ioduanlogs | [July Open] 65% more rock per rock

Characters: Rutile, Leo, the Fool, Padparadscha, Raven, and anyone else who wants to hop in!
Date: Early July
Location: Die Rosa Tulpe, outside city limits, etc
Situation: A pre-business meeting with the Fool, discovering their talent with Leo?, discussing the barrier with Padparadscha, roommate shenanigans with Raven, and July's Faith 4
Warnings/Rating: Nope!

A ▸ ARRANGEMENTS, FLORAL | the fool

Despite their dedicated exploration of the city, Rutile still has not managed to see every location in Aifaran. Die Rosa Tulpe is low on their list for being primarily a food place, and given that Rutile has little interest in food (except for the proportion of it that spontaneously turns to ash, which they've gathered is rare), they've taken their time getting around to it.

When they enter, they're not certain why that is. The coffee shop is actually quite pleasant, with plenty of green and growing things, and at this time of day, uncrowded. It has just the right amount of proximity to the street that one doesn't feel isolated, but enough privacy to be a good place to work. Rutile stands in the door, observing the patrons. Their eyes widen when they see the Fool sitting at a table with his wares, but, never one to intrude, they keep to themselves unless noticed.

B ▸ MIND YOUR MANNERS | leonardo watch

Rutile appraises the milky white stone between their fingers with some disinterest. Quartz, they decide, based on the hexagonal structure and the scratch it leaves on their forearm, and they toss it behind them without a care for who or what it may hit. Small loss: one couldn't step outside without tripping over some variety of quartz.

They stand up and dust their labcoat, straightening it around their shoulders, and turn about to head back into the city. In their hand rests a small collection of precious stones that they contemplate as they walk away; deep in thought, they're hardly watching where they're going.

C ▸ ARE YOU MY DAD? (FAITH 4) | open

If Rutile has been homesick lately, their feelings are quickly cured by the Arybar child leaking some sort of chartreuse sticky substance all over their labcoat. Their skill with juniors is unremarkable at best; now, with hardly the authority to say for sure what is wrong (are they hungry? sick?), it takes something of a dive.

Still, they do their best. Rutile crouches down to eye level with the child. "Alright now," they say, and try to be gentle. "That's quite enough of that. I can't help you when you're upset like this."

The child cries louder. Rutile cringes inwardly. Few juniors have ever been this difficult.

D ▸ NOTHING VENTURED | padparadscha

Rutile is of several minds about their upcoming journey with Aly: first, and foremost, they are excited. It feels good to finally have something to do besides yell at other Dreamfolk across the Lae. But second, and of no smaller concern to them, is the danger of the proposed venture; they do not fear much for their physical safety, but it is a fool who wanders away in secret and expects to be found later. And the third, secret, smaller mind simply wants Padparadscha’s opinion.

It has been several centuries since Rutile last had to actively seek Padparadscha. Like another limb, Rutile feels it keenly when Padparadscha isn't by their side, and the ghost of their presence has haunted them for millennia. They’ve grown used to having them nearby, and though they easily recall a time when they and Padparadscha roamed separate from one another, it is so long ago now that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be independent creatures. The difficulty of it surprises them. Though they’ve learned Aifaran’s layout well, they still don’t know Padparadscha’s haunts, and the landscape is so different from their island that there are few similar areas to try.

So rather than waste time combing the city, they send them a text message, via yimo:

I would like to discuss something. Can we meet somewhere private?

and sit down to wait for a response.

E ▸ WILD CARD | open

[ PM me or hit me up on plurk for a starter, or just write one in yourself! I'm game for anything.]

Threaded | Flat

The habitual pace of life at Die Rosa Tulpe has been upended however briefly by Klaus' unexpected departure from Konryu, but the little cafe's doors remain open, and the Fool still mans his little display table in one corner of the shop. Whether or not the cafe will remain in business a month for now is a problem he does not have the wherewithal to solve--not with the Dreaming bombarding him with visions of a stranger's suffering (to say nothing of what it has done to X). And so the Fool carries on as he has been: making his small, elaborately rendered wooden carvings, and collecting some small profit from the work.

He's engaged in a bit of relaxed banter with a potential customer when Rutile arrives, and his gaze slips past the stranger's shoulder to settle on them for a moment. His smile for his customer widens a touch to include Rutile, too; an acknowledgement of their arrival, though he doesn't break away from his customer until the fellow parts from his company with a pretty wooden trinket for his trouble.

Then the Fool affixes the glass covering back into place, securing his work from wandering fingers, and then turns to take a few light steps across the room towards Rutile. "If you are here for a drink," he begins, gesturing to one side with a slim hand, "the bar is that way."

He is reasonably sure that Rutile is not here for a drink.

There are better ways to meet someone than to have them accidentally fling a rock at his forehead, but Leo had long since decided that any amount of luck he had didn't matter.

"Ow! God, don't throw rocks at people!" Leo yelled after the figure, who at another glance looked rather rock-like as well. Still no reason for them to be rude, and he was having enough stress from Klaus disappearing, making him jumpier than usual.

"Need a hand, salroka?"

This is the greeting that Kit offers Rutile as he stumbles upon the scene they've created, and though the smile he offers to his peculiar new friend is genuine, he looks equally concerned about the crying kid. There's not much in the world that can more effectively tug at Kit's heartstrings than the sight of a child in distress, even if the child is probably an alien.

He ambles over, already putting on his most disarming of warm smiles for the child; thankfully, being so short, he doesn't have to kneel down that far to be on eye level with her. "Hey there," he says, eyes crinkling fondly a little at their corners, "it's all right, we're gonna help you out."

The child has not completely stopped crying, but her tears have slowed some. She looks uncertainly between the dwarf and the gem, seeming suddenly too shy to speak her mind.

Raven didn't really have much to her name yet. Just some money, the "yimo" handset or whatever, and the clothes she was wearing. Honestly those were kind of already the essentials as far as she was concerned. That and a roof over her head, which she was about to head to. The idea of new roommates wasn't exactly thrilling to her. She was different, and she was private. Starfire and the rest of the Titans had accepted her unconditionally, but she couldn't really expect the same out of everyone.

For now, she simply let herself inside and took down her hood. Raven observed her surroundings carefully, finding nothing too out of the ordinary.

"Home sweet home, I guess."

[Padparadscha isn't fixed to their yimo in the manner of some Dreamfolk, but it's a useful device that they've made a habit of keeping on them. So when they receive Rutile's message, their response is quite prompt.]

Of course. There are some places by the shore that could serve well for a private talk, unless your roommates are less likely to walk in on us than mine are.

[It's difficult not to be curious what would require such secrecy, but then, they don't imagine they're going to find out over yimo.]

A!

B

C

E (Their Room)

D