maskormenacelogs | (Open!) Oh, what a world...!

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(Open!) Oh, what a world...!

WHO: Klarion and absolutely anybody!
WHERE: Downtown Heropa
WHEN: Late afternoon-ish? Backdated to sometime last week!
WHAT: Klarion finally goes hunting for ice cream, and gets wicked heat stroke along the way.
WARNINGS: Klarion being Klarion, I guess?

A) Let the hunt begin!
Finding an ice cream shop in downtown Heropa shouldn't be difficult, Klarion thought. By all decency and logic, a state as wretchedly hot as Florida should have ice cream shops, open freezers, and frigid vats of ice water stationed every half-block or so. The fact that it didn't was just further proof that Florida was located somewhere around the 7th circle of hell, which come to think of it, went a long way towards explaining the heat...

Klarion strode down the sidewalk, taking in the sights, glaring at any civilians who stared at him for too long, and occasionally making conversation with Teekl, who perched on his right shoulder. For the time being, he was going to treat this as a chance to explore his temporary prison while satisfying his sweet tooth along the way. If he could figure out how to use the maps function on his communicator, that would be a bonus.

B) ...Okay, maybe the hunt was a bad idea.
On one hand, the ice cream was every bit as delicious as Klarion had been lead to believe. He'd bought himself a towering, multi-flavoured skyscraper of a cone that had been in serious danger of tipping over, and had even paid for it, although that was mostly because he'd been in a decent mood and changing the surprisingly polite man at the counter into a ferret had seemed like too much trouble. The ice cream had been mishmashed together from every flavour available in the shop, and not one of them had been a disappointment.

... On the other hand, Klarion was rapidly discovering that no amount of ice cream would keep him from overheating, unless he somehow managed to gather enough of it to bury himself in. The Florida sun beat down on his dark clothes, pounding into his head and making every footstep feel as if he were wearing leaden shoes. Even Teekl, who nestled against Klarion's chest in a one-armed hold (it was too hot for him to walk on his own, and Klarion had refused to let the cat curl around his shoulders again since it would be like wearing a furry scarf), looked grouchy and miserable, just like his partner. Klarion had rolled his sleeves up to the elbow and undone his collar, but that was as far as he was willing to go when it came to dressing down for the heat - some Puritan sensibilities were harder to shake off than others. Heat had never really been an issue for him before... then again, he'd been able to teleport before, and once he found the people responsible for taking his powers and subjecting him to this indignity, he would enjoy making them regret it.

... In the meantime though, he'd settle for getting back to his temporary residence without melting into a puddle on the sidewalk . Either that, or finding a hideout with decent air conditioning. Did Heropa have subway systems? If he could find one of those, he could get further underground, somewhere dark, somewhere that felt at least a little bit like home...

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Another long, grueling day of training left Sasha thirsting for something cold like Klarion. She's gotten better at her lift off and landing when using her limited flight abilities, but she's still some ways off from perfecting it. Captain Levi makes it look so easy (humanity's strongest soldier; she should not expect any less, really), but he's levels ahead of her in skill.

And she finds herself unusually drained by the time she finishes running a course. She assumes it's the Floridian humidity and in a sweaty T-shirt and shorts, she's venturing through the streets to find something cold... and maybe a hot sandwich. Or burger. Or both.

(She's so hungry she can eat a whole boar.)

"Ahhhhh, this heat never ends..." she says aloud, tiredly and bored. She shuffles her feet down the sidewalk, stretching her arms out and not realizing she's just about to conk Klarion's head with her hand from behind.

Klarion hears the voice an instant before he feels the whack upside the head, and neither of them improve his mood! With one hand holding a rapidly melting icecream cone, and the other holding up an armful of cranky ginger cat, he doesn't have any limbs free to throw a spell at Sasha like he'd usually be tempted to. Instead, he whirls on Sasha with a growl, eyes beginning to glow yellow.

"Watch where you're going!" he snapes. Teekl gives a surly rrROWLLLlll, too tired to work up the effort for a real hiss.

"Ah! I am very sor ―"

Sasha's apology is cut short upon turning to face the peculiar coloured boy. She blinks profusely, almost owlishly, as if doing so will eventually restore the colour in Klarion's face. When it doesn't, she begins to note the shape of his ears, the styling of his hair, his clothes, and of course, the vexed feline growing at her.

"― ryyyy?"

Oh, he's seen that look before. The wide, surprised eyes, the confused blinking... this is usually the point where he starts getting questions like "You know Thanksgiving's in November, right dude?" or comments about 'emo goth pilgrims', whatever those were, and Klarion is far too tired and sweaty and fed up to deal with any of this, and his stupid head won't stop pounding...

