[Open!] Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods ?

[npc_kun]

Characters: Open
Date/Time: 6/14-6/19
Location: Everywhere
Rating: Varied
Summary: Edensphere needs a hero. Or several.

[This is a general open log for the Damsels in Distress event. Threads can be done in quick or standard log format, as you prefer. You might also want to mark the place and approximate time in the subject of your comment, for

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Re: Tuesday Morning: Captain Planet (with railroad tracks)

[feathered_earth]

Cara had been heading out to visit Apple on her morning off, but a short walk from the bridge had presented her with--train tracks. She was pretty darn sure those hadn't been there yesterday. Before she could scratch her head or wonder what the Sphere was doing today, she heard an enraged yell.

"Gene?!" Cara sprinted along the tracks, skidding to a halt at the scene. It was too surreal to comprehend entirely--Gene tied to the tracks, wearing a pale blue dress, and a mannequin standing there with I am a dastardly villain written all over him. So she did what seemed the most sensible thing to do: socked him in the face.

Which hurt, but that wasn't relevant at the moment. Because now the rest of the situation was... still making no sense whatsoever, but she unsheathed her shortsword anyway and knelt down next to his feet. "Calm down," she said. Feet, waist, wrists, okay. She still wasn't focusing on the blue-gingham-dress bit as she began cutting the rope around his ankles. A knife really would have been better--it was awkward trying to cut the rope while not cutting his ankles, but it was sharp enough for the job anyway. "What the heck happened to you?"

[live_ringer]

Gene felt his blood freeze as he heard Cara's voice. Ohhhh no. Logically, he knew it was good that she had shown up, as he DID need the assistance. But. He'd just as soon nobody he knew saw him like this. The blow to his pride would hurt worse than the rope burns he was giving himself. Normally, he would flatten a palm against his face in exasperation at the situation, but he didn't happen to have one free. Instead, he opted to squeeze his eyes shut and mentally counted backwards from ten to keep from swearing too violently around the girl.

As he did this he heard the sound of something connecting with a hollow surface. Aborting the whole counting backward plan, he opened his eyes to see that Cara had easily felled the mannequin.

"Hope you left enough for me to get a hit in," he muttered darkly as Cara got to work on the bindings. He tried to stay stock still, considering the blade she was using was hardly some dinky pocket knife and he would like to keep his limbs.

"Hell if I know what happened! I woke up like this." His voice dropped down to a grousing grumble, "Most I can tell is that it's the Sphere's fault."

[feathered_earth]

Violent swearing wouldn't have bothered Cara really--apart from the journals, her close friends before the Sphere had included castle guards and a pirate captain, not really noted for their delicate language. "There's enough to give him a good kicking," she said, a little distractedly as she finished and briefly lifted Gene's foot to make sure that she'd got all the way through.

She looked back briefly to make sure the mannequin wasn't about to get up as she moved onto the waist, realizing at his words what a ludicrous get-up he was wearing. "You know, I think you're right," she said as she set to work on these ropes with even more care. There was just a touch of amusement in her voice, but for the moment he was still safe from ridicule.

"You aren't hurt at all, are you?" Besides the rope burns which she guessed he would probably have.

[live_ringer]

"Perfect. A good kicking was what I had in mind." And as if on cue, he moved his leg slightly after she put it back down. Still in perfect working order, and it seemed that the one good part of this get-up were the boots that ended up preventing rope burn around his ankles.

Once Cara moved to the ropes around his waist, Gene inhaled a bit to give her more room to work with. He caught the slight note of amusement in her voice but, thankfully, she didn't seem inclined to say anything about his predicament. He hoped it would last, but wasn't terribly optimistic about that.

"Hurt? Nothing but my dignity. That's pretty sore."

[feathered_earth]

"I don't think they can treat that at Wellspring," Cara said, again sounding amused but too preoccupied to actually make fun of him yet. It was kind of a pretty dress, though--there! She tossed the rope ends to either side, again to make sure she'd cut all the way through.

