Interaction 003 ☣ You can’t be tethered to a ghost; to a memory; you’ve got to swim

[irreverence]

Characters: Asagi, Open
Setting: Around the Tower.
Format: any!
Summary: All pumpkin all the time doesn't really work for Asagi. Later, the shadow children pick the very worst target.
Warnings: Heinous violence against shadow children in the third one.


[Floor Sixty-Three]

[At intervals from about noon onwards, someone may come across Asagi hopping out of the water here to switch tanks before diving back in. She's clad in a skintight, bright red leotard with yellow stripes and a pair of matching thigh-high boots- which is the only thing she has to wear that she doesn't mind getting wet. There's a bag near the tanks with more clothes in it- taking it will probably make her hunt you down and tear your spine out for it.

For the time she's out of the water she's more than glad to talk, though asking what she's up to might not get an answer straight away.]



[Floor Sixty]

[This kitchen is a lot like the one back at what she can, she supposes, call 'home'. Big, impersonal, spotless- at least, it is until Asagi drops two very large fish into either side of one of the big sinks and beheads them with a flash of the cloneblade. Then she's off to go looking for knives and pans and bowls, and is surprised to find that there are, at the very least, spices in the cabinets- so her meal won't be bland, at the very least.

Everything she does to prepare things is methodical, precise- as if she's following something step-by-step in her head. Essentially, she is, having only read about preparing fish before deciding to make some for herself.

Clearly there is no way this can go wrong.]



[Floor Twenty-Eight]

[The instrument room is probably the last place anyone would expect to find Asagi. But it's where she is a little before sundown, messing around with some of the instruments, tuning one or another if she hears something wrong. She's at it for a bit longer than she thinks, because she's very suddenly aware of a presence on the floor that isn't a normal one.

She tenses further when the voice starts.]

Asagi-san, how can you... how can you possibly live with yourself? How, when your sisters-!

[She straightens from plucking at the strings to a koto and rolls her neck, enjoying the sound her vertebrae make as they pop before letting her eyes land on the shadowy figure creeping around her.]

Gee, I dunno. Probably cause I'm, y'know, alive? For a measure of the word, in any case.

[Her eyes track it as it creeps behind her, and she turns slowly on a heel to follow it, expression mild. The voice returns.]

How can you be so cold? I put myself out there for you when Ihose you, and this is how you thank me?

[A scoff, finger coming up to her mouth.]

Be grateful I didn't thank you by taking you out myself, Aoi. You were an embarrassment, going out like that.

[The thing twitches, a visible shudder passing over it- and then, as if summoned, another one appears, speaking in a different voice.]

How dare you? I'm the reason you're here and you don't even think about-!

[Wrong decision. The hand not at her mouth flexes at her side, and now-knifelike nails spear the shadow child against a wall. Asagi closes in with languid steps, dropping her hand from her mouth to yawn.]

The thing about that decision was-

[Her tone is conversational, even as her hand turns to one side, giving the other space to come up and slam in knuckle-deep with fingers like knives and twist, beginning to crack its chest cavity open idly.]

-it was a really bad one.

[The thing squirms, but not because of any pain- it can't do anything to her, so it wants to get away. A slam of a prehensile blade of hair between that mocking white grin and it stops for a moment, twitching. She finishes cracking its chest cavity open with a grunt of satisfaction, and tilts her head mockingly.]

What do you know. Empty, just like her.

[The blades all withdraw, and the instant they do, the stupid thing skitters away, rejoining the other and staring at her briefly before vanishing down the stairs. Asagi droops, her shoulders and head seeming to go slack, and she sighs dramatically, shaking her arms a bit as the cloneblades recede.]

...man, now I need to kill something that will actually die.

[Her life is so hard- but feel free to have noticed that little display- but ask about it at your own risk.]

Comments

floor 60

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer appears on the floor, right next to the staircase.]

Hey, little lady. Get a little tired of pumpkins lately?

[irreverence]

[She looks up briefly from carefully filleting a shark into precise steaks and shrugs before returning to her work.]

What can I say? Vegetarianism isn't for me.

[puppy_lancer]

Don't blame you.

[He sees the two fish.]

And you caught both of them?

[irreverence]

I didn't think you'd much care for it either.

[She looks between them and him and cracks a smirk, nodding.]

Yeah. Had to wrestle 'em out, but not like they could jump back in the water after I got 'em out.

[puppy_lancer]

Good job. Next time I'll lend you my fishing pole if you don't feel like getting wet.

[irreverence]

Nah, I figure if I'm gonna go hunting for food, I might as well get a little hands on, you know?

[She pauses to toss the tailfin of one of her catches into the trash, tilting her head at him.]

Besides, the swim was interesting.

