Sending her wraith away (because they really didn't count as far as ghosts went and she didn't want to confuse the real ones), she perched herself up top of the tallest mausoleum and looked over the oldest cemetery she could find in Destiny City.
And then she did what all good ghost hunters did.
She waited.
_______
Scamander was thinking about dogs.
Not because he had a dog, or because he wanted a dog, though he really did actually want a dog. But really because he had been patrolling along some of the quieter streets of downtown earlier and had come across a dog careening down the street, leash dragging, followed by its very irate owner who was panting and wheezing as he had attempted to catch up to him.
Scamander normally would have helped, but then he had gotten thinking about the metaphor somewhere of a human chasing a dog instead of the other way around, because he had been thinking about his literature exam next week, and this had segued into thinking about how some books were just books and didn’t have deeper meanings or possible metaphors, and that sometimes a dog was just a dog.
And so he was thinking about dogs.
The cemetery was a large expanse of grassy, slightly hilly courtyard. Scamander had passed it half a dozen times on his way to work or classes every week and now he was wandering around in it, wondering where the oldest grave was, because that was what normal people did at three in the morning.
It wasn’t until he was rounding the corner of a large mausoleum that he felt the first stirrings of a power signature burst into life around him.
Possibly not a good power signature. It felt a little off.
_______
At first she thought the shiver she got was from a bona fide spook.
Then, almost disappointingly, she realized it belonged to none other than a dumb senshi or dumb what's it called -- knight! -- lurking around like some no good spook disturbing lurker butthead.
“You're scaring all the ghosts away!!”
Her face turned into a scowl worthy of scaring off ghosts itself before LJ jumped from her perch down, down, down until she made it onto the grass outside of the marble building. Whoever was buried inside was definitely about to get an earful - an earful of a certain dark mirror senshi being ticked off!!
“I wasn't even DOING anything this time! Why can't you people just leave me alone!!”
Stomping around the building, she finally came face to face with her opponent. He looked like some ghost frightening nerd - a regular ol Scooby Gang member.
“What do you have to say for yourself, jerk??”
_______
”God? Is that you?”
The voice had come from somewhere above, though Scamander couldn’t see where it was. He tilted his head up, searching the skies - which seemed a silly prospect - but at the very least, the power signature appearing had dragged him out of his internal musings about dogs and metaphors and literature and too much coffee late at night because wow his mind was all over the place.
“I’m doin’ what now? Scarin’ the ghosts away? You’re lookin’ for ghosts?”
He still couldn’t find her, but a second later, there was a little thump and something - or rather, someone - floomped down onto the grass behind Scamander, who turned around quickly, almost falling over in the process. There was no one there - at least not until, from around the other side of the mausoleum, a slight figure came stomping around, looking as though she was about to show him exactly where he could stick his ghosts.
He wasn’t sure what he had expected to see, but it wasn’t a girl in a frilly black and white outfit, that was for certain. Also, she was yelling at him.
Scamander raised his eyebrows.
“Uh...good evenin’?” he tried, because this seemed to be one of those cases where nothing he said was the right thing, so he was really just tossing out ideas now for the heck of it. “That’s a nice dress you’ve got on? Uh...why are you lookin’ for ghosts?”
A pause. Then he added, for good measure,
“I’m just mindin’ my own business.”
_______
“Minding your own business? In a graveyard at three in the morning???”
Nevermind the fact that SHE was in the graveyard also at three in the morning, the Dark Mirror senshi looked highly offended at the intrusion of her personal space and time despite the hypocrisy of the situation.
He complimented her dress, which did manage to throw the senshi off. No one...no one had told her that her dress was pretty. Not that it wasn't - it was pretty but for someone on the other side to say it…
Hmph.
“I'll show you a good evening,” she huffed out, trying to sound as threatening as possible. “Super Confusion!!!”
Hands flew up and pushed forward against nothing, sending a wave of her magic in the direction of the poor, friendly knight.
_______
Scamander squinted at her.
“I mean...why not?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “I was just wanderin’ around to see what was goin’ on, weren’t you doin’ the same thing? Isn’t that why you’re in a graveyard at three in the mornin’, sittin’ on top of some…” He gestured vaguely at the white marble building behind her. “Somethin’? I forgot what those things are called,” he added, somewhat unhelpfully.
He seemed to have thrown her off a little with something he’d said, though Scamander didn’t know what. Maybe it was the comment about her dress. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d called her God. Either way, she seemed a little uncertain, though her expression had still morphed into one of general unhappiness.
Scamander hastily tried to sidestep the magic, but wasn’t fast enough. It swept over him in a wave, and the next second he was blinking uncertainly over at the other, his expression one of a vague sort of bemusement, his sandy brown brows pulling together as he contemplated her.
“Did you need help with somethin’?” he asked politely, because, well, it couldn’t hurt to ask.
_______
Arms folded across her chest as she stared him down and gave him her best “look”. It didn’t really come across nearly as intimidating as she wanted it to (but that could also be because of the twin pigtails and the lacy, frilly outfit she was wearing) but she sure as heck at least tried to look the part she was trying to muster up and feel.
“I do. I need you to leave here because this is private property and you are trespassing.”
One boot tapped impatiently on the grass as she gestured over to the NO TRESPASSING sign that hung on the locked gate. Or at least the backwards sign, since the letters didn’t appear to read properly from inside the cemetery. Oops.
It didn’t matter -- he was still ruining her evening!!!
When he didn’t seem to make any motion to move, she rolled her eyes and let out an exaggerated huff.
“Fine. I’ll just go find another cemetery to check out and you can keep disturbing the dead in this one. Hmph!”
And, with that especially aggravated sound, Sailor Lovejoy stomped her way off the grass and headed in the direction of the exit gate, muttering about stupid knights and their stupid ruining of the stupid witching hour.
_______
He was trespassing? That was new to him, although since he was in cemetery at three in the morning, this was probably true. Scamander gave the place around him an interested look, peering from headstone to headstone as though this would explain why exactly he was in a cemetery at three in the morning having a conversation with a girl in a frilly dress.
No actual reasoning came to mind, but this was fine. And he should probably leave this girl alone, since he couldn’t actually understand why she was here or why he was here or what they had been talking about or why there was a blank sign that didn’t actually explain her point at all.
Everything was fine, though. Everything was totally fine.
He thought. Maybe. He wasn’t totally sure. But it seemed fine.
“Okay,” said Scamander, and gave her a smile, because that seemed okay too. “I’ll leave you to your…” He waved a hand. “Whatever it is that you’re doin’.”
And then he wandered off obediently.
[Fin]
