You Wake Up In A Bar

The tunes continue in mellow fashion. You reckon that Laren's plethora of woes are almost too tough for you to really respond to. Sure, Greene is new to the whole thing... but it's undeniable that the inputs behind Greene aren't entirely unfamiliar.

You do your best either way.








She sinks a little in her seat, glancing back and forth lazily at her drink, meal, and the contours of the counter. You wash another dish absentmindedly.









It feels halfhearted.




She sits up again, taking a long inhale, her eyes a little more focused.








Laren nods, humming softly.







This, for you, is incredibly true. After all, it has been 213 days since you met Laren. Since you met Laren. Maybe the input-aggregated awkwardness has led to some time dilation for her, too. In that case, it'd make some sense that your friendship has sort of accelerated.

However, before either of you can elaborate, the bar door creaks open. The person who arrived at the bar in the previous update has finally arrived, and it's Nadezhda. But unlike the other two visits, her companion isn't following behind-- and in place of the stone attached to her forehead is a deep, permanent scar, where the rock had been pressing into her chitin day in, day out.




Laren turns around immediately.






...That! That whole thing. You remember that.







The bug heads over to a seat and sits down, taking a long breath. Her heavy eyes and weakly buzzing antennae point towards a lot of exhaustion that she's pushing through to be here.








Jeez, does NOBODY remember??? You're practically planted here!

(That's terrible, Greene, stop)







...Well, that's thoroughly unexpected.

But you suppose this is another opportunity to throw out some new concepts into the YWUNIVERSE to be canonized. What kind of PDA would come in handy for a Greene like you?

The bar is mildly lively again. At the same time, you absolutely don't feel like Laren was completely done talking one-on-one.

Cup status: 1 occupied (Laren's Iced Haze) 3 dirty (TDMB, Bright and Air-ly, INTY), 1 broken, 4 free
Meloncup status: 1 dirty (HH)
Plate status: 1 occupied (Laren's MSD), 1 dirty (The Sate Catsberry), 2 free
Mug status: 1 dirty (Mulled Again Mulligan), 1 free

AbilitiesShow

Scavenger: Unavailable (0/1 uses)
Gain a cup and plate every day, on command.

Intrusive: Enabled
Introduction cards show a bio for a given character.

Intuitive: Enabled
Introduction cards show somebody's ingredient preferences.

Phytochemist: Disabled (too dim)
Create drinks/meals automatically (at half speed) during sunlit hours.

Collaborative: Enabled
Attach any length of Cabinet entry to an ingredient suggestion at will.

Perfectionist: Enabled
Gain a hint about quintessential ingredients for drinks/meals. Succeeding makes that quintessential ingredient limitless.

OrdersShow

Nadezhda wants to find SYLG.
Status: Drinkmaster Greene is fated to find SYLG.

Author's NotesShow

I'm sorry for the delay on this update. I got caught up in an unhealthy case of writer's block and also repeatedly missed self-set deadlines and thought "hey I'll take a break until the next deadline that I set for myself" and then missed deadlines twice a day for almost a full week.

So it's been weird.

But here you go! I hope I can get Pairtree back on track soon and I promise there's work being done, but like I mentioned, I want to put focus on YWUIAB above all.