seasonsrpg | [Open Log] I'm just the boy inside the man / Not exactly who you think I am

Place to start something that I haven't written a starter for. Feel free to poke me at the unofficial discord server or PM this account if you want to discuss ideas.

"Huh- welcome back."

By the time Jean returned back to the house that day, Mukuro could be found sat in the living room, her Rookidee and Rowlet fluttering around the room. Her pistol was lying partially disassembled on the table- and judging from the frustrated little frown, one-handed firearm maintenance was proving a challenge.

"...Tea? I need a break."

It was still hard to see Mukuro's hand the way it was, but Jean had learned to at least keep a neutral look - though seeing her struggle with what she's usually so good at makes the hurt fresh again.

"Sounds good. I'll prepare it." He has groceries to unload anyway. "I also bought some mochi, if you want. They had a new flavor I wanted to try."

Otherwise he had some basic ingredients they usually had in the cabinets and some fresh vegetables. It was his turn to make dinner tonight, so he's prepared.

"Tonight we're having ramen. I saw a recipe."

"You sure? ...And that sounds nice. On both counts." Something sweet might just improve her mood! For the time being, she carefully gathered the pieces of her pistol up and locked them away, before wandering over to the kitchen to join him. "Need any help with prep, or...?"

It had been a couple of months since her injury, but once the worst of it had healed up, she'd tried to pick things back up as quickly as possible- even if she'd been leaning toward slightly simpler meals when it was her turn to prep. Still, after an already frustrating day, it was a bit of a relief that he was taking care of the cooking.

"...It might be a little bit longer before I can get back to work."

Edited 2024-11-18 08:52 (UTC)

"I can handle it", Jean says with a reassuring smile. "All you need to do is enjoy."

It's not that he didn't trust Mukuro being able, he just didn't want to make her face more frustrations on things she wasn't completely capable of - especially since she had already gotten that today.

"Though if you want to do something, can you put those spices in the spice cabinet?"

That was at least relatively simple and easy.

"And don't worry about work. There are some commissions, but they're marked as not urgent - and I've explained you're on a sick leave."

A relieved little smile came into her face at the reassurance, and she gave a quick nod. It felt...warm, safe- the comfort she got from being able to rely on her brothers. And all the same, her injury hadn't diminished her worth in their eyes at all.

"Ah- understood." She quickly set about putting the spices away whilst they talked. "At least they understand the situation. It'd feel even worse if there was something urgent waiting on me...I don't want to disappoint them."

Recently, Jean has focused more on his drawing hobby. Right now he's sitting in the Blossomcrown Park with a sketchpad and pencils, sketching the pond in the middle of the park. He's also sketched several of the lanterns passing by.

Occasionally his gaze stays fixed on the lanterns, wondering who the messages were going to and how they're received. Not if they would, he wants to believe the messages do go somewhere. This place was capable of miracles, after all. Tragedies, too, but mostly miracles.

He did send his own out too. For many who had passed, but also many who he just missed. From home, from the other worlds he's been to. Even people he had met here.

There's a sad sort of smile on his face as he continues to sketch, now focused on making the lanterns look more realistic and vibrant.

Rinku was simultaneously hard and easy to spot. Hard because you could barely see her until she started sending up lanterns, easy because those lanterns numbered easily up to 40 or so, following her in a clump via telekinesis to the lift site. It took entirely too long for her to send all of them up one by one until they all hovered in the sky with the others.

She finally slumped over, spotted Jean, and ran over to him with a reenergized wave.

"Jean-san, hi! You're drawing stuff, huh?"

The sudden huge number of lanterns is a sight to see. It makes Jean actually pay attention to who might be the cause of them so he notices Rinku just as she finished releasing them. She sure had a lot of messages to send.

Jean waves at her as she approaches. Taking a small break from drawing again.

"Hey. I am, yeah. It helps me relax." He had made a promise not train too much, after all, so this was a nice change of pace. "Quite a show you put on, with the lanterns."

"Eh? Oh!"

Rinku looks up, smiles, and then turns back to Jean.

"I didn't actually mean it to be a show, it just kind of happened. I missed too many people, and I didn't wanna leave anyone out. Did you send any?"

Jean nods, a sort of a solem smile on his face.

"I did, a while back. It made me realize just how many people I miss, too." They both had many they wanted to see, or at least know they were alright.

"Want to sit with me for a while?"

Rinku plopped down on the bench beside him. She kicked her feet a little, watching the lanterns flying away.

