2288/Welcome Back, Arthur Lowell

Welcome Back, Arthur Lowell
Date of Scene:	20 May 2015
Location:	Land of Spires and Frogs
Synopsis:	Arthur gets back from his cruise and finds out what Riva's done to his place in his absence. Hangout intensifies.
Cast of Characters:	Arthur Lowell, Riva Banari

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Riva Banari has posed:
Arthur's MAN CAVE has been the subject of much hangout and relaxation time for the erstwhile god of Space and Public Transportation. A cavernous area, it normally has a bunch of funriture, a pipe organ, various alchemy euipment, and a scattering of Arthur's pasttimes.

It still has all of that, but the room also has the lights turned out, the various lighting apparati having been disabled or closed off in order to render the interior too dark to immediately see.

The furniture seems to be slightly different as well, but it's hard to tell without light. Still, the light switch is right there, right?

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL is here! He went and had a burger with Riva lik he promised before, giving her ample forewarning. She might come along with him to his place to hang out, but she also may have just gotten ahead of him. Whatever particular details there are about her presence here, the Mage of Space himself at least is here. With enthusiastic, swaggering sorts of motions, he makes his way downstairs from the First Gate here, humming something and grinning.

    He's in a good mood! Just off his vacation, and feeling refreshed and rejuvinated! He's handled all his stress healthily and seems really upbeat! He's going to head on into the MAN CAVE, the big two-story room, from the top of the spiraling staircase that runs its interior side to the ground. Lights being off aren't too unusual, though he can't remember why the big skullface eye-windows wouldn't be open! With an energetic gesture -- really, all Arthur's gestures are energetic and overwrought -- he turns on the lightswitch at the top of the stairs here, where he'll get a good surveying view of the floor first, before other subjects.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva had mysteriously popped on ahead after an awesome burger. Similarly mysteriously, she's not immediately apparent when Arthur shows up. He turns on the light, and...

Riva continues to be nowhere to be seen! However, the furniture is in slightly different positions than it was before, as if much of it was moved out of the way and then hastily moved back at some point strangely recently.

Another oddity, perhaps, are some modern-style sconce lights set into the walls that shine upwards to use reflected light to illuminate the room. And perhaps other things, but we'll get to that when the time comes. Anything Arthur had left lying around in his MAN CAVE had been also picked up and neatly placed on tables. The carpet also shows signs of extensive vaccuuming and cleaning for some mysterious reason.

But where did Riva go?

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur flicks on the lights. Having lights pointing up now gets him a bit of an eyeful since he's completely unprepared, but that doesn't mess with him. "Oh, HUH. She get AYA runnin' on through here?" He seems impressed! Then he's noticing the new lighting properly. "Wait, what?" He decides to skip the stairs, for now, because they're /incredibly/ dangerous, and leap right over the edge, down into the center of the room, looking around. "HUH." He says, more curious than suspicious, prodding about at his stuff.

    Then, of course, he'll look up at whatever those lights might be illuminating on the interior of the dome-like roof of his big mancave alchemization hangout room, just sort of following along with whatever's gone on here in a whimsical sort of way.

Riva Banari has posed:
Stairs are super dangerous. Being warned about stairs is important, because you never know when they will betray you. It keeps happening to people all over the world.

Arthur's stuff is all in place. Everything is there and accounted for. All of his alchemization gear is clean and shined, and even the pipe organ looks like it's had a good cleaning.

Finally, Arthur catches the subtle hints provided by the new light fixtures, and looks up... into a surprise.

The ceiling of Arthur's MAN CAVE has been extensively redecorated. A massive, meticulously painted vista of space has taken over the cavernous dome. Deep black, studded with a multitude of colof from whirling stars, nebulae, planets, quasars, black holes, and other interstellar phenomena.

The main attraction is in the center of the massive mural, being a depiction of Arthur Lowell with hand outstretched, giving a massive multicolord frog respect knux, a la 'The Creation of Adam'. Where the fists hit there is a huge explosion with the Space insignia in the center. In one corner is a tiny chibi picture of Riva giving a thumbs up. Underneath it is signed 'ALWAYS BE COOL TO ONE ANOTHER - RIVA BANARI & THE PAINTER - 2015'

But more than that, there's a multitude of smaller details laid into the mural, little things to pick out and examine when the eye catches them... Or if one were to go looking for them.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur looks up and makes a face that can really only realistically be described as ":o", clearly extremely impressed with the work and uncomprehending of how it went down. "God damn." He whispers under his breath, softly and passively in a way that's almost entirely unlike his forced coolkid exterior. It takes him a long time looking at that to realize what's gone on, see the signature, and smile.

