soul_logs | [ open ] Brew Viewing

Entry tags:

[ open ] Brew Viewing

Characters: Everyone
Location: Shibusen Gymnasium
Rating: PG-13
Time: Feb 18 from 2PM thru 4PM.
Description: Ladies and gents, let me show you this fine little Demon Tool right here. Amazing little device isn't it? So powerful it managed to suck you all into our pleasant little place called Death City. You know you wanna take a look so step right up, step right up—it won't bite. Too hard, anyway.

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As Kid had announced the previous day, the most powerful Demon Tool in existence—BREW—was available for public viewing.

Yep, that right there is the all powerful BREW. It was perched on a small pedestal on a raised dais located near the back wall with Kid and a few other Shibusen staff lined directly around him. A strange, five-foot circle marked with white tape was placed in front of it on the hard, gym floor. At each door stood at least one security personnel and all the windows were locked and watched. Select volunteers from the Watch were also dispersed around the area.

Kid was not joking when he said this would be a highly secured place.

"As I said in my previous announcements, anyone is welcome to observe, examine, and even pick up and touch BREW. However, you are prohibited from moving or taking BREW from the designated circle." Yes, that odd white circle from before.

He then picked up the Demon Tool himself, holding it high.

"Again, you will not be able to damage it. If you do attempt to attack it, be warned—it will only reflect the damage right back to you. I highly advise for meisters to not try to use their Weapons against it as you could greatly harm your partner."

The Demon Tool was then placed back on the pedestal as Kid looked back at to the audience.

"That is all. Please form an orderly line and approach once the person ahead of you has finished. If you have any questions about BREW, you may ask them now or wait until your turn."

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[ooc: This is it! BREW is on public display and characters are free to go up there, pick it up, look at it, poke it, punch it, lick it—anything but try to take it or use their Weapon to attack it. If anyone does try to steal BREW, be ready to get shot ~~through the heart~~ and taken down by various numbers of NPCs and volunteers.

In terms of threading, there will only be one "NPC" designated thread where characters can interact with the NPCs. The rest of the post is open for mingling/reactions/character's own experience with BREW. Since we're not using the BREW NPC journal this time around, feel free to godmod BREW in your tags. Just start up your own thread and use the usual labels: CHARACTER | OPEN/CLOSED

As a quick reminder, BREW doesn't really do much except sit there and look pretty. If a character does try to damage it, all force is reflected back right to the character.]

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Kotetsu wasn't sure if it had been good luck or bad luck that had caused him to look up from his mirror (he'd been inconsistently sending Barnaby texts. More than half weren't being answered) and notice Kerrigan taking her own turn at investigating BREW. Most likely somewhere in between, because as much as he knew that he needed to fix up the trainwreck of a conversation they had had on Valentine's Day, he... wasn't really eager to do it in such a public setting.

But she was here, and it was his chance, and Kotetsu didn't ignore chances so as soon as he watched her set the weird cube box thing down and begin to walk away, he quietly began to follow her, mentally hoping she wouldn't try to yell at him or hit him. Or worse. Really hoping for the opposite of worse.

Sarah moved with a sort of casual grace towards the shadowed corner where she had eased down from the rafters of the building. She knew after a few steps when she was being followed, but a casual glance over her shoulder let her know who dared to haunt her steps. She let him follow until they were out of range of help if he decided to open his mouth to yell at her again.

She turned to regard him without warning, setting her hands on her hips even if she maintained a clear view of the BREW. She had a job to do, and she wasn't afraid to aim for hands or shoulders of anyone who decided to take too much of an interest in the device.

"Your guard station isn't this way," she said coolly. It was her version of 'what do you want'.

He hadn't exactly tried to be all that stealthy in his following (not that he could if he tried. That wasn't a thing Kotetsu was capable of) but he had at least hoped to be able to make it a little farther without being noticed, so when Kerrigan finally turned around and addressed him he came to an abrupt halt, hands held up in front of him in defense.

"I know, I know! Not tryin' to take over your spot or anything." He answered back hastily, almost nervous, but with a heavy breath he lowered one of his hands, using the other to rub at the back of his neck, trying to seem more casual. "No one said I couldn't take a break. Over here."

It seemed that he knew well to tread lightly around her, and she was pleased by that. She wasn't actually certain why he was following after her, but she didn't entirely believe his story about a coffee break. Still, she couldn't find fault with his excuse for coming this way, and thus she was unable to refuse him.

