Description: When Aranha encounters his former enemy and team mate, Naerose, he finds that the more things change the more things stay the same. While her acting like she forgot who he was part is old hat, her behaving like she was never in Southtown was something completely new.
Southtown village. Another day, another town. Naerose is totally lost. "Oh man, I wish I knew where the best places for free food are." She said while holding up a tourist map and trying to figure out where anything something is. She's just parked her scooter and is walking around on foot, trying to find. . she turns the map over and over again and whines, "I have no idea which way is even up, why doesn't this thing have a you are here.." She frowns a little more and then sits on a bench, looking terribly (terribly) dejected.
Aranha for his part comes out of a small coffee shop munching on a muffin while in deep contemplation. In his other hand he's holding a bag which presumably has more food inside of it. After a few moments of walking, the Dancing Spider sees the Red Witch and a feeling of deja vu comes over him.
He doesn't bother running this time because the feeling when he slipped on that marble was enough to discourage the idea of running. If she doesn't notice him, he won't go out of his way to get her attention.
It isn't that Naerose doesn't seem to notice him, she does, but she notices him the same way she would seem to notice anyway, it's when she looks up, trying to figure out where she is, where she is going that she seems to notice Aranha, or at least look at him. She looks directly at him, or past him, the building? She resumes looking at the map and frowns. It's almost as if Aranha were invisible. Maybe.. he should take advantage of this invisibility?
He's unnoticed? There are many ways to take advantage of it. He could use it to get a jump on her but he's not driven by thoughts of revenge and anger. He could take advantage of it by playing some type of practical joke but that requires getting closer to her and within pickpocketing and food sniffing range. He could also take advantage of it by sneaking off.
What Aranha does instead is sit back watch from a far as he munches on another muffin.
"I should've brought someone who had been to this town before. " Mutters the witch as she finally folds the map up, "Someone like. . " *PAUSE* No one comes to mind at all. "Well maybe if I had gotten one of those fancy smart phones, she muses and pulls out her red razr phone, by today's standards this sort of phone is painfully out of date. "Maybe if I had some cash. . " she complains a bit more, finally she calls information.
"Yes ahh.. lets see.. I'm not sure what town I'm in, hey let me ask for directions.. Hey you, hi, ah scuse me!" She's totally talking to Aranha.
A red razr, acting like Aranha didn't exist, asking for cash. These are the details that are consistent with the Naerose he once knew. Naerose not knowing what town she was in? /That/ was different. He tilts his head to the side.
Aranha's eyebrow jumps up at being asked for help. "What's up?"
"Yes yes yes." Naerose says and gives a big winning smile, the sort she seems to think actually says something like, 'be helpful cause I'm nice.' The thought, the idea that this look would somehow not work on this fine upstanding gentleman is totally lost on her.
"So check this out, I just arrived in this town and I'm looking for something. Probably food, free preferably and guess what? It's all winter. So umm.. could you give me directions? Maybe?" She asks, looking hopefl.
What the smile actually says to Aranha, is I'm a moocher and I want you to buy me stuff. That may be because Aranha isn't what one would call upstanding even though according to the groupies(who think that kissing his butt will increase their chances of getting money out of him) is fine. More than likely that compliment is coming from that tendency of groupies wanting his money.
When Naerose opens her mouth and it pretty much confirms that Naerose is doing that. Which has been fairly consistent with Aranha's past experiences with her. The only surprise is that she isn't asking /him/ directly for the food in the bag.
"Can't say I know of any place giving food away for free but I could direct you to a few cafes." The only reason he hasn't walked away yet is one he doesn't know what the red witch's game is(besides broom hockey) and two he's fairly certain she'd follow him anyway.
"Oh man, that would be great and I mean, totally so cool, by the way, what's in the bag? I mean if like you don't mind me asking, it smells really good." She says with a growing grin, the sort that says, we're becoming fast friends! but may in fact mean, 'I think I can get free stuff from you'. She folds her hands in her lap and continues to watch Aranha like a dog hoping to get a treat.
Mostly because of Aranha's past experience with Naerose, Aranha in fact reads that look on Naerose's face as, 'I think I can get free stuff from you.' And this is the Naerose that Aranha has grown accustomed to over the years. He pulls back the bag away from the witch though it does nothing to cover the aroma. He answers with, "A muffin and a danish," in a tone that says, 'Take one step closer to my food and you'll be eating your teeth for lunch.'
He's not going to be completely mean. "I can give you directions to the cafe if you'd like."