Her step faltered when she walked past his head, though. What--those were--yes they were, goodness. She stifled a giggle as she knelt next to his wrists... okay, if she tried using her sword on these she'd definitely end up giving Gene a few cuts and she didn't want that. She really didn't think he did either.

"This one might take a little longer, sorry." There was the knot--Cara set her sword down and managed to take it apart without too much trouble. At least whoever had tied him up had done a proper knot and not a tangled mess, but there was quite a bit of rope to unwind.

[live_ringer]

"I think time and lack of too many witnesses is about the only thing that'd cure that."

When Cara tossed aside the ropes that had been around his middle, Gene let out a small sigh of relief. Another obstacle out of the way. Gene relaxed just the tiniest bit, but tensed again as Cara faltered. It didn't seem to last... and now she was laughing, which meant things were (relatively) all right.

At the comment that this might take a bit, Gene craned his neck and glanced upward (as much as he could) to see what was going on. It looked like Cara had cast off the short sword for now. Considering how tense the last go had been, he couldn't exactly complain about that.

"Can't be helped," he said as he settled back down and... prayed to whatever was listening that no one would take a stroll by in the mean time.

[feathered_earth]

"Probably. But you're tough; I'm sure you'll recover." Cara started humming as she untied the ropes around Gene's wrists. Maybe she was being a little too chipper about the situation, but she'd been in a good mood since seeing Youth's handwriting in the journal yesterday and there wasn't much chance that it would abate anytime soon, train-tracks or no.

"Okay, all done!" she said brightly as she tugged the loops away at last, reaching over to give him a pat on his (currently very poofy) shoulder. She couldn't help the big grin on her face; now that it was all taken care of the urge to poke fun at him was rapidly winning over. "You can get up now, miss."

[live_ringer]

Gene actually didn't mind the humming, since he figured untangling knots was mind-numbing work. ...But if he didn't know better, he could have sworn she was humming "I've Been Working On The Railroad."

It was as he was musing over this that the last of the binds were pulled away. Gene let out a tremendous sigh and sat up rubbing his wrists, while trying to work the kinks out of his back. He paused as it finally registered what Cara said and he shot her a flat look.

"Cheeky brat," the epithet held no sting, and very nearly sounded fond. If anyone had earned the right to mock him right now, she had. "Thanks, by the way. If you hadn't come along, I'd have--" it was just that moment that he decided to absently run a hand through his hair and found that it stuck. He paused, reached over to find why... and found that his hair was actually tied back in pigtails with two big blue bows.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," he said as he started tugging the bows OUT. So much for not swearing around the kid.

[feathered_earth]

Cara's grin didn't waver a bit at Gene's look--it was easy enough to see through what he said and anyway she felt quite justified in teasing him. She was about to wave off his thanks when he finally noticed the little hairdo that Edensphere had decided to give him.

At which point Cara really, really could not stop herself from bursting into laughter. The combination of blue gingham, adorable pigtails, and outraged Gene was far too much for her to take. "But--they're so cute!" she said, managing to get that out between guffaws. "The Tree put so much effort into it, you have to be impressed!"

[live_ringer]

Ahh, there it was. Gene had to wonder just how long Cara had been holding it all in. While Cara laughed herself silly Gene got to his feet, dropped the bows on the ground, and promptly ground them under his heel (oh God, the boots had heels. He hadn't noticed before.)

"I'm feeling a lot of things about the Tree right now, but 'impressed' doesn't happen to be one of them. 'Scuse me."

Gene walked over to the mannequin villain who was still slumped on the ground from when Cara got him earlier. Heels or no, Gene was going to make good on his promise earlier, and delivered a swift kick to its head while just barely managing not to lose his balance and topple in the process. How people walked in these things on a regular basis, Gene had no clue.

There. Now he felt marginally vindicated.