"It's kinda hard when you've lived so many places. Maybe it's easier if you only have one home. But if everywhere you've lived is home, you're always going to miss people."

"As long as you make friends or even found family, you'll always have someone you will miss eventually", Jean says, agreeing with Rinku that way. "I think that's just a proof of how important they are to you."

"And I don't want to stop doing that either..." Rinku sighs. "I care about everyone. I love so many people. And Korone-chan said it the best, I think? That my heart has room for lots of places to call home, just like it has room for lots of people."

Jean smiles. "You do have one of the biggest hearts I know. You've always been kind, as long as I've known you."

"You think so?" Rinku looks over at him. "I'm trying to do my best, Jean-san. Even if I'm different from people and we don't always get each other. You're a nice person, too."

"You're doing great, despite all the differences. But don't burn yourself out." Being cheerful when she didn't feel like it or trying to reach people who couldn't be reached. Both things that could tax a person. "But thanks. I try to be."

Rinku smiles and kicks her legs off the edge of the bench.

"I guess I should think about that if everyone says so. I'm trying not to burn out, really..."

Jean smiles, a bit more sheepishly now.

"That's what I kept saying myself before I crashed and burned. That I wasn't trying to burn out. And I really thought I wasn't."

"Jean-san..."

She leans on him and makes a concerned noise.

"Are you okay now, though? Did you rest? Do you still need help?"

Mary, too, liked to wander around the park in Blossomcrown. Now that she'd quite definitively learned the petals floating around did not actually taste good, she could enjoy the place for what it was.

The scenery was pretty, and all the different flowers made for great subjects for her drawings (so did the bugs and other creepy crawlies she found, but let's not dwell on that). Besides, it was safer here than out in the Segments, so she didn't have to find someone to take her.

Today, she'd been going for a walk with her droopy-eared Mimikyu in tow when she spotted someone she knew! And he was drawing!

"Jean!" A big wave before she rushed over, trying to get a peek at his sketchbook. "What're you drawing?"

Jean has a smile on his face when he sees Mary. She's so energetic. He doesn't hide the sketchbook, instead he lets her see it properly.

"It's not even close to being done, but I'm just sketching what I see."

"Oh! It looks good, you've got the little lanterns in!"

Mary happily took a seat next to him, whilst her Mimikyu tried to stretch itself up to have a peek as well.

"This place is really nice to draw. And Mimi likes running around here too."

Noticing the Mimikyu, Jean lower the picture for it to see as well.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite spots in the city." The more nature the better. Good thing Sunwaning offered a nice balance. "Do you have favorite places here, Mary?"

Just like many others, Jean hit the gym regularly. While he usually focused on his muscle strenght, there were days he just focused on flexibility. It was important for using the gear, but also pretty fun and relaxing.

Jean had always been pretty flexible. He just never has the opportunity to practice gymnastics before, which is new to him. So he has a EllipsaTube video out showing him some moves, which he follows. Probably not as artistically and flawlessly (yet), but it was still pretty impressive.

Impressive enough to have an audience of natives staring at him while they're exercising - or in some case, pretending to do so. Not that Jean notices them, since he's so focused on his moves.

Usually Jean used his time on Coliseum for practicing fire magic or his weapon skills, but this time he was sitting on the sand, focusing on something. Namely, on a skill he had yet to master.

After focusing for a good while he manages to do something...! It's a single, long strand of blue hair that appears on his forehead. His goal was to change his whole hair blue, but alas, he was having difficulties.

"Really? All that focusing and that's what I get?"

"...At least it's progress?"

Evangeline doesn't mean to show off, but she just happened to have given herself devil horns and a spaded tail for the day. Woops.

At least Jean didn't take it as showing off. It was just something Evangeline liked and she should embrace it.

"It's been the same progress for months now. Just one strand of hair at max."

"What's your process for shapeshifting? Walk me through what's going on in your head."

Maybe she can provide a little advice, or at least share how she does it.

"Well... I'm trying to apply the same principle I use for animal transformation. Imagining what I want in my head and focusing on that. A little about how it might feel, too, having different hair."

If he had longer hair that would feel different, surely.

"That's more or less what I do, too... You could try making it more gradual in your head? Like picturing your hair changing from brown to blue."

"So... imagining my own, natural hair and then seeing it change? That might be a better approach in this case."

Just as he says that, the blue hair changes back. It was a temporary one, after all. He takes a deeper breathe and focuses.

