ioduanlogs | Catch All for February (Open)

Entry tags:

Catch All for February (Open)

Characters: Sheena and YOU!
Date: All of February
Location: All over Aifaran
Situation: Getting blamed for things, Checking out Buildings, running away from fans...
Warnings/Rating: None

A: Faith--Spirit of Mis-Fortune

"Stop!"

Feeling her arm roughly grabbed, Sheena doesn't bother looking before twisting and flipping the person over and onto the ground. Placing her foot on the person's chest, she puts her hands on her hips and glares at them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

B: Commerce--Favorable Bank Error

Anyone who knows Sheena would realize something is different about her today. There seems to be a happy bounce to her step as she wanders the city from empty building to empty building, peering inside and taking pictures and making notes, seemingly oblivious to anyone who may be following her.

There's even some humming going on as she works. And if people get close enough, they'll see her actually pinch herself with an "ow" and a quiet, "Yep, this is real" before going on her way.

C: Art--Going Viral

Sheena's a pretty fast runner, but even she's having a hard time keeping ahead of the shouting crowd behind her. Variations of declarations of "loving her" can be heard as she passes business after business before seeing her chance to escape.

Timing things just right, she leaps on and over a heavily-laden cart, putting it between her and the crowd and using it as cover for where she really goes.

From her new perch on the roof of the nearest building, she watches the mob run by, shouting her name and declarations before turning and sinking down with a sigh.

"What the hell was that all about?"

D: Wildcard

Want to do something else? Meet up with her elsewhere? No problem!

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As it happens, Judai had been taking a nap on this roof and had gotten up to take a gander at the commotion below.

"Looks like you've gotten pretty popular!"

He watches the crowd run past a moment more, then turns to her. "You sure you don't know what that was about?"

Sheena had been so focused on the mob, that she hadn't even seen that someone was up here. Good thing she hadn't landed on him!

Peering over the edge, she chokes back an exclamation of surprise as the crowd seems to have grown slightly larger. Sinking back down, she shakes her head.

"Tell me about it! And I have no idea why!" She looks at the young man warily. "You're not going to start saying the things they are, are you?"

"I don't think I am!"

He'd probably notice if he were. Heh.

"At least they don't seem angry." Quite the opposite, actually. "I could go down and ask, but you'll have to stay out of sight."

With the fervor the mob's showing, he actually isn't sure how viable staying out of sight is.

"That's good," she sighs.

Peeking around to look at the crowd again, she mutters, "Angry would be better. I'm used to dealing with angry."

Looking back at him, she shakes her head. "I can probably stay out of sight." A comment that shows she's thinking the same thing about the mob. "But I can't ask you do that! What if they start chasing you?"

He really wants to know why she's more used to dealing with an angry mob...but that can come later, probably!

"I'm really good at losing crowds." Which is actually an exaggeration; what would be more accurate to say is that he has some tricks up his sleeve. Sounds like Sheena has some herself, though.

"Meet you back at the Dreaming Bridge?"

She may tell you--if you ask. Okay, she'll definitely tell you.

Sheena glances in the direction of the mob. "I hope so, because this one seems pretty determined." She'd really hate for him to have to go through this, and she sits there, mulling over her decision. Finally, she nods. This might be the only way to get away.

"All right. I'll meet you there! But be careful."

"Don't worry about it! See you later."

He goes to the side of the building adjacent to the crowd, and jumps down. From there, it's a simple matter to tap someone on the shoulder and ask what's going on, and then pretend enthusiasm (which isn't hard, he's been an enthusiastic person for much of his life and habits don't go away that easily), and when he gets back to the Dreaming Bridge, he has a big excited grin on his face.

"Shee~na!" ...Whoops. Having learned her name from the crowd, he...probably shouldn't be shouting it when a rousing crowd is also looking for her.

—Too late. One of her fans has overheard. Judai has to quickly run away and lose them by rounding a corner and scaling the building before they can see where he went.

"Whew!" He straightens. "Now where can she be...?"

"Okay."

She watches as he leaves, doing a silent count to ten before making her move away from the sudden burst of sound. Just what is he doing? Whatever it is, it's working, as she makes it to the Dreaming Bridge undetected.

