crowspace | For coldestsmile.

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For coldestsmile.

Koriko had, in truth, not been that bad.

Waking up from Koriko to find herself back in Mogeko Castle, that had been bad. Having to fight her way through Mogeko Castle a, what, third time? That had been aggravating. And throwing herself through the portal on the top floor, to find herself in a world of constant war between angels and demons-

Well, at least she already knew somebody there. Sherbet recognized her, and that meant she was sticking close to him for as long as he didn't get sick of her. So far he hadn't dumped her out in the cold (heh).

It's not that she couldn't defend herself... it's just that she wasn't going to be going up against a demon and winning anytime soon, as much as she trained. At least she wasn't sitting around doing nothing.

As harsh of a world as this was, it wasn't the castle, and that counted for something.

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He nods. Time to start that trek, then. It's one he's taken many times; so it doesn't really bother him. But at that, he shrugs.

"... Maybe I don't have to, buuut... something about the idea of someone who's obviously been through enough turmoil... ending up demon food... kiiiiind of bugs me. Call me a sucker."

He can tell she's been through an awful lot just from what they spoke about, and how she reacted. He may seem like an up-in-the-clouds dope, but actually, he's quite attentive. Sure, sure, his job is to purge the evil demonic menace and protect his Lord's home. To report on it. To help with tactics on it. But sometimes, he pulled his own out of it, or healed them.

"... I didn't really mention it, but my second job is to heal injuries. I'm used to this kind of thing. Getting people back in one piece."

That's all. It's just his job and he deeefinitely might not like her. He'd say she's cute, too, but that would be in poor taste at the moment.

She doesn't answer that as they walk, not immediately. It's easy for her to imagine a bad ending, after everything that's happened. Struggling doesn't mean you'll be rewarded.

But after a moment, she reaches for his hand, and clasps onto it gently.

"Thank you, Sherbet. I'm really glad you're here."

He lets the silence drop, and doesn't expect her to say anything more--but the sudden hand-clasping catches him entirely by surprise, and his wings might have went a bit out with part of it. Maybe partially because, honestly, most people don't want to touch him. And if they are, they're either horribly injured and out of it, or don't have a choice.

What is he even doing right now? Tsk. Weakness, that's what this is; the kind of thing the enemy would use against him if they saw it. He quickly recollects his composure, though, and smiles.

"... Er... don't worry about it. I mean, after all, where else would I be?" A weak attempt at a joke, which he realizes might be obvious, but there it is.

Ripping some random demons apart, probably. Maybe spying on someone, he doesn't know. Something boring and mundane, maybe. This was, at least, somewhat exciting. ... He's guessing she's probably never actually seen demons in their supposedly natural habitat, huh? The Gray world isn't unlike many other worlds; it had dividing areas for the Above (like himself) and the Below (like the Devil and his company); it was just unfortunate they were going to have to traverse both.

"I don't know, doing work, probably." That's her guess at his joke. She doesn't like to think too specifically about his work, from what he's already told her about it.

She doesn't let go of his hand just yet. Why do his wings do that...?

They belie the fact that, honestly, he's not very emotive beyond smiling. He's just never had much reason to try to be. He's more of a body language kind of person, which is... sadly incredibly readable when he's startled.

He thinks about what she says. Yeah... how violent things get probably wouldn't be to her taste. Still. He thinks she might at least like Ciel. Ciel was the nicest of them by far, and probably better at the whole dealing with people thing than he was.

"And now you can tell people you've seen the underworld! Sorry I don't have any postcards." ... Not that you'd want to go sightseeing here, or anything.

"Well, it's something. Don't know who I'd send the postcards to anyway." Can you mail across worlds? Probably not, and she doesn't know anyone here save Sherbet.

"Anything interesting to look at here?"

... This is Sherbet. This is Sherbet having no self-control, and answering without thinking:

"The lieutenant! Other than that? The Big Bad's castle itself is pretty intimidating. There are varying outposts of some sizes, some landmarks. Most of it's been destroyed by this point, though." He is a little sad about it. It used to be a lot neater to look at.

"I don't fancy taking you exactly into the enemy stronghold just so you can say you saw it, though. Poor taste, I'm aware, forgive me for that. The next outpost is... hmm, maybe a mile? If we're lucky, it won't take that long, though."

"Thanks for not taking me into the middle of enemy territory."

She doesn't think he would even consider it, so that's more of a wry joke than anything else.

"I'll tell everyone it was great and I just forgot to get souvenirs."

He can't help laughing, mostly because... what souvenirs? Aside from parts of enemies. He likes that kind, but there's little place for them. Still fun to take 'em, though.

"What a shame I can't suddenly abandon my duties and be your souvenir. Then they'd have to believe you!" The halo was also part of his uniform or he'd just, you know, give it to her. It was kind of part of the LOOK I'M AN ANGEL thing, so...

Sherbet your sense of humor is so stupid. He'll help her over a rather daunting incline, and there might... be some bones littering places, and a lot of blown-up rocks and things. A lot of places are pretty blackened, too... it's obvious fighting happened here, that's for sure.

"Watch your step."

Edited 2015-07-20 16:24 (UTC)

"Aww, too bad. You'd be a great souvenir."

Yonaka is careful following him. The bones and destruction don't faze her in the slightest - Mogeko Castle was worse for blood, and as long as nobody's fighting right now, it doesn't really cause a problem for her.

Edited (spelling) 2015-07-20 17:40 (UTC)

"Well, yes, I'm aware. Who wouldn't want to bring back an angel?" Sherbet, no one would want to take YOU home. Except maybe yourself. Still, he's slow after helping her up to make sure he doesn't lose her. It's a little bit dusty here--mostly sand. A lot of sand and stone and not much else.

