2015-07-09 - Too Hot To Taunt
| Title: Too Hot To Taunt | |
|---|---|
| Summary: IT'S HOT | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Desolate Mansion | |
| OOC - IC Date: 3 August 2014 - 07/09/2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Were there to be an art critic in the mysterious mansion in these ominous woods, they would take offence at the blatant ripoff of a famous statue now on display in the sitting room. There are several differences, however, from Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker', however. True, the pose is nearly correct - elbow resting on knee, fist under chin in contemplative thought - but that statue did not move, nor was it holding a dumbbell in its free hand.
Also, Westar is a denizen of Labyrinth, not a statue, and he's moving - though largely just lifting that weight over and over. He also swaps arms every few hours, though for the moment at least he's leaning on his right arm to better match that pose.
There was a comment on his contemplation. Several days ago. Aside from eating and possibly sleeping, though, he's been churning away in thought and repetitive exercise.
It is, however, horribly warm in the sitting room - the usually delightful ominous breezes seem to have stilled, and the heat is stifling. So Westar has become Hayato, and reduced his shirt to a tank top to stay a bit cooler - for what good that might do. There's just the repeated clank, clank, clank as he occupies his body while his mind is pondering.
...there's a growl. It may be his stomach.
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
There is, however, no art critic here. Eas wouldn't stand for it. Not yet /another/ guest in the mansion, inviting trouble, making things loud and irritating. But then, just about everything is irritating, lately. The sitting room has its Westar, and Eas has been conspicuously absent from it for the past couple of days, now. Since the quakes, since the big to-do out in another dimension. Westar being so quiet has been /less/ irritating. It is almost a bright spot.
...Relatively speaking.
But finally, somewhere along the line, Eas's poor mood has had the scales tipped against it by the sheer virtue of how /hot/ it is, everywhere. She is much too proud to admit this, of course. Much too proud to acknowledge that the temperature is bothersome in any way. But...
Well, Eas is Setsuna, today, and the usual click of her heels is absent in favor of feet padding against the floor, inaudible more or less under clank, clank, clank. She's dressed in a tanktop as well, and shorts, wearing her familiar clover necklace again, red eyes set tiredly in a pale face.
If the heat weren't exhausting, she might not have an excuse. She's been in poor condition since she came back from a mysterious mission, after all.
She finishes walking inside, however, and falls backward into a chair, letting out a sigh as she stares into nothing in particular.
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
The heat is, of course, awful. Absolutely miserable, and if one listens closely there's the steady drip drip drip of the gauge filling up. The only thing more steady than that sorrowful sound is the rhythm of Westar's weights in motion, drowning out soft footsteps with their quiet clanks. Like a Labyrinth march - in fact, almost on the right beat for it.
Almost. Westar hasn't been back to Labyrinth since they were assigned to this confusing world.
Blue eyes look up from their contemplation as Setsuna collapses into the chair, and that steady rhythm begins to slow. Eventually, with one more slightly-louder clank, the exercise stops - and the statue's pose is abandoned. Hayato moves a cramped arm to one side, slumping with a heavy sigh. It sounds just a little like a burst of steam in the blazing heat...and he finally raises his chin.
"...I don't get it. I've been trying to figure it out, ever since that trio burst in here, but...I don't get it." Releasing the weights, he mops at his brow with a damp towel - for all that keeping in shape is among his routines, this is a day better spent just not moving much. "...what even happened there?"
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
Setsuna does /not/ listen closely. She does not listen to the filling of the Gauge, and she does not listen to the sounds of the mansion slowly settling. She doesn't even listen to the clanks of Westar's almost-march.
...Of course, she /hears/ them anyway, whether she feels like listening or not. There are so many sounds just going, whether Setsuna feels like interfacing with the world or not.
But she's silent anyway. Right... Until...
Steaaam.
"..." Setsuna slowly turns, first her eyes and then the rest of her face, her head leaned against the back of the chair. "What is there not to get?"
