2019-07-29: The War against Littering
- Log: The War Against Littering
- Cast: Kamui, Acacia Saitani, Seraph Clarine
- Where: Macalania Woods
- Date: 29th July 2019
- Summary: Several friends reconvene in Macalania, where a most devious crime has occurred...
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui is spending time with some of her favoritest people in the world, Clarine and Acacia. She's managed to remember one of their names, which is like fifty percent up from her usual!! She missed Clarine going on adventures in Macalania Forest, but is waiting for the Seraph to return at their usual cozy light-path spot up above the canopy where...
She's got her Foot Parts out.
That is to say, she has a pair of familiar white stompyboot greaves out, with accents of blue, red and yellow.
She's got a brush out in her hand as she sings--
"Scrub scrub scrub scrub... get niiice and shiny, Foot Parts!"
She looks up proudly as she relates:
"If I keep my Armour tidy and cleanly, Mari will give me a sticker."
What sticker is it?
Only Mari will know...
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It's okay, there will be future adventures in Macalania Woods! There, Clarine witnessed the greatest sin of all - /littering/. She will have to return sometime to ensure the woods remain clean - and, of course, to share the wonderful sight she saw at the end of her journey with her friends.
Now, Clarine returns from her adventure, and pauses as she hears a familiar voice.
"Kamui...?" Clarine calls up. She makers her way up, catching sight of Kamui as she gives her foot parts a good cleaning. "Ah, I thought I heard your voice...!"
A smile crosses over Clarine's face as she moves to join her friend, sitting next to her and then looking over her work.
"...The light shines on them nicely...I can almost see my reflection in them..." Clarine observes with a nod of approval. As a Light Seraph, she knows a thing or two about shiny. If she approves, you must be on the right path.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia is a study in quiet curiosity right now, because if you'd asked her maybe a day ago, her assumption would have been that the Foot Parts weren't removable. If she stops and casts her mind back, she can certainly remember Kamui not having them on from time to time, usually to dive under a blanket, but they just seem so intrinsically /her/ that it's hard to let go of the idea that maybe she was just making them invisible for a bit, or something.
Hands linked behind her head, she's sat up against one of the Macalania trees, her legs stretched out as she light-bathes. It's almost odd to see her without a camera or a notepad in her hands, but with the latest issue of the Bouletin handed off to Rin she's decided to treat today as a chance to rest, and she's always been the sort to draw a clear line between work and play.
(Calling it a Bouletin might be a little much - right now, it's more a list of messages and well-wishes from various Spiran locals looking to find or soothe their families and friends. If she's honest, that just makes her more proud of it.)
"Ah, hey," she greets the Seraph with a wave; she chuckles lightly under her breath, but for the time being seems to prefer just staying where she is, letting Clarine approach as she'd like rather than try to push the Seraph into a reply, and in her half-doze she's happy to watch the interaction with Kamui.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
The question of whether the Foot Parts were removable certainly was up in the air for a while, such that even the poser is possibly going in on retroactive continuity! Ho! Ho! Ho!
ZEBOIM ERA
"......... what do you mean, are they removable?" Dr. Lumen stares blankly at M. and A. like she just got asked if the moon is made out of cheese.
A particularly relaxed (chill, one could say) Pengy just shakes his head in the background.
NOW
"Clariiine!" Kamui exclaims as she holds up one Foot Part, lighting up in approval in turn as Clarine comments that it's so shiny she can see herself off it. "You can almost..."
A pause.
"I have to work harder, then! Until you can clearly see your reflection off it! Master, where's our polish..." Kamui sounds redoubled in excitement.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Hello!" Clarine returns the greeting with a polite bow of her head as Acacia greets her. "I hope you have been well..."
And then, she looks back at Kamui with a hint of surprise as her excitement only grows.
"Such dedication...!" She remarks proudly. She pumps her fists in encouragement. "I believe in you, Kamui...!"
She might be getting carried away a little, herself.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"I've been on my feet, at least," Acacia offers a friendly grin in return to the Seraph, her eyebrows going up as she certainly implies that's good news rather than bad. In her case, that's probably quite true, given the way she tends to bustle around and keep herself busy. "You're looking good, too. Not sure I've ever seen you quite so upbeat."
She's not even got her camera out for Macalania Woods - but then the Bouletin has already featured the Forest in it, and she's kept plenty of those photos back for herself. Taking more kind of feels like it would be churlish.
Kamui lifts the Foot Part, and she makes another quiet note to poke Marivel for some more of those lessons in Reploid maintenance. For all that she grew up in Guild Galad, Kamui's systems are still well beyond her, and though she can usually rely on her intuition for things like this she'd rather not in Kamui's case. She's pretty sure "Aw, it'll be fine!" doesn't cut it here.
"I've got it, I've got it," she reassures the Reploid as she reaches over, hauling her bag towards her to start rummaging through it, and squinting as she pulls out a slim, round canister. "Was this it?" she says to catch Kamui's attention, then tosses it over.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
"What have you been up to, Clarine...?" Kamui asks as she pulls the boot up closer to her and keeps scrubbing. Clarine's encouragement and fist-pumps seem to get the Reploid even more excited. It's already pretty clean, but...
