1754/Crab People

Crab People
Date of Scene:	23 July 2016
Location:	Plot Room #3
Synopsis:	Jiaying and Norie have company from Natsumi wearing a red crab coat.
Cast of Characters:	Jiaying Maki, Norie Okana, Natsumi Matsumoto

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Jiaying Maki has posed:
It's later in the morning and pouring rain outside. Jiaying's soaked through to the bone as she opens the door, clomps in and mutters to herself about forgetting an umbrella and her magic failing rather quickly. Whether Norie had an umbrella of her own or not, Jia wouldn't have taken advantage of it out of a sense of misplaced pride. Stopping at the entryway, she resists the urge to shake herself off and instead makes her way to the back rooms to retrieve a fluffy towel, two if Norie needs one as well.

The apartment's of course empty, lights out and so on so as she returns, lights are turned on as needed and she scoops up the remote to the radio and television, kind of debating between the two for background noise. Maybe neither.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima hasn't 'disguised as Norie' since she came over. She's always just been 'Lacrima' in Norie's clothes. It hides who she is. Police and concered people are looking for 'Norie'. They are not looking for 'Lacrima'.

Lacrima doesn't have an umbrella. She doesn't seem to mind being wet. She doesn't just walk in soak and wet however- she lets herself drip a bit at the entrance and then walks in.

"Being wet and cold doesn't bother me too much." she says. "It's refreshing." she says, then a short pause.

She purses her lips. She goes to open her mouth and says nothing as she makes a small beeline for her futon.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki takes a break from trying to get the water out of her hair and ears, muttering about the smell of wet fur. She wrings the water out of her tail almost out of habit, then stops as she realizes where she's doing that and quickly drops her towel to mop up the mess. She steps from foot to foot, clearly trying to think about what she wants to do here. Finally she disappears into her room while calling out, "I like the rain, but being that soaked that far from home is a pain!" Head head peeks around the doorframe long enough to ask, "Was something wrong?" having noted the pause and the beeline to the futon. Then she's disappeared again. When she reappears, its' with dry clothes, PJs. Sitting down heavily on the floor with a brush in hand, she begins untangling both her hair and fur.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima blinks and nods a bit. "Well I guess I don't have any kind of fur so..." she purses her lips a little. She reaches over to her laptop and opens it and begins randomly searching youtube for things. Keep her mind occupied. Keep it off things. Keep it off feeding and - an e-mail?

She cautiously answers it. Should she be checking E-mail as a missing persons? Probably not. Once won't hurt she thinks.

It's an E-mail from Natsumi-chan...!

...and she's coming over!?

That's a series of knocks and Lacrima sort of sits up straight suddenly and fast. "Jiaying that's probably Natsumi-chan. She said she was coming over. In this e-mail..."

"I just got." she says as she stands up and sort of flails.. "Um. do I answer it!? Do you answer it!?"

"...I'm answering it..."

She walks over to the door and squeaks it open with a peeeeeek outside.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Thunder rolls as lightning strikes across the sky, briefly casting a horrifying visage standing on the mat outside the door, water dripping from it in a steady downpour. The visage moves to lift it's disgusting claw and the piece of red rubber, shaped into a claw falls down to reveal a waving hand. As the light returns to normal levels Natsumi stands there smiling brightly.

"Is that you, Norie? I feel like a real crab swimming in the ocean with all this rain.". Little beady eye-stalks bob up and down on the hat of her ruby red rubber raingear and she stamps her boots a little, splashes sounding with each movement of her foot.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki is a bit distracted with a knot in her hair, tugging at it, making frustrated noises and flailing around when she gets it stuck briefly. Struggling quietly there she sort of misses Norie's question about answering email and answering the door. It's a few moments too late though as the door is cracked open and there's a lobster standing there. Jia without a Thermic Lance decides to stand up quickly, brush dangling from her hair and tries to quickly focus, murmuring a chant to herself to hide the fox ears. She's about halfway through when the monstrosity is revealed!

Of course there's the realization that it's a girl in a coat and there's a moment of her trying to decide where it lies on the sliding scale of cute, silly and goofy. She makes a great sight, hairbrush against her cheek, ears half hidden by mist and her with a surprised look on her face.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima sort of peeks around over Natsumi's shoulder and around left and right as she uses the name 'Norie' and then sort of grab Natsumi's arm and gently tugs her into the door as her eyes go wide. "Natsumi-chan..." she says with a whimper.

