Chrollo Catch All | February [Open]

[crossreversed]

Who: Chrollo, & others
What: Various February happenings
When: All month
Where: Around Trench
Warnings: None in main post; Will be added to comments as needed



Wait For Me; backdated to the end of January

A month since Chrollo washed up from the sea, it was time for more Sleepers to come ashore. He had no interest in helping any wayward soul who happened to need a hand, so he lingered further back and let those with an interest in such things greet new arrivals.

The only people Chrollo cared to see were his own. If one of the Troupe washed ashore, he didn't want to miss their arrival. There was also a chance that a squid could take on a less than friendly face. Being unable to permanently kill them was a hindrance, but knowing sooner rather than later would still be better.

Wrapped up to wait out the cold, Chrollo watched, and waited. The sudden feeling of stiffness was a surprise, there was no obvious source of it. Soon, he couldn't move at all. There was no apparent source of danger, as the twelve legged spider omen on his shoulder remained small but visibly agitated. It looked like he'd be waiting longer than expected.

You Take My Breath Away

After the past month, Chrollo was becoming accustomed to the sudden onset of effects with no obvious source. Suddenly being unable to breathe was still surprising enough that Chrollo reached up to his throat to reassure himself there was nothing around his neck. Even though he hadn't anticipated holding his breath, he still had at least a few minutes before the situation was going to become desperate.

A nearby commotion made it obvious he wasn't the only one struggling, and as soon as he caught sight of someone else visibly struggling to breathe he was hit with a sudden need to reach that person.

As far as coercive abilities went, Chrollo didn't have much experience with being on the receiving end of them. But he didn't have many options, and the only risk was to himself. Without giving it more thought than that, Chrollo made his way over and reached out.

Speed Dating

Chrollo Lucilfer, emotionally unavailable and married to his work. He enjoys reading, acquiring antiques (especially books), spending time with his friends, and exploring the darkness in other people's souls.

Chrollo has never done regular dating, much less the 'fast' variety where you're given only a few moments to get to know someone. As far as ordeals go, he's had a much milder time with this month than the previous one even with his odd run of bad luck.

He knows the motions to go through well enough, he's met people and 'hit it off' to get close to them when a situation required it and he's stolen more than one priceless artifact or ability that way.

Comments

[martyrofduty]

"Depends on the vibe of the relationship," Pyrrha says with a shrug, "I definitely have friends like that." Most of them not here. That sinks into the tone of her statement the tiniest amount. The absence of friends. The absence of people she'd have her usual dynamics with. Time apart. There's a dearth of a circle of people she can playfully threaten with violence. Step up, Chrollo. Dating or not, she could use it.

"I'm a bit more intense with people I'm actually dating," Pyrrha adds in a light tone, thinking of trepanation with filtering cerebral fluid with Gideon or public challenges from Nonius or murders (not only attempts) with Wake. The attempts were a lot too.

She sets the pot on the stones and sits on the blanket. "Can you pull out the other supplies—the spices?" Pyrrha asks. One handed will be fun.

"Makes up for the naps. Our blood also makes beautiful jewelry, and I've heard if you toss it in the dark, it'll glow if someone or something's feeling fear," Pyrrha says, "Haven't tried that one." She has made something that qualifies as jewelry, but that was personal—for Sharon. If Sharon ever feels the need to toss it in the dark, so be it.

[crossreversed]

It's almost too bad Pyrrha has so many claims on her loyalty already, but Chrollo doesn't know how ruthless she can be. Her moral compass seems to point towards doing good for everyone. He suspects she can do terrible things if needed, but probably wouldn't let the world burn for the sake of a smaller number of people. Unlike Sharon, he doesn't think she'll reach that point even if he pushes.

He understands the tone of missing friends clearly, because his own are all absent. Chrollo considers inquiring about how much more intense she is with her husband, but that topic has all the hallmarks of an emotional landmine. Whatever caused Duty and Pyrrha to be one person was probably not pleasant. She's left Sarasa alone, so he'll avoid bringing up the husband.

"This almost seems like something you'd see on a reality show," Chrollo says as he starts pulling out spices with one hand and setting them down where Pyrrha's one hand can reach them.

"Fear is an interesting thing. People use it too often when something more measured would do, but emotions don't listen to logic very often." Chrollo acts out of caution, but he knows what real fear feels like. He hasn't felt it very often since he truly came to understand it.

