Now for something completely different

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Action]

[There you are, in the Battle Dome. Trying to mind your own business and do a good day's worth of training. But this guy's too bored to let you do so in peace. As you train, he will sneer and smirk through the observation deck, as if aware of some fatal flaw in your training regimen that is invisible to you. Every time you look up to him, he's answering your latest move with a scoff or a small laugh. Sometimes even an indifferent shrug. And after your big show stopper? A yawn.

Whether you try to approach him or not, Jade Curtiss casually saunters over towards you when you're finally throwing in the towel. He prods his glasses up his nose before assessing you in person, showing every possible visible sign in his face that he is disappointed with your performance.

But he speaks in a casual, almost sing-song manner.]

My, my. Done already? And here I thought this facility was supposed to be used for challenges!

[Voice]

[Jade sits up in bed, impatiently poking at his journal while wearing just his signature bathrobe. It's been a week already since he came here - and since his peers from his world had to endure his tests to prove they were not replicas. Or in some cases, prove they were the same replicas he knew.]

This is Colonel Jade, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces. I've been here a week now, but some matters are still pressing on my mind.

So! Tell me, Luceti. How would you rate the quality of the local hot springs?

Player Name: Gore
Are you new? Nnnope
Character Name: Colonel Jade Curtiss
Character Fandom: Tales of the Abyss

Comments

[voice]

[not_a_troll]

This is Loki Laufeyson, Apartment Building Five, Fifth floor, room Twenty Five. I would rate the quality of the local hot springs very hot.

Even better, allow me to award the Lucetian hot springs with my thumb of great approval.

[He stays quiet for a moment.]

Because this is a communication through voice you have to imagine me putting up a thumb of great approval, yes?

[voice]

[yourfononsarewhack]

Loki Laufeyson. Well now, your credentials speak most highly of you. As do your intuitive skills. In another life, I'm sure you'd be an ideal travel agent.

It is definitely helpful to know that the hot springs are actually hot. Does your helpfulness know any bounds at all?

[He speaks in an oddly playful tone which blends with his sarcasm.]

[Action]

[silverworld]

[Gelda is also in the Battle Dome. However, she isn't doing any sort of simulation. She'd caught wind of the fact that Jade was here, so she came to see him. Carefully, of course. She's been in this situation before- reuniting with her old student. It takes care and understanding, one step at a time.

She enters the observation deck, attempting a mild smile.]

Jade.

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Like a ghost, she appears. Seeing the likes of Ion and Asch around should have prepared him for something like this, but it didn't. Not when he remembered destroying her replica so recently.

A rare series of uncontrolled emotions cross his face. Shock at her sudden appearance, followed by something like fondness for his own school days, a gripping shroud of guilt from everything he wound up doing to her... and settling on a look of suspicion, a bit sharper than usual.

He had tested the others. He had to know for sure. Was this the woman he killed or the replica he destroyed?

So he he holds out a hand in in warning.]

Stop right there.

[And he adds after a brief hesitation.]

Professor.

[Action]

[unseenspy]

[Jay steps out of the simulation room, stretching his muscles out a bit. While the battle simulations he chose weren't particularly challenging, he still got a good workout. When Jade approaches him, Jay simply side-eyes him. He recognizes that tone. A troll. Definitely a troll. Well, two can play that game.]

...I don't suppose you have any good challenges, do you?

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

I know of many. [He raises an eyebrow, refusing to be out-trolled.] I'm just surprised that you don't seem to.

[sugarglitch]

[ While Jade hems and haws over some poor unfortunate soul's training exercise, Vanellope is beating her own high score over at the Sugar Rush sim Ralph gave her for Christmas. It was a close race, but after a week and a half of coming in at third or fourth place in this twisting and turning map of peanut brittle roads and speed bumps made of fondant, she finally comes in at-- second! Bah.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[As he watches this odd performance, he briefly removes his glasses to rub at his eyes. Such bright coloring.

And he watches the tiny girl racing - something about her reminds him almost of a more cartoonish Anise. He tuts after she finishes in second.]

Well. We can't all be winners.

action

[aerialassault]

[He normally wouldn't give two seconds of his time to someone that preferred to smirk from a distance and keep his opinions to himself, but that changed the moment the stranger opened his mouth. Cliff threw the towel over his shoulder and nonchalantly peered down at the man.]

Aah. That. I thought so too 'cause a friend of mine is always in here, but battle sims are never the same as the real thing.

Got any suggestions, smart guy? Or are ya just gonna laugh?

action

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He sizes him, trying not to miss a beat.]

Such fascinating options. Give me a moment to decide.

[Voice]

[rappigluvin]

How do you rate it? Or have you not been to it yet, Jade?

[Introductions? What introduction is needed here?]

[Voice]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[What introductions indeed. He picks up quickly as if this were one of their regular planned visits.]

I want to see how it compares with the ones back home, first. I'd rather not waste a trip for an experience that could turn out to be so mediocre.

