#labebantur

Ramuda is wearing his swimsuit, sunglasses on his face and a big lollipop in his mouth. Why wouldn’t anyone click this island to visit! It’s super sunny, and there’s lots of pretty girls around! He puts a fist to his face and giggles before flopping down on his beach towel. He leans back, sighing loudly as he attempts to sunbathe.

Peace only lasts about ten minutes, though, and there’s a shadow taking too long to pass. He flips his sunglasses up, sits up on his elbows, and frowns.

IT’S GETTING LESS SURPRISING   to see fellow displaced citizens of Spirale by the hour. While, at first, Chell had felt isolated and alone, that’s not really a concern anymore. On the plus side, it means that she’ll be better off facing the monsters. On the other hand, she doesn’t really like people. 

But honestly, at the end of the day she’s relieved that she’s not here alone. That would be even worse. More of the same, but awful nonetheless. 

She can’t get through a patrol without running into someone. And while she’s more than happy to share her stockpiled resources, she knows better than to just trust anyone. They might all be from Spirale, but... there are a lot of different kinds of people there. Including people that Chell fully knows aren’t that morally upstanding. 

She doesn’t think she’s been spotted yet. So she crouches down behind some rubble, watching the stranger’s movements carefully. 

Thank you for being here, dropped!

These things that weigh down every step— the shop owner had called them sneakers. Pacing in them, she does not feel particularly sneaky. Now, walking is a strange experience, as typically, it is only space that separates her from the earth.

So preoccupied with walking, she collides with a young man, the force not insignificant.

there’s little time given for floyd to take the bubbling vial from azul’s hand as its thrust in his direction. what had begun as a simple halloween game, alchemy being one of his fortes after all, had somehow warped into a rather insane sort of theatrical scene most unbecoming to someone of azul’s usually so put-together manner. one taste of that strange candy and he had shifted from simply odd to seemingly deranged.

of course, there had been brief times when the cracks split and revealed the truth beneath his smile, but this was not an example of his mask slipping, but of something entirely unlike him taking over altogether.

“ it’s not enough, but with the limited resources we should be able to make SOMETHING interesting, fuahaha ! “

He’s been walking around for a while now, and he’s not entirely sure which ward he’s in at the moment. He hasn’t gotten their themes completely memorized, yet.

Most of the information he’s gotten has also been superficial at best. Goro is already tired of this game.

“Ah... Excuse me.” He turns to a young man who seems to be around his age and smiles, “Do you know of any good cafes around here by chance?” 

Another full moon night meant another sleepless night, which led to Waka wandering around Archimedes ward. He had just gotten out of work and had been planning on returning to his condo in Archimedes when he found himself distracted by the moon above. 

He knew that, when he arrived back home he wouldn’t be able to sleep until sunrise; the nights when the moon was at its fullest left him feeling overly energized, and his mind going a mile a minute. This led to many nights where he could not sleep, no matter what he tried, and he learned early on not to fight it. After all, it was only natural for the people of the moon to be at their most active during this phase of the lunar cycle, and try as he might to pass himself off as a regular mortal, he knew that he was still among the ranks of the Moon Tribe, and ha certain aspects of his people would remain with him. He could not hide or suppress anything, and since he arrived in this city, he saw no need to in the firs place (though old habits died hard.)

The moonlight shining down caught his golden hair, giving it an ethereal glow not unlike the colour of the moon above. His hair, normally kept in a tengu cap was exposed, for his hair tended to attract many customers and aid him in his work at the nearby host club. This led him to leaving his cap back in his apartment on nights where he worked.

It wasn’t until the sound of approaching footsteps reached his ears that Waka tore his gaze from the moon and onto the stranger approaching. 

Ardyn’s eyes are narrowed and his hands are holding onto the railing so he can look down at the books below him. He tilts his head and looks across the scene -- people are reading different texts, both ancient and illegible, and Ardyn distantly wonders if there’s someone here who curates them. The books to him look worn and barely readable, but if he’s persistent enough he’s sure he will be able to find something that interests him. 

He looks down the stairs and begins his descent, one hand touching along the spines of the books that face him. Some other readers move out of his path and he almost bumps into a couple, but he continues on while humming a tune under his breath. He pauses, hand still on the books and stares at another person in front of him. Shirt untucked, hair a mess, and staring at one page of a particularly well-worn book.

Ardyn takes off his hat and inclines his head, a slow smile spreading across his face. He leans forward and quickly pulls a book off the shelf, thumbing through it as he smiles more to himself.