cleanestwitch (cleanestwitch) wrote in strangergamesrp, @ 2012-09-14 21:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | kamizuki izumo, log, sophie hatter |
[log] Be Responsible for Your Actions
Who: Sophie Hatter, Kamizuki Izumo
When: August 3rd
Where: The commons
What: Sophie dusts and disturbs an Izumo. They chat it up.
Warnings: Izumo
Open or Closed: Closed
Observable: No.
*
The sunshine was just right on this couch, the one that had been turned to face the window in the commons. It was used for more private conversations and meetings. Izumo had also done some heavy making out on this couch, but today, he was only interested in the sunshine pouring across the fake-leather cushions. It was just after lunch, he’d had his medication, and he was ready for a nap.
The commons was quiet, the great screen showing Games on mute. There was a lone lizard, five feet tall with a striped tail, reading a book while curled up in an armchair.
Izumo politely ignored him, curled himself up in a little ball with his face hidden behind his knees, and drifted off to sleep, sun filtering over his hair and jeans like a warm blanket. Perfect.
Sophie liked these quiet times for cleaning. Right now she was sweeping off everything. Everything, because the drones hit the high spots. She’s already asked the lizard to move his arm so she could get the wooden bit on the arm rest. Now she moved to get the window that was always blocked by that couch. Sophie wondered if she could move it.
As she turned the corner, Sophie jumped and squeaked as she found someone on the couch. She didn’t recognize him, not that she could see much of him but his ridiculously colored socks. They were a hideous color combination. Whoever he was, he was hindering Sophie’s dusting. In the bright light, Sophie could see the dust motes landing on his head. Sophie swiped off the gathering motes and turned to wipe down the window panes.
Izumo woke up at the squeak and lifted his head as something brushed over it. He...what? He blinked at the apron strings dangling in front of his nose, then looked up. Ah. Woman. He’d seen that little knot of reddish gold hair. He sat up and watched her flutter her feathery thing around. Duster. That was it.
“Did you just dust me?” he asked, somewhat muzzily. He didn’t do well being woken up out of a nap suddenly.
Sophie whipped her head around to look at him. She pinned him with a dissecting look, decided he was probably no danger, and huffed. “You were the one gathering dust.” Then she went back to her dusting.
“...do you always dust people instead of saying hello?” Izumo wanted to know, pulling his knees up to his chin.
“You,” Sophie replied. “Were sleeping.”
“Uh-huh.” Izumo yawned and rubbed at his face. “Um. Hi. I’m Izumo. It’s nice to meet you. And you are...?”
“Sophie. Sophie Hatter. I’m a cleaning witch,” Sophie dared him to say anything about her being a witch. Some people seemed to find that disturbing.
“What’s a cleaning witch?” Izumo wanted to know. The obvious answer was a witch that cleaned, but Izumo still wasn’t clear on what a witch was. Maybe Sophie could give him a good explanation, though as short as she was being, Izumo doubted it.
“A witch that cleans things. Like people who laze about and collect dust.” Sophie punctuated this with a final swipe of the windowsill and turned back around.
Oh dear. He would be very handsome, wouldn’t he?
“I wasn’t lazing.” Izumo ducked his head behind his knees and yawned. He popped back up and offered Sophie a little grin, tentative. “I was taking a well-earned nap. I worked hard last night.” He nodded seriously.
“Oh, did you?” Sophie didn’t doubt it, actually. Most of the people worked hard at something, whether it was getting home or causing trouble. Sophie silently labelled this man the jack in the box as he folded and unfolded himself at will.
“Yes. I work in the club.” Izumo nodded again. “It was nice and sunny and warm right here, you see, so I thought I’d take a nap.” He decided he liked the pattern of Sophie’s dress, little tiny flowers woven into the fabric. He looked up at her, chin still on his knees, arms loosely clasped around them. “So what exactly is a witch, anyway? I’ve been trying to find out but nobody’s explained it to me.”
Sophie knocked Izumo off into a different category of people and catalogued that his face was full of metal.
“A witch is a woman who uses magic,” Sophie explained simply.
Izumo made a slight face. Magic he’d had explained several times, and at least three of those had been the same explanation, but other than that, none of them had agreed on anything. Well, anything other than ‘mystical unexplainable force.’ “Uh. Thanks. We don’t have either of those where I’m from.” He shrugged. “Well, I’m learning a lot, anyway.”
“If you don’t have witches, what do you have?” Sophie asked, curious. She set one hand on her hip.
“Ninja and demons,” Izumo answered, with a little grin. It was a funny answer, really. He shifted, and slipped his legs down one after the other. He patted the couch cushion beside him in a friendly inviting gesture - if they were going to talk, she might as well sit down, right?
His jeans and dark navy Tshirt soaked up the sun, as did his jet-black hair. Izumo loved the sensation and was still feeling decidedly drowsy.
