( OPEN ) hold me closer, tiny dancer

[fujita]

WHO: dorothy gale + various
WHERE: various places on bajikan
WHEN: the fleet's stay in orbit
WHAT: dorothy explores the planet and gets thoroughly sidetracked.
WARNINGS: alcohol, (descriptions of) violence, possibly sex



[ dorothy has been to another world or another universe, so maybe that counts as visiting another planet, but she's never been on another planet like this: going from a spaceship orbiting the planet (if involuntarily, from what dorothy understands) to the planet's surface, being welcomed by the locals. dorothy still wishes she could figure out a way home; she wishes no one was dying aboard the eluvio; she wishes some other things she's not quite willing to admit, but all things considered?

this is kind of cool.

dorothy visits every district; some she leaves sooner than others. in gula, she finds a bar that garnishes every drink with a little umbrella and after taking a picture on her comms device for spacestagram and emptying that drink, dorothy orders another one. and then another, and another after that. they all come with little umbrellas, and she's already wearing two of them behind her left ear. ] Can you help me? [ she asks, tone a little slurred already, waving a hand between the third umbrella and her left ear. she could just put it behind the right, but that thought doesn't cross her mind. ]


( ooc | if you'd like a specific starter, something in another district, or if you'd like to hash out the details of something, hit me up via pm or at abiosis )

Comments

hello friend,

[ichimyatsu]

[Ichimatsu isn't really one for drinking, because he's a damn lightweight, but there was certainly no harm in taking a look, right? More for fear of something happening to him than any other reasons (also read as: he didn't need him correcting his half-truths) he'd left Nyanko in their quarters and wandered out to Bajikan, bored of being left alone. He'd meandered for a while before he wound up in Gula, and he doesn't get far before he finds the Umbrella Bar and unintentionally zeroes in on Dorothy struggling with her third umbrella.]

[He's startled when she asks for his help, but chuffs a short laugh when she asks.]

You've got two ears, you know.

hello :*

[fujita]

[ dorothy doesn't have many friends that she could go out and drink with, but there have been a few evenings when she'd gone out with fellow nurses or people from high school or training, going into the city or into one of lucas' three bars (for a town the size of lucas, it's a high number). she enjoys tipsiness, she likes the looseness and ease of everything when she's drunk, how nothing weighs her down.

she feels that way right now, too, and when ichimatsu laughs, dorothy joins in even though she doesn't quite get the joke. ]

Yeah, I know that. [ she's a nurse! she knows her anatomy! ]

;*

[ichimyatsu]

[He had five demonic brothers that he went drinking with at least three times a week, though he didn't always drink much. Whenever he did, usually one, maybe two beers in if he was lucky, he'd wind up a smiling floppy disaster on the oden cart's counter until Karamatsu piggybacked him home. Funny, it was always Karamatsu that did that.]

[He reaches out to take the umbrella from her, grinning crookedly, and shifts it toward the other side of her head.]

Here, put this one here, and then you'll have to get a second one for this side so you match.

[fujita]

[ drunk as she is right now, dorothy wouldn't mind it if he turned into a smiling floppy disaster, honestly. but she doesn't mind it when he grins like that and shifts the umbrella to the other side of her head, either. this is, after all, what she asked for: help with wearing this umbrella she's gotten.

if she keeps ordering drinks and keeps getting umbrellas, where will she put them all? ]

That's a good idea. [ she nods, perhaps a little too vigorously. one of the umbrellas wobbles precariously. ] Why aren't you wearing one?

[sixth]

[ Exhausted, in pain, and with one side of his face swelling up so much that it's getting hard to see out of his eye, Wash has no idea which district he's in and the truth is, he doesn't care. He's running on pure stubbornness now, refusing to stop because doing that seems akin to giving up and admitting defeat. His destination is hazy; some part of him vaguely wants to get back to the ship where at least the surroundings are familiar and the rest wants to just find somewhere here on the planet out of the way and secluded, to take a nap for a few hours.

It's been a few years since he's gone so many rounds against an opponent that's bigger and stronger than him and it shows in the bruises and cuts marring his skin. Probably dealing with years of buried discontent and anger in a place that magnified anger and aggression hadn't been the best decision he could have made, but he's got a lifetime of questionable choices behind him. One more isn't going to hurt anything, figuratively speaking anyway.

Wash isn't paying attention as he makes his way through the crowd on the street. Occasionally he mutters an apology when he knocks into someone but most of the time he doesn't. At least, he doesn't until he collides more directly with someone. ]

Sorry. [ It's more grunt than anything else, but it's sincere nonetheless. Wash focuses on the woman—human looking, possibly from the ship—he's just run into and pulls himself together enough to ask; ] You all right?