    He immediately focuses on looking at the massive thing, having an authentic, unforced sort of giddy grin as he examines it all, not yet taking off from the floor to go fly up and look at it more closely. He's going to stay here and get the full view, too distracted by that to even sit down just yet. If Riva's here, she'll be able to walk in on him in a state that's got that 'kid in a candy store' sort of look.

Riva Banari has posed:
3... 2... 1...

It's at this point, when Arthur stares up at the ceiling that a voice calls out. "Surprise!"

Riva pops up from behind a couch, holding a decorated cake with 'WELCOME HOME, ARTHUR LOWELL' on it. The cake itself is a classic chocolate layer cake with light buttercream frosting. She has a huge grin on her face as she sets down the cake on the table, and sways over to Arthur. "Like what you see?" She asks, chirpily, with her hands behind her back. "I wanted to get you something while you were out on the cruise, so I recruited the Painter to help. It was a lot of fun."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur whirls around with a grin. "Hey!" He says, with an energy that seems distinctly less forced than it normally is. "Damn, you did this? Wow! Just... Wow!" He looks back up, eyes wide, still with that energy. Where before it seemed like intentional forcefulness, an effort to always seem like the in-command guy. Now it's giddy and happy. "Hell yeah, it's great! Love it, thanks!" He seems relieved in a way. While his intense stresses were all pretty handled, it's always great to see some very... Focused appreciation, some centralized welcoming.

    He immediately comes over to greet her, looking at the cake with a smile. "Seriously, thanks a ton Rivs." He says, then laughs a bit. "This a bro /pound/ situation or a bro /hug/ situation?" He decides that since Riva's arms are behind her back, he's going to go for the latter, a quick and light sort of happy squeeze before backing off swiftly. "Seriously, this is just, wow. Wow!" He says, taking a seat down in front of the cake and still focusing on looking up.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva chuckles as Arthur begins going bonkers over the mural. "Well, you gave us a lot of time, so I wanted to make sure I did some of my best work for you."

The genuine surprise in his voice seems to be reassuring to Riva, and as he gives her a quick hug, it's probably good he's not looking at her because she's blushing furiously. She takes advantage of his continued distraction to kneel at the table next to the cake and begin cutting pieces, trying to get it under control before he notices, putting the cake on paper plates and getting some plastic forks. Party, all the way, though a party of two. She also produces a bottle of grape soda and pours some for him too. "I'm really happy you like it." Riva says as she works. "I was worried for a bit it might be too much."

After a minute, she sits down next to Arthur with a cup of soda and a slice of cake, her composure more under control as she offers them to him. "Hey, slugger, welcome back. We missed you."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Hey, grape again! Niiiice. Arthur floats a paper plate on over and starts taking a few bites. He's completely oblivious to any blushing, conveniently just being giddy happy in his own focused sort of way as he looks more over the mural. "Nah, nah, 'too much'? Nah. You know me, I don't mind over-the-top. This is great!" He laughs a bit. "Lotta dramatics, but a lot of humor too. I like it! Takes itself /just/ seriously enough." He finally gets around to seeing the chibi-ized versions of himself and Riva on it, and starts laughing again.

    "Man, it's good bein' back. I really appreciate this. Man, I dunno about earning it, but it sure is a hell of a relief after. I'll be around more, I think, I just needed... Man, just kinda a break. Shit got heavy there for a bit. You take much of a break? Shit got kinda heavy for all of us." Man, he doesn't even know. For now he's focusing on eating that cake!

Riva Banari has posed:
"No one's going to argue with you about that, Arthur. That was some /super heavy/ stuff for everyone. You got to relax on a cruiseliner, and I relaxed painting. We took care of it in our own ways, and now we're back in the saddle and ready to go." She gets her own cake and soda, and takes a few moments to just eat and drink, just enjoying Arthur's presence for a while.

After a bit, Riva tilts her head and asks Arthur, "So do you have any plans now? I know the Syndicate stuff never ends, but what else is on your radar?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur grins and nods. "Yeah. Long as you got it outta your system. That shit's /important/, you know." He takes a swig of the soda, full of energy in the motion, drinking it dramatically. "You get so fuckin' wrapped up in whatever crisis that goes on, shit, you stop thinking about what comes after it's done, y'know?" He sighs a moment before digging back into his cake. Between bites and mouthfuls, he speaks up again. "Need to always keep yourself reminded about the normal life you're fightin' for people to go back to and all. Shit, musta been tougher on you guys, not knowin' what I was on about."