Then she just throws a super tight almost deathgrip hug around Natsumi. This is probably the only time Jiaying's seen Norie give a hug instead of awkwardly work her way through reciving one.

"Natsumi-chan...oh! Um. This is... this is Jiaying. She's someone trying to help me." a pause.

"She's a foxgirl!" she pauses. "Not the other one I talk about. That's Ayana." she says.

"She's letting me stay here for a bit." she says softly as she bites her bottom lip with those sharp canine teeth a moment as she ums.

"You can get outta the raincoat." she says. "I'm sure it was wet." she says.

A pause.

"That's a cute coat."

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi lets herself be swept up in a wonderful hug with Norie, clutching the other girl tight to her bosom and sighing contentedly. "I'm glad you're okay.". The absolute relief and joy is undeniable in her voice.

But omething about the stares focused on her raingear causes Natsumi to turn incredibly red in the cheeks as she steps back, out of Norie's arms. She slowly shrugs out of it, her charm bracelet clicking a bit as the beads and charms bump together with the jerky movements of removing something you just walked somewhere in the rain in.

"Um.... Thank you. My mom got it ordered for me, she says I'm really crabby.". She giggles a little at her horrible joke.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki takes the fact that both are distracted to tug the brush free, quickly tossing it behind her. Smoothing her hair out, she offers a wave to the new girl in the living room and says, "Hi there." Kind of not sure if she shouldn't retreat to her room for a few minutes or however long. Then there's a convenient excuse and she says, "Want a drink, snacks- preferably the kind that come in packets." As she turns to make her way into that whole food area in the pursuit of food and tea.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima looks guilty. "I'm sorry. I texted you the first moment I could I just..."

"I just had to get away from home..." she says softly as she walks over to her futon and motions Natsumi over to follow.

"Um. Just chips. for me. Please. Um. and water." not that she got enough of it earlier from the heavens.

She pats the spot next to her. "I'm sorry..." she repeats again quietly. "Um. Don't be afraid to tell Jiaying what you want." she says.

She seems sort of quiet suddenly as she watches Jiaying leave.

"Jia-chan's really nice." she says softly to Natsumi.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto stares intensely at Jiaying, her brow furrowing. "Why does it look like you had fox ears, but little clouds bit them off? And do you have egg rolls? Are egg rolls a snack?". She fires her three questions off at Jiaying in rapid succession.

When her attention trails back to Lacrima she briefly pauses, questioning the social protocol when sitting on the girl you've kissed's futon. Eventually she just decides to follow along behind Lacrima and see what she does.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki calls out from the kitchen in regards to the question about her ears, "Because I was trying to hide them before Norie opened the door just in case it wasn't someone that won't assume I'm a weird otaku for having them." Hey, big ears are good for something! She's tempted to tell Norie to get her own chips just as a joke, but seeing as how she's sure she's glued in place Jia just prepares the water, the chips in a bowl and some left over teriyaki for herself. Chicken of course. Setting the bowl of crisps down for Norie she takes a sip of her own drink and heads back into said kitchen while adding, "I don't have any spring rolls made, I'm sorry. I'm not very good at working with wonton wrappers either because I'm still learning. Sorry." Poking through her head back around the corner like before she asks, "Anything else though? Might have other things."

Hey she didn't make a joke about not knowing what an egg roll was, since she kind of does! She thinks at least. Her ears are on full display at that point, big fuzzy and green like her hair.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima blinks at Natsumi. "We'll go out for egg rolls later." she insists. Back to the deadpan as she gladly takes the chips. She begins eating and offers some to Natsumi as she closes her eyes. "Natsumi-chan does Horoscopes n' stuff like that." she says to Jiaying. "She's very good at it." she says.

"I like Jia-chan's ears." she says to Natsumi. "They're green." she insists.

She sort of leans against Natsumi now and closes her eyes.

"I almost... did something horrible. To my brother. It's why I ran away." she says softly. "Please don't tell anyone you know where I am." she says softly.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi shuffles at mention of what she does. "It's just a silly hobby and I'm not that great at it...". She gently bites into a chip in Lacrima's hand as he offers it out to her, smiling coyly at the other girl and chewing before taking a small swallow.

"Green ears? That's sorta cool, are you like a forest spirit or something?". Natsumi is completely oblivious to the finger details of folklore or much of anything not astrology or astronomy and stuff.

