I've painted up my lips and rolled and curled my tinted hair

[pigeonsblood]

It hurts. Not that Ruby didn't expect it to; she made that knife herself, and she made it to hurt. She'd also entirely expected Dean to turn it on her as soon as he got through that door, but she didn't flinch. She'd done what she had set out to do; if Lilith could engineer her own death out of loyalty, her most loyal handmaiden could hardly do

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[in_summer_leaf]

If Ruby happens to return to the kitchen later on, she will find Hisoka there.

When he comes in, he is still in his winter jacket. He stomped his boots at the back door, but they likely still have snow on them. He drops his satchel on a chair and starts to brew coffee. The scents of cordite and spruce wood linger about him, as he stopped at "the range" (a spot in the woods where many people target shoot) on his way home from his boatbuilding shed. He is whistling one of his soulful sea chanties while he works.

And he wouldn't mind company, demonic or otherwise.

[pigeonsblood]

Oh man, Ruby could really use some coffee after awkward encounter with the ex up there. She's always drawn to kitchens in any case, not to mention cute young men who smell nice and brew decent coffee.
"Man, that smells good," she says, with a soft little smile and a creditable shot at winsome.
"Got enough for a little one?"

[in_summer_leaf]

"Sure," says Hisoka, turning around to see an attractive woman as short as he is giving him a sweet, slightly manipulative smile. But the smile's okay. He's partial to people of either sex who have spirit.

"Please, sit down," he adds. He pours her a cup of the fragrant brew. "You're new here?"

[And I forgot to mention he's carrying around all his previous game history, so he is a shinigami and a reborn soul and a naga (merman, with a bit of Lake God), and his exact energies vary from day to day. Today, he's radiating all three. What he picks up from Ruby, if anything, depends on what you want to do.]

[pigeonsblood]

She holds the cup almost reverentially, breathing the velvety acrid steam - partly out of pure sensuous pleasure, and partly to give herself thinking room. This isn't the ordinary young man she took him for at first glance, and her second glance is both keener and less calculated.

"I am," she says, and sips her coffee. "Thank you. So - what is this place, exactly?"

[in_summer_leaf]

"Nobody's told you yet?" At this time of day, it's surprising she hasn't met anybody else. "It's called the Mansion, and it's kind of a limited universe. The house is at the center, and you can travel for miles and miles in all directions, but there's a distance past which you cannot go. The world won't let you."

[pigeonsblood]

Sam seemed to have other things on his mind. We can't imagine why XD

"Right," she says with equanimity. It sounds weird and she's not entirely convinced it's as simple as that, but she's done weirder. She can deal.
"Oh, and I'm Ruby. Almost forgot." A little self-deprecating silly me smile.
"So have you been here long? Are there lots of people here? Seems like a nice place."
What she really wants to know is how the hell she's here, what she's supposed to be achieving here, and, almost more importantly, how the hell Sam is here; but she'll work around to that in her own time.

[in_summer_leaf]

And how frustrating for Sam that his exorcism didn't work. 8D

"Pleased to meet you, Ruby!" Hisoka replies. "I'm Hisoka Kurosaki. I've been here for a year and three months. I'd say there are a couple of hundred people here. It's kind of hard to take a census. And yes, it is a nice place, for the most part. You seem pretty calm about being transported to another universe without warning. Have you done any world-hopping before?" Because the unsurprised people often have.

Hmm, something unusual about her.

A shinigami is a soul reaper, and along with that job comes experience with the demonic. But he is too polite to ask a direct question of a person who has offered him no harm and to whom he has just been introduced.

[pigeonsblood]

Something unusual about him, too. Ruby can see it - smell it on him, and she's pretty sure he has at least an idea of what she is, too. And yet here they are, making the smallest of small talk over coffee. It makes for a welcome change - it's uphill work winning friends and influencing people when they reach for the shotgun and holy water at first sight of you.
She's beginning to find this young man with the unthreatened, unthreatening demeanour rather intriguing, and she lets that show in her eyes. Not having to fake interest is always a bonus.
"You could say that," she says. Hell and death probably count as world-hopping, don't they?
"How about you? You seem like a man who's seen some interesting things." She smiles, honest and inviting. "I bet you could tell some stories."

[in_summer_leaf]

And indeed, hell and death do count as world-hopping, by Hisoka's standards

[pigeonsblood]

She eyes Hisoka with interest over the top of her mug, and says - for once - exactly what she's thinking.
"That's a lot of... well, not all life, I guess. You look so young." It could have sounded corny, but that isn't how she means it; she's just musing on the contrast.
"So is everyone here dead? In their own timelines, I mean? Because this isn't quite what I was expecting from my afterlife." She looks around.
"Not that I'm complaining. It's a big improvement on the Pit. It's just weird."

[in_summer_leaf]

Ruby's remark about his apparent youth doesn't sound corny to Hisoka; he accepts its sincerity, and he gives her a small nod in recognition of this.

He answers, "I know. I'm actually twenty-two. And as for the people here, some are dead, and others appear to have been snatched right out of their lives. And there are others who aren't really sure. You were in the Pit? Hell?" He asks this last question with no incredulousness at all.