. (singapore) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-02-24 21:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, !plot: saint namorados day, siri d'albis, theodore finch |
Who: Theodore Finch & Siri D’Albis
When: Backdated to St.Namorados
What: St.Namorados is a very odd holiday for some people.
Rating: Tame, references to some violent imagery.
Status: Complete.
However many concerns Theo had accumulated during the recent month, his thoughts were taken up that day by one holiday in particular. They had not strayed far from the subject (and if ever he had plans for latter in the day, one might only guess), as evidence of the celebration had been plastered across nearly every shop he passed by. Stomping through the Bazaar mid-day, his greatsword strapped menacingly to his back, the berserker looked to be in his usual sour mood regardless. He pressed his way through the busy crowds of shoppers with a deep scowl, his eyes wandering in all directions--and eventually settling on a very familiar face. Siri felt content after her meeting with Rictor, he managed to centre her with a few words and moments. Beneath her feet the bazaar felt solid, people were just people — walking with their loved ones, shopping for flowers, chocolate and anything holiday appropriate. While the purpose of the holiday seemed evident enough, the rest of it escaped her a little — what were people supposed to do exactly? How did bringing flowers be more important today than on other days? (There was a wolf in the crowd). She was one of the few people who would take a berserker’s scowl as an invitation to go and intrude on whatever he was doing. “Hello, you-not-you.” She placed her hand on his upper arm keeping it there for the moment (always, always make sure you’re talking to someone who is there and not in your head). “Theo.” Because she had not forgotten his name, Siri just preferred to use her nicknames which were puzzle pieces of the picture of each individual in her mind. At the touch to his arm, Theo looked down. A woman he had accidentally run into one evening at the tavern, but a conversation that had been welcomed all the same. Siri’s appearance was therefore met with a slight easing of his usual aggression, an attempt to seem less harmful, even while armed. For all that he had said about his work in the EKP, he cut a proper peacekeeper figure here, standing out easily in the crowds. “Siri,” he said back, making no motions to pull himself away. She was a peculiar one, he recalled, but Theo was not made noticeably uncomfortable. “Out shopping?” Theo was imposing and dangerous, and Siri was perfectly content despite that to twirl into his personal space, call for attention. Slip her hand in between his jaws, bite it off. Tendons and broken bones The hand resting on his arm dropped at his question. “Shopping?” She echoed the word back, then shook her head, “Why?” No, wait, she knew why — “...For this holiday?” Well, she had bought something earlier on impulse without understanding the meaning of it. “Are you?” He shook his head. “On patrols.” With a shrug of his shoulders, as if his simple explanations explained aught, Theo gestured for them to keep walking. Now that Siri was with him, of course, the heavy tide of the day’s crowd shuffled out of her way by instinct, content to leave the woman with the wolf and amuse themselves with their holiday shopping. He hadn’t expected to run into anyone familiar that afternoon, but now as he had, Theo decided it wasn’t so irresponsible as to have a brief moment to turn his attention elsewhere. A distraction then, but not an unwelcome one. He glanced over his shoulder and watched her, walking alone, seeming just as she had been before--kind but imperceptible. “Candies for sale,” he said, talking again of shopping, and he raised an arm to point at a stall nearby. He had the area mapped in his head already, from the flower vendors, to the winemakers, and everything in between. Glad for the company, Siri fell into step by Theo — the parting of the crowd a relief because it was easy to get swept away and lost among them. Did most people realize how loud they could be? Sometimes she liked drifting among them but not today. Like sheeps wearing the guise of wolves, and wolves dressed as sheep, but then there were wolves and the wolf. “Do you like them?” Siri looked up at him then back at the stall, considering the important question: “Why do people gift them today? Why candy? Because they are sweet?” Siri had never met anyone sweet. Theo shrugged his massive shoulders, as if the day of Saint Namorados was anything so mysterious or complicated to consider (not at all, he thought, and not in comparison to his current company). “Gesture of affection,” he said, a simplified explanation. “For those you care for. Whatever they like.” Apparently, or so he thus assumed, Siri was not particularly impressed by candy herself. Were she amused by anything in particular (as for drinks and taverns, he couldn’t yet say with certainty either), he had yet no way to determine. He reached up with one large hand to scratch at the back of his neck, wondering further on the matter. “No plans for today yourself,” he said, and the words eased their way out uncertain, part way to being a question. Theo frowned deeper, the simple act of conversing proving a success at wholly mystifying him (the wolf now tangled, trapped) but continuing on regardless. If she had been a whole person, Siri would have loved candies and flowers; as it stood the ability to like simple things was a little elusive. She could like