Day 295 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 295
Where: Dragonfield
What: Rejection hurts.
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

When it comes to rejection and disappointment, Zuko's had years of practice. It should help that it wasn't really a rejection exactly, just nothing changing. Aoi didn't reject her as a person. They're still friends. Awkward friends, for the moment, as anyone who joins the morning swim lessons can probably attest to.

But this is the first time she's tried to handle it without getting angry. No one did anything wrong, so there's no one to be angry with, not even herself this time. She didn't do anything wrong, right? She doesn't think so, but there's still this feeling that won't go away, and maybe it is her fault.

What would Uncle tell her? It's hard to imagine. He only ever tried to talk to her about boys, and she always changed the subject.

She made tea for herself anyway to see if it would help, but in the end she just winds up sitting with the cup forgotten in her hands. Kizuna plays nearby, attacking various plants by the shore.

Comments

[twinked_witch]

"Just.. Wait here. Back in a bit."

Aaaand Megaera dashes off to the Monument...

[daughterofursa]

"All right."

Maybe she'll finally drink her tea in the meantime. Kizuna wanders over, making curious noises about why her friend ran off all of a sudden.

[twinked_witch]

... After a few minutes, Megaera came back, looking very proud of herself as she half-danced closer to Zuko.

"It worked, it worked, it worked~"

[daughterofursa]

"I-it usually does." Zuko is a little startled by Megaera's enthusiasm for ice cream.

Kizuna on the other hand perks up in curiosity. Mommy's friend seems very happy about something.

[twinked_witch]

"Come on, let's go!", Megaera said, as she got near Zuko, pointing her towards the shop.

"Ice Cream's a good thing for the soul, sometimes, I think."

[daughterofursa]

"If you say so."

Still, she doesn't need to be dragged. She offers her arm for Kizuna to climb up and then gets up to follow Megaera to her impulse purchase.

[twinked_witch]

A quick dash later, and there's the new building - modest in size, maybe a couple hundred square feet. Within is some fairly typical chairs and tables - but more than that, a large, lit freezer.

"All magic, of course. The tubs refill on their own. Going to need to clean the place regularly, but that's okay. It's about a little bit of happiness, right?"

[daughterofursa]

"...that's a lot of ice cream."

She doesn't remember this many flavors growing up. And unless the labels are magic, too, she probably has no idea what they are.

[twinked_witch]

"Twenty flavors, ten cycling. Some might be flavors from your homeworld."

She hadn't thought to specify the language they were written in - so it was probably Ura script. She, at least, could read it.

"... Green tea's one of the flavors, huh? Interesting."

[daughterofursa]

"Isn't that normal? Green tea, lychee, and banana."

Those are the standard flavors, right? Although the one she thinks is lychee may in fact just be strawberry.

[twinked_witch]

"Not where I'm from, honestly - green tea isn't a thing in my home region. It's hard to say which flavors are the steady ones. The specific arrangement I did switches half of the flavors between daily 'specials'."

[daughterofursa]

"I guess that'll make things interesting."

Right now she's just going for that pink-colored ice cream. (Sorry, Uncle; she may have developed a taste for tea, but she is not such a fanatic that she wants all her food to be tea-related.)

...also maybe she'll just put it in a cup. It's harder for ice cream to fall out of those.

[twinked_witch]

"Don't be afraid to try a few different ones," she noted, as she took tiny scoops of a few different flavors, loading them into a cup as well.

"Ice cream's one of those things that can help soothe emotions at the right time. Just a simple, plain sweet."

[OOC: ... Shall we open to a bit of threadjacking?]

[daughterofursa]

You mean like two different shades of pink ice cream? Zuko is so adventurous. Maybe the other is cherry blossom.

"That part isn't magic, right?"

((Ice cream party time? Sure!))

[twinked_witch]

"Not of the arcane sort, at least. Philosophically, you could call the social context of it a form of magic, but that's not superbly literal."

[scary_music]

"Is that... is that...! UKYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! ICE CREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!" Ibuki shouted happily, racing over.

[daughterofursa]

Social context magic?? For once it is actually Ibuki who's making more sense to her right now.

"Megaera made it," Zuko states, as though it's important to be clear that it wasn't Zuko's idea.

[superdrowningskills]

Inevitably, any new food will attract the resident Dracula spawn. He's kind of predictable like that.

"...I thought I smelled something sweet."

[bulletofhope]

Not even a few moments into the conversation, Naegi himself is about to walk past without much comment... until he pauses and spots just about everyone huddled around a particular building. Huh, he hasn't seen this place before in his wanderings... maybe that's why everyone's gathered around it?

Curiosity aroused, he soon ventures over to where Megaera, Zuko and the others were gathered, frowning in thought.

"Uh... did something happen?"

[scary_music]

"Look! Look! Alu-chan! Makoto-chan! Megaera-chan did an amazing thing! SHE BROUGHT ICE CREAM TO THE BASTION!!!" Ibuki squealed, before serving herself ... five different flavors of ice cream.

[bulletofhope]

"Ice cream?

. . . huh."

That would explain all the bright colors and the sugary smell, wouldn't it? At this point his stomach soon rumbled, as if to announce to everyone present that ice cream needed to be a thing.

Still stunned, Naegi soon ended up getting one of the ice cream scoops to serve himself a couple of scoops - nothing special about the flavors he'd picked - and paused deliberately for a few moments as he glanced over at Megaera, Alucard and Zuko, holding out the scoop.

". . . uh, right! Do any of you want anything?"

[daughterofursa]

Suddenly people. Maybe ice cream and being social are connected.

Zuko shakes her head, holding up her cup of pink ice cream. "I already have some."

The little dragon sitting across her shoulders makes a noise, but Zuko gives her a look. "I don't think it's good for you."

[twinked_witch]

Megaera chuckled. "It was just something I thought would be nice for some people... Including Zuko," she explained. "Get people together and all that..."

[heptagram]

Patchouli floats past and, despite the size of that crowd, decides to stop. Must be Megaera's presence or something. She overheard Megaera explaining that it was her idea.

"That's very sweet of you," she says. "I hope you left some for me, though?"

[amnesiadragon]

Ryu's curious about the crowd, too. He wanders over and hops a little so he can see over taller people.

"What's that?"