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[inthejunk]

[Nothing like a rude awakening at 2:30 in the morning, right? Well, you're in for a treat fellow refugees. It seems like one just flew over the cuckoos nest. Not that you can tell initially. At first this just looks like some inconsiderate kid with rings under his eyes and messy hair, breathing down the camera lens a little too up close and personal.]

Yo. If we haven't met yet, hello. I'm Yosuke. But...but if you're new, you should count to three and then stop listening. Okay? One, two...three. Alright, go away. It's for your own good.

[For emphasis, he clicks the lamp beside him off, and the video goes dark. Nothing to see here, apparently.]

Listen. Guys. I'm curious what people do here for fun. Because uh-look. I've tried sleeping, and training, and then I tried going outside. And talking to the people in the market, and you know. Looking for animals. And I found some, but they were really creepy and mutated. You know? So it's impossible to forget this place is so...

[The light comes back on with a soft click. The phone-roll-up is on the bed table now. Yosuke smiles down at it tightly, and shrugs. Then something thumps in the other room and he jumps at least a foot, gesturing wildly and knocking the device off the table. Someone get the kid some decaf.

He hangs over the side of the bed and gazes at the mobile, his image now fractured like a kaleidoscope, and gives a rather put-upon sigh for a guy who was just trying so hard to be personable.]

Damn it. I'm cracked...

Comments

[inthejunk]

"After getting here." He answers lightly, too interested in the proffered wing to be annoyed at the prompt. And when she starts talking about flying? Well. He goes a little starry eyed in spite of himself. "What was your best flight like?"

[whatsupcroc]

< You ask like there can be only one! > Collette laughs at the thought, relaxing as no damage befell her open wing. < Besides, you know what's even better than telling? Showing, for sure! If not the flight itself, then I dunno, maybe in the VR stuff. You can program with the AI if you want. But if you want to hear what it feels like... >

She trails off, curious and happy with the thought and her memories of the truest freedom she knows -- along with one of the most dangerous.

[inthejunk]

"What? I mean yeah, I want to hear. But what?"

[whatsupcroc]

< You don't know about the VR rooms? They're great! >

She extended ehr other wing, clacking her beak like she'd clapped her hands.

< Forget telling you about flying, there, I can literally show you! >

[inthejunk]

"The what?"

Okay, yeah, he's confused again. And suddenly aware that there's a puddle of...eugh. Stuff. Right in front of him. Yosuke closes his eyes and swallows. Yeah, that has to go. No need to find out if anything is left.

"Actually, roll and talk okay? Or fly, whatever. I should really...find that towel. And maybe some incense."

[whatsupcroc]

Collette pulled her wings in tight, toddling over toward the open door and down the hall. He did need to clean up, and she'd prefer her room not stink of vomit, thank him very much!

< Incense? I don't have any of that! I might have a candle... but it smells like cinnamon, I think. >

It'd been left over from Thanksgiving. Collette never did figure out who was responsible for bringing it over. Her head ducks down as she considers how many of those folks are now gone and missing. Though it was great having them all over. I guess that's the most important part of Thanksgiving! Being grateful for people while they're still there.

< Towels are in here! > She raps her beak on the linen closet door, scuttlilng back off to the side to be out of Yosuke's way again.

[inthejunk]

That definitely gets a weird look. Yeah...he's probably losing his mind after all. This bird has a linen cupboard. That just can't be real life.

But he gets the towel out anyway, thinks about it, and grabs another. The second one he wets down at the kitchen sink before he follows the birdie back in, trying not to seem freaked out. Though frankly, he still sort of is.

He drops both towels by the mess -UGH- while trying not to look at it, and glances around for the candle.

"Cinnamon is fine."

Better than partially digested bread and stomach acid, anyway. Oh please, be distracting, Collette.

"S. The...V-R? Thing? Tell me about that."

[whatsupcroc]

There was a crash from out in the living room, Collette calling out a mental, < I'm fine! > before clicks of talons and a rolling semi-hallow glass cylinder were making their way progressively closer to Yosuke. Collette used her beak to push along the candle she had in mind, holding a stick of matches awkwardly in one foot as she walked.

Clack-thump-roll-swish, clack-thump-roll-swish, clack-thump-roll-swish. She rounded the corner to her room.

< The VR rooms? They're amazing! You can set them up to look like or be like anything you can imagine, or anything you can remember, or imagine that you remember! The AI kind of works with you on it, but it doesn't stay around from what I understand. Basically the limit is about dying. You're not allowed to die in VR, so it stops before you can get killed. >

A philosophy she can appreciate, all things told, but as she knocked the candle rolling toward Yosuke's foot, she shakes her head.

< Light us up?> she asked, shifting weight onto the empty foot so she could shake the box of matches at Yosuke.

[inthejunk]

"You know, you could always ask the guy with opposable thumbs when you need a hand."

He gives her a half amused, half exasperated look. But he's happy to take the candle and light it. Hopefully it'll get the bitter scent of bile out of the air.

That accomplished, Yosuke grimaces and starts wiping the floor with the dry towel. He gaga quietly as he does so, and tries to turn his face away from it. The conversation helps a little, at least.

"You're kidding. There's a big video game here and no one ever told me? That's so lame!"

[whatsupcroc]

< They've mentioned it before! Though you'd have to be glued to the network to really notice. > Collette opens her wings slightly, shrugging them in an almost recognizable way.

< I can show you sometime, if you want to check it out! Gamora used it to kick major butt in a simulation. I went skateboarding! We could probably rig it up for flight, you know? I can give the AI all it needs to be able to give you a feel for the real thing. >

Not as good as what Caesar had been able to try, but closer than would have otherwise been possible. She side-hops further away from him as he cleans the floor of his former stomach contents.

