1779/Bad Taste In Books

Bad Taste In Books
Date of Scene:	31 July 2016
Location:	Plot Room #1
Synopsis:	Lacrima's tastes in books, among other things, are questioned by Jiaying.
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Jiaying Maki

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Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima is sitting, crosslegged, on her futon and reading another Anne Rice novel. Jiaying will find Lacrima seems to have an endless supply of these somehow and one wonders if she has the entire set. They're in japanese and she seems to have read these a few times over. Sometimes she gets to the end of a book... then merely restarts at the begining.

Why the heck is she reading such things anyways?

Research. Supposedly.

She occasionally glances up at a the possessed bunny plush. She's been getting used to the possessed doll, mostly, it seems.

Not that she seemed ill at ease with it to begin with,.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki wasn't home at that exact moment, she had been out and about, getting some shopping done, enjoying the sunlight and getting a haircut. Norie may have noticed her scorched hair after the last big fight. Slipping in through the door, she shuts it carefully behind her, drops her bag by the door carefully then pads in barefoot to take a look at what's going on.

She waves to Meifeng, who's channel surfing, or was. When Norie looked up at her, the ghost decided to examine something other than TV she couldn't understand in the slightest and makes her way over to try and look at the books, poking at the covers and fumbling to flip them to look at the reverse.

This scene is met with a slightly confused Jia who just asks, "Why?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima watches as Meifeng examines one of her books. They seem like older editions. Like someone bought them in a second hand shop or a library market or something. (Some even have old spaces for library tags in the back cover.). She looks up and blinks at Jiaying.

"Mmmmmm? Why what?" she asks softly.

A pause.

"Is that what the fight you texted me about did to you?" she asks softly.

She purses her lips. "Is there a charm tag for 'bad hair day'..." she wonders outloud.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki watches the rabbit look at the books, then looks back to Lacrima, then down at the rabbit before just slowly shaking her head and settling down nearby with her legs crossed. She sticks her tongue out at the vampire and says, "I thought it was cute" and tries to avoid the fact that she liked her hair longer, but fire and all.

Tilting her head, she asks, "How're you doing? You seem settled in- Or at least very strongly enjoying those books."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima speaks. "I'm settling in well." she says softly. "I'm trying not to get too comfortable." she admits. "But I needed some time to think." she says quietly.

She nods. "I like reading." she says. "I'm going to have plenty of time to read so I might aswell start with something fun." she says matter of factly.

She kind of sighs a bit. "Eilam-kun wants to help me with a new identity but is afraid I'll mess it up immediatly and I think he's right. I can't hide, even if I want to." she says softly.

She sighs and puts her book down and reaches over and gives the bunny a pat on the head. Undeads gotta stick together or something.

"So how bad was the fight..?" she asks.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki crosses her legs and fiddles with her hair, muttering quietly to herself in frustration. She's sure the short hair is cute, but she really does miss the longer thing. Finally she stops messing with it long enough to ask, "Do you read anything other than those? That was the book series disowned by the author?"

She flops back back to messing with her hair briefly though she is listening at least as she replies, "That zombie might know how to do it at least. Why do you think you won't be able to get away with it? Was Kukai or someone else picking on you again?"

She sits back up, pointedly not looking at the fact that the bunny has moved to sit on Lacrima's lap. "The fight was... there was a lot of us there. A guy in a cloak got hurt bad, or worse than I did and Naru got drained- again. I found out that her shadows are connected to her. Stuck a Yang tag to one and she started screaming, then got hit by a bunch of other things and whimpered- I felt kinda bad, but then again she's kind of. . . Not all there." She holds her arms out and says, "Hair got lit on fire, I got some more burns, but not as bad as last time and that captured ghost is behaving for now."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima blinks. "Well she's a 'Shadow Witch' so that makes sense. I've been experimenting with... 'energy constructs' and only having limited success." she says quietly. "But I know enough to know that , it's my energy there and it probably comes back to me in some way." she says softly.

She head tilts a bit as she gives the bunny just the tiniest of tiny hugs. Squeeze~

"Guy in a cloak...?" she asks. She frowns. "W..wha!?" she suddenly says.

".....She drained Naru!? But.. that.. that doesn't...."

"...that...."

"What...?" she asks as she seems to be having some sort of BSOD mentally right now.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki nods and says, "Well that makes sense. I wonder what happens if I flood one with light of some kind. Could try-" She shakes her head and watches Norie, about to ask about creating those energy constructs when she sees that squeeze. No comment. "Yeah, guy in a cloak. Or is it a cape? Either way it was kind of funny looking- Cute guy though."

Resting her chin against her hand, propped up on her knee she suddenly seems very surprised. "What? Why are you that surprised that she was attacked? Again..."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns and gently closes her eyes. "Shiniko...." she says softly. "She only goes after 'the guilty'." she says softly. "Like. Corrupt cops, politicians, criminals, liars...." she says softly. "Naru-san isn't any of those. She's innocent." she says softly. "I mean.. as far as I know. She's just...."

"A girl?" she asks.

"...Why would... why would Shiniko do that?" she asks.

