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 Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 10:18 pm
"... I'll take you for your word on that!"
Not like he had enemies actively trying to gun him down, anyway. Well, actively. Passively, that was another thing. And also, 'dying' kind of did not have the effect of nullifying anyone's grudge, so there was that too. It made things a whole lot worse.
"If you would be so kind then, thank you."
He should probably tell someone to quit laughing at the both of their antics. Sure, it was funny to watch, two awkward people in a place full of shenanigans but really? Never mind, he seemed to have gotten the idea.
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 2:46 am
"O-of course!" It was a small thing, not much of anything really, but after many grandiose declarations of her intentions to protect him, being acknowledged even a little was enough to make her incredibly happy. Usually she'd be prompted to say something especially brave, but... "Leave it to me." Feeling encouraged had tempered her ridiculousness out a bit, one'd suppose.
"R-right!" Still quite stuttery in her cheerfulness. She was reluctant to leave the can behind but she'd be back to the room in a matter of minutes. It probably wasn't necessary to lock the door in such a private place but as they left she did so anyway. The short elevator trip down had the potential to be awkward indeed considering the almost predatory spontaneity that her affection seemed to have... but she seemed content enough, smiling as she leaned her shoulders back against the elevator wall.
But the challenge of actually seeing him off in the cafe was a difficult one. What to do. She didn't really care what the staff thought, and she was already teased quite a bit over the situation by others, but... she'd probably put enough pressure on him for one day without trying to if he'd gone hiding within his own body not only once but twice. No reason for a big production of a farewell for all of a couple days, anyway. The old stand by of awkward rambling seemed to be a good fit. "It was really great to see you today! And..." Somewhat oddly stated, but well meant. "I'm really... really happy, to be given your consideration. I cherish it, so..." A bit of an emotional slip, but really nothing compared to her other various statements and declarations. "Thank you." She respectfully bowed her head a little. "I shall look forward to seeing you when I return." And of course, seeing him off with her usual unassuming smile was a given.
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:06 am
"I... It was nice to see you too, Ama. Take care on your trip, alright?"
He turned back at the door to wave. Oh, strange! Today he was feeling happy, and it wasn't because of the sugar rush. Even the various snickering from the other patrons and/or staff sailed over his oblivious head. Speaking of oblivious...
... he managed to walk right into a lamp post. Bang.
Yeah, maybe he was going to have to take it as practice. And now he had no grounds to insult a one-eyed someone on their depth perception. Sighing, he rubbed his head. What a smooth exit, huh. Maybe he should let someone else walk him out of there, lest he embarrass himself again.
((Alright, where to next? rofl ))
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 9:54 pm
(( Haha, these two~ I'll just transition things along to what I think is a good interaction point. Let me know if there's any problems. ))
'Nice'! Not 'good,' or 'great,' but she'd take what she could get. "I... I will!" She waved back... oh, my. Well. He'd be all right, wouldn't he? No need to make a scene... but. She shot a look back at the manager and the others, who had obviously been watching but were suddenly pretending not to have been. It was a side of her rarely seen, after all, and a part of her life they were never privy to seeing at all. After looking over them for a while she was satisfied with the lack of any further reaction and retreated back upstairs to prepare for her trip.
The next morning, she'd awakened while it was still dark. As intended, though a certain heaviness was starting to set in. She'd slept fine. Well, even, but it didn't seem to help with the incredible feeling of weariness. She yawned as she prepared herself, and continued yawning as she was dropped off at and made her way across a certain airport. A flight with other similar individuals, of course... the metal detectors on common flights were a hassle for a person such as herself. Her tired eye shifted down a little as she boarded. She'd decided to keep the can on her person, and it was kept in a handbag worn crossbody. There was some anxiety that came with being entrusted with anything of his, though the exhaustion would be enough to push her through it without too much worry. The usually sleepy passenger did her best to stay awake, however, falling into a pattern of drifting to sleep and snapping awake as she clutched on to the handbag upon her lap. Her momentary consciousness apparently invited social activity, as she found herself with more than one visitor as the trip went on. Kingpins, mafioso, yakuza. Everyone was friendly enough on a flight where it was understood that it was better off not to ask many questions. It was easy enough to entertain them with idle chitchat as they felt sympathy over her tired appearance and offered to bring her snacks in an attempt to cheer her up. Just a bit of generosity and nothing more, really. They probably just assumed that she was the daughter of some dangerous man and nothing more. Which didn't seem to be far from the truth, as more than one of the men recoiled and politely excused themselves once they saw the family crest upon her business cards during the usual exchange. Simply reputation, or had that old man gotten himself involved in something recently? Didn't matter. Not her problem.
