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Civilian
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on Apr 13, 2018 22:21:08 GMT -8
Mai had heard only a little of the Star Festival thus far. About a week before the comet became visible, people started talking a lot about plans to see it. Apparently, Liggs was supposed to be grand. Mai wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with the thin mountain air. So here now, on the second night of the comet's visibility, she'd instead found herself wandering over to check out a small celebration being held on a small cliff overlooking Caravella's beach.
It was nothing big, nothing fancy. A little mini-event for those who couldn't find the time or otherwise wouldn't be going to Liggs. Just a few food stalls and games and people selling some star-themed merchandise, most of it looking either cheap and bought in bulk or hand made in varying quality. There couldn't have been more than maybe two to three hundred people including workers, if that, and over a pretty spread-out area. But it was really cute. Quaint even.
Mai had bought a small moon cake, which may not have been the most appropriate food for the festival but was cute enough she supposed, and now sat at the edge of the cliff on one side of the event ground, staring out at the water. The sea was calm enough tonight that a bit of the comet's reflection could be seen, and it really did make for a lovely sight.
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Trainer
Bad decisions? That's all right. Welcome to my silly life. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Windchime
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Post by Celeste Hunter on May 18, 2018 14:52:37 GMT -8
Celeste hadn't been intending to have much to do with the Festival. She was still new to Veria, to this whole world, and hiding in the graveyard in Carrefor had just seemed easier than making her way to Liggs for something that would inevitably be too many people, too much noise, and too much...everything. Any celebrations in Carrefor had also seemed a bit too much, with people around who knew her as that strange girl who'd appeared among the gravestones one day with a head injury.
Charity, however, had been having none of it. Even with both of their memories being a little scrambled, she had recognized the signs that Celeste was going into self-isolation mode, and without any of her old friends to pull her out of it, the gardevoir had taken over the role herself. Arguments had ensued, and a compromise reached: she would leave Carrefor, have some fun, and get some of the proper social interaction she sorely needed, but she'd go somewhere other than Liggs.
'Other than Liggs' had been narrowed down to Caravella in time and now...Celeste was here.
Specifically, Celeste was here with Spectre, with her other pokemon, including Charity, having dispersed to check out various booths on their own. She strolled with her absol adhered to her side, skirting the edges of groups of people and looking around curiously at the celebration. This wasn't so bad, she supposed, as she took in the atmosphere, and she found herself sorely tempted to buy a tiny cleffa plush one booth was offering. Money was tight, though, and she knew she shouldn't. But it was so cute...Maybe she'd come back later and see if it was still there.
It wasn't entirely her decision to head for the cliffs, as Spectre had a tendency to gently herd her places with nudges of his shoulder, but once she realized where he was leading her, she made no effort to resist it. Charity would be upset with her if she spent the whole day at the fringes, but a little quiet time enjoying the view of the water sounded lovely right about now.
When she spotted that there was already someone else in the area that he was nudging her toward, Celeste froze in her tracks, and Spectre finally peeled himself from her side to simply go strolling past her and toward the person in question. His step had always been very light, his claws barely making a sound against the ground as he moved, and fear immediately gripped Celeste, knowing that Spectre had been raised among people who found his kind beautiful and had never learned to be wary of strange humans, especially ones who he could easily sneak up on unintentionally.
Celeste jerked forward and hurried to catch up with him, a slightly-frantic but still sweet-toned, "Spectre, honey, don't wander off," punctuating her getting close enough to gently curve her hand around the base of his horn. She guided him close to her side again, which earned no protests from the docile absol at all, especially since she obliged him in continuing on the path he'd started toward the other woman.
"Ex-excuse me," Celeste said quietly, hearing the faint squeak in her voice and hating it. "Do you mind if we join you?" She shifted her weight awkwardly, prepared to bolt with little more dignity than a frightened rabbit, dragging her absol along if need be, if told that, in fact, this stranger did mind their company. Spectre, meanwhile, quietly wagged his tail, its blunt edge thudding against Celeste's thigh.
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Civilian
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PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on May 18, 2018 23:40:49 GMT -8
The peaceful view and the low ambiance of the festival had Mai feeling relatively nice right now. She felt like she was actually... doing a bit better lately in general ever since settling down in Veria and accepting that so long as she had no option visit the people who loved her, she wasn't avoiding them. So she didn't need to feel guilty for keeping to herself, even if that was replaced by occasional intense guilt that she wasn't falling to pieces over it.
