recolle | [OPEN] I'm blue da ba dee

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[OPEN] I'm blue da ba dee

WHO: Ragna & YOU
WHERE: Around Recollé
WHEN: All of May
WHAT: May catchall
WARNINGS: Swearing and general Ragna-ness

[There comes a time in every man's life when he needs to face the reality of the situation he's found himself in: namely the fact that if he continues to avoid the outside world for any longer, he'll end up like one of those long-bearded, insane freaks that have been away from civilization for too long. Which, Ragna figures, might not be too bad compared to all the Retrospec-related bullshit, but it's not compelling enough for him to try. Money is also an issue and while he still hasn't quite worked out how to do his job when his right eye and arm are still completely useless, he's willing to give it a shot ─ especially after going through the hell of putting a long-sleeved shirt and gloves while unable to move your dominant arm is. He's not letting that go to waste, dammit. With all that, he figures he's ready to venture into the city.

Big mistake.

At first, Ragna thinks he must have gone blind in his other eye because frankly, he can't see shit. It's only after looking down at the phone in his hand (and actually being able to see it) that he puts two and two together, realizing this must be whatever that crap about "layers collapsing" was. Sighing, he checks the map and pulls out the previously provided directions.

He should have never left his flat.]

a. the world is a blank canvas

[Since heading to work doesn't seem like an option anymore and heading back to bed would be kinda silly at this point, Ragna does his best to follow the directions in hopes (slim as they are) or finding something that will help fix this mess. Of course, his way isn't exactly a simple one and he ends up walking into buildings and tripping over what he can only assume to be various objects more times than he can be bothered to count, so feel free to point and laugh at him for that. Eventually, he arrives at his destination, only to find something decidedly less impressive than he expected ─ namely, a bucket of paint in the lovely shade of blue and a brush along with it.]

... If that's the reason they were asking about our favorite colors, then they fucked up pretty bad.

[You know, the general white-out aside.]

b. artist at work

[You're not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, and you know what? Ragna will take it. He's determined to make the most out of the situation, bullshit as it is. As such, you might see him working on paining various building walls ─ well, "working" might not be the right word choice here. He seems to have little interest in actually highlighting the objects properly and instead leaves the area after painting a bunch of doodles, the quality of which is what can be expected. (Don't judge him, he's only got his left hand to work with.) Currently, he can be found absorbed in the creation process of his new masterpiece, though make no mistake ─ the frown on his face absolutely doesn't indicate he's putting his heart or much thought into this.

All in all, it's less about helping to restore the city to its former glory and more about relieving the pent-up stress and anger via vandalism. But hey, whatever works, right?]

c. showing true colors

[Fooling around is good enough, but there is one place Ragna genuinely is interested in restoring (no, not the nearest udon place, though he might look into it later) ─ namely, the Recollé Orphanage. Now, he doesn't consider himself to be a sentimental person and he most definitely doesn't think of the place as his "home" or shit like that, but given how people with no connection to Retrospec seem to have finally began to catch up on how messed up their city is, he imagines the orphanage must be pretty chaotic right now (or, er, more than usually). However, his efforts are interrupted by the kids trying to use the visuals getting wiped out to their advantage. Who knew the game of hide-and-seek could be new challenging? Too bad Ragna doesn't share their excitement.]

Hey! Get the hell back inside! I don't wanna hear anything about you running into shit!

[He knows from experience.]

wildcard

[You know the drill; hit me up over at

psychelocks if you wanna discuss other options!]

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[ Akira has been painting with his red paintbrush for some time, even in this area, but by himself he can only make the outlines show. Raising his eyebrows, he turns to see the source of the familiar voice. Shoulder slumping, he was thinking the exact same thing. ]

Those posts are all foreboding for this very reason. [ ... ] I always thought you would be a red person, actually.

[ Is the blue bucket and paintbrush yours? ]

[While Ragna has been avoiding pretty much all forms of human contact lately, he's not exactly eager to get back in touch ─ but at the same time, Akira is far from the most unwelcome person to come across, so he greets him with a half-assed wave of his working hand.]

Well, yeah. Can't say this is what I expected, though... I was thinking more like, maybe they'll switch the colors around or some shit?

[There's something really annoying about the way he's both used to this sort of bullshit, and yet surprised every time by the extent of whatever happens.]

Same. But hey, guess we all know by now those bastards at Retrospec know crap about colors, huh?

