The Deck [Friday afternoon]

[likes_ducklings]

It was nice enough out that Rapunzel couldn't bear to be indoors any longer (could you blame her, all things considered?) and had decided to pad down to the outside-sitting-area she'd spotted. She spent awhile brushing her hair before she did so, and set it in a gleaming pile around her as she perched in a chair on the deck with her sketchbook

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[not_called_icky]

Ichabod was out for a walk. He had been doing a lot of it since arriving on the island, in the hope that he would make his thoughts clearer about how to face the strange situation he found himself in. So far it hadn't worked.

Actually he also wanted to be alone. While the good manners his upbringing had taught him made it easy enough to socialize when he had to, he was growing tired of conversations of strange places he had never heard of. Not naturally extroverted, he often seeked solitude at home too, so it wasn't even unusual.

Given this, when he spotted the girl (with very long hair - another strange foreign custom, no doubt) his first thought was to avoid her, but curiosity got the better of him and he tried to sneak a look at her drawing pad.

[likes_ducklings]

Rapunzel actually was really easy to sneak up on, since she wasn't used to people being around in the first place. So it took her a moment to actually that she wasn't alone, and then she turned a full-beam smile towards Ichabod.

"Hi!" she said, dropping her sketchbook a little so he could see if better, if he was looking anyway. The drawings were fairly good, if a little childish -- typical of pretty much everything Rapunzel did. "How are you? Isn't it a nice day?"

It was especially nice if you never went outside, normally, so her opinion might have been skewed.

[not_called_icky]

That smile was impossible not to return, and since she showed no objection to showing him what she was drawing, Ichabod did take a closer look.

"Good afternoon, miss," he greeted. "I haven't considered it much yet, but I suppose it could be a good day. It isn't raining."

He added: "I don't believe we have met. My name is Ichabod Crane. Please forgive me for interrupting."

[likes_ducklings]

"You're in my awesomeness class!" she remembered, grinning at him. "Hi! I'm Rapunzel. It's nice to meet you, like, for real. And you're not interrupting. I just felt like drawing and figured that since it isn't raining, like you said, it might be a good day to do it outside, you know? Maybe if I get really lucky a butterfly or something'll land and I can sketch it before it flies off!"

Maybe.

"Are you new, too?" she asked excitedly. "Or are you all used to this place already?" She wasn't. She might never be, honestly.

[kenselvren]

It seemed silly to Jalian to stay inside when the weather was so pleasant, so after class she'd come outside to finish cleaning her knives and make sure they hadn't been damaged by the odd creatures the teacher had had them fighting.

She'd seen this girl around, and wondered how she ever managed to walk, let alone fight, with all that hair. Actually, she didn't look much like a fighter at all. Maybe this was another of those strange pre-Armageddon things.

Jalian sat not too far away and pulled out her knives, cloth, oil, and whetstone. "Hello."

[likes_ducklings]

"Hi!" Rapunzel looked up from her sketchpad, and her eyes widened as she took in the other girl and her activity of choice. "Are those knives?"

She didn't sound frightened so much as impressed. She'd only ever used knives to cook, and never carried them around with her to clean. That was impressive in a way that she hadn't encountered in a girl yet.

She'd get to remarking on the hair, too, in a second -- she'd only seen white hair on old people, and she could tell this girl was right around her own age.

[kenselvren]

"Yes?" Jalian answered, amused. She eyed the other girl, then grinned and took out the rest of them from various places - when she was done, there were six knives of various lengths laid out on the cloth. "You don't use knives?"

[likes_ducklings]

"Only if I'm chopping up apples or something," Rapunzel said, eagerly going over and leaving a trail of hair behind her. She clutched her hands behind her back -- if anything said 'look but don't touch,' it was knives.

"These look awful sharp for what I'm used to, though," she added, already knowing the answer. These were clearly weapons. Whoa.