Description: The great clue search brings Arika to the ship's library where she finds out that it was Naerose... in the library... with the thieving? This isn't really a game of Clue, but if anyone winds up missing those books, the finger can be pointed at the right book bandit! Such an odd place for a witch and a punk rock princess to 'hang out' (and that term is used quite loosely in this case), but location aside, it allows the two to figure out if there are favors still owing to either of them. Don't miss the exciting conversation about newts, gazelles and tortoises!
Inside the library you might not expect to find a red clad witch, but here she is. Though you'd probably expect even less to find such a witch with fruit designs on her current outfit and a little grass skirt over her regular skirt and those things they put on your neck that are so tacky and yet happen at every tropical vacation spot. Oh yeah, and a snazzy drink with the umbrella and the plastic swords and the fruit. All of this on Naerose who was sitting at a table, her feet kicked up and a book in her hand along with a few others on the table. Apparently she was trying to make sense of it all. . but if her expression was telling you anything, it was that she was having little luck. Fortunately for her, she was taking notes. It was. . A witch, in a library.
The time on the Suiryuu has thus far proved utterly fruitless. Talking to the few people she's run into haven't provided the punk rock princess with the proof (or lack thereof) that she has been searching for. Her entire reason for fighting her way onto the ship. But she's positive she'll find what she's looking for...
... and what better place to locate the information than in the ship's library? Though, really... what can she be expecting to find? It's not as though they're going to publicly announce that they're involved with a cult. Still... there might be something there...
So, enter the library Arika does. Dressed in an off-the shoulder cropped halter top in a deep blue color to match her eyes. A full length island-style skirt is wrapped about her waist and tied at her left hip. Both top and skirt are decorated with a pattern of large, white flowers. Sandals are on her feet, and the only -different- item she's wearing is a rather expensive looking diamond necklace. Why she's wearing this though isn't entirely apparent.
*peer* Something snazzy sense, tingling. The witch looks up and adjusts her shades when the light catches the diamond and then catches her shades. She looks at Arika. She looks back at her book. She looks back. Then recognition hits.
"Hey, don't I know you?" Asks the witch as she places the book on the table, amongst others and sets her little chicken scratch notes aside.
"Yeah, how are you doing? So you made it on the ship huh? Are you one of the official fighters then or one of the guests?" The witch asks, having remembered well the little deal they had. She was curious after all and didn't seem to have any hard feelings.
While the voice doesn't catch her entirely off-guard, the diva -does- have to resist the urge to place her index finger to her lips and issue a very loud, librarian style 'SHUSH' at the owner. Once the urge is suppressed, she shifts her deep blue eyes over in the direction from whence it came and raises her brow.
"Don't know, do ya?"
When the recognition dawns on the witches face, Arika shrugs her shoulders. "Can't complain, really. You?" Pause. "Never found the bloke with the skull mask, but I did try for ya." Albeit, probably not as hard as she could have tried, but she -was- a little distracted by running into her teammate and all. "Official, I think. Though ain't rightly sure, seein' as 'ow I ain't really asked anyone wot's official and wot ain't."
And after responding, she makes her way to one of the nearby shelves and starts running her fingers along the spines of the books as though looking for something in particular.
"Oh yeah, skullo? Hey don't worry about it. You couldn't of figured it out I don't think. Turns out that old guy wandering around the whole thing was skullo in disguise, I thought you'd succeeded when he didn't show up but then the old guy turns out to be .. well anyway, I lost him somewhere along the way anyway. So no worries." The witch says with a wave of her hand and holds up the drink.
"Hey want some of this? It's really good, I dunno what it is yet." Then she peers at the books on the shelves.
"Oh hey, youre into books.. ah too?"
Glancing back over her shoulder, the diva gives her head a very small shake. No -way- she's drinking anything she didn't watch being prepared. Arika's normal lack of trust has been turned up a notch since getting on the ship.
"Nah, I'm fine. Ate befor' I 'eaded down this way." Her finger lights upon a blue bound book and she pauses to scope out the title.
"Hmm? Oh, somethin' like that, yeah."
"That book? Looks boring," The witch comments and looks back at her own, she listens a little to what Arika says, which is, not much, then reaches and picks up the book and closes it then puts it discretely into her hat. It was one of the smaller volumes, but even so, putting more in her hat would be very very difficult. Still the witch places the hat, with the book, on her head before opening another and trying to make sense of it while taking notes. Once again the work seems to be fruitless and the notes probably will need to be analyzed by someone else.
"So .. umm. . do I owe you a favor then?" asks the witch, pensively.
"This one?" Hmm. Well if it -looks- boring, it might hold the information she seeks. When she hears that, Arika slides the book down off the shelf and tucks it under her arm. Then she continues to scan the books on the shelf again, not even noticing that the witch is attempting to pilfer a book in her hat.
"All depends. I mean, never really fulfilled the favor you asked. So I'd 'ate for you to do a favor for me and me windin' up owin' -you- another..."
"Well you didn't owe me the first time," replies the witch before trying to tuck the next book into her dress. This one was a little bigger and would look bulky if not for the ridiculous grass skirt she had on over her dress. Of course at this point the book stealing was going to get difficult.
"How about we can do favors for each other as long as it suits, and you know, maybe have a helping hand, but not too helping, cause that would be weird." The witch supposes, then opens the front cover of a third book and writes the date there and the word 'checked out', as if that sort of thing was okay and as if this was a borrowing library.