Up on the roof, she's peering over the edge when she hears her name, and immediately draws back to seek a secluded place up here to hide just in case. Finding one, she remains still, her breathing slow and quiet when she hears someone else on the roof.

Oh, great. There goes this hiding-- Oh.

Leaving her spot, she makes her way over to him and taps him on the shoulder and answers his question.

"I'm right behind you."

He jumps at the tap on his shoulder, but relaxes when he sees who it is. “There you are!”

Just the person he wanted to see! (Never mind that he was looking for her. Shh.) "How come you didn't tell me your Xa Xa was so good?"

Please excuse how vague and unhelpful he's being, Sheena...he's excited.

Fitz thuds into the ground, too astonished to land properly. He had grabbed this girl unwisely, certainly, but he had not expected her to be quite so strong.

He holds up her bag of groceries.

"I... you forgot these, madam," he wheezes.

"What?"

Spying the bag, Sheena's anger quickly turns to embarrassed shock as she looks at her hands and realizes that they're empty. Immediately stepping back, she holds her hand out to help him up.

"I am so sorry about that! Are you all right?"

Fitz would not ordinarily expect physical help from someone who appears to be a lady, not a farmgirl or a guard, yet this girl is quite clearly capable. He takes her hand and she helps him up most competently. "Perfectly," he says, redfaced. "It was my mistake."

On 28 February 2018 at 05:32, ninjainviolet - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

Well, appearances can be deceiving--which is exactly what Sheena had been trained in. However, when it gets an innocent person thrown around for no reason...

Then she's going to help them.

Releasing his hand once he's up, she takes another look at him. "Are you sure? And it's not your fault," she says with a shake of her head. "I should have looked first, since you really didn't sound like everyone else who had been yelling for me to stop."

Quite mortified, he rubs instinctively at the sore spot on his elbow. Truly, he should be better than this. There are various guard captains back at Buckkeep who would chortle with laughter at him.

"I thank you," he says, as gracefully as he can manage. He does not fault her. "Are you in need of assistance? It seems foolish to offer, given this..."

Whoops. "I'm sorry," she says, nodding to his elbow. "Is it bad? Some ice would probably help." And she'll start glancing around to see if there's any place they can get some.

"You're welcome," she says. It's the least she can do since she had put him on the ground in the first place. She gives his offer some serious thought for a moment before replying.

"No, it's not foolish, and I think I am in need of help." She just hates asking for it. "If only to make sure no one else gets hurt."

"I will ice it when I may. I've had worse," he smiles at her, not wanting her to feel overly guilty. It was his own foolishness, after all, and she should not feel at fault for having excellent physical skills and reflexes. He is fine.

...he is similarly terrible at requesting assistance of others.

"What can I do?"

On 14 March 2018 at 11:13, ninjainviolet - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

It's not unusual for Sheena to be happy, but there's something about her gait that stops Zelos in his tracks when he spots her. It's way too bouncy. She's happy with purpose. He has no idea whether to be terrified or not.

When Sheena leaves the second empty building, humming and bouncing, Zelos ambushes her. The ambush consists of grabbing her from behind, arms wrapped around her waist, wearing a huge over-compensating grin and hanging off her shoulder. "Heeeeeey," he says, in that smarmy manner so many people back in Tethe'alla associated with the Chosen. Then: "What's real? Aifaran? Yep, sure is."

Zelos is actually pretty lucky that Sheena is in such a good mood. Otherwise, her reaction may have been just a little bit more on the violent side.

As it stands, the moment she realizes who it is--thanks to the red hair and cheesy grin--the flip over her shoulder she had reached behind her for is replaced with an elbow to his torso. "Zelos! You idiot! What do you think you're doing? I should hit you for that!"

The elbow to the torso hurts about as much as it ever does. Which is to say, it's excruciatingly painful, and Zelos folds over with the pain. "You did," he manages to say, his voice a lot weaker and croakier than it was seconds beforehand. "Just now." Goddess damn it Sheena why can't you ever just be happy to see him. "Is your memory going in your old age?"

