(Untitled)

[npc_kun]

Characters: OPEN
Date/Time: ALL DAY Friday, October 23
Location: Everywhere and anywhere
Rating: varied, likely
Summary: Mistletoe shenanigans.

Notes: Scath here. With mod approval, I'm throwing this up for the use of those whose mistletoe encounters might not merit a separate log. Threads can be done in quick or standard log format, as you

Comments

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface had made a habit of going to the library and, well, being a copper. Nosing around. Picking at things that other people hopes he wouldn't pick at and making a general nuisance of himself. He didn't particularly like the ruins, covered in dust and debris, preferring the crisp evening air, but what he liked even less was jumping.

He still wasn't used to it. He suspected that he would never be used to it. Notepad and pencils carefully tucked away in his pockets and sword rigidly in its sheath, he headed towards the jumping point--

Oh. There was another person heading there as well. A... very small young woman with short, dark hair who he only recognized as he got closer. The only times he had seen her face was contorted in grief, at the scene of Truth and Bastet's murders. He knew her name, but little else save for how she looked crying, which really didn't make matters much better.

Stoneface nodded at her, and waited for her to leave, which really didn't seem to be happening. He made to stick his hands in his pockets, only to remember that he had buttoned them shut, and settled for clasping his hands behind his back.

LOOK I DIDN'T FORGET! I'M JUST SLOW :(

[snowburned]

Kazahana had caught sight of Stoneface coming and revised her stride so it was more along the lines of a pleasant walk that headed toward a specific destination. She didn't want to alarm him by jumping off, or face sticky questions. If he worked directly for Bastet, he was likely trustworthy, but discretion wasn't so simple around here.

She caught his nod and returned it, smiling briefly. She looked up, as if admiring the changing autumn foliage. "Nice day," she said, a little awkwardly. Damn. What was the right thing to say in a situation like this?

I DID FORGET, BUT YOU FORGIVE ME DON'T YOU?

[stonyfaced]

She wasn't leaving. Was it common for people to stand here and enjoy the view? Regardless, he nodded, looking mildly nonplussed and stared around at the leaves. He supposed that yes, it was pretty until they turned brown and as a result turned into a muddy sort of compost on the ground because most people were too lazy to rake them and secretly wanted them to blow away into the neighbor's lawn.

But for now they were pretty.

"Yes, it is," he agreed, for simplicity's sake.

And Kazahana still wasn't leaving.

"A bit cooler out, now," he ventured, fully aware that his type of small talk would only last him a few sentences. Damn. Why wasn't she leaving?

OF COURSE

[snowburned]

He wasn't leaving. Damn--was it that pretty here? Or had she made him suspicious somehow? Kazahana had heard that he had a nose for sniffing out misdeed like nobody's business, but she hadn't committed any.

All she could do for the moment was play along. Maybe he just really like leaves.

"Very," she said, nodding. Small talk. Wonderful. "I don't mind. It'll get colder, though." Maybe Shirayuki would like that. She'd have to ask later.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "They'll start falling soon, I expect."

\o/

[stonyfaced]

Well, yes, they'd start falling soon. It was autumn, after all, but as obvious as that statement seemed, well, his own observation of the cold was more or less the same. And that was how small talk was. You tried saying things that wouldn't offend the other bloke and would result in the minimum amount of important things said, and unfortunately, there was very little that wouldn't offend somebody, somewhere along the line. He had wondered why the weather was so interesting to some people until he sorted that out. Now it made sense, but he still didn't like it.

Ah. Kazahana would be expecting an answer, wouldn't she? Stoneface nodded. It was the safe option.

Another moment of silence, and Stoneface sighed internally. It was about time to cut to the chase. "Enjoying the view?"

Of course, by cut to the chase, he meant cut to the chase diplomatically which was an oxymoron in its own right.

[snowburned]

Why didn't the man just walk on? He was a guard, wasn't he? There wasn't much to guard around here. He could just...stroll on, or whatever.

Unless he had a reason to be here. Kazahana was certain that she didn't know everyone who knew about the library. Just her, Justice, and Truth? Ridiculous. It would explain a lot if Stoneface was waiting for her to leave so he could leap--just as she was doing. The problem was that if she came out and asked him, and he didn't know what she was talking about, there was no taking that back. And while he was probably trustworthy, she couldn't swear to that herself.

