(OPEN) TAKE MY HAND

[tarotcards]

Who: Souji Seta (tarotcards) and literally anyone
When: Early April
Where: Capablanca
What: Eating diamonds and nails, catching fish, making bee puns, oh my | Job: Actually, It Better Be Raw + Obligatory Beach Episode
Rating: None


001 - DON'T YOU PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH

[ Souji doesn't necessarily call himself a "foodie". He doesn't go around looking to try exotic dishes to widen his palate, and he's certainly not a connoisseur. He likes to think that he's a decent cook, but he's nothing so sophisticated with food that he'd call himself a gourmet. However, he is always open to trying out something new to eat so when he's sent to a seaside town with a large food market, he takes a break to browse through it. ]

[ Everything smells great and looks even better. He certainly doesn't have a black hole of a stomach like his Persona predecessor, but he does want to try a little bit of everything. Who knows how long he'd be here anyway. Plus... he's always been as curious as those cats he loves so much so why not? ]

[ Unfortunately for him, curiosity also killed those exact same cats. ]

[ Any of the following things could happen while he's in the market: ]

[ A: He can be seen examining some of the cooked dishes at one of the stalls, standing there with a cat clinging to his leg (totally not bothered by it), and just randomly asking the person next to him: "What do you think? The lasagna or should I just skip right to dessert?". That or maybe the person next to him hears him mumbling, "at least it's not singing..." ]

[ B: He's just eating one of his meals quite happily when all of a sudden, he stops. He just literally freezes in place, grabs a tissue, and... spits out a diamond. Not just any kind of tiny plastic thing, but an actual genuine "probably would murder your best friend to get a hold of that diamond" diamond. Be there when he spits it out or when he just goes "uhhhhhh" after he has it in his hand. ]

[ C: It's the same as the above but instead of freezing in place, he suddenly jolts (and maybe bumps into the person behind him) and puts a hand to his mouth. He won't apologize right away to the poor sap behind him right away because he immediately spits out food in his mouth to reveal... rusty nails, glass, and blood. Someone call for a medic. ]

002 - PRESS O FOR FISH

[ Gathering food supplies is not that bad. It sounds decently simple and Souji would like to gather things without having to steal them from someone's backyard, so when he hears the whispers of it being fishing season, he takes off right away. ]

[ While Souji's not some food gourmet, he's, at least, a fishing champion. He's proud to say that he even caught The Guardian of the Samegawa Flood Plain back in Inaba (even though it meant that he often had to go out at night and stand in the rain for it), so catching a bunch of regular fish? Piece of cake. ]

[ He stands by a river, fishing rod in hand and with a bucket full of bait. Submerged in the river is also a mesh basket that seems to hold a considerable amount of fish, more than enough to take back, but he's not stopping. He just continues to fish, continuing to separate countless Flounders from their Ariels. When will he stop? No one knows. ]

[ No one. ]

003 - *STABS WITH TOOTHPICK*

[ You know what's great? Honey. You know what's not great? Getting stung by a bunch of bees. ]

[ Souji knows better than to just charge in there and pull off a wild hive off a tree. That's practically just asking a one-way trip to the hospital and for fussy healers to pull on your ear for doing something so foolish. However, he notices the change in the temperature and by the look of everything... it's likely that a storm is approaching, so if he wants to get any of that delicious honey back to that chef, he'd have to act fast. ]

[ He looks up at the hive and then to whoever's stuck here as well. ]

... May-bee we should work together.

[ Yeah.... yeah................... ]

004 - WILD CARD, BITCHES

[ Maybe Souji's walking down the beach and he's sweet talking a mermaid (no he's not). Maybe he's trying to get his cat down from a tree because she saw a bird and she had to get it (that's probably happening). Maybe he's still dying from the fact that he had a nail in his tongue (it sucks). Regardless, this is a wild card so feel free to do anything! ]

Comments

003

[carptricks]

[. . . . . . . . . .]