"You couldn't take my spot anyway. It's special assignment," she said before slowly turning away and making her way back to the corner where her repel rope was dangling down. She grasped it and gave a quick tug to make certain it was still secure. "Do as you like. Enjoy your break, Mr. Wild Tiger."

"I didn't mean literally..." Kotetsu mumbled quietly as he stood there, looking more awkward by the second until she'd turned back around as if to leave, but he couldn't let her. Not yet, so he took another step closer and called out.

"Oi, wait! I... I wanna talk! Just for a minute! I've gotta go back anyways so, it's not like I could keep you here any longer than that."

Sarah was about to start the climb back up to the place she had chosen as a special assignment, but she paused when he began to make a fuss. There was no pleasing this man, and he was almost harder to deal with than Mr. Petrov. At least this one spoke to her back, she thought dismally.

She looked over her shoulder at him before finally releasing the rope. "Want to talk? About what?" Her tone was rather guarded.

This wasn't going to be easy. He could tell by her voice and the fact that she didn't even turn back around that she didn't want this conversation to happen. Too bad for Kerrigan that Kotetsu was always more persistent than could be considered helpful. After a meek droop of his shoulders and a sigh, he waited a while to gather up the energy for what he needed to say and finally came out with it very reluctantly.

"About... me getting mad at you. In the office. Couple days ago. When you were asking Bunny about NEXTs. I..." But of course, Kotetsu couldn't let himself appear entirely reasonable with his apology and so his last few words were mumbled a little clumsily. "That is... 'm tryin' to... 'pologize."

As she watched him silently, she was able to see the change in his body language and it forced her to turn around and face him. She set her hands on her hips in a sort-of-casual way, even if she knew it might be defensive as well. She suspected she knew what he wanted to say, and it was more considering what she would say in reply.

She raised an eyebrow at the stop-start speech that was followed up by mumbling. "Yes? You have more grievances to air at me?" She huffed loudly, but her body language relaxed some. "You spoke your mind, though I'm sure there's more where that initial rant came from. However, I'm sure I did my part to offend you and I shouldn't have."

The own tension in his body eased up slightly but Kotetsu was still hesitant, a little jittery which he fixed by shoving his hands into his pockets.

Kotetsu had plenty of skeletons in his closet, and they would remain their for as long as possible. He'd only really had one small instance of opening himself up to someone about his own personal issues while in Death City but, unfortunately he didn't quite trust Kerrigan that much to share his experiences as a young NEXT. But the least he could do was admit that her words had struck a nerve, a reaction that he should have controlled better.

He shook his head, frowned deeply but didn't pull his eyes away from her. "No rants. I don't really make it a habit of talking about any of that. Stuff I grew up with, I mean. But... I was wrong to get mad at you and say you didn't understand. I couldn't expect you to know what I was getting at. My 'hardships', like you said. Just like I couldn't know about what you'd dealt with."

It was obvious based on his previous reaction the number of skeletons that he kept hidden away, but his explosive temper on the subject was probably justified. People probably didn't discuss or ask about such matters in his world, but they weren't in his. She didn't expect people to ask about hers, and she had secrets of her own that would always remain close at hand.

She shrugged at his words, not in the mood to make him feel even worse for his previous antics. "And yet I clearly hit a nerve with a few unwitting words," she replied casually. "It shows that the scars run deep no matter the brave face that you wear."

Her lips twitched in what might have been a sardonic smile, but it never made it all the way. "No, there are few who can understand or endure hardships like mine, but that doesn't devalue your own. You should... just think twice about laying into me for inquiring about your world. I think... it's interesting."

There she went again, reading him as clearly as a cloudless sky and it really did bother him more than it should have, but instead of bristling and biting back like he'd done before Kotetsu grabbed a hold of his feelings and essentially bunched them into a ball, like a useless piece of paper, kicking it over to the back of his head. Nothing but rolled up balls of emotion back there. He sighed loudly, hands on his hips and sounding as exasperated as possible. "To put it lightly, it sucks having to go through that, but I really don't care to think about it nowadays. I learned from what happened and things are different now, so that's all that really matters to me. All that really should matter but, that's just my opinion."