Ooh, here comes the polish, and Kamui nods to Acacia as she looks at it.
A pause.
"Do you think I could be shiny too if I tried buffing myself?" Kamui asks innocently. "Then Clarine could see her reflection off my face..."
W-where is this line of inquiry leading to?!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"That is good...!" Clarine replies. And when Acacia points out that she seems more upbeat than usual, Clarine hesitates a little and nods.
"Mm, well... I made a few decisions. Faced some things that were worrying me... It was not easy, but... I feel a little better now...especially with Marivel back with us." Clarine replies with a nod. "I was even able to do a little craftwork for the first time in a while... I haven't finished anything yet, but..."
As for what she's been up to...
"I found a really lovely place deep in the Woods...getting there is a little dangerous, though, so we will need to be prepared. I would like to show it to the two of you sometime, though." Clarine replies, then looks toward Kamui. She considers for a moment. "Hm...maybe...!"
She pauses.
"J-just as long as I would be able to still see your face too, though...!"
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia hesitates, her hand still out after the throw, as she imagines a chrome-finished Kamui disco ball. "... no way," she blurts in response to Kamui's question, then part her mind abruptly jolts in warning as she realizes that's a little too blunt. "After all, if you did that Clarine wouldn't be able to see you right back," she puffs, adlibbing like mad - and sighing in relief as the Seraph herself comes up with the same logic.
Something strikes her, though, and she settles back against the tree with a thoughtful frown. "Hey, Kamui. Do you reckon there's any kind of radar so we can find more of those parts? They'd help you out, right?" she considers, wondering if she should ask Marivel about them. Still, from what little she's learnt about Kamui's old Master, something tells her things aren't going to be that easy.
The redhead pauses as she studies the Seraph. There's another flash of that curiosity, but it doesn't last - she's not so rude as to turn her reporter's job on her friends. "Well, yeah, that part's understandable," she mutters about Marivel. "Honestly, I was about ready to slug her if it wouldn't have been cheesy as hell. I hope the rest of the decisions go okay, though.
What could lie in the heart of Macalania Woods... Aki isn't exactly a ranger, but the thought of something interesting is usually a draw, especially without much in the way of urban settings for her to poke around. "Sure. Whenever's good. What, did you find the source of the forest light, or something?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
"Decisions..." Kamui whispers, settling down from her shiny-induced fit of manic. A quiet moment in which she tugs the Foot Part a little closer to herself. A quiet close of her eyse for a moment longer, then opens her eyes and looks to Clarine in turn. "I don't know what it is, but... I'll support you, okay?"
A pause, as she bobs her head the other way.
"Craftwork...?" Kamui asks, curiously, but it seems to get a little lost in Clarine pointing out a lovely place. "Ooh! I want to write about it, Master!"
Acacia asks about radars, and she looks genuinely confused. "... ... maybe... once, or twice??" Kamui muses with a look that's replete with the trianglemouth of thought. "But they weren't super useful... um."
A hesitation.
"They usually come to me, somehow," Kamui points out. ... it is true that the Foot Parts arrived to her in /Spira/, which is probably not within Expected Boundaries of where Kamui is intended to go, so...
"But... as to whether they'd help me..."
She lowers her head.
"... they're Armour, made for war. Like the one I brought out in Luca. So... maybe not."
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Thank you...both of you." Clarine replies, inclining her head in gratitude. For a moment, she clasps her hand in front of her. Their support helps - that she knew they would be supporting her was part of why she was able to go through with it. She can see there's some curiosity, there, though, so the considers for a moment how to best word it.
"...I will not.../seek/ a fight, but...the next time the followers of Althena attempt to hurt innocent people...I will protect them." She says. "I can no longer sit by while She gives orders I cannot agree with..."
As for Marivel, though, Clarine nods.
"Yes..." She can understand that sentiment - though would be more likely to cry at and hug her.
Clarine makes a mental note about that.
But, the conversation turns to brighter topics as they ask about the place she found.
"Oh, it is-" Clarine pauses. "...Hm, well...I think it would be better if you saw it with your own eyes. I do not think my words would be able to do it justice."
She pauses for a moment, looking between Kamui and Acacia, as they discuss parts.
Armor, for war... Clarine thinks on that for a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia also extracts a bag of cinnamon sticks from her backpack, sticking one of them between her teeth to waggle it up and down in thought and then nibble upon it. "Mmm..." she muses in return to Kamui's statement, then lightly nods her head. "Guess we'll just see when they feel like turning up, I suppose."
She hesitates, feeling a little guilty. "But-- I don't mean I want you to use them for war, I'm just saying. Totally the opposite, really. They might be useful for reporting. Just think how many great views you could get to if your boots let you fly, stuff like that."