When an approaching voice caught her ears, she had just taken the last (if oversized) bite of her moon cake, and upon glancing back and fully processing the new person was indeed speaking to her, she felt her face warm slightly at the timing. Ahem, ah-- She swallowed a bit harder than was comfortable before putting on an air of composure and attempting to shrug it off.
Did she mind? Hrm. The girl was pretty cute, accentuated by the nerves in her voice, and her Absol seemed very friendly. "I wouldn't complain," she hummed softly.
"Pull up a seat~" she lightly tease, given she was sitting on the ground. She shifted her own position, drawing one leg up closer to her and locking her hands together just past her knee. She had to admit, this was one advantage of leggings. She normally favored short skirts out in public, but aside from being a bit chilly right now, they'd certainly make sitting like this more awkward, heh.
Her gaze shifted between the girl and the sky. "So what's your story, mm? Just here for the festivities, or...?"
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Trainer
Bad decisions? That's all right. Welcome to my silly life. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Windchime
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Post by Celeste Hunter on May 20, 2018 18:13:49 GMT -8
Celeste gave a guilty wince when she realized that she'd just inadvertently become that person, the one who spoke when someone else had their mouth full. Luckily, the stranger didn't seem annoyed with her for it, and the tension in Celeste's body uncoiled slightly when her presence was accepted. The tease earned a soft giggle, and she obliged, sliding to the ground in a fluid motion and making herself comfortable; she ended up resting on one hip, holding herself up with its matching arm and tucking her legs close to her body.
She'd intentionally kept what she'd considered a polite distance, and Spectre took that bit of space as an invitation to settle between the two of them, before rolling toward Celeste in order to spill his front half over what she had that passed for a lap at the moment, minding his sharp horn to keep it from impacting any important squishy parts. His tail, still steadily wagging, now thumped against the ground, and his antics earned another small giggle from Celeste as her gloved fingers sank into his fluff to give him a good shoulder-scritching.
With a content sigh, more tension left Celeste's body, and she allowed herself to look up and enjoy the view of the sky. For a little while, at least, until the accepting stranger spoke again and Celeste realized, to her horror, that a conversation starter had just been unleashed. She was trapped, now. She couldn't just enjoy the atmosphere and pretend that doing so with another person present counted as social interaction. No, she'd have to talk, because to not do so would be rude, and being rude would be just terrible of her, when she'd been the one to intrude on another's solitude in the first place.
"I, uh, y-yeah, the festivities." She could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks in embarrassment at her own stammering. At least the squeak seemed to have taken a vacation for now, which helped some. "I'd heard the big party's in Liggs, but, I, well, I don't do so well in crowds so...here. Seemed like a good idea. It's nice. Caravella is beautiful." At that moment, Celeste missed her wings all the more than usual, because she was struck with the urge to preen her feathers as a way of calming her nerves. She ended up pausing in her absol-petting to toy with the end of her ponytail instead.
The whole time, Celeste didn't try to make eye contact. She'd look near the eyes, here and there, including a glance at the curls that framed one side of her conversation partner's face--it wasn't a style she'd ever considered for herself, but she had to admit that it looked very nice in this instance--but never quite got to them.
"My name's Celeste," she said, voice growing a little steadier. If there was one social rule that had stuck with her, it was 'introduce yourself,' and if they were going to talk at any length, names were a good thing to be exchanging. "And this is Spectre. He loves people, so if you want to pet him, go right ahead." At those words, the wagging tail picked up in speed just a little bit
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Civilian
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on Jun 11, 2018 10:00:40 GMT -8
"Mmmm." Mai hummed in agreement at the girl's answer. She could certainly relate to the reasoning, and Caravella did have a nice look to it. Not all of it was so beautiful, she'd been learning, but that was life, wasn't it? Ha.
Mai wasn't looking at Celeste's face enough herself to realize she'd never tried making eye contact, but she did take note of the hair fidgeting. A similar quirk to her own it seemed. "Nice to meet you, Celeste and Spectre," she greeted, taking up that invitation for pets. "You can call me Mai." She debated if perhaps she should bring out a Pokemon companion as well, but supposed she didn't want to crowd the conversation.
