rosavelle | 01 🐣 HYJ: November Catch-all

01 🐣 HYJ: November Catch-all

((OOC: A general catch-all for stuff Yoojin's doing in November! There are four open prompts up here in the main post, closed prompts to come in the comments below. Want to do something with Yoojin, but the open prompts don't suit your fancy? Ping me in the game Discord or reach out on Plurk

asherdashery and we can set something up!

You can find Yoojin's info here and his permissions here.))

A. Mr. Yoojin, All Contusions, How Does Your Garden Grow? (Everbloom's Greenhouse; from 11/3 onward)

[Yoojin came to Rosavelle with the express intent to relax and recuperate. Yet, after spending a mere 48 hours with neither kids nor kidnappings to deal with, he finds himself at loose ends, restless.

Thus, even though getting around is more difficult than he'd like on his crutches, Yoojin decides to spend the next few weeks slowly exploring the castle grounds.

The first place he visits is the first part of Rosavelle he saw: the Everbloom's greenhouse, lovely in its rose-tinted warmth. The garden plot Yoojin feels is connected to him is overall quite pretty. It isn't arranged with precision, but he still registers pleasing sort of harmony among the colors and shapes. The plants at the center are especially impressive, with flowers of azure blue, cerulean, orange, gold, and all shades of pink.

He smiles as he sets his crutches down and gingerly lowers himself to the ground. He lifts an azure bloom to examine it, then touches a cluster of the perky, tiny ocean-colored flowers that remind him of his ward.]

Hey, kiddos. I miss you. Hope you've all been eating well while I'm away.

[Which might sound a bit odd, from someone who believes the Princess's claim that time in their home worlds won't pass while they're here.

From then on, Yoojin makes it a habit to swing by the greenhouse every day to weed, water, and check for dead leaves and branches, often humming while he works, sometimes murmuring to himself. If he happens to say, "I love you," to a bunch of plants, well, haven't we all seen and heard weirder here already?

Once or twice, he can be found staring up at the Everbloom tree with a much harder expression to read on his face. He doesn't touch it. Eventually, he mumbles:]

So you're the Source of this place's magic, huh...

B. Hizzztory Homework (Amourian Library; whenever)

[Supposedly, the library has a copy of the history text Nadeshiko references in class. Supposedly, it can't have left the room; it's on reserve all month, for use only within the library itself. So where is it? Who stole it?!

One needn't look far for the thief. Snug as a bug in one of those "warm corner" reading nooks the staff has set up, Han Yoojin has clearly succumbed to the Blankie + Boring Book double-whammy combo. He's managed to curl up sideways in his armchair, completely burrito'd not only in the chair's throw blanket, but an oversized, hot pink knit cardigan that clearly doesn't belong in this world.

And he's hugging that history tome to his chest like a security stuffy. The corner of it sticks out of the blankets, poking him in the chin in a way that should be uncomfortable.

The shadows under Yoojin's eyes suggest he hasn't been sleeping well, even amidst this royal luxury. On the other hand, it's his sneepy face today or Nadeshiko's temper tomorrow. Choose Wisely.]

C. Coo Coo (At the base of the Lilac Couriers' Loft; latter half of the month)

[Yoojin's kitted out in a whole hot pink ensemble on top of his castle clothes: knitted cap, mittens, long cardigan, even longer scarf. It must keep him warm and cozy, because he doesn't shiver in the slightest even as his breath mists out in front of him. He watches the messenger doves come and go from the top of the watchtower above, winging expertly amongst the ribbons and charms, cooing and fluttering.

He sighs eventually and drops his gaze, then starts when he notices someone else nearby.]

Oh! ...Hi!

[He covers up his surprise with an awkward smile, turning on his crutches.]

They're cute, aren't they? The doves.

D. A Spritely Sort (Barracks Courtyard; 11/25)

[Speaking of cute: frost sprites. Look at them, they're so little! A handful of them have gathered around Yoojin, who's sitting on a bench in the barracks' shared courtyard, picking off flakes of pastry from a sugar-crusted, danish-looking thing in his lap. A couple sprites are brave enough to dart in and take the crumbs directly from his hand. He grins as he watches them, singing some silly thing he's clearly making up on the spot.]

♪♬ You're little frost sprites, yes, you are
Zipping around, near and far
Have some snacks on me, they're free... ♫♩

[He looks up. Locks eyes. Oh no. You're in this together now. His smile widens even further.]

Help me get these kiddos to the Everbloom tree~! ♬♫♩

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Hey! Ranma!

[Here comes Yoojin, making a beeline for Ranma at the speed of crutches, wherever it is he (or she) finds himself at this hour. The man looks excited about something.]

Are you busy? I wanna run something by you real quick. It's about training!

