st-st-stand straight, keep it right on track

[nojohnyouare]

Who: Mai, you
What: Supply run, sign painting, and late-night attempts to get over a fear of her own powers.
When: July 16ish
Where: The forest and the viewing deck during the day, the farm at night
Warnings: Third prompt might bring up all Mai's issues with healing powers, otherwise not much.

[1 - forest]

[Mai's on an expedition! She's got her brand new sword in both hands, while Bear-san, off his leash, totters along beside her. If you come up to her, she'll nod at you.]

Supplies. You?

[2 - viewing deck]

[Mai's expedition yielded a roll of paper and some bottles of paint that probably fell out of an art room at some school or community centre. So that the paint doesn't stink up the station, she's painting out here, making various signs with the roll paper. The signs are... poorly drawn, with pictures of flames, food, and for some reason, random animals. Mai finishes up a rabbit on a sign that reads GAMES.]

Hello. Do you want to paint too.

[3 - farm, midnight]

[Mai's alone down here in the middle of the night, eating a sad microwaveable lasagna. She's not down for the animals this time. Instead, when it's quiet enough, she puts down her awful TV dinner and walks quietly and purposely to a sagging head of lettuce with browning leaves.

Mai takes a deep breath, kneels by it, and puts her hand over it. She shuts her eyes and concentrates on feeling, and the lettuce starts to green and perk up.]

Comments

viewing deck

[hairpincurves]

Oh!

[She perks up a little when she sees the signs.]

Are those for the fire festival?

[nojohnyouare]

[nod] The other you asked. And I found paper and paints. I still have a lot more to make.

[hairpincurves]

I volunteered to help with banners... I should probably work on those.

Are you looking forward to it?

[nojohnyouare]

...I think so. It's good. To have something everyone can be happy doing. And a lot of people are stressed.

2

[hurt_comforting]

Possibly. I know I want to help with the fire festival, anyway - roasting some stuff that won't blow off someone's head, and cooking some stuff that might.

"Burning things you don't like," hmn.

[nojohnyouare]

Effigies. You make them. Akira suggested some that don't burn, too.

[hurt_comforting]

...ah. One of those.

I think... I think there's someone I have in mind for that, unfortunately. And I'm sorry there's such a need.

[nojohnyouare]

Everyone has frustrations. So it's useful for anybody. Right?

[hurt_comforting]

Yeah. Some of us have rather outsized ones.

Gonna need a huge bonfire for some of the troubles we're burning.

[nojohnyouare]

Maybe that really is what we all have in common.

[hurt_comforting]

Carrying a weight here, and thinking it's too damn light now that we can put it down?

[nojohnyouare]

Right. People who were hurt. And who understand that maybe it's okay. Maybe not your fault if you're hurt.

[hurt_comforting]

[Meredith exhales, considering her next words and actions carefully.

...in the end, she just curtseys and offers her hand to shake.]

...Meredith Baker. I just got here, from the Incendia Rift.

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai bows, pauses, and then awkwardly shakes her hand.]

Kawasumi Mai. Sorry. Difficult. Conversation is hard.

[hurt_comforting]

Mmn. I wouldn't know what that's like [and if she sounds a little dry, or wistful, it's only a very little], but you have my sympathies.

Has it gotten easier, here?

Farms

[bloodyashes]

[Surely the best thing to do when you can't sleep is to go wandering around, right?

What other reason - okay no he's munching a couple of pea pods, but. Mai will probably 'spot' Asch by the fact that his music gives her successful attempt a small flourish of pleased-sounding flutes and harps. It's immediately followed by the sound of a sigh.]

Sorry. Just ignore me.

[nojohnyouare]

!

[Mai stands up straight and stares at him, unable to move from her spot.]

...Hello. Watching?

[help.]

[bloodyashes]

[Well that's a startle reaction if he's ever seen one.]

I won't tell anyone.

[nojohnyouare]

...Sorry.

[She breathes in and then out, then slowly shakes her head.]

Some people already know. But... Thank you. It might upset people to see. They treat the supernatural well here in general, but...

[bloodyashes]

...It's just a part of life where I come from. Fonic artes are like... Like being good at cooking, or drawing.

[Not anything special. But at the same time...]

For most people, it's just a skill they chose to learn.

[nojohnyouare]

I haven't really. Learned. It just came to me. Even with all the research I've done, I'd never come across someone like me. So I never understood the nature.

...I haven't used it to heal in a long time. But I need to learn it again. What about you?

[bloodyashes]

I know that feeling. The part of it that comes naturally to me...

[For just a moment, there's a feeling like a humming, not quite the same as the music that he still has trouble controlling, but - ]

- there's only one other person like me, and he doesn't really count.

[Not when Luke was made exactly to his image in the first place.]

The Seventh Fonon could be used for healing, but... I never learned, and there's no one who could teach me here.

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai nods slowly, closes her eyes for a second.]

...No one who understands it. Even in a place where you know all of what it can do. ...Are you treated well?

[bloodyashes]

Seventh Fonists in general are treated pretty well - they're the only people who can become healers.

[Which is kind of a thing that you need when your genre is "JRPG" and not "supernatural romance VN."]

But the power that's almost mine alone... People who know about it mostly want to use it as a weapon.

[Take that as you will.]

[nojohnyouare]

...

[She frowns slightly.]

Sorry. About your world. ...If it helps. People say that to me sometimes. Though I think it's not specific to a world, really. Just people being people.