Upon landing she bid a tired but polite farewell to the visitors she'd had that weren't totally terrified of her by that point, dragging herself off to retrieve her bag and be driven to her destination. And after that short and silent trip all there was left was to drag herself and her belongings into the usual apartment. Better to maintain a comfortable place for emotionally and physically demanding visits. She didn't bother with the lights. Even at night the sources of light finding their way through the many windows were more than enough. The suitcase was dropped first, falling on its side with a clatter. Then came off the eye covering, boots, and jacket, in short order. The can was placed carefully on the table by the bed, with the handbag itself discarded nearby below. She sat nearby on the bed, leaning over the headboard to better look out upon the night sky. She finally allowed herself to relax a little, with a bit of a smile. "Pretty night. Though it looks like the clouds are coming in... hnn."
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:53 pm
The can wobbled a bit, as if whatever was inside was trying to move. A few near-tips later, it stopped moving entirely.
Somewhere else, a certain somebody manages to stub his toe in a door before realizing he should sit back down, slide the medical eyepatch over his remaining eye and pretend to sleep, if he wanted to look around without banging into anybody or anything else.
But it's dark, he can't see a thing. Oh wait, is that a ceiling? Yeah, that was a ceiling. And maybe a bed post. He couldn't see anything else. Judging from gravity he was probably facing upwards, and not necessarily on the floor, so there was a possibility of tipping over and staining whatever floor there was. Or dropping a good few floors down, if he happened to be on a railing. Never sure.
Oh yeah, did he have enough? A quick duck back down to the bottom of the can showed that he had only enough material for one use. That's probably good enough, as long as nobody opened the can.
It rocked on the table again, as he tried to look around for the source of Ama's voice. Ah, he'd completely forgotten that the tumbler at home had a spherical lookout... This one only served as a flat window. It was going to take a bit of hopping around (carefully, of course) to look for her.
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 12:42 am
"... !? Wh-what?" Between a lack of other distracting sounds in the area and an advanced state of tiredness it was probably too easy to startle her. The can was a natural point of focus as it was right in front of her as she turned to investigate. It... ? It didn't. It couldn't. Right? She waited for a moment... it did! What the consequences could be of grabbing a seemingly sentient can was apparently negligible to her, as she didn't hesitate to pick it up. She did her best to try to get a good look at it, peering at the top as she held it in both hands. For a moment she seemed to give up, letting her head fall back and hit the headboard. "Ah, no good~" But in a moment she lifted her head, seemingly to gaze off in thought... but continuing to steal glances at it as she held it, as if there were some reason to be furtive about it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 1:20 am
It was just a glimpse when the can started rocking (for what reason?) but oh, there she was. Okay, he had not been kidnapped for any reason or left in the immigration checkpoints - last thing he wanted was to try and retrieve the can in a place full of police! - but okay. It was dark, so either it was night or she had drawn some pretty opaque blinds. So all was well. Should be. (He banged his forehead against the wall while trying to get a cup of coffee in the meantime, stupid lack of depth perception) Now, he should probably let her rest. Or something. It was probably late for her.
The contents in the can pressed as hard as it could against the lens without popping it off, a ghost of red just appearing for a moment from under a dark lid - oh hello, there she was! Safe and sound, then. And by the looks of it she was pretty tired. Okay then, he should settle down and let her sleep. Right.
And maybe keep an eye out for anything, no pun intended.
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:59 am
She could've sworn that she saw something moving in the can for a moment, but felt unsure of her tired eye's ability to pick up on such things. And just why was she so concerned over the can anyway? With an exasperated sigh she carefully placed it back on the table and retreated for a bath.
She had a bad habit of smoking in the bath. But she also had a bad habit of social bathing, so. Any other occasion might've made her lonely for the company of her friends, but not this one. It was a private and exhausting sort of melancholy. So why him, indeed. Were feelings developed over a matter of months enough of a reason? She tried to stick to her decision to not question how she felt, especially since the decision to ask had ultimately been made, but there was still uneasiness in standing up for herself in a manner she'd never done before. She hummed quietly to herself, which eventually worked itself up to gently singing in an attempt to quell that nervousness.