Sophie considered the offer, then decided that was not at all what she wanted to do. Sitting on a couch with a strange man in such a private little corner? No, she would not.
“What is a ninja? We have demons.” She wondered if theirs were anything like Calcifer.
“I’m a ninja. We’re sneaky soldiers.” Izumo nodded. That was a better explanation. People tended to look down on spies and assassins, after all, so being sneaky was better. Got him fewer appalled looks at least.
“So you’re some kind of spy?” Sophie didn’t like the word “Sneaky”. It made Izumo sound very dishonest. He looked rather honest where he slouched into the couch. Mostly he looked lazy.
“Well, yes, but most people don’t like me much if I say it plain like that.” Sophie looked like she didn’t care - or at least like she disapproved of the whole of him anyway, in which case Izumo hadn’t much to lose. She was pretty, in a homely kind of way, a nice comfortable sort of pretty. Izumo wondered if he could make her like him, or if this was a lost cause. Very prim and proper she looked.
“If people don’t like what you are, there isn’t much point in hiding it. They’ll find out eventually, and then they’re going to like you less.” Sophie didn’t have much room to talk about that. She’d entered Howl’s under the pretense of cleaning, but everyone had already known what she was. You often were not half as clever as you tended to think you were.
“It doesn’t come up a lot, really. It’s not like I’m going to get hired or anything.” Izumo shrugged. “I probably make a better bartender than spy.” Not really, he was better at undercover work. A lot better. But it only applied here in soft secret ways, as if his whole life here was just another mission. Izumo didn’t mind. It was a comfortable kind of feeling, honestly.
Sophie didn’t know what to make of that statement. She eyed Izumo. Maybe she just didn’t want to like him because he was handsome and she was reminded of Howl. “Half truths are worse than lies.”
Izumo blinked at her. “Why? It’s still not telling all the truth. So wouldn’t it be just as bad as lying?”
Granted, he saw nothing wrong with lying. Everyone lied. There was no moral high ground anywhere except in people’s hypocrisy.
“Because. They get more out of hand,” Sophie waved a hand with a dusting rag, releasing a cloud of dust. Drat it!
“Get back in there!” The puff did not reverse itself, but, as she swiped at it, it clung back to the cloth.
Izumo twitched, as a funny jangly note bounced inside his head. It was the not-chakra like Dave, the high highest note he’d heard-sensed ever, and it rattled He shook his head. Okay, so today he was sensing chakra. Nice to know. It was just sometimes he caught Dave’s thing, even when he was sensing chakra. He figured it had to be just right for him to tell. Apparently Sophie’s trick with the dust, right at eye-level, was just right.
“So was that magic?” he asked, and shook his head again. It didn’t help but it made him feel better about it.
“Yes.” Sophie didn’t know if she wanted people to under or overestimate her. She didn’t really know what all she could do, so she wasn’t sure which would be better.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to finish cleaning,” Sophie added.
“Oh, alright.” Izumo got to his feet, and turned to face Sophie. He bowed politely. “It was nice meeting you.”
See, he had good manners and was trustworthy. So there.
People did not bow at Sophie. She was a hat maker, or a witch, or a cleaning woman. She wasn’t someone people normally bowed to for any reason. That and that alone was the only reason her cheeks pinked.
She didn’t know if she wanted to smack him on the head or not.
Well that was an interesting expression. Izumo smiled at her, his best, cheerful, harmless grin and considered vaulting over the back of the couch for escape. He glanced that way, quickly, making sure his path was clear.
My what big teeth you have mister crocodile. Sophie remembered the old children’s rhyme as she stared at Izumo head.He looked like he was trying to get away with something or get out of something. Sophie had no idea what, but obviously she was missing something. Howl always tried to be polite and sweet before he bolted.
Sophie huffed, eyeing Izumo critically. “Well, go if you’re going. I don’t care what mischief you’re planning, as long as you leave me and the spiders alone.”
“Why would I bother the spiders?” Izumo wanted to know, genuinely curious.
“Some people have a vendetta against them,” Sophie explained with a scowl. Izumo looked like someone who would be silly about spiders.
“But spiders are good,” Izumo mused. “Unless they’re in my shoes. Or, you know, ten feet across, in which case I pretty much don’t like them.”
Then again, who would?
Sophie felt a little faint at the thought of ten foot spiders. She could see them, though. It sounded like something she should have encountered when she was dealing with the Witch of the Waste.
“Good.” Sophie nodded briskly.
“But if you clean, and you like spiders, what do you do when they build webs in the corners?” This was a very pressing question, if Izumo’s tone and expression were anything to go by. Which they weren’t but Sophie didn’t need to know he only wanted to talk to her more and figure her out.
New people were fun and she hadn’t hit him yet.
Sophie gave Izumo a disgruntled look. “Because spiders have to build a new web everyday! I might as well clean out the old ones. You think spiders like living in filth?” Sophie asked, stabbing her dust rag at Izumo before she moved out to dust off the running board.
