thenearshore | Open ♔ The Rows of Her Sighs

Who: Hibiki Shikyoin

priforprince and you!
What: Lots of opportunities to bother Hibiki.
When: June 10-12, 2016
Where: A Near Shore coffeeshop; Apollo’s temple
Summary: Hibiki had thought she knew how to get home. She didn’t. So she tries to do something about it and fails.

[ I. June 10 - God in the Shell ]

[ Having taken a nasty shock during her shopping trip to PHarajuku, Hibiki’s kept to her temple for the past few days. The Wi-Fi signal there has grown…suboptimal, however…so today finds her at a Near Shore coffeeshop offering unnecessarily fancily-sized drinks and various pastries to complement them. (You know the one.)

Cup in one hand and laptop in the other, Hibiki’s currently occupying a table originally intended to seat a party of 6 all by her fabulous, intellectual self - and she does look the part. Knowing she’d be starting the day working on the computer, she’s attired herself in a button-down cardigan and a pair of glasses.

How well she manages to keep up the calm, confident air with which she’s typing, however, may depend on at what point you enter this coffeeshop. Right after they’ve opened, Hibiki’s spirits and hopes are high. Even if PriPara hadn’t been where she’d expected to find it, its system is so poorly-guarded that even a monkey could hack it! She’ll just create a backdoor for herself and slip on in. Any moment now, this will work…

….By noon, her table is decorated with three or four scattered, empty cups and a single pastry wrapper, and Hibiki has her legs crossed beneath herself as she types, frowning. Interrupting her looks near-impossible.

………..By dinnertime, the table is positively littered with cups and wrappers. Some have even fallen, unheeded, to the floor. Hibiki herself has slumped so far down in her seat that her feet are sticking out from the opposite side of the table. One is jiggling up and down, and is a prime tripping hazard.

She’s still occasionally pressing a button or moving her trackpad, but behind those glasses, Hibiki’s eyes have taken on the same dull sheen as her computer screen. ]

[ II. June 10 - Homewired Bound ]

[ Of course it’s raining. Just like it has been all day. Why wouldn’t it.

Hibiki is…shaky, to say the least….when she finally leaves the coffeeshop. (The shock of the day’s events, of course. Nothing to do with how her blood is probably more caffeine than iron right now.) Something moves behind her. She jumps, whirling around. ]

Wh—

[ III. June 11 - Reading Rainbummed ]

[ Hibiki is so used to having her butler take care of everything that she has no idea her temple’s front door is unlocked. If you wander in, and happen to come upon this sitting room, you’ll find a pair of spellbooks lying on the ground. One is spread-eagled, pages bent; the other had the good fortune to land with its cover shut. Either way, they have the appearance of unfortunate items cast aside in a fit of pique.

For some reason.

Deeper within the private areas of her temple (behind, in other words, at least one more unlocked door), a third door slams. ]

[ IV. June 12 - Bring Movie to Life ]

[ She’s still keeping to her private quarters, but Hibiki has reached a point where she can sit upright again. Currently she’s got a movie going on one of the countless projector screens in her temple, and the Heavens’ BBS up on her laptop on the couch next to her, but she isn’t paying attention to either. Instead, she has her head averted as she slouches, not really looking at anything in particular.

Clearly this means it’s a good time to bother her. She very obviously doesn’t have anything else going on. ]

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Oh--? Is that...?

[Felicia was still getting used to this sprawling city that she and Lara often took jobs in, and had taken to wandering on her own in the evenings to find a newspaper and get a hot drink to prepare herself for an evening of tidying up the temple. She had just ordered herself a soy latte that was heavily laden with vanilla syrup (for drinking too much milk gave her terrible stomach problems, as she had learned one unfortunate evening) when she spotted the wisp of silvered hair-- still perfectly coiffed-- peeking out from the pile of cups in the corner.

Gently tip-toeing over, just to be sure she wouldn't disturb the person, Felicia planned to investigate this 'problem'. Whatever it was.

Surely she wouldn't have to bring a sick person home, right?]

[ Click. Click. Tap.

Hibiki's foot bounces up and down on the other side of the table, jittery from the caffeine - she'd started with her usual tea, but as the day'd wore on she'd had a coffee for stamina. Then, it had tasted surprisingly not terrible, so she'd had another. And another. And.

