inventrix | (no subject)

after this: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1168324.html

Mysterious girl showing up looking for him: check. Mysterious girl is being chased by the cops: check. He, clearly being placed in the protagonist role of this common plot start, decided to help the mysterious girl escape, for no reason and against common sense: double check.

And of course what usually happens in this kind of scenario is the mystery girl takes the lead to find a safe place to drop exposition, so when the redhead went and did exactly that, Leofric was already expecting it and followed without argument. Normally, he mused, his so-called adventures petered out about this point and left him flailing around for the next piece of the plot - although how he knew that, he wasn't questioning. That's just how things went.

This time, though... This time, there really was a mysterious girl dragging him through the back alleys of Albany. Being chased by cops. It was exciting and he realized suddenly that he was grinning.

When they came to a stop in an abandoned maintenance shed, he dusted himself off, noted it wasn't a rooftop but was pretty much in keeping with what he expected anyway, and looked over at the girl again.

She was pretty, like he'd noticed before, with surprisingly bright green eyes (sign of special powers, or just plot importance?) and red hair which was starting to show brown at the roots. Freckles, clothing she'd been wearing for a while but not that dirty. For some reason, looking at her, he felt like she was missing something.

"Hi." She seemed shy all of the sudden, after dragging him all this way; he tentatively labelled her dandere, at least for now. "I don't know you, but I've been looking for you."

The plot thickens, he thought. No exposition dump here; mysterious girl didn't know what was going on, either. He could work with that.

"I don't know you either," he pointed out. "What's your name? Why are the cops after you?"

He was supposed to sound suspicious here, he knew, but this was just too good to be real and he couldn't help it, the whole thing was exciting.

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Cynara blinked and took a couple breaths. "Okay, so.... you don't remember anything that just happened?"

That should have seemed really weird. Instead, it seemed kind of like oh, this again?

She was taking it really well. ...almost like she was expecting it...? Did he already tell her about it?

Leofric shook his head. "I remember you running across traffic," he said, sounding apologetic. "I was heading home, but... well, you can come with me. We have stuff for lunch? Mom's at work, so it's fine."

Edited 2016-09-05 04:00 (UTC)

"That sounds good," she offered. "So... long story short, I'm running away from home, because something happened that.. I don't want to talk about." She eyed him cautiously. "And, well, you seem very familiar."

"Huh." That was interesting, since she seemed kind of familiar to him, too. "Don't worry, I won't ask about it."

He stood up, brushing off his pants, and offered her a hand. "So what's your name? Mine's Leofric. But you can call me Leo."

... now why, he wondered, had he said that? Nobody called him that. Somehow, though, he felt like she should.

Edited 2016-09-05 15:00 (UTC)

"Cynara." She shook his hand and offered a smile, no matter how absurd this seemed - or, maybe, because of how absurd it seemed. "But please call me Cya. So... you live with your mother?"

"Yeah, in an apartment on [street name]. It's... um, actually I don't know how far it is from here, but I know my way around pretty well."

It would've been a long walk before things went weird again. With his luck, they went the wrong way and it was even further now.

He sighed in resignation, despite himself. "It might be a long walk. I don't have any money for a bus."

Edited 2016-09-05 19:18 (UTC)

"Oh, bus fare's easy." Cya pulled a handful of crumbled bills out of her pocket. "As long as you know what bus to take, we're golden."

She was going to pay for the bus? But-- okay, he had offered to give her lunch. That was probably a reasonable exchange.

"Yeah, sure, once we get back to the main streets I'm good." He gestured for her to follow and headed out of the shed.

(oh hey it's my turn)

She followed him, even though she thought she might have a better idea than him where the main streets were. "So, do you, um, lose time a lot?"

Edited 2016-09-08 10:19 (UTC)

psst?

i'm a flake this week <.

"I guess so. Hard to say what 'a lot' means."

Some people would say it happening at all was a lot. Leofric had a suspicion she wasn't one of those people, though.

"It's kind of a pain, but you know. Life." He shrugged. Life isn't fair, right?

"Hunh. I suppose I can't ask you if things have seemed weird or out-of-place lately, then." She was... she wasn't sure. Everything still seemed right, which... ought to be wrong.

"...Sometimes." Why he was admitting all this to some random girl he didn't know, Leofric had no idea. Maybe because she was some random girl he didn't know?

"I try not to think too hard about weird things happening, it... You know. I wind up miles away with no idea how I got there." He shrugged again, starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the topic, and realized he was playing with the bracelet again.

Talk about weird things happening. He pulled his hand away from it quickly; like hell was he taking it off out here.