She stops and slowly lifts her arms to wrap around Lacrima as she tells her what she did. "I won't say a word. I don't know how bad what you did is, but I don't mind.".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki returns with another glass of water just in case and sets it down, pointedly ignoring the cuddling. What, she's guilty of doing it, she shouldn't complain! Besides it's cute. Settling down nearby, she asks curiously, "Wait, she was the one that worked with the Saint Seiya thing right?" Then she quickly shakes her head and says, "Nevermind. Norie's said a lot of good things about you." Which is good enough for her really. Leaning back, she suddenly squirms, checks to make sure she's not leaving any other water around on the floor, then settles in with her eyes closed and only occasionally scratching at hidden bandages.

"And yes they're green, so is my hair. I hope I don't turn into a green fox when I figure out how to do that, it would be really hard to pretend to be normal then." If she ever does figure that out. She quickly shakes her head and says in response to the question of what she is, "I don't have the white hair to be a forest spirit. He was a twit anyway. I'm a hulijing. Think kitsune, but not as disappointing."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima shakes her head. "I almost did. I don't..trust myself. Not to..." she mutters.

"Not like I am. I'm sick of hurting people because these stupid emotions take over." she says softly.

She blinks as Natsumi noms the chip from her hand sheepishly. She does blush, a bit.

She just sighs a bit and looks up at Jiaying.

"A green fox would be super cute though." she says matter of factly, deadpan.

"But yeah not 'natural-like'." she says softly.

She huffs. "You /are/ good at it." she insists at Natsumi. Like this is some sort of debate to be won.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto rests her chin on Lacrima's shoulder. "I'm terrible at it, and if you can't trust yourself, I'll trust you instead. Trust in the me that trusts in you, Lacrima.". Her eyes briefly glint with feeling.

She ponders at Jiaying for a long, long moment with her eyes focused unabashed on the ears. "That is adorable. That would be adorable. Adorable.".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki holds her hands up, then crosses them in a typical anime X thing. "No. I don't need to be a green fox. Either animal control would try to scrub the dye out or some cry- the guys that hunt the tsuchinoko would spend weeks staking out my street trying to get a picture of the forest fox or something. No."

Sip of her tea and she adds, "It would be cute, but not something useable which would be annoying right?" There's a shrug and she gnaws on some chicken for a few moments before asking curiously, "So what do you actually have to do for a horoscope? Do you use the feng shui style or the kind the westerners use?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima hrmmms. "I wonder if I can turn into a bat...." she seems to search her thoughts, eyes scanning the top of the room as Natsumi rests her head on her shoulder which interupts her thought searching with another light blush as she clears her throat.

"I don't feel I can. If it was easy for me to change shape. Well. I'd be able to do it already!" she insists.

She sips her water a bit and closes her eyes. "I dunno what Natsumi does but I think it's the western style...?" she looks to Natsumi quizzically.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto nodded at Lacrima's words. "Western. It gets strangely accurate most of the time. I'm the crab sign.". She playfully pretends to have crab claws and pinches at Norie's side with a wry smile.

"You should come by with Norie to get a reading sometime. They're done best when charted out right at the start of the month and stuff. Do you know your sign?".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki holds up her finger and says, "I'm a water horse, I don't really take much from those though. I tend to disagree with idea of fate though." She watches Norie as she says that and says, "I like bats. Have you seen some of the species in Japan? They're adorable. Flying fuzzballs."

There's a few moments after she admits that she can't, then says, "Well you kind of do already right? Not major though so I can kind of see what you mean." Back to food, because she likes chicken. "Why at the start of the month though? Does it really matter?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "I dunno if I belive in fate." she says. "I know that Natsumi's readings are super accurate and most of the stuff she predicts does happen." she says quietly as she is pinched. She blinks because that well. It stings! It's a pinch! But only for a moment so it doesn't cause her to overact at least. She brushes it off.

"Horoscopes are done best at the start of the month because that's the best accurate reading." she says matter of factly. "No good learning what you month may be like at the end of it." she nods matter of factly a bit.

"Right?" she asks.

A pause and then she squints at Jiaying. "Wait. I thought you said you were a fox."

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto stifles a giggle against Lacrima's shoulder, her eyes filled with mirth as she just silently prepares to watch this little conversation. She wraps her arms around Lacrima again in the mean time, just hugging her as she watches, like a rabbit peeking over a stone.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki rests her chin against her palm, watching the two since she's out of munchies and it takes effort to get up and find more. She's totally still hungry though. "We should order pizza." She says eventually. "I'll give it a try. Is it like those egg thingies that only work for humans though? Do you use a bird pulling cards at random? Is it done with those toll cards?" Close enough.

