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[estirose]

Dear Mr. Kendall,

We regret to inform you that your application to buy tile, form A-26582-C, must be returned to you for the following reason(s):

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[] You did not complete subform DE-678 as requested, or it was not enclosed with your application.
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Please be aware that anyone having been convicted of section 1128.1(c) of the UIC regarding webinars, as part of the Terrorism Enforcement Act of '28, are not allowed to purchase, handle, or use tile.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please call 0646020060, extension 41262441.

Olivia Tirasu
Tile Clerk I
Department of Flooring Administration

Comments

[reka]

Congratulations! I really should watch that community.

[estirose]

Thanks! They're fun, interesting, and don't bug me forever. *glares at muses, particularly Gai*

[reka]

I'm sorry. I can't imagine episode 18 helping that, either.

[estirose]

Episode 18 did not help, definitely. I now have a fragment where Gai is kidnapped by a well-meaning relative with no clue. *headdesk*

[reka]

Or at least detained. No clue about what, exactly?

I am probably not helping either.

[estirose]

Sometimes babbling about them saves me from writing them. *wry grin*

Relative is not thrilled with Gai joining up with Space Pirates and thinks he's so eager to join a team he'll join a team of evil Rangers. Said relative doesn't realize Gai's already a wanted pirate (possibly with a price on his head) now because he's part of Marvelous' team.

[reka]

Well, that's not untrue: Gai wanted to join up no matter what, didn't he? Well, kind of. And he is pretty starry-eyed.

Is this relative a Super Sentai fan too? And does this relative know about the GokaiCellular? Because I really have no idea how someone would explain the mysterious appearance of a rather sizable transformation trinket in the hospital.

[estirose]

Relative kind of knows the subject from Gai's babblings, and he wasn't exactly quiet about it to them. (And it would seem like he would be so excited about being a Ranger that he would probably babble about making them good guys or something like that.)

Which leads them to grab him and keep him until he stops having delusions of being a pirate, and also calling a random crewmember and telling them that he's not going to be a part of this and where they can find the Cellular.

[reka]

Since Gokaiger-Earth is basically All Sentai Canon Exists Here, I presume it has continuously been in danger of being destroyed for large portions or all of everyone's lives. So Gai's enthusiasm might be a little weird. Like being a die-hard fan of freedom fighter groups. It's normal to support and cheer for them, but it'd be weird to know them all by name and appearance and bloodtype or whatever. I'm not sure if I'm making much sense.

Sending him to a therapist too, maybe? That could be pretty hilarious.

[estirose]

Gai's enthusiasm is weird. And a therapist is a good idea. If only to convince him it's not good for him to be on an evil team.

Of course, then he could be a pirate wanted by the Empire and trying to convince everybody that he needs to get back to his team. (He's half-convinced they'll find him, because that's what sentais do, but he doesn't think they can find him without his Cellular.)

[reka]

I can kind of see Gai assuming that there's some sort of sentai magic for those sorts of things. He's the kind of guy who'd think things just fall into place like that.

But then again, I have a habit of making characters self-deluded. You might have noticed that.

[estirose]

I figure he's torn between hoping for it and thinking it does happen.

Something among these lines:

Gai rattled his handcuffs in frustration. He would have never guessed that he'd end up falling asleep at his Aunt's house, waking up like this with his Aunt telling him that she'd left his Cellular somewhere and told one of his crewmates where to find it.

Without his Cellular or key, he bet they couldn't find him, though Don-san was capable of some amazing things; maybe he could. Probably his aunt would figure that the crew couldn't find him either. All he knew was that she thought he was crazy for joining Marvelous' crew. Maybe he was, but they mostly weren't bad folks, and the Empire did have to be overthrown. Besides, he'd made that choice, offered, and Marvelous had accepted him as crew. That made him a pirate, didn't it? A pirate on the side of good.

Besides, it was a little too late. The Empire already had an arrest warrant for him, one that would end in his execution if they found him. It was something that would horrify his aunt... if she would listen.

Eventually exhausted, he fell back asleep, the sounds of gunfire punctuating his dream.

[reka]

I really love that somehow Gai's mind leapt (why does Firefox consider that a typo?) from "saving the Earth from Zangyack" to "destroying the entire empire." Like it was a perfectly natural logical connection to make.

