Passability

Panic accelerates her heart upon this realization, even more so when her ankle sends waves of pain if she even attempts to struggle away. She hears the other person shuffle around, presumably for a weapon, and she shrivels as something is put in front of her.

“…?”

She’s tentative as to what to think of it. Fingers eventually reach out in hesitation, curling around the notepad to bring it closer to her face. Was she being given this? Her grip tightens.

     A futile gesture, but she went about doing it anyways.

     A more absent-minded reaction than anything, really.

"..."

     Moving her now free hand to tap at the words on the paper-- apparently this girl not noticing said words-- and quietly, Mao frowned a little. Out of mild annoyance, by now.

     Fortunately, she was more than a little patient when it came to dealing with people. As such... she waited.

     ... Although, she did tap the paper at least once more.

A stumble that leads to the inevitable for such a shaky woman. She throws out her hands to prepare herself blindly, falling forward with another gasped yelp.

"..."

     Sheesh.

     Using a free hand to dig in to the satchel she carried with her, a small notepad was procured, and before long, a writing utensil. And within moments, said notepad was offered to As'bel, whom still rested against the taller woman.

[ are you OK? ]

A hand is reached out to her, or so she assumes, but she shakes her head and holds out an open palm to shoo it away.

“Pl-Please, I’m sorry —” She speaks barely above a whisper. Another attempt to crawl away is made; another attempt failed due to the cyclops’s ankle. Shoot. Hands raise themselves to spread fingers across her habit in nervous movement, curling and uncurling around the yellow cloth.

     As such, equally as fast, Mao decided to change how she was handling things. With another sigh, she suddenly moved in closer to As'bel-- and without any prior warning, Mao extended her arm once more. Reaching out, she grabbed the back of As'bel's habit, and pulled.

     And easily, with a single hand, Mao had lifted the cyclops back up-- and from there on, regardless of how As'bel struggled, Mao simply sat her back down on her feet.

     Like a mother picking up their child after having fallen.

     Taking a step back, Mao rested a hand at her hip to properly gauge this stranger. Weak, demure, and seemingly easily frightened...

It didn’t sound much like it, but As’bel moves her head up to peer just in case. Of course it’s rather fruitless, considering her obscured vision, but she can’t help but act alert. She couldn’t see that Mao held her hands up, only that there was a blurry patch in the midst of white cloth and fog.

Feeling threatened, still, As’bel tries to shuffle inwards of the forest. Unfortunately overestimating her ability to navigate a foreign landscape unlike any she’s seen, the demon ends up trapping her foot in the crux of a bamboo root and completely throwing herself forward. A gasping-yelp escapes her throat as the faux-nun descends with a prompt THUD!

"..."

     Well alright then.

     Slowly continuing her walk up to the now-fallen person, she could only blink in surprise in realization that, apparently, this girl hadn't even been looking this entire time. Her... hat or whatever it was seemed to have been pulled down too far.

     What's a person like this doing wandering about a forest...?

There wasn’t another person for as far as she could see… which, admittedly, wasn’t very far — considering she not only had the veil of her habit to squint through, but this damn fog obscured the already-blurred image. Just as the demon thought it might be good to remove it, movement catches her eye.

“ - Ah “

     ... Watching her shuffle back to hide, the traveler stands her ground for a few moments. And quietly, she exhales a small sigh. How to handle this?

     Stepping forward in to the glade, eye on As'bel, Mao raised her hands to her sides-- spreading her bandaged fingers to show a lack of anything in them. A small attempt at showing that she wasn't dangerous.

     And if that wasn't much else, she stopped near the glade's center-- not approaching the other any further.

     'It wasn't good to approach a wild animal, for they might retaliate' was the sort of mindset she carried, at this moment. ... Albeit, in this case, she was glad she was dealing with a person, and not an animal.

     Animals were only good for eating, after all.

"..."

This account is no longer affiliated with Citta Alveare.

This account is no longer affiliated with Citta Alveare.

This account is no longer affiliated with Citta Alveare.

Holding up a notepad, the mute shows off a written message:

[ ill consider it. first, whats the catch? ]

Going at it again, her next message comes slightly sooner than the last.

[ don’t know the layout of the city 100%, but ask away ]

Mao’s expression, meanwhile, was still a relatively bland one— having canted her head aside slightly as she let the other read.

He had what was required, for he was not a man to be taken for granted.

❝Fortunately for you, I am looking for a specific place, it is District Zeta if I can recall.❞ Glancing at the girl while his hand was placed on his chest, his midsection bowed before having a chance to begin the search for that dreadful district.

At any rate, this guy was... relatively formal. Having been brought up on such behavior, she found it nostalgic in a rather nauseating manner, and didn't return the formality-- finding no need to.

[ Mao Chen ]

Her reply is but her name at first-- and if he had looked closely, he'd now see his own name printed up on the top of the small page, as if documenting the conversation.

What a weird guy.

As they arrived, her head had already been turned towards Kaworu as he went on to whistle, sizing up the building as it seemed. However, his question did not yield a reply.

“…”

"See? I’ll carry you to the top. Then we can watch the stars to our hearts’ delight." Every word that spun between his lips echoed with an otherworldly sense of wisdom, as if he had seen things well beyond the capacity of his meager fifteen years. His appearance belied so many little factors, so many lost realms. When your existence spanned across continuities, how were you supposed to remember how to act ‘your age’?

... Ah. So that's what he meant.

Not having taken the hand at first offer, the girl watched as Kaworu rose, taking in his words and idly examining his stature whilst levitating. ... There didn't seem to be much else to it aside from that he was floating.

There were people whom could fly like this at her home. Hell, even she could do something like this, had she all her abilities.

The mystic arts weren't something she knew all that well to begin with, so however this boy was hovering like that was an absolute mystery to her. ... But, she didn't care much about all that. Sighing audibly, Mao gave an idle shrug and this time around, she took Kaworu's hand-- expression having softened up a bit.

The promise of seeing the stars was a rather nice one. Didn't matter who she spent it with, in the long run. But, this guy wasn't all that bad, she reasoned.

"........."

Returning a half-bland half-curious expression, Mao offered the other her attention for the moment, ever silent.

Scribbling down a small message onto her notepad, instead of vocally responding, she reveals her message to the other.

"Barriers?" [Yet another word that rung a bell, although for known reasons this time. Reimu could create magical barriers, out of what seemed like nowhere. It was a power she had since she was young.]

[ my ability: able to pass through barriers. all barriers. right now only physical barriers though. let me show you ]

She looks around first-- spotting a lamppost a little further up ahead. ... Eh, good enough. A barrier was a barrier, in her mind. For this... that lamppost was a barrier between the seen and the unseen-- the small bit that Mao couldn't see behind it.

Writing a little bit more down, she after a small moment passes, she glances to Reimu-- nodding slightly. Placing a hand on her shoulder and gripping it...

... Suddenly, they're both up a bit further ahead. Visibly, neither of them had moved, and yet there they were. Stepping back a bit... Mao knocks on the light they passed, staring at Reimu with a note held up.