[Action]

[distressedude]

[Hey, guess who else is in the battle dome? Not for fighting of course, that would just be silly. No, he just stopped in the clinic for a check-up, because it's winter and he has the immune system of an old man. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.]

[He might look a bit different than Jade remembers, of course, seeing as he's been here for almost 3 years by now. Unfortunately, it's for that reason that he doesn't stop to think that maybe Jade might be surprised to see him here, and he ends up calling out to him the moment he sees him.]

Jade?

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He turns and blinks as he beholds the oh-so-familiar voice. He'd read some things about this place, how it can bring people from all those different times. But seeing him here, before him now... Jade still can't help but be taken by surprise.

The age discrepancy is duly noted. He's not known any Ion who's lived to this age.]

Ion? [He says with something in the range of genuine surprise for Jade. But then he thinks and lets logic rule his response.] No... Florian?

voice; bear with me i have two icons

[superwater]

Two words: Courtney Love. Because those hot springs? Are a hot mess.

[Man, that was z-snap worthy.]

voice; *grizzly bears with*

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Why is Jade reminded of a Peony of a different breed.]

I can't say that I can accurately follow whatever train of thought you're employing. But I do know that what I'm hoping for is the opposite of a "mess".

[action]

[lieutenant_lineface]

[Hubert glances over his shoulder at the sound of Jade's voice, eyes narrowing slightly when he recognizes the man that had been creeping on him the past hour.]

...I don't see how the details of my training regimen are of any concern to you.

[Offended, him? Pah. As if.

Spoilers: He kinda is.]

[action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He only creeps because he cares. Actually that's a lie, it's all because of boredom. And he answers Hubert with that odd grin, which is always difficult to determine the sincerity of.]

Oh, of course not! The way in which you improve must be a very valuable secret, after all, if you can get results from such a minimal effort. [He throws his arms into a shrug exaggeratedly.] It just wouldn't be my place to ask!

[action]

[dissonates]

[Sup, colonel. Are you interested in enraging a particularly prickly redhead today?]

[action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Nope.

In fact, he's instead interested in that on every day. Once Asch enters the Battle Dome for the day (or is coming out of a sim whichever you want to roll with), Jade is leaning against a pillar, greeting him with a smug grin.]

Ah, there's that grimace. Another sunny day in the life of Asch?

[Action]

[somethingtoavenge]

[Aren't you an amusing fellow. Well, it's a good thing Coulson makes his living being unassuming and underestimated. Otherwise he'd be annoyed. Instead he is amused.

Phil shrugs, the towel he had grabbed unused in his hands, not a bit of sweat on his brow.]

Or for some light training, it all depends.

[Yeah, him incapacitating down those ten heavily armed hostiles with everyday items was light training. Of course the minute he knew he was being watched he dismissed the time limit he had placed upon himself and instead took as long as he needed to casually take down the enemy.

Enjoy the show?]

[Action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

Taking it easy, eh? [He smirks. He was fairly impressed by the man's skills- even if in his mind armed humans weren't so dangerous compared to users of artes or monsters.] I imagine I will as well when I reach that age.

[A slight pause.] But I must admit your methods were fairly impressive. Quaint and simplistic means, but... creatively employed. [He liked that bit with tin foil.]

[action]

[silversnowfall]

[Having Jade in the house was disruptive enough.

When he spent two and a half days convinced they all were replicas? Even the ones who were not replicas to begin with? That was a little much. It has led to some very frosty dinners.

So when he comes into the kitchen in the bathrobe while she's sitting there having tea? He shouldn't expect more than:]

Hello, Jade.

[action]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[It's all quite unusual for Jade, and not the kind of unsusal he's grown used to. To be in this world where those dead have been able to run around free of charge. And finding his sister had been here for quite some time - once he knew for sure that she was not a replica, of course. As estranged as they'd become, the familiarity of living with her seemed feasible enough. And then lazing around the house in a bathrobe felt like a creative method of defying the gravity of the situation.

He just had to get through the icy reception. As he entered the kitchen, he gave a stretch and a brief yawn.]

Good day, Nephry. [He makes his way towards the table.] Time for tea already?

[action; house one]

[failguardian]

[Frosty dinners, huh?]

[Anise pouts and sulks as they eat, clearly frustrated as she viciously stabs at her curry potatoes.]

I can't believe you're still doubting us, Colonel...

[action; house one]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He's still suspicious. Very much so, of this whole situation. Not only that they were just trapped here, including some people that they saw die, but their memories didn't match up. There were gaps.

His suspicions had eased somewhat by now. To the point where he can't help but resume poking fun at Anise on some level. With a smirk, he sarcastically pokes at his chin in thought while speaking as if Anise weren't sitting across the table from him.]

Hm, now let me think... Is that something that the real Anise would say or a replica? I suppose the real Anise would have more faith in my judgement...