Adventure Log - June 10, 2024
Hidden in the Closet During Pride Month
After Luna headed to the city for her annual maintenance with January and Rebecca, Hinata put down her lounge chair in the front yard with the hopes of getting somewhat tanned for once. With wired earbuds in her ears, Hinata lounges around for much of the day and falls asleep, unaware of Viper who just entered the house and walked to their shared bedroom.
Upon entering, Viper notices the room looks no different than the last time she spent time here, though the closet seems to be their target for today. It’s a decently organized space with certain spots dedicated to certain belongings. On the hangers and in some of the bags nearby, Luna and Hinata’s clothes are set up. Judging by the colors and general sizes, it’s pretty easy to tell whose clothes belongs to who, though there’s a shorter kimono with moon and cherry blossom theming that might fit Luna. Another section holds weapons they’ve collected over the years, including the swords Viper bought them for Christmas in their respective sheathes; Luna’s Marked Broadsword, a seemingly evil-looking sword with lots of jagged edges; a rather heavy red and black warhammer that says MEGABonk; and oddly, a bunch of pink shards and a broken hilt of a certain pepto-bismol-pink blade of Luna’s. Next to the weapons is a worn out sharpening and cleaning kit and a pair of broken and heavily used respirators. Two ordinary brooms are right next to them, each with Luna and Hinata’s names on them in black sharpie.
On the other side of the closet, and taking up much of the floorspace is a duffel bag with a logo that appears to be a full moon with a rocket ship blasting off of it. Below the logo, the phrase “Nova Industries Portal Bag prototype” can be seen. Zippered handles provide easy access to its contents.
Next to the duffle, a worn red college-lined notebook with Luna’s name is on the floor just laying there. It seems something was spilled on it, and much of the pages are yellowed and some torn. Viper picks it up and examines it, finding very messy handwriting, almost that of a kindergartener. Below her name, she’s drawn several stick figures rather crudely, but it’s easy enough to tell who’s who. From left to right, Krystal with her black long hair and piercings; then Hinata with mid-back length yellow hair and pointy ears holding onto Luna’s hand with purple long hair and pointy ears; and then a man with facial scruff and what seems like aviator goggles, aka Toby.
Viper opens up the first page and finds a diary entry. It’s labeled June 20, 2006, the date Krystal brought Luna home from Solaire, and has some seemingly panicked writing on it. Parts of it are difficult to read, but from what she can read is the following:
i was brought somewhere from home. dont know where i am. who is she? where is she at? and who brought me here? i can't see. i can't see. oh. why do i have a bag over my head. oh. wait krystal. wheres toby? wheres hinata? ugh my head hurts grahhhhhhh it hurts it hurts it hurts it HURTS! why is she hugging me? oh. i need sleep.. Eepy.
Viper hums for a moment and flips through the diary, looking for anything that sticks out or seems important. Continuing to go through the entries, she notices many are short and almost all of them have the same basic header line: “My name is 6969. Today is [the date]. I was created 18 years ago.” which seems to be Krystal trying to implant some kind of basic memory via rote into her long term, fragmented as it was. The entries all talk about what Luna and Krystal did that day, what they ate, did they go for a walk, et cetera. Very simple information, but for her lack of memory capacity, it was enough to keep herself in check, and enough data for FMS to use.
Further into the notebook, one of the pages changes drastically. The usual header is gone, and the writing has gone from messy to straight up ERRATIC, almost as though Luna was terrified while writing it. Many many heavily drawn circles fill much of the page. In fact, considering the age of the paper, it’s a wonder she didn’t tear any holes into them. A single line is written amongst the circular chaos:
it watches over me. i can sense it in the living room. i know it sees me. it controls me. it hurts. it hurts. it hurts! help me hinata.
Thankfully, it seems to be a one time event that happened sometime in October 2006 considering the dates before and after.
Continuing to flip through the pages, Viper finds herself on Christmas 2006. Luna notes that Krystal was giving her gifts much to her own confusion. When it was revealed that on Christmas, friends and lovers exchange gifts, Luna rushed to the closet on the first floor, grabbed a certain shoe box, but the entry abruptly ends from there. The pencil Luna was writing with slid down off the sheet.
There are some hints of teardrops on one of the final pages of this notebook, December 30th 2006, but Krystal wrote a note that they watched Flowers for Algernon together.
Taped to the back of the notebook is a list of items that Luna seems to have been checking off regularly. It’s titled "Bucket List - 6969".
Upon finishing her investigation, Viper puts everything back where it should be and began making her way out, except someone else had sensed her presence and was waiting for her in the hallway.
-----
Viper pulls her phone out, takes a picture of her bucket list, then leaves their bedroom. As Viper opens the door she can see Spider leaning against the wall opposite. Her ears prick up as she levels a glare at Viper. Viper stares for a couple seconds then nervously smiles.
"You wanna explain why you're in there without them?" Spider straightens up her eyes darting over Viper then into the room behind her.
Viper didn't move or touch anything seemingly, "Looking for something to give Luna for her birthday?" she seems extremely nervous
"So you broke in?" Spider raises an eyebrow.
