THE GALA ON ADSUM (Mingle Log)

[serpentis]

Who: Anyone and Everyone!
Broadcast: Nope!
Action: A ballroom on Adsum
When: 2/21, Evening-Night



[And the night has arrived! Dorian put out an open invitation, and anyone who is interested is welcome to dress up and meet up for a night of dancing and fawning over each other. Make sure to wear your best, everyone! It's a very special episode of Drift Fleet!]

((OOC: There was an open invitiation, but even if your character never replied or has had personal contact with Dorian, feel free to assume he's let them come along or be dragged along by someone else! I'll be tagging some threads, but if you want a thread to be closed, please just say so in the header.))

Comments

[ino]

I'm Ino. Nice to meet you.

[ No last name. It's not important, here. ]

It's not too personal. I'm talking about zombie invasions and magical castles that eat your feelings and demonic rituals and stuff. [ A shrug. ] Compared to that, this is a piece of cake.

1/3

[cabbagedetective]

[Adachi almost spills his drink. What the hell?! How could she say any of that so nonchalantly?! Zombie invasions, demonic rituals, magic castles-]

2/3

[cabbagedetective]

[Wait, magic castles? Could she mean... Paradisa? Ino! She said her name was Ino! Is she...]

3/3

[cabbagedetective]

[Surprise and realization plasters itself across Adachi's face.]

You're THAT Ino?! The "freeze-out" Ino?!

[ino]

[ She squints at him. Did she have some kind of reputation she didn't know about? ]

"Freeze-out"?

[cabbagedetective]

[Adachi realizes he let his mouth get away from him on this one. Old habit? In the past, he had feigned it, but maybe something had stuck. It also could do with the fact that he was having a harder time focusing around this girl. Seriously, what was going on?]

Oh, well- um... [Adachi chuckles nervously.] Someone told me that you were in Paradisa... and uh, ah heh... I don't really know what the "freeze out" bit means. Honest.

[ino]

[ Suddenly, this is very serious. ]

Who was it, and what did they say exactly?

[cabbagedetective]

[Adachi chuckles, seemingly more nervous now then before. Although, this time... there may be some sincerity to it. I mean, this was an awfully amusing reaction he was getting out of Ino. Should he throw Crowley under the bus now... or string it along a little more...]

No- nothing bad was said. I promise. [Adachi slips into his flustered, blundering persona like an old, comfy sweater.] I only know your name, because I was asking about people from Paradisa. That's all.

[ino]

[ Oh come on, Adachi. Don't cover for them!

Out of all the people who know her from Paradisa, though, there's really only one who comes to mind who would say something weird like that ... ]

It was Crowley, wasn't it? Tall, dark hair, sunglasses?

[cabbagedetective]

[Whoa! This girl was good. How did she figure that out? Well, sorry Crowley-san. Guess Adachi will owe him a drink later to make up for it.]

Oh, uh... ah heh... I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it. He was just trying to be helpful.

[Adachi rubs the back of his neck, looking guilty and not like he wasn't utterly enjoying this.]

[ino]

Oh, he meant it, alright. Crowley's joy in life is making everybody's life difficult.

[ I mean, she'd still trust him with her life, but she couldn't honestly say he'd never done anything to annoy her.

But she huffs, putting that to the side. Crowley will get an earful from her later ]

In any case, yes, I am from Paradisa, just like he is.

[cabbagedetective]

Ah heh, I'm sure he means well.

[And that's all that Adachi feels he's obligated to offer in his drinking buddy's defense.]

Wow though, it sounds like Paradisa was miserable. I mean, that's a lot to go through.

[So it seems that Crowley was telling the truth about that place. Adachi figured it was too convoluted not to be true. Still, Ino's confirmation made him uneasy. He needed to learn more about his time there.]

[ino]

[ Rolls her eyes. She has known Crowley for a good third of her life at this point, she knows he was purposely being a butt. But she'll drop it, either way ]

It had its ups and downs. In the end, I'm better prepared for anything Atroma wants to pull out of their ass.

[cabbagedetective]

[She said "their" when referring to Atroma. So it's becoming more and more likely that Atroma refers to a collection of people, and not just one individual. Adachi makes a note of this before he continues. Since she didn't seem to know him when she approached, it was unlikely, but he figured he should ask her anyways.]

According to Crowley-san, I once lived in Paradisa too. Thing is, I don't remember any of it. [Adachi pauses briefly before he finally asks the question.] Do you remember me from there at all?

[ino]

[ She looks at him thoughtfully ]

You don't really look familiar. [ Her memories are hazy in some spots, though ... but then again, she can easily attribute not remembering him to how many people came and went in the entire time she was there. ] But if you talk about the people you know, I might know them. People tended to come in groups from their respective worlds, there.

[cabbagedetective]

The people I know? You mean from home? Because like I said, I don't remember anything from when I was apparently living in that Paradisa place.

[ino]

Yes, the people you know from your world. If you aren't able to remember Paradisa then it means this version of you technically never went there.

[cabbagedetective]

[Maybe the alcohol was getting to him or it was this girls "aura", but Adachi was having a hard time wrapping his head around this new information. This version of him? The hell does that mean?]

Uh, okay. Do any of these names ring a bell: Ryotaro Dojima, Nanako Dojima or...

[Adachi pauses. He may look like he's trying to think of a third name, but really he's deciding whether or not to say it. He figures he might as well try, but depending on Ino's response... things could get difficult.]

Yu Narukami?

[ino]

--Eh? You know Nanako-chan?

[ Paradisa's version of Yu went by Souji -- not that she knew him well. But she definitely knew about Nanako. Kids that young in Paradisa were usually loved and protected by everyone. ]

[cabbagedetective]

[Adachi's legitimately surprised that one of those names was recognized. I mean, what were the odds? And it was Nanako-chan of all people. Why would the "magic castle" bring the two of them there? Why not Dojima? Or Yu?]

Ah! Yes! Nanako-chan is Dojima-san's, er- my partner's daughter. She was in Paradisa too?!

[ino]

[ Pretty high, if you consider the thousands of people that came and went through Paradisa. Though, how could Adachi know?

She smiles, though -- ]

Yeah, she was there. When there's a kid that little that passes through, they end up getting taken care of by just about everyone. So don't worry, she was in good hands while she was there.

[cabbagedetective]

Thank you for looking after her. I'm glad to hear she was well taken care of. [The strange thing was... he sort of meant it too...] But then... if she was there, and I was there... how did no one back home notice?

[ino]

We never quite figured that one out, but it seemed like any time in Paradisa existed in the span of a split second -- if that -- wherever you came from. And any memories of the place get wiped when you return home, as well.

[cabbagedetective]

So... it's like Paradisa existed out of time? A pocket dimension?

[Adachi may not always look it, but, when he gets a chance to show off and try to sound smart, he'll take it. Especially if there's an attractive girl to impress.]

Could this place operate the same way?

[It seemed possible. Time did operate differently during space travel, right? But that would mean time was going by faster back home? Agh, Adachi was trying to remember everything he could from his school studies. It'd been a while since he needed to have any sort of space-related expertise.]

[ino]

Something like that.

[ Sadly, she is not all that impressed by him knowing the terms that were frequently thrown around in reference to the place. ]

It seems like it may be possible, but we also have some cases -- like myself -- of people coming directly from other similar places, so we don't exactly know if the case is the same there.