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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:03 pm
This afternoon, Rika sits an the inside table, a pile of books, Porcelain-styled and Gaian, robustly bound and some flimsy periodicals, spread out in front of her -- from the covers, they appear to be Setsushi's histories, novels, and... other books. She's barely put on anything over her under-robes and her belt is tied loosely, her hair falling in a disorganized, greasy mess all around her shoulders. She seems to have no shame, though, resting her elbows on the table as she languorously flips through one of the Silver World texts.
It's probably a good thing Setsushi isn't around to see her like this...
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:31 pm
Kouyo returns home after work more tired than usual, but has mostly calmed down from spending the morning trapped in his storage room with one of his favorite humans inside and incessant noise outside. He bows his head a little to rub at his eyes with one hand as he opens the door to the house and lets himself in; the priest smudges his makeup in the process, but does not much care, since he plans on taking a shower immediately anyway. Once he is clean and back in his familiar and more comfortable robes from home, Kouyo can repaint the lines again....
As he steps into the small house, though, the High Priest immediately realizes that there is someone unfamiliar there. Keeping his hand near his face to hide it as well as he can from the stranger, Kouyo peers over his fingers briefly at the newcomer before glancing away.
"Hello," he offers quietly, projecting his greeting as well. "Is there... anything I can get for you?" Although it looks like she has already made herself comfortable....
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:35 pm
Rika does not look up right away when Kouyo enters; it takes her a while to glance up at him, and when she does, her face is expressionless, moving even beyond the description of 'bored' into somewhat 'sleepy.' Her eyes linger on him only a moment before she looks back down at the book, shaking her head once slightly.
"I'm fine." She says bluntly, with no projectional accompaniment. "... Are you Kouyo?"
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:46 pm
"I am," he replies, then turns away briefly to shut the front door. Then he turns back to face her, if not look at her, again, and edges a little towards the half of the room behind the screen. "Has Miss just arrived here in Gaia?" The High Priest does his best to hide his shyness, but, projections or not, his slight fidgeting with his clothing probably makes it obvious anyway.
"Apologies, this little one is just returning from work and likely needs to bathe, if Miss will excuse him for several minutes?" Miss? Madame? Little Kouyo hopes he does not offend.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 3:50 pm
Rika does not answer Kouyo's questions for a moment, being preoccupied with an extremely large yawn -- but when he so politely asks leave to bathe, she trips over her breath and ends up coughing. She regards him again... then pauses to rub her watering eyes, and replies, "... You don't have to ask my permission."
... Though it is hard to tell when she so carefully guards her thoughts, it doesn't seem to have occurred to Rika that Kouyo might be asking her to give him more privacy.
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:14 pm
"I only ask because I do not wish Miss to think I am ignoring her," he says with a small smile and a slight nervous laugh. And then the High Priest slips behind the screen for a few minutes.
... And notices, as he gathers his clean robes, that the blankets on Setsushi's mattress are in disarray. Kouyo keeps all thoughts on this to himself, but glances again briefly at the young lady sitting at the table reading before slipping into the bathroom for his shower.
Warm water puts the priest more or less at ease again; a few moments after the water is turned on in the bathroom, Kouyo starts humming to himself, something or another he heard on the electric music-box before Kumoru had come in to bother him that morning.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 4:23 pm
... A few minutes after Kouyo has entered the shower, Rika finds her interest is now quite unable to be contained by the books, and flipping the one in front of her closed with a thump, rises and begins... groping, slowly, towards the screen.
If the sound of the water and Kouyo's humming don't drown it out, he will shortly hear a much louder thump as she trips over the edge of the mattress and falls forward onto it, that noise followed by a grunt, a slight, muddled projection of pain, and then a low, verbally muttered string of obscure obscenities.
... But having fallen on the mattress, Rika is uninjured, and locates her monocle after a moment, fitting it to her face and rising. She looks around... fixes her gaze on the bathroom door, unspoken thoughts (of naked men?) running through her mind... but in the end moves back to her seat.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 12:09 pm
At the racket from outside, Kouyo stops humming and, after a moment, shyly inquires if Miss is alright? Regardless of the fact that he is bathing, he wants to be sure that she is at least not seriously hurt... but implies that she need not respond if it is not an emergency.