Getting a glance at the rubble, he's pretty sure he knows where they are. It's... hm. Just one gigantic ravine in their way next, not too bad at all. Except for the fact Yonaka lacks wings completely, the bridge is long broken, and he isn't actually Queen Elsa. (Read: he can't make bridges out of ice just by singing about it.)

... Hrm.

"... You don't happen to have a rope hidden anywhere on you, do you?" Worth a shot.

"No, sorry. Just a knife and the clothes on my back." She isn't even carrying tons of prosciutto now. "What do you need it for?"

... He'll look over what they have to cross next, back at Yonaka, and then chuckle. Well...

"Hope you like heights, then, because I don't either!" He really has no choice but to very gently pick her up and fly at this point. It's the only way across. He won't even inappropriately stroke her backside--honestly, he's just the most magnanimous, isn't he? Fortunately, given his own size, and what he does, he can carry another person without much issue. His wings can handle it. If it was a really long distance, he might eventually tire, but... this is fine. They just have to get to the other side!

She can't help but let out a little 'eep' when he picks her up, but otherwise she's very still - she definitely doesn't want to be dropped. It looks like a looooong way down.

Honestly, it's hard to trust that he won't drop her, but she doesn't think he'd take her this far to get rid of her here. So though her heart's pounding, she bites her lip and doesn't say anything.

Awww, that is such a cute noise you make when you're startled, Yonaka. He can't help but grin a little wider at it. It amuses him. How precious! But he's glad she's being still, he's had to carry struggling people, and that's never any fun. He'll keep a tight grip on her, though, and set her down very, very gently on a decaying stone path across the gap, now that they've crossed it, wings flexing a bit from the sudden use.

"Here. Even a proper path for you, my lady," he says as he sets her down. "Let me know if things get a little too warm for you, or you get tired. I can probably help a little."

Honestly, he should be annoyed, but this entire thing is just amusing him.

Yonaka: did not fall to her death in a massive chasm. Check. She feels better already.

Once he sets her down she turns to look at him. She's not too warm, except in her face a little. "I'm okay right now. --But thank you. You're being really nice to me. If there's ever anything I can do..."

... Sherbet pauses. Something she could do? He could think of all kinds of awful things, but he won't say them. Even he's not THAT bad.

"You can help me find some frozen yogurt later, and I'll consider it square!"

... There hasn't been a lot around lately, you see, and it's very important to him!!!

"To be honest, I'd feel kind of bad if I was mean anyway, since you were so nice to me when we first met." Most people aren't... very nice to him... hahahahah... ha.

"You can make it yourself if you have an ice cream machine, and if you don't, maybe we can hold up a Mogeko for it. They probably have junk like that."

Yonaka's a little more red now. She didn't think she was especially nice to him, was she...?

... He can't help being amused by her being red. It's cute. But he thinks someone like her should know better than to hang around him too long; liable to get grievously wounded, someone that fragile.

"There's machines for it?" A whine is edging into his tone, now, though; he hadn't been aware you could just make it THAT easily. "Man, I've been deprived... this isn't fair! I am all for holding one up when we get back. I always wondered where half their stuff came from, anyway."

That would make him so unbelievably happy. But also, it would probably keep her away from people like Rigatona, who didn't tend to hang out in the room the Mogekos tended to set up shop, so!

"Alright, then it's a date- plan. It's a plan."

Yonaka is the most obvious person to ever have a crush.

"My knife is pretty good against Mogekos, so I'd even be sort of useful there."

... Oh wow that's a bad idea, he realizes. Terrible idea. He will probably die horribly. To be fair, he's less likely to die horribly sooner than some of the others given what he does buuut... Eh, well. He doesn't actually mind it much. He just doesn't want to break it to her that he'll probably be leaving again immediately.

So he'll pretend he didn't hear that. Being someone's fixation has always kind of been something he's wished about, anyway.

"You never did tell me how you ended up being so adept with one. Is that common with humans?" He honestly isn't sure, but he admires that she seems so skilled. There being an actual path here is nice, though; it means he can just so of give his wings a moment to stretch out and not have to go flying up again to get his bearings or anything. But he also knows the area decently enough that this path is recognizable...

But but crushing and it's not like she doesn't expect to die horribly sooner or later too!

"Not really, not in modern times. The short story is that I was kidnapped to Mogeko Castle and had to kill a bunch of Mogekos if I wanted to live, and after that I tried to keep my skills up."

... But he'd feel bad if you died horribly period, Yonaka. People dying horribly that he's supposed to be taking care of from any standpoint is him failing his job. Don't go and die horribly somewhere, please. He tucks his gloved hands into his coat's pockets, glancing at her briefly as he walks.

"So your world's peaceful, then, right? ... Random, weird abductions aside. Just humans?"

"Just humans, and, hm. There's wars between humans, but my country hasn't really been in any wars for as long as I've been alive. So I don't know if you'd call that peaceful or not."

Yonaka walks alongside him, fidgeting with her skirt.

If he notices her fidgeting, he opts not to comment on it. So they did fight. Huh.

"Well, ultimately, even peace times have their problems. But I suppose what humans lack in magic and innate ability they make up for with craft and guile, or something like that? That's what I'm always hearing, at least."

He suspects Yonaka proves this. Or maybe it's just a testament to her character, that she survived this long without any powers and just a knife. It's quiet, though, even for a wasteland. Something about this is bothering him. Since that last batch, they haven't seen any demons. Either they're congregating in the nearby outpost, or they've missed a patrol. He's really hoping it's the former.

"Mmmm, hey, can you burn easily...?"

For coldestsmile.

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