and then forget or simply not understand what she felt in regards to things, a price she paid for the voices in her head. However, Siri could state with certainty that she liked talking to Theo since he did not appear to mind her oddness. (To put it mildly). "No." Her eyes were fixed on the candy stall now, considering Theo's words and then it was like a lightbulb went on and it made sense. Siri beamed and tapped Theo on the arm indicating that they should stop for a moment. "Wait, wait, I'll get it." And without further explanations slipped over to the candy stall. The large assortment of sweets would cause most people trouble when choosing, but Siri already knew and picked a bag of pink, red and white heart-shaped candies. After the owner sealed the bag by tying a ridiculous crimson bow, Siri paid and turned back to Theo. "Here," she grabbed one of his large hands, and deposited the small bag in his palm. Siri looked exceptionally proud of herself, as if she had gotten something right. "For you, so you don't eat little sheep for now." Theo, trudging along dutifully behind her, had stood in front of the stall as she ordered, looking nothing less than perplexed. Looking frightful and entirely out of place looking at candies and other treats (more better suited was his appearance to a brawl or battle), he was only able to stare at Siri’s back and wait and wonder what the women was up to. Once the bag of candies had ended up in his palm, Theo frowned down in confusion, glancing at the unexpected gift dumbfounded. “My thanks,” he said, grumbling, wondering to himself if she had taken his explanation the proper way or not. Coming to no useful conclusions, he stuck the candies in the pocket of his coat and moved along with her back through the crowds. Glancing back and forth between his strange companion and the path laid out before them, Theo tried to guess what Siri was likely to attempt next. “Don’t have much time for plans myself,” he admitted, on duty as he was supposed to be. A thoughtful sniff, and then he added, “Or for sheep-eating either.” A joke from a berserker--stranger things in Emillion had happened of late. The social meaning of flowers and candy was not so clear, Siri was going about the holiday in another way. So no, the mage probably took Theo's explanation and made something else of it. Either way, he had candy now and she was happy about that. Siri chuckled at the comment on sheep eating, diverting her attention from the path back to the Berserker. "Don't worry, you will have time for little sheep and pigs who hide in straw huts." And then he could blow and huff and puff. "You don't have plans because of work?" “Aye,” he said, and it seemed a simple enough answer. Theo and business relating to Saint Namorados Day had never been a perfect match--he had entertained some thoughts of going out late with a friend of his (a friend and no more, he would likely say), but for how many duties the short-staffed EKP were given, nothing could be promised. Content enough he was then to accept the necessities of his work. “Perhaps another time,” he said, shaking his head as if attempting to dismiss the idea. He gave Siri another look. “Speaking of work.” Theo considered briefly the reactions of returning to the EKP offices with his new bag of candies. “Ought to get back to it.” “I’m sorry.” Her mind flickered to Rictor and his plans and she couldn’t help but smile again at that. “You should try to make plans with someone if you can. It is a holiday and —” Siri silenced herself, because to be fair, she didn’t quite understand the whole fuss. Maybe Theo agreed on that, “— or not if you don’t want to. You should never do anything you don’t want to, that is when things begin to go wrong.” For a moment his words didn’t make sense, but when they did and she understood that he had to go her fingers impulsively twisted in edges of his coat. Siri hated being left, and by this man who reminded her in so many ways to Rictor and Caspar who had been gone for so many years, it made her a little bit agitated. You can’t bind wolves without losing a hand in the process. She smoothed over the frown with a polite expression, “Yes, okay. Thank you for the walk.” Feeling the tug of her grip on his coat, Theo had seen and sensed enough of her momentary distress to give him pause. While he was not a man adept at understanding the subtleties in hume behavior, enough of him understood the sudden shift in mood to address it. Placing a hand on her shoulder in a friendly gesture, the peacekeeper attempted to alleviate whatever might’ve concerned her (it seemed, after all, the responsible thing to do). “Plans in the morning?” It was the first thing he could think of--caught and tangled as he was now in his own befuddlement. “Might go for coffee." His hand was a warm steadying anchor, Siri shut her eyes and nodded understanding what he was trying to do. The prophet was thankful, more than she could voice right coherently, instead she touched his hand with her own in a reciprocating friendly manner. She tried to relay the thank you with a brief squeeze and then loosened her hold without protest. I don't like being left behind Playing in the coils of the world serpent might get her swallowed whole. Baring her throat to the wolf might get it ripped out; Siri would do it anyway without hesitation. "Coffee and no sheep, right?" “None,” he promised, sombre-faced as ever. Theo gathered himself and said his (albeit temporary) farewells, reluctantly marching back to his duties with his pocket now weighed with a bagful of holiday candies. |