[So the morning had been a lot more hectic than Tsuna would have hoped for.

He didn't expect to ever see those mistletoe bots again - especially when it's Valentine's Day time and not Christmas! - and had ended up stuck with a few people, some he knew and some who were previously strangers, forced to share a kiss with them.

The walking around the dome had been meant to calm his nerves as he searched for what he needed, but it had succeeded in doing the opposite. Knowing it would be better to escape for a while, the flustered Tsuna had headed back to his apartment to change from a sweater to a white dress shirt, black tie and pants to match.

Worried that he'll be late, he hurries out.

Arriving at the shelter not too long after, Tsuna quickly spots his boyfriend and heads over to him, hiding the bouquet of white roses behind his back]

H-Hey, Akito-kun!

[His voice is a little nervous but the excitement is defintely obvious in the tone as well as his expression, which is bright with a smile]

[Lovely day for being in any open, common area of the dome, isn't it? Of course there is a chance of kissing bot, but it's always something in the underwater prison.]

(OOC: Check out the OOC post for details. Pucker up! Edit: Links for those with loading problems!)

[Good afternoon Marina! Should you check the network this fine day, you may see one Lind relaxing idly on the beach, propped up on an elbow and looking rather amused about something]

My, my...the weather is slowly letting up and the snow is gone. Surely this can only mean that a certain day is drawing near, hm? [He laughs a little] Ah, Valentine's Day...tis a special day, no? Makes you wonder just how many have their special one here. I'm almost jealous. [Only not really.

But there is a point to this post!] It is always sweet though when you find out that someone you know is in love. My dear little brother was always the cute one, but it's almost too adorable to watch~ And he even has a date! Young people grow up so fast.

Tsuna-kun~ Make sure you don't do anything too naughty to Akito now, mm? [A little wave as the post ends, Lind smiling away like a cheshire cat. Trolling older brother? Never~]


((OOC: This post is open to anything, including thread-jacks and what-not! Come help Lind embarrass Akito and Tsuna~))

[A young man with golden hair tied back in a ponytail appears on the video screen. He doesn't seem to be aware that anything is happening right away and appears to be mumbling to himself a bit. He then stares directly at the screen when he realizes it's on...after he's mumbled to himself a bit first.]

...DAMN THING. I STILL CAN'T GET THIS THING FIGURED OUT. What the hell is it, anyway? They couldn't have given me something useful, like steak! As long as it's not milk though, I guess it's okay...

...OH. HI. IS THIS THING FINALLY WORKING? HELLO? HELLO? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE FOR KIDNAPPING THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST?

[Yes, Ed's shouting...my apologies! He's so not used to this technology.]

[ tired sound, followed by a "mrf" ]

Always manage t'forget how loud it is on newbie days. [ sound of rustling pages; mildly ] Someday I'll learn to turn the damn communicator off.

( The worst of mornings... )

[Voice]

For those who care about it, and are from his world...it seems Allelujah has gone home. [Tired sounding. Lind's run himself ragged trying to find Alle for Akito]

Akito's at the beach. He could use his friends.

[Action]

[The light sits on the sand and stares at the water without seeing it. He doesn't even seem to realise that tears are rolling down his face. He almost seems to be in shock now that the initial breakdown has passed, even ignoring his other half sitting next to him]

Everyone leaves me eventually... [The words are quiet, hollow. Why does everyone leave? Why does Acumen have to be so goddamn useless at keeping the important people here? Everyone leaves eventually...Kaito, Jennifer, Allelujah. Who was next? Yuuri, or Conrad? Tsuna, again? Why...why was he always left alone? It hurt...

For once, after a very long time of wanting otherwise, Akito wishes he could go home]



((OOC: As usual, feel free to reply to one, the other or both! Just let me know which it is, Voice or Action))

[Action - Open ]

[ Being a teenage boy, Ventus does not do well with being cooped up - either forced or voluntarily. So even though it is cold out, he would rather be outside playing in the snow than he would being inside nice and warm. Maybe at night when he's worn out, but fresh in the morning? Heck no!