Hell. Maybe she should just be straightforward about it. "Not really," she answered, turning to face him. "Were you on your way somewhere?"

[stonyfaced]

"Yes," Stoneface said, voice level. "I was."

Kazahana was Bastet's friend, wasn't she? He thought back to Bastet's death, and the note that she had left behind. Yes, he remembered, Kazahana was one of the recipients. That meant that the Captain thought she was intelligent at the least, which was a good sign. This, however, in no way, shape or form meant that she was trustworthy; he preferred judging others on his own.

He stared out, beyond the edge with a pointed gaze before glancing back towards Kazahana. It could be judged as pensive, perhaps, but he trusted that anybody smart or resourceful enough to discover the library was able to decipher transparent gestures.

"And since you're not exactly lingering to appreciate the spectacular view of..." A pause. He looked at the decidedly unspectacular leaves. "...leaves, I suppose you were heading somewhere as well?"

Subtlety wasn't exactly his strong point, but it got the job done.

[snowburned]

Kazahana's mouth twitched as she held back a smile. Stoneface wasn't quite as smooth as Justice when it came to talking about things they shouldn't be talking about; his pause was just a bit too long, his words not quite casual enough. But he was still a step above other people she could think of who died and then still didn't learn from the experience.

She was almost certain now that he'd been headed toward the library. Almost-and that remaining bit of doubt had more to do with the nature of the world they lived in than it did any real hesitation on her part. One could never be fully certain about anything in Edensphere.

"Yes, I was," Kazahana echoed him, and glanced briefly over the side of the island. "Not anywhere I normally find much company."

There. If he didn't take her meaning from that, he either really didn't know about the Library or was terminally stupid.

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface stared off the edge, his own apprehension fortunately not showing on his face. Still, he'd never gone to the Library with another, save for Fugue, and that was an experience that he didn't care to repeat, to say the least. When alone, he was able to walk very slowly after the jump at his own pace, but didn't feel like complete and total humiliation today.

True, he was getting better at the jump. For example, he no longer fell to the ground and hugged the wall, but was still far from graceful. "Then we're moving in the same direction."

Carefully, he scanned their surroundings and nodded at her, almost imperceptibly, the question of whether or not she'd go first in his eyes.

[snowburned]

Kazahana didn't say anything at first; there didn't seem to be anything to say. If he knew the way to the Library, then it was unlikely he was there out of boredom, in search of a good read. If he'd looked at any of the older journals or files, he knew how bad this place could get. They'd seen troubles with their own eyes, but there had been so much more...

"We are," she said at last, not looking at him. Down below, it looked mistier today; she could barely make out the subtle hint of the mysterious island they were both visiting.

She couldn't guess what specifically Stoneface went to the Library for; she didn't know him well enough to guess. But perhaps they could talk about it when they arrived. With that, she made her decision and stepped off the side, much as Justice had when he'd first taken her here.

It was just too bad she didn't notice the sprig of mistletoe that had fluttered down and landed in her hair just before she went.

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface didn't see the mistletoe either, busying himself with studying their surroundings. He'd wait a while until jumping off as well, he decided, when Kazahana ought to be well into the Library. He turned his head towards her as she jumped, ready to admire how willingly she did it when--

He gave an extremely heartfelt yell. Why was he falling?

Once he got used to the shock of being tugged forcefully along behind her, as if attached by a string, arms and legs and neck held at odd angles, it wasn't so bad. A bit like jumping off himself. Except this seemed to last forever, and the general feeling of the matter wasn't quite as smooth, and he had no time to prepare himself.

Stoneface was lying to himself. It was bad, but screaming continuously the whole way down wasn't something he was particularly inclined to do. Instead his eyes, wide with surprise and the terror that comes with jumping off cliffs, met with hers.

So much for dignity.