[puppy_lancer]

Then I guess my spear would be more suited to your fishing. Unfortunately, I don't think I can let anyone borrow that.

[He watches her cut up the fish.]

How are you thinking of cooking this, anyway?

[irreverence]

Awww, not even me? I think I might be a little hurt.

[She licks the blood off the knife she's using idly, and then gestures vaguely in the direction of the stove as she turns her attention to the next fish.]

In this kind of kitchen, there's usually something you can put over the gas burners to grill on. I just have to find it and set it up.

[puppy_lancer]

We could always skewer the fish, make a fire, and roast it.

[Said in all seriousness.]

[irreverence]

[She stops and blinks at him, then back down at the fish, and then back at him with a raised eyebrow.]

It'd have to be one hell of a fire.

[She cannot even believe she is contemplating this.]

[puppy_lancer]

Yeah...we'd need space and firewood

[He eyes the stove. Maybe that'll be safer, though he's less used to it.]

So...uh...got any modern fish recipes?

[irreverence]

Not to mention someplace where we wouldn't catch our surroundings on fire.

[She crooks another smile, clearly amused.]

Yeah, I looked up a few before coming up here, why?

[puppy_lancer]

I wanted to take a look. I don't really know anything besides roasting them over a fire on a skewer. Maybe I'll learn something.

[irreverence]

Well, come over and learn, in that case.

[She starts in on the fish she has laid out in front of her, motioning him closer with a tilt of her head.]

Going to have to save one of these for dinner though, so- what sounds like a better lunch: shark or tuna?

true facts: my family had a hell of a time cooking some shark fillets once

[puppy_lancer]

Haven't heard of either of them.

[He pokes at the shark.]

...This one feels like it'll take longer to cook though.

Floor 60

[bashfulshifter]

[A man could dream, at least, that the kitchen on the sixtieth floor would have something other than pumpkins. It had been less than a week of them and they were already starting to make him sick.]

[Of course, wishing "anything but pumpkins" before checking the walk-in fridge wasn't the best idea, as "anything" turned out to mean "nothing at all." Rick sighs from the back end of the cold storage; he'll just have to make due, then. Or forage or something. People did that around here, right?]

[It's about this point that he hears someone in the kitchen proper. Rather, he hears evidence of them--a series of squishy thuds shortly followed by the slicing of knives. Perhaps they'll notice that the refrigerator door has been conspicuously propped open with a plank of wood.]

[Whatever the case, the past couple weeks of being in the open at night and fending off monsters has made Rick more jumpy than usual, so he's quick to address the cause of the noises and figure out if he should be worried or not.]

--H-Hello?

[irreverence]

[Asagi probably isn't the person you want to talk to if you've got issues with anxiety. Pushing buttons she definitely shouldn't push- emotional ones especially- is something she enjoys. Greatly.

So when she hears that stammering 'hello', she immediately prepares to be terrible.]

No one but monsters and psychos with kitchen knives out here.

[bashfulshifter]

[Thankfully Rick isn't so far gone that he doesn't recognize that level of sarcasm--or at least, he's thankful that the response isn't from a monster. With the slightest amount of relief, he pokes his head out from the crack in the refrigerator door and scans the room with wide blue eyes.]

[The woman gutting fish at the counter is calm enough to crack jokes, so that's a plus. Rick tries one of his own.]

...Good....I w-was...a-about to be w-w-worried.

[Don't expect him to keep up the banter for too long--he's not difficult to fluster.]

...D-Did you c-catch those y-yourself?

[irreverence]

[Asagi raises an eyebrow as she slices a neat, straight line along the fish's stomach, preparing to gut it.]

Well, they weren't gifts from those mermaids in the lagoon, that's for sure.

[bashfulshifter]

[As predicted, Rick's nerves get the best of him. What's showing of his face through the crack in the door turns full red.]

--Oh, w-well--I d-didn't m-mean--uh--I-I-I'm sure y-you're p-p-perfectly c-capable of--a-ah...

[irreverence]

Man, you sure do stutter a lot.

[She doesn't even blink as she finishes up what she's doing and starts rummaging in the cabinets for something to put the fish away in for later.]

Gonna finish that sentence sometime today?

[bashfulshifter]

[Well he certainly won't now. Rick rapidly devolves into incomprehensible stutters and, too mortified to make the long trek across the kitchen to leave, disappears back into the walk-in fridge.]

[irreverence]

...wow.

[Asagi rolls her eyes so hard she's sure he can probably feel it back in the freezer.]

Mature.

[bashfulshifter]

[Yup, he's just going to hide back there until the end of time. It's not that cold. I'm sure he'll be fine.]

[irreverence]

Hey, stay in there if you want.

[A thoughtful hum as she checks to see of the other fish is done draining yet.]

If you die of frostbite, I can use what's left of you to chum for more sharks.