"Are you?" he raises one eyebrow, and when he speaks, his tone is downright acidic. "For hitting me, or for blatantly staring at me? Possibly both?"

The memory of Flame Princess's ever-burning form somehow taking a harsher, more threatening, fiery shape is still burned (no pun intended) in her memory. When she notes Klarion's expression and then when he accuses her of staring, Sasha is quick to pull up both arms defensively and wave them back and forth, awkwardly laughing.

"F-For not paying attention to where I was swinging my arm! I am very sorry! Humbly sorry!"

She swallows hard.

"But not for staring? You're just apologizing because I'm upset, aren't you? You're not actually sorry, you're just-!" Klarion gestures sharply with the hand holding the ice cream cone to emphasize the word, and loses a scoop of butterscotch swirl in the process. He doesn't seem to notice though, since the too-quick movement has only thrown him off balance and made the pounding in his head worse. He wavers unsteadily for a moment before stepping back, glaring at Sasha as if by focusing on her, he can make the rest of the world stop wobbling.

"This accursed heat...!"

Sasha can't help but watch in dismay as a scoop of ice cream falls to the floor. She motions toward it, almost as if she'll catch it, but it hits the sidewalk and lightly splatters against her shoes and begins to melt quickly in the heat.

What a waste of a delicious treat...

"N-No, I am so sorry! I won't do it again!" she waves her hands back and forth and shakes her head frantically.

Klarion's unsteady posture is just as concerning as his ire. Sasha doesn't need to examine his clothes closely to note they're much too heavy for this horrible humidity. She swallows lightly, mustering up her courage. She spreads her hands, trying to gesture for Klarion to come with her.

"Are you alright...? It's this heat, isn't it?"

It takes a few seconds for him to focus on Sasha and register what the gesturing actually means, but once it clicks, Klarion blinks, and the anger in his eyes slowly gives way to wary suspicion. Teekl cracks one eye open to glance at Sasha, flicks an ear, and leans over to steal a lick of the ice cream cone for himself.

"I'm... I'm fine." No, really. Ignore the sweating. "The heat is absurd, but it's nothing that I can't stand." He takes a cautious step towards her, not quite sure why Sasha seems to want him to follow, but fairly confident that he can handle whatever she has in store.

Better to try and placate than to provoke him any further, she thinks. He doesn't look particularly dangerous to Sasha, but she doesn't like to be on the receiving end of anyone's anger.

"What you need is shade and a cold drink!"

"That's what I was looking for, before you hit me," he grumbles. "The ice cream isn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Do you know if there's a subway system here? Or someplace nearby that has air conditioning?"

She wonders why he exited the malt shop in the first place. Not only do they serve cold, delicious treats, but it's air conditioned so one could stay cool and refreshed the entire time dining.

Sasha bites her bottom lip, thoughtful for a moment. She can't help but feel sorry for this strange boy and she can sympathize. Her first day in Heropa almost had her believing she was going to melt onto the sidewalk no thanks to this thick humidity.

"I got it!" she gently hits a fist against her open palm. "Follow me, please."

... Let's just say that he didn't start melting until he was already well away from the malt shop, otherwise there would be no log post!

"That depends entirely on where you're going," Klarion says flatly, raising an eyebrow at Sasha as he falls into step just behind her. Not that he thinks she's going to lead him into anything worse than his current situation, but, well... he's tired and cranky and fighting off a headache, which means that he's being ornery about everything. "What do you have in mind?"

She's moved ahead a few steps already, but she slow down so Klarion can catch up with her and so she isn't forcing him to move too fast when he's already drained from the heat.

She grins sheepishly. "The school has an indoor pool. You can dip your feet in and we can get food from the cafeteria. It's free!"

Because she knows how to break in and out of the cafeteria when no one is paying attention, but she omits that.

"... The high school?" He actually perks up a bit at the mention of the place. "Are you a student there? I've never been. I don't think I've ever seen an indoor swimming pool before either, come to think of it, though it does sound refreshing."

Free food and a giant body of water to help him cool down? Yes please! Sasha has just redeemed herself in Klarion's eyes... and if she happens to need any pyrotechnics or magical distractions in order to get into the cafeteria, he'll be happy to provide.

"I am, but I don't like to go to class." She can't help a heavy, bored sigh at the thought of those dreadfully long classes such as math, chemistry and the like. She feels incredibly behind in the workload, which she can barely grasp.

"But their pool is really huge and no one will be around at this time, so we can have it all to ourselves!" she pauses and quickly adds: "As long as you know how to swim. I don't..."

If Klarion slips underwater and finds himself unable to get out, they may have an issue.

"So don't go!" Klarion shrugs, clearly not seeing any problem with the idea of playing long-term hooky. "Life experience is far more educational than being stuck in a classroom all day long. I don't go, and nobody seems to have noticed so far."

