(open) i went through my list of friends and found i had no one to tell

[entreats]

Who: Ange Ushiromiya and YOU!
Where: All over Aldrip.
What: Ange is dealing with the aftermath of the Gnosia event-- and worse so than she's pretending to be.
Warnings: A chance of talk of mental illness (mostly depression, mixed in with some complex abandonment trauma) and death (in regards to the recent event).

[ It's not like Ange hasn't dealt with anything in this place, really. She's been here for over a year now, and there have been plenty of things before that really shook her to the core - especially that dumb maze from a long while ago now, and everything that had appeared in it. But the most recent event might have been the wildest thing yet. It was very reminiscent of the games back home, which sure didn't help. Even though her family might not have been on the line this time around, watching her friends be on the line was practically just as bad.

And now.. the town is normal again. And they're expected to go on like the usual.

So Ange tries to do just that - even if something threatens to fester below. ]

( a. come across ange - open to all! )

[ Maybe you're coming across one of the more quiet and empty parts of town, or maybe right outside town, where you may have found someone who set up a little shooting range - even if it's not much more than a single target standing there in an empty field or park.

The sight that might be more surprising - if you recognize the girl - is Ange standing there, holding a bow as she's staring at the target, looking rather focused. It's been a long, long time since she bothered to practice archery before giving up on it, so the sight of her doing it again is certainly new to most people. (And not inspired at all by a specific person being on her mind, what do you mean--) She pulls back the string before releasing the arrow. It flies at the target, and..

.. It only hits one of the outer rings.

The girl mutters something under her breath, her steps more like stomps as she heads over to the target to retrieve the arrow, pulling it out. As she turns around to go back to where she was standing a moment ago to perhaps go for a second attempt, she'll spot you right there. She frowns, speaking up with a: ]

What are you looking at?

[ Is she embarrassed? A little more touchy than the usual, considering she doesn't seem to be wearing her poker face or her usual emotionless tone when she spoke up like that? Who knows. ]

( b. ange comes across you - only for existing cr! )

[ For once, Ange doesn't totally isolate in the face of what happened during the event. It's almost as if she learned something, ssshh.

Which means that at some point during the days right after the town returns back to normal, you may find Ange reaching out to you if she knows you. She'll be at your door if she knows where you live, but if she doesn't, she may have sent you a text to come meet up with her at a cafe in town.

Either way, regardless of whether you're greeting her at your doorstep or in the cafe, the girl scowls and immediately starts with: ]

Everything that happens in this place is such bullshit.

[ Okay, hi, hello to you too, Ange-- ]

( ooc: feel free to hit me up with either brackets or prose, i will match! or if you'd like to wildcard this or ask for a custom starter, feel free to let me know too, i'm very flexible! )

Comments

a, as promised.

[ashaya]

[ For his part, Spock had been focused elsewhere.

Between teaching Jim how best to manage the nascent bond and the relative fall-out of the month's previous events, he'd been quite fine to spend time participating in leisure activities where he might have found opportunity. If it similarly coincided with bringing along with his Bones-the-dog (not the Human), then surely it was for the best interest of all parties involved. Soon enough and again, they'd be quite entangled in another set of explorations and experimentations. Best to take what breaks they could and when they could.

For morale and baseline levels of efficiency, of course. ]

Your arrow, [ he says, once Ange has turned about on her heel. For one who hadn't necessary expected to be queried, he gives it over without much prompting. Be it that he'd noted her state long before and minded his own? Well, it does not appear upon his face.

Instead, his words come smooth and unmodulated. ] Your aim has improved by approximately seven point three percent since your arrival.

[ How long has he been here? It's about as transparent as how he was able to calculate it, really. He's been playing himself in chess at the sidelines, listening to the whistle of new fletching. His dark eyes consider her for a moment, before returning to the board before him. His fingers hover briefly above one black pawn, before he decided upon a move.

He knows that a grand number of individuals have been impacted by what has occurred and he too is not entirely without change or consequence. His earlier conversations with most involved with his own... Dilemmas might have confirmed it. And who knows, really, who has mentioned what to who. Peter and Gwen were not the only to have faced what boiled beneath the surface, brought out by opportunistic infection. ]

[entreats]

[ It makes Ange pause as she had just grabbed the arrow, stopping mid-walk back to her original shooting spot. Rather than walking on, she just stares in his direction. The girl doesn't even say anything right away, doesn't reply, she's just-- staring.

All the things she knows about the other so far are a truly odd set of facts, after all. Some sort of code nerd. Weirdly fond of cats. And also apparently.. a robot, maybe? Ange is pretty sure that no normal person would be able to calculate such a thing by sight, after all. Unless he's just bullshitting her.