Wait, his aunt had handcuffs? Maybe overdoing it runs in the family.

[estirose]

I think Gai is a bit overenthusiastic. And I have no clue why his aunt has handcuffs. She must have an interesting life. All I know is that she thinks that Gai needs them until he calms down and accepts that he is not a pirate or a sentai member anymore.

(Poor Marvelous. His crew needs to stop getting kidnapped/captured.)

[reka]

Gai, calm down? When he finally got to be a hero? Never.

I'm not sure whether Marvelous would be amused or angry if Gai's aunt was holding him captive in her house. He might be amused about the handcuffs, at least.

[estirose]

At the very least, it's going to be a long time. I don't think she'd be able to get him to give up. He'd want his Cellular back. Or just say so to stall for time so that he can be found. I think he wants to break the headboard that he's attached to. And he would try to explain that it's too late, that he's already a criminal in the eyes of the galactic empire that he's trying to overthrow.

Marvelous might be amused, after he figures out that it is Gai's aunt's house. He doesn't know who the woman is, all he knows is that someone told him that Gai isn't going to be a pirate anymore.

[reka]

And that he chose to be a wanted pirate with full knowledge of the consequences. Possibly a bit too quickly and enthusiastically, but he did think about it. I think.

[estirose]

Yes. He knew what he was doing. He knows what danger he's gotten himself into. And he needs to rejoin his ship, thanks.

(And maybe he can talk his way out of this without needing to be rescued by his Captain.)

[reka]

I suppose it depends on how tolerant of her nephew's eccentricities she is? And how used to them. She might react differently if she's dealt with him rushing into danger rashly before.
The getting hit by a truck thing was probably just the one that got him particularly hurt.

[estirose]

I see him getting into his share of scrapes, and eyerollingly so because he seems to have never grown up and realized that heroing is dangerous. She's scared that he will get himself killed trying to reform his 'team', or something else.

Oddly enough, she might cling tighter given that he has gotten himself into this situation with the Empire. He's on Earth. He's safe as long as he doesn't have his Cellular and isn't running towards danger.

(And if she's not careful, she'll have a pirate captain kicking her door down if Gai doesn't convince her to let him go.)

[reka]

Except for the fact Zangyack wants to conquer Earth and he has not been shy about showing his face. And mentioning his name.

Yes, and Marvelous is likely to have no qualms about wrecking her door.

[estirose]

Yes. He's kind of gone past the point of no return. But she's in denial; she figures everything will be all right if she keeps him safe. And once he realizes it's not meant to be, it'll be easier. And if he's right about the pirates being/becoming good guys, then they can damn well save the world, and without him.

And she hasn't quite realized that Rangers protect their own, and that Gai's teammates once walked into a warehouse with guns blazing and swords out to rescue a teammate. Oops. She'll be lucky if her door is the only thing she'll have to replace.

[reka]

Maybe they'll just really wreck her door. And everything else that's keeping Gai from leaving. And her handcuffs, of course.

In what kind of place does she live? Because I'm really amused by imagining the crew storming a small apartment.

[estirose]

Five pirates storming a small apartment would be rather funny. I see her having a very small house, and, being more like her nephew than she thinks, running towards her living room when Marvelous destroys her front door. He's not amused.

Gai figures it's a rescue, but was rather hoping he didn't need one.

[estirose]

She was feeding her nephew Gai dinner when there was a boom. He suddenly grinned, and she hoped this didn't make him think he was going anywhere. He was still stubbornly insisting that he had a team, but she knew that, given time, he'd understand. Understand that he was more valuable than anything else, that he couldn't keep trying to get himself killed by running into the face of traffic and battling intergalactic bad guys.

Besides, there was no way that they could have found him without that device, and that device had been left in a flowerbed with instruction on where it was. If they were as good as Gai said they were, they would leave him alone and find another to risk his life. Just as long as it wasn't Gai.

