#colette 01

Culture shock was an understatement. Already thoroughly disturbed by the fact that every single bystander he came across he could actually see their face, Blood decided to take a break from the crowds to be alone. Wonderland was chaos brought to life, always shifting and changing with no rhyme or reason, but there were a base set of rules. The first being that most everyone was replaceable, insignificant. But if the populace was not Faceless here, was he not surrounded by Outsiders? 

It was frustrating. 

What would he do now that he was just another face in the crowd? Would anyone here even know of the Hatters? Of the role he held? People didn’t stop in their tracks or clear the way when they saw him.

He sneered down at the cup of tea set down before him. Blood sat at an upscale café seated outside under an umbrella. An ornate pot of tea, milk pot, and cup of sugar was placed before him. He studied the movement of people on the street, people watching to decipher this world. When the flutter of blonde hair in motion obstructed his peripheral vision, he turned his head and quickly changed his expression to a wry grin. He had an appearance to keep up after all. It couldn’t be rumored that Blood Dupre was troubled.

“Lady Colette! It’s you...!”

Grimm dashes up to her, having decided to browse around this vast green field he’d spotted while flying around. His little wormy child is hanging onto his neck, clinging to the warmth of its father. Good thing it doesn’t seem to disturbed by the abrupt location changes...?

The Troupe Master bows before Colette, seeing that she's come from the group of very loud people that were presumably from the same world. Genis (and Raine), Zelos, that guy in red, and others... they must never get lonely, huh?

“I hope you are enjoying today's festivities, my dear. Now, I've made a promise to myself to not play any sorrowful music today. Perhaps you'd like to hear one of the more upbeat tunes I know? This one is called Lurie, from a faraway land!”

Grimm snaps his fingers, calling over some of unfortunate souls, erm, interns, from Calliope who'd decided to follow his ways. They're dressed in long cloaks like him, sporting white masks with the moth's face markings and carrying other instruments for the piece.

“Oh, did you need any brushes or paint from over here?” Lucretia’s been standing in front of the art supplies for a few minutes, debating which ones to use-- she isn’t sure if this girl is participating or just looking around, but figured it would be nice to offer.

The art gallery is the most at home she’s felt in Spirale so far; the normally well put-together Madame Director is sporting more casual clothes with a few spots of paint on them. It’s nice to be able to relax and enjoy something for once!

“Hey, watch out!” Ed grabs the girl’s wrist as she trips forward, trying his best to make sure they both don’t fall. He’d been exploring near the waters of styx in Archimedes; the last thing he wants to do is fall in the pool. It’s not like he has a mechanic here if he ends up busting his automail...

Though he’d seen Colette in passing and during meet-ups with their shared friends, Lloyd couldn’t believe that they hadn’t had the time to actually be together since arriving in this strange, new world. He opted to fix that as quickly as he could, however; especially after discovering a place he knew she would absolutely love. Though they were far from home, it seemed that Spirale had given everyone the chance to just.. spend time together and explore everything around them; and Lloyd was determined to use up as much time as they had here doing just that.

“This is the place I wanted you to see! I had no idea cafes like this existed, but apparently you can drink coffee and eat lunch while hanging out with dogs!” a big sign was posted outside, signalling that the pair had arrived at a ‘puppy cafe’. He didn’t really know what it entailed, but Colette was sure to love it! Especially if there were lots of dogs around! “What do you think? Wanna check it out?”

She retrieved her ticket and sat in a far corner of the bullet train, almost nodding off a few times as the vehicle rumbled soothingly around her. She wished she had gone to bed earlier the night before, but she got distracted planning her trip to make sure she got off at the right stop. The soft early morning light shone in through the windows and the professor smiled wistfully out at the woodland scenery in the distance. The train filled up to about a third of its capacity before setting off.

As she got to her stop, Raine collected her journals and gripped the metal bar next to her seat. She pulled herself up to stand and made her way to the exit. The conductor opened the door to let the passengers off as the train hissed to a halt. While jumping down to the platform Raine wished that Sylvarant had anything like this. It would have made the journey of Regeneration much simpler. While she didn’t trust her surroundings at all in this place, this is something she could get used to.

Walking through the turnstiles, the professor searched for the exit to the station. She watched as bust commuters shuffled around and the line of people began filtering into the train. The bell rang as it prepared to speed towards the next stop. Halfway down the hall Raine saw a dog chained to the metal grating on the wall, and a girl sitting down in front of the animal. She would have known her anywhere.