OPEN

[anti_nonsense]

Who: Rita and YOU!
When: Day 28-29
Where: Around Rita's trailer.
What: Someone left catnip at Rita's trailer, cuteness commences, also general in-between-event stuff for anyone who wants it!

[home videos / open]

Passing through the trailer yard, one might find Rita crouched outside Trailer 19. Her wings seem to be missing several feathers, but beyond that, she appears to be unharmed and in good health despite all the recent chaos.

In fact, she's actually... having... fun?

The space just outside the trailer door appears to be heavily sprinkled with catnip and mint, and her Litten, Francis, purrs up a storm as he rolls around in it. Rita appears to be filming his adorable antics with a handheld video camera, grinning all the while. She doesn't immediately notice if someone else happens to be nearby.

[wildcard!]

Alternatively, Rita might be seen around the carnival, reading a book she picked up in Wismuth, putting the finishing touches on a thick manuscript she's been writing, or just hanging around the training grounds, trailer park, or cookhouse. If you want to do something else with Rita, feel free to tag with a different starter, or hit me up on plurk (pzue) to plot!

Comments

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's just walking by, but he slows to a stop when he catches sight of Rita. He almost says hi, but pauses for a moment when she appears to be busy. He creeps a little closer, and when he sees her cat rolling around he smiles. Aha, so that's it.

"He looks happy," Yuya offers, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Is it catnip?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita gives a start at the sound of Yuya's voice, fumbling with the camera but fortunately catching it before she can drop it. She turns her head sharply to see him, but some of the alarm in her expression subsides when she sees who it is.

It takes an extra second for his question to register, and she replies, "Y, yeah... seems like it." In other words, she's not actually sure.

[hippocarnival]

"Core acts like that whenever he gets any." Wild and rambunctious, which is always funny when he's normally such a calm cat. But that's what tips him off.

Yuya comes up beside her, leaning slightly to look at the camera before he crouches near Francis to see what plant he's rolling around in. It makes his pendulum hang down and swing in the air slightly. "There's a lot of it... where'd it come from?"

[anti_nonsense]

"I don't know... maybe 9S put it here," Rita guesses, rising to her feet and shrugging. After all, who else would it be?

Looking over to Yuya curiously, she asks, "...Core?"

Must be a cat's name, but Rita hasn't heard Yuya mention a cat before.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods. "Core's one of my cats. Uh, from home I mean."

He's definitely catless in the carnival. Yuya holds his hand over Francis, wiggling his fingers in an attempt to get the cat's attention. He is absolutely in danger of scratchings by trying to use his hand as a toy for a high cat, but does he care?

Well, not right now anyway. "Right, you two share a trailer? Maybe he brought it for Francis."

D28 - home videos

[spaghettimonster]

With a basket hanging from his arm, Papyrus is wandering around the trailer yard. He looks pretty much back to normal. A little more tired, but after the busy night and the emotional roller coaster of it all... Can it really be called a surprise?

He notices the smell of the catnip first, as something about it seems strange to him. The Litten's rolling antics, second, and he stops to watch, grinning.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita continues filming for a while until she notices something in her peripheral vision. She turns her head slightly to identify it, and...

"Gah!!"

She lets out a cry of surprise, prompting Francis to freeze for about two seconds before going back to flopping around contentedly. "How long have you been standing there!?" Her face is slightly red, like she was caught doing something embarrassing.

[spaghettimonster]

He starts at her yelling, and glances behind just enough to make sure nobody else is the culprit of her surprise.

"Oh, just a moment! I had to stop and admire your... Pokemon?" He's not completely sure, but that seems the best bet.

"They're so cute! And loving life."

[anti_nonsense]

Just a moment? He better be telling the truth.

Rita seems to calm down a bit at that, in any case, offering a nod and an affirmative, "Yeah. Pokemon. That's Francis; he's a Litten." And... loving life? Eyes narrowed, she can't help but add, "Interesting choice of words, considering." You know, the whole Harbinger thing.

[spaghettimonster]

It's at least no more than three moments, so it's close enough to the truth that he can make her feel okay without it being a big lie. Justification, set.

"Considering... all the terrible things, I said, and did?" This time, what Rita's getting at isn't hard to guess. He's still very aware of the Harbinger thing. "That's why I'm so happy to see it! Being like that was wrong. And miserable. Nobody should ever feel that way!"

Wildcard - D30, while everyone else is getting wasted

[dressedtothe]

The catnip certainly wasn't 9S' idea -- who keeps putting stuff in their trailer, anyway!? -- but watching Francis go nuts over the plant is pretty amusing. Even funnier is Rita recording Francis rolling around in the catnip. 9S really doesn't understand humans' desire to record their cats, but the fact that even Rita is indulging in it just strikes him as funny.

Speaking of cat videos...

9S waves to Rita as he approaches, Pod 153 trailing by his shoulder. "Hey, Rita! Guess what?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita looks up from the camera and turns to see 9S. She's been at this for a while, and has gotten far better footage than what she's getting now, so she's not too bothered by the interruption.

She stands up straight, flicks a few switches to turn off the camera, and faces him with a curious look. "What?"