Autocorrect sure does love Gaga.

[inthejunk]

"Skateboarding, huh?" He grins at that welcome and distracting thought, wishing he could step further away too.

But eventually the better part of the mess is wiped up, and he switches to the wet towel to make sure there isn't any digestive film left in between the tiles. Hurk.

"Is it any good, though? If I tried virtual flight, would it be worth it?"

[whatsupcroc]

He was decent at cleaning up messes. Collette mostly notes it to wonder how many times he's done this before.

< Is it worth it? I can make it worth it. Leave it to me, if you want to try! I can show you what the real thing is like, or close to it. >

Collette didn't know for sure how it'd work, but she had faith it would. If whole environments could be created from the mind, if memories could be whole places in and of themselves, then she knew this would work.

Sidling away toward the hall, she knew it'd work out, as long as they wanted it badly enough.

[inthejunk]

"Show me." Yosuke agrees, cheerful even though its through his teeth. He's not quite confident enough to open his mouth yet. But he finishes cleaning the floor and picks up the dirty towels, blanching a little. "Trash or laundry?"

[whatsupcroc]

Collette laughs on their mental connection. To her, there's no other possibility outside of Yosuke joking. < Do I look like I'm made of towels? Throw it in the washer and run a load for me. Come on! >

Toddling into the hall, she made her way down toward where the washer and dryer were kept in a nook of their own.

[inthejunk]

Crap. Seriously?

He...doesn't exactly know how laundry works, frankly. But he dutifully follows the bird, trying to appear like someone who washes linens all the time.

[whatsupcroc]

Which means Collette believes he can, since he says nothing otherwise. < The detergent is on the lower shelf, > she says, pausing well back from the door. It's closed, which doesn't have any particular meaning outside of the door reacting to a breeze from open windows in the apartment. < Try to use the one with the circles on the side! >

[inthejunk]

"Circles? Sure."

Yosuke walks in, and the first problem is the fact that there isn't just a machine in there. There are two machines. He blinks, unhappy at this revelation. Right. Okay. Uuuuuh...

With one hand he opens the doors on both-those at least are easy to find- and attempts to see what's different about their insides. One machine is full of holes, and the other...raised bars?

Right. Crap. Okay. Er...

With a glance at the panels-nope, they're in a language he can't read- he gives in and resorts to logic. How does it work? Water is involved. And the one with holes in it seems like it could sprinkle and sieve, couldn't it? Like a shower? That must be right...

[whatsupcroc]

Collette clicks and clacks her way to the door, peering in. She has to move her head as he moves around in order to stay focused on Yosuke, but she does without comment. He's getting used to how things are laid out. She bets that's what's going on!

After all, he's from a m odern world. Neither washers nor dryers could be all that confusing! Unlike with Oz and Caesar, who had no reason to understand technology (or science, for that matter), Yosuke was bound to be smart about this stuff.

< Hey, what's your favorite color? >

[inthejunk]

Yosuke jumps, oddly guilty, and spins to face the sound of Collete's 'voice.'

"Huh? Uh...yellow. Or red. I guess. What for?" He quickly reaches to stuff the towels into the holey machine, but his hand slips and then the towel opens, oh god. It's on him. It's on him!

Yosuke leans forward and dry heaves over the machine in disgust. Nothing but a little saliva and a tiny bit of bile comes up, and rather painfully. But even worse, there's still something on his arm! Ugh!

He grabs the nearest but of clothing -someone's shirt- and scrubs furiously at his arm, holding back a few more heaves and groaning quietly. Gross, gross, gross!

When that's as clean as its getting, he tosses the shirt in too and slams the lid closed. Eugh! Okay, so what button makes it go...?

[whatsupcroc]

< Curiosity. Are you vomiting again? You've got kind of a weak stomach. > Collette stays further back, head tilting to one side, then straightening out... before tilting to the other side. < I think you grabbed one of Loki's shirts there. Be careful! Or maybe it was one of mine... hey, wait, check and make sure it's not yours! I washed it and had it folded in here to get back to you. >

An event which clearly has yet to transpire.

[inthejunk]

"No! It was a cough!"

He lies, embarrassed. Oh god, he really needs to wash his hands. Ugh! And-wait, what? Did she just say...?

DAMN IT.

"Uh. Just...washing it again. To get the...static out?"

[whatsupcroc]

She pulls her head back and gives him a baffled bird stare. < The static? I've never heard of doing that with the washing machine. I thought that's what the dryer sheets were for in the dryer! >

Japan must do things differently. Collette's less sure than before that he knows what he's doing, but it's probably just cultural differences.

They run into quite a few of those, she's noticed.

[inthejunk]

The what? Aw, great. He still has no idea what she's talking about. Yosuke frowns, and looks around for the soap. Ah, the circles. That must be it, right?

"Don't you have mice to eat?"

[whatsupcroc]

< What? Hahaha, you're so silly! Like I'd take work away from the cats. >

She chooses to ignore the fairly blatant go away. Mice, Yosuke? Really? Collette fluffs up her feathers and continues to stare him down.

Oh, he's up to something. She's just not sure what, yet!

[inthejunk]

Yosuke opens the machine again to add the soap-oh hurf it stinks, ugh!- which....arms pretty straightforward. It's liquid, like shampoo. He can tell by how heavy the bottle is. And with the kid unscrewed, he can also tell that it smells a lot better than his partially digested lunch. So he huffs it a bit to get the funk out of his lungs, then tips a stream of the stuff out over the laundry.

Eh, better make it a generous stream. Because that stuff really whiffs.

"I thought you said you don't eat cat." He teases, as he slams the lid again on the horrors within the washing basin.