I see you in another place//I extract a familiar face

[weaver_girl]

Characters: Kagerou (weaver_girl) and YOU
Date/Time: 27 to 29 April 2011
Location: The Bar/The Clinic on Wellspring/Section Three/The Dojo/etc.
Rating: A blanket PG-13 should cover everything.
Summary: Kagerou gets back into things after a side trip into the Attic and an unscheduled dream dust nap. So many things to see, people to do-no wait. Come bother her

Comments

27th!

[proudambassador]

Ambassador had a rather good liquor selection back home, due to the wilderness of vices, but there was sometimes something lacking in drinking alone. Not that he had any problem with doing that. In fact, he had no problem with doing it two or three times a day, as job and time permitted. But sometimes he wanted the atmosphere of a bar, the jostling and bustle.

It was his day off, and Ambassador felt like spending the afternoon, at least, at the bar. Soon enough he was ensconsed at the counter, smiling emptily at the other afternoon regulars. There weren't many, but there were enough that he didn't feel entirely strange being here. As long as he could avoid people trying to mess drunkenly with his hair, Ambassador would be content.

27th! afternoon! the bar!

[weaver_girl]

Kagerou had been simply passing through the bar to check on a few things. The place was finally running on more than a bare skeleton crew; it had quickly become apparent to her that she had to prepare for ten to twenty percent of her workforce not showing up on any given day for any number of weird and weirder reasons. However, when she peered into the bar proper and spotted a familiar face, she mentally pushed her other errands back a bit. She was not in such a hurry, and she had wanted to speak with Ambassador. The sleepy afternoon ambiance of the bar was as good a place as any.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ambassador." She swept to the bar in a whisk of long ponytail, smiling brightly; not the polite cheer of the waitress, but genuinely pleased to see him. "How are you?"

[proudambassador]

"Kagerou, my dear girl. Now, I am better. Your sunny face, it does that." He smiled back. While he had no idea why she was kind to him, he appreciated it. "Come, you will sit with me, tell me of your day? Perhaps yours, I can make better."

Quickly he made sure the barstool next to him was clean, and the counter as well. It wouldn't do to offer her a dirty spot. "Or, if you are not busy, We could walk. I am not too choosy, sometimes." That got a chuckle added on to it. He knew he was sometimes rather picky, but he chalked that up to having taste, and sometimes, refinement. Not always, but sometimes.

[weaver_girl]

Had he asked the reasons for her friendliness, she might have been bemused. In part it was that she treated kindly everyone who didn't give her cause to do otherwise. In part, he seemed a little sad and lonely at times, and she wanted to alleviate that.

And in part, she'd simply come to quite like him.

"Walk? That sounds good to me. The weather is really nice today." While Kagerou loved the bar, it wasn't really a place she came to socialise. It was work and responsibility the moment she stepped in the door. "And my day? I guess it's been rather busy? I was just running errands, and of course I'll be back here in a few hours."

[proudambassador]

For some reason he didn't expect to be liked. Honestly, he felt like he was unlikeable. Loud, annoying, complaining... and it was good, most of the time. Then people didn't get soppy and no one expected him to care when things happened. Like when Grift had died. And stayed dead.

"Then a walk, we shall take." He finished the last of his drink and got off his stool, bowing his head to her and gesturing for her to take the lead. "Whereever you wish to go, my dear Kagerou. There is nowhere that I feel I must be or go, no. My time, it is yours. And errands. They are never done. Always there are more."

[weaver_girl]

She chuckled softly as she lead the way out of the bar and into the sunny spring day. The hustle and noise of the Bazaar washed over them at the door, but the crowd didn't seem that bad at the moment.

"The Park, maybe? It is nice now that everything's green again.

"I guess it's the nature of errands, though. You always have to do them again. And with the bar, there's more errands to run than I thought was possible! I don't know how Grift managed all that." She glanced at him briefly, curiosity sparking. "Did you know him, Mr. Ambassador? You were at the bar a lot, even back then."

[proudambassador]

"The park, yes, this will do." He wasn't a big fan of nature and the great outdoors, but he had pleasant company. It would be fine. As long as there were not too many bugs, and the not-too-many bugs did not insist on biting him

[weaver_girl]

Kagerou walked in silence, save for the occasional obliging "mm-hm" to let Ambassador know he had her attention. Speaking of the lost was never easy, and as he talked, she understood that she had asked a more personal question than she had known it would be.