Setsuna lifts her hand and gestures, vaguely, letting it fall again. "They showed up, and they walked out with a pointless girl to do more pointless things."
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"...Earth humans are weird. Midchilda ones too." It's easy to write off a lot as 'things Mobius will eliminate', and Westar does so almost as a matter of habit. It's an answer he could even expect, it's just...
Is that enough?
He doesn't make himself comfortable, because a weight-lifting bench isn't meant to be comfortable and there's no real way to change that. Instead, Hayato plants one hand on each knee, straightening up a bit from his hunched-over state. "Yeah, but...what if there's some kind of danger? Testarossa was loyal to Lady Precia, right? What if that pink mage used something to get into her head?..."
He frowns. Even to him, that seems silly - and Bardiche didn't seem to be affected the same way. Shaking his head, he braces himself. "I'm just worried - first Dark Mercury, now this. Something weird's going on."
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
"Yeah. Weird."
Setsuna doesn't bother to mention how she'd explain things, how she'd write things off, how she'd answer them. In fact, staring into nothing in particular, her red eyes dull as always, Setsuna is quiet. Maybe more brooding than thoughtful, tired is almost calm compared to her usual mood.
Sitting at partly an angle, Setsuna isn't particularly /comfortable/ either exactly, certainly not in the recliner that makes for a heavy seat in all the heat. But...
"Danger?"
Rolling her eyes, the younger denizen of Labyrinth scoffs, "Worried? There's nothing to worry about. There's no /danger/. Fate just wasn't loyal enough, that's all."
"Nothing got into her head, nothing got /used/." She sits back again and stares upward. "They just weren't strong enough. Any of them. You start thinking like that and next /you'll/ be the one to fail."
Precia...
Setsuna closes her eyes and leans forward again. "Besides, Testarossa-sama wasn't... wasn't like Mobius-sama anyway. Not the same."
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Maybe something strange is going on - but it's probably something to be blamed on the heat. Unfortunately for Hayato, while he's actually getting an explanation for once...it's a discomfiting one. Though perhaps that isn't the word he'd use.
He looks over to the dumbbell sitting on the bench next to him, ready to be used in more exercise. He picks it up...sets it down on the floor next to the bench, and more or less just flops over to lie flat for a bit. It's a bit cooler this way, right?....maybe?
"Staying strong and loyal, huh?...well, Bardiche was pretty loyal, but to Testarossa herself. He'll just go where she goes." There's unhidden disappointment in his voice - they'd helped him out a few times, and with them on board the Labyrinth contingent was closer to outnumbering Precure!...though that's certainly an ongoing battle.
Even his thoughts can't work up enthusiasm in this heat. "I never got around to meeting her - but there's no one like Lore Mobius, right?" Of course that's true...but after a long pause, he voices the other half of his thoughts, eyes closed even as they face the ceiling. "Not the same...how?"
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
Setsuna /is/ explaining, and without even stopping to insist that Hayato just go think about things for himself. She doesn't so much as glance at the movement of the barbell, doesn't move again from where she sits on the chair. Slowly, she sits back again, leaning towards the right slightly, away from Hayato.
"Right. He's her weapon, he isn't going anywhere." ...He's like them, that way, isn't he? ...
Setsuna frowns, and her hand balls up again.
"Don't waste your time thinking about it. They're both gone. You didn't need them in the first place."
But that... Well that's....
"Of course there's no one like Lord Mobius!" She stops, howeer, hesitant at the next. Not the same how...?
"...Mobius-sama cares about us. Mobius-sama is spending time ruling Labyrinth. He has... responsibilities. Testarossa-sama only cared about her plans. She... wasn't a worthy ally for Mobius-sama. She wasn't good enough for him."
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
It's hot, and a rough few days, and the circles Hayato's thoughts have been running in all week are worn out. He's not literally melting, but it certainly feels like it - so instead he just elects to stare at the ceiling for a bit.
