Plot || The Star Wars Vaikuntha Special

[hatejakku]

Who: Open
When: June 8-14
Where: Everywhere
What: The race for the crystals is on!!
Warnings/Notes: OOC Post


Crystals have fallen out of the Dream Width in a beautiful meteor shower and scattered all over the world! Due to their origins and mysterious properties, the Curti Center is interested in gathering as many as they can for researching purposes. To incentivize the public in helping out, O'aka has donated a few silver coupons to those top few who collect the most crystals. There's also a rumor that the one person (or more if there's a tie) who collects the most, wins something marvelous and mysterious~

The hunt for these crystals have taken storm across Vaikuntha and they're suddenly worth a lot. It's all anyone talks about anymore! The locals have gone crazy with it! If you weren't interested to begin with, surely the madness that is this new fad has sunk its teeth in. Besides, who knows what the crystals can actually do? Are they gifts? Curses? Dust collectors? Only one way to find out.

NAVIGATION
❄️ Snow	🔎 Shadow	🔥 Flame	🌼 Flower	☔ Rain	☀️ Sun	❤️ Love	🌵 Arrow
🎭 Sword	🎶 Chime	👻 Grey	🥚 Egg	✉️ Chrome	🏁 Rainbow	🐹 Plasma

LEADERBOARD
Character	| Crystals
Klonoa	| 08 ❄️🔎❤️🌵🎭👻✉️🐹
Kuja	| 07 🔎🌼🎭🎶👻✉️🐹
Frisk.bin	| 06 🔎☔🌵🎭✉️🐹
Uendo	| 05 ❄️🔎🎶✉️🐹
Corrin	| 04 ☔❤️🌵🎭
Red	| 03 🌵🎭✉️
Okuyasu	| 03 ❄️🌼🐹
Tyzias	| 02 ❄️🐹
Megatron	| 02 🌼🐹
Maul	| 02 👻🏁
Sephiroth	| 02 🌼✉️
Naoto	| 02 ❤️✉️
Adrien	| 01 ❄️
Castor	| 01 ✉️
Selphie	| 01 🌵
Pidge	| 01 🥚
Minimus	| 01 🌵
Kenichi	| 01 🐹
Papyrus	| 01 🔎
Naomi	| 01 🌼
Ovelia	| 01 🌼
Asriel	| 01 🎭
Kanji	| 01 ❤️

Comments

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Need you even ask? Someone has to keep you out of trouble.

[Okuyasu may be strong, but given how the last excursion into this forest went, Kisegawa's not in favor of letting anyone go in alone.

Though she has to admit, the forest doesn't feel as threatening as it did before. Maybe it's just the lack of fog?]

...This place looks so much nicer this time of year.

[righthandstand]

Yeah. That's fair.

[Uendo's the smart adult to keep Okuyasu's dumbass tendencies in check. Off they go! The deep, rich smell of leaves, the quiet twittering of birds, the soft dirt path underfoot. Summer is a beautiful time.]

The air's healthier, too. [To prove his point, he stops to take a deep breath in, hold it for five seconds, and breath out slowly.] Yeah. Why'd I never go here before?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

It was utterly miserable in October. You couldn't see two feet in front of you -- and that was before we had disembodied voices trying to lure us off the path.

[They were pretty successful, too. It was a miracle nothing worse ended up happening.]

[righthandstand]

[He stops in his tracks.]

...So that's why no one's finding shit. [He shuffles to the side, right next to Kisegawa.] Stay close for safety.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

[She stops as well and studies him for a moment. Then she allows herself a small chuckle.]

Heh. I came here to look after you, and now you're protecting me? [Still a little amused, she starts walking again.] You're quite a sweet boy when you want to be, Okuyasu.

[righthandstand]

[He edges a way from Kisegawa, though still keeping within arm's length of her.]

I'm not chicken.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

I wasn't making fun of you. It's not a bad thing, having a dependable guy around.

[Not that she's afraid of anyone or anything, but... Well, she does trust Okuyasu. There aren't many people she can say that about.]

[righthandstand]

["But you're the adult," he almost says.]

Yeah, well, I'm a Monk. You're a magician. It's a balance, right? Muscles and brains.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

So it is.

...Though really, you're not as short on brains as you seem to think. [You're better off than Patches, anyway, she adds to herself.

'Hey,' echoes a protest. She ignores it.]

[righthandstand]

[He searches his memory for the reason she says that. He's god with animals. He's good in a fight. He's not totally useless.]

I guess. But it's still, like, I'm not the plans guy of the team.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

That's fine, isn't it? You have other strengths you bring to the table.

[She's delaying the inevitable, she knows. This is about as private as it's going to get, and monster attacks are looking unlikely. Why keep dallying?

They meant to bring it up sooner, after the conversation went so well with Sasami... But then May rolled around, and with it the anniversary of Shisho's death, and suddenly everything was too much again. But now they've run out of excuses. If they can't trust Okuyasu with the truth, who can they trust?

Doesn't make it any less nerve-wracking.]

Hey. Can I tell you something very personal?

[righthandstand]

Shoot.

[Adults have deep, dark secrets - look at his own dad, Kira the serial killer, Rohan the asshole artist - but Uendo is a cool dude. He's not a murderer.]