This time the book pilfering doesn't go unnoticed. Arika raises an eyebrow and then peeks over as far as she can to see what the witchy one is writing in the cover. She very nearly loses her stoic composure and laughs at the large bulky book sticking out of dress, but she is thankfully able to maintain it by turning her focus back to the shelves.
"You likely don't 'ave to steal those, y'know."
She remains silent after that though, a bit of thought being put into what Naerose is saying. After what likely seems like an eternity, she lifts her shoulders in a tiny shrug and replies, "S'pose that ain't gonna 'urt nothin'. It'd 'elp to know -why- you seem to want to 'elp me though..."
And the lack of trust rears it's ugly head once more.
"Stealing?" Asks the witch with a start. She doesn't mention that she was 'borrowing' the drink, the skirt, the tacky neck thing, the pen she was writing with. . probably more still. Luckily for her, she assumes properly.
"Oh I'm not stealing, I'm just checking them out, this is a library right?" Asks the witch before looking at the next book and apparently trying to figure out how to go about stealing it. It was a larger volume and her hat space, dress space and checked out book. This would cause some trouble. The witch looks around and seems to forget about the question for a moment.
"Well er.." she stammers, remembering, "Well er. . tell you the truth, not many people have the courage to work with a witch. I think they fear I'll turn them into a newt." she replies.
"I meant, ya likely ain't got to 'ide them in various places. Pretty sure these were put 'ere so that we could bring'em back to our cabin'n all, seein' as 'ow we're on 'ere indefinitely." And since the books aren't bolted down, there's no other explanation than they're meant to be here for the enjoyment of the passengers.
Regardless of whether they are or not, Arika has said her piece on it. If the witch wants to sneak them out and have the added stress over worrying whether or not she'll be caught, that's her problem.
"Won't you?" Pause. "Turn them into a newt, I mean." This is, of course, said with quite a bit of humor in her tone.
But accompanying that lack of trust is a niggling little thought in the back of her mind; there's a reason -Drake- doesn't trust Naerose. Enough of one that he warned her about it.
"A newt?" Stammers the witch in shock, having forgotten a moment that she had said it, but quickly recovers with a winning smile and a wink over her shades.
"Nah, I could turn them into African Gazelles, I could turn this whole boat into African Gazelles, but I couldn't turn them into galapagan tortoises, which is a fact I've often cried about. Back at home I used to hide that I was a witch, but then one day some thugs tried to rob me, so I turned them into African Gazelles. They sniffed a moment and bounded off in their new freedom, but unfortunately I learned I had accidentally turned the whole town into African Gazelles. It would of been a lot easier to catch everyone if they were Galapagan tortoises." The witch says with a sniff and wipes her eye. Perhaps in an attempt to disarm the distrust? But she couldn't possibly know about that from Arika's thoughts. Instead it must of been her just being really really weird.
"..."
Arika doesn't bother turning to look at Naerose at this point at all. Pauses in both speech and movement occur, and she just stares at the book in front of her giving her head the slightest of shakes until she can wrap her mind around the gazelle babble.
"Gazelles, huh? Ain't got anything smaller than that?" Not that she'd want to inadvertently be shifted into a creature of -any- variety, so she'll just have to take the witch's word for it. "That's too bad 'bout the tortoises though. You manage that, I'm sure you could be makin' a fortune since they're makin' their way onto the endangered species list..."
"Yeah.." Naerose replies, not sure she follows since well, she just made all of that up. Finally she finds a place to put the book. Under her arm. It's conspicuous but she has two arms so it's perfect right? One under each. Of course there were tons of books to steal in the library, but she had limited arms. She had a broom though. A thoughtful look crosses her face before she asks Arika,
"Say, got any tape?" A sweet smile adorning her lips once again.
Still not having found a book entitled 'HEY! We're a CULT! Ask us how!', Arika gives up on searching the shelves. She'll just take the 'boring' looking book back to her room and peruse it later, where it's a little quieter. This time a snicker does actually escape as she glances at the non-hidden book, but she quickly masks it with a tiny cough.
"Sorry. Ain't in the 'abit of carryin' it 'round with me. Bet if you went searchin' for someone on the crew, they'd 'ave some'a that silvery duct tape stuff with them." Doubtful, but it -is- possible that one of the mechanics or engineers would have something like that... but she's yet to run into any of -those-.
"Okay." The witch says with that smile she loves to flash everywhere.
"Say, don't forget about what I said?" Naerose says seriously. Seriously. "I wouldn't mind owing you a favor anyway." She adds, though any more and she'd sound desperate for friends, which she isn't. In her world she's probably the coolest witch that ever there was. Much like Dan. Except he wasn't a witch. Or cool. But that was beside the point. She gives an awkward finger wave to Arika and a "Toodles" before trying to make it to the door with the books sticking out from under her arms, tucked into her dress, and as she stands it becomes obvious she has one shoved in her boot too, or at least the corner of one.
"I won't," Arika replies. From her tone, it's hard to tell if she's saying it just to allow the witch a graceful exit, or if she really means she'll think on it. The finger wave is returned, and the moment Naerose makes it out the door, the diva doubles over with laughter. Can't be helped really. Watching someone 'steal' books from what looks to be a free-borrow library is amusing. Even more so, considering the size of some of those books and the locations in which they've been shoved.
It's only moments later that it dawns on her that the witch might have one of the books she was looking for.
Log created on 16:16:57 09/02/2007 by Arika, and last modified on 10:31:26 09/03/2007.