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sangreine

request an audience

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From:

sangreine

I.

[ Out in front of the hotel lobby, or at a street nearby, a purple motorcycle skids to a stop -- very literally skids, its rider planting a boot on the pavement and doing a sudden half-donut, the tires screaming and leaving marks on the pavement. ]

[ The motor shuts off, and Aliza pops off her helmet, shaking her hair out like a shampoo commercial. ]

Hey! Pretty sweet, right?

***
II.

[ Walking home from the conbini, Aliza is entirely lost in thought, her bag feeling oddly heavy in her hands despite her strength. She doesn't even notice she's approaching someone, or they've approached her, until far too late to be brushed off. ]

-- oh! Hey. Sorry, I was... [ well -- what was she doing? ]

From:

childeishly

[ childe is reading a text on his phone, so he's not really paying attention either, so as soon as they collide he catches himself apologizing automatically too... until he realizes it's rin... and then he's confused, since she's giving him a similar response, except she's kind of devoid of emotion. ]

Alizarin?

From:

sangreine

[ Ack, she really needs to stop drifting off into space. At least it's someone she knows, which makes this slightly less embarrassing. ]

In the flesh. Sorry about that. [ She's smiling, but it's... off. She sucks at pretending, and the effort behind her expression is blaringly obvious. ]

From:

childeishly

It's no problem at all. I hadn't been paying attention, so I should really be the one apologizing. [ he reaches to pluck the bag she's carrying out of her hands. ] What's wrong?

From:

sangreine

Ah -- [ an almost-protest as her bag is taken, a small kindness that leaves her with an outsized appreciation. She feels more exposed without it though, as though it were a shield rather than a handful of prepackaged cakes and melon bread. ]

[ She debates denying anything's troubling her, opens her mouth to say just that. But Caeli sees through her as well as anyone can, and she did promise Doctor she'd admit her hurts to someone since it couldn't be him. ]

Nothing unusual. Just this place. The comings and goings. [ Much more the latter, obviously. This isn't about Nemesis, or at least not only her; it's been accumulating. ] I'm sure it happens to everyone. [ She can't dismiss the concerns, but she can still minimize, soften, brace. She's been enough of a bother over time to feel awful about troubling people with things she should damn well be used to. ]

Edited Date: Sep. 6th, 2022 08:59 pm (UTC)

From:

childeishly

[ childe replaces her groceries with his fluff tails, so if she does miss holding onto something ( or, in this case, if she's looking to kind of... hide she still can ). ]

...ah. I know what you mean. [ losing zhongli had been harder than he could have ever imagined, especially given everything they'd gone through beforehand. he got him back, thankfully, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't afraid it wouldn't happen again. ] I wish I could say it gets easier, but... that may only be because we'll eventually just get numb to it. [ he's just being honest. ] I'm sure they get off on playing with our lives like this, like we're their toys.

[ he moves the stuff to his other hand at slings the closer arm around her, tugging her close. ] I'm not helping, am I, ... [ he gives her a real smile this time. ] Probably just making it worse, but I am sorry that you lost somebody important to you. A few somebodies if that is the case.

From:

sangreine - Date: Sep. 8th, 2022 02:44 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

at_heart

[ There's maybe a fractional pause where he doesn't immediately react, but Lupine knows how to be a good audience, so he's gonna grin and clap for her. The question gets a low laugh. ]

I mean, I'm probably biased, but pretty much always.

From:

sangreine

I mean the bike, which is new so you can't possibly be biased about it.

[ New to her, anyway. It was Nem's. Which probably explains why her smile is just a little exaggerated, a little hollow. The effort behind it is evident. ]

Wanna take it for a spin?

From:

at_heart

Watch me.

[ Or so he says, but. Yeah. It's not like he can't guess why she might be feeling down, even if he doesn't know who this bike used to belong to. ]

Hah, obviously.

[ Climbing on behind her, arms going around her waist. ]

From:

sangreine

Good. Everything's more fun with someone wrapped around you.

[ This is where instructions about leaning into turns and such would go, but this is Lupine. So she roars the motor to life and just guns it. Why even bother with a bike like this if you're not going to ride like a *cough* bat out of hell? ]

[ She's not really sure where they're going, but a few breakneck turns later she points the bike North and hits the gas hard. Just putting some space between them and the rest bustling parts of the city. Maybe go look at the ocean from somewhere new... sounds as good an idea as any. ]

From:

at_heart

[ Still a good audience, so he laughs and whoops at the right points, occasionally tightening his grip on her.

Eventually: ]

We going anywhere specific?

From:

sangreine

I was thinking somewhere we can see the water, but not just the same old beach everyone goes to. Less of a crowd.

[ She doesn't usually want to be somewhere less crowded either, so if he's ticking off Signs of Things Gone Amiss this has to be at least the third one. ]

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