[fujita]

[ dorothy didn't mean to get distracted in this district, but—she can't say that she minds the distraction, exactly, or the result of it. there's a pleasant soreness to her limbs, a heavy sense of satisfaction that's slow to dissipate, though she's beginning to feel the effects of the cloying air rising again, leaving a first sliver of renewed want in her stomach. she's leaving, though, she really is.

until she collides with a guy. he grunts an apology, asking if she's all right, and dorothy is about to answer that she's more than all right when she gets her first good look at him. she knows she probably presents an interesting picture, hair mussed and lips bitten, some colour still in her cheeks, but those are all the result of pleasant physical exertion. he looks like he went a few rounds in a boxing ring fighting a bulldozer, and it's enough to startle dorothy out of her pleasant stupor. ]

I should be asking you that.

[ she shifts her weight to stand a little more solidly, narrowing her eyes. ] You look like you're about to fall over. [ he looks like he needs medical attention, but he also looks like he might be the kind of macho-guy who would never seek it on his own, so dorothy deliberately softens her tone. ] Why don't I show you this cute tea house I found the other day and you buy me a drink to make up for running into me?

[ more like "why don't i show you this cute tea house and you sit down before you actually keel over, buddy" ]

[sixth]

[ It's a fair assessment. Wash isn't macho per se, but he has a tendency to put the needs of others before his own and he's been trained—by some of the best the UNSC has—to ignore discomfort and press through it. His injuries aren't life-threatening and they won't hamper his ability to pick up a firearm or enter combat. That's all that ultimately matters to him where his own well-being is concerned.

He breathes out in a low huff at her diagnosis, somewhat amused despite himself. She's right. He feels like he's about to fall over too. ]

Tea house, huh? [ When's the last time he's had tea? He doesn't remember. But he could probably use something to drink and he doesn't mind making up the collision to her this way. ] Sure.

[ And who knows. Maybe the place will have interesting desserts he can purchase for later...

He makes a gesture toward the street, following it up with a quiet; ]

Lead on.

[fujita]

[ dorothy doesn't know many soldiers or combatants. she knows lucas, who was wizard guard and who's instinct is to kill rather than to maim, who will carry on with an infected wound until he collapses rather than admit that he's in pain, that he is getting worse. she can't tell yet if wash is more like lucas, or more like the young wanna-be cowboys that come into the hospital sometimes all fucked up for no real reason but that they overestimated their abilities.

one way or another, dorothy treats them all. ]

Great. I've been meaning to go back to it. [ she does turn a little and starts walking, slower than she might usually and with her body turned toward wash's. if he shows signs of collapsing, she wants to be able to see them. the tea house isn't far, at least, still right where dorothy remembers it, and if the five minutes walk to it have her stomach tight with unspecific want again, she forces it aside as best as she can.

inside the tea house, it's quiet, set up in such a way that allow each visitor or group of visitors maximum privacy. ] Why don't you find us a spot?

[ dorothy wants to talk to the lady running the place for a moment, to ask for hot water, for antiseptics, for a first aid kid, that kind of thing. the way he looks, she'll need it. and when she joins wash at whatever spot he's picked, first aid kit under one arm, she lies: ] She said we're welcome to stay but only if you get fixed up. [ for emphasis, she shakes the kit a little. ] Lucky for you, I know a thing or two about first aid.

— CLOSED TO LUCAS

[fujita]

[ the first time dorothy had gone to luxurua, she'd meant to collect some of the plants, to at least collect some fairymoss because it's supposed to help people relax and that can only be a good thing if someone's suffering from anxiety or even hurt. she'll never be a doctor, but after having to figure out a way to save lucas in oz, dorothy would rather be prepared than rely on others. so she'd meant to collect fairymoss, but she got—distracted, really. thoroughly and very pleasantly distracted.

so she goes back, and this time, she starts with collecting fairymoss, putting it in her backpack. that done, she ends up lingering a little, the sweet and almost cloying scent in the air settling in her lungs and leaving heat in her stomach again. staying a while won't hurt, will it? the bar she settles in is a lovely place on the beach overlooking the azure-blue ocean, with canopied beach beds instead of tables. some have their curtains closed, some only half-closed and there are couples in various states of activity in many of them from what dorothy can tell.

she's looking at the ocean and thinking about lucas, about his stubble against her chin when they'd kissed, when a tall and broad figure enters her field of vision, and for a moment, she thinks this must be a dream or a mistake, but—it really is him. ]

Lucas?

[scarecrowed]

[ What Lucas should have done as soon as he heard Dorothy was nearby was message her, but he was still getting to grips with the technology and he felt like it would take him too long to figure it out. Back in Oz, when you wanted to find someone, you searched for them. It could take hours, days, weeks, months, a lifetime, but it was the only way.

