Taerinn

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Los Paraísos: Pellagio Casino: Texas Hold’em Poker Table


As the woman's back turned to stride down the aisle, Lisette silently squeezed her fists together, pleased that she had managed to run into one person out of gods knew how many who seemed to know who she was looking for. It definitely sounded like Marcus, at least!

She paced along, at one point even attempting to walk with the same casual swagger that the woman did, and feeling silly in doing so. She tried her best to follow her explanation of the card game, and Lisette had a feeling she couldn't manage a poker face to save her life; her freckled cheeks would probably redden at any sign of a good or terrible hand.

When they reached the table, the woman excused herself to squeeze through and make her way to a seat right next to--

A blur of red hair sailed through, attaching itself to Marcus's back.

“Marcus! We’ve been looking all over for you! What’re you doing?”

Lisette beamed, happy that they had all managed to reunite again, and in probably record time, too. She was afraid they would all be lost for hours, but here they were!

"You can do it, Marcus!" Lisette cheered, causing "Kenny" to look over his shoulder at her as well. His cocky grin widened. Somehow, winning that pot was more satisfying now that his opponent had so many fans.

---

Los Paraísos: The Pellagio

Like the others, Selan followed the others and returned to her hotel room to wash up, fix her hair, and as Thunderhawk said, "get ready to work". Feeling satisfied from a full afternoon of shenanigans and more alcohol than she would normally admit to consuming, she was in a much more suitable mood for getting dolled up.

She returned to the others, with her hair tied in a neat bun and adorned with a fancy ornament, and wearing a white, low-cut cocktail dress with a fur collar and accessorised with pearls and strappy heels. It was a head-turning ensemble, but once they reached the casino, she began to look less and less out of place.

As the others went off in search of the missing half of the group, Selan walked through the casino on her own. Being very careful with her money, Selan thought that gambling was a foolish waste of time, and the only ones who profited were those who knew how to take advantage of the overconfident and naive (case in point, a certain ex-bandit on the other side of the room).

Something did catch her eye, however; a small girl was perched on top of a stool in front of a machine, and one of her pockets were bulging from coins. Like clockwork, she was pulling the lever and inserting coins, over and over, occasionally reaching down into the payout slot to check for more coins.

Selan waited until she was standing just behind the girl before speaking.

"Trixie... Looks like you're doing pretty well, hm? But maybe we should go before someone else catches you."

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Good mornight to you too, Fox. Good luck with your exam!

So, I got totally distracted because my upstairs neighbor is really freaking me out (I'll explain that in a sec), I'm still working on my post and I'll get it up within the next 45 minutes. I just wanted to apologize to everyone for being distant/quiet lately, I've been in a bit of a funk from random stresses and being sick (which I've finally gotten over mostly) and homework and general feelings of "oh god I'm turning 23 this year and I haven't accomplished anything". But sometimes I forget to tell myself that I'm not as lonely as I think I am or need to be, and I have a lot of friends here that make me feel better just from having silly chats in the OOC and stuff. So I'm sorry, and I'll try to be more involved here, and hopefully I'll perk up more soon.

The neighbor thing... Oy. Okay, so I think last week or the week before, my neighbor was screaming at his daughter? and I seriously thought I was going to have to call the police or something, I was almost late for class because I caught the next bus just to make sure no one was getting hurt. When I told my sister, she thought she heard something the night before, and we routinely hear the television being blasted around midnight, maybe it helps him sleep or something. Fast forward to last Saturday, we're in the laundry room and this guy comes up to us and he says, "Hey, I think I'm your neighbor, I live right above you? I just wanted to say that maybe you've heard me being a little loud because sometimes I hear things, and I'm taking medication, and I just wanted to let you know." And then he left, and I'm like "Alrighty then", but now I'm hearing some weird shouting noises upstairs, I needed to find my ear buds to drown it out. I guess I'm just particularly sensitive about it because my mom has/had some major mental health issues and so it brings up some bad feelings, I guess.

Anyhoodle, so I hope everyone is doing peachy and everything?

Also, don't wait on me to post tomorrow afternoon, I normally don't have school but I have to attend a speech presentation thing, so my post will come later in the evening after I do my homework. Same goes for Friday morning, I need to meet with my group at school and I have no idea how long it will take, but I'll probably get a post up sooner, like 7PM PST hopefully.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Typing a post now.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

I already sort of discussed the subject with you Pach, I have no idea when a good time would be. Everyone can pretty much go before me.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Los Paraísos: The Pellagio

Lisette was about to give up hope when she spotted flowing, platinum locks standing in her path. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing else matched the person she was looking for. But at the very least, she was willing to help the frazzled, directionally-challenged Lisette, and asking for some assistance was better than wandering around for ages.

The woman, nearly spilling out of her corset, was dressed and posed in a manner and confidence that was rather intimidating to Lisette, who felt like an unremarkable, mousy, lost child in comparison. Nevermind that she did in fact have a rodent in her arms, and she was lost.

"Um, yes Miss, I can't find my friends. Have you seen a really nice-looking man with hair the same color as yours and glasses? Or a little girl with brown hair? Or a girl my age, with really bright red hair? Or a blonde man, or..." Lisette continued her vague descriptions of each of her friends and acquaintances to the woman, whose meticulously-sculpted eyebrows arched higher and higher as she went on.

---

Los Paraísos: Beach

Just from sheer will from not wanting to be noticed by the oni-masked men, Selan kept dancing, although without any of the joyful vigor from before; things had taken a turn towards the unexpected, and she doubted that any of them could have predicted any sort of violence getting added to the mix of things.

To their luck, Moira, Syed, and Amy dashed and quickly disappeared into the crowds to escape the paddle-wielding men, who followed after them in pursuit.

