🌸 be not defeated by the rain 🌸

[passthrough]

🌸WHO: Otegine and many others
🌸WHAT: Closed prompts for hurricane + cleanup, open threads for bonus AC effects
🌸WHEN: Summer 16 - Summer End
🌸WHERE: Various
🌸WARNINGS: mild NSFW conversation

Called useless by all
Neither praised
Nor a bother
Such is the person
I wish to be
Hit up plotting or my contacts if you would like a closed starter!

Comments

[sicklysweet]

[Good news! He doesn't start crying. Bad news! He's clearly not that other Owen anymore, which is probably obvious with the way he openly scowls at Otegine.]

Why am I here?

[He's not really interested in what happened at this point, because that's ultimately irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact he's here in the first place. Why must he suffer himbos...]

[passthrough]

[Ah.

A frustrated sort of relief floods over his expression almost instantly.]

Oh thank the gods, you're finally back.

[He shoves his legs off the side of the bed, burying one hand in his hair with his arms propped against his knees, looking down on Owen with exahustion.]

I brought you here, last night. Your, uh... other Owen decided to come say hi at the auction.

I figured you'd be safer here.

[sicklysweet]

[Has anyone ever looked so relieved to see him? He's not sure.]

So you took me to your bed?

[Not that he actually thinks Otegine would ever do anything untowards to any version of himself, still. He has to find some ammunition here.

But also.

What the hell is Otegine talking about? He knows what an auction is, but... Huh??]

What auction are you even talking about?

[passthrough]

[He shrugs halfheartedly, the implication entirely missed.] You didn't want to be alone, and it's not like I was going to demand you go sleep on the couch or something. Besides, you were freezing.

[...

Oh. Did... Owen not know...

He should have figured as much, since that application didn't look like it was even remotely close to language Owen would use. But it's still a long, awkward silence as Otegine freezes up a bit.]

The date auction? The one the goddess has been advertising for something like two weeks, for the end of summer?

...

I'm... guessing you never saw it?

[sicklysweet]

[Of course he was freezing, he’s always freezing. That seems like a sus excuse to him! At least he’s distracted Owen enough to not double down, for… better or worse. Probably worse.]

This is the first I’m hearing about it. What - what’s even the point of a date auction?

[passthrough]

Mostly for fun. People just wrote up applications anonymously and everyone just got to choose who sounded like they'd be fun to get to know better.

Ah. Though, the problem was that a lot of people signed up other people and not themselves, so it got... uh... kind of messy. Really fast.

[So, really, it turned into the opposite of fun for a lot of people.]

[sicklysweet]

[Just. Staring. Looking more and more irritated with each word.]

Right. So what exactly was I doing at this thing I’ve never heard of? It sounds like it was a colossal waste of time.

[Who cares about the feelings of anyone else!! Owen needs more information relevant to him!!]

[passthrough]

Yeah, I figured you'd think that... [He rests his chin in one hand, looking deeply irritated... but not at Owen. Really, it's just another person shoved into this whole thing without consent. Even if Owen had been himself, there would have been problems.]

I don't think you meant to go there at all. You, uh... seemed pretty lost, though. It was the place with the most commotion the whole day.

I didn't even see you were there until you came and found me on your own. By then, uh... you... you'd figured out how to play the game.

[sicklysweet]

[There would be a sinking sensation of dread, if Owen was capable of feeling dread. Mostly he just feels - well. He feels like he needs to get to the bottom of this.]

“Had figured out how to play”? You’re going to need to be more specific about that.

[passthrough]

I mean, you bid in the auction. You figured out giving coins to somebody might give them something "nice." And you won.

[Just. Gonna leave it at that for a second, so Owen can have time to either laugh or blow up at the idea.]

[sicklysweet]

[he wants to dead]

So I won a date, because -

[He huffs, cutting himself off from his own annoyance.]

What, exactly, was the prize? Or who.

[passthrough]

[...

He looks at the floor.]

Me. You bid on mine.

...

Sorry.

[sicklysweet]

[Well.

He doesn’t know what he was expecting.]

Why? Did you force my hand?

[What does he have to be sorry for!]

[passthrough]

Eh...? N-no of course not! The goddess wouldn't have allowed that, anyway.

I just... figured this isn't something you would have been all that happy about even if you had been lucid. [Their history together has been mixed, and while he knows Owen doesn't hate him... asking him on a date willingly seems about the furthest thing Owen would ever attempt. Really, Otegine would expect him to have done what Mishka and Childe managed, bidding to cause a ruckus only to leave the second he got bored.]

...

That's not all of it, either. Someone wrote an application for you, too.

1/3

[sicklysweet]

[Why ask people on dates if you can just be a huge asshole every step of the way?]

Of course I wou-

2/3

[sicklysweet]

[wait a minute]

[sicklysweet]

An application for me?

[passthrough]

Yeah. [It's clipped. He has opinions about that whole debacle of people signing up others, because it caused nothing but trouble for half the people involved.] It wasn't harshly written or anything, but that's beside the point. I don't know who did it.

One of the new guys dropped everything he had on it.

[sicklysweet]

[New guys?]

I’m going to kill them.

[Does he mean the date or the poster? Stay tuned to find out.]

It wasn’t harsh? What did it say? You read it, right?

[What lies are being spread about him? Also he should probably get up from the floor, so he’s going to scramble back to his feet.]

[passthrough]

Hahah... maybe wait until you know who it is before pulling out the death wish. [On both cases, but he assumes Owen's more irritated at whoever signed him up.]

Mmhmm, I did.

Crude, defensive, distrusting, but attractive and interesting with a good voice... A big personality that's really hard to get to know, but that you have a lot to offer even if it's not everyone's favorite, and that you're good at surprising people.

They used a cherry for a fruit you'd be like, but I can't remember why.

[sicklysweet]

[That description... There's only one person it could be, isn't there? Good voice can't just be about how he talks, and there's one person on the island who's heard him sing.

Plus, he just told him he acted defensively! It can't be anyone else!]

Gaku.

[Said with all the contempt in the world.]

That doesn't even sound anything like me!

[passthrough]

I don't know. I thought it fit you just fine... wasn't expecting the singing part, though...

[...

His eyes travel the floor in thought, mouth thinning.]

Look, uh... Owen. Before you run off to kill Gaku or something, I...

We need to talk.

[sicklysweet]

[He’s not going to kill Gaku, unfortunately. He’s been too nerfed to do that.]

…what? This isn’t going to be about the dates, is it?

[passthrough]

Sort of.

[...]

I know you'd rather nobody talk about it, but last night, you went right up on stage where everyone could see you. You're lucky you didn't tie with anyone on top of that, or the goddess would have made you - the other you - talk about all sorts of stuff. I gave you my word, but I can't control anyone else or what they might do...

Owen... who in the world is the other "you"?

[sicklysweet]

[And here he was, hoping to avoid this conversation entirely.]

…I don’t know.

[He’s as frustrated about that as anyone else - if not more so, and it bleeds into his voice for just a moment before he reins it back in.]

I’ve heard other people call him “little” Owen because he acts childish, but I couldn’t tell you why it’s a child at all.

[A pause.]

…It’s an injury that can’t be healed, from fighting the Great Calamity. I’m not the only wizard who’s been afflicted by it, but nobody else has had to face the same wound. That’s all I know.

[He crosses his arms over his chest, defensive.]

And I’m sure you already noticed, but I don’t remember anything he says or does, and I don’t think he knows anything about me, either.