"Stay here," she said, realizing that he wasn't going anywhere after a second's thought.She rushed towards her front door to find that she had no front door anymore, at least not a whole one. There was a young man in a red longcoat, four others behind him, two wielding swords and the other two guns. Hanako found her eyes drawn towards the young woman in the frilly white-and-pink dress holding a gun as if it fitted naturally in her hand and realized that this group of strangers had to be the pirates that her nephew had associated himself with. Gai had shown her the pictures, after all, even before he'd gotten the crazy idea to join them.

"Where's Gai?" the young man in the longcoat asked, demanded, and she drew herself up. She would protect her nephew even from his own so-called team.

She looked at him, straight in the eyes. "You can't have him." She didn't know how they'd found this place, but she wasn't going to give him up to that life.

"Up here, Marvelous-san!" her nephew called. Obviously she should have gagged him, but she hadn't anticipated this.

"Listen," she said, aware that there were guns pointed at her, and people with sharp swords backing them up. "Gai doesn't belong with you and your life. He's an ordinary boy." As long as she stood between them and Gai, her nephew was safe.

[reka]

Auntmuse is a bit more like Gai than she realizes, although her drive is much more protective than heroic. Do you know how she's related to him?

How familiar is Gai with the layout of the house?

[estirose]

(sadly, or maybe not so sadly, I seem to be developing a fic)

Auntmuse is his mother's sister. I know that she's been involved in stuff that's not really official, and that she's seen death.

Gai knows the house decently, though perhaps not every single nook and cranny. He can easily figure out, for example, of where he is in the house and where his Captain is, relatively speaking.

[reka]

What kind of thing do you mean by "not official?" Armed civilian group or something? And does Gai know about it?

Well, a fic would be interesting for me to read, but I hope you aren't bothered by it.

[estirose]

I haven't gotten all of the details, but I think she was involved in some undercover jobs for a while, in support. She's not a fighter, but she's been on the front line far more than she wanted to be. (This is possibly why she owns handcuffs and things like that.)

Gai doesn't know about this, of course. She might drop some hints, but I don't think he can imagine some of the stuff she went through.

[reka]

He's distracted by heroes, anyway. Flashy color-coded posing heroes. Why would he notice these things?

And thought that she should've gagged her nephew. She's done something like this before.

[estirose]

She's kidnapped one or two people. Or helped hold them. She's decent at that, but there's no way she's taking on five armed space pirates.

Of course, this is something that she wouldn't really spill, just warn him about being over-enthusiastic and over-heroic.

[reka]

Does she say anything that would reveal that she's his aunt, or would that be up to Gai?

[estirose]

She might mention it, but it's Gai that'll probably keep her from dying by furious pirate captain.

If she had her way, she'd grab Gai and run, but she realizes that it's not going to work. If they found Gai once, they'd find him again.

[reka]

Or at least furious pirate captain wanting to kill her. Maybe Ahim would do something.

[estirose]

Ahim probably would, and Marvelous would listen. Hopefully.

At the very least he'd want to get his crew member out of there.

[estirose]

And I seem to have managed a fic out of this. :)

[reka]

I enjoyed it. :) I hope it was satisfying to write.

[estirose]

At least it's out of my system. :)

(Though hopefully Aunt Hanako doesn't cause problems with the ending. If she tells the police that Marvelous & co kidnapped Gai....)

[reka]

It depends on a few things, I think: how much she trusts law enforcement, for one. And how much she wants to draw attention to herself and/or the crew. I think it would be unwise to report that, since an investigation could easily show that she drugged and handcuffed her nephew.

[estirose]

And she would be careful about that, I think. Of course, the police might also wonder why Marv destroyed her front door and took off with Gai.

I have this image of her telling them that her nephew's a Gokaiger and his crewmates had thought she was kidnapping him by accident. Oops.

[reka]

Gai was there for a visit and forgot to inform his destruction-happy crewmates? If she tried to ask them to pay, though, it'd probably end badly.

Gaaah, and now I'm thinking of legality and whatnot.

[estirose]

She'd do with the police not checking too deeply into the story and finding out that she abducted Gai. Because Marvelous or one of the others might say something about that.

Legality is interesting, especially when it pertains to space pirates breaking and entering.

[reka]

I have looked through state law for my own information before, but I usually don't because NYS does not make it enjoyable to browse. Numbers overwhelm me easily, also.

