I Fashioned You From Jewels and Stone. I Made You In the Image of Myself

[youcanthearit]

DATE: Day 92
CHARACTER(S): L Lawliet and Near
STATUS: Closed and Ongoing.
SUMMARY: L meets his youngest and most dedicated successor. He is incredibly nervous about actually being human in front of someone who was raised to revere him, but he feels slightly more confident after speaking to Near and finding out that the young man has always taken a

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[near_number1]

A deep sigh escaped me as my eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I would have to venture out soon, to see if I could find any sort of toys on this ship... which, at the moment, I had no idea how likely or unlikely that might be. But rubber bullets wouldn't keep me satisfied for long, and they were rather difficult to attempt to stack.

I had seated myself in the center of the room's floor, my back facing the door as I carefully placed the little rubber bullets atop eachother in a triangulated pattern to keep them stacked. I had a small wall, but soon I'd have to take it all down and attempt a different structure. There were only so many I could try before I ran out of methods.

My attention was not phased when I heard a knock upon the door. For a short moment, I did not answer. I was used to my team coming as they needed and going as instructed. I would have to get used to having to answer the door.

With this recollection, I blinked and turned from my bullet wall to glance over my shoulder. "Yes? Who's there?" I asked, pulling myself to stand as I headed for the door. I was expecting one person, but there was no way to safely tell if it were he if I didn't ask.

(Ooc: I've been dying to use that icon. XD ~<3 Keane.)

[youcanthearit]

L tapped one bare foot toe-first against the floor outside, the seconds crawling by. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so socially anxious. Usually, L had no problem going unnoticed when he absolutely had to go out in public. His mixed heritage and multilingual abilities ensured that, no matter where he went, he could pass for native or at least half-breed. Typically, he only had significant problems if people started talked to him or tried to look him in the eyes; though he stared, it was through people, rather than at them. Conversations, as a rule, exhausted him, simply because he was so often overwhelmed by the simple stupidity of the people surrounding him on This Island Earth. Perhaps here, on a starship that spanned decades and even centuries, where the dead could speak to the living on the same plane, he would not be faced with that conundrum.

L was addressed in English, his native language. He appreciated that. "We spoke earlier," he said, in a formal, quiet baritone with a hint of an accent that might have been British. "You invited me to drop by, and I wish to do so... I hope that I'm not disturbing you from anything of great importance or significant priority."

[near_number1]

I wasn't very nervous about meeting L. It would be a lie to say that I wasn't nervous at all. Whether I viewed it as meeting L or meeting someone new in general, the main fact at hand was that I had never met this person before. Though I carry confidence in my own abilities, there was the natural human flicker of worry, that I might not be fit in the eyes of my predecessor. Everything has seemed to go well so far, though. I really shouldn't trouble myself with such worries.

I listened to the response from the other side of the door. It was him. I couldn't help allowing a corner of my lips to twitch into a small smile for a second. It was interesting how he managed to always divert his responses to answer any question posed without revealing his identity. Furthermore, judging by the pattern of speech, I had no doubt this was indeed the person I was waiting for.

"Yes, so I did." I nodded, and opened the door to allow the man into my room.

I didn't think I would be too surprised. I had no high expectations of how L might look. All of us at Wammy's appeared normal to me, and I didn't expect L to be much different. What did surprise me, however, was when I looked up into a pair of wide, dark eyes that seemed to resemble my own a bit. Other than that, he appeared as normal as any other person.

I stepped aside to give him room. "Please, do come in. You're not interrupting anything important." Although I did have one mini-tower on my bullet wall that was yet to be finished. As soon as I had answered the door I returned to my previous spot on the floor, curling a leg up to my chest with my other resting upon the ground. He was welcome to come in, of course.

[youcanthearit]

Just as L was beginning to formulate a perfect plan for actually meeting Near, the young man opened the door, and L came face to face with his successor for the first time.

He knew, already, what Near looked like. He had seen photographs of the boy when he was much younger, and heard him described even before that. White hair, pale skin, black eyes, tendencies and quirks like yours, L. He stared down at Near, still taller despite the fact that Near was older than he should have been. Near should still have been much younger, L thought, he should have been a promise of the future rather than a very solid vision of the present. It only reminded L that in Near's reality, life had left him. He was history, permanently confined to the past.