CW: reference to potential dog harm

[martyrofduty]

The vibe check gets dropped, which says something in and of itself. Pyrrha lets it, not applying pressure where it's not wanted so early in something half-information exchange half-not a date. Neither of those need that kind of pressure. He got real with Pyralis, but Chrollo's still playing in the kiddie pool with her. For some reason, he won't touch Duty or her husband. Why?

"I heard Palebloods got really into baking last June," Pyrrha says, "Baking competition and everything. Blood effects kicked it off, so it might be more difficult without that to get things going. Still, given the right circumstances, you could get it going."

She talks while working one handed—opening the spices, shaking them onto the laid out crabs and working them in. Once they're all on there, she even sears them slightly, so they don't come off in the water. Not proper cooking technique by everyone's standards, but spend enough centuries to reach millennia on the battlefield, and you adapt a lot.

The crabs don't all fit in the pot at once, which has almost reached boiling, so it'll be batch work. Pyrrha listens to Chrollo. "People have a lot more buttons than fear, if you want to use emotions, and emotions aren't the only tools out there," she says. "Fear's a pain in the ass once it roots itself into people. The sky could fall and kill us any day. That's great, Bob. How about we lay the next layer of concrete instead of you trying to kill Dick over there. He's not ending the world."

Not that fear's the worst. No, some people want to save everyone— or every dog. Real life doesn't work like that.

[crossreversed]

"I think I'd rather watch that show than host it," Chrollo says, dismissing it. The entertainment value doesn't seem worth the effort.

Pyrrha's words about fear sound like personal experience, but given the kinds of threats that exist in her universe it's not that far out there. Some of the spices Chrollo recognizes by scent and could name, others he knows but couldn't put a name to. He's not as resistant to poisons as the Zoldycks or their butlers, he has to be more aware of what he's putting in his mouth or inhaling.

"Fear spreads quickly, so it's a useful tool at a distance. But I am curious how many things people think are fear but really aren't would cause cold blood to glow. Or the things people think aren't fear, but are."

[martyrofduty]

Pyrrha raises an eyebrow. Chrollo gives off that director vibe. Get things kicked off and running. Perhaps not this. Something. Something not entirely serious.

She finishes treating the last of the crabs and monitors the pot, occasionally sticking her truncheon like weapon, previously a spear, into the pot to stir things around. It's better than a lot of battlefield cooking.

"Coldblood jewelry's available all through Trench. Easy enough to obtain," Pyrrha eyes Chrollo thoughtfully, "as for the rest, you'd get best results from repeatable experiments of solid design. Otherwise it's anecdata."

She grins, "I don't scare easily, unless there's heavyhanded Pthumerian influence."

[crossreversed]

Chrollo considers the logistics of it. An experiment involving emotions is finicky. More so than perceptions, and he deals with those all the time with Skill Hunter and other people's nen ability.

"I'm more curious if there's a difference between different coldbloods. Will some light up in a situation but not others at the same time is there an output limit in how many can be lit up at one time by one person's fear? Blood magic seems more individual and intuition based than hard metrics and science."

[martyrofduty]

Pyrrha laughs a little. "Oh ho, commercially available Coldblood jewelry isn't going to cut it for you then, is it?" she asks rhetorically, "Doubt you could trust any documentation about where the jewelry came from unless it's the jeweler themself. No, you need to get personal."

With one hand, she fishes out the first batch of cooked crabs, setting them out to cool some, and drops in the next batch.

"More than that, if you want to control for blood effects, you need to get them all the same month too," Pyrrha notes, "Blood effects affect bloodstones, even from the same person. Why would jewelry be any different?"

[crossreversed]

"I'd have to collect it myself, which means I'd need to trade for it," Or steal it. Chrollo looks at the cooked crabs as they sit out steaming, looking at the way heat has changed their coloration.

"Right, blood effects." He'd definitely have to get the blood himself in that case.

"Blood magic is such a strange and inconsistent thing."

[martyrofduty]

Pyrrha nods. "That or work with person(s) you trust on that matter," she says. "How many Coldbloods do you know?"

She considers the blood effects. Exhaustion probably isn't a great effect to study differences between Coldblood, an emotional dampener of sorts. It's happened a lot. "More interested in the differences between people than the blood effects? Only need one regular and reliable source for the latter."

A lot easier than a lot of people. "It is, yet it does so much. A lot more than fighting and cooking, even for Coldbloods," Pyrrha comments.