#kay 01

Now this was more like it. The varied and enticing scents of the Star Trail might be agonising in their own way with how hungry she was, but at least the smells were familiar, diverse and delectable. She’d be salivating like a beast were it not for the self control. But despite this cornucopia of appetising aromas there was no thing that almost spoiled it. 

With her size and how she seemed to be moving it was almost hard to spot her at first, but then it became clear; an elf, how detestable. Well at least she appeared to be of the dark variety and those were often so much agreeable. Still, other than humans this was the first truly familiar thing she’d seen here and didn’t want to let it slip by with nary a word. 

She tried to get a little closer without seeming intimidating or suspect, which was admittedly quite difficult given her... Well, everything really. 

"Ah, forgive me-- I didn't mean to stare," he started off, the sound of his voice gentle as he attempted to keep some distance between them. However, the man chose to kneel down closer to her height; hoping his invitation for conversing would not go ignored.

"You're an elf, aren't you? A dear friend of mine is as well-- it isn't often that she runs into one of her kind. You wouldn't happen to be from a world where a certain Demon King was defeated recently, would you..?"

In a beat of silence in their conversation, Himmel's smile turned a tad playful suddenly; not an ounce of malice in his words.

".. that was an impressive show of thievery, by the way. I don't think I've ever seen someone swipe a wallet like that so quickly, especially not someone of your age."

“While its primary purpose is for protecting my face when I’m working with sparks and wiring, it DOES in fact help me see in the dark better!  I haven’t had time to collect any observations about the nighttime behaviors of this island’s native techno-organic lifeforms, and I thought there was no time like the present!  But I need to be stealthy to ensure no variables brought about by interacting with them interfere with my findings.”

   An argument between a middle-aged man and -- that must be a young girl, of quite unusual looks. Dropping all pretense of subtlety, you listen intently, and the picture clears up -- an accusation of thievery. This stirs discomfort quickly nursed into proper alarm, for a reason you can’t seem to place.

   “What seems to be the problem?” --Oh. You’ve moved to intercept, stood to the side of this strange child. You give the vendor a look, and her a longer one. “She is in my custody. If anything is missing or damaged, I will cover it. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

A glance at the table, he gathered the scattered cards to one pile. "You stole these, didn't you." commented, as he started to shuffle with them; it's neither food 'nor jewellery, but the former Reporter had doubts she rightfully owns anything at this point; not because she can't afford it, but solely for the thrill of it. At least, by his judgement.

"So, what card games do you know? Did you have anything in mind? Double Solitaire? Or are you more of a Slam type? We don't have many options for two people, honestly." he started to go by the Sybil cut instead of shuffling properly while thinking — keep his attention somewhere. "I suppose we could go with something dull as the bidding war, too, if you'd like."

A beat in silence, holding the cards as the initial stack while lightly tapping it at his chin, "Just out of curiosity, you don’t have to," he began before finally looking at Kay again.

"... Want a small puzzle? It'd be quick; I'd only need to arrange these cards beforehand."

Oh, oh! A giant with long ears! An elf maybe? Elves were usually okay with fairies. Okay sometimes, maybe. But was this an elf? She was such a cool colour! And white hair! A rare elf!

“Rare elf! I mean- hey! Are you an elf? You’ve got the long ears.” she ran her own fore and middle finger along one of her own ears, just to make it absolutely clear what ears were. 

There, it had taken some time and no small amount of effort, but it was done; a snow Alcremie, and a pretty good one if she didn’t say so herself. She would like a picture of this, so she turned around to make sure she had space to back up. 

Unfortunately, she turned around just in time to look right into an incoming snowball.

Poof.

“Hhhhhu-” Cold... Very startling. Why was life so cruel.