[snowburned]

It was always strange to jump to the Library, but it helped that gravity didn't seem to work the same way that it did elsewhere. Even if she could technically stand on the air if she needed to, Kazahana was more comfortable with any process that made this sort of thing easier, especially since she was still fuzzy on how the air-standing thing even worked. She hadn't planned anything special for this afternoon, just another few hours of reading through mostly-mundane files in search of the few that contained something interesting. But now that Stoneface was here, she'd want to talk to him about this place, see what he knew.

There was something different about the jump this time, though. Some shift in the air, a feeling that she wasn't as free in the space between islands as usual--and when she looked behind her, there was Stoneface, far too close to have just jumped after her. Kazahana opened her mouth in surprise, but what could she say as they fell toward the other island?

After a minute or so, she landed lightly on her feet, but before she could step out of the way, Stoneface slammed into her back and knocked her to the ground. "whargbl," she wheezed, more than a little dazed.

[stonyfaced]

When Stoneface slammed into the ground he said very little, but vocalized much through the efforts of overly-exercised vocal chords. The majority of this resembled what would be put into words as Nghraahhhh, Snggggnuff and a noise that sounded distressingly similar to his hippopotamus impression. He cursed whatever force tugged him after her, the height, the difficulty of the Library, but mostly how short Kazahana was; his body was nicely cushioned, but his height ensured that his face effectively bounced off of the ground. He rolled off of her, onto his back, and covered the his nose with both hands. Underneath normal circumstances, the lump at the bridge of his nose suggested that it had been broken more than once, so he was hoping that said lump wasn't about to grow. There was the curious smell of blood that often accompanied blows to the faces, but most of said face seemed helpfully unharmed.

"Sorry," he managed, voice muffled through a mixture of the hands covering his face and the nasal quality that came with a nosebleed. "What the hell was that?" It took him a moment to lift himself to a sitting position and to wipe the blood dribbling onto his lip off on his sleeve. Stoneface didn't speak again until he'd given his nose a few experimental pokes and found everything to be as intact as they were to start out with.

A cursory glance at Kazahana told him exactly what happened. The bright green mistletoe wasn't exactly difficult to spot in her dark hair, after all. He reached over, untangled it, and tossed it a disappointingly short distance away. "There we are," he said. "Mistletoe. Apparently my falling on you counts as a hug."

[snowburned]

Kazahana had to struggle to remember where she was, what she was doing, and what was crushing her; Stoneface had fallen after her and landed on her, she knew, but whatever was on top of her now sounded more like a dying cow. She was inhaling dirt until the weight lifted off her, and then she coughed, wondering if some of her own insides would come out.

Happily, her internal organs remained quite internal, and after a few moments, she found the strength to flop over and sit up, still breathing heavier. She blinked in surprise when Stoneface reached up over her face to snag the mistletoe, then scowled at it. "That stuff," she scoffed. "It's a menace." She briefly deliberated setting it on fire, but that would be childish and not do anything but make her feel slightly better.

Feeling around her ribs, she decided nothing was broken. "Are you all right? You fell pretty hard," she said, glancing back at the guardsman. "Oh--you're bleeding."

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface straightened up and scrutinized Kazahana, feeling relief at the fact that she seemed to be intact. It would have been far more appropriate if she had fallen on top of him, he thought--she was practically child sized. "Yes, yes, I'm fine," he said, dismissively. "Are you?"

It would be bad manners to note the difference in size out loud, so instead he heaved himself to his feet and offered his unbloodied hand to help her stand up. "Believe me, that wasn't intentional." If he wasn't currently accompanied by Kazahana, he would have been stomping on the mistletoe, or at least attempting to dismember it, but it wouldn't do to show such immaturity in front of others. No matter how tempting it was. It was the part of him that liked bashing walls and chasing the odd miscreant down the streets that he liked keeping under wraps when around total strangers.

[snowburned]

"I'm okay," she said. "Or close enough." She'd probably be sore for a day or so, but she'd be quite the sissy if she couldn't stand that. At least Stoneface wasn't especially pointy--just taller and bigger. She could deal with slightly flattened; slightly perforated was another matter.

She didn't really need help getting up, but it would probably make him feel betteer, so she took his hand. Once on her feet, she bent over to brush dirt and twigs from her skirt. "I know it wasn't. The damn things show up anywhere they like." Hopefully, they'd be gone soon. "So...you know about the Library."