out and about [open]

[redheadcarrier]

Who: Asuka Langley Soryu, Open
What: Exploring the city and its many ruins.
When: Friday afternoon
Warnings? None, for now. Maybe Asuka being Asuka.

One could only stay cooped up inside for so long. Asuka's routine had been the same for months: get up, go train, come back to her apartment, maybe go shopping, kick the soccer ball around occasionally, drop in on Utena or Kanaya or someone. Or get sent on missions. She'd rarely ventured beyond the market. The crash and subsequent reshuffling of roommates had shaken something loose (or maybe it was because Kaji had returned, maybe it was because of Kaworu or Shinji or a thousand other things that had changed) and Asuka had decided that she wasn't going to keep herself penned in anymore. She was going to see the rest of the city. She'd wandered through the market first, buying a few knick-knacks and snacks (haggling all the while and yelling someone down if she didn't like the price) and then, slowly, she'd started to wander outward. She'd passed through slums, passed crowds of the downtrodden. She hadn't said anything to them - no, she was out here for herself. Not for them. The buildings seemed to become more run down the further from the Hold she went and that hadn't surprised her.

She'd finally chosen one and random and started scrambling up the slope of rubble that made up one wall, intnet on getting to the top to see the lay of the land. It was raining, as always, but at least it was a drizzle instead of a torrential downpour. It was still slippery and once or twice, she caught herself before she took a disastrous tumble. Finally, she settled on the (what had been) the roof, panting, a bit exhausted and a bit banged up, but she felt the better for it. Better then sitting around in her room all day, like she tended to do, after all. She didn't exactly feel happy, but at the same time she wasn't sad or angry. And the view was great! At least when the mist didn't obscure everything.

And that was an improvement. She took a deep breath and then grinned. At the very least, she could smile on the outside.

[OOC: Feel free to encounter Asuka in the market before she heads out or anywhere else in between.]

Comments

civic gardens:

[eyecontact]

They were still very much a mess, even after all the time spent...well, in time, trying to make Exsilium a better place overall. Shrubs and foreign plants were overgrown, tangled in with themselves and the neglected metalwork and statues strewn throughout the place, still faintly caged by metal framework, much of the glass blasted or gone away entirely. There were easy ways in, of course, that Jericho and many others had found already, so it wasn't like it was an isolated place.

Still, the denseness of the green made it feel that way sometimes. It was a nice transition from grimy, gray gloom and concrete all around; it'd never be the mountains he knew so well from home, but it was still a comfort. It was a nice place to retreat to, to reflect and feel a little less restrained.

Since the bombings, Jericho had been wary of taking his guitar out that way, lest he forget it and let it fall into ruin once again. It'd kill Sollux, for one thing – not to mention the trouble that Red X fellow went to in fixing it. Best to keep it safe in the apartments...

Until spaceships land on the apartments and kind of ruin all sense of security there, too, that was.

There was really no telling what would happen next, was there? Jericho was pretty certain of that now! So he made do, settling on gambling with the day to play to the green and easier thoughts, away from so many people. He wasn't what anyone could call a performance player: rather, his music was more of a stream-of-consciousness, giving him a means to speak without words, without a pencil or a paintbrush. The melodies would amble, as thoughts would, and perhaps get too repetitive as he mulled on something over and over, but it was a comfort to him.

He was out there, cross-legged under one of the thicker-set trees caged in there (all the better in case the rain started up again), plucking at a simple melody that had caught his attention. His fingers would slide down the neck at a particular point, trying to recall how Johnny had done so in his own jam session. It was a different style, but there were things about it he rather liked.

And practice made perfect, in theory.

That same rooftop!

[observesthings]

Yukiteru had been making an effort to get out more, too. Anything to keep his mind off of what week it was, and the upcoming anniversary that would go un-celebrated. It was an occasion that would have otherwise had mixed feelings attached, but without her here, it was so much worse.

He had left with the original intention of going to get some lunch at Rise's diner, but halfway there, he had lost his appetite. He didn't want to go back to his room; something about living with two women he barely even knew just seemed like a bad idea. Pulling his jacket tighter around himself, his cap barely kept his head dry.

The rooftop he was on had a faded billboard. One he could even easily climb. Yukki reached into his pockets, and retrieved his non-lethal dart case. The chrome case, which he kept safely inside a backpack, was one he had hoped he never had to open. Ever since he found out from Shelke what was inside those glass cases, he didn't even want to touch those things. Potassium chloride? White phosphorous? And he thought that machinegun he had in his own world was dangerous... the Initiative gave him an arsenal of chemical weapons that would make Minene nervous.

He began tossing darts at the billboard, the face on it faded from prolonged exposure to the elements. It landed exactly where he aimed; the person's nose. He had to stop himself from cheering; he just made that shot in the rain and wind.

He didn't even notice Asuka as she joined him there. Instead, he was grabbing another dart, this time aiming for the right eye.

[salvagedsoul]

It was drizzling as always, but Kaworu didn't mind. The faint sound of the rain seemed to compliment the twangy sound of this ancient piano, the piano that he thought of as his own now. And perhaps its resting place was just as appropriate - the crumbling space around it was littered with old chairs and overturned tables, the floor was partially carpeted by stained and ripped tablecloths, and faded orange insulation foam hung from the parts of the ceiling and roof that still remained.

The space had adapted to Kaworu being there, too. One small table had been dragged up onto the slightly elevated stage area, so that he could set his tablet and other personal items on a surface other than the ground. His coat hung off a nail on the wall behind the piano. And on days like this, he would set a few cups and bent metal serving trays under the leaks in the roof above his piano, to keep the stage area dry.

This building was close enough to the city and the Hold that he sometimes had visitors, but concealed enough that people passing by it on the street usually could not hear the piano through the walls and rubble. Instead, the notes floated up through the open spaces in the ceiling.