[Close] Buddies in adventure, sorta.
Characters: Shion Sonozaki, Near, Abe Takaya
Content: Near and Shion keep Abe company in the hangar. First, there is fear. She DID threaten to fry their brains out with a taser...
Setting: Common hangar before the race.
Time: Late at night.
Warnings: Three kids in the dark.
( When eccentricities become the norm, be afraid. )
Content: Near and Shion keep Abe company in the hangar. First, there is fear. She DID threaten to fry their brains out with a taser...
Setting: Common hangar before the race.
Time: Late at night.
Warnings: Three kids in the dark.
( When eccentricities become the norm, be afraid. )
Tonight was in fact avoidable. Near could have spent the night getting some sleep but he could not help but to feel a strange obligation (of sorts) to Abe, after bumping into each other twice in situations which most would consider 'dangerous'. Near frowned slightly as he slowly walked through the corridors, carrying in his hands a few decks of cards and some candies.
Perhaps this was something that Watari had never taught him. Social etiquette was one thing, but establishing friendships or having companions was another. He truly did wonder why he had agreed to keep the pilot (not a mechanic, Near reminded himself) company for the night.
After about ten minutes of navigating through a set of corridors that he hardly made use of, Near approached the hangar. He noticed a light a small distance away and slowly approached it, taking care to watch out for scattered tools or plane parts on the floor.
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After gathering a silver tray, she set upon it a lidded bowl of chicken soup, a bag of chips, a single pickle, a couple of biscuits, and a plate of assorted desserts, ranging from cupcakes to vanilla brownies. With the food arranged, she then focused on the next issue -- entertainment. The boy liked airplanes, that much she could tell. Yet, just how much could you do with that subject? Look at toy models of them? Read a book on it? Unfortunately, the former would only amuse him momentarily, and as for the latter, she wasn't intent on watching him read in silence. That left bringing along one of those kits that let someone build their very own toy airplane. Perhaps they could work on it together, or, if not, he could play with it whenever she left.
With all of this, carrying the tray in a perfectly balanced manner that she picked up from the time she worked in the Kropmork bar, Shion headed straight for her destination.
Upon arrival, the lambent sphere of light immediately caught her eye, and she could make out a few of Abe's features. Beginning to make her way towards it, she paused for only a second, stiffening when she realized there was another person in the room. Briefly shifting her attention over to the other pair of footsteps emerging a distance away from her, she could feel her posture easing as she recognized the mop of white hair to be none other than Near.
"Hey, Near, Abe!" A warm smile spread across her lips as she directed this greeting towards the two. She would've accentuated this with a small wave, but she knew better than to drop everything she had than try to squeeze in a single hand movement. "So!" Her gaze swerved back towards the pilot. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting long!"
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The pilot looked up at Near and Shion's arrival, waving in his usual nonplussed way and carefully sliding the map -- and the bolts and screws he had on it as place markers -- to make space for the both of them. Come to think of it, he had never hung out with these two under normal circumstances. Near, he was always getting into trouble with, and Sonozaki was someone he cleaned blood off the hangar with, not to mention that tazer...
"Hey," he greeted, folding his legs in front of him. "Is that soup I smell?" Abe asked a beat later, sniffing a little at the air. His stomach growled in protest at his insistence to camp out.
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Turning to the pilot, Near said another simple hello, before settling down onto the edge of the mat, bringing one leg to his chest to sit in the position that he was fond of. He placed the cards and candies in the middle of the mat before saying ,"I did not bring much food, but I do have some cards, if that would suffice."
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Gingerly laying down the tray on the right of the candies Near had brought, she then placed the kit on the opposite side, before taking a seat on the mat that gave her a clear view of the two boys. Curling her legs to the side, she clasped her hands together, stretching her arms for a moment, before letting them idly fall against the ground besides her.
As her eyes arbitrarily fell across the cards Near had set in the middle of the mat, a hint of excitement lit her eyes. "Oooh, there are definitely many games we could play with those." She gazed from Abe to the other, directing her next question towards them both. "So, you two, what would your favorite card game be?"
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He didn't say anything for a while, only devouring his food like a hungry boy his age tended do. Vaguely, he realized that he was being what his teammates used to call socially retarded, and put some effort into being more friendly.
"Snap, actually," he said with a small grin. "It's good for coordination and honing instincts, etc." Or so his manager had said. He glanced across at Near and wondered briefly just what age this kid was.
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"What are the rules to snap?" Near asked Abe and Mion.
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Hearing Near's question about snap, she briefly pressed a finger against her lower lip as she considered the way to explain it. "Hm...well, everyone receives an equal, face-down stack, and then we take turns withdrawing a card and placing it face-up in a central pile. If two, identical cards are placed on the pile consecutively, the last person to say..." She momentarily brought her palms together with a small clap. "'Snap!' and lay a hand on that central pile, will then have to take the cards." Her smile widened by a slight fraction.
"It isn't really too hard! The primary objective is to have the least cards in the end."
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"Yeah, and thanks for the meal, Sonozaki," he said, and although he didn't comment on the taste, he liked it well enough to have a fairly satisfied look linger on his face. "The game's all about developing quick eyes and even quicker reflexes."
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However, if the other two were insistent on playing snap then he supposed he would have to learn. It was only polite to do so. That, and the game seemed to be easy enough to master.
"Will we be having a round of snap now?"
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She gave a small shrug, as she straightened. "If you two are up for it!" Her eyes flickered from Abe to Near, awaiting their response.
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"We could add stakes to it," Abe suggested, because as far as he was concerned, prizes always made things better. And then because Snap could be pretty rowdy (although with this crowd, it probably wouldn't be), he shifted to carefully tug the map he had been puring over somewhere safer.
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"What should we use then?" the boy asked, his eyes flickering to various objects in the room, taking note of what could be used as the prize.
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She was always game for anything that added a little risk. If competition sent a buzz singing throughout her body, taking chances took that buzz one step further. It didn't just quicken the heartbeat -- it accelerated into a staccato rhythm, until its song rang clearly throughout her veins. More often than not, it even left behind a resounding impact. After all, one of the largest gambles she ever encountered still affected her presently. Hadn't she made the endeavor, she likely wouldn't have found herself on the Fiertia, or even in the hangars with Near and Abe now.
Yes, a little risk always proved to be a little entertaining, in the form of both its unexpected outcome and the unheralded consequences it left behind.
"Hm." She rested a finger against her lower lip to regard the answer to Near's query, before she slowly brought her hand away, pressing her palms together as an idea came to mind. "How about we don't use items, but something more like...temporary service?" There was a teal sparkle in her sea green eyes, almost as if she had made a silent dare. An offer for only the bravest knights willing to accept the risk of an expedition meant to slay a dragon.
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"So we do what the winner says for a day or something? A week would be a bigger stake, yeah?" He made a vague gesture with his hands at Near. "You can start, since you're new at this." That way, all Near had to do for two turns was watch the cards.
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