L was awkward and trepidatious, stepping carefully into Near's room as if afraid that his presence would change something. He didn't even touch the door as he entered, paranoid about fingerprints. He tried to shake off the feelings of deep uneasiness that had nestled into the back of his mind when he'd looked into Near's eyes. He'd seen similarity, there. They looked like they could be related, and L had to shake himself and remind himself that there was no way he could have fathered this boy who looked, in every way, like his own vengeful ghost.

L stared at the bullet tower, his eyes drawn to the place where the symmetry faltered. His own fingers twitched, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to take part in any sort of conversation until that was taken care of. "I'm sure that you're aware, but please... finish your tower. I'll make tea." Seemingly unaware that it was poor etiquette to do so in someone else's place of residence, L busied himself in the kitchen, clumsily doing what Watari had usually taken care of for him, while watching Near out of the corner of his eye.

[near_number1]

I listened as he entered the room, picking up another bullet and turning to watch him over my shoulder. He seemed very careful. Observing him more, I was becoming aware that he and I seemed rather more similar than just our eyes. It was... strange.

I blinked, a hand absently moving to my hair to twirl a white curl around my finger as I watched him shake himself, as if dismissing something. I became vaguely aware that I was probably staring at him. I was stirred from this when he spoke. Ah, yes... the tower.

I turned back to the structure then, placing the bullet between my fingers into place and plucking another from the dwindling pile. "Certainly. Tea is a good idea, thank you." I replied as I studied my structure. I was very displeased with it. I had already known that with these bullets there could be no "top" portion to the wall, but it still irked me. I sighed, tugging my hair a little harder in my agitation. I greatly missed my dice and all my toys right now. Oh, well. Other things could be done with the bullets.

I glanced around the room. I would reconstruct this, instead. A few bullets made up my bed. A bullet for the dresser, a few to represent the kitchen area. One for me, and one for L. I arranged the bullets as a low-scale "model" of the room, slowly making things a little bigger as I anticipated how many bullets it would take without having an odd amount to represent an object or leaving any left over besides the two that were to represent L and myself.

[youcanthearit]

L couldn't help wondering how a place like Wammy's managed to take children who might have turned out normally and turn them into small, quiet copies of himself. He noted the way that Near sat, the way he stacked things in what appeared to be a nearly obsessive compulsive manner. Hyper sensitive to being stared at, for any length of time, he quickly turned his back on Near, losing himself in the process of making tea.

It would be too strong. Watari had been an expert at this, at preparing it just so for L's discriminative pallet, but without his caretaker, the young man was fractious and anxious at the best of times. L managed not to break any teacups, but unfortunately, it would take a great deal of sugar to sweeten it sufficiently. With painstaking care, L made his way back to Near. Holding the teacups delicately, as he did, it took him much longer to cross the small area of space without spilling the tea.

He crouched nearby, curling his tall, skinny body in on itself, setting Near's teacup about a foot away from the young man. It seemed like it would take awhile for L to become truly comfortable with sharing space closely with the young man, though this was hardly unusual for the neurotically antisocial detective. He leaned forward slightly, taking inventory on Near's latest creation.

"The apartment?"

[near_number1]

An eyebrow quirked as I tilted my head to one side, moving one leg to lay along the floor in a position more comfortable for me. It had been a few moments since L had wandered into the kitchen, and I could faintly smell the scent of the tea wafting into the room. Seems he likes his tea strong? Well, it didn't matter to me. I had no objections. I would still drink it.

I could hear him slowly entering the room, though my attention was not drawn from my structure. Eventually, he entered my periforal vision. I watched him, my main focus on the bullet model. I saw him set the teacup down and mumbled my thanks, unwinding my finger from a curl to turn my attention to the tea, and L.

I looked up at him when he spoke, nodding in confirmation. "Yes. Unfortunately, the number of things I can build with these bullets is quite limited. But I have nothing else. These will have to suffice until I can seek out something more suitable to construct things with aboard this ship." As I spoke, I lifted the teacup into my hands. I gave it a light blow before taking a tiny sip. Just a bit too strong. I'd need some sugar.

"Did you find the sugar, or shall I fetch it for you? You did take the trouble to make the tea, after all."