[the ellipses that follow Souji's misplaced pun are practically audible in the silence. Kaito stands there next to his fellow hero, arms folded across his torso, expression flat. he wants to get this portion of the job over and done with as soon as possible, especially with a rain storm on the way, but he also has standards]

Only if you promise that you won't break out any more "bee" puns while we're here.

[tarotcards]

[ Souji just smiles at him. He either notices the dead reaction to his pun and says nothing about it or he doesn't care at all. Regardless, he seems a little proud of his joke. ]

Promise. You can bee-lieve me.

[ .......... ]

... That's the last one.

[carptricks]

[. . . . . . . . . . .]

I could just walk away right now. Let you handle the bees, since you're probably the bee-gest bee fan around these parts.

[KAITO NO. DON'T SELL OUT]

[tarotcards]

[ OH, IS THAT HOW HE'S GOING TO PLAY? Kaito really shouldn't have indulged Souji because he's going to break his promise so goddamn fast for this. ]

May-bee, but we both know all the buzz about honey and how much it'd get us.

[ You did this, Kaito. You let this continue. ]

[carptricks]

[he has no one but himself to blame, here. and Souji. for starting it]

I don't know if this is a road I'm ready to go down just yet. Once someone walks down the path of puns, there's no coming back.

It sounds like you're already too far gone.

[tarotcards]

[ If Kaito didn't make a pun in return then Souji would have kindly dropped it, but look at what happened instead. ]

I don't know. I thought we were hive-minding a bit earlier when you made that pun, so aren't we on this road together?

[carptricks]

[WHAT HELL HAS HE WROUGHT UPON HIMSELF. he regrets his choices. he regrets them so much]

Sheesh, you're not gonna stop, are you?

[he slips behind Souji. places his hands against his back, and shoves]

Just for that, you get to climb the tree and fetch the hive.

[tarotcards]

[ No one can help Kaito now. He better pick a God and pray, but whoa whoa whoa, don't be pushing him towards the tree! Souji totally tries to resist the shoving. ]

That sounds like a really bad idea.

[carptricks]

[at least his pushing is halfhearted?? when Souji resists, he lets his arms fall back to his sides]

How else are we supposed to get the honey? I dunno if bees are susceptible to my illusions.

[if they are, though, he could always conjure up the smell of flowers to lure the bees out of the hive. . .]

[in this thread: it is obvious that Kaito is no beekeeper]

[tarotcards]

[ Hmm, Souji brings up a hand to his chin, thinking. ]

We should probably try to lure them away or calm them down. Smoke or flowers should help.

[ Either one, he thinks. He's not too sure, but he thinks that smoke is what beekeepers use. ]

[carptricks]

Smoke. That's what I've seen actual beekeepers use.

[but do either of them have a bee smoker?? illusory smoke certainly wouldn't have the same effect as real smoke]

Although we probably shouldn't set a fire anywhere near the hive.

[or they'll wind up burning all of the honey. . .]

[tarotcards]

[ He looks up and around, then against the way the wind is coming from. ]

We should start a fire in the opposite direction of where the wind is blowing. That should carry the smoke over to the hive.

[ But how will they start the fire? Hmmm. ]

[carptricks]

[fire and wind, is it? ha! guess which two magical spells Kaito's been practicing recently]

Heh. . .! That's not a bad idea. Don't worry; I've got us covered.

[with a wave of his hand, he walks a few feet away from the tree. with both eyes squinted and his tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration, he mentally calculates the position of the soon-to-be fire relative to the hive and the wind. they want the smoke blown towards the bees, after all.]

[and once a few moments of silence pass, he nods in satisfaction and crouches down against the ground]

Bring me some branches and leaves, will you? Stuff that'll burn for a few minutes at least.

[tarotcards]

[ Souji follows along, keeping an eye on the sky to gauge the weather (hm, they should probably try to speed things up if they want to get out of the rain just in time). He looks back down at Kaito and nods. ]

Got it. Give me a moment.

