crescentview | December Open Post/Catch All/Overflow

December Open Post/Catch All/Overflow

Who: Van Zieks and whoever
What: General catch all for bingos and other effects
When: December
Where: Various
Warnings: TBA

Something has gone terribly wrong? (December 9th)
[You are just minding your own business, walking on the beach, or through the wood, when you hear what is certainly an unfamiliar laugh. If you look around, you'll soon attach it to... van Zieks? No, this can't be him. He's smiling. He's barefoot and covered in dirt. His hair isn't immaculately combed back and he's simply wearing a loose cotton shirt with his tight lawyer pants, though he does have a sword now hanging at his waist, which is new. This cannot be van Zieks. Even the cadence of his voice is lacking his normal ominous grit, but the voice is certainly his otherwise.]

Oh, come here! I have something to show you.
[Seriously who the hell is this and what did he do with the real van Zieks???]

Nevermind, Uncle has the Depression Again (December 10th)
[The following day, van Zieks is back in his austere best, looking more glowery and somber than ever before, like he's making up for the time he lost yesterday. You may find him at his usual haunt in the darkest corner of the winery, OR if you're wandering around in the woods, you might find him surveying the plot of land on his farm, or rather, the chaos that the him of the day before wreaked, which is to say, something was done to the plots, but it's hard to tell if it was anything constructive because they're upturned earth everywhere. Van Zieks is leaning heavily on the shovel he's holding, looking tired.]

Let me know if you have something specific in mind for bingo
[Hit me up on discord or on plurk

agentmaine]

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[ Ellis walks over to van Zieks and tries to hold his hands. If he ever gets that done, he will try to pull him over to the ocean.

Suffer with him. ]

[Wildly, van Zieks absolutely does not resist having his hand held?? In fact he seems to be happy for it, grabbed hand gripping Ellis' in turn. But on no, the ocean!!! No he actually totally lets Ellis drag him in after him.]

Ah! Just as I suspected!
[Seriously who is this man.]

[ Who... Who is this person?! Ellis wants to shake his hand out of van Zieks's grip, but he lets it stay. He will get to the bottom of this...!!

Ellis hops, splashing water a little on van Zieks in the meantime. ]

[Oh!!! He knows this game!!! He splashes Ellis back.]

Haha, I haven't played in the water like this since I was a young boy! When you're not fully submerged, I think it's quite refreshing!
[THIS... RAMPANT POSITIVITY.]

[ Okay, Ellis no longer feels afraid. As long as van Zieks is happy, so be it. He will take advantage of however he turned out to be so happy in the moment, so Ellis splashes him back. Take this!! ]

[Ellis came to terms with wrong van Zieks so fast.... Van Zieks shouts when splashed, but in that "I'm having fun" way. Now properly drenched, he moves to push his wet hair out of his face, before... unbuttoning his shirt??? And taking it off??? The stuffy victorian lawyer is getting shirtless in public???

He soaking it in the water before twisting it up and trying to snap Ellis with it.]

Take this!!

[ Ellis shrieks. Not the rat tail!!!! Also, holy shit. van Zieks is getting undressed? He's shirtless?? After he goes splashing down into the water from the rat tail whip, Ellis grabs his own cheek and pulls on it. Is he dreaming?? Is van Zieks drunk??

...

He'll just go with it. Yeah. But it's hard not to stare?? He feels like this will never happen again. But he counters with a big splash over to him anyway, also to make his staring less obvious. ]

[ELLIS... Well for his efforts he will see that for someone whose job theoretically involves little to know physical activity, van Zieks is surprisingly stacked??

He shouts again when splashed, but after smoothing his hair back out of his face, he points to an outcropping of rock a ways down the beach.]

Hey, race you?

[ This man is so stacked... he can't imagine van Zieks going to the gym or anything, so how?? How does this work? Universe?!

Also, Ellis nods because that makes this more fun despite not having a competitive bone in his body. He gets ready for van Zieks to start the race. LET'S GOOOOO ]

[I would say it's genes but it's probably in large part because he has to make sure he's always ready to fend off attacks on his life. But don't worry about that now.

And yeah, as soon as Ellis nods, van Zieks is OFF. He's not, like, inordinately fast. About what you'd expect from a man of his size. Maybe Ellis has a chance?]

[ Let's just say that there's a reason why Ellis is basically a healthy stick. He loves exploring, which requires quite a bit of physical endurance, especially when it's the outdoors. That said... his speed is only average and van Zieks would definitely outrun him.

Also because I rolled a 2 lmfao ]

[The van Ziekses were blessed with very long legs, so he does have that in his favor? When Ellis finally catches up, van Zieks is sitting on one of the rocks, laughing through being slightly winded.]

Well, your forms not bad, at least!

[ wheezes

Ellis took so much effort in trying to catch up to still lose, but he's not much of a sore loser. He takes out his notepad: ]

You're really fun to be with.

[He blinks in surprised, but then laughs again.]

Well, that's something I haven't heard in a long time. No one liked that old fussy "Reaper" persona, so it's better to be like this, right?

But it's still you.

[ A part of van Zieks will always be the fussy Reaper persona. Ellis is assuming that means it's van Zieks's default mood, since he does seem scary sometimes, but sometimes he just seems tired. ]

I just think it's better to be both, even if this side is a little more private with someone you care about.

[He huffs.]

What's good about it? Even putting aside everything that came with that horrible title.

Was everyone scared of you?

[ People are normally scared of anything associated with the reaper, right? That's what Ellis seems to remember. ]

I don't think anybody will be scared of you here, so you should live freely while you still can.

Scared or just didn't want to be associated with me, pretty much.

[But damn, "while you still can,"]

But why set a limit on it? She won't let us go home until we get married, right? So as long as we don't get married, I don't have to go home.

But didn't you want to go home?

[ Van Zieks?? He knows you've gone loopy for a moment, but not this loopy?? }

I did, but not like, because it was better than here! The judiciary is in shambles, and even with the true identity of the reaper revealed, it's not like people are going to stop treating me like a grim spectre of death! In fact, it's probably going to be worse now! I'll go from The Reaper of the Bailey to the Brother of London's Most Notorious Serial Killer!
[GOD!!! He throws up his hands in an exasperated, very un-Zieksian fashion.]

I only wanted to go back out of a sense of duty to continue my work, but why should I? What have the people of London ever done for me?

[ Well.

Ellis carefully considers it, but his answer will be the same regardless: ]

Then you don't have to go back. You only have one life, so why willingly stew in the misery to earn respect of people who don't care about you?

[On a normal day, he'd talk about obligation, about needing to fix a broken system, to instruct his apprentice that still likely hates him. Whether the people of London appreciated him or not.

But it's that last work that gives him pause. People who care about him? There's a few of those, even when he's in this petulant mood.]

... I suppose to see my niece.
[He'd forgotten. But he really doesn't want to go back!! Now he's conflicted.

Is seeing your niece worth all that?

[ Is she that important?? Color him impressed. ]

She's the only family I have left, and until just before I came here, I didn't think I had any. Of course she's worth it! I have so much to make up for!

[HMPH HMPH!!!]

[ Ellis has no family, so he can't relate. That said... ]

Then I hope you can live happily with your niece while dealing with all that. Family must be really important to you. Still have to get married though.

(no subject)

winebar - 2023-02-08 06:40 (UTC) - Expand

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