Stupid Stinkin' City. [Open]

[beastmimicry]

Characters: Shido Fuyuki and open to the Winding Way.
Content: Shido is brooding up on deck about the impending holiday and the fact that Kropmork agrees with him even less than most cities do. Naturally this means he does not want would love some company!
Setting: The Deck of the Winding Way; Kropmork.
Time: A few days before Amicus.
Warnings:

Comments

[drinkitlovelife]

"You don't know?" Kurumi appeared behind him with a bucket of white rose petals in her arms. She'd been stocking up on flowers and dye for the past few days, taking advantage of the holiday. "First you're scared of Long Night and now this. Did nobody else live where you were?"

[beastmimicry]

Shido turned, hiding a little start that someone had managed to sneak up on him while he was thinking. He eyed Milk's rose petals with a hint of dubiousness, guessing exactly what she was going to do with them, but didn't comment.

Instead he said in a slightly sour tone, "They did, but everyone I knew had a lot more to worry about than...this." He waved a hand at nothing in particular, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Well, she wasn't his first choice (no one was, actually) but maybe she could at least give a straight answer to the question. "So what is it?"

[drinkitlovelife]

"I thought Bellcius was bigger," she shrugged, hoping that she remembered correctly where he'd said he was from. "It's a holiday about love and relationships! You give flowers to people, and whichever one you pick means something, like "I love you" or "You're stupid" or "I'm going to stay with you forever" or anything you want, really."

[madhattersophie]

Oh no, the girl had more rose petals, Sophie noted with a keen eye, changing direction for them. Sophie was never one to miss a good argument, after all. "I guess I know what flower you're planning on giving everyone for Amicus," Sophie stated dryly as she approached.

[Hey, let me know if this is okay--otherwise you can kick me out, I don't mind |D]

Not at all, bb. 8] Shido needs more friends!

[beastmimicry]

Love and relationships? Well that explained the sudden increase in strangeness on board. Why would you even have a holiday about something like that?...However, he was kind of intrigued about that one part. "So which ones mean 'you're stupid'?" Emishi could use a few of those, although it seemed a strange way to send a message. Humans were weird.

He glanced over as Sophie arrived -- all this time aboard the ship and he was only just starting to learn everyone's names -- and decided she probably wasn't far off the mark. He smirked slightly. "So do blue roses mean, 'I'm a great big phony'?"

[drinkitlovelife]

She grinned at Shido. "Geraniums. Just don't give them with ivy, because then you're asking them to dance with you." Sharp ears might have caught a small "I learned that at the last Spring Festival."

Kurumi rolled her eyes at Sophie. "Not a chance! These are for me and you know it. I'm getting something different for everyone else." She twitched at Shido's remark, with her hair ribbons standing on end. "NO."

Maybe they'll be friendlier this time 'round

[madhattersophie]

Sophie frowned. "I was under the impressions geraniums meant preference..." She did sound slightly uncertain though. It had been a long time since she'd paid attention to that sort of thing, her sisters were much more into that sort of thing, after all, and it was only for their sake she paid it any attention at all.

She tried to suppress her laugh at Shido's remark, but a little giggle might have slipped out when she wasn't aware. "I suppose it's easier for you to get roses this time of year," Sophie pointed out, quite solemn.

[beastmimicry]

Shido caught Kurumi's muttered comment and snorted in amusement. He could think of half a dozen people on this ship who probably deserved those geraniums, and wondered how easy it would be to get his hands on a few.

"I still don't get why you dye them blue," he said, throwing a glance at Sophie as though she could help to explain this mystery. Kurumi had told him they were for 'making an impression', but who knew what the hell that meant. It couldn't be much of an impression because, while he sometimes found small scattering of the petals around the ship, they were just more mess to be cleaned up, and so far his greatest opinion was that they were kind of annoying.

[drinkitlovelife]

Kurumi shrugged at Sophie and inspected the petals, tossing those with tears or discolouration off the ship. "Of course it's easier. That's why I'm stockpiling! That and I used a lot back in Colvus with that animal."

She looked back at Shido and flipped back her purple hair. "They look better blue. It's my theme. Every hero has to have a theme, you know. What are you doing on a theatre ship if you don't know that?"

[madhattersophie]

Sophie glanced over the side at the slight fall of flower petals down onto the docks below. What a waste, on a city like this.

Out of Kurumi's line of sight, she hoped, Sophie rolled her eyes at this hero nonsense again.Couldn't you save someone and just be a good, decent human for it, instead of some glorified hero? How bothersome. "Well, heroes and actors tend not to cross paths very much--nor overlap much either," Sophie pointed out. They tended to do their pretending in different places. Rooftops versus stages and all.

[beastmimicry]

Shido was only on this ship because he needed to keep moving, and because it was one of the few places that didn't mind his animals, but he wasn't about to share that. Instead his brow furrowed over the mention of heroes. He wouldn't argue that they didn't exist - anyone who'd ever met the Lightning Emperor of the Limitless Fortress quickly became a believer whether they wanted to or not - but Kurumi seemed to have some strange ideas of how to go about it.

Sophie was right about the lack of overlap. Simply looking the part wasn't enough. "So either you're acting like a hero, or you are one. Which is it?"

[drinkitlovelife]

Kurumi rolled her eyes. "You two aren't making any sense. It's easy to be both an actor and a hero. Actors aren't on the stage all the time, and heroes aren't saving people all the time, so there's no good reason not to have overlap now and again." She sorted through her petals. "But if you're on an acting ship, you should at least know the things that happen in stories, like the fact that every hero has to have a cool, impressive theme."

[madhattersophie]

Shido had a good point, Sophie thought to herself. Which, of course, Kurumi was completely missing. "You know the heroes on stage are the fake ones. The flashy themes and silly costumes would get in the way of actually saving people."

If there was one thing they'd never agree on, it was how to go about hero business. "Real heroes don't care if everyone notices them or not, just that people get saved," Sophie asserted.

/AHDJSH LAAAATE TAG

[beastmimicry]

That was exactly how Ginji had been. The lightning powers had been impressive, of course, and there was just something about him that did make people turn to look, but never because he'd actually wanted the attention. He just got it, plain and simple.

"You're trying too hard," he told Kurumi critically, eyeing the girl up and down. She was sort of an oddity, with this hero-business and the rose petals, and this 'Milk' thing that she apparently turned in to. He couldn't say he disliked her (she had spunk, and wasn't put off by him in the slightest, apparently), but he definitely didn't get her. "Why bother with this hero stuff anyway? What's the point?"

[drinkitlovelife]

Kurumi shrugged. "What are the normal reasons to want to be a hero?"