Aria returned a brief time after she had departed, and suggested going to the casino, which was drawing closer and closer as the parade was coming to an end.

"Anything to get away from this..." Selan concurred. If they didn't already have enough reasons to leave, an obnoxious bang! bang! bang! erupted from the center of the crowd, sending sparks and confetti flying into the air to signal the conclusion of the march. While some shuffled off in confusion of what they had just participated in, other tourists stood with their mouths agape, curious and interested about joining in for the next one. And thus the cycle continued. By the time the mass of people dispersed, the main dancers had arm-and-maskfuls of coins.

The three quickly ducked into the Pellagio, covered in bits of paper and chucking their headdresses and hats into the bin at the door. They could still hear muted whoops and cheers outside, but the steady hum of the casino below was much more prominent. "I suppose we could check things out down there?"

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Typing a post now.

Edit: Done.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Los Paraísos: The Pellagio

"Marcus! Trixie? E-Estelle..." Lisette called, walking briskly on the carpeted path through the casino. She thought that maybe platinum blonde or red hair would be relatively easy to spot, but the hundreds and hundreds of people were covered head to toe in garish colors that it was beginning to make Lisette's head spin.

"Okay, I'm done..." she mumbled, rotating in place to try and spot the exit. It wasn't anywhere in sight, and she could no longer remember where they had entered from. "Okay, I guess we're not done..." she said to Kapi, resigning to keep walking forward.

If one squinted closely and looked over her shoulder to the center of the room, a pair of women leapt from the balcony and landed on the floor below, shouting a man's name.

Lisette continued on. She was bound to run into either a friend or an exit eventually. Hopefully.

---

Los Paraísos: Beach

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

In response to Syed's scream, some of the surrounding dancers interpreted it as a cry of joy, and imitated him, only in a much more jovial manner.

"What if this is some ritual and they're sacrificing visitors? For all we know, we'll be dancing up a volcano and jumping in!"

"Don't be ridiculous, they... Hmm." Selan stopped herself, remembering that in her culture, they had a dance just to catch a specific kind of fish. And most cultures had some ritual or another for calling forth rain, or wishing for blessings from the gods. It wasn't actually that farfetched of an idea.

Where are we going...? Selan thought, looking around as more and more tourists joined their throng. They were taking up most of the street and were continuing on at a surprisingly fast pace, and anyone caught in their path was either forced to dive into a shop or join in.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Edit: Nevermind.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

This isn't in any particular order, by the way. And there are plenty of other games I like, but I tried not to repeat anyone (like with MGS3, Persona 4, and Pokemon G/S).

1. Resident Evil 4
2. Silent Hill 2
3. Samurai Warriors 2 (possibly SW2: Empires because it was the first game in the series I ever played)
4. Tales of Phantasia
5. GTAV
6. Harvest Moon 64/Magical Melody
7. Mother 3
8. Seiken Densetsu 3
9. Diablo II
10. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (because obviously)

Honorable mentions for Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, Tales of Symphonia, King's Quest 6, and probably a bajillion others.

I got Cordelia, meh.

I've got homework to do, so I'll post before I go to bed tonight in case anyone else wanted to post.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Los Paraísos: The Pellagio

Lisette changed out of her wet swimsuit and into a cerulean blue t-shirt dress, fitted ankle-length white pants, and ankle boots. She didn't have time to tame her poofy, frizzy pigtails, but luckily, it wasn't all that noticeable.

"Brrrgh..." she shivered, hugging Kapi close. Unlike the rest of the island, the casino was quite cool; she wasn't surprised that there were so many people just milling around in addition to the ones hovering over the machines.

She wasn't too thrilled about exploring the casino. She didn't like noisy places like this, and people were allowed to smoke inside, not to mention the fact that she had no need whatsoever to gamble. The sooner they found Marcus, the sooner they could leave, so Lisette made sure to keep her eyes peeled.

But then Trixie decided to run off, and still having their mission in mind, she rushed into the fray after the trickster, determined to keep them all together...

... And found herself separated as well.

"Hey, sweetheart, a hurricane for a big shot? I've been waiting for one of you girls for over five minutes!"

Lisette didn't even look remotely similar to the women passing drinks to the gamblers, but the man wasn't looking up from his machine at all.

"Umm, yeah, okay..." Lisette stammered and jogged back in the direction she came from. She didn't even know what a hurricane was.

"'Ay babay, very pretty, maybe wife? Give you Rolas, become wife?" another man slurred, leaning his profusely sweaty forehead on the cool metal of the machine.

Lisette kept jogging and abruptly ran into a cloud of freshly-exhaled cigarette smoke.

Where did everyone go!? Lisette thought frantically, turning around a corner and hoping she'd either find the others or Marcus, and soon.

---

Los Paraísos: Beach

Selan had barely finished her light lunch before being pulled outside with the others, and all she could think was, Well, this might as well happen. A woman covered by little more than sashes with coins attached approached her and placed a headdress atop Selan's head. The songstress was experiencing quite the culture shock, but it was such a vibrant and energetic affair that it was simply hard to resist.

At least dancing and parties were much more up Selan's alley compared to drunken impromptu volleyball matches, and by this point, she was feeling much better than she had been all day. Like Lucien, she felt herself being influenced by the sheer, almost electric energy of the festivities, and less than a minute after the hat touched her head, she was watching the other dancers, trying to imitate their movements.

She caught on quickly, and she smiled at the summoner, encouraging him to give it a try as well. She swiveled her hips and moved her hands around in a circle above her head just as the woman with the hats did, without any trace of awkwardness or embarassment. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel sorry for Amy, who was struggling to keep her balance with the mask atop her ahead.