As for swimming, though... "I'm afraid I don't know how, either." He works on finishing off the ice cream cone as he walks, shifting his grip on Teekl slightly. "We didn't have any large bodies of water in my hometown, so I never learned. I suppose we had the sewers, but those were outside the gates, and they would have been horrible to swim in."

"The windows are always open, so when the teacher isn't looking I can climb out."

Being slapped with detention isn't fun, but it's not the worse they can do. It's awfully tame compared to punishments handed out in the military; Sasha has had to run laps until she could no longer feel her legs, do extra chores and worst of all skip lunches under her training officer's orders. That's the hardest part. These schools have nothing on that.

"Gates?" she perks up, interested in what Klarion means by it. She glances at him, giving him another once over. She doesn't recognize the style of clothing at all and he's definitely not human. "I'm Sasha... what is your name?"

And why are you blue?!

"Ah, excellent! An escape route from boredom!" The solution to the detention problem would be obvious, in Klarion's eyes: wait for the teacher to get distracted, and then slip out the windows again. They can't make you stay in school, after all.

"I am Klarion, and this is Teekl." The cat in his arms blinks up at Sasha, and gives a huge yawn in response. "And yes, gates. My hometown is underground, and contact with the outside world was strictly forbidden. The Wicket Gate separated us from the sewers and the subway tunnels. Where do you hail from?"

And gawd Sasha, you can't just ask people why they're blue

She actually ends up preening a little at that, thinking his description is something Connie might have come up with. Then her shoulders slump and she frowns, sighing heavily at the fact she's about to sneak in the school pool and eventually the cafeteria and Connie isn't around to help her out or join them.

"Underground?"

He's seized her undivided attention, something that isn't always an easy accomplishment.

"It sounds a lot like my home..." Maybe Klarion's home is in danger from monsters or something similar. "I am from the village Dauper, south of Wall Rose. Where I am from, humankind has built these three large walls to keep out these monsters known as titans."

The abrupt shifts in mood are a little confusing, but since Sasha seems to perk right up again, Klarion doesn't think too much on it. Not that he usually puts much thought into his interactions with other people, but anyway!

"Really? Was your village underground as well?" Klarion brightens up too, unmistakably interested. He... may have taken Sasha's words the wrong way. "Are the titans as large as their name implies? It sounds quite exciting."

"No, it's a mountainous and forested area. Nobody lives underground, I think? They're only used in the case of emergencies."

The colour drains from her face when she spots the way his eyes light up at the mention of the titans. She's seen that particular glean in Hange's eyes and Klarion is not her, so it's all a bit much for Sasha.

"Yes, they are. There are different classifications for their sizes, but..." she bites a slightly shaky bottom lip. "... it's not exciting! Titans are dangerous! They aren't something anyone should take lightly!"

Okay, Klarion may not be a master of tact and empathy, but even he can see that he's struck a nerve. Sasha looks downright frightened, and while he's not really sure why, he knows enough to back away from the edge of that conversational pit.

"... At least they must be large targets?" he offers, a hopeful note in his voice. "How do you fight them?"

Her expression is a little more solemn now, though colour slowly begins to retake her face once the initial nerves have passed. Despite all she's been through, her fear of titans hasn't subsided entirely; she merely grew better at swallowing it down when she needs to do what's necessary, even if it means putting herself at arms' length of a titan to attack it.

"We use blades to cut the napes of their necks out. Titans regenerate otherwise, so cutting the nape will kill them." She doesn't think it sounds particularly gruesome or anything, being a fact of her world.

"I... am sorry," she finally adds, pacing her breathing. "It's very strange sometimes to think about worlds without titans."

To Klarion, it doesn't sound gruesome at all - just efficient. He comes from a society with an extremely unforgiving approach to the law (one that sometimes involves burning people at the stake) and a penchant for necromancy, so it takes quite a bit to turn his stomach. He just nods, as if the idea of fighting giant monsters by cutting out chunks of their neck is totally logical.

"Then it's a good thing that we're in one, and that none are likely to show up at a high school swimming pool," he says calmly. "They'd be terribly distracting, and would eat all of the food in the cafeteria before we even got a chance."

"Don't say something so horrible!" she sounds even more genuinely terrified by the prospect of titans eating human food and not humans.

Sometimes her priorities can use a little work.

"The land would be ravaged! Famishes would occur all the time!" she squirms uncomfortably, only remembering to stop at the red light just before she can hop off the edge of the sidewalk. A hovercar zips past her, blowing her hair all over her face. "It's already been difficult with having to ration food."

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(Open!) Oh, what a world...!

b!

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aww klarion

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i'm sorry for the delay

Aw, no worries!

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