Then there's really surprised and confused look at Norie's question of her being a fox. Her jaw works a few times and she asks, "I thought the Japanese used the same zodiac we use in Taiwan?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima seems confused for a long moment. "Oh.. you mean. Zodiac... signs...."

A pause.

"Oh okay." she says seemingly a little studpid suddenly. She looks over to Natsumi and blushes a bit, in a 'I totally knew that manner'.

Lacrima /does/ seem more at ease with Natsumi around than she normally is. And you know. Blushing. a thing she never does otherwise.

She puts down the chips and just sort of leans against Natsumi.

"I dunno what I'm going to do long term..." she says in general to the two.

"I dunno why I can't trust myself like this. I just...."

"...sometimes it feels like I have no choice so I just /do/ things."

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Clasping her hands in front of Norie's stomach, Natsumi sighs softly. "You'll figure stuff out, I know you will. And you'll probably find you have more choices than you really think you do. But for now, let's just decide what we'd like on a pizza.".

She paused for a moment. "Pepperoni is like, my only requirement ever. And no anchovies, I might turn into a crabbish girl and stuff sometimes, but I'm not that into seafood.".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki points to Natsumi and says, "She asked what zodiac I was, I said it. I'm not the poochi things." That's right right? They were in one of those RPGs. Misremembering Puccas aside, she stands up to retrieve her phone, trying to igore that she did leave a tail shaped wet spot on her seat. "Norie? Pizza? Horrible food for all of us? Huh, I wonder where it goes." A quick shake of her head before it wanders off on a tangent, she looks to Norie and asks, "I still say you get some paperwork saying you're on your own and you get the apartment since you said you had the money for it." To Natsumi she nods and starts to say pepperoni is fine, but there's the crabbish girl comment and she asks, "You don't turn into a crab right?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima crosses her arms and says deadpannedly. "If she does turn into a crab I will take her with drawn butter." she insists.

Somehow, the deadpannedness makes this funnier. Somehow. She purses her lips.

"I like.. ham. and pineapple. But. Lots of people don't. Um. So pepperoni. and um...." she squints a bit.

"Onion? Can we get onion, too?" she asks.

She sort of crosses her arms. "I'll need a new ID for that. Need to figure that out. Maybe... maybe I can talk to Eilam-san. I bet he has trouble with keeping an ID because he's lived so long..." she says softly.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi blinked a little bit. "What? No. My costume is just sorta crab-themed and stuff.... I'm really not sure if it's cute or just incredibly silly, but I'm usually so caught up in fighting that I don't think about it until I'm looking myself over for injuries or something afterwards.". She tries to look at Norie from her place behind her, failing horribly. "What do you think, Norie?".

"Onions are totally okay.".

She whispers into Norie's ear, something about that butter comment being really awkward.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki flat stares at Norie, because her head tracks her as Norie and it's staying that way unless she's told to knock it off with some gusto. "Really?" she asks the vampire eventually. She begins laughing after and messes around with her phone as she says, "No butter, nono, but we can do half and half maybe? Or two pizzas? How do we want to do this?"

Trying to figure out how to hide her high metabolism aside, something Norie's likely noticed by now, she says, "I don't think I'm allergic to onions- I should figure that out for sure. Other things too." She looks to Natsumi and says, "Hey you get hurt too often too? At least I'm not the only one that hasn't figured out how to duck. Feel slightly less bad about that now. Would feel better biting that witch..."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima oh god, Jiaying mentions the witch and her mood suddenly turns awkward aswell. Then Natsumi is calling her butter comment awkward. Now she looks awkward she blushes. "Trying to. Be humorus. Sorry. It's hard for me. When not a lot things ping as funny to me anymore..." she says softly as she looks down a little ashamed.

She looks up. "So Onions then!" she insists.

She keeps looking down though now as she closes her eyes a little softly. She takes a resigned sigh.

"Pizza'll make me feel better though." she insists. Food does help.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto presses a gentle kiss against Norie's cheek. "Don't feel bad. I think your jokes are cute.... After you explain that they were jokes.".

Meanwhile, she just fist-pumped about the fact that they're getting pizza. "It's a good thing I told my mom to either expect me late or not at all....". She smiles a little at them, and actually squinted at the chair a little late, giggling at the tail shaped spot.

Her titters continue for a good moment before she replies to Jiaying. "The stars do not tell you that you're about to get punched.".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki wanders off to order pizzas. Plural. She'll handle the hurdle of her metabolism with company later. Besides, Sora's not here so she doesn't have to explain that whole eating far more than her small frame would hint!