... And that last comment is going to get him hit again, so Zelos dodges backwards and puts the grin back on his face, hands up in surrender. "I'm joking, I'm joking! I just wanted to know what you're so happy about. It can't have been hitting me, because you looked happy before that. What's up?"

"Well, you startled me!" she says defensively, stepping away. She actually is glad to see him, she's just not very good at being surprised...from behind. Turning, she's sees the state he's in and is about to apologize, when he lets loose with that comment.

Cue the hands balling into fists and a sound almost like a growl coming from her as she starts to take a step towards him--halting in mid-stride as he "surrenders". She looks at him in surprise, trying to recall if he had ever done that before and coming up empty. "You know, there are better ways to ask than sneaking up on someone and grabbing them, Zelos!" she says, relaxing and opening her fists. Smiling, she nods as though coming to a decision. "But if you want to know, I'll show you."

And she'll just grab his arm and start pulling him back towards the last empty building she had been looking at.

"Ow!" She's dragging him before Zelos fully recovers from the elbow to the torso. Okay, clearly he's going to have to start preemptively turning feeling off around Sheena. She's dangerous, and he... keeps forgetting he can do that now.

Contrary to pretty much everything Zelos stands for, he bites back a joke about how he thought Sheena was happy with exhibitionism, and instead frowns at the building he's dragged to when they get there. "Okay," he says slowly. "Not quite what I had in mind. What's it for?"

Or, he could just talk to her about it. She'd be able to pull her punches. She's done it before. And she'll do it again if it'll keep him from losing any part of himself.

Looking at the building, Sheena is once again barely bouncing. Not even Zelos' confusion dampens her spirit. Looking at him, she points at the place.

"I got some extra money, so I decided to open a Tea Shop!" Huge smile and a blink or two as an idea hits her.

"Wanna go into business with me?"

Zelos? Talk about what he's feeling? Uh-huh.

"You got extra money, and you're going to use it to open a shop?" He sounds shocked, like Sheena just suggested going to a hot spring and not peeking at all the female bathers. "You could move out of the Bridge! You could live here! Why would you open a shop?" After a pause: "Why would you want me to run the shop?"

Hey. It could happen! Proooobably around the same time Sheena becomes more honest with some of the things she keeps quiet about.

"Well, Tea House, actually," she explains, almost missing his shock. Noting it, she looks at him in confusion. "Why do you sound so surprised? I've run one before, remember?" As for where she'll live, she's okay where she is right now. Her turn to pause before looking him straight in the eye and saying two words.

"Why not?"

Edited 2018-03-04 16:44 (UTC)

"Yeah, but that was in Keeliai. Didn't Keeliai burn down a few thousand years ago?" Zelos looks the empty building up and down. "You really want to run a tea shop again?"

It's not that Zelos thinks Sheena wouldn't be able to manage it spectacularly. It's more that he's used to stagnating. When you're rich and you have people to do everything for you, losing things you care about tends to send you spiralling, not into determined production and self-improvement.

He admires Sheena's fortitude, even if he'd never admit it.

At the last question, Zelos gives Sheena a bemused look. "What do you mean, why not? Because the most I've ever done is make a few non-alcoholic cocktails every week. I have no idea how to run a shop. Other people run shops, I just --"

-- do nothing? Without any way to end the sentence, Zelos trails off.

She gives him a look. "It hasn't been that long. What's the matter? Your old age making you forget things?" she asks impishly--and with a smile. Following his gaze, she nods. "Yes, I do." Facing him, she continues. "For several reasons--like keeping me focused."

Yes, Zelos, you're not the only one who's felt that spiraling. Sheena's just found away to deal with it besides blasting trees with Lightning Bolts. And she wants to share it with him as way to stay connected.

His trailing off catches her attention, and she shakes her head. "Just what I said," she retorts, folding her arms across her chest. "Okay, so you made drinks, but you learned how to do it, right? Just like you learned how to use a sword. So, you can learn how to do that."

Translation: She has faith in you, Zelos.

Edited 2018-03-05 01:01 (UTC)

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Catch All for February (Open)

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