The High Priest works on finishing his shower as quickly as he can manage anyway, and starts working to dry his hair before he even turns the water off. Once he is clean, and dressed in his robes, and his face neatly painted and his hair free of dust and tangles... then it will be a bit easier for Kouyo to converse with the stranger.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 12:13 pm
"Fine," Rika grunts, then a moment later sends a projection to the same effect in case he didn't hear her words.
When once again seated, she pauses, turning around in her seat to study the kitchen area and the mechanical tap. The teapot on the counter suggests that Setsushi makes tea somehow, and though she would rather like to prepare some for Kouyo, she hasn't a clue... or the energy, really.
She takes out her glass to rub her face yet again.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 1:06 pm
Reassured that the young lady is not seriously hurt, the High Priest finishes bathing within a few minutes. He turns off the water and finishes drying himself, then gets dressed and does his makeup. Then he emerges from the bathroom, followed by a few curls of steam near the ceiling as he brushes the last of the tangles from his hair.
Kouyo was planning on making himself some tea anyway, and so once he has put his hairbrush away, he walks over to the stove to fetch the teapot.
"Would Miss like some tea?" he asks her with a small smile as he fills the pot from the tap.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 1:10 pm
When Kouyo emerges, Rika's eyes fix on him and scrutinize him in detail, from head to toe -- perhaps she is studying him to find something, or... this is the first time she's seen him? But in response to his question, she nods. "If it's not too much trouble."
But after a moment, she pivots in her seat again and asks him suddenly, "You live here?" Someone has already told her so, so she is asking to confirm... and as she does so, her brow is slightly angled.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 1:33 pm
Kouyo thinks he can feel her watching him, but tries not to let this bother him too much as he sets the tea kettle on the stove and turns the burner on. He does glance back over his shoulder at her once or twice, though, to smile faintly and to assure her that preparing more water for her tea is no trouble at all. Then the priest reaches into the cabinet with the tea cups, selects, two, and brings them to the table... and glances over the piles of books already occupying the space as he awkwardly wonders where to put them.
"The house is Sir Setsushi's," he tells her in response to her question. "But yes, I live here, at least for the time being." Kouyo has some mixed feelings about the latter part of that statement, but he keeps smiling and tries not to let on what sorts of feelings are in that mix.
He settles for nudging a few of the books aside to create enough space for the two cups, and sets them down before indicating the pantry. "Setsushi has quite a collection of Gaian teas, if Miss would like to select what she would like to drink?"
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:26 pm
Rika piles up the books and slides them to the side -- though gently, as if she does care about protecting them from damage.
"Roasted rice tea," she responds to his question. "... If he has it," she adds a second later, as if to make it sound a bit less like an order. But she continues to fix that silent, not-terribly-friendly stare on Kouyo, seeming to brood on something for some moments.
Then, finally, "Do you mean you found arrangements elsewhere...?"
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:47 pm
Kouyo walks over to the pantry and fetches the can of his own favorite jasmine tea since it is right at the front of a shelf, and then rummages around a bit to try to find what the young lady had requested. A few moments later, he locates the roasted rice tea as well, and, after replacing the box of whatever other kind of tea decided to fall on him while he was looking around on the shelf, returns to the table and offers the lady her tea of choice.
With the look in her eyes, Kouyo finds it difficult to maintain his smile, though, and the slight cheerfulness from his shower seems to gradually fade from his body. "This is the only place I have at the moment," he replies, going now to fetch... spoons or something, so he does not have to sit down at the table just yet. "Though I think I may be departing for a few weeks sometime soon. But when I return, I will likely be perching here again."
Which reminds the priest that he needs to speak to Setsushi about that when the Knight returns.... Kouyo quietly ponders his visions from recent nights as he brings a pair of spoons back to the table, along with the tea kettle.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:51 pm
"... You have no other place, but you are planning to leave for a few weeks?" Rika asks, her eyebrows rising. "... Where are you planning to go?"
The tone of her voice is one of surprise -- and concern, actually, rather than the coolness she had been offering him earlier. She declines to begin preparing her tea right away, more intent upon his answer at the moment.
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