Breaking In... For Justice! [Rina]

[Anonymous]

Sethunya hummed quietly as she fed the end of a sheet out of the window. The strands of fabric were twisting together, unravelling and sliding over each other, forming new bonds. She didn't have to do anything fancy here, so the transformation was quick and within a matter of seconds she was holding onto the end of an actual rope that was hanging out of the window.

Doing that took up most of her concentration, so she wasn't paying much attention to Keoni. "Sorry, what did you say?" she asked, distractedly looking around for somewhere to tie the rope. She stopped, playing over the last few seconds with a dumb look on her face, and remembered what he said. "Oh, yes, that's the idea, actually! Once I've rescued you, I'm going to confront him! He simply can't be allowed to continue doing these things!"

[Anonymous]

Despite having grown up in Serendipity, Keoni wasn't all that used to really seeing magic. That was something rather rare in the lower levels of the city. Most people with magic could use it to pull themselves out of the slums.

And he had never, ever seen anyone that could manipulate fabric like that. Never even heard of it. Maybe she wasn't totally useless. Keoni felt himself growing awkward again, pressing back against the wall, head ducking, "Uh...wow. That was really impressi-wait what? You are going to confront him?!"

Keoni must not have heard that right. There was a lot of wind blowing, "Why would you do that? You said he was a kidnapper! You are just a girl!"

[Anonymous]

Sethunya decided on the shutter. That seemed like an all right place to tie a rope, and it was within standing distance. She wrapped the length around a slat, fused the fibres together and gave it a little tug. It would probably hold, and probably was good enough for her.

She turned back to Keoni when he asked his question. Why was not a question she was very good at answering; she arrived at most of her conclusions via a long string of tenuous and only semi-logical connections, so even she didn't know why she did things sometimes. Not that it ever stopped her from doing them, of course. "Uh-uh!" she objected, clearly offended. "He must be brought to justice, and I am a champion of justice! Well, yes, I am a girl, but I'm also that! I can be both! I can!"

She leaned towards him, furrowing her brow and pouting. "Are you saying I can't be both?!"

[Anonymous]

"What? No, of course you can't! Girls...I mean...girls don't do that stuff! They...they are girls!" Keoni was finding himself getting very flustered. He had known some girls who did badass stuff, but that was different! And, well, he really didn't think he could let her go face some bad man all by herself.

Hunching his shoulders, Keoni frowned. On the other hand, he really didn't want to be caught for breaking into the guys house. He felt totally unsure how to even react to anything this girl did. She was very odd.

[Anonymous]

"But I must! Are you just going to let him get away with this? If I don't do it, nobody else will! We are the only ones that can stop him!" Sethunya struck a dramatic pose, chin raised and one clenched fist held in the air, and ribbons fluttering all around her. She thought it made her look quite heroic, never mind that she kept moving to make sure she was standing just right.

"Oh!" she bounced back into a more normal stance, clapping her hands together under her chin and smiling. "Aaand... The rope is ready if you want it!"

[Anonymous]

"Well. but I mean...you can't just take on some...some thug! Can you?" Keoni was feeling rather flustered. He glanced around, feeling nervous and conspicuous standing up on the roof. This girl was just weird and Keoni wasn't a fighter. He hated violence and didn't have much of a tolerance for pain.

"Right. Uh...thank you." The boy carefully moved over to the rope, slowly sliding down along it. He was rather good at this, as he had been forced to get good at climbing things. Having a rope made it childs play.

[Anonymous]

Sethunya looked confused at this, her brow wrinkling gently as she leaned out of the window to reply. "Take him on? No, I was just going to tell him that what he is doing is wrong and he should stop it! Well, I might have to tie him up a little bit, but mostly I will just be talking at him." It seemed right, but somehow when she said it, it didn't sound as convincing as it did in her head. Still, she fought boldly on against the crashing waves of reality, where things didn't work quite like they did when she planned them. "I'll use lots of inspiring words..."

She let Keoni make some decent progress towards the ground before she too clambered out of the window. She hadn't done this before, but he made it look easy. She was certain that she could do it too, and look magnificent in the process! She began to inch her way down, clinging desperately to the rope and holding her body close to the wall.

[Anonymous]

"Uh...I'm not sure that will work very well..." Keoni really didn't want to let her go do that, but there was no way he was going to go along with her to talk to the guy. That plan was doomed from the start. Inspiring words meant nothing to criminals. He was one, so he would know.