She's content to let talk drift to lighter things, though, and grins lazily to herself. "I think we should take some photos. And write about it, so that you can remember it better. But we probably shouldn't publish anything - it wouldn't be very fair if we told a bunch of people about Clarine's secret hideout, would it?" she teases.
Her response to the Seraph is a quiet, tiny nod of recognition, knowing that Clarine probably doesn't want to dwell but at least offering a bit of support for her decision. "Honestly, this forest makes me wish I'd paid attention during Biology," she quips afterwards, looking up at the lit-up canopy overhead. "Figuring out how it all works would need more than an ace reporter."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui has fallen mostly silent at this point as she listens in on Clarine's firm words. That she won't seek a fight, but if the followers of Althena attempt to hurt innocent people...
...
Acacia speaks about how she doesn't want to use her Armour for war. There's a lingering pause as she closes her eye for a moment longer.
"Master hoped the world would be a peaceful one for me. But Master left me this Armour in case the world needed it..."
She looks to Clarine.
"... I'll support Clarine. I want to..." she clings tighter to the boots. "Even if it might be scary and hard."
She pops up a little at the end as she says, "We need an ace botanist... I think!"
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Thank you. And, it...it will be alright. Because...I will be there to support you, as well - and the others, too..." Clarine says, attempting to reassure Kamui. "It might be scary, and hard...but with all of us together, it will be a little easier... We are not alone, any one of us."
That was the other decision she had made.
She looks toward Acacia, then, and considers for a moment.
"...On the way there, I spotted a good deal of litter..." She says, with a hint of distaste that was rare from her. "If we run across more of it...then perhaps that is something you could write about, so that people will learn to clean up after themselves..."
But, then there's the matter of actually figuring out how it all works. Clarine certainly understood how the light worked, but she had never given the trees much thought.
"...An ace botanist...!" Clarine repeats, then pauses. "...I do not know any ace botanists, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"That's a heck of an 'in case'," Acacia points out gently, feeling a little conflicted. She certainly can't just tell Kamui not to fight, and she's sure as hell not going to order it, especially because she's yet to really feel like any kind of 'Master'.
But she does at least recognize Kamui's reasons, and lets out a quiet breath at the Reploid's promise. "... but that's a good reason to fight, if you have to. So long as you're doing it to help or protect people, right?"
She puffs out a breath and sticks her grin back on her face. "But! Hopefully, it won't come to that. And in the meantime, we've got bigger things to worry about. Like people littering up this place," she pivots towards Clarine, her eyebrows raised. "... tell me you're kidding. Just let me at them if you find more. We'll track them back home and throw the trash in their backyard if we have to."
Having folded her arms in sheer indignation, she pauses. When it comes to botanists... ... well, the only one she knows is Marivel. Who's just as likely to spin a tall tale as she is to know the actual story behind the forest.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui is resolved to help Clarine, but there's no denying she's still kind of bothered by something. Perhaps reasons have a way, no matter how good-natured and pure-hearted on their onset, of warping over time.
Maybe someone's brushing up against truly dark times done 'for the protection of the people'...
"Not alone..." she nods quietly.
"Ah--" Kamui frowns, suddenly, as she gets distracted.
"Litterers! That's the worst kind of villain! Even Odessa wouldn't stand up for litterers!"
!?
"I'll write an angry piece about this! Let's go around and find examples of littering so that we can really tell them what for, Master!" Kamui gets really pumped up.
A pause.
"Oh! Speaking of botany, we undertook a suuuper secret mission to Kilika to water our plants. They're doing well...!" Kamui adds.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Sadly, I am not...I saw it for myself..." Clarine confirms to Acacia, a serious frown on her face. "We dealt with what we found, but it was fairly exhausting..."
And then, there's a nod, and Clarine pumps her arms in resolution as Kamui, too, gets pumped up.
"Yes...! It truly is unforgivable!" She agrees with a nod. She's glad that they're taking it seriously! "Hopefully, justice will be done..."
She pauses, though, as Kamui mentions their mission.
"A super secret mission...!" Clarine remarks with a gasp, and then I nod. "I hope they grow up big and strong..."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Carefully, uncertain if she's interrupting something, Acacia leans over to place her hand atop Kamui's hair. "... besides, I'm here to make sure you're okay. If I start to feel like things are getting to be too much, I'll let you know. Okay?" she encourages.
The Reploid isn't the only one doing secret missions into Guard-controlled territory, and Acacia breaks into an amused, if rather beleaguered smile. "Honestly, I'm surprised that went as well as it did. Kilika's doing better than I expected, though I guess the Guard's too busy focusing on Luca for the time being. Not that I like the situation either way, but it was good to see the people relatively safe. And the flowers doing well," she agrees, remembering to add the last part.
Levering herself up, she brushes her jeans off, then stretches her arms up - then puts a toothy, dangerous grin on her face. "Okay then. When you're done, Kamui, let's go with Clarine and see where this all happened. Maybe there's something left we can help with, or else pick up some clues," she suggests with relish, enjoying the idea of a chase. "They'll see what they get."