1 / Establishment of Routine

[syncingdoll]

Characters: Kohaku and a game of fill-in-the-blank. ..as in, you fill in the blank.
Setting: Dormitories, floors quickly accessible from the dormitories.
Format: Prose, but I like action brackets too.
Summary: The real question is "what now?"
Warnings: If you haven't seen Kohaku's opt-out thread yet, take a gander.

'Let's all be happy here.'
Kohaku's smile hadn't twitched as she read over the letter again, and it remained fixed as she calmly folded the document back up, and laid it beside herself upon the bed. Absently she smoothed out some of the wrinkles she'd created in the cover from getting up earlier.

"Maybe the apocalypse happened when I blinked my eyes.. that's really inconvenient."

'Inconvenient' was a light word. For a while, Kohaku stared at her hand, trying to work out what to do next past what she'd done automatically already. Looking over the letter was something she'd done the day she arrived, but that was at least yesterday - reading it again had just been a strange affirmation. She'd probably do it again the next morning.

What next..? The door to room 2-07 clicked behind her, and the hall provided no more ideas than the back of her hand had, save a direction to walk.

Comments

[moontothetide]

"Oh."

Tara is currently standing a few feet down the hallway, having just paused in the act of returning to 2-07. She hadn't expected anyone else to come out of the room, and so the sight of Kohaku startles her a bit.

Granted, there were four beds inside, and she'd only accounted for herself and Fran thus far, but her all but shattered nerves had been hoping for a rest without having to put up with any new faces.

Even so, she puts on a smile for the other girl. "H-Hi. I-Is this your room, too?"

[syncingdoll]

Well, well. She meets another of her wayward roommates. Kohaku takes a few steps back clear of Tara's access to the doorway, and so that she can consult with the nameplate by the door.

"It seems like it will be from now on. I've met Kirigiri-san already, so.. you must be Fran or Tara?"

[moontothetide]

"Um, Tara." She holds out her hand to shake. "I-I'm Tara. I met Fran...yesterday. I think. It's...k-kind of hard to tell, here."

Tara offers the girl a soft smile. "W-What's your name?"

[syncingdoll]

Oh, a handshake! She hasn't had the opportunity for one of those in a long while. The offer's accepted a bit energetically.

"Ah, I see. So there's only one mystery roommate left for me now... I'll have to be extra on the lookout so I can complete the set."

It's a little concerning that she's talking about people in sets like you'd gather up a product line of toys, but.. maybe she's just quirky.

"It's Kohaku."

[moontothetide]

...probably just quirky. Heck, after a couple of years in Buffy's company, it barely registers for Tara. Buffy Summers, as far as she's concerned, takes the cake, pie, and tablecloth on the quirky speech front.

She smiles at the energetic handshake. Kohaku is certainly one of the most normal looking people she's met thus far...the others being a fish man, a bunny girl, and a demon...so she's actually at ease, more or less.

"A-And she's nice. Fran, I mean. Sh-She just got here, like we did, but she's nice."

>mention hands not being visible in comment >PICK ICON WITH VISIBLE HANDS, GOTTA FIX

[syncingdoll]

Ah, but at least Buffy didn't run away with the table, too!

Kohaku's seen a few of the odder residents, but not directly approached any - her first day or so has been a bit of an empty daze.

Handshake complete, Kohaku folds her hands behind her back, used to falling into the posture. "That's good. It wouldn't due to be rooming with someone too unpleasant, since sleeping would turn difficult. Hm.. I think our whole room is brand new."

[moontothetide]

"Really?"

Tara opens the door and peers inside, frowning curiously. She stares around the space they're due to call their own, from her own bed - barely touched - to the other three. Of course, before now, she hadn't looked terribly hard at the room. She'd had other things on her mind. "W-What makes you say that?"

[syncingdoll]

"Ahah! Well, I meant the people, but it does all look rather sterile, doesn't it?"

Kohaku peers into the room after Tara, so that she can actually point at things as she mentions them -

"The way the sheets and blankets wrinkled is different from something that's seen a good amount of use before, and there aren't really any scuffs on the walls or floor, despite the color. Um.."

Then she notices where a flower or two had fallen unnoticed out of her own trunk when she'd sorted through it to get to her clothes. Whoops.

[moontothetide]

Tara looks obediently at each part in turn. Sure enough, Kohaku is right. For a room that has the capacity to hold four people, it sure as hell looks like at least three of those people are the first residents it's seen in a while.

"I see what you mean."

Tara's trunk is half open as well. It's clear she's still in the process of settling in. A few articles of clothing sit neatly folded on her made bed, and a couple of books can be seen peeking out from under the lid of her trunk.

[syncingdoll]

Kohaku peers at the books a bit, trying to get an approximation of a theme between them from the titles and covers - you can learn a lot about someone from their choice in literature.

"Oh, good. I'm not sure whether I'm more comfortable in a new room or something already broken in, though."

[moontothetide]

A college textbook on what appears to be marine sciences and a paperback book with a dreamy looking woman in a wizard's robe on the spine. Kohaku can make of that what she likes.

