hadriel_logs | Event Log: A Hope for the Future

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Event Log: A Hope for the Future

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the A Hope for the Future event
Where: All over the city!
When: April 15th-April 19th
Warnings: Stealth Rock

It's finally time to reap the rewards you've earned from all that hard work collecting and returning the Hope orbs! Be careful walking the streets during the small earthquakes, but feel free to admire the scenery as your beautiful city reassembles its way back into its former glory.

There are new houses where the destroyed buildings once were, and they're perfect for a single person or pair of lovebirds. In addition, you'll find that the electricity to these new houses, and all other homes and shops in the city is restored. The food is better, the monsters are gone- hey, this city might be livable again!

To cap it all off, we've got a feast waiting for you on the 19th! Come one, come all, and enjoy all of your favorite foods, drinks, and party games. It's been awhile since we've all gotten together to celebrate something good, so get your party on and toss all your troubles away!

► This log covers April 14th-April 19th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you get hit by levitating rubble or eat a food that wasn't meant for you, please let us know here.

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[Whistler turns shy, shifting his hand in hers to grip her fingers more firmly. After a moment he gathers his courage and bends to whisper near her ear.]

Julie. Will you dance with me?

[She looks at him for a moment, her expression suspicious, like she's trying to work out if this is one of his odd jokes. He doesn't look like he's joking - and she figures she knows him well enough to figure it out by now - but even if he is...

Well, she'll either accept, or she'll just call his bluff.]

Sure. Just let me... [Twisting in place, she sets her drink down, then stands up.]

Okay. Ready.

[He bites his lower lip as he waits. He’s nervous and perhaps that’s clear from the fact that he’s not joking. But it took him years to feel comfortable enough in himself to dance around Liz and the team and to trust them not to make him feel stupid.

But he trusts Julie so he’s going to try.]

Uh... you might have to lead though

Tch. No complaints there. [She's not sure she'd know how not to lead. A strong mind like hers doesn't lend itself well to being led.

Julie takes a firmer hold of his hand and with the other, gently divests him of his cane.] Won't need that. [She tells him, her eyes on his face to take measure of his reaction.]

Okay?

[It actually makes him laugh despite his nervousness. Of course she'd want to lead. He should have known]

You, uh, you ever done this kind of thing before?

[He lets her take the cane without protest, though it feels weird not to have it.]

Uhh, no. Not exactly. But you asked, so no take-backs.

[The cane is placed beside her drink on the table. Behind them, no one really seems to care what they're up to, and who might be dancing or how.]

I hope you're not expecting a waltz.

[That wins a full grin and Whistler tightens his grip on her hands]

If I was going to take it back, I wouldn't have asked.

[He steps a little bit closer]

So lead the way, Jules.

I'd hope not. It's hard to dance on cold feet.

[Hah! She made a funny, see.

There is, at least, enough room for even a crowd not to seem too crowded. It's only at times like this that Julie realises just how many people live here.

The music right now is slow, so she plants Whistler's hands on her hips.] Here. And... [And her own lift up, fingers loosely holding together behind his neck.]

We can start easy.

[Whistler breathes in a low, slow drag of breath and gives a shy nod before trying to follow her instructions. His hands are tense where they rest at her hips but to his own surprise he finds the hands behind his neck calming]

Dunno if I'd call this 'easy'

[He half-laughs]

Might be a bit easier if you were a little taller

[He adds in a tease]

[She snorts.]

Or if you were shorter. Why do you have to be such a beanpole?

[All her male friends are all. Even R is tall. Maybe she just has a thing for tall men. With Whistler settled, though, she sways her hips in time to the music.]

I'll have you know, the best things come in small packages.

I really have no idea. Funny thing is my parents aren't that tall. Maybe my mom got it on with a hot tall postman or something.

[Then they could blame his genetic defects on that guy too. It might have made things a bit less stressful in their house if they didn't see his blindness as their personal failures. ]

They'd be pretty shocked to see me dancing with a pretty girl. My parents, I mean.

I really don't need to think about your mom getting it on with a postman. Or anyone. Ever.

[She huffs out a laugh and, after a minute or so passes, she leans her head forwards to rest it half against her own arm, half on her shoulder while they step-sway to the music.]

... Were your parents disappointed in you?

[Whistler laughs but not a single bone in his body is apologetic for putting that image in her head. However the sound peters off into something of a sigh at the question]

I don't know any parent that wants a criminal for a kid.