[He doesn't mind blue (hell, he's been here just for a little while and he'd take any of the colors back, really), but he can't imagine there would be any particular reason why he'd be getting this one. He figures it must be his, though, given how the directions lead him there. Judging by the look (or lack thereof) of things and what Akira seems to have been working on before Ragna arrived, what he's supposed to do with it is pretty self-explanatory.]

... Are we seriously supposed to paint the entire city back?

[Because he's got no time for this─ well, no. Given how things are, he's got all the time in the world, but it doesn't mean he wants to spend it doing this.]

I don't know. They at least picked the right color for me.

[ He idly spins his paintbrush some more like it's a party trick, but goes back to painting whatever this is. Is it a beam? A pole? They can only tell by the black outline. ]

Yeah. Let's paint the world red, Ragna. [ Dramatically, he opens his arms towards him, even if his tone is leveled and neutral. Wait, let him correct himself. ] Purple.

[ He sticks this pose a little longer before he's back to painting. ]

What else could we do?

Lucky you.

[He doesn't think it's that big of a deal, honestly; for all they know, it might be random anyway, and even if it isn't, he's not exactly concerned by whatever deep meaning Retrospec people think there is behind it.]

... It's coming out black anyway.

[In case Akira missed that little detail. Ragna places his hand on his hip, not exactly eager to cooperate (then again, when is he?). On second hand, Akira might be right; what else is there for them to do...?]

I should've stayed home.

[He grabs his brush, reluctantly slapping the paint on the nearest surface and... yep, it's black. Does Retrospec even know how to color?]

[ Here! He paints over the parts that Ragna recently painted. The color doesn't come our red or blur, but an obvious purple. It's magic, really. ]

It comes out as a combination of colors, but you need two people.

[ Akira will continue to paint wherever Ragna paints, hoping to get some of this area visible. ]

Are you going to head home?

[Ragna's eye widens at the color changing from black to purple, his jaw dropping a little. He regains his composure soon enough and shakes his head, letting out a small sigh. Why is he even letting things like these surprise him still? He should know by now that anything is possible in this city.]

It's kinda pointless now, ain't it? Finding the way back will be a pain in the ass. 'Sides, since I'm already here... might as well do something with these.

[The painting utensils, he means. As tempting as it is to go back to sleep and wake up when the world's back to normal, sitting on his thumbs doing nothing would probably make him even more miserable than having to work with other people. And that's something he'd rather avoid, so he moves a few steps further to the area that's already been highlighted by Akira and paints over it to make it colorful again. It's only after a short moment that something occurs to him and he turns to Akira again.]

Wait, is this place even supposed to be purple?

We can always try to paint our way to your house.

[ Akira doesn't stop painting when Ragna asks him the next question. Focused, he continues to swathe the bristles of his brush over the other areas. ]

Does it matter? We can't make any other colors.

[ Where is this place, anyway? He only cares that they can make their way out since he somehow got lost here and can't find his way back... Well, he can, but he's looking out for everyone else. ]

Jeez, you almost sound like you work here.

[She remembers being scolded like that just as well. For all the kids running around though, Rose looks remarkably unbothered. To be fair though, that might be because she convinced a bunch of the younger ones to do some "finger painting" for her, their hands the same shade of soft pink in her bucket and on her brush. Nothing convinces kids to do something for you than to be able to make a mess at the same time!! With their handprints all over the place now, at least some painting's getting done.

(But to be even fairer, she still has a soft spot for young kids, don't judge her.)]

[Ragna turns around to give her a look (as much of a look one can give with only one eye open).]

The hell I do. If I did, it'd be something like [Cue his bad attempt at high-pitched impression of one of the caretakers:] Kids, don't go running into invisible walls now! You don't want to get hurt, do you?

[Okay, that was painful even on his ears, so he'll cut it out and carry on with slapping the paint on the wall in front of him with next to zero effort involved. There, the corner is semi-visible now; that should do it, right?]

They should be paying me for this shit though, that's for sure.

[Maybe he should follow Rose's example and kill two birds with one stone by occupying kids with work...]

[It would be painful for her too if it wasn't so funny to hear that coming from Ragna. Don't mind her as she doesn't even bother to try and hide her snickering. (And if she notices his eye, well. It's not like she'll ever be the one to bring up eye-related issues now.)]

I dunno, you sound like you're really cut out for it here... And you'd be getting paid, yeah. [At that, she sighs. Here they are, essentially rebuilding the city with nothing but paint, and they can't even get some kind of recompense for this. How unfair is that?

NOT THAT SHE'S EVEN REALLY WORKING RIGHT NOW ANYWAYS. She's not even half-heartedly slapping paint on shit, content to just let the kids run around and do it.]