"Oh, I do get it, yes. I'm not very good at arguing with people for, well for fondness." She'd almost said love, but that didn't seem a word Ambassador might appreciate. "But many of my friends do it, and I can tell they care about each other, anyway."

She levelled a quite serious look at him at the finger-wagging, not quite able to soften it with a smile. "I won't die again. I promised myself I wouldn't put my friends through that again."

[proudambassador]

"Me, care? Pah." He waved a hand dismissively. He'd said too much, really, let down the barrier for a sweet girl who hopefully would forget that. He wanted no sympathy or even empathy, he was sure of it. All he wanted was for someone to listen to him. Sometimes. Not even often. He liked to think he had very little needs, very small wants. An ear. Every now and then. When she could spare it. Ambassador both liked and disliked attention, and he was suspicious of his craving for it. "He has left, that is done."

Her promise got a nod. "Good. I am sure those you care about will be glad of this." Ambassador wasn't about to presume he was part of that. He was strange and a loner, and not even human on top of that. The outskirts were where he would stay. And hey, it was safer that way too. Then departures just wouldn't hurt.

[weaver_girl]

Kagerou hummed at his dismissal, somehow unhappy but unsure what she could add to that. Pain did that to people, she thought, made them close up and ward off concern and sympathy. Did they seem too much like pity? Who was she to say?

Not dying again was a good decision in principle, but she was aware that she might not have any say in it, at the last. Edensphere was as dangerous as it could be wonderful. "But you would be cross with me, Mr. Ambassador? I suppose I'd better take care, then, if I don't want a tongue-lashing." She tilted her head away from him, watching the stalls as they strolled by. There was a tiny glint of laughter hiding in her voice.

[proudambassador]

Oh, he was sure that some didn't mean it as pity. But it implied weakness, when things hurt, and Ambassador did not want to be weak. He was fine, and strong, and independant, and himself.

The change of mood, of tone, was welcome. "Oh yes. My tongue-lashings, they are things to be feared. They are long, hm? And cutting. Yes. Very cutting. And insightful! That, it is one of few times I am insightful, you will find. All other times, I cannot remember which is a duck and which is a cat." This was a much better topic. It was safe. It wasn't delicate.

"Now. What would you care to talk about, my dear girl? Earther things, Centauri things... sometimes, they overlap, I find."

[weaver_girl]

She laughed brightly, genuinely amused. "Ducks and cats don't look that much alike, Mr. Ambassador."

By now they had wandered to the edge of the Bazaar. She peered ahead towards the Park as they crossed onto the rope bridge, then his question drew her gaze back to him. "Centauri? Are they your people?" Her face lit up with sudden, avid interest. "Um, would you mind telling me something about them? I hope that's not impolite, but you're the first one I've ever met. You have two hearts, right?"

[proudambassador]

"No, no, that they do not." He smiled, taking joy in her amusement. It was good to have that effect sometimes.

Now his smile grew. "Yes. Myself, I am a Centauri, and your questions, they are not impolite. Two hearts, yes. I have two, Fred has two, everyone else here, it seems, has one. My hair, it grows like this. Up. Yours, it grows down. And I do not mind answering any questions you have, my dear friend."

[weaver_girl]

"She does? Oh, I think she has mentioned that." She spoke guilelessly; it was in her nature to accept most differences between people in stride, when she contemplated them at all. At the moment, she was mostly simply content that she'd found a topic he seemed glad to talk about. That it fascinated her, too, was even better.

"You're... not from Earth, then. Where do you come from? Do you know? I'm sorry if I sound like such a--a wide-eyed child, it's just that, well. People from other planets is really a step up from people from my world's future, I think."

[proudambassador]

"She has, yes." If Fred hadn't, Ambassador might not have realized that having two hearts was different. And then it turned out that nearly everyone had one. He still didn't know what exactly to make of him being so strange compared to everyone else when it seemed like it should be the opposite.

"It is fine, my dear girl. I do not mind at all. What I can answer, I would be glad to, for this, it is something that I think about a great deal. Myself, my world, my people. I have only recently found out, after all, that I am called a Centauri. My world, it is called Centauri Prime. Fitting, no? A prime place for Centauri." He chuckled at his own joke. "For many this, it seems to be the case. They do not know space, they do not know other worlds. A sadness, this."

[weaver_girl]

"I don't think my world really had the technology. Not that I know very much about it." Kagerou clasped her hands behind her back.

"It sounds wonderful, to be able to travel so far. Were you at Stellaris's planetarium opening? I thought I saw you there! I think she comes from the same place as I do, but definitely not the same time."