[Yoojin wouldn't have to comb the entire castle looking for the teen. In the greenhouse, hanging upside down from a tree branch with only his legs keeping him hooked, was Ranma. Albeit neither with the pastel pink hair she possessed... or even the same sex, but as Yoojin already knows, safe to say the raven-haired average weighted male was Ranma. That, and who else has Yoojin met wear their hair in a braided pigtail?

Plus his coup d'oeil from the book he was reading is a telltale sign.]

Yoojin, yo! Nah, I'm free, give me a sec' to...

[Before Yoojin's arrival, Ranma had came to the garden to better study Bloomcraft. Yes, while hanging like an owl. The blood flowing to his head gets his brain pumping and ready to digest info. That, and he was getting some work out in while he's at it, hence why he's in his black muscle shirt while the red silk Tang suit is draped beside him.

Grabbing hold of his shirt, Ranma unlatches his legs from the branch. In the seconds it take from the tree to the ground, Ranma righted himself up to land safely on his feet to meet the older man face-to-face.]

Whaddaya wanna know 'bout training? I thought you wasn't much of a fighter.

[Look at him, all acrobatic teenage grace, while Yoojin can't even walk on two legs. Bahhh. Whatever, all he needs to make this work is his mind and the mana boost in his earrings, and both are intact and functional. Mostly. Well, people might argue about his brain, but those people aren't here right now and they can shut their face holes.]

I'm not. But that doesn't mean I can't help.

[To business! If Yoojin had his hands free, he might clap once to get them started, but he just straightens his shoulders and continues to radiate bright earnestness.]

First of all, Akane said you'll fight other girls, but not her? Why's that?

[Even if Yoojin was, Ranma doesn't think he can take on a student needing crutches for the time being. Man, if only he could achieve the technique of using your ki to heal others many grandmasters foretell regale of. He could get Yoojin's legs' in working order lickety-split then!

Ranma pauses in the middle of putting his right arm through his shirt, blinkingly nonplussed. Akane? Why's he bringing her up at a time like this? Weren't he just asking about training? The pigtailed fighter casually carries on with dressing himself, doing up the golden threads.]

It's not like I'm fightin' every other girl for the heck of it. Most of 'em are either tryin' beat me or Akane to a pulp, kill one or both of us, or it's for a competition like Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics.

[ Bulat is another greenhouse aficionado. He shows up with a sketchbook and Rosavelle's closest pencil equivalent now and then, and takes note of Yoojin tending to the flowers when their schedules cross. Absolutely massive heart in that guy, huh?

Naturally, he pops out of seemingly nowhere when his easily flustered friend is mumbling to himself. He doesn't make much noise when he walks, a persistent habit even in the greenhouse. Especially in the greenhouse? It's as close to his woodland haunts as it gets in the palace. ]

You'd think something this powerful would feel more dangerous.

So, what, you want her to try to maul you? Dude. She thinks you don't take her seriously. Or, no--she thinks you don't think she's strong enough to keep up. She doesn't think she's strong enough to keep up.

[Does Ranma even know how shitty it feels to be the one that either gets in the way or gets left behind? To know, no matter how hard you try, there's just no bridging that chasm between you and the one you want to stand beside?

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But when Yoojin heard Akane say, 'I've said I'm not as strong. I... Catching up to Ranma's impossible for now, I know. But... I hate being a burden, too,' he felt it like an A-rank slap in the face.]

Anyway, I think you two should train together, and I have an idea to make it interesting. Honestly, I'd like it if you'd spar, but we don't have to start there if you're nervous.

ACK!

[On the plus side, there are no healers here to shush them for being noisy. On the negative side, Yoojin almost topples right off his crutches.]

Ah, really! Bulat! Warn a guy before you sneak up on him!

[ Bulat half raises a hand to catch Yoojin if he tips all the way over. ]

Ha, that'd take the fun out of sneaking up on you, wouldn't it?

[ See, at home, he would have said something like 'an enemy wouldn't warn you of their presence, sharpen your senses'. ]

[~~Yoojin could sharpen his senses, in a way, but then Bulat would have to speed his reckless F-rank carcass right back to the infirmary.~~

While he manages not to fall--Yoojin's fairly deft with those crutches--it's not without bumping chest-first into Bulat's hand. Yoojin rights himself quickly. Predictably, he's blushing.]

Yeah, yeah. "Fun," my left foot.

[There's no actual bite to the grumbling, of course, and after a moment, he returns to the topic of the tree.]

...Not everything powerful has to feel dangerous, does it?