Viper still looks nervous, "Kinda? Is it really breaking and entering if you leave the backdoor open? Also i kinda wanted it to be a surpise"
Spider sighs glancing at the ceiling, "right, and what were you actually doing in there?"
Viper sighs and looks at the floor, "Looking through the closet...I've learned that they have enough swords at this point"
-----
In the front yard, Hinata had sighed heavily, realizing that her artificial skin could not get tanned no matter how much she tried. She returns inside after covering up a bit more only to hear Spider and someone else arguing in the hallway. Upon investigating, she finds Viper breaching their privacy. Upon reaching her room, Hinata says from the doorframe, "Yeah, we’re a bit overloaded on weapons at the moment.” She then exhales heavily towards Viper, “You know you could've just asked to look in there right? I would've told you to be our guest!”
"Why the closet though?" Spider asks, not letting Viper get away with an excuse.
Viper looks over at Hinata and looks slightly embarrassed and sighs, "Cause most people end up shoving important things in the closet and then forget about them so that's usually where i look for birthday gifts."
Hinata exhales deeply, frowning, "next time, just ask. I would've gotten Luna out of the house. Then again, maybe this is divine retribution for all the times we snooped in others' shit."
Spider's ear flicks as she adds, "and don't just sneak in again, you're lucky I knew it was it you."
Viper nods and sighs as she looks at the floor and mutters, "Probably should've known better considering this groups track record with people breaking in..."
Hinata sighs and shows a look to Viper that shows clear disappointment, "Seriously. How many times have we had people just walk inside like they own this house. It's annoying as fuck! This is our house, not some hovel anyone and their fucking mother can invade!” She takes a deep breath afterwards to calm herself down and then tells Viper, “I won't tell Luna or her AIs about it. Don't worry.”
“Speaking of where is she?" Spider questions looking over at Hinata
“Luna had to head to the city for her annual maintenance with her Creators. She should be coming back home soon." Hinata explains. "I would've gone too, but I prefer not being in the same room as Tsukuyomi."
Viper nods as she asks Hinata, "How soon...."
Hinata seems confused, "Why do you ask? I could send her an ITEM message asking."
"You've already been caught, may as well stay to see her" Spider shrugs.
----
[ITEM LOG between Luna and Hinata]
Luna - So. Rebecca found some problems. I might need a little longer Hinata. Everything going well at the house?
Hinata - Yeah I'm just getting some sun. It's nice outside.
Luna - K. Just don't get sunburned.
Hinata - I have tanning stuff. I'm good.
Luna - K, i’ll be home as soon as possible.
[ITEM log end]
------
Hinata looks up after the conversation, "Uhhh it seems she'll need a bit longer. Apparently they need to do some more things."
Viper shrugs and nods, "True, I'm sure she wouldn't mind a surprise visit though I'm curious what extra things they need to do"
Spider frowns slightly concerned by that, “she alright?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t give me any details, other than to not get sunburned.” Hinata shrugs and sighs.
At that point, a high pitched DING! sound is heard at Luna’s desktop. The cat and pipe-themed screensaver is replaced with the following image, the summary of Luna’s most recent Maintenance.
Viper spins around to look at the desktop with concern
Hinata sighs and shakes her head, "Uhhh I think they sent that to the wrong place. Dammit January!" It doesn't stop her from reading it though.
Spider steps into the room to read the monitor, "How did they manage to cock that up?"
Hinata slowly turns to Spider, confused by her phrasing. “Cock?? No no, my creator kind of sucks with newer technology. Ironically, most of my programming was done using a Commodore 64 apparently, at least that's what he told me."
Viper looks back at Hinata with a concerned look after reading everything, "Commodore 64??"
"It’s an old ass computer system. I barely understand old technology myself," she shrugs, "anyway, uh I wouldn't worry about her wiring. Rebecca's really fuckng good at internal stuff like that. She's got like some kind of ability that deals wth that."
Spider looks at Hinata shaking her head then responds, "right so she'll be fine then."
Viper nods while still looking concerned, "Right, so what's up with her shoulder?" she raises an eyebrow and looks back at Hinata
"Oh that. Ironically, I have something like that too." Hinata takes off part of her hoodie to show a rather rough scar on her left shoulder, an injury that the MailMan inflicted on her a few months prior, almost amputating it in the process. "A few years ago, her shoulder was shot close range with a revolver. With her Long Rest Healing magic, she's able to heal in her sleep but apparently this one just didn't heal right. And then Mailman stabbed it a few months ago, ironically the same day my injury happened. She complains of pain in it a lot. Oh and apparently some creature named Drake chomped that shoulder too? Even just remotely touching it causes her to nearly pass out.”
Spider's ears flatten at the mention of Drake, "she's not important."
"Yeah."
Viper looks incredibly concerned and just stares without saying anything
Hinata feels awkward and puts her hoodie back on. Her bikini top is showing, much to her embarrassment.
Spider clears their throat forcing their ears to prick back up again, "right well there's not really anything we can do till she gets back."
