~♥THIRTY-TWO♥~

[generalflirt]

[Action]

[So Masaomi Kida has a plan today. Namely, he's out to kidnap (for her own good) Katara. There's a few times he could do this. He considers going for her before school... but he's not a morning person and neither is she. After school feels like too little time, so he's opted to pull her aside towards the end of lunch (to hopefully evade Sokka), saying that he has forgotten something (which'll later evolve into "show you something" among other excuses). Well, him and Linda (because he's taken to bringing the pichu along to school, lately) And from there... the adventure begins.

Hours of inane things ensue, not to mention a handful of not-quite arguments about how late it is getting. Feel free to run into them more or less anywhere: item shop, Azzip pizza, various floors of various community buildings,Rec Center, south side of town, north side of town, generally more or less anywhere. Chances are you won't even need to be the first to speak, because you run a good chance of running into them talking! This'll be any time between lunch break at school and oh, early evening

Choose your own adventure location/time wise. This post is obviously joint with replies from Masaomi and markofthebrave]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

"He's a friend of mine." Just. A blanket statement there to hopefully settle all the sudden tension she had accidentally caused with her words.

Katara glanced down at Linda's movement and sighed. Chill, Linda. It's okay. She hadn't beat up your trainer yet today, had she?

Instead, Katara sent a smirk in his direction. "He's just used up all the times I was ever going to help him do anything for the next year in one day, that's all."

[herotypical]

Hmm. Buffy sized this friend up with a quick, fast-calculating glance. That strange body language unnerved her. It was so explicitly predatory; consciously so, she suspected.

"You should watch yourself. You don't wanna burn all your favour bridges before you need them. That way lies lots of future disappointment."

[generalflirt]

Linda looks back up at her, gosh I know that she's here to make sure this weird yellow-haired thing wasn't a threat, okay? She had this.

Masaomi, though, just shrugged dramatically.

"I'll take out some student loans."

[markofthebrave]

Katara just sighed. "Whatever that means."

Her stance, as opposed to the Pokemon, the Trainer, and the Slayer, was completely relaxed. In fact, with that sigh and rolling of the eyes, her shoulders even slump a little. It's clear that she doesn't feel any threat.

[herotypical]

"It means it's pretty likely that he's from Earth. Twenty-first century. Maybe the twentieth." To him: "Am I warm?"

Of course, there was nothing that precluded the existence of student loans elsewhere. But Buffy's deductions were more hunchy than logical.

[generalflirt]

"Got it in one." A wink, a slight flourish, and then pointed a finger at his face. It's a bit odd to identify this because, you know, no one ever asks. But-

"2010, right here."

[markofthebrave]

Yup, true to form for someone who wasn't from Earth, this meant... very little to her. But she glanced curiously at Buffy, wondering if this meant they were from the same time and place.

[herotypical]

Finally, she relaxed. Tapping the front of her jacket. "2005. Guess I'm a little behind."

[generalflirt]

"Whaoh, I'll say. You'd be a regular office lady by the time I'm up and at 'em."

It was lightly offensive tease. It wasn't meant to be damaging, but it might have come out a bit rude. He laughed at his own joke regardless.

[markofthebrave]

Katara doesn't need to entirely get the connotation to realize that Masaomi had just been rude.

"Masaomi!" The clear connotation is: Can't I take you anywhere?

1/2

[herotypical]

Buffy aimed to deflect this rudeness with her usual humour: "Actually, by then? It's way more likely that I'll be de--"

Dead.

2/2

[herotypical]

Oh. Not only was that a wholly inappropriate joke of her own, it was also incorrect. Spike had set her straight on that account. At least for that particular year.

"Definitely not working in an office. More like a castle."

[generalflirt]

Oh, was that some sort of a hiccup? Even with Katara scolding him, Masaomi Kida would not have missed that and in this instance he certainly did not. But, he also had no way of knowing what might have been there had she not corrected. So instead, a smirk just curls up onto his lips for a brief second before he pulls into a bow, glances at Linda to follow it, and puts a hand around Katara's back to try to pull her into it too.

"My apologies, princess."

[markofthebrave]

While no doubt Katara has followed his lead to a certain extent into various ridiculous shenangins today, it was highly doubtful that Katara would have joined into a bow, of all things, even if he hadn't reached out to touch her. As it was, she side-stepped away from his touch, bringing her with her back to the ocean and somewhat between Buffy and Masaomi.

Stop that, she useless sent the thought at him even as the warmth of his hand on her caused by sliding out of his touch lingered.

"That's right. Your apologies."

And Katara rolled her eyes lightly at Buffy, inviting her to join in her light amusement at Masaomi's ridiculousness.

[herotypical]

"Oh, no apologies necessary." Buffy started out sweet and forgiving, then: "It's apparently a common mistake among the woefully narrow minded."

Burn.

She crossed her arms; sweetly remembering how Jack had convinced a young four-year-old Jilly that Buffy was a princess.

"But nah. Just a girl in need of a fortress."

[generalflirt]

"Oh, so I won't need to eat cake."

He pulled up from the bow, and Linda follows suit. The grin didn't flinch, despite the burn.

[markofthebrave]

...well. Katara missed the reference but not the burn and figures... they're pretty much even now, so hopefully they can all get along?

"I didn't know you were living in a castle."

She smiled at Buffy, faintly curious, although this sort of thing wasn't really that far out of her realm of immediate experience. And in the back of her mind, she wondered if maybe it would have been better to just... bring the conversation to a close.

[herotypical]

She was about to say something like actually, the cake-related royal lady was a queen and that whole cake thing was really one big misunderstanding when Katara stepped in.

Buffy smiled. "Have been for about a year. Can't exactly fit a whole army in a family house. Had to upgrade."

[generalflirt]

Army. A brief flicker of recognition and a hint of wariness settles into his eyes, but the smile didn't break at all. He just kept a neutral, pleasant expression and to be honest all that betrayed it is a slight hint of his muscles tensing.

Very few people would have taken note of his subtle shift. But he politely waited to see where this was going before commenting.

[markofthebrave]

Ah - the army of Slayers Buffy had told her about. Katara nodded. "That makes sense. It's a good thing you were able to get a hold of something like that."

Katara was also very familiar with the whole 'castle as fortress' thing. She'd invaded enough of them.

[herotypical]

"Though...some of the girls like playing princess, I think." Laughter. "At least every new recruit has her one moment caught wearing a plastic tiara and pretending like a bedsheet is an evening gown."

[generalflirt]

"Eeeh, I imagine every girl has some fantasy about that, making them special."

There, a light interjection.

[markofthebrave]

It took a moment, even after living in Luceti for two years, for Katara to get the mental picture that Buffy was describing. And even then... plastic tiara?

"I guess there aren't that many castles where you're from?"

She wasn't... exactly sure how to deal with Masaomi's interjection, so. She decided against dealing with it entirely.

[herotypical]

"Not a whole lot left standing. And of the ones that are? None that can really end up owned by an average Jane."

Not that Buffy was at all average. But that was neither here nor there. "Most are very...touristy."

[generalflirt]

Masaomi nodded at that - might as well make it even clearer for Katara.

"Castles died out maaaybe four hundred years ago for anything except looking cool."