everyone would think so.

[It would be interesting to imagine though.

He made a thoughtful hum..]

While the mechanics of how something works is fascinating, it isn't the most important thing. A person who raises crops may not know why plants grow but that doesn't mean what they do know has no value.

[Then he smiled a little wryly.]

If you aren't an expert, then I am even less of one. [After all, they didn't even come from the same place.] That is why, whatever you are comfortable sharing is fine. And, in return, if you want I can share knowledge about something from my world as well.

[unhappy]

Maybe like a map dot on the phones. So you can pull up a map and go to the nearest green dot for healing, but it doesn't say who it is and healers can turn it off if they want to be left alone...

[ At the very least, Emerald is capable of empathy. Even if that empathy is toward the 'god, I would want everyone to leave me the hell alone' end of the spectrum. ]

Aura is like... There are combat schools that teach people how to activate it and basically bring kids up as warriors, but some people activate theirs long before they get to that point because Remnant sucks-- that's our world's name. Our superpowered monsters are around every corner, so you either live safe and sound in the middle of one of the four successful kingdoms, or you learn how to survive really fast. People can focus on baring their souls to absorb blows from claws, weapons, explosions, elements and temperature.. all kinds of stuff. We can use it to fortify our weapons too, or make weapons out of something that shouldn't be. So if I had like, a rolled up newspaper, I could fortify that and hit back with the same force as if I had a baseball bat or a hammer. Which when you have real weapons can be a lifesaver if you're cornered.

[ All the while she's doing her best to explain, she's trying to tie the flowers together but like.. she's never done this before so it honestly looks kind of garbage and Emerald's looking more irritated as she goes. ]