[ It doesn't take him too long to really gather an armful of dead branches and leaves. With how the wind is blowing now, it's practically knocking over anything either dead or too weak to cling on, so it was just a matter of picking some up. He comes back about a minute or two later and carefully places them on the ground. ]

This should be enough.

[carptricks]

Plenty enough.

[Kaito also casts a hasty glance at the sky, because the way the wind is suddenly picking up makes him a little nervous. with a breath, he holds out his closed fist and gives his wrist a dramatic flick and a twist, as though he's attempting to pull something out of thin air. the movement ends with him opening his palm flat, facing upward]

[and with a flicker and a spark, a ball of flame suddenly bursts into life in said hand]

This should do it. Watch. . .

[he drops the ball of fire onto the dead branches and leaves, which ignite immediately. the flame slowly begins to consume them, the fire growing with every second that passes]

[tarotcards]

[ This is the second time he's watched Kaito use magic in front of him and it's still fascinating. There's something about it, just being in a world that allows everyone to use magic without a Persona, it's just kind of amazing... ]

[ He stands up straight and watches the smoke blow in the direction of the beehive. It takes a minute or two, but the activity of the bees seems to slowly die down. ]

It looks like it's working. At this rate, we should be able to grab the hive in a few minutes. [ He thinks. ] We just need to figure out how to retrieve it.

[carptricks]

[oh good, the natural wind means Kaito doesn't have to conjure up a few gusts of his own to ensure the smoke reaches its target. that'll save him some mana for sure]

We'll have to take the hive off of the tree, and from there-- er. . .

[and now his lack of beekeeping knowledge is coming into play again]

I don't know how to extract honey from a hive.

[tarotcards]

[ Souji is not a beekeeper so he realizes that he... also doesn't really know how to do this. UMMMM ]

... I'm not entirely too sure either. [ They probably should have thought of this before smoking out the bees... ] Maybe we should just take the entire hive back for the chef?

[carptricks]

Maybe he'll get stung if we do that. Heh.

[his mouth quirks into an amused little grin, because at this point, Kaito was well aware how picky their employer was. but upon realizing that wishing for someone to get stung by bees is not a very nice thought to have, he coughs and immediately moves on]

I think that's probably the best thing we can do, honesty. I bet he knows how to extract honey from honeycomb.

[tarotcards]

[ Kaito, that's just rude. Don't wish harm onto others, okay, but... yeah, Souji knows that the chef is insanely picky. He brought over some fish that he caught earlier and maybe only half of those were accepted. What is he going to do with all this extra fish now... ]

He's pretty particular on what we bring him, so it might be best if we just bring it to him whole. [ He starts walking back to the tree, trying to get a closer look at the hive (after they properly put out the fire, of course). ] We'd have to be careful in cutting the hive from the tree as well.

[carptricks]

[Kaito got yelled at for bringing red apples to the chef for an apple pie recipe. no one makes pies with red apples! they have to be green!!]

Let's just hope he doesn't yell at us for not extracting the honey beforehand, yeah?

[follows Souji as they get closer to the bee hive. looks like the smoke did its trick, and most of the bees are calm and docile now]

[tarotcards]

[ Has Kaito just considered maybe that's his own fault? Has he ever made an apple pie before? Granny Smith apples are the way to go. God, Kaito, get your life together. ]

Then we can just extract it in front of him. He can walk us through it so it's to his liking. [ And Souji will stand there with a smile the entire time. He can totally play the 'overly nice with a smile' card. ] ... But I don't suppose you're a good tree climber, are you?

[ If not, Souji could... attempt. ]

[carptricks]

[HE'S A MAGICIAN NOT A COOK GOD!! DON'T JUDGE HIM]

I'm a great tree climber, but. . .

[but he doesn't want to be the one to pick that hive]

Remember how I said picking the hive was your punishment for those puns?