stresstokens (
stresstokens) wrote in
etrayalogs2024-11-02 05:18 pm
[ OPEN ] recuperation & reconciliation
WHO: riz gukgak & YOU!!
WHEN: post-fear event onwards!
WHERE: throughout etraya (shops & diners, hospital, training grounds)
WHAT: in the wake of the fear event, riz gets to work on getting stronger, smarter, and trying to be a better friend (outcome: undecided). I'm down for anything! if you'd like something different, feel free to take up the wildcard or ping me on discord/plurk!
NOTES\WARNINGS: discussions of violence & paranoia
a. around town.
[ Riz is not doing well.
Riz is, it must be said, rarely doing well. He's the sort of kid who never learned to relax; no matter what, he always seems to be worried about something, the indefatigable machine that simply sprints from place to place, problem to problem, existing on a diet of convenience foods and coffee when left to his own devices, rarely sleeping. To some, he seems no worse than normal; the deep purple shadows underneath his eyes and the propensity to get startled easily and the tell-tale tremble of his hands from too much caffeine just being a part of what makes Riz, Riz. The only other oddity is the fact that he seems to shy away from his own reflection; whether it's a mirror, a pane of glass, or even a metal napkin receptacle, it gets covered up, avoided, or otherwise pushed out of sight.
But he's doing what he does best, which is pretending none of it exists in the first place. Perhaps you catch him late at night at the coffee shop, whiling away the wee hours of the morning with a cup of coffee approximately as large as his head, scribbling wildly in a thick notebook, his square spectacles sliding steadily down his nose. He startles when someone else comes in, jolting in his seat and knocking his cup askew -- possibly spilling it all over your shoes. ] Shit -- sorry, sorry! I wasn't expecting anyone here!
[ Or maybe you run into him during the daytime, at the grocery store shoving an absolutely obscene amount of beef into a shopping cart far bigger than he is, at the clothing store hunting down clothes for himself in the petit section (or childrens section but, well, beggars can't be choosers), or scarfing down food at an alarming rate in the diner. He's a man about town -- and a man who doesn't particularly want to be home too much right now.
Or perhaps you run into him somewhere else entirely, wandering around Bangsan Market, fingers drumming on his elaborately tattooed forearms. ] Okay. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, you just had the worst month ever. What kinda gift would cheer you up...?
[ Or are all gifts meaningless when you don't have to spend any money on them? Hm. Troubling. Very troubling. ]
b. first-aid refreshers.
[ In the wake of everything that's happened and with no handy Cleric nearby, Riz has made the decision to freshen up on his first-aid skills. You can spot him at the hospital loading an obscene amount of materials into his briefcase, which appears to be able to hold endless amounts of supplies; gauze, bandages, needles and thread, antiseptic and antibiotics, and ice packs and heat packs all make their way in.
Otherwise? He's in a public place like the diner, with an enormous tome on first-aid in front of him that he's frowning at in-between applying his expertise to a suturing practice kit he has laid in front of him, his nimble fingers hooking the needle steadfastly through silicone skin. If he notices he has an audience, he might glance up with a sheepish sort of smile, the knitting of his brows off-setting the row of razor-sharp teeth. ] I figure I should get some practice in while I still can. [ He glances down at the wound kits in front of him with a frown. ] I still haven't got the wound packing quite right, I don't think.
c. training.
[ First-aid training is one thing. Riz is dexterous and nimble and has a great attention to detail, all things that have led to him being a dab hand at figuring out how to deal with battlefield injuries. The physical part of the equation is something else, and something he's decided to dedicate himself to, his own exhaustion be damned.
His gunwork is fine. Great, even. He hits his marks with the consistency and precision they require. It's everything else that he's lacking in. Which is how you might spot him doing laps around a field, in a rare showing of having changed out of his usual stuffy suit-and-tie number, and... honestly, not doing that great. When he finally stops, hands braced on his knees and taking a swig out of a bottle of water, he looks like he might keel over.
Otherwise, you might find him on the training grounds, staring dubiously at the weights (he picks one up with both hands, slams it back down again, dubiously walking down the rack as the weights get smaller, and smaller, and smaller...) and looking over at the rest of the gym as though it contains any answers for him. Strength isn't his strong suit, he knows, but maybe he could be stronger? Or, perhaps, you see him with his rapier out, doing the same drills he'd been taught all those months ago at Aguefort Academy. If you pop in and look interested, he may well flag you down and ask, ] Hey, you here to train too?
d. friendship tour.
[ The last task on his to-do list is the hardest one of them all: trying to get better at being a friend, and not just some mechanism made for solving mysteries. It's clear that his brain has been failing him these days, which leaves one more option: trying to become a better friend.
