Mailbox - 1106 Sweet Cream Street

[pythianjudgment]

Comments

March 25

[thewarningafter]

Sorry about your tower.

-Stephen

[pythianjudgment]

4R3 YOU R34LLY >:?

[thewarningafter]

Very. It was an accident and I regret it a great deal.

[Because he got caught and punished.]

[pythianjudgment]

1T 1S K1ND4 1NT3R3ST1NG
HOW YOU ONLY S33M TO 3XPR3SS TH1S R3GR3T
4FT3R TH3 F4CT

4ND NOT TH3 WHOL3 T1M3 TH4T TH3 TOW3R W4S M1SS1NG

[thewarningafter]

Zephyr recently informed me that it belonged to you and Eddie.

[pythianjudgment]

3DD13 MOSTLY
1T W4S 4 PROJ3CT 1 SUGG3ST3D TO H1M WH3N H1S HUSB4ND W4S UNLOST
TO G3T H1M OUT OF TH3 HOUS3 4ND MOV1NG 4G41N
SO 1 TH1NK H3 H4S MOR3 CL41M TO 1T TH4N 1 DO
1T W4S H1S GR13F TOW3R
1 JUST L1K3 CL1MB1NG ON 1T
4ND HOOK1NG MY Z1PL1N3S UP TO 1T

[thewarningafter]

That would explain why he was so upset about it when I wrote to him. Can you talk to him? Let him know that I'm sorry?

[Write in a dual acceptance of the apology so he can get rid of these signs??]

[pythianjudgment]

>:/

N4H
1 TH1NK TH4T 1S SOM3TH1NG TH4T YOU N33D TO T4LK TO H1M YOURS3LF 4BOUT
WH4T 3X4CTLY DO YOU TH1NK 1M GO1NG TO S4Y TO H1M?
H3Y 3DD13
ST3PH3N 1S R34LLY SORRY 4BOUT FUCK1NG UP TH3 TOW3R YOU M4D3 WH3N YOU THOUGHT YOUD N3V3R S33 YOUR HUSB4ND 4G41N
1N F4CT H3 1S SO SORRY TH4T H3 1S 4SK1NG M3 TO T3LL YOU TH4T
1NST34D OF T3LL1NG YOU H1MS3LF
SO YOU W1LL JUST H4V3 TO 1M4G1N3 H1S S1NC3R1TY
S1NC3 H3 1S NOT 4CTU4LLY H3R3
T3LL1NG YOU TH1S
H1MS3LF

>:/

[thewarningafter]

[Well, it was worth a try.]

He doesn't seem to believe me. You know me better. You can be my character witness.

[During Rabbit Fever Event]

[pythianjudgment]

While Ally might be interested in helping these sickly rabbits, she's also very interested in not getting sick herself. Nevertheless, she finds herself on the moon venture anyway--if only because she wants to check this place out. It's probably fine if she sticks only to the non-quarantined areas, right?

So the Marketplace it is.

She's browsing the wares on display, leaning close and sniffing at the moon rocks and other weird things for barter--when she smells a familiar person nearby...

[aibolition]

This is stupid. This is a terrible idea. Leaving her alone? Now? With Justin to boot? Oh hell what is he doing.

Nearly vibrating with nerves in the middle of some fever-dream moon-rabbit marketplace scouting out for gifts. He's jumpy, and there's a nervous tap to his fingers whenever he's close enough to anything else. He glances off, repeatedly in the direction he left Mom and gets disproportionately frustrated with the rabbits.

He doesn't even notice her, not at first. Not until she's close enough he hears her sniffling and his eyes go sharp on her, far less human in the moment.

[pythianjudgment]

The sharpness of the look he gives her doesn't seem to bother her much, being significantly sharp and inhuman herself. It certainly doesn't get her to buzz off and mind her own business, so she hopes that's not what the look is for.

"They're a lot more negotiable if you have something to barter with," she informs him, gesturing vaguely to the little rabbit he's currently accosting. He seems skittish from what she can tell, like there's something that's got him spooked, and she's not keen on just leaving him to wander the stalls like that.

[aibolition]

His eyes narrow just a little, on her approach. He would expect his very presence would get people to buzz off and mind their own business but it seems this place is intent on repeatedly proving that's not the case.