He glanced up when he felt the rope move to see Sethunya climbing down after him. In a dress. Keoni froze, staring wide eyed up, getting a decent shot of Sethunya's legs and flashes of underwear. Some part of his brain was telling him he was supposed to be climbing down a rope, but his hormones wrestled that part into submission.

It wasn't until the object of his attention was getting very close did his brain manage to win the fight and send him scurrying down the rope, red cheeked and flustered. He probably shouldn't have been looking, but it had been hard not too. As soon as his feet his solid ground, he quickly moved out of Sethunya's way. He thought about just taking off, now that he was out of the guys house. But, it was kinnda interesting being around Sethunya and he didn't have to leave right then.

[Anonymous]

Sethunya tried to reply to Keoni, but when she looked down, it made her feel really funny. Like, going-to-be-sick funny. She kept her eyes firmly focused on the wall in front of her and squeaked hoarsely, "Of course it will work! It always works!"

She kept scooting awkwardly down the rope, as stopping would mean being stuck halfway up a wall and she didn't like the thought of that. A gust of wind that caught her hair made her perk up a little, however, as she imagined it streaming out impressively rather than what it was actually doing, which was tangling into clumps. Eventually she felt her feet touch the ground and she turned, brushing a matted lock of blue hair out of her eyes.

She tried to remember what usually followed the Daring Window Escape, but... Huh. Keoni looked sort of pink and jumpy. She didn't know what to make of it, so she asked. Maybe his answer would give her a clue. "What's wrong with you? You look really weird."

[Anonymous]

"It does?" That rather surprised Keoni, "You do this a lot then?" That might explain how she seemed so...sure. If Keoni was better with people, he might have picked up on her strange behavior more. Though he was pretty sure there was something rather off about her, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Her question had Keoni jumping slightly, going a darker red and refusing to make any sort of eye contact with the girl. He reached up, pulling more of his lank hair in front of his face, making sure his scar was as hidden as possible, "N-nothing. It was just...the wind..or something..." He knew he looked strange and that she was probably talking about his blushing, but Keoni couldn't help but feel hurt by the comment. He might have a twin, but his brother was the good looking one, he was just weird looking.

[Anonymous]

"Not so much, but I've seen other people do it and it always works for them!" explained Sethunya, missing out the rather important fact that none of these other people were real. It just didn't seem relevant.

At her question Keoni went even pinker and jumpier, which just seemed really odd, and his answer didn't make all that much sense. Unless... "Oh, it's windburn!" she realised, pointing a finger in the air. "Although I didn't think we were up there long enough but it was pretty strong and maybe you have sensitive skin! I have a soap for that, my Grandma sent it, she's good with herbal remedies and stuff, you can have it because I don't really need it."

She stopped rambling just long enough to consider their next move. Logically, if this conversation was supposed to be a clue, it meant the next act would take place back at the theatre company, hunting for soap. It didn't quite seem right, but perhaps there would be some kind of shocking plot twist. No, there would be! Definitely! She hopped to attention. "Let's go? Let's go!"

[Anonymous]

"I really...it...that's a bad..." Keoni was still feeling flustered, not sure how to handle this girl. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing and sure it was the right thing. It was enough to throw Keoni a little, even when he was positive logic was on his side.

His blush wasn't going to be fading anytime soon, not with Sethunya commenting on it constantly. Keoni kept his head down, staring down at his feet, hunching his shoulders a little. He was so very out of his depth dealing with her, "Soap? I don-" He didn't even get to finish telling her he didn't need some special, girly soap when she was insisting they go.

Jumping slightly, Keoni turned to look around them. Had she seen the man coming back? Keoni did not want to be caught! He nodded, still trying to see where the man might be, "Let's get going."

[Anonymous]

Sethunya cocked her head slightly and wrinkled her brow. That's a bad...? That's a bad what? A bad explanation, idea, plan? No, that couldn't be what Keoni was saying because it wasn't true. He must have been trying to say something else. Hm. That's... An ad-vantage? Yes, that fitted, sort of. She smiled widely. "It is, isn't it? I knew it was!"

She started skipping down the alley they were in, towards the back of the house, but paused when he failed to finish yet another sentence. Well, at least this one was easier to work out. Obviously he didn't want to take something that was hers, and that was sweet and noble, and since he was so, so nice he just deserved it even more! She looked back at him. "It really is okay, I really don't need it! Promise!" she chirped, and started moving again, bouncing along with ribbons and hair flapping wildly.

