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 Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 5:37 pm
  This is a PRP between Van (Kurama no Koishi) and Shinzo (Dark Fire Angel).
Setting:
A common thread leads two dark-haired Legionnaires to meet amidst the bustling markets of the Imperial City.
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Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:12 pm
A lightly scaled hand ran over the various vintage jewelry pieces that were on display, perfectly manicured fingers touching each one, before moving to examine the next. The boutique was small, and saw little business even during the busiest hours of the workday. This was because the wares in the trinket shop were just that—toys. With the economic downturn since the emperor’s death, few found it prudent to spend their gold on items that would eventually be no more than pretty paperweights. All of the fighting families had turned to the weapons shops and armories in the war effort.
Not Van, though. While she knew the importance of having a good set of swords in case a skirmish broke out in the streets outside, she knew that it was more important to have an excellent skill set behind them. Besides, even the most weathered soldiers needed a break sometimes. Between missions and training, the fighter still managed to find the time to appreciate the simple things in life. How else was she going to stay sane? Fingering a gilded puzzle, the Legionnaire’s dark eyebrows knit together in concentration, as she tried to figure out the secret behind the moving blocks and pieces.
“How much is this one, ma’am?” the woman inquired suddenly of the shopkeeper, the bell-like tones of her voice echoing through the mostly empty shop. When the elderly lady answered with a relatively high number, Van couldn’t help but wonder whether she should attempt to haggle to bring the price lower, or accept it at the listed value. While she drove a hard bargain, it was hardly civil to try to squeeze a few extra gold bits out of a Lunarian who was clearly struggling with the times.
Nodding politely, Van set the puzzle back down in the tray and turned to continue through the shop. She’d decided to think on the purchase. The thing had no real value except for its quaint, delicate beauty and could offer no more than a few moments of cerebral pleasure. Perhaps she’d find something else that would be of marginally greater use to her as she browsed around now. Then again, there was no feeling quite like that of spending money, just because she could.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:57 pm
The unpacking and settling down procedure had been rather stressing for Shinzo, even despite how comfortable his uncles had tried to make him feel at their home. For the time being, the young man didn't quite 'feel at home', though this had nothing to do with his family members. He just felt oddly out of place; new house, new room, new bed. Everything was new, and something about it all had him stressed, wound up tighter than the situation probably merited him to be. As such, he'd decided that a stroll was probably the best way to dissipate such strange feelings.
He'd set off walking and for some unknown reason, his feet had carried him into the marketplace, though it was safe to assume others felt as strangely offput as he felt in his new home, given the fact... it wasn't as busy as he remembered it in the past. Not that this was a particularly large problem for him since he often came to the marketplace in an attempt to find odd, rare, little trinkets, which meant that the less busy it was, the easier they would be for him to acquire. The less people had to interact or fight against (metaphorically speaking), the better for him.
That in mind, he walked into a small boutique that had often held strange little treasures, as far as he was concerned. Granted, not everyone agreed with his idea of 'treasure', but then again... it'd never really concerned him. After all, he didn't always agree with others' idea of 'intelligence', so Shinzo had early on figured it was a blessing to be able to agree to disagree and let things go. As he stepped into the shop, allowing the door to click almost soundlessly behind him, a customer asked the shop owner for the price of a small item she held in her hands.
Unable to keep the curiosity from biting, Shinzo turned his head to regard the girl that had spoken up, though his gaze did not linger on her long enough to take in much of her physical aspect except that she seemed to favor black and purple. His eyes, instead, were drawn to the small puzzle-toy she held between her fingers and instantly, he recognised the item as something he'd read about in some scrolls. It was a lithe, albeit rare trinket, and as the shop owner voiced out the price, he turned away from the girl, figuring he'd been too slow to snatch it, and should thus, move on. Alas, before he reached the shop door to stroll back out in defeat, proverbial tail between his legs, he noticed the girl place the trinket back upon a shelf, moving onto look at other things within the shop.
The young man hesitated only a minute or two before he stepped away from the door and slowly walked over to the discarded trinket. He picked it up in one hand which he'd previously slipped from within the long sleeves of his robes and turned towards the shop owner, "I will take it, then," the words were soft spoken, calm and elegant. He spare the girl a glance, though it was mostly cold, emotionless and detached. There was no victory grin, no rejoice, no nothing from him to show what he really felt about the situation. At least, seemed there was no malice in his action, but then again, it was hard to tell.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:39 pm
Van had not noticed the new presence in the shop, having assumed that she would be the only client the place would see all day. Nothing caught her eye as she glanced over the old tomes and various toys. There were a few things she hadn’t seen before, probably a new shipment since her last visit, but there was nothing she absolutely had to have—at least, not in the way she had to have a pretty dress or an exceptionally brilliant pair of shoes. Even so, the fighter could always find something to buy if she dug far enough.
Now, she turned back toward the counter, where she’d left the puzzle, only to have her heart stop in her chest momentarily at the sight. Raiden? The name of the Noble Captain echoed in her head as her eyes widened in shock. A moment passed before Van realized that the other person in the shop was not her scorned lover, but a boy about ten years younger than him. The resemblance was, in reality, quite small, but it was the similar coloration and serious expression that had triggered Van’s memory. Her face softened in relief, and her heart began to beat again, although at an elevated pace to make up for its nonwork earlier.