If you're one of Riz's friends or acquaintances, whether he runs into you by chance or he texts you directly, Riz is going to be approaching you to check up on you. It's time to talk. About feelings. Not his own, obviously, but he's checking in on you -- with maybe some food to help ease the blow, or an offer to just get wonderfully, fabulously drunk. They deserve it. ]
e. wildcard!
[ hit me up for anything! you can find me on the discord or on plurk @ wisdombitch xoxoxo ]
WHEN: post-fear event onwards!
WHERE: throughout etraya (shops & diners, hospital, training grounds)
WHAT: in the wake of the fear event, riz gets to work on getting stronger, smarter, and trying to be a better friend (outcome: undecided). I'm down for anything! if you'd like something different, feel free to take up the wildcard or ping me on discord/plurk!
NOTES\WARNINGS: discussions of violence & paranoia
a. around town.
[ Riz is not doing well.
Riz is, it must be said, rarely doing well. He's the sort of kid who never learned to relax; no matter what, he always seems to be worried about something, the indefatigable machine that simply sprints from place to place, problem to problem, existing on a diet of convenience foods and coffee when left to his own devices, rarely sleeping. To some, he seems no worse than normal; the deep purple shadows underneath his eyes and the propensity to get startled easily and the tell-tale tremble of his hands from too much caffeine just being a part of what makes Riz, Riz. The only other oddity is the fact that he seems to shy away from his own reflection; whether it's a mirror, a pane of glass, or even a metal napkin receptacle, it gets covered up, avoided, or otherwise pushed out of sight.
But he's doing what he does best, which is pretending none of it exists in the first place. Perhaps you catch him late at night at the coffee shop, whiling away the wee hours of the morning with a cup of coffee approximately as large as his head, scribbling wildly in a thick notebook, his square spectacles sliding steadily down his nose. He startles when someone else comes in, jolting in his seat and knocking his cup askew -- possibly spilling it all over your shoes. ] Shit -- sorry, sorry! I wasn't expecting anyone here!
[ Or maybe you run into him during the daytime, at the grocery store shoving an absolutely obscene amount of beef into a shopping cart far bigger than he is, at the clothing store hunting down clothes for himself in the petit section (or childrens section but, well, beggars can't be choosers), or scarfing down food at an alarming rate in the diner. He's a man about town -- and a man who doesn't particularly want to be home too much right now.
Or perhaps you run into him somewhere else entirely, wandering around Bangsan Market, fingers drumming on his elaborately tattooed forearms. ] Okay. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, you just had the worst month ever. What kinda gift would cheer you up...?
[ Or are all gifts meaningless when you don't have to spend any money on them? Hm. Troubling. Very troubling. ]
b. first-aid refreshers.
[ In the wake of everything that's happened and with no handy Cleric nearby, Riz has made the decision to freshen up on his first-aid skills. You can spot him at the hospital loading an obscene amount of materials into his briefcase, which appears to be able to hold endless amounts of supplies; gauze, bandages, needles and thread, antiseptic and antibiotics, and ice packs and heat packs all make their way in.
Otherwise? He's in a public place like the diner, with an enormous tome on first-aid in front of him that he's frowning at in-between applying his expertise to a suturing practice kit he has laid in front of him, his nimble fingers hooking the needle steadfastly through silicone skin. If he notices he has an audience, he might glance up with a sheepish sort of smile, the knitting of his brows off-setting the row of razor-sharp teeth. ] I figure I should get some practice in while I still can. [ He glances down at the wound kits in front of him with a frown. ] I still haven't got the wound packing quite right, I don't think.
c. training.
[ First-aid training is one thing. Riz is dexterous and nimble and has a great attention to detail, all things that have led to him being a dab hand at figuring out how to deal with battlefield injuries. The physical part of the equation is something else, and something he's decided to dedicate himself to, his own exhaustion be damned.
His gunwork is fine. Great, even. He hits his marks with the consistency and precision they require. It's everything else that he's lacking in. Which is how you might spot him doing laps around a field, in a rare showing of having changed out of his usual stuffy suit-and-tie number, and... honestly, not doing that great. When he finally stops, hands braced on his knees and taking a swig out of a bottle of water, he looks like he might keel over.
Otherwise, you might find him on the training grounds, staring dubiously at the weights (he picks one up with both hands, slams it back down again, dubiously walking down the rack as the weights get smaller, and smaller, and smaller...) and looking over at the rest of the gym as though it contains any answers for him. Strength isn't his strong suit, he knows, but maybe he could be stronger? Or, perhaps, you see him with his rapier out, doing the same drills he'd been taught all those months ago at Aguefort Academy. If you pop in and look interested, he may well flag you down and ask, ] Hey, you here to train too?
d. friendship tour.