So there is a Ventus out in the snow in the park, looking at a pile of it rather critically before he summons one of his Keyblades - Stroke of Midnight, which goes with the snowy landscape, he thought, with its blues and whites. Not to mention it had some fond memories attached - Jacques and Cinderella.

He stood back from the awkward pile of snow and frowned in concentration at it, pointing the Keyblade at it.]

Blizzard!

[It was the weakest spell, but knowing Acumen limited his access to his magic (and the fact a blizzaga probably would be destroyed the pile), he went with it. The little ball of ice hit the pile of snow and rolled off and away, Ventus following and grinning when he saw the nice size snowball it had made. Perfect.

He turned and repeated the process, slowly building more of them...]

[Video - locks to Akito/Agito]

Hey, how are the Air Gears coming?

[ooc: feel free to bother. He's just having fun in the snow in the park so he's open to pokes!]

[As soon as the "daylight" comes on, Conrad's slipping out Zelda's door, having eaten and cleaned up the platter she brought and folded her blanket neatly, leaving a quick note that he will be back to wash it later. Hopefully she won't be worried, but he has things to do.]

[Namely, finding Wolfram and avoiding Diva. Which is why he tries to be careful as he moves through the alleys and streets, but there's no avoiding everyone. He only hopes that people won't take much notice of the small bandage on his temple.]

( Private Voice Filters to Tear and Hei, respectively )

[It's the afternoon when Tsuna leaves his new home and heads to the park, an odd sense of anticipation humming inside him. When he arrives, he finds a nice vicinity for himself where he appears to be alone before he pulls out his X-Gloves and puts them on, swallowing two of his blue Dying Will pills.

The effect is quick, and the orange Sky Flames that flare out from his forehead, gloves, and Vongola ring - now slipped onto his finger - pulse with life. He lets out a slow breath, holding his arms out a little from his sides with his palms facing the ground.

And then he propels himself into the air with his flames, hovering still for a moment before practically vanishing in the blink of an eye to appear quite a distance away. Tsuna's fast in the air, and smooth, so unlike his usual clumsy self. His personality now will seem quite different as well. If anyone were to happen upon him, he'll be flying around, clearing his head while in Hyper Dying Will Mode]

[Agito's in a pretty gloomy mood today. With Akito off hanging around Tsuna, and Lind who knows where, the dark is feeling almost...lonely. Even after their split, he hasn't spent all that much time away from Akito. But now that the light is distracted and Agito doesn't want to bother him, Agito's...not sure what to do.

The teen can be found resting on the ground in the butterfly pavilion, back to a tree. One leg is drawn up up to his chest, his arms folded and resting on his knee. Golden eye stares out at nothing, lost in thought. What to do without Akito? He's not in the mood to train...being on his own in a normal situation like this is...confusing.

He ignores the butterflies that rest on him from time to time, along with anyone around unless they catch his attention somehow. A distraction would be kinda good right now]

[It's been a while since he went all out on a practice like this, but it's about time.]

[Allelujah's in the dojo, throwing a flurry of punches and kicks at the training dummies. He's got his knuckles wrapped - it seems those sweatbands on his arms are good for more than one thing - and there's a constant 'thud' of impact as he tries to push away his frustration into the practice.]

[The style's not elegant, but it's simple and effective. He varies it a little bit, switching from punches to kicks on various targets on the dummy, and he moves around it a little, but otherwise he's focused on beating the crap out of whatever he's imagining on the dummy's fabric.]

[He does stop briefly every so often for water, though, which is probably a good time for anyone who's come to investigate the noise to try to talk to him.]

[He was so very glad to be out in the wide... well, not so wide, but wider than the shelter! - area of Marina. It felt good not be cramped anymore. He had tons of energy to burn, even if he had done a lot of that yesterday. So he was up early today and out onto his Glider, sweeping through the 'skies' of Marina, trying to go high as he could to see if he could touch the artificial stars as they faded to the artificial dawn.