Eventually she returned, in a robe and with damp hair. It seemed like she couldn't put out her kiseru quickly enough as she seemed almost drawn to get back to the can. Though of course, she was still acting secretive for no reason, pretending that the fact that she was going out of her way to go pick it up again was no big deal. It would probably be easier to study it with more light involved, but that would require covering her face. More of an idle curiosity, anyway. She wouldn't dare try to examine it fully. In the end, her trust in him won out over her cat-like curiosity. The cat-like fascination remained, however, as she couldn't help but just look at it for a time. Eventually, she lightly touched a fingertip to the lens. More to acknowledge it than anything else, for whatever reason. Though even she must've felt ridiculous over it as after a short while it was placed back on the table and she was burying her face within the bed. "...Goodnight."
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 4:38 am
"..."
He would have said something back, 'goodnight' maybe, but tumbling along in her purse for the ride had not given him much to develop in here other than a rudimentary ear canal. So, taking advantage of her going to sleep for the night, he set to work with the remainder of the allocated materials, fixing up a socket (would he rather let that eyeball keep sinking to the bottom of the can?) to stick near the lid. There, should be sturdy enough to withstand most of the knocking around riding in a bag would cause. And also would help with the ride. Having that little ball bounce around in that can all day was proving to be an eyesore.
On the desk he was sitting at, a little something scuttled across its surface, narrowly avoiding the coffee cup he had set down and taking a bite out of the thin fingers etching diagrams on paper. He screamed, the little can on Amarante's bedside table doing a tiny hop of pain in tandem, and yelled for the pet's owner to 'take care of this irritating thing better'.
The eye swiveled as far as it could to the lid, slightly scared. Did he wake her with that? Hopefully not. Fine, it was lights out for him too, then. Drag the splotchy curtain over that long-distance eye, and knock the rest of himself out.
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 8:48 pm
The next morning began with the usual nightmare. Always with the usual ending, with her right arm severed. And it always started her awake at the moment of impact, awake with a gasp no matter how many times she'd had the same dream. Lazily she looked to the arm in question... not like it would actually be gone. How many years had it been? Hmm.
"Good morning~" Said to no one in particular. Unless it was the can? Remembering it was there, she stalked it even though it was only an arm's reach or two away. Crawling the short distance over the bed, she picked it up once she was close enough. Somehow it seemed different. "Is that... ?" Couldn't be. She looked at it more closely, trying to make any sort of sense of it.
(( I dunno if she can see the eye now or not; up to you. XD ))
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Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2014 8:58 pm
"...."
It opened in response, greeting her with a blank stare of red.
Looks like someone somewhere had ended up not sleeping, telling from the red veins in the whites. But just as suddenly as it had opened, it closed itself again, disappearing into black.
((Good morning~ XD))
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:05 am
There was a squeak of surprise. That, she had seen. "That is..." Most would probably be incredibly unnerved by the sight of a disembodied eyeball. "...Heh. How sweet." She doubted there was much if any sentiment applied to the decision and was under no assumption of there being any ulterior meaning to it. But a being with only one eye probably found eye-related issues more sentimental than most. It brought her back a little closer to her usual cheerful self, anyway. "Ah~ Would be interesting if this other eye socket of mine weren't filled with something so troublesome and kind of broken, hnn?" She seemed pretty amused by the idea. "Just a joke. That's an impossibility."
Which drew her attention to the growing pain stemming from the useless eye socket in question. "s**t... !" Someone had been too tired to properly shade the room or at least keep her eye covering close before sleeping. She put the can back in its place before shielding the pained part of her face with one hand and searching with the other. The situation was resolved quickly enough but it still left her exasperated. "Aaa~ Katakura would scold me for this for sure. 'You can't go showing that thing to just anyone! Don't you have any concern for our master?' And then I would pout, and then Master would just laugh~ But then, he'd pat me on the head and say something that made me feel a lot better! And..." A sad smile. Sometimes it was too easy to forget that some realities had ended a long time ago. "I'll get ready and we'll be on our way, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:17 am
"...."
He certainly heard that through the haze of caffeine, and nope he was not very smitten with the idea of his eye walking around in someone else's socket. Sure, he probably had more than enough to go around, but being in two seperate places at once already hurt his head a lot, and the risk of letting the other two free to designate the rest of their (un)lives was not a very nice thought to him. Besides, there were at most two of each, and - "There'd be some people fighting tooth and nail just to get one, son!" as the Professor had quipped - he really didn't want to end up dealing with a confrontation.