“I suppose not,” Izumo called after her, amused.
“Of course they don’t. Spiders are more sensible than that!” Sophie actually knew nothing about the sensibility of spiders, but they couldn’t be that unsensible. Maybe just a little silly.
“What do you think of mice, Miss Sophie?” Izumo unfolded himself and pattered after her as she dusted, careful to stay out of the way. She was more amusing than a nap.
“Mice...” Sophie scoffed. “Mice are a nuisance that get into everything and chew it up! They belong outside.”
“But what if they’re good mice and don’t chew holes?” Izumo was actually pretty sure the little blue mice chewed holes. And he’d found other things with unexpected, tiny teethmarks. But he’d found no droppings. The only leavings had been the nutshells left behind. “So you’d trap them?” Heaven forbid.
“I have never met a mouse that didn’t chew holes,” Sophie huffed. And eat hat makings, though maybe she shouldn’t be mad at them for that.
Sophie scowled. “I suppose I’d have to find some way to keep them out of things.” Mouse deterrent charms would work best, though.
“Well, their teeth are always growing, so chewing keeps it down,” Izumo admitted. “But mice are nice.” Much better than rats.
Sophie gave Izumo a sharp look. “I have never met a nice mouse.”
Izumo frowned at her. See how hurt he was? Very much so. “I have.”
“I suppose you would have.” It didn’t mean that they actually were nice mice. “Did they talk?”
“No.” Izumo paused, glancing at the floor under the couch. Then he grinned and crouched, digging in his hoodie pouch. He chirped a few whistles - a very shy peep answered him. But when he held out the seeds, it didn’t take longer than ten seconds before the mouse crept out. It sprang into his hand and started in on the seeds.
Izumo raised his other hand, slowly, and beamed brightly in delight when the mouse let him stroke the soft fur between its blue ears.
“I bet you’re here because it’s so quiet today, huh?” he asked the mouse, voice whisper soft..
Sophie did not shriek, though she did have the gut reaction to throw something at the mouse. Yes, it was cute, but those page boys had been cute before they turned into goo and had tried to suffocate her.
When the mouse crawled into Izumo’s hands, Sophie decided he was using some kind of magic. Certainly, she didn’t know how a blue mouse should act, but she didn’t think it should crawl into someone’s hand like that. It definately looked like it was capable of a lot of chewing.
Sophie sighed. First spiders and now mice! Why did people have such weird attachments to pests? “Fine, I’ll leave your mice alone, but if anyone complains to me about them, I’m sending them to you.”
“Oh, they’re not mine. They live here. But they’re very tame.” Izumo petted the mouse against with a fingertip. It reached up with its teeny paws, grabbed his fingertip, and tasted it. Izumo chuckled as tiny sharp teeth pressed against his skin. It decided he was not edible and let go, grabbing one last seed and shoving it into its mouth before leaping away. Izumo laughed and got to his feet again.
“I am not a seed,” he informed Sophie, inspecting his finger. No marks on the skin at all. “I do not taste good.”
“You’re responsible for them,” Sophie informed Izumo firmly. It didn’t matter if they were his or not, he was the one dragging them in here and feeding them. That made them Izumo’s problem.
Sophie watched Izumo and decided he was a very silly man.
Izumo gave her a puzzled look. “They’re responsible for themselves. I’m just helping them.”
“You’re feeding them and encouraging them to stay inside. You’re responsible for them,” Sophie demanded firmly, frowning at Izumo.
“...they’re wild. They do what they want. I’m just feeding them every now and then.” Izumo frowned at her a little. “No different than feeding birds.” People did that all the time. Sophie had wierd ideas of responsibility, Izumo decided, and also decided she was probably quite young.
“People feed birds outside,” Sophie pointed out. Feeding mice inside when mice were supposed to love outside was a completely different thin. Sophie wondered if Izumo was just stupid or if he was being purposefully difficult.
“And I don’t care. If someone complains to me about mice, I will tell them to take up their complaint with you.” Sophie huffed.
“Mice go in and out,” Izumo pointed out. He hadn’t ever lived in nice enough housing to realize mice shouldn’t be in a house. “And they should complain to someone else. It’s not like I could get rid of them or anything.”
“You’re encouraging them to stay in!” Sophie threw her hands up. She had dusting to do. Izumo could be ridiculous somewhere else!
Izumo blinked, startled. He backed away a careful step, eyeing Sophie with wariness. “No... I’m not...that’s the cafeterias. And whoever else keeps food in their rooms.”
Sophie whirled around and shook her rag at Izumo. “You just fed it!”
With a startled yelp Izumo shot over the back of the couch and skidded on the floor. He didn’t go far, just enough to put good space between him and the angry woman. He was not getting hit or cursed or whatever.
When Izumo ran, Sophie just felt more frustrated with him. She threw her hands in the air and stumped off to dust somewhere else where people made sense!
“Well, goodbye!” Izumo called after her.