(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

[conflictresolution]

[He shrugged lightly, amused that her questions were becoming more and more pointed and potentially invasive. She did not seem the type of young lady that would wander around yelling about his business practices, but neither did he trust anyone completely with them.

Still, hd had a long tolerance for Ange thusfar.]

Can't it be both? Narrow focused marketing isn't smart when the ability to expand is limited by what this place is willing to allow.

[He currently shared certain essential businesses and would be expanding into that. It might all be fake in the end, but it was what he had to work with.]

Do you have interest in a business of your own someday?

[entreats]

Not really.

[ Seems like she didn't have to really think about that one, since she answered pretty quickly. ]

I actually have a big business back home. And I mean a really big one. I inherited it from my aunt, but since I'm still too young and also have no interest in running it whatsoever, other people are doing that. [ There's a pause on her end, and since she has been asking him a whole lot, Ange figures she might as well share this fact in return-- ] I'm pretty sure they'll just be glad to be rid of me. They just see me as a liability.

[ A pretty weird thing to say as casually as Ange does, but.. it's definitely said very casually. With a shrug and all. ]

[conflictresolution]

[Well, that was news to him. What struck him most was her complete lack of apparent interest in a massive resource and point of potential power. It seemed to him that not taking advantage of such a resource was wasteful and foolish. How many people where he was from would kill for such an opportunity - squander it and ruin it too yes.

For the first time in awhile, he looked very unimpressed. He tilted his head like he was reassessing her before he too shrugged to dismiss the topic.]

You're making yourself a liability indeed. I didn't believe you were capable of that kind of idiocy, but here we are. You have plenty of options but instead you allow your enemies, rivals and anyone with half an operational brain to use your given resource.

[entreats]

[ Honestly, she isn't all that surprised by his reaction. Yeah, that's something Silco would say. Especially since he seems to care so much about business, think so much about it.

Because money has never been a millstone around his neck the way it has always been for her. The thing that keeps dragging her further and further down. As if she could fight rivals with that.

Ange is pretty sure it's something she could never explain to him. Nor does she really care to, considering how much it'd dive into vulnerable parts of her that she isn't so willing to turn over. ]

What, do you want to have it? I'd give it to you, but I'm not so sure multidimensional contracts have any real worth.

[conflictresolution]

[Indeed, Silco's life had started with nothing where even a meal wasn't guaranteed let alone a roof over one's head and a safe place to sleep. He had built alliances which had saved him as he slowly but surely built wealth through shrewd and cruel choices. Her world was more like that of Piltover's elites than anything he had experienced.

Their history of companionable interactions might have been the only reason he wouldn't walk away. She had offered him a protection no other had, and for that, he did owe her still.]

I doubt that they do, but perhaps when you return home, you'll either do something worthwhile with it or sell it to someone who will. Otherwise, you're staining a legacy that thought to give you something of theirs.

[It would be similar to Jinx spitting in the face of all that he had accomplished and willed to her when he inevitably died. Again.]

[entreats]

[ Ange lets out a sound that's.. almost a little weird. It sounds like it'd be a laugh, if only Ange was more inclined to do so. ]

Do you know why my aunt thought to give the company and all the money to me? It's because she knew it'd kill me.

[ At least she can kind of see why he'd find it important to do something good with a company or money. It just seems like a Silco sort of thing.

But the idea that her aunt was trying to do something considerate for her? Oh, now that is laughable. It'll always be laughable. ]

And it did, so she was right about that.

[conflictresolution]

And yet it has not killed you. Instead, you squander the opportunity of the power it brings to turn it upon your enemies and destroy them. No doubt with that wealth, you could even pay someone else to do it for you.

[Perhaps there was a little too much Silco showing in this topic of conversation. Normally he was far less vicious, but the idea of someone walking away from an opportunity to potentially destroy those who worked to kill them was a survival tactic on his part. He worked hard for his power, and he wielded it with surgical precision.

He didn't expect others to do the same. In fact, the less others did it, the easier it was for him to gain the upper hand as a result. He didn't have considerable strength or speed or fantastical powers. He had his wits and his will. So far that had proved enough.

He looked directly at Ange with his mismatched gaze.]

Then make her roll over in whatever pathetic grave she now resides for her efforts. Make them all rue the day they messed with one such as you.

[entreats]

[ It's not like Ange can't understand any of this at all. Even if it's a new side of him she's seeing - usually he is definitely not this intense, and it's kind of unexpected that this of all things would trigger him into getting so intense for the first time around her - it's not like she hasn't had thoughts like that herself. The means were just different, even if she still wanted to take revenge.

But--

There's one problem with Silco's entire premise in the first place, even completely disregarding Ange's complicated feelings regarding money in the first place. ]

It did kill me. [ There's a little bit less nonchalance to those words than there is to most things Ange says, but there's no huge emotion either.

It's just putting some emphasis on the fact, so he doesn't miss it. ]

I'm dead.

[conflictresolution]

[His expression closed at the adamancy in her statement, and he understood. All of his passion and intensity retracted like a shadow exposed to the light. He even went so far as he casually fold his hands behind his back, clasping one wrist in the other hand as he considered her for a long silent moment.

He nodded his head finally, accepting the statement. Of course, it rearranged his entire perception of her as well. After all, she was one who wished to return to her world to continue on the path of closing unfinished business. He had no such interest because there was no body to return to that would be viable.]

Welcome to the dead club then. Murdered by family one too.

[He inclined his head.]

And that is why you feel the need to return to your world then? You have that option?

[entreats]

[ The girl lets out a breath that sounds like a sigh. She leans forward to let her head rest against her hands.

It's a complicated thing to try and explain - especially when she wants it to be an actual explanation, and not just her brushing someone off with ridiculous out of context statements the way she usually does. But she figures she does kind of owe him an explanation, if not at least a partial one. ]

It's complicated. [ Like her reaction didn't already say that much by itself. ] There are.. different levels in my world. Not literally like where you guys come from, with some upper city and some lower city.

[ Or that's what she's gathered about that world, anyway.. ]

It's weirder than that. More metaphysical. I died as a regular human, but I was revived by a witch to be a piece as part of a game between various witches. Kind of like.. [ Her voice trails off, and she frowns. ] Maybe a ghost would be the best analogy? It's still different though.

[ But similar in the way that matter to this explanation. She can't exactly interact with the regular human world anymore, just like ghosts. ]

It's a miserable existence, but if I want to try and find a way to expose the truth of what happened to my family, then returning to that is my only option.

[conflictresolution]

[Ah yes, he'd read about such theories and such things were generally beyond the psyche of the common person in Zaun or even Piltover. There were beings that craved out their realms from within and without of reality. Such places were of little interest to him when he focused his lifetime on uniting a single group of people united by suffering.

Still, he understood the principle in theory. He still listened to the information that she provided, filing it away with the rest of what he knew about her.]

Miserable it may be, but it is a form of existence that still gives you purpose. Much like this place, I imagine, in that it provides you another layer for purpose before whatever final layer awaits us all.

[He nodded his head. It was best for all of them that those that wanted to leave be provided that opportunity. It wasn't about happiness to him but limiting future acts of rebellion that would jeopardize those that had no other option.]