Room 206, Thursday Morning

[dark_slippy_thing]

Packing. There was packing to be done, if Valentine was going to be headed back to his own world to seek out the MirrorMask.

There were-- Well. He, personally, didn't have much to bring along. A few changes of clothes, and that was about it.

It was the rest of the contents of the room that had him flummoxed. A few dresses, a sketchpad, a cat. If she managed to come back, at any point, to Fandom, perhaps she'd want them? Maybe he should have asked, in the dreams. "What do I do with your belongings?"

But that would have been too much like burying her.

And so, rather than making any sort of progress in leaps and bounds, he was going to stand there, locked in a staring contest with the cat.

Unless Valentine's ADHD kicked in, he was pretty much certain to win.

[The door is open a crack, and the post is open if you have any pressing Valentine needs. Now would be the time to deal with them.]

Comments

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima paused outside the door for a moment before tapping lightly. "Hey, performance artist, you home?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Not yet," Valentine replied, before glancing over at the doorway.

Ah, yes. That would be... Naminé's little sister, wouldn't it? They'd met. Once. Happy meeting, that had been.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"That's right, you're graduating, aren't you?" Dōjima just made herself comfortable leaning on the doorframe, not quite sure how to proceed. Naminé had talked about her artists, but Dōjima didn't actually know him.

How do you say 'Hey, your girlfriend wanted me to take your cat.'?

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I am."

The word didn't seem like as big an occasion as he had thought it might be. Graduation. A huge accomplishment. Bigger and better things.

And all of that.

"I don't know what to do with her things," he said. Conversationally, of course.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Dōjima felt a small surge of annoyance. Shouldn't someone from the administration have taken care of this? Leaving a student to pack up his missing girlfriend's things was just...wrong. Very very wrong.

"Box it?" Dōjima bit her lip and shrugged. "You could send it off to the witchling, or put it in storage?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine gave a nod, at that.

Yes, of course, boxes. Right, then.

"I can't very well box Alea, mind you."

And he couldn't take her with him. Heaven only knew how long she'd last amidst the sphinxes. Poor cat.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I don't know," she mused, wandering in to scoop up the aforementioned cat. "Would you like to be a kitty-inna-box? Lotsa kitties like boxes, but usually only for playing."

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was not aware that Naminé had left her cat to her little sibling.

But the beginnings of the same notion were beginning to percolate in his head.

"Do you, by any chance, have an affinity for cats?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Hrm?" Dōjima looked up from Alea and grinned. "Yeah, I'm a hit with small kids and small animals of all types. I suppose there's a bunch of jokes laying in wait about why they like me, but I don't mind. You always know where you stand, with a cat."

[dark_slippy_thing]

That was a very good start.

"Would you, by any chance, like a cat?"

Again with the not wanting Alea to be eaten, here.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Naminé already asked," she said quietly, suddenly absorbed by something incredibly interesting that the cat was doing. Like purring. "Weeks ago. I told her that I wasn't going to take Alea away from her person, after all, she's already got you perfectly trained."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I couldn't possibly take her with me," Valentine said, shaking his head and staring at the feline as well. "My world is no place for a housepet."

He glanced up again, thoughtfully. "If Naminé asked you to take care of her, there had to be reason for it. She always had her reasons."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"When she asked, I thought she was over-reacting. I had no idea what she was going on about." Yurika thought about it for a moment before nodding slowly. "I...okay. Hai. If you change your mind, or come back, or she comes back, though, she's still your cat. I'm just the sitter."

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine gave a nod of his own.

"Very well. If either of us come back, you'll be the first we see about Alea."

And then he paused, reaching to pet the cat. She pawed at his hand. It was a thing.

"Thank you for taking her."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Well, a girl can't ignore an order from her onee-san, right?" Dōjima giggled as Alea 'attacked' the dreaded Valentine. "And with her koibito asking too, well, how can I resist?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine had no idea what a few of those words meant. But he decided to take them as good omens, and he gave a nod of his head.

"I'll probably have time to help you gather her things, then," he decided. "Before I'm gone from here."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Surprise, Jen, I have a cat!" Dōjima murmured quietly, scratching Alea's ears. "You got an extra box? We can put her stuff in there."

Something about his phrasing, however, made her look up from the cat. "Are you leaving right after graduation, then?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I wrote a letter," he explained, heading to his closet to pull out another box. "If I don't get pulled away from here this morning, I'll walk away from here tonight."

He looked over his shoulder, smiling slightly.

"I have to find her."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Dammit!" Jack said, trying to juggle three balls in the hallway. He'd make that Valentine show him how to juggle if it's the last thing he did.

[ooc: sp?]

[dark_slippy_thing]

There was cursing, out in the hallway. And Valentine would have ignored it, except that it was so very distracting.

He peered out into the hall.

"Dammit?"

[ooc: sp bigtime. Heading off to work now!]

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Dammit!" Jack said, sending one ball flying in a vaguely Valentiney direction and one to crash on his own foot. "Ow! Stupid juggling!" he protested, all flummoxed.

[ooc: yay espy!]

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine caught the ball. And he stared at it. And then he stared at Jack.

"What the hell are you attempting to do?"

Because it certainly didn't appear to be any form of juggling that he was familiar with.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"To juggle!" The 'duh' was unspoken. "It's not working." He stared back, right into Valentine's...uh...mask. Face. Thing.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Face. Which was a mask. Of course.

Valentine shook his head and lobbed the ball back toward Jack in a lazy underhand arc.

"Well, you're certainly going about it all wrong," he informed him. "For starters, the ball isn't supposed to end up all the way over here. Have you tried aiming, perhaps?"

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"I was trying to aim, but the blasted thing won't go where I tell it!" he insisted, catching the ball.

He was so not pouting. Really.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Stop telling it to go places, and just make it go where you want it to," Valentine replied. The 'duh' was left unspoken. "Juggling balls aren't books. They don't just flit off wherever you ask nicely for them to go. You want a ball to go up and to the left a foot and a half, you have to throw it. Up. And to the left, a foot and a half."

He pulled out a trio of balls from his own pocket and demonstrated.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack stared. "I want to learn that," he admitted.

[ooc: work!]

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Well, then practice," Valentine replied, tucking the balls away in his pockets. "I'm leaving. I've a room full of things that I'm not certain what to do with. My girlfriend vanished from existence before my eyes a week ago and I have a rather busy schedule today."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"You're leaving?! Your girlfriend vanished? Valentine, my friend, we gotta get her back. So what's the plan?"

Jack, suddenly, was in Hero Mode. Oh, this can't be good.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"The plan is, I'm a graduate and therefore I am leaving. She's gone back to where she's ... supposed to be." Valentine didn't much care for that fact, really. "And if there's any way to change that, I'll find it. Or she will. But thank you for the... uh. Offer."

...

Or whatever that was.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"You need backup, you know where to find me," he said. "Uh. Take care."