She seems suddenly uncomfortable. "I mean. I've drained Naru a few times." she says softly.

"Stopped myself last time." she says. "I don't... need to become addictied to anyone's specific energy again." she mutters.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki drums her fingers against her chin and asks, "Usually declares herself judge judy and executioner?" She says that last one deadpan. "She did say Naru was guilty of giving energy to the guilty. Naru's as plain a person as I can think of barring the disturbing lack of reaction to the attacks." She holds a finger up and continues, "I mean- I grew up around weird and even then I have to look at it all and poke into it. She just seems bored and that's kind of weird isn't it?" She calmly ignores that bit about using Naru as a snack box.

"You keep saying she's getting worse. Last time I hit her with a shot of Yang, she just looked uncomfortable. This time- like I said it was audible and not, she didn't like it." She frowns and asks, "How long has it been going on for?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "This stuff...? Fairly...recent. Really." she says quietly. "She used to do the judge and jury thing but..."

"She didn't use to be that roundabout about it. That's...." she shakes her head matter of factly.

"It's getting worse." she says as she deflates. "I think the dark energy she's using is starting to take over her." she says quietly. Ugh she kind of wants to ask how 'Sora' is doing just to see but...

No. that might be too heavily implying. Instead she asks.

"Um. I've been... trying to think of things to buy Natsumi..." she says quietly. "Any ideas...?" she asks.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki quietly nods as she listens, putting her hands down on her knees before suddenly pushing herself to her feet and asking, "Do you want anything?" as she goes about preparing tea. She messes with her hair as she turns. Seems she might be trying to think for a few moments. "Is it safe to say she's not. ." she hesitates, trying to think of how to ask, before giving up and asking flatly, "What does she bleed?" That works. Sort of.

The change in subject is given a curious look, but Jia's not that dense and assumes that it's just upsetting that the 'unknown' friend is in trouble. "I bought a pair of little jade and silver earrings for Sora. Even put a little protective charm against uh- It doesn't work super well, but you probably wouldn't like holding them. Sora doesn't have pierced ears though."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "No...she's still human." she says quietly. "As far as I can tell." she says softly. "I..." she says. "I know who she is." she says. "She's still able to act normal and not weird when she isn't the Witch." she says quietly.

"Earrings might be nice...." she ponders. "Something like... stars or...."

"....No..not crab earrings." she huffs. "Maybe... birthstone. Close enough...." she says quietly.

Then she blinks at Jiaying as she mentions a protective charm on the earrings and she frowns quietly, for no specific reasons it seems. "Charm against what...?" she suddenly asks.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki nods at the mention of Shiniko still being human. She settles back down crosslegged and takes a sip of her drink, taking that as a moment to think. "You've said you know who she is. I've avoided asking because you haven't offered. If she acts normal though, that's- my normal or Naru normal?"

She's well aware her normal isn't right, but she tries! Honest! "I won't lie, I wasn't expecting a crab coat. What is the birthstone anyway? Uh- could also maybe do a bracelet or something. A crab bracelet almost sounds cut even." Or tasty. Probably tasty. The sudden jump back to the magic side of thing is given a curious look again. "Well Sora said she does a lot of curse breaking, but she usually stays back because she doesn't have a lot of power. I tried putting general protection into it. Jade is supposed to be good for your health. I wanted to make sure she'd be okay."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima replies. "Like you and Naru normal." she says. "Well last time I met her at least." she says quietly. She nods a bit.

"Maybe not even jewerly..." she says softly. Though, she could probably buy something ridicolous but make Natsumi feel bad about it.

Like a ruby crab or something.

Though she head tilts. "Yeah. Sora lives with people who hunt curses." she says softly.

"...oh, okay." she says a little more unsuredly. She... can't say anything to Jiaying that'd give Sora away, so.. she resolves to either tell Sora later if she can, or .... just let it happen. Maybe nothing bad with happen, she thinks.

Ugh.

She kinda hates this but... she can't... just. Throw one of her friends under the bus like that. She'd ruin things between Jiaying and Sora... at least temporarily at best. She doesn't wanna do that.

It just... even with all that she's filled with it feels wrong to ruin things like that. It makes her feel ill thinking about it.

She shakes her head, she didn't want anything right now it seems.

"...your dad is really nice." she suddenly says, quietly. "It must be nice to be able to share secret stuff like that with a family." she says.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki nods and asks, "So kind of use to the strange, but mostly unaware of the secret side of Tokyo, that sort of thing? I wonder how the shadows got that kind of control." She takes a quiet, long sip of her drink and adds, "Are you okay?" noting the look and assuming something else! She scoots closer just in case she can help out somehow. "He is! I think he's become immune to the weirdness. I remember when- I keep thanking him for letting you stay. And it kind of seems like it's been a good thing so far right? I mean... for what the situation is that is."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima kind of stays quiet. "Me and my brother didn't really get along... after... I changed. We used to go camping every year... and he'd come to all my dance recitals and dad and mom made time for me if I needed it..." she says quietly. She just kind of leans against Jiaying for a moment.

"I just miss home..." she says softly.

"I wish I wasn't a mess... I wish I could trust myself..."