... and while it's still not his whole hair, at least it's half-blue now! Which might look kind of funny.

"Oh, you got more of it this time! That's great!"

It might look silly, but it's a definite step forward.

"I did?" Maybe he should have done it somewhere with a mirror, now that he thinks about it. "Must be because of your advice. Thanks."

"Yeah, hang on." Evangeline opens her Hammerspace Purse and pulls out a hand mirror, which she offers to Jean to take a look at himself with. "Slowing it down helped me with some of the ones I struggled with."

After returning from the mines, Jean is on a forced rest from training. Healing magic was great, but it wasn't always good against broken bones. Even in Avalon healing them was tricky. At least it was just one rib and nothing worse. Yet he still wasn't allowed to go train. He felt like a kid who was grounded. Even if he technically wasn't.

Though he was very bored. Resting also meant not being able to use the forge. He could be drawing, but he needed a right mindset and being annoyed and bored weren't good for that. Instead he was lazily playing with the shapes of fire above his hand.

He was either at home, on the deck outside, in Sunwaning or in the Blossomcrown Park. Occasionally he was also at the beach in Solarpeak and, out of habit, at the Grand Coliseum in Dayrise. It was tempting to go for a run or stretch, but he was being good.

Ring ring-

The sound of a bicycle's bell as Rider cycled down toward Jean's Sunwaning home on her granny bike, care package from her Master carefully wrapped up in the basket. At least she seemed to be wearing normal clothing, this time around! She stopped just nearby, checking a note from her pocket to make sure she got the correct address.

"Ah, I think this is the place... yes, that is it."

And as she got closer, she spotted Jean sat on the deck looking sorry for himself. Whilst she wasn't entirely sure what he looked like, this seemed to be the right person. Well, she'd know when he spoke up.

"...Jean?"

Jean's not exactly expecting visitors, so he can look as sorry for himself as he wants. But he does straighten up and look at who's calling his name.

Huh. It's the person he sparred with once. Rider, if he remembers right. Who called Hijikata 'Master'.

"Yeah, that's me", he confirms. "It's been a while."

Ah- a look of recognition came into her face as Jean spoke up. Yes, that was a voice she knew! So she had found the right house, after all.

"It has. I am glad I was able to find you." Rider got off the bike, pushing down the kick-stand to rest it before fetching the care-package out its basket.

"...My Master was worried about you, after the last expedition, so... he asked me to bring you this."

"Oh. Thanks", Jean says, a little bit confused. "He doesn't live that far away to need a courier, but I guess he's busy."

Still, it's the thought that counts, isn't it? "I hope he doesn't make you run around for him too much."

"Ah, there you are... I've been looking for you."

Well, this Servant certainly looked out of place manifesting on the beach! But here she was, floating with a care package in her arms, and dark cloak still billowing around her despite their currently location. Her expression was hard to read with her hood up- but the little frown spoke enough for itself. She really did feel bad for him getting hurt protecting her!

Jean can't help but be a little surprised at the sudden voice and apperance. Honestly, Caster got him everytime.

"You could have called and I could have told you where I was", Jean says, voice slightly amused. It was really that easy. "What's up?"

The expression of surprise did make a small smile come into the witch's face- oh she did still enjoy startling him!

"Oh... perhaps I should have thought of that," Technology was not the default she turned to, even now, "...I wanted to know how you were healing. That, and give you this."

It was with a little hesitation that she handed the care package to him, wrapped up in a dark fabric; she'd put a couple of her home-brewed potions in there, with labels written in a delicate hand, a carved magical charm that resembled an ornate smallsword, and some long, thin sweets of a sort- sweets that certainly looked unskillfully homemade, but she hoped he'd appreciate them all the same.

Edited 2024-11-27 23:10 (UTC)

Jean accepts the package, carefully looking what's inside of it. They did all put a smile on his face and he looks back up at Caster.

"Thanks. As for healing, it's going alright. Slowly, but I'll manage." Mostly he's just been suffering with boredom. He's fine. "How are you? Please don't tell me you still feel guilty over everything."

[Open Log] I'm just the boy inside the man / Not exactly who you think I am

Wildcard

Home Sweet Home

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Art - Blossomcrown Park

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Gym(nastics)

Shapeshifting Practice - Grand Coliseum

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Post-event

Sunwaning House

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Solarpeak Beach - Jean needs better friends lol

ssh, nothing wrong with his friends

Even the disaster friends?

especially disaster friends