OPERATION: YOUTHFUL DISOBEDIENCE

[stresstokens]

WHO: Members of the grand curfew-breaking plan!
WHEN: During the Moorecroft event.
WHERE: Various Moorecroft locales.
WHAT: A bunch of youths have gotten together to break curfew in tandem to get to the bottom of the mystery at heart of this place -- but what they find leads to more questions than answers.
NOTES\WARNINGS: Probable violence, death, emotional trauma, cursing. All the fun stuff! I'll be putting the log headers for pre/during/post-curfew breaking logs in the comments, so just hang tight while I do that, though all members are of course more than welcome to post their own logs if that suits their tagging style better.

Comments

[stresstokens]

Are you sure?

[ Sorry, Gorgug. He's gonna be thinking about it now. Not enough not to do it - or not to bite sometimes, when the spirit comes over him; sorry buddy, his self-meditation doesn't go that far - but enough to at least consider maybe not digging his claws in quite as hard.

He gets excited. And then a little nervous about falling? And then excited again. It can be a little hard to control sometimes, as evidenced by an absolutely shameful amount of surfaces in the Gukgak household absolutely riddled with little pinprick holes. ]

I guess I never actually asked... [ He just likes to be tall. ] Your parents never asked for a boost in, like, big crowds or whatever? I can never see shit at Bloodrush games. [ Not without hitching a ride, that is, but while Fabian and Gorgug are on the field, he usually just rides on Kristen.

Which is his least favourite ride. She bounces and jumps up and down and her low dex scores means that the two of them usually take at least two spills on average per game. They're absolutely hellish to sit behind. ]

[tinflower]

Yeah. No. Yeah.

[ Sometimes, Gorgug can fail to sound convincing, despite his best efforts... but sometimes, the thought occurs to you whether someone wants a Riz Gukgak shape to be their favourite ride than to ask whether a Riz Gukgak has a favourite. There are downsides, isn't there? Downsides that Gorgug knows about, and, well--

He's kinda just used to it, honestly. Riz hurts sometimes, but that's life. He gets overexcited, it happens. Gorgug gets overexcited sometimes too.

But where do his parents fit in? Riz has him thinking, although Gorgug thinks he knows the answer. But now that he's really thinking about it?... ]

Not really. [ When's the last time he got asked for a boost? .... ] They take ladder and steps anywhere, and-- a pillow. They have this platform they can stand on [ and he's trying to make a brick shape with his hands ] and it can go up, and they put the pillow on it if they want to sit on it. But they never go anywhere... I've never gone somewhere they needed me to help them see. The faires have a lot of different people there. And they can get to everything in the tree. Everything's their size.

[ And the tree is, honestly, where he mostly sees them. He hasn't gone to one of their faires in years (maybe he should, next time? now that he's into artificing), and they don't eat out or go to places as a family much. Inviting Gorgug's friends and their family over for occassions is the most they do in terms of socialising.

(He's not thinking about the sex machines. He's not considering what they're actually doing now, when he isn't at home as often.) ]

[stresstokens]

[ Okay, note to self: maybe don't ride on Gorgug anymore? Or less? The 'yeah' would have been good enough, being that Riz would like to be deluded about how welcome it is for him to ride around on Gorgug on account of the fact that he personally enjoys it. But the immediate no after that? Yikes.

(A second, separate note is to just not ask Fabian, because Fabian will absolutely say he doesn't like it, and then Riz can't in good faith keep doing it, which means he'll be effectively 0/0 on rides, which would be tragic for both his line of vision and for his perpetually sore feet, sans a functional transit system. Riz loathes ignorance, but sometimes plausible deniability is bliss.) ]

I guess it'd be a little weirder to ask your son for a boost than it is to ask a friend for one, huh? [ Look at him! He's moving on! He's really mature and he's definitely still not considering his ride prospects! ] That makes sense. They've lived a whole life without having you around to help 'em out.

[ Potentially an extremely long life, considering Gnomish lifespans. A little wistfully, he says, ] It must be nice, living somewhere where everything's your size. Everything at Strongtower's built to human-standard. Gilear acted like living at Strongtower was awful, but at least he could reach the counters.

[ It's not that bad at home though, really. It was set up for Goblins before he was even born, so even if all of the built-in appliances aren't made for them - the counters and cupboards too tall, the measly spray of the showerhead down to a trickle by the time it gets to them, the sinks forever out of reach - the Gukgaks had already made sure everything was accessible one way or another.

He's preaching to the choir here, though. At the end of the day, he'd much rather be too small than too big. Gorgug's whole bed-breaking problems, while recently dimished (he thinks?), are a lot less pleasant than just grabbing a stepping stool. ]

Maybe we should switch, huh?

[tinflower]

I can come over next time we're home and I'll help you resize. I bet my parents will have some suggestions.

[ ...granted, they made everything suited to them (and then made things for Gorgug, to help him manage), but they're tinkerers: they love to create. They would have ideas and a perspective that Gorgug doesn't have that he thinks would be useful, and ultimately, he wants to be helpful to his friend's (and his friend's mother's!) plight.

Not that he's thinking about how their landlord would feel about it, but also a thing Gorgug doesn't regular have to consider.

But what he does think, and does include: ] --we can look at changes when we get back to the apartment too.

[ You know. If Riz would want that? They could check some things out. Make the shower easier to manage, maybe. ]

[stresstokens]

It's not that bad.

[ He says it quickly, reflexively, probably in a way that Gorgug himself has said time and time again. ]

It's less that it's that hard for me and more that I think Gilear was being a big baby about the whole thing. [ He feels a little bad saying it - he actually really likes Gilear, genuinely likes him in a way that it's likely only Fig shares, but the rest hadn't seen the way Gilear had helped him in Hell - but he's not wrong. Gilear was being a big baby about it. Strongtower Apartments aren't that bad. ]

But, um... that's really nice of you to offer. Maybe, if my Mom is okay with it? She can be a little weird about that kind of thing.

[ It's a pride thing. It's always a pride thing, when it comes to the Gukgaks. It's not that his Mom doesn't want him to complain or ask for help, but she never seemed to figure out how to receive it. ]

[tinflower]

[ Gorgug will give Gilear plenty of leniency, he's Fig's dad, after all, but--is he going to defend his honour when he's not right in front of him?

No. Anyway, ]

Sure. [ Gorgug is on board with that, nodding. ...and yet: ] We could take a look, and-- if there's anything that would be easy for me or my parents to do, we can-

[ He makes a grabbing motion, yanking this imaginary thing out. ]

Break it. Then say me or my parents needed a new project to your mom. Especially me--for school.

[ You know, exactly how artificers dealing with plumbing or kitchen work. Absolutely logical.

And the thing is, being a Thistlespring tinkerer does mean fucking with plenty of crafting paths. ]