[feathered_earth]

Cara nodded as Gene got up, not even bothering to try to get enough breath to answer him. He only made matters worse when he marched--or wobbled, rather--over to the wicked mannequin and gave it a good kick in the head. She had to support herself on the rail with one hand for a moment before she could get herself back under control. Though "under control" was relative in this situation.

It was probably a good thing she didn't know much about cameras or she'd be wishing for one right about now--even so, she had a feeling this memory would be a very hard one to erase.

She was still giggling as she got up and followed him, picking up the tophat that had been knocked off of the mannequin's head and reaching up to set it on Gene's. "Here," she said, trying valiantly to get a serious expression onto her face (and failing completely). "Is that better?"

[live_ringer]

Gene half wondered if it was healthy for one person to laugh so hard for so long. It seemed like a good way to pull something. He was about to say as much to her when she dropped the villain's chapeau atop his head. He looked up, gave a wry smile, then tilted it at a jaunty angle. The situation was already ridiculous enough, might as well run with this part of it.

"It's an improvement over the bows, I'll say that much." Then he blinked. He knew Cara only put the hat on him as a joke but... the mannequin did have trousers and a button up shirt on. Hm. Maybe he wouldn't have to make the walk of shame all the way to his place in the dress, after all.

"Say... out of curiosity. Do you know how long the clothes on these puppet things last once they're taken off of them?"

[feathered_earth]

Cara hadn't really had a good reason to laugh so much for a while now... between Aim going missing, the attack on the Bazaar, and Youth's death, she'd mostly just been keeping her head above water. It was just Gene's bad luck that he'd been the one to break that in the most noticeable way. (Granted, she would have laughed just as much even if things had been good the whole month.) Though he might have had a point about its health effects as she'd been starting to get a cramp in her side.

She was going to push it further and suggest maybe putting a bow on the hat when that idea struck Gene. "Gee, I'm not sure," she said, looking at the mannequin thoughtfully, but still grinning. In over a year, she'd never had a reason to consider that. "I don't see why they would vanish, though you can never tell with this place."

Cara had been wondering about how Gene was going to get back to his house wearing that... she reached down and pulled up the villain by his lapels. It was taller than it'd seemed, hunched over and cackling, but still not quite as tall as he was. Still, if Gene wanted to risk it--

[live_ringer]

"Is that so?" A smirk spread across Gene's face as he walked around the mannequin and eyed the size of it. The pants would probably be a bit short and the shirt would likely be a bit tight across the chest and shoulders, but it would miles and away more livable than the dress.

"In that case, if you don't mind, I'd like to take that off your hands." In exchange, he transferred the hat from his head to hers. No reason she should come away from this without a souvenir, after all.

[feathered_earth]

"Sure thing," Cara said with a grin as the hat ended up on her head. She held out the mannequin by his collar, turning away and shutting her eyes. She had absolutely no interest in seeing Gene not fully-clothed unlike Reed and his sweater yesterday. "Maybe you should leave the cape, though. It'd be awkward if someone mistook you for the wicked villain."

...And another thought struck her. "Hang onto the dress too, just in case."

[live_ringer]

Gene raised an eyebrow at her. He actually hadn't planned on disrobing right there in front of Cara. Not to mention, there was a possibility of other people walking past. No, this was meant to be a quick fix, and once he yanked the trousers off the mannequin he actually slipped them on over the damnable stockings for speed's sake (and because he wasn't sure he could get them off with out a lot of struggling). Once the pants were on, he unbuttoned the collar of the dress and pulled it up over his head. When the shirt he had swiped from the mannequin was mostly buttoned he glanced over.

"All clear."

He bent down to look at the shoes the mannequin was wearing and frowned. Its feet were actually surprisingly small. There was no way he'd be able to wear those... so it looked like he was stuck with the heeled, lace up boots. He supposed it could be worse, though that would make it a bit of a precarious walk back. He'd just have to go slow.

"I wasn't planning on taking it. Little hot for a cape, don't you think?" he said even as he rolled his sleeves up. "Hang onto the dress 'just in case'? Just in case I want to burn it, you mean?"