Naerose doesn't read that look at all, she just sort of stares at Aranha for a moment, keeps smiling and finally says, "Well not that I have any money, do you know any that give free samples maybe? What kind is that?" She asks, looking at Aranha's bag, maybe wonder if she can do anything to get a taste.
"I'm totally knew here, I really appreciate your help." She says, trying to be nice... ish.
"Free samples?" He pauses as he tries to think of a place. He ends up thinking that it's a horrible, horrible shame that the Siege of Southtown stood in the way of a Whole Foods Market opening in Southtown. If you went on a specific day you could get free samples like there was no tomorrow.
In the end he can't think of a place. "Can't say I can think of a place. You might want to try the mall though. Hit up a food court." He ends up noting that she's getting dangerously curious about the food in his paper bag. "Blueberry... Both of them."
One leg slowly slides back. The front foot fans outward.
"Drat," Naerose murmurs to herself, and then whines, "Cause I was totally hoping for red berry." Does red berry exist? No! Does Naerose know that? Well who knows. But one can totally imagine the equation in her head. If blue + berry = blueberry, than surely there is a berry that is made by red + berry.. redberry? Yes awesome. She totally wants redberry now. You can almost see her mouth open with hunger at the notion.
The red witch's whining is only answered with a shrug. "Oh well." He holds there for a moment as he waits to see what the witch will do next. He doesn't dare take any of his food out of the bag. If he lets her see the food let alone get any of the crumbs, she isn't going to leave him alone.
"I wish you luck on getting that 'red berry danish'"
"Well I still need money," she says more under her breath and then says, "Oh hey, my name is Naerose Delphine, I'm totally a witch, its like nice to meet you." She smiles at Aranha with a face full of innocence. "So whats your name?" She asks, as though there was any chance she'd remember someone's name just like that.
"Likewise. I won't bother introducing myself though. It's not like you're even gonna remember even if we fought in televised events before." Or if she does remember it's not like she's even going to act like she remembers. It's one of those cases where it has been done so many times he doesn't even have the desire to jog her memory.
"Anyway, the place I got this is at a cafe is three blocks that way." He points down the street and keeps walking with a confused expression on his face. While Naerose has 'forgotten' him before, it was the first time that she ever forgot that she has been in Southtown.
"Fought.. in .. what?" Naerose says, then her eyes light up,
"No way, are you like a tv star? That's so neat!" She exclaims, "I bet you have lots of money and all sorts of neat stuff, like a personal chef! Hey hey hey hey, what shows have you been on, on and can I have your autograph? I think I have a scrap piece of paper here. Man my friends back home will never believe this!"
Friends back home? What horrors has happened where since Nae has been gone?
"If I'm a TV star then you are as well. Like I said, we both fought on TV." His walking stops completely. "There was Saturday Night Fight, Neo League, the Strolheim tournament." He doesn't go into detail but Aranha finds that in hindsight that he may have subconsciously tried to jog Naerose's memory even if the conscious mind said, 'Screw it.' Each of the venues that Aranha had mentioned were venues that he had fought Naerose in.
As for the autograph he hasn't figured out if he'll give it. And wait... Friends? Who besides Arika would be crazy enough to feed the witch. Ok... Elle and his team mate Shiden if he knew Naerose considering he did take on Varvara in a similar fashion.
"Oh that's great!" she says and laughs brightly before saying, "Man you had me going, but I'd totally know if I was a tv star. Lets see Saturday night fight.. sounds like sporting? Are you into sports? " She asks then scratches her cheek, "Neo league sounds like a sit com.." She nods a little more "And Strolheim tournament sounds like playing chess..."
She looks up at Aranha and fixes her shades, "So are you a chess playing, wrestling, soccer playing comedian?"
"No." It's at this point that Aranha can feel a headache coming on which is probably both his conscious and subconscious both telling him that he should make tracks. "Go to a library and do a search on Saturday Night Fight and Neo League. Look up standings and records and don't be surprised if you find your name on there." A short pause. "Your full name. And to my knowledge there is only one Naerose Delphine in the fighting world."
With that Aranha keeps walking and doesn't stop. does he think that Naerose will do that type of research? Not really. Does he think that she 'll 'remember' on the off chance that she actually does research? Nope. Whatever happens, it's no longer his concern. The remaining pastries in his bag on the other hand...
Log created on 22:18:18 11/29/2010 by Aranha, and last modified on 07:30:34 12/16/2010.