[ average rosavelle invitee has three distinct medical conditions actualy just statistical error. Monsters Yoojin, who lives in dungeon & suffers esoteric misfortunes 10,000 times per day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

It doesn't count as getting to second base without the intent. Bulat's face keeps its apricot complexion. Yoojin is truly a fascinating tomato of a man, growing strong amongst his herbaceous brethren. ]

It always does, in my experience. Up until now.

[ He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath of floral-scented air. Absolutely nothing sets him on edge. Good atmosphere, good company. ]

I'd like to think I'm a good judge of character, but nobody's senses are foolproof. What do you make of the Everbloom?

...My senses aren't really that good.

[Not unless he adjusts the damper on his mana inscription, which would be suuuuch a stupid thing to do. See the above strikethrough. When he can sense this much magic around with it at this setting, it's a good bet dialing it down at all would knock him out.]

But it's true that I've never felt this much mana all at once that seems so... gentle, and benevolent. Kind of like... I don't know, a parent or something. Extending caring protection even to us outsiders.

[He raises his eyes again to its blooming branches. If the Snowing Tree that birthed his world had a pink, kingdom-scale, ever-so-distantly related cousin that actually nurtured life, wasn't cold and barren, would it be something like the Everbloom? Yoojin's heart does weird, uncomfortable things when he thinks about it, like the gentle pressure's pushed something squishy slightly out of place.]

I feel funny about it, to be honest. Maybe it's like what you said, about the dog and the carriage--except now that I've caught the carriage, it's trying to pet me and tell me I'm a good boy. Dunno about you, but carriages don't do that where I'm from.

No, that's good information! I don't have a mana sense; I'm going off instinct and experience.

[ A tension in the air that tells him, impossibly, that the old friend sitting across from him wants to take his life. A reverberation in the clash of weapons, screaming that the red-eyed assassin doesn't want him dead and sees no other way forward. The greenhouse feels like it's soaked in something, and whatever it is, it can't be read by a talent honed on the battlefield. ]

I'd know how to deal with this if it were a trap, something too good to be true set out as bait. You get a lot of that, in both the capital city and False Mountain. Some people - and trees, I suppose - are completely genuine, of course! I've seen a good few of those.

[ He likes to think that he could be considered one of those! Aside from, you know. His entire job. People can also be complicated. ]

Still, it's been a while since I've had a no strings attached pat on the head.

[ Figuratively and also literally, because he's so tall. You know who isn't that tall? That's right it's local good boy Yoojin. He gets Bulat's big meaty hand on his head this time. Ruffle ruffle. ]

[He's nodding along with what Bulat's saying--yeah, this place as a pretty trap would honestly make a lot more sense--but then there's a hand mussing his hair.]

Hee-eeyyy!

[Yoojin hops a step to the side on his crutches, then shakes his head in a no-hands effort to restore his hair's normal, generic fall. Harrumphing, he scowls at Bulat.]

If anyone's head's getting patted, it should be yours. [Bulat gets a quick look down and up.] Hm, yeah. Pretty sure I'm older than you, squirt.

[ Ah, the advantages of a hairstyle that can be so quickly fixed with no outside tools. Bulat snickers unrepentantly, and this only increases when Yoojin sasses him. ]

So you're a venerable twenty-six?

Bzzt, nope! You're a whole five years short. I'll be thirty-one by the end of winter.

[Of course, he'd have been offended if Bulat somehow managed to guess that, when he's physically going on twenty-six, yes.]

It's okay, go ahead. Call me hyung.

[Casually, without a smidge of forethought or hesitation.]

She ain't wrong 'bout not keepin' up. [Saying it so matter-of-factly, blithe in a way that makes it seem like he doesn't perceive why that'd be awful to say to/of someone.] Akane and I were trained in vastly different ways, so obviously she's leagues behind me. I've had to save her bacon [Her or P-chan's.] countless times 'cause she'd go against guys and chicks who outmatched her.

[Both of them have the flaw of overconfidence in their abilities. Though the way he sees he, he can walk the walk as much as he talk the talk. He's not even trying to discount her in his eyes, that's just how it be.

Yoojin's suggestion caught his attention, like a cat hearing its owner shake the food bag.]

Us? Together? [Was Yoojin trying to patch things up between them? Ranma doesn't linger on that thought for too long, immediately frowning at that insinuation.] Nervous, me? Hah, I'm not nervous of nuttin'!

No kidding?!

[ That's something of a shock!

His skin's in pretty good condition for a thirty year old man who doesn't get enough sleep. Bulat is not the kind of person who needs to say everything that pops into his head without thinking about it. This might be a surprise to some people, because of the things he tends to say anyway. ]

...Well, older men have a certain mature appeal. Feel like looking after me, aniki?