When he raised an eyebrow at her, his voice lightened. "If you wanna know about things that much, just talk to Bunny about it. I won't be around to screw up the moment this time." Kotetsu lifted up his now free left hand, the one that had been stuck in Barnaby's hand on Valentine's day, but right as he'd been about to lower his hand his eyes widened slightly, recalling something else from that day. "...or, talk to the Judge. Unless he's still avoiding you."

His word choice was rather interesting in her mind, since he clearly didn't want to think about it but he silently admitted that he had to sometimes. She tilted her head at him, watching him with a knowing gaze, but she wondered how quickly she could guess at his past with the words he spoke. "So you've risen beyond the fear and dislike of your society to be popular and not face adversity?"

Well, the last time she had spoken to 'Bunny', she had her head bitten off and she wasn't eager to repeat the experience. "He didn't want to talk about it anyway," she said stiffly. "His words and body language were enough to make that clear anyway." The fact that they were not clinging to each other was a nice change, and probably decreased stress on the two 'heroes'.

However, at mention of the Judge, she stiffened up and fought her own expression from changing to reflect her internal feelings on the man. "Yes, he's avoiding me," she said in a formal stiff way. It wasn't like he could avoid her if she wanted to find him.

Okay, this was getting frustrating again. Kotetsu removed his hat and ran a frustrated hand through his hair, even rustling at it with his fingers. "I'm not afraid of them and I don't dislike them. Those are the people I'm supposed to protect, so why would I even think about them that way? Don't care about being popular either... not that it's really an issue, but that's more 'cause of Bunny-- but that doesn't matter either!"

With a huff, he set his hat back onto his head, crossing his arms tightly over his chest as he looked Kerrigan over, appearing like the grumpiest adult ever. "Bunny was probably just like that because he was stuck with me the whole day. He can't really handle that much, not to mention he looked a little off that day... don't know why..." His eyes trailed to the side, swearing he almost had the answer to Barnaby's actions during Valentine's day. Completely honest, couldn't not answer a single question... must have just been a weird day for him. Though when he realized his comment about Yuri had struck a chord in her, his expression changed completely. He was curious about this. Very curious. Enough so that he was willing to say something ridiculous like this in the most casual of tones:

"...maybe he's playing hard to get."

Sarah surveyed Wild Tiger with a mixed expression, and her fingers twitched at her side as she considered reaching out and grabbing his wrist to read his emotions better. "You're a better man than most then," she said simply, drawing herself up higher with something akin to new respect for him. "So you do what you do because saving people gives you happiness and sense of accomplishment, not for fame?" She hoped he wasn't going to start yelling again.

In her mind, he looked more like a grumpy child, but she wasn't about to point that out just yet. This conversation looked like it might result in shouting, which would make public outings for the two of them two-for-two. "I thought you two were partners. Wouldn't that mean he's stuck with you for whole days at a time?"

His sudden curiosity to her reaction caused her eyes to narrow dangerously when it seemed that the Judge was an issue he wanted to speak of and she didn't. Turn about was fair play though, which was the only reason she didn't walk away. "Clearly," she gritted out between clenched teeth. "Does he look like a man who is even capable of that though? He has the emotional depth of a teaspoon."

Quickly enough the petulant adult-child act was over, because from what it sounded like Kerrigan was finally getting to understand what Kotetsu's motivations were on being a hero and that was hardly ever anything he'd try to hide. He grinned widely, giving her an assured nod. "Yup! That about sums it up! That's how it's always been since I was a kid and it hasn't changed one bit. Probably won't ever change really. I'm a stubborn old man."

Of course the issue concerning Barnaby was something a little more delicate for him to branch off to, and even though in his heart he knew that things with his partner weren't that bad off... but they weren't perfect. He couldn't blame him for it though, it was just how things were and he was slowly starting to settle with them. "We're partners, yeah, but it doesn't exactly mean we're gonna get along 24/7. Lots of people that work together argue and get upset and start arguments over little things. Nothing wrong with that." Unless you were meant to get along, which they were, but that again was another thing entirely not meant to be spoken of. Not when there were better things at hand like making fun of Yuri, and the laugh Kotetsu let out at Kerrigan's comment was just a tad on the loud side.

"Haha, that fits him perfectly! Maybe he's just being shy then? Come on, this sort of stuff needs a lot of effort from both sides! You can't just let him get scared off that easily!" Honestly, the thoughts going about in his head about these two was ridiculous but Kotetsu wouldn't let up. It was better than being yelled at again, that much was for sure. Not that that couldn't still happen.

