[private]

[curtainwizard]

It's a river, winding through the base of a shallow valley in spring. A cool, green smell hangs in the air. The sky is clear and blue, dotted with fluffy white clouds. It could be anywhere reasonably temperate

Comments

[chilichoc]

*Mel thinks this is her outdoors room, and by the time she realizes it isn't, the door has gone, melted back into the wall.

She walks along, deeper in; why not, after all?, thinking that this room smells like spring in a way the one she meant to go into smells like fall.

When she sees the bench, and Yagami sitting there, she huffs, quiet and annoyed, and hopes against hope it won't draw his attention to her.*

[chilichoc]

*She's still looking at the clouds, and resists the urge to smirk.*

Interesting. He seemed to think the same thing about you.

[curtainwizard]

[Now, Light knows the game Near - and now Mel - are playing perfectly well. And yet, and yet - they really are underestimating him, or they wouldn't want to provoke him. Idiots. Neither of them deserve what they have. Again, the image of L - the real one - flits through his head, and is gone again.]

I'm glad he tried to reassure you, Mel. A shame it didn't work.

[The knowing smile, and the unpleasant emphasis on her chosen name, are right in place.]

[chilichoc]

I didn't need reassuring.

*The intended effect of using her name so often is so obvious that she's almost become immune to it by now. She flicks a glance at the sketchbook, as if to say unlike you, but doesn't bring it up out loud.*

[curtainwizard]

[That accusing glance doesn't go unspotted. If she wants to think the book is a crutch, let her. Light knows why he has it - in fact, he thinks, it should be more than obvious.]

If you say so.

[With that, he flips the book open to a blank page, as if the conversation is done - impressions of figures and faces and settings, too fast to see anything clear - before something begins to emerge on the paper. It's eyes. Cat's eyes, wide and clear, staring.]

[chilichoc]

You're getting better.

*It's clear she disapproves of the subject matter, the improvement, or both.*

[curtainwizard]

Yes, I think so.

[No, he knows so. The rest of the face quickly takes form around the eyes: small, pointed chin, ears, half-flattened, and the whiskers - pricked forward, oddly enough.]

Are you done here, Mel? [not looking up, and this time the contempt is deliberate.] You must have things to get on with, after all.

[chilichoc]

*She crosses her arms.*

You're going to make her black?

[curtainwizard]

I could. Do you think she's good luck?

[Shifting from the too-short bobbed tail back to the cat's face, he darkens one of the irises; the cat is odd-eyed.]

[chilichoc]

Not for you.

*She frowns at the page.*

[curtainwizard]

Or for anyone. She's just a drawing, after all.

[It doesn't stop him shading the fur, with that possessive here-and-there brush against the paper. So easy to upset her with the smallest things.]

[chilichoc]

But she's specific.

*The tail and the eyes, she means. Mostly.*

[curtainwizard]

Of course. She'd lack interest if she weren't. She'd be boring.

[He might have chosen a breed that comes missing a tail, but the mismatched eyes are a deliberate imperfection.]

You should find something to do with your time, Mel.

[chilichoc]

*Mel feels obscurely complimented, and it pisses her off. She glances back the way she came and doesn't see the door.*

How I spend my time makes no difference to you, surely.

[curtainwizard]

[It's a backhanded compliment at best; the only good thing Light is ever likely to have to say for Mel is that she doesn't bore him - and he doesn't view it as a good thing.

It's not really surprising that this has gone full circle, he supposes. As she looks around for the door, he curls his lip, there and gone again. The cat, likewise, glares out of the page at him.]

Are we going to play this game all day?

[chilichoc]

Are animals all you draw?

*She doesn't expect a straight answer.*