"I know what you mean." Tara steps properly inside the room and then steps aside, so Kohaku can join her. "Um...I wonder how long it's been like this. Empty, I mean. Before w-we got here."

[syncingdoll]

"Ohh! is that the new installment of Harriet Potter?"

Duly noted. Kohaku will theorize on those tomes of extrapolated knowledge later~!

"Either not used at all, converted into a bedroom from something else, or filled with other people that aren't here now... which could it be. Maybe there's a clue somewhere."

Kohaku slips in then hovers by her bed, wondering whether she should nudge the misplaced flowers out of view or not. It's only a vague chance that Tara will recognize them as morning glories, and even looser that knowledge will cause any concern, right? It's not like she saw an advanced guide to hallucinogenic plants in that book pile.

[moontothetide]

There's more than one? News to Tara.

Kohaku is saved by count three. Tara did indeed notice the flowers, and as a witch she'd recognize morning glories at ten feet. But, well...they're just flowers, and she's not getting the faintest sense that Kohaku is a witch in the sense she knows it. She probably just likes flowers. Tara makes a mental note to show her the meadow later. All newcomers should find the meadow.

"Th-That's what I thought. I thought...m-maybe they were turned into rooms, just for us. The, um, the people here s-seemed to know we were coming. I mean...I woke up with a letter. Did, did you, Kohaku?"

[syncingdoll]

Saved on one count works for 'em all!

"Yes. What did it say..."

Kohaku doesn't even need to glance at the original document to quote it - she closes her eyes, and recites the exact text:

"'Your world has been destroyed. I saved you. Let's all be happy here.'"

[moontothetide]

Tara crosses over to her trunk and nudges it open with her toe. She stares moodily down at the tangle of clothes, books, and miscellaneous magical assists, before bending down and starting to sort through her things.

"I-I...I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we? I-If everything's gone..."

[syncingdoll]

"..a choice? I don't know what sort of choice there would even be. We're just here."

While Tara's contemplating the depths of her trunk, Kohaku goes ahead and sweeps those flowers out of sight as she'd planned.

[moontothetide]

"Being..."happy". I-I, I meant about...being happy."

Tara pulls out a skirt pattered with waves and starts to fold it. " 'L-Let's be happy here'. When there's...m-monsters and ghosts a-and...worse. It's...a little like home."

[syncingdoll]

"..Oh."

She legitimately hadn't caught that, whoops.

"..Eheh, danger like that is a little more familiar than I'd like to admit. Being happy in spite is the option I do prefer, though."

Honesty is best when the context is twisted such that the other party won't press for more. ..hopefully, this is one of those moments.

[moontothetide]

"Oh?"

Unfortunately for Kohaku, she's one of the few people Tara has met that both looks human and is not her ex-girlfriend. She's looking to make friends.

"I-I guess, um, lots of people come from dangerous places." Here her smile is bright and hopeful, for distraction and conversation both.

"...w-what was your home like? I-If you don't mind talking about it, I mean."

[syncingdoll]

She minds, but announcing such would be nothing but suspicious. Kohaku leans her head to the side and thinks. How to word this safely...

"I was never too involved with these things, but.. There were at least a few families that preserved unusual abilities amongst themselves, like a demonic bloodline or a bloodline that enjoyed hunting demons in return. Feuds like that were faded to history as I knew them, though."

'Never too involved' was a flagrant lie, seeing as she's a branch descendant of one of those unusual families herself. It's not like she's anything like a demon hunter, though.

[moontothetide]

"Oh. S-So...demons exist in your world, too?"

'Demonic bloodlines'. Tara can't help but give a slight shudder at that. Once upon a time, that was her. Or so she'd been told all her life. Finding out otherwise had been a relief beyond words.

"We had...s-something like that back home, too. W-Well, one family. One girl."

[syncingdoll]

"That's right."

She'd read the records over herself, but Kohaku's sure fathoming an actual demon is too far beyond her - just the far-off descendants of them are complex enough.

"..ah, so her family had dwindled just to herself?" That sounded rather familiar, too.

[moontothetide]

"S-Sort of. It's...only ever just her. But, um, there has to be someone before, and...someone after. S-So it's kind of like a bloodline, only with magic, and a lot more dying. When one dies, another one takes her place. B-But she changed things. She m-made it so there could be two."

Tara smiles a soft and sad little smile.

"...her name was Buffy.

[syncingdoll]

Oh, a name. This is starting to ring a little more of a personal story than an account of the state of a world.

"It sounds a little bit like a chosen one you'd see in the plot of a fantasy.." She could see it now: demon knight Buffy, the reluctant heroine! And in season two, that's when she'd be joined by the new secondary demon knight, named...!

..well, she hadn't gotten the second season newcomer's name yet.

"How did she do that?"

[moontothetide]

"I-I don't know." It's clear that she wishes she did, though, that this is information that she's always wanted even if she could never gather up the courage to seek out. "Um...b-before my time. I-It's only supposed to happen if they die, but, um, somehow Buffy didn't."

Tara had had only one encounter with the errant and wild Faith. It had been most decidedly uncomfortable, not least because Tara had seen through a disguise that had fooled everyone else for days.

"...lots of girls have the potential. M-Maybe Faith just...had a lot of it."