As she returns to the room, she settles down on the couch, her tail landing in the same tail shaped water mark, clearly a habit by now. "Relax Norie, it wasn't the fact that it was a bad joke!" Though it kinda was! She's at least getting better at obfuscating! "What's wrong though?" Then to Natsumi she adds quickly, "They don't! Though I don't read them so maybe it would have helped warn me about killer dolls. Are they clear messages or super vague?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima shrugs. "I dunno." she says as she leans into the cheek kiss. Yeah that helps. That helps a lot as she gently just keeps her head down. "Everything really." she answers Jiaying. "Ugh..." she says. She just sort of leans close into Natsumi because this gives her comfort. Not a lot gives her comfort anymore.

She kind of just wishes Natsumi could stay here forever.

Alas, she'll settle for the moment.

"I think bats are cute too." she says belatedly. "They remind me of Utau-chan." she says silently.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi smiles brightly as she holds Norie to her body. It made her happy to have her right there with her, and she found that she wanted to have a lot of moments like this.

"It's.... Vague-ish and clear? Like, somewhere right in the middle. It'll never tell you some heavy detail like where something is happening and stuff, but it'll tell you roundabout what might happen. Some violent altercation or something like that. There are probably things that boast far more detail, but I don't know very much about those."/.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki shrugs and continues on her somewhat dense ways. She'll get better there too eventually. "Who?" She asks at the mention of liking bats because they remind her of someone though! Pizza ordered, phone set aside, she fishes up her satchel, digs around in there for a moment then comes up with the yen notes and sets them on the table.

"So, 'You'll be attacked this month' rather than, 'You probably shouldn't go to Shibuya on Tuesday"?" She laughs and starts to hum a little song from a game, shakes her head and settles in quietly for the time being.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima looks at Jiaying. "Utau-chan. A friend of mine. We go to clubs at night because it's easy to feed....." and she trails off because Natsumi is right there and saying 'because it's easy to pick up creepy boys and bring them to alleys to drain them' may not be an appropiate thing to say.

"Um. Yeah. She uses bats and stuff to attack. She steals Heart Eggs for the people who employ her." she says softly.
Shehe mutters a bit as she wraps her arms around her. "I should get my reading next month." she says quietly.

"Maybe it'll have something good to look out for.." she says quietly.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto lets Norie's voice wash over her, listening to the words but not passing any judgement. She made her judgement before this moment, and she'd seen nothing to change it now. "I wake up every day lately with something good to look out for.".

She smiles at Jiaying in response to the examples she gave. "That exactly. It inevitably makes me feel prepared constantly.".

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki tilts her head at that and says, "So- Someone kind of like you? Wonder if she can tell me if I Have one or not so I can rub Kukai's nose in it." She quickly shakes her head and stretches her legs out before settle in while waiting for htat pizza to arrive. "I'll- We'll have to give it a try. Rather curious to see what pops up!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima nods at Jiaying. "It's intresting. I didn't... really like what I heard my first reading because. It made me think about things I hadn't thought of and I got confused and started acting all weird and irrationally about it." she frowns a bit.

"Now I don't have to worry about that because I have Natsumi here." she says softly.

She head tilts at the door and purses her lips.

"I'm going to need to do a proper feeding soon..." she seems to deflate a bit. "Not being in my disguise is making me go longer but... I'm starting to feel the desire to drain set in so..." she sighs a bit. "Tonight. I'll go.. hunt tonight. Probably." she mutters to herself.

Natsumi Matsumoto has posed:
Natsumi Matsumoto reached up and consolingly patted Norie's shoulder as she too focused her eyes on the door. Inside her head, aside from concern for Norie and a weird part that as wondering what the stars looked like tonight, there was a voice just whispering "Pizzzaaaaa." over and over.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki nods! So don't fight what the reading gives her without good reason, though that then begins to beg the question, is it self-fulfilling or is she looking at the average person with the reading having an outside source? Those thoughts chase around in her head until Norie's comment. She nods and says, "Good luck Norie. I don't- I don't think I can hep you too much there."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima shakes her head. "I don't expect you to. But if I don't come home it's probably because someone hurt me bad enough I had to go hide in the Dusk Zone to repair myself." she frowns a bit. "But if it goes without issue, I'll be home before 2 AM." she says softly.

She looks over to the Natsumi and leans over and gives her a soft kiss to the lips. Just touch and go and as she closes her eyes. She goes to open her mouth to say something.

Then the door knocks.

Pizza time. Way more important than any mushy thing Norie was about to say. Probably.