He paused, turning to watch the 'sun' rise, swaying side to side on his glider, wrapped in his winter coat, air puffing in front of him. His comm was on, catching the 'sunrise' as it came up.]

Is it just me or... or is it not as pretty as the real thing? You know, like the ones back home, in a real sky?

[Well, here she was in Sector 5. She planned on trying one flavor a day just like Gear had suggested, but that was easier said than done when there were so many to choose from in the first place! Her eyes drifted from flavor to flavor as she bit her lip in concentration; she was only going to get one shot at this, after all. One self-imposed shot, but a shot nonetheless.

Still, it wasn't like she could stay here forever. It was cold, after all! Even with her coat on she still knew that much. Maybe she could ask the network...]

Hey, I want to ask all of you something! If you met someone who never had ice cream before, what flavor would you tell them to try first? I'm just curious.

[Asking for help straight out? Never. That request was still punctuated by a muffled sneeze into a handkerchief, however.]

[The video starts nice and clear, showing the face of a man in his late teens or perhaps early twenties. He's boyish-looking, with red hair and green eyes, skin lightly tanned and cheeks sprayed with freckles. It's clear that he intended to start this transmission so it's really anyone's guess why he isn't saying anything yet - there's no interference or distractions in the background or anything yet he continues to aimlessly fiddle with the headset for a good few seconds.

Those of you who ever had a technologically handicapped teacher may recognize this behavior. Overhead projectors and VCR's, man. ]

Oh, uhm… is this on? I ain't sure but… I think it's workin'?

Okay! Uh. Hi! I guess… I'm not really familiar with th' prison… etiquette, I suppose? This here place don't look much like any prison I've heard of but then again I ain't never been in one before so maybe prisons can look like this too. I figured I should at least introduce m'self so uh… let me know if I'm, y'know. Doin' it wrong.

Anyway… My name's Aidan an' I'm twenty years old. Is it custom t' say what you're in for? Cause… I don't know if I wanna do that. I ain't dangerous or anythin' but uh… [pause as something occurs to him] ..but I can hold my own, so don't get any ideas. Let's just leave it at that. Uh, so… hi. It's… it ain't a pleasure t'be here, that'd be a big fat lie but uhm, I guess since I ain't got much of a choice I reckon I might as well be civil. So… it's nice t' meet y'all.

[Getting awkward now.]

I'm just gonna… go ahead an' turn this off now.

[And he does. Action open for anyone at the beach!]

[CLOSED!]

[Okay, that had definitely not been the best start to a day. That whole conversation with Azula wouldn't get out of Tsuna's head, and probably wouldn't for quite some time even after the rawness of the encounter wore off.

He needs to see Akito, and so a hurried and distressed looking Tsuna is walking at a fast pace toward the room he knows the other is in, not stopping even if he sees someone he knows. Reaching the area, he spots Agito and knows he must be in the right place]

H-Hi, Agito-kun. [It's all he can manage before looking away and knocking on the door only a little hesitantly]


[OPEN!]

[After a while Tsuna and Akito head out to the common room, not wanting to disturb Lind any more than they already have with their discussion. The earlier video conflict was public, so there are some who probably want to catch and speak with one or the other, or even the both of them. It's a lot easier to do so since they're all still stuck in the shelter after all]

It's been nearly two weeks, now. Really- I've tried to be understanding. Crime must meet punishment for the functioning of society, as weak as this punishment truly is. Corrective containment without the reinforcement is all you need in a bubble full of petty thieves and murderers wet behind the ears.

It was quite cute, nearly charming for oh, say, the first few days. I laughed because jokes are meant to be funny, and I certainly didn't want to offend. That would be rude, and a princess minds her manners.

However.

Surely the Almighty would find its time better spent dealing with crimes of a higher caliber.

I tire of all this camaraderie, this friendship that spoils even the bloodiest of hands. Punishment is most effective under fear, power, and brutal authority. You crush until the prisoners can no longer crawl on their own. How I hate to see all this opportunity wasted.