So he waited patiently, as patiently as a person sweeping the floor and getting his toes stubbed on every last piece of furniture can get. Looks like he wasn't the only one with a parts of a past he'd like to return to, then. But enough dwelling - oh darn! The piano! - on that. If he lingered on it any more he might get scolded by his roommate again, no matter how much of a black kettle his roommate was.
The only response he could possibly give was an amused blink at her antics, now unbridled with the stiff facial muscles needed to make a smile. And maybe a settling in the socket as he awaited her departure.
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 9:11 pm
 She didn't waste any time refreshing and dressing herself. Had to get there as early as she could on such a day after all. There was a playful glance down at the can after she'd finished. "Good, right?" Nothing too different from what she'd usually wear but out of respect perhaps a bit more conservative. "I'm still going to stand out. Too much to just take the train." She frowned... but shrugged it off. "But the red hair stays! Red hair is good... right?" She played with her hair a little as her mind wandered. Did he like red hair? Short hair? Completely silly thing to be thinking about at such a time. Shaking her head seemed to help her regain her focus. "Wouldn't matter, really. No matter how many superficial changes... when generations all see the same unchanging face, they catch on." Most monsters didn't give humans any credit, but she knew better. "Pretty sure they think that I'm an obake. Which is pretty much true, isn't it?" She seemed to be quite pleased with the idea. "I'm probably not impressive enough to be mistaken as a kami..." Her head hung a bit in disappointment over her small size and unusual looks. "But to be regarded as a spiritual being and judged for my actions instead of maligned for my very existence... that's nice." Any trouble she'd come upon in such a place was definitely of her own making, just the way she liked it. That contentment faded some as she suddenly felt weak. "Ah~ I should probably eat today. I usually just sleep pretty much the entire time I'm here... low on energy since I haven't done either." Her smile was apologetic. "I can eat a lot tonight. That's good, right?" A call interupted her chatty nature. "Ah, the car is here. Off we go." She carefully secured the can in her handbag and made her way to the elevator.
It had clouded over as she'd thought, but Zuihoden was as charming as always. Probably not the best idea to wear heels when she was more than familiar with the amount of steps she'd have to climb to reach her destination, but it was something she was accustomed to doing. It was easy to forget the amount of steps involved when surrounded by lush scenery and beautiful architecture. And distracting things like butterflies. She physically waved off her desire to chase it, eager to share the moment with her makeshift companion. She opened the handbag for a moment, careful to hold it enough off of body so more than just her carefully-covered form could be seen. "See? There's a reason they call it the city of trees~" The delight in her voice was quick to sober as her mind returned to the task at hand. "Onward." She closed the handbag and kept walking.
The click of her heels seemed to grow louder and heavier the closer she drew to her intended destination. The inner sanctum was open because of the day so there was nothing unusual about where she was going or what she was doing. How she was feeling was a different matter entirely. The severed link in her mind seemed to reach out a little. His soul wasn't there. There was no reason for it to be there. But whatever remained was enough to be sensed. It had never waned. Only healed, over time. Eventually she walked without any cognizance to her surroundings, eye shut but continually drawn forward.
Only once her legs had stopped moving did she bother looking where she'd ended up. Exactly where she should be, as close as she could be, but still within the areas open to the public. She took a deep breath, clutching the strap of the handbag almost nervously. "Here."
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:02 pm
He was pretty much lost in thinking about cooking food while traveling and listening to the rhythmic tap-tap-tap of heels on stairs to hear her rambling, the red eye watching the butterflies. Strangely, where he'd be extremely wary of those things at home, especially if they happened to be monarchs. The incident (that was primarily his fault not his fault) pretty much gave the entire hospital a kill-on-sight decree for those pitiful things, but he was not tempted to suddenly lash out and shoot them down.
Butterfly of too many memories, it seems.
Where was this, though? Pushing as close as he dared to the lens, he peeked outside. Another person Amarante wanted to show him, perhaps? Or a place? He was not sure where they were, the structures looked strangely ancient to him. Maybe some place that had some strong tie to her heart, then?
Oh wait. The equivalent would be those quiet steps he took down the stone cold pavement, to see the other two figures who heavily overshadowed the butterfly epidemic. He hoped he had not assumed wrongly.
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