He looks from her, back to the rabbit, then pushes back from the table, turning like he doesn't really care whatever it is he was bartering for. "Whatever. I could probably find something better than this anyway." He glances. "What are you doing here?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Same thing everyone else is doing here." She gestures around to the market, though there doesn't seem to be any specific people nearby. "Investigating. Browsing the wares until we're allowed to poke our noses into these rabbits' collective businesses."

He acts like he doesn't care about the wares, though the poor hassled rabbit looks like he might be better off for not having to haggle with this guy. "Are you looking for something in particular?"

[aibolition]

He frowns. It's a fair enough reason that he can't really say anything on the matter, like telling her to screw off. She doesn't want anything from him. They just happen to be in the same place.

Still, he doesn't look happy about the question.

"Yes. No. I don't know." He grumbles, "A gift, I guess..."

He doesn't sound superbly confident in this either.

[pythianjudgment]

"A gift. You guess?" She repeats his uncertainty back to him. How do you not know if you're looking for a gift or not? Maybe if you're unsure about whether the gift would be appreciated or not. She bites down on any urge to tease him and instead tries for the more straight forward approach.

"Who is this maybe gift for?"

[aibolition]

He doesn't repeat himself. He just scowls further, waiting for mockery or whatever might be on her mind. That she doesn't do that gives her that little bit of leeway's worth of getting a response from him.

If still a muttered one.

"My... Mother. Sort of."

[Around the Meadous]

[aibolition]

He's back at Mom's targets because he can't just throw knives at Gabriel every day. And besides, sometimes he wants to get experimental. And nostalgic. Like tying long strips of cloth to the end of each knife and tentatively seeing if he can swing it anywhere near the same. Usually, the answer is no, but that doesn't stop him from trying.

But as the second cloth snaps in half mid pull-back, with a quick catch and a curse, he starts to think that maybe this just isn't going to happen. Nothing is as good as him. Which feels simultaneously bolstering and truly, deeply disappointing. He frowns down at the useless knife and sighs. Gotta make do. There's no way around it...

[pythianjudgment]

It's not unusual to find Aletheia wandering around the Meadous. She makes patrols twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening--and sometimes during the middle of the day. This place is her home. There's no reason she can't just enjoy being in it.

But she comes across that strange boy again, and there he is...playing with knives in front of that woman's home again. His mother, he'd said. She tilts her head a little as she smells him, a bit of a smirk on her lips.

"Hey, Cocoberry," she calls, stopping and leaning on the white cane with the dragon head that she's taken to carrying around again. "Getting pretty good with that."

The cloth thing is clever. Not perfected, but she can't help but be just a little impressed with the ingenuity.

[aibolition]

He looks up, frowning at the nickname and at her. And then at her comment.

He scoffs in offence. "First off, I'm not 'getting pretty good' I am good," He says. "Second... it's this cloth that's the problem. The cloth and the balance of the knife, with only so much improvement available for either."

He looks down on the knife again with disdain, the sort of judgement one reserves for another person that's disappointed them as opposed to a tool that's not doing it's job.

[pythianjudgment]

"Which is why I said Pretty Good. And not Good." There's an air of teasing in her tone that she turns on him for just a few seconds, but not more than that. She already knows he doesn't have much patience for games.

"Don't you have anything better to work with?"

[aibolition]

He huffs, but her shortened teasing wins her favor. He doesn't sour towards her, this time. Of course, he doesn't look all that happy either. Her mood is always bright and a little mocking-- like he usually is, and it bothers him just as much that his first reaction is this. He tries not to think about that.

"Ugh. No." It's admitted rueful and reluctant. "And don't offer rope, I am not going to practice a lasso."

[pythianjudgment]

"Lucky for you, I was going to suggest a sword. I'm not a one trick hoofbeast, you know."

Whether he knows what that is or not, she continues on, leaning more heavily on her cane. "I wouldn't be much of a guard if all I could swing around was some perfectly knotted rope."

[aibolition]

He straightens up, a definite look of surprise upon him. And confusion.

"The way I recall you talking about hanging, I'd think you were. I thought you hadn't an interest in swords." A pause. "How much of a guard does this place even need? The most fighting that's happened has been around me."

[pythianjudgment]

"I can like more than one kind of weapon," she chides him, like that's the most obvious thing in the world.

"But the guard isn't really about keeping people from fighting. You guys manage yourselves. It's more about keeping a watch on anything that might have come in to mess with this place." She smirks a bit at him. "Serves as a welcoming party too, if you remember."