[You know what they say: any paint in a storm.

Shuji's gotten a lovely shade of red to work with, and is being much more diligent about actually painting the walls black. He'd like to give the buildings at least a little color... Hm.]

Do you mind doodling on this?

[ The world is starting to look a little more complete with everyone chipping in, even if it looks like a little kid went wild with a box of crayons all over the city. It’s nice being able to find your way around again, though! And while some people are putting an awful lot of effort into it, the artists of Recolle are putting them all to shame.

Except… this one.

Ochako spots the first doodles a ways down the block, and when it looks like they’re heading in another direction, she decides to follow just because they look so funny. Each new one gets a chuckle out of her, and by the time she finally spots Ragna working on… that… she has hold her hand to her mouth to keep from bursting into laughter. He’s obviously trying, but… ]

Is it... A dragon?

[ She did suggest pictionary a while back. Might as well play along. ]

["Trying" might be a bit of an overstatement ─ the effort he's putting into his, er, "works" is minimal at best, but since he's mostly just doing this to keep himself occupied you can't really expect more than that. Leave actual effort to people who care.

When Ochako approaches him with her question, Ragna greets her with nothing but a scowl at first before turning to the picture of the monster on the wall and actually giving it some consideration. Come to think of it, is it a dragon? The few memories he has of that thing are kind of fuzzy, but it's clearly stuck at the back of his head, considering he's painted it without really thinking about it. He figures it's dragon-y enough to pass for one, but hell if he knows for sure.]

No, a self-portrait. Can't you tell?

[When in doubt, can't go wrong with dismissive sarcasm? Although he can only wish it was nothing but a joke...]

[ keigo hadn't really seen much of ragna since their little mission, aside from a few messages here or there on the app. to say he was concerned might have been an overstatement, because he didn't know him well enough to really investigate what he might have been up to. but there was something of a sense of relief when he did spot him outside. at least this was proof he was still, y'know. functional. for the most part.

keigo wasn't up to speed on the state of his eye and arm, though, so when he saw ragna struggling to create some Quality Work, keigo approached with a tilt to his head and arms crossed over his chest. he was twisting his own paintbrush around in his grip, watching ragna closely. ]

I mean, I never really pegged you for artistic, but...

[ didn't mean to sneak up on you there, bro, but enjoy the implications of that unfinished thought keigo was so graciously supplying. ]

[Honestly, the well-being of his so-called teammates hasn't been anywhere close to the top of the list of priorities on Ragna's mind lately (which tends to be the case when you're going through a small humanity crisis for an extended period of time), so just knowing that they're probably surviving was enough for him. There again, that's about the usual level of investment in other people's lives. Either way, Ragna will still take Keigo's company over one of those confused, lost Retrospec-oblivious people he's had to deal with earlier.

Which isn't to say he has to make it easy for him.]

Huh. Guess you're still alive.

[... Not that it's news to him, but he still makes a conscious effort to sound somewhat surprised by that. Because what is having an ongoing conversation without actively trying to insult the other party in some way?]

Well, you clearly underestimated my skills.

[He shrugs with his working shoulder as he decides to ignore the fact said "skills" involve nothing but preschooler-level doodling.]

[ keigo's expression dulled at that not-so-subtle jab ragna made towards him, but it apparently was far from enough to deter him from continuing the conversation. instead, he clicked his tongue and muttered something along the lines of "i could say the same about you" before he returned his attention to the... "drawing." ]

I dunno if I'd call this "underestimating..."

[ keigo stepped forward and took it upon himself to swipe his paintbrush over part of it, seemingly attempting to make it look more... like an actual animal. ]

Your form needs work.

[ and if ragna was going to be insulting, keigo was going to be scathing. ]

[Cute kids, but what's the point, really? Is anyone really going to notice if a bunch of parentless scamps don't have a place to live? It's not like their folks will be looking for them or anything!

Gosh, Nui thinks, she must be a really empathetic person if she's still showing up here to see how things are going! And look, it's That Guy (tm) over there helping with the painting, too.

Though Nui doesn't seem to have her paintbrush out or seem to be doing any painting of her own, she does bounce over to Ragna, coming up on his blind side as if she knows, instinctively, that it's the side he can't see out of.]

Hey, heeeeey! What are you doing all the way out here, huh? [But even if he can't see her, he'll definitely hear her voice, since her volume is higher than it really needs to be.]

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[OPEN] I'm blue da ba dee

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