[youcanthearit]

L noted the way the boy seemed capable of an unusual amount of focus when it came to the seemingly mundane. This was a very good sign; it meant that Near was well-suited to the very job he'd ended up with. The job that had once belonged to L. The surreal nature of this predicament continued to unnerve L; Near was about the age Light Yagami had been when he'd met him.

When Near requested sugar, L revealed that he'd indeed had the foresight to take a handful of sugar cubes from a small china bowl near the stove. He started to stack and arrange them in a pattern he was certain Near would recognize: 1, 1, 3, 5, 8, 13... at this point, the stack of thirteen cubes was too tall to continue the sequence.

"You know how the rest goes, I'm sure... the next number, in the sequence. It's a shame that that many cubes would topple. Anyway... take whichever stack you'd like."

[near_number1]

I was amused when L produced the cubes of sugar and began to stack them. My finger returned to my hair as I watched with wide eyes. Even as I noticed something off, I continued to watch with my head tilted to one side. Had he done that on purpose? My onyx hues lifted from the stacks to look at him, studying him closely a moment.

I had been at the head of the line at Wammy's, the one that had apparently borne enough intelligence as close to L's as one could achieve to be chosen to succeed him. It was because of this fact that I had no doubt that the man before me knew what he had done wrong.

"Are you still holding two cubes, or did you only take this many on purpose? I don't doubt that you realize you've skipped a number." As I spoke, I plucked the bullets meant to represent L and myself from their position in the center of the apartment model and placed them between the second 1 and the 3.

"Fibonacci Numbers. The pattern is that you add the last two numbers to achieve the next in the sequence. You begin with one and one, resulting in two - which you skipped - and then add one and two to make three, three and two to make five, and so on. The next number in your sequence would then be 21." I supplied, picking out the first cube and the pile of three, placing them into my teacup.

Sorry about the account fail. D:

[youcanthearit]

L gave Near perhaps the first genuine smile he'd allowed to slip across his face since appearing on Pluto IX. He had, indeed, left a flaw in the Fibonacci sequence on purpose, and he was very, very pleased to see that Near had passed the test.

"Splendid observation. What impresses me is not just your awareness and attentiveness to the Fibonacci numbers sequence... it's your ability to point it out so frankly and simply. I am encouraged greatly... every moment, I am further reassured that your capacity to succeed me was real."

L finished that thought by taking the stack of 13 cubes, dropping them into his tea without even a blink.

Don't worry about it~ n.n

[near_number1]

A test, then. I'd figured as such. I suppose I might have done the same, given the chance to observe a successor I'd never really had the chance to meet. I couldn't blame L for testing me, and I suspected it probably wouldn't be the last test, either.

I watched him drop the stack of 13 cubes into his tea, my expression unchanging. It wasn't like I hadn't seen all sorts of strange quirks at Wammy's, anyway. This was nothing new. Four was fine for me. If he needed 30 cubes for his tea wouldn't make any difference to me.

I gave a thoughtful hum in response to his words, stirring my tea quietly before taking a sip. There was a thought I had wanted to address, something that was sort of beginning to bother me just slightly... but I wasn't altogether certain how to word exactly what I'd wanted to say.

"At what age did you take on the responsibility of L, I wonder? I recall you mentioning that you were very young, a child. About eight, I believe, was the number you had given me? Having succeeded you in my early teenage years, I feel a bit better prepared for the task. Yet, somehow, I feel at times that the time came about earlier than I had really expected."

"I appreciate your growing confidence in my abilities, but I must admit that I am beginning to feel a hint of... I suppose inferiority would be the word. And nervous, I suppose. I know where my abilities lie, and I have no doubt in my own abilities. They come natural to me, and I simply do what I do as a second nature. At the moment, because I don't 'know' you other than your title, I simply view you as a teacher, and the person whom I have succeeded. I suppose it is the fact that I did succeed you that is causing these faint stirs of emotion. Just as you were worried that you might disappoint me, I hope that I do not disappoint you or lead you to feel in any way that someone else would have been better suited to take on the position I have accepted."

Yes. That was what I'd wanted to say. I was a bit nervous that - just as he had been worried he might disappoint me, I, likewise, did not want to disappoint him. And in an attempt to settle the slight nervousness settled in the pit of my stomach, I had begun to construct the bullet wall once more... this time between us, in a small manner of symbolism to depict how I was feeling since I no longer had my finger puppets. A wall between us... one that had yet to be broken through.