( open ) baby i like your style

[winces]

CHARACTERS: lapis (onerism), nami (weatherscience), olivia (winces), & company!
DATE: one lovely evening before the 8th
WARNINGS: nami's feminine wiles, lapis' pyro-happy ghost buddy, and olivia's hives... also extreme second-hand embarrassment and possibly some less-than-savory audience members. potential for violence?? maybe???
SUMMARY: lapis, nami, and olivia try to earn some extra $$$ by doing what they do best. chaos ensues.

Whether you've come to the Desert Flower Saloon this evening for boarding or for entertainment, you'll find the first floor practically vibrating with activity and life. On this night, unlike any other before (or so Miz Poppy will proclaim), the saloon's main stage will feature not one, not two, but three new performers, fresh (a week or so old is still fresh, right?) from the far corners of the universe to delight and excite the saloon's loyal patrons with the song and dance and magic of their alien people.

Come! Sit, watch, and enjoy!

Comments

[daimeinashi]

[Sai remains unmoved.]

We did not cause trouble. He began the matter by attempting to grab you.

[Sai doesn't even understand the sexual implications around the whole affair. But in ninja land you don't grab at people unless you're prepared to Throw Down.]

Should he continue it, he'll find that his decision was not wise.

[winces]

[ ...fair point, sai. olivia seems to consider this, and even looks ready to acquiesce, but a quick look around at all the unpleasant expressions slowly beginning to dawn on people's faces (as if they were gradually shaking off some sort of spell) has her growing nervous again. this young man might have done well against that one qorral man... but who's to say if he can handle a whole room full of them.

rather desperately, olivia decides to switch tactics. she holds onto both of his hands now, stepping close in sudden interest. ]

You're right — you did me such a huge favor back there. Please allow me to make it up to you. Would you like a drink? It's on me..!

[daimeinashi]

[Gurl, he could slaughter every qorral in the saloon if he actually cared enough to waste the chakra. The increasing hostility in the room isn't completely unread, but he also doesn't care about that either. At the offer, he merely shakes his head.]

No, thank you. I do not care for alcohol.

[Anything that dulls his senses is No Bueno]

[winces]

[ she winces, but tries not to let that dissuade her. the longer they linger, the more the qorral around them seem to grow agitated. and, frankly, olivia doesn't want to have to feel any guiltier for dragging this young man down with her. ]

...Do you like chocolate?

[ her desperation grows. ]

[daimeinashi]

[Sai: really bad at social cues.]

I'm sorry, what is "chocolate"? I do not think I have had it before.

[winces]

—No?

[ she is momentarily distracted by such an admittance, so much so that she mostly forgets most of her own nervousness. ]

Would you like to try it...?

[daimeinashi]

Ah, if you wish.

[And with that, he just waits expectantly for her to produce this chocolate or take him to where it is.]

[winces]

Um.

[ what a surprising turn of events. but he seems a lot more pliant now, and so she begins to tug on his hand, leading him away from all the stares of the crowd. ]

Do they not have chocolate in your world?

[daimeinashi]

[He's a perceptive person, sure, but societal graces are a mysterious thing to him. Her explanation of buying him a drink (or giving him chocolate) to thank him for his help was seamless enough for him not to be suspicious that she's just trying to avoid a further scene.]

Perhaps. I am not familiar with many civilian things.

[And his food experience is p limited to the essentials....]

[winces]

[ that prompts an even more curious look from her, brows lifting slightly beneath her pastel fringe. ]

...Are you a soldier too?

[daimeinashi]

"Too"?

[r u implyin u are also one. u don't seem like it. but appearances are deceiving, perhaps.]

[winces]

[ her cheeks immediately color in embarrassment, and she is quick to glance away. ]

J-Just that there seem to be many of those around here...

[ a hasty deflection.

technically, she is part of an army back home. but she is so utterly useless, she does not consider herself worthy to be called a shepherd in the first place. ]

[daimeinashi]

I see.

[He's definitely noticed the blushing and flustering, though, and because he's socially inept, asks a dumb question a few moments later--]

...Are you unwell?

[winces]

Me?

[ the question-answer comes in a squeak, as olivia feels thrown. ]

Well — no, I. Why would I be?

[daimeinashi]

[He points. At her face.]

You are flushed.

[winces]

[ ah. she wishes she could say she were surprised, but not even she would believe that.

laughing weakly, she just lifts a hand to cover her face. ]

N-No, that's not... Haven't you ever been embarrassed before?

[daimeinashi]

Ah?

[He actually has to think about that. He knows academically what the word means, to some extent, but lacks the means to properly apply it. But he tries.]

...I do not think so?

[In fact, now that they are a decent distance from the crowd of before, Olivia's power might pick up something strange: a deep lack, a mutedness where the full breadth of human emotion should be. An emptiness that settles over Olivia like a blanket smothering a fire.]

Why do you cover your face?

[Because she's embarrassed you idiot, and you're making it worse.]

[winces]

[ her lips purse, and for a moment she has to wonder if he's merely making fun of her...

but there is no malice on his expression, nor in his general aura... in fact, she can't really sense much of anything coming from him, though her powers have yet to progress to the point where such accuracy and control is non-existent.

still, away from everyone else, there is... a muted sort of quality to the feeling she has now, past her own consternation. almost like having one's head submerged underwater... the sense that something that should be there, very distinctly isn't. ]

It's... what I do when I'm embarrassed.

[ she eyes him a little warily. it's one thing to never have felt it before — shameless, proud people probably never have to in their life — but to not even recognize the signs of it...? ]

Where do you come from?

[daimeinashi]

I see.

[He can't take notes rn with his bag left in his room upstairs, but he'll remember that.]

I am a shinobi of Konohagakure.

[But he's kind of a freak even among their society of child soldiers, due to the whole uh, Root brainwashing thing.]

My name is Sai.

[winces]

Shinobi... [ olivia turns the word over in her mouth, but even with her best attempts it fumbles awkwardly. ]

Is that what a "soldier" is in your world, Sai?

[daimeinashi]

[That's ok, Olivia, there's probably a lot of words Sai has been butchering with his pseudojapanese accent too.]

Yes, that is correct.

[winces]

Was it very hard? Being a shinobi?

[daimeinashi]

[Sai just...blinks, once, twice. His mouth is slightly parted, as if in preparation for words to exit, but he can't seem to find them.]

...I do not know how to answer that.

[Being a shinobi is literally everything he is, all he's ever known. He has nothing to compare it to.]

[winces]

[ she squints at him, feeling that strange buzzing in the back of her mind grow, and yet nothing becomes any more decipherable than before. ]

Why not...?

[daimeinashi]

[Ah. How does he put this...]

In order to gauge the difficulty of something, one must have other experiences to compare it to. For example, my ink jutsu are more difficult than a simple transformation would be, which is in turn more difficult than climbing a wall with only my chakra.

[Sai, Olivia knows none of these words. Child please.]

...I have never known anything but being a shinobi, so I do not know how to appropriately rate its difficulty. Specific missions and techniques are one matter, but being a shinobi itself...it is like asking how difficult it is to draw breath, to me.