Compared with the shock of earlier, there was only a small pang of disappointment as Van realized that the boy held in his hands the very puzzle she’d wanted to buy. Part of her wanted to confront him, and say that she had actually been holding onto the puzzle to buy for herself. The last time Van had gotten into an argument over who had gotten to an item in the store first, though, she remembered with a subtle grimace, she had gotten into a full-blown fight in the middle of the place. Even if she had walked away with the dress that time, she liked to think that she’d matured since then, and so she decided to let this one go.
Besides, the puzzle was not what was holding her curiosity. It was the boy holding it, who looked too much like someone she's sworn never to see again. Was he perhaps a relative of the captain? There was no conceivable way two Lunarians could look so alike, otherwise. Van took a few steps forward, closing the distance between them in the cramped boutique. Her lips curled up slightly as she nodded to him in acknowledgment. The gentle tones of her voice were friendly—she didn’t want to scare the boy off. “You have good taste, sir.”
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:33 pm
Before Shinzo had turned away from the girl in order to tend to the shopkeeper, he'd managed to notice the surprise which she'd not managed to hide. There'd also been a hint of fear, or perhaps it was something else altogether? He hadn't been entirely sure, but given the fact he was quite sure he'd never seen the girl in his life and thus, there was no real reason he should be eliciting this reaction out of her... he turned away from her. There was no point in trying to find logic in lunarian behavior, he figured, specially since he was, apparently not exactly adept in the matter anyhow, "Thank you," the calm words were directed at the shop keeper after she had taken his money, effectively selling him the item that had caught his eye from the moment he'd walked into the tiny boutique.
Mission accomplished, the young man had turned away from the shopkeeper, intent on going on his merry way, perhaps to sit down under a lovely tree in order to try his hand at conquering the little puzzle in his hand. Alas, he was foiled, because no sooner did he turn around, intent on going towards the door, did he find himself face to face with the girl that had first taken an interest in his small acquisition. It took him a moment to realize she'd been talking to him, which for some reason sent him for a hoop; it showed in the way he frowned, almost confused. after all, he'd have expected anger, or perhaps sadness from her, but surely not the gentle tones she was using.
Instantly, his mind screamed that it had to be a trap, but given the fact his success rate in social conversation and behavior was so low, he decided to wave his mind's warnings away with a mental shrug, "Indeed?" a brow arched slightly as he looked at Van, trying to figure out what it was she wanted since something in her body language seemed to indicate she did, indeed, want something. He figured it probably wasn't conversation since he was well aware he wasn't precisely the most approachable of people on Lunaria, but then again, aside from the little trinket he now held lazily in one hand, he had little else on him to offer that the girl could want, "I beg your pardon but... I get the impression you want something from me, and I'm not entirely sure what it is," cringe-worthy, but at least he wasn't beating around the bush. Besides, there was always the chance she'd be offended by his words, turn away and leave him alone, which would solve his predicament just as nicely as if she answered him, "I figure it has something to do with the strange, surprised look you offered me a moment ago."
He made a small motion towards the door; a half a hand way, half indication, as if to let her know that the crammed, little boutique was probably not the best place for conversation and then slowly moved towards the door. He paused as he opened it, only just briefly to look at her in an attempt to let her know he was not dismissing her and she could chose to follow him outside if she wished, and then walked outside.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:41 pm
Now that Van had gotten the chance to get a better look at the boy, she realized that there was little resemblance between the two after all. Her smile remained fixed in place, an automatic gesture that had resulted in many successful undercover missions. Here, though, the fighter wasn’t so much trying to disarm the boy as she was trying to be polite. She could have walked away as soon as she’d decided that he was nothing more than a curious doppelganger, but since she’d started the conversation, she couldn’t well turn her back on it. Oh, the things that social etiquette roped a person into.
Following the other Lunarian out the door, Van fell into step with him as they entered the busy streets, noting that he was much taller than she was. Being a fighter of the Legion gave her a sense of security, though; however physically intimidating anyone else might have been, Van was confident that she’d be able to at least hold her own. Besides that, the boy looked like he was unarmed. She’d blinked at the other’s words, slightly taken aback at his bluntness. There weren’t very many Lunarians these days who had the guts to say things in such a manner, but, Van remembered, she wasn’t the most outwardly imposing of women, and the subject at hand had been relatively safe.
“Ah, no,” Van said, shaking her head slightly to refute his words, “I thought you were someone I knew.” In her time since she’d graduated the Academy, she’d honed her wit and charm, learning to speak with a silver tongue to get under others’ guards. This often resulted in word feuds as she and her partner danced around top secret information, but with this boy, this didn’t seem to be in the cards.
Instead, she reached one hand out, gloved fingertips just touching the other’s arm. The gesture wasn’t meant to be a flirtatious one—it was just another tactic she used to seem more compelling. Her smile widened as she peered upward at the boy, her expression somewhat apologetic but showing no signs of backing down, “I was hoping that you’d allow me to examine that puzzle before you disappeared with it.” Van continued walking alongside him, her amethyst gaze earnest as she stared upward. “I’m rather curious about it, you see, though you beat me to it.”
Her determination was almost child-like, but it meant that she was fixed, not only by the curiosity of the puzzle, but by the younger Lunarian. “My name is Van, by the way.”
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