Well, that seemed to have gotten the rather large bee out of his bonnet, and she raised an eyebrow at the grin that he flashed her. She shook her head a little, but her expression lightened some towards him. "You must have either had a brilliant role-model or you had adult-like epiphanies early in life," she remarked.

Didn't she know it. She didn't get along with anyone that much, and she always expected that most people carried a strong guise to hide what was really going on. "You two do seem to bicker more than some I've seen, but it's probably your rather different personality types," she remarked soberly. "He seems very stiff sometimes. Very easy to mock."

Her lips pulled into a small smile at his laugh, ignoring how people turned to regard them. "A man who presides as a judge is surely not shy; he public speaks all the time," she said, still sounding stiff like she was trying to swallow a particularly large bug. "He can do what he wants, and if he wants to run like a coward, he can do that."

If he hadn't been so focused on paying attention to this weird little... 'thing' (which was all he could think of to call what was going on between her and Yuri. Interest? Something like that? A 'thing' would do just fine for now), going on concerning her interest with the Judge, Kotetsu would have shyed away from having to think about the reason behind him becoming a hero. Role-model indeed, but he would just push that aside for now. The whole thing with Barnaby too. Both of those were less interesting than work gossip, which he honestly wasn't all that fond of usually, but he would make an exception today.

"A mix of column A and column B, and arguing is good for a partnership! Every little problem you two can iron out just makes you even closer!" But then it didn't exactly answer why they still continued to argue, but whatever. Moving on. Kotetsu shook his head in mock-disapproval, waving off Kerrigan's efforts to somehow make this thing with Yuri less of a deal than it probably was. Which could be the case, but that wasn't interesting at all.

"Listen, there's a difference between how people act at work and how they act around other people. Of course the Judge is gonna be comfortable with public speaking, it's just what he's used to! But, the hugging thing for example? Obviously not in his experience, and sure he can run..." Kotetsu's lips quirked a little wider, almost suspiciously so. "But then the question is, are you gonna let him run off like a coward?"

Sarah could only shrug at his comments about arguing being good for a partnership, since she couldn't say that she had had one long enough to know. She argued well enough with those she had, so that was just saying that too much wasn't good for one either. Perhaps she should have picked fights more with a certain select few she had liked more.

"Unless your partner leaves you for another," she said simply, crossing her arms over her chest and watching Wild Tiger silently. "Perhaps I argue too much to maintain a proper partnership or too little." She huffed and waved away the idea with a hand. "As long as it works for you."

Raising an eyebrow at the man, she almost openly laughed at him. Was he giving for former telepath advice on how to read people? "Are you saying he had a troublesome childhood where he feels the need to act out his lack of affection from his parents by punishing criminals and avoiding interpersonal relationships that have depth?"

There could have been the chance that if Kotetsu had ended up with someone not like Barnaby, then the arguing thing wouldn't be a part of his so called 'initiation' of a partnership, but the fact of the matter was that Barnaby was a pain, arguing happened, and it would continue to happen, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Especially not with any other person, and he scoffed when Kerrigan mentioned Barnaby would ever leave. Which he had. But he'd come back, which was why Kotetsu took the words as humorously as possible.

"Everyone's different, but at the end of the day it's more a matter of whether you two can actually work together or not, and that's how me and Bunny are, so I'm not worried about him finding himself another old man to bother him anytime soon." The amused grin remained on his face until Kerrigan started to babble about what he assumed was psychological and personal stuff that he really had no interest in listening to or making conclusions about, so he just raised an eyebrow at her, tilting his head to the side like a dog that had just been told to roll over but had never learned to do such a thing.

"O-oi oi, that's kind of a lot to assume from someone off the spot, isn't it? I don't know why the Judge is the way he is, and I'm not really the right kind of guy to ask about that. If you want to, then go ahead." He considered offering some sort of motivation, like how Barnaby had never opened up to him before but that eventually changed... except that was a Barnaby that currently didn't exist in Death City, so she'd probably think he was making it up.

He might have been older than she was, but she was pretty certain that she wasn't in need of a partnership pep-talk. She got enough of those gentle ones from Mustang, and still she had been unsuccessful. Of course, she always knew that she worked better alone; that was just the way that things were when your head normally was filling up with the inappropriate thoughts of everyone around you.