[Anonymous]

Following after her, Keoni had to resist the urge to hurry her along. Running could attract to much attention, better to blend into the crowd. At least she finally seemed to be agreeing that confronting the man was a bad idea. Though why was she so cheerful about it? "Uh...yeah. It is."

She kept bouncing around and she just didn't seem at all afraid. Hunching over, he kept his eyes down, blushing again. He felt so awkward around her, "I...really...it's ok-...do I smell or something?" Was that why she kept bringing up the soap?

[Anonymous]

Sethunya giggled. It was so nice to meet someone who understood and agreed with her! Usually people acted all confused and told her that she was crazy, or making things up. She wasn't crazy, not at all! The making things up part, well, she could agree with that, but it just made things so much more interesting. Why could nobody else see that?

"Um, I don't know," she replied. "Hold on, I'll check!" She didn't know at first why he asked that, but it was only natural that he'd want to know if he was fit to appear in public after probably days and days locked up in that room. Finding out for him would be, well, it would be doing him a service!

She leaned in towards him, sniffing, until her nose was no more than an inch from his shoulder. There was a very faint musky, sweaty smell but really he was remarkably odourless for someone who couldn't have bathed for gods knew how long. "A little bit..." she ventured. "About as much as most boys and better than a lot of them, I mean, is it really so hard to wash every couple of days? You'd think it from the smell in the audience at a show sometimes, ugh!"

[Anonymous]

Keoni froze when the girl leaned closer. He had no idea how he smelled, but he could smell her that close and she smelled good. The boys eyes went wide and he jerked back away from her, keeping his head down, hiding behind a vale of hair. He wasn't comfortable with anyone that close to him.

His cheeks went a dark red and he hunched down, shouldering curling forward. Apparently he did smell a little and that was mortifying. Probably because it had been a while since his last bath. "Uh...I'm sorry." Explained why she kept offering him soap.

He really wasn't sure why he was still with her. He really should have just taken off by now. But...he was having a pretty good time. She was funny and it was neat being around her, though defiantly somewhat confusing.

[Anonymous]

Keoni was acting really weird, shying away and blushing. Sethunya was used to people moving away from her a little bit, not that she understood why even then, but this was just excessive. What was that all about? Was he hiding something, other than his face? Ooh, it was a wonderful new mystery to solve! She'd have to pay attention and use all of her powers of deduction to work this one out.

"What are you sorry about?" she asked incredulously. "It's not your fault that large numbers of sweaty people smell really really bad unless you're using magic to make them that way or something. You're not, are you? It would be amazing if you were although you should probably try to use your powers for good rather than annoying." The hypocrisy inherent in the last part of that statement passed her by like leaves in the wind. Well, not quite like that because they tended to get tangled in her hair and then stay there until she noticed them, but it would probably be like that if they didn't.

[Anonymous]

Keoni was blissfully unaware that Sethunya had in mind. He was far busy trying to keep up with what she was saying. She was unique, that was for sure, "Well, I...what? No. I wasn't apologizing for them..." He tugged at a strand of his long hair. This girl was so confusing!

"I can't do magic at all. Do I look like a mage?" Mages all lived in fancy house and had lots of money as far as Keoni knew. Why would someone be poor if they had magic. He frowned then, "Your a mage, ain't cha? Can't you like...sense other mages or somethin?"

[Anonymous]

Sethunya was a mage? That was a new one on her... Although, yeah, she could do magic, so that did make her a mage, didn't it? She'd always thought you had to be all fancy and knowledgeable and stuff, but apparently just screwing around with fabric counted these days. "Hey, yeah, I am!" she said, a look of gormless wonder dawning on her face. "Wow! I'm so much cooler than I thought I was!"

They could sense each other too? This just got better and better! Keoni just kept telling her about all these amazing things she could apparently do. She kinda liked him right now, no lie. "I didn't know I could do that either!" she squealed. "Oh, oh, I have to try it, can I try it pleeeease?"

[Anonymous]

Keoni stared at her. This couldn't be news to her...how did you not know you weren't a mage? She had done that stuff with the rope. He couldn't keep the incredulous look off his face, his mouth opened slightly, "You do magic! How could you not know you are a mage!"

And then she kept going! Acting like his question was fact, "Huh? What? I donno? I ain't a mage! How would I know what you can do? Mages are...magic and stuff."