So he goes to the district, asking around in shops, bars and restaurants if they've seen a woman by Dorothy's physical description. The longer it takes to find her, the more Lucas feels ill and only Dorothy's touch can cure him. He's had desires for Dorothy before but they've always been quiet and controllable - now it pounds through him wildly. Everything sexual around him in the city - poster advertisements, women scantily clad in window displays - they turn into Dorothy. And even simple, innocent images like a stranger with dark hair passing by makes Lucas think of her, yearn for her. He has no idea why he's thinking like this - too many bad things have happened, too many bad things he's done to her have happened for them to go back the way things were between them. Not to mention he has a wife and every unfaithful thought he's having will send him deeper into hell.

When he finally finds her at the beach bar, he feels slightly out of breath, not from exertion but from Dorothy taking his breath away more than usual. ]

Dorothy...

[ He doesn't tell her she's called him by the wrong name - he's not thinking straight enough for that. She can call him whatever she wants right now, he's just glad to be breathing the same air as her, even though he has no idea what's in the air to make him act so driven by lust. ]

[fujita]

[ he says her name, a little breathless, and he's looking at her like she's the only thing in the world that matters. he's looked at her like that before and there have been moments when it's scared her, the intensity of him, the strength of what he makes her feel. right now, there's no room for fear inside her, just joy and overpowering need. it's him and she needs him, and so she sits up, scooting toward the edge of the canopied bed so she can reach for him. the first touch of her fingers against his hand are a shock to her system, anticipation and desire rising, surging wet and hot between her legs.

it seems like the most natural thing to do, the only thing she can do to pull him down onto the bed, to shift her body to make space for him, but not so much space that they aren't touching. she needs to feel him. she wants him to cover all of her, to sink into her—and if she were thinking clearly, she might realise that this is moving too fast, that she hasn't even said hello, that as far as she's aware, they've never done this before.

none of that seems to matter right now. ] I've missed you.

[scarecrowed]

[ It's odd - at least to Lucas - for there to be beds on the beach, but it seems to work for some people occupying them, he notices, and he's glad it's there when Dorothy pulls him down onto it. He shouldn't be glad - he shouldn't be anywhere near Dorothy and a bed right now - but it means they won't have to waste time finding somewhere for them to get comfortable.

Alarm bells should be ringing in his head at her words. I've missed you. She shouldn't. You don't say those words to someone who tried to kill you, but he's too overwhelmed by his physical need to be with her, to overcome by her acting so positively towards him that he doesn't question what's gotten into her. Perhaps she's forgiven him? Perhaps this is all a dream?

Positioning himself beside her, Lucas threads a hand through her hair and strokes her cheek, their legs intertwining. ] I thought I'd never see you again. [ He thought she'd never let him near her if he survived being crucified a second time.

He focuses on her neck - there aren't any marks there from his hands, perhaps any bruises have healed since then, but Lucas tips her chin up to bare more of her throat to him, planting kisses there. They start off as simple pecks - loving, gentle and apologetic - which quickly turn into heated, open-mouth, frankly filthy kisses she would have never experienced from him before.

Stop me, Dorothy, he thinks but doesn't voice the words aloud. He can't say them if it means Dorothy might actually put a stop to this. He's never needed anything more than this, never wanted anyone more. And he could have easily satisfied his desires with other women in the district, but his heart wanted her. ]

[winscenario]

[ Jim, on the other hand, is all too used to this sort of thing. Well, there's something a little different to it, this time around. He's got his ship here, and while he's still Captain as he would be no matter the world, galaxy or universe, he's visiting the planet just like any other passenger, no particular mission or purpose in mind, no formal introductions or ceremonies or whatever else.

It's kind of a mix, how he feels about that. He does like the freedom he has to move around and explore the islands as he pleases, but he feels almost idle at times, like he's supposed to be doing something else, something... more than just this.

Right now, though, if it means he gets to be sitting on a bar drinking to his heart's content without having to worry about the duties he needs to fulfil or the people he needs to charm and befriend, then all the better. And at least he's not the drunkest person in this place, not by a long shot— that honor seems to belong to the slightly tilted girl that's currently chatting him up. ]

Depends on what you need help with. [ His lips quirk in an amused smile, eyebrow raising. ]

[fujita]

[ dorothy can't imagine the reality of being captain of a ship, or she can, but it would be imagination drawn entirely on movies and the occasional sci-fi novel she's read. there haven't been many; space was never a particular passion of hers.

she doesn't assume that the guy she's asked for help is a starship captain, either. why would she? the only captain she knows for sure exists is the one captaining the eluvio, and she hasn't exactly seen a lot of him. he's more of an abstract figure than anything else. jim isn't abstract at all but right in front of her, and so dorothy holds out the umbrella to him. ]

I can't get it behind my ear. [ you know, the one that already has two umbrellas balanced behind it. ]

[winscenario]

[ Jim's not much the kind to brag about it, at least. Well, not anymore, anyway. He doesn't even use his title when introducing himself unless he has to, and the middle of a crowded bar while getting drunk is definitely not the appropriate setting for it. For once being some random guy on a bar works just fine for him.

