Waking the Dead 2.0 || May 18, 2063 || The Mandatory Hot Springs Episode

[kawaakari]

[The skies are clear, the air is cool, and overall? Conditions are perfect for spending the entire afternoon and maybe even the entire night at the hot springs within Seigi. It's open to Zangyaku operatives and their families, along with any of their guests.

Oh, they're also communal. Surely no one minds? It's just skin, after all.

You're allowed to smoke, drink and eat while you're chilling out in the pools. You can also play cards, have a round (or several) of ping pong, flop around... anything goes, as long as you don't kill anybody!]



OOC Notes:
+ Make your own threads, plot out your own shenanigans and whatever else. Just remember: War Hounds and the rest were probably invited there after lunch, and are more than welcome to spend the rest of the day there. Y'all might want to specify the time. :3
+ NPCs are available on call beyond the threads I set up in here (if I end up setting some up, anyway)! Lemme know if you have questions.

Comments

[atlas_shrugged]

[ His mind has tactically gone through every angle he can think of. The most strategic way to do this: Just approach Kasumi and sit down like it were nothing.

After Taning's little comment earlier, Brig's worried that Hikaru may know about his evening conversations with the Lady of the Night. But Brig isn't hiding anything; he just wants to keep things on the down low cause he's not quite sure about what he's been doing, or feeling. He knows Kaz overheard the comment too. He'll probably tell Kaz soon. Get it off his chest. See what his blademate thinks.

Brig brings with him a bottle of sake. He takes off his towel as he sits down beside Kasumi in the water. ]

I hope you don't mind if I join you, Kasumi-san. [ He smiles as he offers to pour for her as her cup's running dry ]

[kawaakari]

I don't mind at all.

[Lifting her cup in his direction, smiling in return.]

I hope that you are enjoying yourself.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ After finishing pouring, he leans back onto the side of the pool and into the water ] I actually am, Ma'am. Sat down with Inquisitor Setsuna, listened to Inquisitor Selene's music on the koto, had a crazy pingpong match with my blademate, and had a drinking marathon with the Brands.

[ He lights a cigarette and takes a drag ] And you?

[kawaakari]

A crazy pingpong match, you say?

[Lifting an eyebrow at that. Everything else seemed pretty normal, in her opinion.]

[atlas_shrugged]

[ He's noticing how she totally deflects his questions. He's gotten used to it. ]

Well, apparently Taning, Inquisitor Fukuzawa's student, gets super supernatural when he's high. [ Brig thinks of how inhuman the match got. It makes him smile. It was so much fun. ] That, his mage-stuff and his iaido-mastery was just a bit too much even for me to beat. Close or no, Taning owned that match.

[ Brigade chuckles a bit ] He becomes a pingpong god, and a very loose-mouthed goofball. [ He says the last word with fondness ]

[kawaakari]

I see.

[She is open about her amusement. No need to hide it.]

He is rather different from his master.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brig thinks on how he met Taning ] For a while, when I first met him, I think he could've ended up more like Tohru. [ He takes a sip of his sake ] But having spent more time with him, yeah, he is very different. They're only alike when Taning goes on serious-mode.

[kawaakari]

Well, they do appear to have several things in common beyond their dispositions.

[Yeah, she's kind of read Taning's file. It's her job, okay.]

He does appear to be good for Tohru, though.

[atlas_shrugged]

I don't know Inquisitor Fukuzawa enough to comment on that, really. But if he is, I do believe I would like to get to know him better. [ He does mean it. As hardedge as Tohru is, Brigade respects his ability and personality. And his undying love and loyalty to his son ]

I'd have to agree on him being good for him though, Ma'am. [ He wants to call her by her name again, but old habits die hard ] Taning, actually, has been very good for everyone in the Blade, I believe.

[kawaakari]

Perhaps you should approach him sometime, if you haven't already.

[And that, my friend, is the only warning that you're going to get.

That little mental message is for Tohru, of course.]

And is Taning good for your blade because he helps you watch over them?

[atlas_shrugged]

I do plan to, Ma'am. Just setting up when to approach him. I'd like not to waste his time. [ Because Brig respects the no-nonsense aura Tohru gives off ]

No, not really, Ma'am. Although, yes, I do watch over all of them. [ He takes a drag of his cigarette. ] It's more that Taning is a good influence. He keeps everyone grounded. He reminds everyone, by just being Taning - not the Obrimos Mage, not the Iaidoka Master, not the Adamantine Arrow; Just Taning Marasigan - , to be good people, and that they are good people.

[kawaakari]

And you feel that you cannot do that as well?

[Watching him now.]

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brig would like to think he can. But he admits that - ] Not as good as Taning can, Ma'am. I'd like to think I'm a good man helping people to be good people. But I'm rigid and stiff. Taning, well, he seems like he hasn't lost the child in him, even with all the shit that's happened in his life. And that, that just exudes out of him without him even trying.

[kawaakari]

[A thoughtful noise.]

Well, an inner child lost could also be an inner child regained, or an inner child developed if there wasn't one to begin with.

[And looking at you now, almost teasingly.]

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE! Nyahar. Thank god for timeskip with Aidan

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Her words don't slide over him. He remembers his talk with Father Aidan. He was born a soldier. An adult soldier. He had no childhood years ]

[ He just looks at her. Stick in his mouth. Not puffing. ] Now you're just making fun of me. [ But that's just Brig picking up Hikaru's bad habit of deflecting. A curl of a smile on the edge of his lips. ]

I don't know what you're talking about. :3

[kawaakari]

Or I make a valid point.

[She totally makes a valid point, right? Right???]

lalalalala. haha

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brig keeps smiling. But yes, she does. ] True. It won't get me baby pictures for you to look at though. [ Now he's just making light of things. But he gives her a look and a nod that he does understand what she's driving at. ]

[kawaakari]

[That's enough for her.]

No need. Giving me the pleasure of watching you try and inevitably succeed as you are will be enough.

[atlas_shrugged]

Thank you. [ He downs his sake and sits a little closer to Kasumi ] I'll think on it. But thank you. [ He lights up a new cigarette and quietly sits with her ] I will miss these.

[kawaakari]

It seems as though there will be many things that you will miss when you go.

[He had started waxing nostalgic, after all, during one of their previous sessions. It was nothing outside of what Kasumi was expecting from him, though.]

[atlas_shrugged]

Aside from Great Koi, Ma'am? [ He glances sideways at her ] I'll miss these conversations.

[kawaakari]

It's almost like you are saying goodbye to me already.

[Lifting an eyebrow.]

We still have one more night.

[atlas_shrugged]

And I'm both happy and sad about it. [ He knows he's going to miss talking to her. ] Would you be up for a change of scenery tomorrow night? Sit at the Great Koi's pond?

[kawaakari]

Very well. As things stand, it would be good for us to keep him company.

[atlas_shrugged]

Nico Raio said that he rarely ever gets guests, Ma'am. [ He thinks of the Great Koi and how happy he seemed with Taning's pinwheel boat ] But are there any other reasons why keeping him company would be good? [ He's not quite sure about her last remark. ]