Capture 2

[panicswitched]

[ this is ashley magnus. this is ashley magnus swallowing her pride. mark your calendars, paradisa. this will likely never happen again.

she sounds on edge, but it's a different kind of on-edge than the kind when she last used the journal like this. today she's just got the tone of someone about to do something she'd rather not do but knows she needs to do. ]

Okay, so... Hi. Name's Ashley [ which just confirms for a lot of people what exactly her identity is thanks, james. ] and I'm really new still. I know I met a lot of you whackos -- [ ...did she really just say that? well, she never really had much of a brain-to-mouth filter... ] -- playing Twenty Questions or just by interrogation and I know I came off a bit... harsh. I should apologize for that. So... I'm sorry.

[ someone should really check if she's sick or discover that she's eaten dark chocolate today. ]

Um, if anyone wants to chat, I promise I won't bite your head off. I'm just... gonna go down to the kitchen.

[ aaand she's done with the public feed at the moment, before she makes a fool of herself.

Nikola Tesla ]

Okay, so... [ inhale sharply. mark your calendar, tesla. ] I still don't like you, but I have a question. How long has it been since I... y'know, kicked it? [ smooth, ashley, smooth. ] I think I might owe you something, too.

[ Katniss Everdeen ]

Do you mind if I come to the shooting range sooner than I said last time? I think I need to go kill something fake. [ before she kills something real. ]


[ an hour or so later she's going to make a fool of herself anyway. the public feed opens up again and she's got a question for the lot of you. ]

Why do I have the sudden urge to go find animals. Like normal cats or dogs. There's not anything different about them! They're not abnormals! Why do I want them?

Comments

dictated

[inafadingcrown]

"Whackos?" I daresay I have been called many things, but never that. [Except she sounds terribly amused instead of actually offended.]

dictated

[panicswitched]

You're lucky I like you. [ hey hey hey. galadriel's made it into her "decent" book at least. ] This place is full of whackos. Don't even pretend it isn't.

[inafadingcrown]

Many here are rather... eccentric, I will give you that. [Galadriel is the queen of understatement.]

[panicswitched]

[ she'll just... stare at the journal like it's grown heads and teeth and is trying to chomp on her arm. ]

How about they're all out of their minds? This place is like a hotel gone crazy. Everyone's all settled in and talking about magic like it exists.

[ she'll get over this. eventually. ]

James said you were cool, though, so you're at least off the list. [ of crazy people. eccentric? yes. ]

[workaphilic]

[When she gets to the kitchen, she may find that there's a lovely looking cake on the counter. He took great pains to redecorate and disguise it; it's about as harmless looking as your average vanilla-vanilla layer cake.

Beside the cake is a man, with most of his upper body stuck in the fridge.]

Oh, yes.

[He pulls out a small jar of olives and sets it on the counter next to the cake. Are they meant to go together? Are they not? Hard to say.

He makes eye contacts and smiles (for all appearances) politely.]

Afternoon.

[panicswitched]

[ well. that wasn't there when she was last down here. she pauses, glancing at the cake for a moment. ]

That's new.

[ blink. oookay then. she gives him a nod in response, not looking the most friendly, but certainly not the most aggressive, either. ]

So what idiot put a cake there and expected it not to get eaten?

[workaphilic]

[The corner of his mouth quirks.]

Me.

Though I never expected it not to get eaten. Quite the opposite, actually.

Dictated

[is_mafia]

[Oh, look, it's the woman that James warned them about. And she was talking about wanting to collect cats and dogs without any reason why?

...It probably was some sort of Valentine's Day thing, though what small animals had to do with Valentine's Day eluded him. It must be some sort of future thing.]

I don't know, for not being different cats and dogs do have their charms.

Dictated

[panicswitched]

They're boring. But they're cute? I don't know.

[ she sounds half-sulky and half-confused at this. ]

Dictated

[is_mafia]

[...Well, if she does anything like what James does, then no doubt regular animals are boring.

But that's beside the point.] Since I assume that you don't actually prefer them, it may be the castle? It is Valentine's Day, after all, and it does strange things on holidays.

[theabjectauthor]

Welcome to Paradisa, Ashley. ... I'm afraid I can't help you with the animals - but are there any other questions I might be able to answer for you?

[panicswitched]

Thanks, uh... whoever you are. Don't think so. Why? Are you the great source of information?

[ ignore the sarcasm. she just has issues. ]

[theabjectauthor]

My name is Lemony Snicket. And while I am not the definitive source of information in Paradisa, I am an experienced researcher and student of rhetoric. Therefore, I would be glad and quite able to assist you in looking for any answers you might still be in search of... unless, of course, you were looking for the whereabouts of any of the various creeping horrors of this world, in which case I am afraid I would have to staunchly decline, as I have a particular aversion to those, and prefer living.

action;

[scoring]

[ The post went over her head like an albatross, lost in a sea of noise with the rest of the journal nonsense. Nonetheless, she's in the kitchen as well, staring at the oven as if it bit her. There are ingredients set up, mostly seeming like normal fixings for ramen, but some...definitely shouldn't be there.

And they're sitting. Judging. Leaving her standing right in the path of the fridge. ]

Should I...?

action;

[panicswitched]

[ at some point after she eats the cake, she's going to want actual food and so she'll be heading for the fridge--

or she was anyway. ]

Uh... Are you okay?

[scoring]

Huh? Oh, I'm sorry! I'm in your way...

[ She shuffles back a few steps, getting out of said way. ]

Yes, thank you. I'm just thinking about cooking.

[squartatore]

Abnormals? [what, like mutant puppies???]

[panicswitched]

Weird creatures. I like them.

[ she'll just stick with that. it's easier. ]

[squartatore]

I...see... [won't judge. Not unless Ashley picks up a perpetually :3ing cabbit alien -- it's almost sad how Kyuubey was what immediately came to mind]

You could visit the animal shelter and pet the ones there until the urge goes away, I guess.

Ashley Magnus

[vampirize]

[WOW, ASHLEY, WHAT A QUESTION. Geez, first he had to deal with James coming back, and now you're discussing it so openly with him. There's a long pause.]

Why do you want to know?

[and yesss good owing stuff to him is always good]

Oh? What might that be?

Nikola Tesla

[panicswitched]

[ no one ever said she had tact. ]

Because I [ might have judged you too harshly ] wanted to know if things had changed. [ things between him and the rest of her important people. and y'know. she remembers fighting him just a few weeks ago, and it seemed to her muddled mind that he was fighting for her mother, not against. it just took her a while to actually think about things. and now she wants to know. ]

Just answer my question first.

[ she doesn't sound like she's trolling or being snippy for once. this is like pulling teeth because part of her really does not want to do this. but she feels it might be a good thing.

look at her. she's growing up. ]

Ashley Magnus

[vampirize]

[This is very true.]

[And...yeah, remembering how her mother acted after making that fateful decision concerning her is not the happiest memory in the world. It saddened him too, it did, but like he would ever admit that.]

Well...a few months. Your mother didn't really take it well, but I suspect you'll have lots of good conversations about that with her, since she's here.

...

They had a service for you, you know. I didn't come, but I heard it was nice.

Dictated - Filtered

[the_effect_she_has]

You got it. The range is open to you whenever you want.

[A pause.] Well not in the middle of the night.

Dictated - Katniss

[panicswitched]

Thanks.

Aw, really? No one watches it? [ she's used to all hours, sadly. ]

So do you just hang out there?

Re: Dictated - Katniss

[the_effect_she_has]

No problem..

I do. I am actually going to live up there -- so I gotta sleep.

Most of the time. I'm trying to find the perfect shot - and I need to keep trained.