He raises an eyebrow while eyeing the umbrella she's holding up, then his lips stretch into an all too amused grin. ]

That might be because your ear's already overcrowded. [ He takes the umbrella, though, and instead perches it on her other ear. ] There you go. Much better.

[ And also, you know. Maybe a little bit silly. ]

[fujita]

[ dorothy thinks about that statement for a moment, brows pulling together before her expression shifts into a pleased grin when he settles the umbrella behind her other ear. maybe it's a bit silly, but she likes these drinks and she likes the umbrellas and honestly? a night out with no cares and plenty of silliness seems just like the thing, after her time in oz was followed by being stuck on a malfunctioning spaceship with someone murdering people left and right. ]

Why aren't you wearing one?

[taggingwomprats]

[ Luke's making a point to filter through each of the districts in turn, although he's being a bit cautious. He's on a totally new planet and trying to adjust to all of it all over again. The fact that he's begun to notice that the districts seem to be influencing his mood just reinforces that. He's on his way through Gula, pausing now and again to explore when he catches sight of a familiar face and he detours on over. He trails to a halt and stares, blinking.

That's different. ]

Uh. Help you with what?

[ He's not always the brightest boy, OK? ]

[fujita]

[ dorothy is going through each of the districts as well, but she isn't particularly cautious. caution isn't a strength of hers, to the frustration of the man who'd styled himself her self-proclaimed protector, who'd cared about her—but lucas isn't here. (not yet, but dorothy doesn't know that he'll arrive soon, and from a time when he's gone from protecting her to something else entirely.)

maybe that's why she's been drinking in gula without a care, or maybe it's the insatiable urge to just keep going that drives her. ]

The umbrella. [ dorothy responds, slowly and with the patience of the drunk. she's smiling up at luke. ] Hi. You're the one who never tried burgers, aren't you? We should get burgers. I bet they have burgers here. And pizza.

[taggingwomprats]

Uh, yep. That's me.

[ He carefully takes the umbrella and helpfully tucks it behind an ear with the rest. This seems a bit silly, but she's also drunk. He's been drunk before himself (and helped out his drunk friends, so this isn't entirely unexplored territory). ]

Before we think about that, maybe you should slow down with the drinks.

[genice]

( he quirks up his eyebrows, smiling as he reaches out to pluck that umbrella from between her fingers. )

Expecting a miniature rainstorm?

( he asks, twirling the umbrella between two fingers and eyeing the arrangement of ones already tucked behind her ear. )

[fujita]

[ dorothy has to think about that for a moment. it's difficult to multi-task, and she is multi-tasking, because she also has to keep her eyes focused on the twirling umbrella. ]

Yes. [ she finally says with as much dignity as she can muster, which isn't all that much. ] Always.

[genice]

( is she feeling sleepy... victor doesn't have much pity in his soul, considering himself while drunk, but he's kind enough to slow down his spin of the umbrella. )

Thankfully the local weather person was just telling me they predict all sunny skies.

( he slides into a seat next to her, gesturing for her to face him. )

All three balanced on one side, or this one for your other ear?

[legendary_hands]

[Surprisingly, he's not drinking the bar out of business considering it would be so damn easy to. In fact, he's been nursing the same hard liquor of whatever variety for a good while. But it's the act of drinking it that keeps him there so focused.

He's just about to finally finish it off when he hears that question. A question that peaks his interest as a doctor instantly and he leans back and furrows his brow at the sight of the girl that is quite thoroughly drunk.] What can I help you with, darlin'? You look like you might've had one too many.

[fujita]

[ she's quite thoroughly drunk, but not so drunk that she'll puke over anyone's shoes. if she focuses really, really hard, she might even be able to walk in a straight line still. so it isn't his skills as a doctor she's requesting, also because she doesn't know he is one, but something far simpler. ]

I can't get the last umbrella to stick behind my ear. [ this is clearly a grave and serious issue. ]

[legendary_hands]

[ Of all the...

He laughs. A soft low chuckle before he shakes his head.]

Quite an emergency it seems. [He picks up the little umbrella and starts to lean closer. His fingers are gentle like they were whenever he did his daughter's hair and it hits like a stone in his gut. Letting out a sigh as he sets the umbrella in her hair, he pulls back.] You might want to call it quits. Maybe go shoppin' for a dress to go with the umbrellas before you drink too much. What do ya say?