synflux | ( open ) may catchall

WHO: ryoji + you!
WHAT: post-surgery wuh-ohs, ducks, and some gardening
WHERE: around base
WHEN: first couple weeks of may
WARNINGS: cw for discussion of surgery, needles, etc.

a. post-op glitches

[ So, as it turns out, the only thing worse than signing up for two enhancement procedures at once is dealing with the aftermath when your brain is fried.

No matter how approachable and grounded Ryoji is, even he can't escape from his hubris, and having never experienced significant pain in his human form, he didn’t…think it would be all that bad. Uncomfortable, maybe, inconvenient, yes…but he completely did not anticipate the way that the pain fully overrides any other cognitive thought in his brain. It hurts, to move, to think, to simply be conscious, and he has only stumbled out of the medbay for a few moments after being released that the impact of the double surgeries fully overloads him at once.

For a few long, untenable moments, it’s like he blacks out completely – and when he comes to again, staring at the hands that caught up, it’s like he doesn’t recognize them. Are they his own?

A simple question carrying a lot of weight, when he can’t remember anything about who he is or what he’s doing here. All he really seems to recall is that he was going somewhere, and given he just received a nice teleportation upgrade, well.

In attempting to find his destination by testing out this new power he can’t even remember how he got in the first place, he may just wind up in your room, looking half-dead (ha) and delirious. While he's usually in his human form, he may appear as a Shadow instead, without consciously making the effort to change. Whether you’re awake or asleep or even just heading back to your room yourself, he hardly seems to register another’s presence, instead muttering to himself: ]

No, this isn’t right…

[ He needs to go to…the top level of Tartarus, right? So why can't he remember how to get there? ]

b. duck tales

[ Well! Those were events that sure transpired, and while Ryoji is still feeling out some of his new abilities, he’s at least recovered enough from the surgeries that he’s back in his right mind and up and about again. Whether or not he should be, strictly speaking, remains to be seen! But whatever, it’s fine. Violet needs walkies.

Around the base, Ryoji can be encountered walking…a duck. A beautiful, newly acquired mandarin duck, wearing a jaunty little bow around her neck. Since Outsiders aren’t, you know, supposed to keep pets, strictly speaking, Ryoji has taken great care to plan routes for them that will hopefully avoid crossing paths with LILITH officers. However, Violet is as inquisitive and independent as her owner, and also a duck, so when she catches sight of your shoelaces or anything shiny you may have dropped on the ground, she waddles right over to pick at it with her beak, chirping with enthusiasm.

…Or that’s how it sounds to Ryoji, anyway. ]

Ah, hello there. I’d love to chat, but we have a schedule to keep…oh, but if you’d like to join us, you’d be more than welcome!

[ Who wouldn’t want to walk a duck?? And Ryoji is there, too, I guess. ]

c. flower gardening

[ At various points during the month, Ryoji can be found in the greenhouse, tending to some flowers. It’s a curious hobby that he’s picked up, one he didn’t expect to find himself so captivated by, and one that’s perhaps a bit ironic for him, all things considered – yet even given his proclivities, there’s something so captivating about the way life can bloom from a seed, with just a little sunlight and water, a little currency of time...

...and whatever mutant fertilizer they use in here, but that’s not important.

Whether you’re enjoying the plantlife independently or have approached to peek at the flowers that he tends to, Ryoji swiftly plucks one of the blossoms, sweeping down into a bow, and offers the flower to you with an outstretched hand. ]

Please, take this. You deserve it, as the only thing here that eclipses its beauty.

[ He’s feeling back to his usual self, it seems. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Yesod was admittedly curious about an Outsider busying himself with caring for the plants in the greenhouse — or a specific section of it, apparently. A closer look may have been a mistake, however, and there was no chance of it answering any of his questions to begin with. Now he has one of those flowers held out to him, for some inexplicable reason. Its beauty won't last long; it will wither.

He doesn't reach for it, arms crossed instead. ]

Perhaps you should confirm the recipient's identity first.

[ Before more flowers are sacrificed needlessly. ]

[ ...He should? That Yesod doesn't reach for the flower isn't that surprising — honestly, nine times out of ten Ryoji's flirting is flat-out rejected, sometimes with bodily injury, so he's used to it. This particular response earns Yesod a quizzical look, however. What does that have to do with anything??? ]

Do I need to know your identity in order to find your handsome features captivating?

[ Yes, he's shameless, but he also is genuinely asking! ]

[ That catches him all the more off-guard. The possibility that the flattery and the flower were indeed aimed at him didn't occur to him at all, certainly not if the words and the gesture are sincere. A strange prank would have been more plausible — but even then, no one who would arrange such a thing comes to mind. No one here. ]

...I must admit, I assumed that you had mistaken me for someone else.

[ The compliments remain rather excessive, difficult to believe. Yesod glances back down at the proffered flower. Maybe it will be reused for the next person to pass by this section of the greenhouse... ]

In any event, are you tending to these flowers to make gifts of them?

( open ) may catchall

c.... but also eyeing b for mauve's sister

c with guest appearance by mauve's sister, nods

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