With the way he's greeting her, she can expect it isn't bad news, at least.

[dressedtothe]

"You're supposed to guess!" Except 9S is far too eager to spill the beans. "I transferred the cat videos I downloaded in Wismuth to Pod 153."

Not all of them, though. He doesn't want to clog up all its storage with such junk.

"Do you want to watch some now? Almost everyone else is getting drunk, sooo..."

He doesn't even know where he's going with that. Is he implying that it means they won't get interrupted? Or that he only wants to watch because no one else is will watch with him? Damn maybe he should have phrased that differently. Maybe he's thinking about this too hard, given the conversation he plans to have afterwards. Cole might have reassured him it will be fine but he can't help but feel a little nervous. After all, Rita's a human.

Well, mostly human.

[anti_nonsense]

"You did!?" There's a brief burst of excitement before Rita quickly tries to rein herself in. She doesn't want to look too eager over some silly videos.

...Not like she's been spending the past two days taking lots of the same kind of videos.

"Yeah... I guess we might as well do something interesting while they're all busy making fools of themselves," she agrees, using a more casual tone. If there were any unpleasant implications to be found in 9S's wording, she doesn't seem to have noticed.

[dressedtothe]

9S can't help but grin in response to Rita's outburst of eagerness. "Great!"

He glances over to Francis. Well, it's alright to let him keep playing, right?

Tilting his head towards their trailer door, 9S suggests, "Want to watch inside? It'll be easier to see Pod 153's projection than out here."

wildcard! ish!

[dirthena]

It's taken a while for Lavellan to settle back in, but upon doing so she realizes that there are a few people she needs to both thank and apologize to -- Rita being one of them. Which is why she goes to find her, dressed down in something simple rather than the extravagant outfits she'd been wearing for the past Creators know how long.

Seeing Rita work on writing something spurs Lavellan's memory a little, and she smiles at the other woman -- flashing newly acquired fangs. "Am I interrupting anything?"

[anti_nonsense]

It's at a picnic table in the trailer yard that Lavellan finds Rita. She has a thick stack of papers in front of her, loosely bound, and on the page she's got open, she's crossed out some lines and added a few notes here and there.

She looks up and simply answers, "No. Have a seat if you want."

Casual as she is, Rita's glad to see Lavellan back to her old self, and there's a hint of warmth in her expression.

[dirthena]

She takes the seat gingerly, and while she doesn't say anything for a moment beyond a simple "Thank you," it's clear her interest is on whatever Rita's doing. Lavellan won't make any attempt to demand her full attention unless she wants to give it, but after a moment she does speak again.

"I did want to thank you, though. For-- coming after me. And apologize." For oh, the amount of slicing and dicing she'd done while being in the grips of the Void.

[anti_nonsense]

"I see..." Rita meets her gaze briefly before glancing away, somewhat awkwardly.

"There wasn't any lasting damage, for what it's worth," she tells her. Her feathers will takes some time to grow back, and her wings might look kind of weird in the meantime, but in the end, that's about as much harm as a bad haircut.

[dirthena]

She lets out a small breath, relieved. "I'm glad." Cole, 9S, Rita -- they'd all tried to stop her, and yet she'd turned on them in turn. And simply because she hadn't been herself doesn't mean that it wasn't her on some level, as brainwashed as she had been. They'd taken something her and snapped it, but that's a thought she puts off for another time.

Instead: "Although I was curious -- you mentioned a manuscript." That she wouldn't have minded Lavellan reading, if she recalls correctly. Lavellan won't hold it to her if she's changed her mind, but she'd actually like to find out more, if Rita's willing.

home videos/wildcard-ish

[whattaprick]

Who watches the watcher? Lambert, apparently. He's actually here on business, meaning to ask Rita about something he'd forgotten in all the mess that Wismuth had become ... but seeing her playing with her cat, he gets a better idea, slipping back to his trailer.

Ten minutes later, she's still playing with Francis, apparently too absorbed in it to notice anyone else. Lambert announces his presence with a loud, obnoxious noise that sound of a Polaroid camera going off... because that's exactly what's happened. Holding a black Polaroid camera and grinning like a shit, Lambert's already holding out a hand to catch the perfectly framed shot of Rita being a nerd filming her cat.

[anti_nonsense]

The click of the camera prompts Rita to look up, and upon seeing Lambert and his camera she shoots up to her feet, her face quickly growing red.

"Hey-- what the hell!? What do you think you're doing!?" she sputters at him.

[whattaprick]

“Practicing my camera skills, obviously,” Lambert answers, lazy and completely unbothered by Rita’s embarrassment. The film pops free— too bad there isn’t an opportunity to take a picture of her beet-red face.

“It’s useful for scouting work. That’s what you were doing too, right?”

[anti_nonsense]

Rita glowers at Lambert, then turns her head sharply away, as if to dismiss him. "Something like that," she grumbles, knowing damn well that neither of them believe that.

"If that's all, then can you go practice somewhere else? I'm busy." Very busy. Doing important things. Clearly.

[whattaprick]

"Actually, I did come to see you about work." Lambert puts the camera down, though he's still grinning at her over it.

"Unless you're too busy..."