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Trainer
Bad decisions? That's all right. Welcome to my silly life. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Windchime
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Post by Celeste Hunter on Jun 16, 2018 8:07:37 GMT -8
Spectre, ever the attention sponge, looked up at Mai with adoring eyes when she joined in the petting, his tail starting to tap out quite the fast tempo against the ground. Celeste, meanwhile, smiled softly at the returned introduction. "Nice to meet you, too, Mai."
With that sentence, though, what Celeste had that passed for a social script ran out, and now she wasn't sure what to do. She supposed it was her turn to move the conversation along, now? Ask a question? Argh, why was this so hard? She'd had friends, before, so surely she knew how to make them.
Friends she'd mostly met through bizarre circumstances and twists of fate, friends who'd lurked even more on the social fringes before gathering together than she had, friends who'd really been more like a family and who she missed so much--
No no no, none of that. She refused to go down that road, today. This was not the day to let the homesickness win. Talk, Celeste. Talk. Words.
"A-are you just in town for the festival, too? Or are you from Caravella?" Was that weird of her to ask? Asking someone where they lived could be creepy sometimes, and she didn't want to be creepy. In her haste to clarify her not-creepy intentions, she felt her words speeding up a small bit. "I just...I live in Carrefor, for r-right now anyway, and I haven't seen much of Veria outside of it--" And now her voice was doing that nervous squeak again and why was it doing that stooop. "--And I-I guess I was curious about places to see outside of just the festivities. N-not that I asked to sit with you just to interrogate you about the city o-or anything like that. The view here just looked really nice and you--"
Celeste cut herself off with a very visible wince. "And I'm babbling, sorry." She stared down at the ground, half-wishing it would just swallow her up and save her from her embarrassment. Only half-wishing, because she still had Spectre sprawled across her lap, and he shouldn't suffer the fate of being swallowed by the ground for his trainer's social incompetence.
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Civilian
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on Jun 19, 2018 21:17:49 GMT -8
Oh? Amusingly, neither of the Caravella-related options were accurate. Mai wouldn't have thought too much of them aside from that, but Celeste's efforts to cover quickly expanded more and more and she had trouble holding back a smirk.
She finally failed that battle at the end, and chuckled lightly. "You're fine, hon. Promise." And cute. It was very cute. "I can't tell you too much, honestly. I do live in Caravella at the moment, but I'm not from around here either. Haven't gotten out all that much since arriving either, but I could try to answer regardless, I suppose." She shrugged. At any rate, talking about Caravella might dissuade questions of where she WAS from, which would make her sound like a crazy--
Like a different kind of crazy person, shut up.
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Trainer
Bad decisions? That's all right. Welcome to my silly life. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Windchime
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Post by Celeste Hunter on Jun 27, 2018 10:42:46 GMT -8
Aaand now Mai was laughing at her. Great. Well, maybe not full-blown laughter but...Actually, you know what? Celeste would take the amusement. It was better than a lot of other potential reactions. She looked up again and managed a weak smile at Mai's promise, paired with a short, nervous giggle. She held back the urge to apologize again, this time for her insecurity rather than the babbling, and instead just listened while twirling the tip of her ponytail around her finger.
Mai wasn't from around here, either? That piqued Celeste's curiosity, but also made her realize that she'd let her own unfamiliarity with Veria slip, and she couldn't help but be a bit relieved when Mai didn't seem to want to make that into a conversation topic. Celeste was bad at lying, extremely bad, and was little better at dodging the questions instead. Maybe there was an equivalent to her home region somewhere here, maybe there wasn't, but given that Celeste no longer had a name for it thanks to whatever Arceus-damned thing happened to her memories at the same time she lost her wings...
No, bad Celeste. Past is past. Here and now. Focus.
Unfortunately, here and now seemed to involve her asking questions about Caravella, if with little guarantee of answers, and now those questions had fled her. In her rush to be not-creepy, she'd squandered any chance to ask things organically over the course of a conversation, and now she found herself drawing a blank. "Well, I mean, like I said, I didn't approach you just to..." Celeste bit her lower lip slightly as she put the brakes on what she was sure would turn into another stream of babble.
So, Mai probably didn't know many of the finer details of Caravella's sights, and that was fine. Celeste could relate on not getting out much, after all; she would be hard-pressed to tell someone much of anything about Carrefor, herself. Though, there was something that Celeste tended to pick up quickly about new surroundings, which was also something she did need to think about regarding Caravella, so maybe Mai could help her there. Well, two somethings, really, but one was linked to her profession, so the other was the better bet.