[ The last task on his to-do list is the hardest one of them all: trying to get better at being a friend, and not just some mechanism made for solving mysteries. It's clear that his brain has been failing him these days, which leaves one more option: trying to become a better friend.
If you're one of Riz's friends or acquaintances, whether he runs into you by chance or he texts you directly, Riz is going to be approaching you to check up on you. It's time to talk. About feelings. Not his own, obviously, but he's checking in on you -- with maybe some food to help ease the blow, or an offer to just get wonderfully, fabulously drunk. They deserve it. ]
e. wildcard!
[ hit me up for anything! you can find me on the discord or on plurk @ wisdombitch xoxoxo ]

no subject
You can't be all things to everyone. Riz knows that, just as much as he knows that he wouldn't have been much help to Rin at the tail end of everything that had happened. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't still feel a little bad about it; Rin was the first person to greet him here, his first friend. She deserves better than that. ]
Honestly, I wanted to check up on you again after all, um... that. It was pretty intense. [ He looks up at her, prominent brows furrowed. ] You doing okay?
no subject
Yeah, I'm doing okay.
[ She's got to. Even if there's still a part within her that is shaken from all that had transpired -- but she's got to go on. If she wants to save her friends at home, her world? Or else, find out what's really going on here? There's no way but forward.
A determined frown crosses her face. ]
I just... need to get stronger.
[ But then her smile's back again as she focuses her gaze back on Riz. ]
What about you? Did you make it out okay?
no subject
[ He grimaces at his own words. He's used to dissembling, deflecting, trying to avoid anyone looking at him too hard, trying to avoid fessing up to having an emotion or two in the first place. But that's an insane thing to say. Nobody could have been fine after the month they'd all had. It was the closest to Hell that Riz has ever been, and he's been to Hell. ]
I mean... it sucked, obviously. Everything sucked. But the important thing is, we live to fight another day, right? I'm trying to improve on my, um, martial skills too.
[ He was completely useless in the fight, or at least it felt that way. And Riz never, ever wants to feel powerless again. Clearly this is something that's possible to achieve and feasible to pursue. ]
But um, hey. If you wanted to talk about any of that. [ Riz clears his throat. He doesn't know how these talks go -- just that he wants Rin to know she's allowed to, if she wants to. ] I'm okay to listen?
no subject
[ She really doesn't want to be a burden to anyone, even though she does still feel the aftereffects of Im'mari's attack. The fears it showed her had some basis in reality, after all. Something like that really might be happening to her friends back home.
Thinking about it, though, it comes rushing back to her. She looks to the ground, shoulders tense. ]
W-well, uhm. I'm just scared, you know? Something similar to that... could really happen. Maybe it's happening right now. O-or maybe it happened long ago. I've been here for months, after all.
no subject
Uh-uh. No way. No how. He's not doing any of that. He strictly wants to be confided in without confiding in anyone else. Still, his motivations aren't anything less than altruistic; he likes Rin, and he worries for her, after everything that had happened. Sure, Riz had gone through a thing or two too, but it's nothing compared to that mess, and he's got friends at his side.
Rin is all alone in that big old dojo of hers. It sounds lonely. Riz knows a thing or two about loneliness, but not like that. ]
What do you mean by something similar? I don't really know what it was I was looking at back then. But if it helps... it's probably not happening right now.
no subject
No. If anything, it already has happened.
[ She shakes her head vigorously, trying to keep calm, even if there are already tears prickling at her eyes. ]
Sorry... what I mean, is before I came here, uhm... so you remember the girl? Shorter than me, likely younger too? She was helping me to rescue the guy on the table, and the really tall guy. One is my bodyguard, the other is her, uhm... friend, I guess? I don't know what exactly to call them.
Anyway, the men were arrested... and used in horrible experiments for months. So we had to infiltrate the prison where they were being held. But before we could accomplish that, I landed here.
[ Excuse her, a small sob does make it out of her mouth. ]
no subject
[ It occurs to him all at once that he doesn't know very much about Rin. Not really. He doesn't know about her home, or her family, or her life prior to coming here. There's some glimmer of shame deep in his belly at that realization,that Rin has been dealing with all of this on her own for all this time, all of this fear and hardship no doubt preying on her mind until something unearthed itself to take advantage of exactly that.
He hopes she's had better friends beside her than him, who listened to her and comforted her. He's not sure that she does. But he can listen now, at least. He reaches up to put a hand on her shoulder, meant to be at least a comfort as he watches tears spring to her eyes. ]
Time doesn't pass back home while we're here. We have evidence from people who have been home. So whatever's happened, whatever's happening -- it's not happening now. You didn't fail. You still have a shot at helping them.