Take pleasure in the relationships you have established here, my fellow criminals! Enjoy this peace- for it is only the eye of the storm! People are nothing more than pawns, and without the proper measure, even pawns will turn and strike.

Speak to me of kindness and of love if you so desire. Soon you will understand how worthless it is in the end- how easily loyalty can be tossed aside by fools!

It is nothing- do you hear me? Nothing!

[ooc | Azula is going off the deep-end. I apologize to everyone I didn't tag in my last post- but I'm getting out of that RP slump, now and I'm back with some fresh crazy :)]

Good morning, Marina! [Have a very smiley pink haired girl on your video feed!] For anyone I haven’t met, I’m Lacus Clyne and I’m very glad to meet you.

It seems as though we’re all going to be in the shelter today, so we should make the best of things. I was thinking that we should get together and have a big winter banquet! Anyone who wants to help cook should please feel free to come to the kitchens and assist, and if not you should still come and enjoy the food with us.

Dinner will be served at 5 in the main cafeteria, and after that maybe we could have fun playing games and watching movies together. I hope everyone has a good day, and I hope to see everyone at the feast!

[A few minutes later]

I just learned that today is also Ritsuka’s birthday! To celebrate there will be a cake and some special desserts and decorations. [as many decorations as they can find without access to the store.] Everyone please, stop by to wish him a happy birthday!

***
((OOC Notes: Mingle post, open to all! Reply to Lacus by [video] or there are several action options: [cooking] any time before 5pm ICly, [dinner] a huge buffet of almost anything you could want, or [after dinner] for card games, board games, and movies throughout the cafeteria and nearby common rooms! Your character is in no way obligated to be at all of these, but they could be if you want~

Also! A link to Ritsuka’s birthday party will be added once it goes up. There will be cake and lots of special desserts and pretty decorations in one area of the cafeteria.

If anyone wants to intentionally or unintentionally sabotage the food, please contact me OOCly before you do so. Thanks and ENJOY!))

[Frederick is out of the borrowed room with the announcements and has determined that he is going to figure out where his friends are in the shelter. Meeting others wouldn't be such a bad thing either. Never mind the fact that Frederick took off without anyone else...

So Frederick is rolling around the hallways of the Shelter, peeking around corners and into the common rooms. Unfortunately haros aren't very good at stealth. He pauses in his quest to look around]

Hello? Hello?

[ooc: Frederick, Lyle's haro, is out exploring. Feel free to encounter him anywhere in the shelter. Lyle can also join later in the thread if you want, but for now, just the haro]

[...quietly]

I have been giving a great deal of thought to the incident a few weeks ago, and your -- opinions on what happened. I think I have decided that I cannot excuse what the Engineers do in the name of entertainment. It feels like -- an abuse of their power.

[after a beat]

I understand that it's unlikely that most of you would be willing to help me. But -- is there anybody here who would be willing to act... as...

[another pause. almost embarrassed]

...my bodyguard?

[In one of the common rooms]

[Due to everyone being forced into the shelter today, Akito can be found in one of the common rooms. He hasn't been in the shelter for awhile, so he's humming to himself and feeling somewhat nostalgic, remember the time a few months ago when he arrived here.

He's sitting up on one of the lounges, swinging his feet back and forth. Next to him, his other is napping, head resting on the light's shoulder. Agito is really fucking tired, so he's allowed himself to doze off even though his pride normally wouldn't let him.

Akito doesn't mind though. He's content to stay here and look around, watching everyone go through. He's open to talking as well. It's the best way to pass what could be a boring day, after all!]


[Lurking around the place]

[The original, on the other hand, is exceedingly annoyed at being forced inside. He's not in the mood to talk to people, so being forced into a situation where he might have to is really not cool.

Lind's lurking around in the hallways and lesser used rooms, hoping to avoid people. Obviously this means he should be bothered]



((OOC: Both sides are open and you can reply to either or both! Just let me know in the header who you're tagging. This is an all-day post, as well, so anytime you want to tag is good))