Cracking a Nut Case | Walk It Off

Two Sugars and an Extra Shot - Nevermore and Huntress may be leaving the thread, but feel free to post your own "day in the life" interactions and one-shots! *

Cracking a Nut Case Jun 15, 2018 12:49:04 GMT

Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2018 12:49:04 GMT

As she continued to abuse her phone with myriad tapping he entered her personal space, though the normal instinctive response of revulsion wasn’t there, just an ocean of calmness, which in itself was almost equally unnerving.

The infernal contrivance continuing to struggle with the pace of the inputs as she hurriedly searched for information on the local area, to no avail. A notion in the back of her mind of perplexment as she pondered on the thought of an internet of the arcane. After all, it’s not like they would use the regular internet, would they?

His shoulder brushed against hers and she could feel herself almost flinch, she had become so engrossed in her search for information that the world around her had almost ceased to exist, though in moments such as this she would have relied upon Tippy as her watchsquirrel. Tippy however was currently engrossed with Jian, taking this opportunity to approach him, ultimately coming to reside upon the crown of his head.

“Could be…” the words leaving her in an almost absence, a hint of dejection in her tones.

Honestly, magic was something she was fairly unfamiliar with herself, in all her experience there had been a reason for the magic, something technological or alien working behind the scenes, but yet she couldn’t deny the arcane. People had the ability to do things that science couldn’t satisfactorily explain, and that was as close to real magic as she needed it to be for her to accept that improbable things where possible.

Though as her fruitless search continued its strain she finally came to accept its gainlessness, she could spend an eternity looking for this information, but one of two things would stop her before she would find out. He would stop her, or the battery would run out. So she decided to create her own option and accept that she couldn’t just do a search for ‘Your Local Voodoo, Witchcraft Emporium or Repository of Forbidden Knowledge’ and expect to find something even remotely sensible.

“But No… I can’t find much of anything on the subject outside of the general guff that people on the internet post… Nothing of any use anyway…” the dejection continued as she looked up from the phone, gazing blankly in front of herself for a moment, before it registered properly that he had moved position during her search for information.

Her gaze turning to meet his, being compounded with an almost startled double take upon the realization of the intensity of his stare. The stunned look being broken as she spotted Tippy crested upon his head, being replaced instead with a soft smile of measurable warmth.

@jian

Cracking a Nut Case Jun 18, 2018 10:26:08 GMT

Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2018 10:26:08 GMT

The most reaction Jian gave to being mounted by Tippy was to smile at her as she crossed their shoulders, entirely welcoming of her travels. He was similarly not bothered by the time it was taking for the woman beside him to make her searches, seemingly as patient as a nun while she tapped away.

There was a brief moment where a brow raised slightly at her stunned look, but when it turned to a smile he concluded that it wasn’t' anything to worry about and pulled back from her, nodding his head in a slow manner that was clearly calculated to show his acknowledgement whilst at the same time being conscientious of Tippy. Every movement he made while she was there was visibly slower and smoother, clear care taken for his passenger.

"Unfortunate" he said calmly, one hand resting on his chin as he pondered what to do next. After a few moments, his hand gestured that she should wait for a moment and then withdrew his own phone from the sash at his waist.

"Excuse me for a moment." he asked politely, first of her, then looking upwards to indicate that he was asking the same of Tippy. He raised a hand and held it flat so that she could dismount and handed her carefully to Squirrel girl before taking a few steps away from the pair of them.

"Hey Siri." he said aloud, holding the phone a little awkwardly in front of his face. The phone reacted to his voice and responded in Chinese.

"Call the Empty One." The phone beeped and responded again in Chinese, eliciting a frown to cross Jian's features, muted frustration apparent only for a couple of moments.

"Hey Siri." he said again, the same initial response played.

"Play Instructions." This time there was a longer delay from the phone, after which a sound track began to play of a man who sounded devoid of all emotion whatsoever. It was as if the track had been recorded by a living statute with all the range of a bag of potatoes.

"In the event that you need to call me. First activate the phone by saying 'Hey Siri', then give it the command to 'Call Alex'. This will indicate that to it that it is I you wish to call. If in future you require calling someone else, you will need to use their name instead of mine. As it has been added to the phone, as it is not intelligent. Press the button on the side at the top on the right to reset the device to neutral before calling me."

Jian nodded along with the track as it played, faster now that Tippy wasn't at risk, and a realisation as it explained why his first attempt hadn't worked crossing his features. Following the instructions to the letter, first pressing the button and then asking it to call 'Alex', the phone began to ring and he sighed slightly, holding the device to his ear.

"My apologies." he said with some rigidity to Squirrel girl. His face was neutral, but it clearly bothered him enough to apologise that he found it difficult to use modern technology.

The worlds in which they both lived were vastly different.

"I'm sorry to bother you at work." Jian began his conversation when the other side connected, Jian's eyes staring directly at Squirrel girl, but through her, his brown eyes unfocused and much softer now they weren't peering into her soul.

"I need information on a..." the eyes unfocused and connected with Squirrel Girl's gaze. "Nut cracker?"

Jian then went silent for a few minutes, a constant droning coming from the phone in his hand. It was as if he had looked up a term in the dictionary, the voice on the other side regaling him with everything from costume design to etymology of words. There had been no questioning of why Jian needed this information, nor a particular greeting. The relationship between Jian and this individual, and the individual themselves, seemed a very strange one.

"I see. What would your suggestion be if I found a trap with that design on it?" He paused for a moment to listen. "A trap for squirrels. Or perhaps any tree-dwelling squirrel-sized creature."

Jian nodded as the voice continued, his eyes unfocused again as he paid little attention to his surroundings, that suddenly snapped to Squirrel girl when something interesting was said.

"I see. I will do that." Jian said, immediately hanging up. It was unclear if this was rude or not.

"Theatres. They use costumes and objects with these designs?" he asked her, looking to confirm some of the information he had apparently received. "Perhaps our enemy of nature is in one of these establishments?"

The thread was an incredibly loose one to pull on and Jian seemed willing to discard this for any idea that Squirrel girl had on the subject. But for lack of a better option, he was prepared to follow her to one of these locations. A building, and in fact a profession, that he had not heard of before.

Tag: @squirrelgirl