Subconsciously, Celeste shifted to be a bit more upright, and she looked at Mai more directly than she had been, albeit with her head tilted slightly to one side in a questioning manner. "I don't suppose you know someplace to get a good meal?" she ventured. "I know they've got some food around here, but there's treats, and then there's a full dinner."
Spectre perked up at the word 'dinner,' looking up his trainer hopefully, which earned a small chuckle and a gentle scratch at the base of his horn. "Not right now, ya goof," she murmured down at him affectionately "I meant later." Maybe she'd pick him up a little something at a food stall soon to tide him over, if he really wanted, but she stood by her statement that what was on offer here was a selection of treats at most.
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Civilian
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PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on Jul 2, 2018 19:41:54 GMT -8
Mai chuckled softly as Celeste clarified. "You're fine," she assured the girl. She hadn't gotten the impression she was here just to ask directions, and wouldn't have been more than mildly inconvenienced if she had been.
Brows raised at her question, though, and a silent grinning 'laugh' followed at Spectre's reaction.
Hm... Should she? On one hand, she didn't have much money these days, and she was hardly anywhere close to her old level of game or even interest. On the other, it had been some time since she'd really gone out, and the reaction ought to amuse her whatever it was. So sure, why not.
"I could probably show you some places if you're looking to eat out," Mai all but hummed, a coy ring to her words. "Caravella can be awfully judging, though, and you know it can be a bit taboo to eat out alone.. Perhaps some company would be in order~" A brief wink followed.
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Trainer
Bad decisions? That's all right. Welcome to my silly life. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Windchime
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Post by Celeste Hunter on Jul 18, 2018 18:05:36 GMT -8
You hear that sound? That would be the implication in Mai's voice tone and wink flying so far over Celeste's head that it was on a collision course with the comet.
Celeste's first urge in response to Mai's words about taboos was to point out that she hadn't been planning on eating alone, but with her pokemon--in fact, she probably should have specified a pokemon-friendly establishment, shouldn't she? Whoops--but, then again, people did tend to see eating with one's pokemon to still be "alone," even when the pokemon in question were perfectly capable of carrying on a dinner conversation. She managed to muzzle the impulse to be pedantic and come across as even more socially awkward, however, and instead focused on the fact that Mai had just offered to keep her company for dinner, and that...Celeste actually really liked that idea, more than she thought she would've. Maybe she really had needed to get out and meet people.
Charity was going to be so smug later and Celeste officially did not care right now.
She let out a stream of giggles, not amused or nervous, but instead the relieved kind that bubbled up whenever a chunk of tension she'd been carrying went away. Reassuring her that she was fine was one thing, but actively seeking out more of her company was entirely another, and Celeste suddenly felt so much more comfortable with Mai. Also weirdly giddy, but she sure wasn't complaining about that. Her head tilted more, but now it was not so much questioning as...playful? She wasn't sure what she was doing with her body language at this point, really.
"Company...would be great," Celeste said, tone soft and sweet. "My treat?" she added, ignoring the imaginary cry of protest from her wallet. As long as Mai didn't want to go anywhere too expensive, Celeste was sure she'd survive the splurge, though that definitely meant no bringing home a new plush toy.
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Civilian
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY 🌸 SG 🌸
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Post by Mai Odori on Jul 28, 2018 0:36:27 GMT -8
What a cutie! With that playful tone, Mai certainly hadn't realized her flirty tease had gone over the poor girl's head. But-- "What? Oh, no I couldn't," she protested. Shifting then to a lightly mocking tone, she teased, "Why yes, hello. I'd like to invite myself along with your plans, and also you have to pay for me. That all right?" She laughed softly, briefly sticking out her tongue playfully.
"I mean if you're insistent I won't fight you on it; I do hate that," she admitted. "But I'm fine with just paying for ourselves if it's all right with you." That would certainly be less guilty, yeah? Yeah.
She realized she hadn't meant to suggest they eat now, either, but hadn't exactly thought what might fill that time other than talking more, which they could do at any time or place. Sooo, glancing back to the festival booths behind them, Mai suggested, "Perhaps after we enjoy the festivities a bit more~?"
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