"...yeah, I guess that makes sense. They helped out, though." The ominous sitting room is cleaner than it's been in a while, after all. Something else to regret.
What might help is going out and applying that misery to the world at large - and contribute to the gauge - but it's hot enough that he can't even think of an idea for that. So that's out.
He slowly turns his head to look at Setsuna, as she explains the difference. Which he...doesn't totally get, but he's steadily learning to read between lines - thanks in no small part to this ongoing mission. "...huh. So Precia-sama didn't care about Testarossa, and that's why she left?...then yeah, we shouldn't have any problem." Mobius-sama is everything after all.
"...ugh." He returns his gaze, and his concern, to that ceiling. "...it's too hot to think about all this. Has been for days, just ask..." He blinks. "...huh. I haven't seen Soular since it got hot..." The thought just hangs in the air.
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
Setsuna might be melting, however. Even all her time on Earth hasn't gotten her entirely used to the sheer heat that's possible here, outside of Labyrinth's gloomy, climate-controlled blocks. Likewise though, she stares at the ceiling. Her hair is flattened against the side of her face, sweat already sticking to the chair.
"We're better off without them. Rely on others like that and you're only going to get soft. Then all your stupid training won't mean anything."
What he says to her is confusing, though--sure, what he reads between the lines is what she /said/, but it wasn't what she meant to say, realized she was saying. "What? No. She left because she was a fool. Because she wanted something more than she wanted the mission. It was her fault." Pause. "...But, right. Mobius-sama... Mobius-sama is better than that."
"...Maybe that's why I was sent. So I could observe what happened with those seeds..."
Pause. "What? ...It's not hot at all," Setsuna lies, and stands back up again, pushing herself out of the chair and taking a few steps forward in her bare feet.
"Whatever. He's off... being smug, or something. We don't need him around anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Right. The reasons Testarossa left...he's wrong and right, maybe? Hayato isn't sure, and...drops the subject. Testarossa and Bardiche are the only ones who know what's going on, and they're basically unavailable now. "Right. The mission. ...once it's less hot."
He's covered in sweat, his towel is soaked, and he should probably get a drink just as soon as he's up for moving. He slowly starts to sit up...and then leaves it as a lost cause for now. He'll just roll off the bench later.
...being smug. There's a dreadful thought starting to lurk, and if it weren't too un-Labyrinth weather for anger that might be firing up just about now. For now, he puts it aside - "...yeah. Should just...go to the ocean instead, make a Nakewameke there, cool off." Actually, that sounds like a good idea...
Setsuna, however...is getting up to storm out as quickly as the heat will allow. Hayato looks up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking...and then comments aloud. "...hey, Eas? Just so you know, I'm saving the ice cream in the freezer for later."
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [None] has posed.
Setsuna totally knows the answer. She knows exactly what's going on with Fate. She's said so.
"...Whatever. If a little heat holds you back then that'll just mean more misery for me."
...she doesn't think about the normal meaning of those words.
But it's too un-Labyrinth even for Eas to be as angry as usual, and so the shorter executive... Well not really 'and so'. She's just also obviously sweating.
"...You're not supposed to use Nakewameke for just whatever you want," she says with a frown.
But--
Setsuna pauses, for a moment, as she starts to walk, at his comment. "...Right, whatever, like I care about your stupid ice cream."
...Setsuna starts walking.... but not towards the front door. She starts walking towards the kitchen.
<Pose Tracker> Hayato Nishi [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
There's nothing Westar can say to argue with Setsuna, and so he just lets her depart. It's hot, and spending hours on end lifting weights may have been a mistake in hindsight. Just a bit.
...nothing he can say, but he's probably going to use a Nakewameke to go cool off later. Just...once he can move.
When he does finally roll off the bench and get moving again, he heads straight to the front door, to go out and buy more ice cream.
