(004) Further Explorations and a Call

[dreamofspice]

Action: Throughout the Day, Around Town

[Paprika is wandering around downtown, looking into all the shop windows and occasionally stopping in to check out stores. She hasn't bought anything, but she's browsing like she's looking for something. She isn't, actually, not really, but she's the type that likes to observe everything anyway. When drones greet her she answers back brightly and without any annoyance in her voice at all. If she sees a person, such as you perhaps, she'll wave and say hello.

Later on she'll be stopping by the more important buildings: City Hall, the Dairy, and the Police Station. She doesn't try to enter the Dairy, she just stands outside and looks at it. She pokes her head into City Hall for a bit, but doesn't stay long just in case. She doesn't linger long outside the Police Station either, but that doesn't keep her from looking.

Late afternoon she'll be at the roller rink, gliding around happily.]

Phone: Evening

So that was quite an eventful Valentine's Day, wasn't it? I know it's old news by now, and people are probably just trying to forget it, but denial isn't always the best in situations like this. It might be hard, but sometimes you just have to accept that you're not in control and move on!

Comments

Action - The Record Store

[princeofjunes]

[Hi Paprika! Behind the counter is one boy who definitely doesn't fit in with the drones in town - those bright headphones around his neck are always a dead giveaway. Yosuke's in the middle of changing a record on the store's record player when he notices her browsing, and he stops to smile and wave]

Hey! Haven't seen you around before. Looking for anything in particular?

[dreamofspice]

[Paprika, being Paprika, smiles and waves in return. It's always nice to see a friendly, non-drone face around.]

Hi! I'm not really looking for anything in particular, just doing follow up explorations, I guess you could say.

[princeofjunes]

[He nods]

So you're pretty new then? Well, if you have any questions, I don't mind helping. I've been here for- [his face falls slightly]

... almost a year, now.

[dreamofspice]

Well not brand new, but I've only been here a few months, so pretty new!

[She catches the change in expression.]

So you know a lot about the town, huh? Great! That's really helpful.

[princeofjunes]

Well, I know as much as any of the other long timers, but in the end it's not a hell of a lot.

Oh, right! I almost forgot! I'm Yosuke Hanamura. Nice to meet you!

[dreamofspice]

It's still good to have people who've been here a while so we can pool information and figure out how stuff that happens now relates to things that have already happened.

I'm Paprika! It's nice to meet you too, Yosuke!

[Phone]

[noluckduck]

People have different ways of dealin' with it, alright?

[dreamofspice]

That's true! But ignoring it is very rarely the best way.

[noluckduck]

It's not ignorin' it. It's tellin' other people they'd damn well better ignore it!

[dreamofspice]

It's very hard to forget something on purpose.

[noluckduck]

Literally? Well yeah, of course. That's pretty damn obvious.

[dreamofspice]

And not talking about it at all sometimes causes even more trouble. But if you don't want to talk about it then there's nothing anyone can do about that!

[noluckduck]

...

Are ya bein' a psychologist at me?

[ phone ]

[normality]

[ hmm, why does that voice sound familiar-- ah, the strange girl from last time, huh? ]

Well, to be honest, I didn't think Valentine's Day was all that bad. Actually, it was pretty nice.

[dreamofspice]

Nicer than what happened before that, definitely. But it sounds like most people didn't like it.

[normality]

I can't imagine how they would have.. I mean, didn't the flowers make a lot of people actually a lot more happy?

[dreamofspice]

Yes, but from what I hear when people looked back on what happened they got rather embarrassed about what they did.

[normality]

Maybe it's just a matter of personality. [ Because thinking about it, his girlfriend would find what they did pretty embarassing too, probably.. ]

I think it's better to just enjoy it when they don't do anything horrible to us for once.

[dreamofspice]

I think so too. From certain perspectives, what happened to some people was relatively horrible, though.

[phone]

[omg_thrall]

It was quite the eventful week, I will say that.

[dreamofspice]

It certainly was! I managed to avoid being affected myself, but it seems like most people weren't so lucky.

[omg_thrall]

I had to consult my "son" on how to preserve his memories of this day.

[dreamofspice]

Oh? And what did he say?

[omg_thrall]

He seemed to accept it. I told him to commit his memories to paper, and then we would offer them to the spirits in order to burn them into his heart.

[dreamofspice]

Well that's one way to do it, I suppose! Can't say I've ever thought about doing it that way, though.