Her eyes are unfocused, but still she's typing in code. On autopilot. Slowly.

The glowing box on the table appears to have taken Hibiki prisoner, Felicia. ]

[Felicia was only distantly aware of laptops, largely due to exposure from her excursions around town with Lara while she patiently explained things-- because, for whatever reason, there was so much about modern ammenities that she simply didn't understand. She had never personally used a computer, for there had been no need so far, but she had seen people working furiously before them with a gleam in their eyes that seemed to be unaware of the world around them.

Moving carefully, Felicia quietly picked up a few of the cups that were in her way and neatly set them aside before she leaned in close to Hibiki. The glazed look in the dashing young person's eyes was trouble, and there was no ignoring the spark of worry she felt in her heart at the sight.]

Hibiki...?

[Felicia asked softly, hoping not to disturb this person too much while she got their attention. And, if this didn't work....

Well, she had something else up her sleeve.]

[ Tap. Tap. Click. Buzz. Hibiki blinks, but that's about it. The hand on her keyboard is shaking a little. She reaches for her coffee cup and sips.

When she puts it back down, her whole body is faintly vibrating in place. ]

[Her alarm only grew by the second, until bells started almost literally buzzing in her ears with each tap and click of Hibiki's fingers. With each unconscious tremor of her hands.]

Hibiki! Say something!

[Felicia grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly.]

If you're alive in there, please say something!

[ Hibiki is shaken like a rag doll, glasses going askew on her face (and then straightening themselves back out, because even completely zonked out on despair and caffeine, she's still a Magnificent, Graceful Celebrity, the likes of whom simply do not wear crooked spectacles). When the shaking is over, her head lolls down towards her chest.

And then, like that. She speaks. Sort of. ]

....Fffu?

Hibiki?!

[Felicia wildly glanced between her friend and the laptop before her-- and was struck by an idea.]

It's this machine, isn't it? It's got you captive!

Just let me--!!

[She reached out and quickly snapped the laptop shut, hoping that this act would break the 'spell' that had been put upon Hibiki!]

[ And, lo and behold, when the intrepid peasant closes the mystical box holding sway over the captive Prince, the curse breaks indeed!

Hibiki blinks, startled, and jumps in her seat (more than usual). Her head snaps up, and she looks around, gathering her bearings. One trembling hand goes to her heart - it won't stop pounding - then to her head - ditto - and she finally pauses like that, looking at the person sitting next to her. You?

You are not the person she thought you were. The person whose name starts with "Fu". ] ...I didn't go back.

[ When it had felt like someone was concerned about her, she'd almost thought...but no, that had been an illusion. There's no one who cares about her here. They're all where she's trying to go.

And where she can't get. ]

No...but you did come back-- which is good.

[Delicately setting the laptop aside, Felicia began the arduous process of cleaning up all of the paper cups that had been strewn around her table. She should probably ask one of the barristas for a bag...but, she saw that Hibiki needed the company more.]

I was worried about you, [she confessed, in all honesty.] You're a brilliant person, and seeing you with that look in your eyes...

It was very sad to see.

...Absurd.

[ Hibiki turns away, crossing her arms. That's absolutely ridiculous. They've met once. Why would anyone, who's only met her once - no matter how well the meeting went - feel compelled to...

She frowns. Is she in worse condition than she thought? Yes. Not just out of the disappointment of being thwarted - for if she, Shikyoin Hibiki, genius to whom all firewalls are mere gauze curtains waited to be parted and reveal their secrets, can't manage to find PriPara, it's not out there. But for some reason, she's...full of all this pent-up energy. It's making her shiver.

If you asked her, she is broodingly deep in thought. From the looks of it, though, she's just sulking. ]

Why's that?

[Felicia asked, stacking more empty cups together and setting them aside until a chair was revealed underneath that mess. She smoothed out her skirts and took a seat beside Hibiki, nothing but honest curiousity in her eyes.]

Instead of brushing me off at the beach like a lot of other people, you decided to keep playing with clumsy 'ole me. And...it was fun. Why wouldn't I care about you?

Open ♔ The Rows of Her Sighs

I. June 10 - God in the Shell -- in the evening

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