    More gulping of the soda, then, "Yeah, got plenty on my plate. Still workin' the prohibition case, got some of that Licht robot fights bullshit needs dealin' with, think I may toss my hat in on some'a those ship ladies gettin' in fights with each other..." He rubs his face a bit, and laughs. "Need someone more sane over there. Aside from that? Wait 'n' watch, for now, wait 'n' watch. Deal with more straight-up kinda problems 'till I see something big on the horizon like that again."

Riva Banari has posed:
"I trusted you knew what you were doing." Riva replies, leaning on the couch and chilling out. "We all have our own ways to deal with it, so it's all good in the end as long as it's handled, right?"

There's some more cake and soda for a minute as Arthur explains, and Riva nods, gesturing with her fork. "Well, if you ever need someone to get your back on it, just ask! I'm always up for the adventures, you know? Other than that, it's all good."

Again, another short pause, more cake eaten. "Do you think Mizuki's going to be all right?" She suddenly asks out of the blue. "Even after all this, I wonder."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur laughs. Normally, it's forceful, boisterous, a sort of "HA HA HA!" But this one's a soft, good-natured kind, a gentle sort of thing. "Trusted I knew what I was doing, huh? Well, that makes one of us." A relaxed sigh punctuates that. "It turned out okay, though, you're right." Then there's a thumbs-up to Riva herself. "Man, I can always count on you. Sure thing, Rivs, I appreciate you havin' my back here. Keeps all this shit from gettin' to me, lemme tell ya."

    Then he takes a contemplative posture. "Mizuki? ...Nah. You seen the inside of that chick's mind, remember? Ain't no goddamn way this is over, that's a fact." He says, laughing briefly. "But hey, that's why immortality's so great. You and me, we're gonna be workin' together for... Basically eternity, y'know? So whenever the next bad shit that comes up is, we can deal with it." He cracks a grin and dives back into the cake.

Riva Banari has posed:
"Yeah, well, someone's got to keep an eye on you," Riva grins, leaning in and giving him a playful slug on the arm. "Otherwise you'll just go off like a comet. You seem to just attract stuff that tries to get to you, man. I don't even know what's up with that. I guess people just can't resist taking swings." She just shakes her head at that.

The conversation on Mizuki causes Riva to emit a worried noise. "Well, we'll be there when the next problem comes up for Mizuki. That's all we can do, right?"

The worried expression becomes more contemplative herself as Arthur brings up they're basically going to be working together forever. She seems uncertain for a little bit... But then she brightens up. "Yeah. Together forever. We can take on anything!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "Fuck yeah, everyone wants a piece of this. Who doesn't, right?" Arthur does a little enthusiastic fistpump. "Keep some homies around and there ain't a goddamn thing they can do, though, that's how it is." He smiles pretty broadly there for a moment too. "Heard you've backed up a couple guys in need of backup. That Lute stuff, and some other things, I think? Takin' up the causes and all." The smile gets a bit soft. "Man. Don't bite off more than you can chew on my account, right?"

    He leans back, seemingly done with cake for a bit, just talking while he looks at the ceiling again. "Yeah." He says, softly. "Nothing around here ever really ends. Not... Exactly. Shockwaves and ripples, traces and memories, you know. I'm done with Sburb, but then, you mighta heard, Sburb's not done. I'm done with the Licht stuff, but there's still the whole machine out there. I'm done with Mizuki, but... Yeah. Nothing ever really ends." He turns back to Riva, smiling. "Lucky us, huh? Guess if it does end, we'll be the ones who get to see it." He links his hands behind his head and sits back, smiling in a more contemplative sort of happiness, a kind of thoughtful relaxed contentment, less the forceful happiness that's the norm or the giddy joy from before.

Riva Banari has posed:
"People need help, you know? And I'm the only person I can control. It's not like I can make someone else do it. So yeah, that's how it is." Riva shakes her head. "If I ever get in over my head, I know some people." She winks at that.

Cake and soda handled, Riva lounges back in almost the same pose Arthur does. They both know how to chill out. "Every story ends eventually. We'll see what happens though. In the meantime, everything is awesome." She goes quiet, then, seemingly content to just sit there relaxing near Arthur for a while. She'll say her goodbyes and head out eventually, but for now?

For now it's good to just quietly enjoy the company.