Usually the girl is pretty good at telling when people are doing the latter, but-- well, right now she isn't so sure.

Before even speaking up, she continues her walk back to her original spot, still holding the arrow. It's only when she seems to be getting ready to take another shot that she asks: ]

How do you know?

[ Let's start there. ]

[ashaya]

[ Honestly, such reactions are commonplace. When living upon a largely Human starship? It is actually expected. It is rare enough to see a Vulcan outside the bounds of their own planet, vessels, and ambassadorial routes. To see one within the confines of the Federation? Much less, one with such unheard of ancestry?

But, it is neither here nor there. Spock simply glances up when she poses her question. His hand, which had been going to move another piece against himself, suddenly pauses. He settles it in his lap. ]

Mathematics, [ he says, tipping his head just so. ] Calculating the relative distance between yourself and the target, I am able to use the sound of the arrow's impact to determine its velocity as subtracted from the distance of myself from its line of fire. While it is approximate without factoring in the exact weight of the arrow, it is not difficult to assign it a likely range.

[ A beat. Perhaps it would be unsurprising that Spock would take such a comparison to computer of sorts as a compliment. He has seen her about himself, but: ] Moreover, tabulating your score has proven enlightening.

[ In other words, he's seeing more hits toward the center than not and has that down to an average. It's fine. ]

[entreats]

[ The girl stares at Spock for a moment, even after he's finished giving that answer. It kind of looks like she's thinking about everything he's saying. Not even necessarily the content of the words, but more the general gist of it. The gist that sure strengthens the impression she got of him a moment ago.

She lowers the bow she's holding for now, instead approaching the spot he's sitting at. ]

Well, as long as you're having fun. [ A little dryly - but mostly because she can't really imagine anyone at all having fun calculating this of all things, rather than it being some sort of judgement aimed at him.

Ange's gaze drops at the game of chess in front of him. ]

Are you calculating that as well?

[ashaya]

[ A fair response, he should say. She is not the first to weigh and measure the content and quality of his words, to hold them against some internalize standard and understanding. That is the way of most any being that deems themselves in some manner "social." It was something he had come to understand, the need for interaction in species outside his. Whereas he could regulate himself with more success - well, it appears he too is being asked a question. ]

Not as such, [ he says, voice low and unmodulated. The closer one is to him, it would seem, the more pronounced the rumble of it is. ] It is is more accurate to say I am testing a hypothesis.

[ A beat. His dark eyes consider her, the board, and then - he's gesturing to the seat across from him. The motion is narrow, held close to the chest, but the invitation is universal. ]

Are you familiar?

[entreats]

.. yeah, I play chess.

[ It's worded a little differently than he's saying it, but it seems like she caught onto what he was saying anyway.

And also onto the non-verbal part of it all. It takes a slight moment, but then the girl does sit down in the chair across from him, not just throwing away the invitation. It's telling - even if Spock might not realize, not knowing her well enough for it - considering that Ange doesn't care enough about niceties to accept every invitation she gets. If she didn't think this was potentially interesting, she wouldn't have sat down.

But she did. And she's actually looking at the way he's got the board set up.

Apparently she can't tell what exactly is going on with it just yet though, since after that cursory glance she asks: ]

What are you testing right now?

[ashaya]

Unconventional openings I have previously played against and speculative lines of defense. [ He tips his chin in indication, his dark eyes touching upon the black pieces. These lines ought to be unfamiliar, even to those who have played less casually. They're certainly not under names known, by any stretch. ] These matches resulted in losses.

[ Contrary to the reaction of many players, Spock has learned that losses in these games against a solid opponent is no hardship. In fact, it is something he invites should they earn it.

But, sometimes one's best thinking is done with the tangible and the concrete at the fingertips. In Spock's case, the additional stimulus provides information otherwise not available on applications alone. What the mind and eye interprets is not always so immediately reliable as the memory of one's muscle. It is something he has "picked up," playing against those who are much less controlled, but no less deliberate. ]

What is your Elo?

[ Well, that's one way to identify the casual from the advanced. ]

[entreats]

[ While he's explaining what's in front of them on the board, Ange is taking a look at it already. She may even be leaning in a little bit to take a better look at the scene, something about the gaze in her eyes rather considering, like she really is thinking about all of it.

It stops when he asks her that question, which is when she moves to sit back upright again. ]

None. I haven't been able to play since I was six years old.

[ .. so there's more theory than practical application going on here, apparently, since she does recognize what his question means, yet has that answer of all things. ]

It's kind of hard to play without opponents. [ It's the sort of statement that could lead to all sorts of questions - questions even the person saying said statement might be able to predict - yet she doesn't offer any further information. Instead she's staring at the position of the pieces again, like she seems to think that those are way more interesting here. ]