Is it about your Shisho?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Not exactly... but it does involve him, too.

[There's a heavy pause, as none of them really want to be the one to say it.]

Do you remember the crime scene after Shisho was killed? Specifically, the message on the karuta cards before I rearranged them?

[righthandstand]

Yeah. About a guy named Owen. [Presumably, he's someone else in the school that Uendo didn't want to be framed for murder. That just shows that he has a good heart, even if he does the wrong things.] Whatever happened to him?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

I was told he testified at Bucky's trial and that's how Geiru was caught. After that... I don't know.

[And that right there is the other reason they need people to know the truth. Without outside help, they have no way of finding out what happened to Owen. Has he been completely dormant this whole time? Or has he had moments of awareness, with the rest of them being none the wiser? He shouldn't have -- they've been so careful to avoid touching alcohol, or anything else that might bring him to the surface and give them away.

Now, Kisegawa is no longer sure that was the right thing to do. It would be easier to keep ignoring the problem, to pretend things are fine with just the three of them, but... She, Patches, and Uendo at least have each other. With Shisho dead and Geiru arrested, Owen is all alone...]

You must have wondered why I didn't say anything about him.

[righthandstand]

I mean, he probably should've thanked you for tryin' to get him off the hook... [But Uendo must have forgotten to mention him. Some things are hard to remember, especially when they are related to really bad memories. Okuyasu doesn't blame him.]

But it musta been awkward when he found out. Were you friends?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Well, about that... I've never met him, actually. You see, um...

[Uendo is speaking now, and immediately trips over his words. Geez, this is not going as smoothly as he planned.]

...I was hoping talking about Owen would work as a natural lead-in to what I wanted to tell you, but there's really no way to make it less jarring, huh. [He flounders for a moment, then just... gives up.] Hey, you ever heard of multiple personalities?

[Nailed it.]

[righthandstand]

[The dots do not connect. Owen...multiple personalities...he's missing something here.]

Yeah. That's when someone wakes up and they got another personality, but they don't remember what happened.

[He's only seen this in horror films, which is not the best way to be introduced to this issue. Multiple personalities...usually one of them is a murderer.]

Wait, so Owen had an alternate personality? [Is that why it was pinned on him?]

[whirluendo_of_puns]

That's... not totally wrong, but there's a bit more to it than that...

[Oh boy. Looks like explaining things to Okuyasu is going to take a bit more work than with Sasami.]

I think it would be more accurate to say he is one. Probably. I mean, I guess he could be the original for all I know, but I have enough of an identity crisis on a daily basis as it is so I'm not going to speculate on that.

[righthandstand]

Whose alternate personality is he?

[Uendo doesn't have one. He would have known if this was a guy named Owen walking around.]

But when I think about it...how can one personality go to jail for murder? What happens to the other one?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Uh. I... think jail would be a package deal, as it were...

['And here I was just saying he's not that short on brains,' Kisegawa grumbles.

Be nice, Kisegawa. Uendo can't really blame Okuyasu. It's not like he'd have that kind of information readily available in his time period, let alone any reason to look into it. But still, Uendo had hoped he'd catch on by now--]

Oh come oooon, what are you guys doing being so roundabout about it? You're making this way too complicated! [Patches has had enough. He stops directly in front of Okuyasu, holding up both hands as he makes eye contact.]

Okay, here's the deal. Dissociative Identity Disorder. Used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder, I think the name was changed after your time 'cause it was kinda misleading but the old one's probably the one you know -- anyway, the name's not important! Point is, we've got it.

[A heavy pause.]

I mean 'we' as in, we living in this head. Not me and you. I've got it, if that makes it easier. Well, technically it's Uendo who's got the diagnosis if we wanna get all official about it, but we're all in here anyway so really it goes for all of us. All four. I'm not Uendo by the way, in case that wasn't clear. Name's Patches, nice to finally meetcha!

[righthandstand]

...Makes sense. [Dummy, of course they both go to jail; they share the same body.] That must suck.

[Okuyasu follows that explanation. DID. That's what it's call. Uendo has it.

Wait.

He tilts his head.] What?

[This isn't Uendo just being happy? He sure isn't...you know.] So I was talkin' to you this whole time we were walkin'? What happened to Uendo?!

[Is he okay??? Is Patches a good alternate personality??]

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Relax, he's fine! He can still hear everything we're saying, don't worry!

And nah, we've switched twice in this conversation already. Uendo was talking to you until a second ago -- that was him being all awkward and fussy. And the one who first showed up here and brought up Owen was Kisegawa. She's listening to this too!

[righthandstand]

Uh...Hi?

[That's not the same guy? Every time he acted mature, that wasn't him? Okuyasu's head is starting to hurt.]

Wait, then...what?

[Where does he even start with the question?]

Shit, how many of you are there?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Four altogether! But it's just the three of us right now. Owen's a bit of a special case -- he's never awake with the rest of us. He's the only one you haven't met yet!

[Okay, Okuyasu looks confused, but not afraid or dismissive. So far so good...]

Now you see why we lost our marbles when we saw his name on those karuta cards, right? Owen's one of us, but we can't remember anything that happens while he's out and about. And then we wake up to find he was involved in Shisho's murder? It was terrible! We were scared out of our wits!