Instead of saying much about their partnership, which she decided to look into anyway, she simply crossed her arms over her chest and continued to level him with a stare. As long as he didn't get killed, since that would ruin some of her social interactions with adults who are actually children inside.

"I'm just tipping off usual reasons defined by my government for anti-social behaviour, nothing more. Try not to take offense, especially if it might be true," she replied with an edge of snarl in her voice. Geez, he didn't know sarcasm if it bit him in the behind as well. "Besides, my job is looking into people here."

His hands quickly raised up defensively, not sure why her temper seemed to have flared but then again, he always had a habit of saying things without knowing the reaction he'd get, and whenever it was a negative reaction like this one then he was really at a loss. "Okay, I'm just saying what I thought! Not saying you're wrong or anything, I just... don't really think about it like that..."

'Anti-social behavior defined by her government?' Yeah, Yuri wasn't sociable, but now it sounded less like she'd taken an actual interest in him and more like she was studying some sort of science project. Maybe he was wrong about her liking him then. Kotetsu's hands slowly lowered, eyes narrowed and pinning Kerrigan with a questionable gaze. The more he talked to her, the weirder he realized she was. "So your job is spying?" He'd almost been about to say 'stalking' but, he'd keep that a mental thought only.

She continued to stare at him, at least pleased that he had relented some when it came to annoying her. He really did seem to say the wrong thing, but it helped that her temper was always quick to flare. She was told that it came with being a red-head, but she had just seen too much in her own opinion. "You're clearly not bitter or jaded..." she remarked with a soft huff.

His returned stare only caused her green eyes to remain locked on him. She was pretty certain she could take him in a fight. Look at those skinny legs; he bowed them when he walked and ran, and she could break them easily. "My job is doing whatever I need to do. I doubt my actual former job description would be understood, so I'll just say that I was once a Lieutenant in the military."

Of course he would only temporarily let up, or at least force some boundaries to be made on how he dealt with Kerrigan. Kotetsu's never been the type to learn that much from bad experiences. Bound to slip up at some point or another, but for now, he at least was aware enough to keep some of his jokes to himself. "Not really, no. Bitter, definitely not. Jaded... haha, kinda the complete opposite of that!" He grinned slightly, somewhat amused of the thought.

And then the grin dropped as she stared him down, feeling as if she was observing him, sizing him up for some reason that he didn't want to know about. He wasn't here to fight, he just wanted to talk! Coughing into his hand, Kotetsu crossed his arms again and nodded, only a little surprised at her answer. "Well I gotta tell ya, you've got a good enough attitude to be in the military." No wonder she always seemed so professional and up-tight, jeez.

Yes, he was completely opposite to the aspects that she knew that she was tainted with. Clearly his experiences were bad enough, but not nearly as terrible as her own. She wasn't about to judge for that, since he walked around with a name like 'Wild Tiger', which was probably the butt of a few jokes. There wasn't much wild about him. "I'm surprised you don't convince the criminals to change sides."

She released her gaze from him and glanced up to the post that was waiting for her. She could still shoot from ground level, but it was nice in the shadows. "It was beaten into me for years," she replied simply. "You should go back to your post. I'm required to mine."

Complete opposites, something he was starting to realize more clearly the more they spoke. It made him wonder whether this was really the kind of person she was or if she was doing what Barnaby had done when they'd first met. Shut off from others, doing their own thing, simply going through life manually instead of enjoying it-- ah. He should stop that thought. Last thing he needs is to think Kerrigan needs some kind of social pep talk. She seems beyond his help. And speaking of help...

"I used to do a bit of that when I first started but it gets really frustrating to catch the same guy every other month or so. There's only so much you can convince a person to do, but you just kinda trust that they'll know better and move on to better things." His priorities were always mainly to protect the public and stop crime, not reform criminals. Not like he really good. Reasoning is a hit or miss with him. He'd most likely just start up arguments.

Kotetsu watched curiously as she turned her gaze away from him and he followed it, looking up at where she'd initially been headed off to and it wasn't until she reminded him about their jobs that he realized how long they'd been talking, and he sputtered as he already began to take a few steps back toward the gym. "S-sorry, sorry! I didn't think this'd last that long! Didn't mean to hold you up or anything--" He quickly reached into his pocket to retrieve his communicator, wondering if he'd received a text of some sort while he was out. "Aah, Bunny's probably thinking I got so bored I snuck out."

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ghostofaqueen - 2012-06-05 03:54 (UTC) - Expand

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