[estirose]

My state is slightly better, or I know more, but I'm not sure how to apply Japanese law to space pirates. *wry grin* Of course, that part of my brain is probably still working on library acquisitions for Terra Venture.)

Of course, I think Auntmuse will just replace the door and hope Gai comes to his senses. She's not too keen on dealing with Marvelous again, especially if Gai tells him what happened. (Which he may not.)

[reka]

Japanese law to space pirates who live on a floating boat that is not always in Japan. Would they be considered residents, even? I have no idea. Not that that has anything to do with destroying doors.

Gai might only tell him if he asks.

[estirose]

They probably wouldn't, but usually how law goes is who has jurisdiction, not what citizenship, I believe.

Hopefully, even if he asks, he wouldn't tell him. (Though this is Gai; he might blurt it out accidentally.)

[reka]

Yeah, but residency might have some effect on the consequences?

I can unfortunately clearly see that happening.

[estirose]

It might; my expertise is on a certain kind of tax law, not criminal. *wrygrin*

Hopefully Gai can talk fast if he accidentally reveals that, because I can't imagine Marvelous would be very happy if he put two and two together. (Though he has most of two and two, because it's easy to find out that Gai was handcuffed to the bed from Don or Luka, and because Auntmuse told Ahim where to retrieve the morpher.

[reka]

Hopefully, the fact that he's okay now and she probably won't do it again will keep him from being too unhappy. I can also see him downplaying it after he spills the beans.

[estirose]

Yes. (I need to make Gokaiger icons if I'm going to keep making Gokaiger entries.)

------------

Marvelous-san had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, which was a bad sign.

Gai knew that his captain wasn't upset at him, but rather at what had happened that day. He was disturbed at what had happened too, but he'd known that he was going to be rescued anyway, and his aunt really had meant well.

He himself had been sat down on the couch and commanded to go nowhere, which made him want to protest, but not while Marvelous-san was in that mood. He'd learned fast not to argue with Marvelous-san's commands. Ahim-san had told him shortly after they got back on board that it always took Marvelous-san a day or two to let an endangered crew member out of his sight. She'd shared a story of how she'd been kidnapped, and she'd ended up with Marvelous-san sharing her bed - though not in a sexual way, she'd protested - for the night, and then not permitted to leave the Galleon without someone with her for a few days after that. And there had been something else that the crew wasn't willing to talk about, but it had happened shortly before Gai himself had come on board, and Marvelous was still edgy about that.

Gai was personally glad that his tiny room and his equally tiny bed meant that he wasn't going to end up with sudden captain for the night.

But at least he'd been able to talk Marvelous-san out of doing something deadly to his aunt. He had the sense that Marvelous-san would have killed her if she hadn't been a close relative and Gai hadn't convinced him that he was safe and wouldn't go near her again, at least without somebody with him. Not that he wanted to; it would take him a while himself to walk into that house without a bit of fear. His aunt had meant well, but he hadn't liked being handcuffed to a headboard, no matter how well she'd treated him.

He remembered that brief glimpse of her, holding that stand of hers and pointing it in Marvelous-san's direction. Marvelous hadn't let go of him until they were just below the Galleon, and Gai suspected that he came close to sharing a rope with him.

There were worse things, he knew, and at least they'd come for him like a true team. He wished his aunt could see them, how protective they were, how well they took care of each other. He was lucky. He had good friends and he was fulfilling his dream, and he was sure he'd be more upset at his aunt if he hadn't been so tired and scared, not that he'd admit it to Marvelous-san or anybody else.

He wanted to take a nap, which wouldn't be surprising since he'd been drugged. The couch was inviting, but he thought briefly of defying orders and going to his own bed. Finally, he decided staying still was best, so he carefully put the tea he'd been drinking down, and lay down on the couch.

The couch was warm and comfortable, and as he closed his eyes, he knew he wouldn't be conscious for long.

[reka]

I need to make a few more, I think. The ones I have have rather specific expressions.

I quite enjoy this ficlet.

[estirose]

I managed three quick ones.

And I think the muse collection has finally shut up. (I have a Ahim, but she's a completely different fic from circa 15 and she's politely agreed to limit herself to a double drabble.)

[reka]

You're fast. I take a ridiculously long time with icons, even when they're really simple.

Ahim is very polite.