Viper shakes her head for a moment then nods as she goes to step out of the bedroom, "We should probably move to avoid being suspicous"
Spider frowns her ears now swiveling, "yeah we should, quickly."
"I hear her. Let's skeddaddle." Hinata walks out. Everyone follows and heads to the living room to meet with Luna.
Luna enters the house and hears a commotion coming from her bedroom. Hearing Hinata there with them causes her to not worry. In fact, instead of investigating for herself, she goes to the kitchen to make a quick cup of coffee, then returns to the living room to see all of her friends there waiting for her to arrive.
Hinata sits next to her and gently hugs her while dodging her bandaged shoulder. "Welcome home Lu." The others greet her as well while sitting and standing in their usual locations.
Luna tilts her head, wondering what’s going on and wary of the sudden spark of attention, "Something up? Usually when I head out, I'm greeted by no one except Hinata.”
"Nothing's up. Just hanging out like friends." Hinata smiles, "Right?"
Spider takes a different route, "Well no, Hinata mentioned that you were headed back to your world, so I wanted to check on you."
Viper shrugs as she responds, "Just figured I'd stop by instead of watching Instagram reels at my desk."
Luna looks confused at what Spider said, "wait she told you I went back to Capital City? Nah, this happened in downtown Fairview. I usually get checked up by someone at Solaire, and since they’re living out here now, they did my annual maintenance about a 20 minute broomstick flight from here. Their house is really nice, plus Rebecca has this amazing sunflower garden that I know Hinata wants to see!” Without going into details about her maintenance, Luna notes that she feels a lot better now, though everyone else in the room can tell parts of her upper body are stiff despite everything else being loose. “Oh and hello Viper!”
"Oh that's good Lu. How's the shoulder?" Hinata asks.
"Uhhh. It's okay. Not much different than before. What were y'all doing in our room?" Luna lies, not wanting to worry her friends.
"I was just showing Viper around. Right?" Hinata winks subtly.
Viper nods with a smile, "I was just curious about a couple things"
Luna chuckles with a playful smile, "I know all about curiosity. It's nearly killed my feline ass more times than I can count! It’s all good."
Viper quietly chuckles, "I'm just glad that old saying isn't always true, otherwise if I was a cat I'd be long dead by now."
With an breathy exhale, Luna looks to Viper concerned, “Just… be careful with those chemicals okay? I worry about you a lot.”
Hinata sighs, nodding. "Seconding that. I don't wanna see you get sick or worse."
Viper playfully rolls her eyes, "Being a chemist means being curious, i'm always extremely careful" Viper seems slightly nervous at the mention of sickness
Luna exhales and leans into Hinata, "Thank you." She stifles a yawn.
Hinata noticed the nervousness in Viper's behavior but shrugs it off, "Just uh. if something ever comes up, let us know. We'll do the same," she smiles her usual bright smile.
Viper nods as her nervousness fades, "You two would be the first to know if something happened to me, i wouldn't wanna make you two stressed if i can prevent it"
Luna nods as she falls asleep onto Hinata’s lap.
Hinata plays with her hair gently while she rests. "Poor girl must still be sleepy after the surgery."
Viper nods as her voice softens and quiets, "Might still be tired after the anesthesia, happens sometimes"
Hinata nods, her voice quiet as to not disturb Luna, "yeah. Rebecca's really good with surgery with her Magical Ability, but it still requires anesthetic and all that. She should be better soon at least.”
Viper seems curious and asks, "Someone can have the ability to do surgery really well?"
"It not even doing it well, but rather, she has the ability to perform surgery from inside the patient. It has a very hefty mana cost, however, so she can't really do it too often." Hinata explains while reading from her phone.
Viper nods and smiles, "That's pretty interesting" Viper pauses as she jokes, "Hell maybe one of the dates could be you two telling me about your world"
"I'm sure she'd be down. And frankly so would I." Hinata grins. She didn't catch it was a joke.
Viper seems surprised as she chuckles quietly, "You'd wanna sit there and just talk about your world? That's surprising"
Hinata then turns to Viper playfully, "Luna is an undiagnosed autistic woman who hyperfixates on her own World's mysteries and even goes off about on me despite being created in that World! I'm used to it. She brings up a lot of interesting questions, like wondering if there are other cities. Or what's at the end of the Outskirts. We literally don’t know what our world is like as a whole. I guess being a magical walking talking library means she has a lot to know or say."
Viper snickers quietly, "Maybe if i don't have a doctors appointment we can have a date sometime this week, i'd love to hear both of you tell me about your world"
"That sounds fun." Hinata smiles.
Viper nods, "I should probably get going, i don't wanna keep you away from getting some good sleep"
"Okey dokey, I'll see ya later. Hope everything goes well with the doctor's." Hinata waves.
Viper nods and chuckles quietly, "See you later" Viper blows a kiss at Hinata as she heads to leave through the back door
HInata blushes and continues to play with Luna's hair gently, even debating on braiding parts of it. She does so very quietly, bouncing in her seat and humming a song to herself, one that Luna likes a lot. Luna smiles in her sleep as her ears seem to focus on Hinata.