[The usual heat and confusion rise up in Yoojin's face--mature appeal, who, what??--but as his gaze flicks to Bulat, as he loads up some response to stammer, their eyes meet. Yoojin pauses. Then, though the conditions aren't ideal for getting away with it, he activates his most-used skill. It's fitting, perhaps, that they're in the greenhouse. After all, As the Twig Is Bent, So Grows the Tree. A window opens before Yoojin's eyes into what Bulat could be, if nurtured properly.

Yeah. He had a feeling. In Yoojin's world, Bulat would have been a natural-born S-ranker. His stats would be crazy--probably are, even without Awakening. His skills have terrifying names like Hundred Man Slayer.

It probably has been a long time since he had a no-strings pat on the head. Or had anyone checking that he's eaten, or had a good day, or, well, any of the sort of care human beings don't stop needing just because they're big and strong. Maybe people are even scared of him, sensing his power and reading it as danger.

But Yoojin's not afraid of anyone or thing ranked lower than Legendary.

Even though he knows Bulat's just teasing, he smiles and answers sincerely:]

Of course.

[Letting one crutch rest against his side for a moment, Yoojin frees a hand to reach up and clap Bulat's wide, beefy shoulder.]

I'm good for more than a quick poison fix, and we're housemates, so come to me with whatever you need. From now on, I'll take care of you, Bulat. ...Though I'm not patting your head while you've got that much pomade on it, buddy.

[He points to the heart-shaped pompadour, grinning.]

[Woooowwww. A responsible adult shouldn't take sides in a kids' squabble, but Yoojin suddenly really wants to see Akane kick Ranma's ass into next week.]

[Anyway.]

So you'll do it? Great! Give me, like, a week to-- [~~get us past Nadeshiko's etiquette cram session and potential continuity errors~~] --heal up more, and I'll book the three of us some time on the training grounds.

[ Bulat's adept at detecting skills used on him with hostile intent, and there is about as much intent to harm in this case as there is in a omelette. As far as he's concerned, they're staring dreamily into each other's eyes because of a budding mutual attraction! Yoojin does seem like he's looking quite deeply, which adds fuel to this theory.

He's really glad Yoojin seems to be just as forward (or, you know. That blend of forward and skittish that seems to be his brand) when Bulat isn't horizontal and partially helpless. While the rest of Night Raid, at least, doesn't fear him, he does project the attitude of someone who can and does take care of himself, and has for quite some time. He can! But... it's genuinely making his heart flip around in his chest to consider that he doesn't need to. ]

Maybe one of these days you'll catch me with it down. We're housemates, as you said!

[ Eyes wide, a flush staining his cheeks, he's too off balance to make a crack about how he lets it down to sleep and there's therefore a very good way to catch him like that. He might be in trouble here. Good thing he's used to trouble, right? ]

[(Bulat)
(The same page they could be on)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------> (Yoojin)

He laughs, a light and easy thing. Look how flustered he is. Once again, Yoojin's thesis bears out; no matter what, everyone appreciates a little looking after.]

Probably! Heh, maybe I'll have to start getting out of bed earlier to catch a glimpse.

[Not like he's actually sleeping all that time. Hanging out with Bulat would be more fun than lying around missing home.]

Is there a particular reason you style it like that? It must take time.

[Jokes on you Yoojin, Ranma's used to everybody taking Akane's side in everything.]

I don't got anything better to do, I don't think. Sounds like a plan t' me. [~~ur so valid for that~~ Thumbs up! At the most, it'll help kill time while he's here.

That being said:]

You sure your leg'll be healed up enough for it?

[That isn't to discount Yoojin or anything, Ranma wants to know if he'll be up to snuff by the time the date rolls around.]

[ The energy in the air feels so easy and comfortable - flirting aside, Yoojin is just really good company? Most of what Bulat does in the mornings is work out. He's not above dragging others into it, but having a broken leg is a surefire pass to sit back and enjoy the show. ]

The short answer - it's a symbol of my resolve to break free of law and convention, and to make my own choices. It might be harder to maintain than my old style, but feeling more like myself is worth the effort.

[ Someone with a conventional appearance might not quite get it, but there is one way Yoojin stands out a little bit if you don't take his personality into account. Bulat gets ready to catch him in case he overbalances again, and slides his hand riiiight along his jawline until he's touching the earlobe. ]

You have these piercings, here... A little pain was worth the self-expression, right?

I won't need my leg to do my part. It'll just be easier to concentrate on you two if I don't hurt all over.

[Seems like just the other day, he was cursing out an S-rank upper general, demanding to know how he was supposed to train a water dragon with a broken leg... Oh. Yeah. It was just the other day. Everything happens so much.]

At any rate, did you get a chance to tell her you're sorry about the banquet?

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01 🐣 HYJ: November Catch-all

Ranma, 11/2

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A, somewhere in the second week

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1/2

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