[A shrug as he then decides to make a bold move and twirl them around]

Edited 2018-04-22 19:20 (UTC)

Heh, harsh... But that's not what I mean.

[What she does mean is neatly interrupted by being twirled. She laughs, gripping his shoulders.]

Wow, that was bold.

Guess I have some moves

[Meaning: that was entirely a fluke but he's glad it didn't end in disaster]

So....what did you mean then?

Pft... guess you do. [Her fingers settle at the nape of his neck again, brushing against his hair.]

... I don't know. I just... I think my dad's always felt that way about me. I was never... what he wanted. Never good enough. [She huffs out a soft breath through her nose.]

Fucked me up a little bit.

[Whistler goes quiet, settling back into a slow rhythmic motion as they move to music that they aren't even paying attention to. Part of him sort of knew that was the sort of thing she'd been getting at...but still it feels like a hand pressing on his heartbeat when she says it]

I can't speak for every kid that was born like me but, uh, my parents sort of always viewed me like I was broken. Like I was something they had broken. So....I was sort of...something they were protective of but also something they didn't want to talk about. They hated people knowing their kid wasn't like the other kids. They'd say they just wanted to make sure I wasn't bullied but....pretty early on I figured out it was also because they didn't want people to look at them as 'the parents of a blind kid'.

[He leans forward just enough to bump his forehead against hers]

What...uh....whaat makes you think your dad...saw you that way?

[Julie jumps slightly in surprise when he leans in so close, but laughs it off with a subdued chuckle. She shakes her head.]

The way he looked at me... things he said... He was trying. I know he was, but after my mom--... after my mom left I don't think he knew what to do with me. [She was only twelve, and his focuses had always been elsewhere.]

I did a lot of stupid stuff. I guess I was... rebelling. Hurting myself because it felt like I deserved it. [Quietly, she scoffs to herself.] I turned into someone he didn't know. He's a military man, you know? All regulations and rules. I hate it.

It's funny, isn't it? How often its the people who are supposed to love us the most who just...don't get it.

[And when he says funny in this instance he means it's everything but. Cruel irony isn't actually that funny when it's a lived experience]

That's why we end up having to make our own. Find our own people who aren't with us because they hope one day they can turn us into x,y,z, but because they like who were are to begin with. They become the family we needed.

I needed my dad. [Julie mutters.

But she didn't get that, so she found her way towards other things. Eventually, she settled down, but she was still drinking too much and smoking things she probably shouldn't have been. If it hadn't been for Nora and Perry, who knows what might have happened to her.]

... Perry was the first person that really saw me for the person I was. Then I lost him, too.

[People say loss can be seen in the eyes. And whether or not that is true, Whistler will never know. But what he has found is that it has made a home for itself in the voice, in the way voices can never really hide the way something hurts. Either too tight, too forced, too quite, just...off. And loss lives in the way bodies shift and change. Nerves and taut muscles.

It makes a deep ache in his chest when Julie talks, so much so that he slows to a stop, hands holding her steady in place a moment before he simply steps forward, closes the gap between them, and pulls her into a bear hug.

There's nothing he can do. He can't take away a single thing that has hurt her. But god he wishes if only for a moment he could keep her safe from something. ]

[And Julie has lost so much. Her home, her childhood, her chance at a normal life. Her mother, her father's attention, her boyfriend, and so much more besides.

She doesn't expect Whistler to hug her like that. He never has before, not like that, and she finds that she chuckles softly but warmly as she presses her cheek against his shoulder and tightens the grip of her arms around his neck.]

... Thanks.

[This kind of closeness is usually a fraught experience for Whistler. It usually comes with the expectation of awkward limb placement and with an overload of tactile information that makes him all too aware of himself. Their breathing and his breathing, their heartbeat and his... not to mention the fact that more often than not he doesn't trust the other person to have this degree of direct contact with him. This degree of power over him. When he was a kid, being hugged would make him go tense, straightening like a board and waiting with his breath held for the experience to be over.

This is not the case this time. Her presence here feels wanted and steadying. So much so that he even gives her a small, reassuring squeeze in response to her thanks]

No problem

[Is the only thing he can think of to say, whispering it]

[Julie stays right where she is for a few moments more, then lets her arms drop, curling her hands around the backs of his shoulders. Given their height difference, it's a little more comfortable, and she lightly pats the back of one of his shoulders before she finally shifts herself back.]

... Come on, we're out here to have some fun, right?

[Enough letting her bring the mood down all the time.]

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Event Log: A Hope for the Future

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