#sirenbuffa

MIA

Romantic attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extreme WHAT DIS??Sexual attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extremeAesthetic attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extremeSensual attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extreme 

ELISA Oh this is just unfair; magic removes choice and natural inclination here!

Romantic attraction: none | very low | low | medium | magically high | very high | extremeSexual attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extreme, and uh, sorry about that one time, that was awkwardAesthetic attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extremeSensual attraction: none | very low | low | medium | high | very high | extreme

Kai was quite excited - which wasn’t really any surprise. For the first time in a while, he’d had a far better reason to not sleep so well, and he was happy for it.

In the end, he’d decided to not come by on his motorcycle, and had rented a car instead. The guy he’d rented it from had been...well, suffice to say that the dealership had had bars on all of the windows, as had every building nearby. The car, though, was both quite nice and quite old: the dealership specialized in European imports - rentals, sales, and repairs - and Kai’d secured an old Bristol 411 from them, built in the early seventies. He felt pretty confident that it would make it through a day around him with no problems - particularly that it’d been retrofitted with a standard transmission, in place of the automatic. He’d breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that.

Only now did it occur to him that the new ferris wheel at the Pier was just that - new. Well...I’ll be a long way away from it...it’ll...it’ll be fine. They probably haven’t changed much over the years anyway, right? What’s the worst that could happen? The doors’ll stay shut like they do in elevators sometimes, and I’ll be stuck in there with her...which really isn’t that bad anyway. The fire department were always quite understanding.

Elisa and Kai had texted back and forth a bit to set up the specifics of time, and Kai pulled up outside of Elisa’s apartment complex about fifteen minutes early, in a button-up shirt (dark red) and a pair of slacks (charcoal), and still his leather motorcycle jacket. It didn’t feel like a fancy enough occasion to really justify a suit jacket, so he’d just gone for the standard.

Shutting of the engine, Kai pulled out his phone and shot off a text to her, grinning out of the window to the sunlight - this was a very nice-looking day, sunny and a bit warm without really risking excessive heat, and he was pretty sure that the day’s activities would far outstrip the weather in terms of likeability.

[Text] Hey, got here a little early, heh [Text] I’m outside whenever you’re ready - no rush [Text] The kind of dark-grey two-seater. Decided not to go for the motorbike today, heh

But he couldn't just leave her nothing. Didn't know what she would have wanted. She had a ton of money. Could buy all the stuff she wanted to buy. Wasn't really something she would value anyway if he took his meager savings and got her a new bra or whatever. Not that he could imagine going into a store to get one. Or anything. Didn't even know her size anyway.

But he remembered she liked seafood. So he had made her some. Was still expensive but not as much as going somewhere. And it was something new to learn. He made her a big bowl of clam chowder, and then he also made her a bowl of shrimp salad with cucumber and mint, because the recipes he found said it was really healthy and also really good. He had put it all in a small cooler lined with ice and put a little card on it that just had his name and a birthday wishes message so she would know who it was from.

It looked all wrong when he set the cooler down among all the fancy stuff. It looked clumsy and cheap. He couldn't help feeling kind of discouraged as he walked away. But it was better than nothing.

Kai’s heart was quite hammering in his chest, out of a combination of delight and some concern. He was excited, of course - and incredibly pleased - but he was also a little worried. In the end (the end in this case meaning twelve minutes ago when he left the apartment) he’d decided against bringing another gift, tempting though the idea was. Then, he somewhat reconsidered and grabbed a bottle of mead.

It was just a standard kind of reflex - Kai liked giving things to people he liked, particularly the reactions it brought from them. He liked people being happy. Of course, in this instance, he was also concerned that he might end up seeming too attached - he definitely didn’t want that.

So, he’d decided against a second gift, and instead had just hopped on his motorbike with a spare change of clothing in a backpack along with a few other odds and ends that he tended to bring along. He thought of it very much as an emergency kit, and it generally covered the bases pretty well.

There were laws on the road, of course, and Kai recognized that...but he also recognized that they weren’t necessarily entirely aligned with safety, and that he could be safe whilst breaking those laws, and also be a lot faster. In this case, particularly, faster was better.

As he got closer, he started to actually fog up the visor of his helmet and flipped it up, unzipping his jacket to let the cold air in to cool his overheating skin. He felt like he might ignite within the leather, and he didn’t want to be too hot and sweaty when he got there. Although...that could lead to a shower. That would be fun...

Elisa’s complex had visitor parking, and luckily one of the few spaces was open - Kai tucked his motorcycle in there and hopped off before the engine had even entirely died down, pulling off his helmet and sticking it on one of the handlebars. He immediately began to jog off toward the doors, and hit the buzzer for Elisa’s apartment.

“Hey, Elisa,” he grinned, breathing heavily but not audibly and taking a moment to straighten his jacket and button-up shirt. A lifetime of stairs rather than elevators had given him a pretty good amount of stamina. “I’m uh, glad you liked the gifts! I wasn’t really sure if I should, at first, heh, but I’m glad I did.” The thought that she’d liked them, alone, was enough to make the effort worthwhile - and they’d been fun to make, in their own right, really. Works always were, to see them being completed, and these ones had been particularly interesting and delicate in several ways.

[Text] Hey, thanks again for coming over for games and stuff! [Text] It was a lot of fun! [Text] Have you gotten a chance to test the necklace, yet? [Text] Just kind of curious, heh

Huh. Some kind of options, there.

Let’s...y’know, I wouldn’t murder any of them. Hypotheticals, though...

Guess I’d murder the PI Panther; most likely to end up on my tail, interfering. Go camping with...the fucked up yao guai, yeah. Guess I’ll be banishing the siren, then. To the rocks with you.

Kai was looking forward to it. Not that that was exactly new, or anything, or particularly unique, but he liked it still. He liked the way his lips wanted to curve into a grin as he thought about things, about the day ahead or those behind - he liked how he felt around his friends, or even when he just thought about them.

Sure, he’d only actually gotten together with Elisa three times, and one of those times had been the time they met, but that could still definitely count. Not that it really mattered for much - regardless of the status or label of their relationship, Kai liked them.

He’d pulled out a few board game options - some longer, some shorter, some more complex and some less. A few of the classics, a few newer ones. Snacks, as well - some baked vegetable chips, a couple of types of crackers with cheese, sliced veggies and dip, along with whatever else was in the fridge and the cabinets.

Halfway through gathering the ingredients for it, Kai had realized that this probably didn’t really warrant punch. There were drinks in the fridge, that was plenty - it wasn’t like a bunch of people were going to be coming over, just one.

The other part of the get-together - a trio of crystals set in copper fixtures, scribed with runes and symbols - sat off to the side on the workbench. Somewhat buried amongst everything else on the workbench, including a new spring-powered linear propulsion device that Kai was working on.

In his excitement to prepare for things, he’d become a little bit carried away, it seemed, as he glanced at the clock - Elisa wasn’t due for a fair while yet. Laughing gently to himself, Kai wandered over and grabbed a book, plopping down on the couch to wait. They’d show up whenever they did - and, if they didn’t things could be rescheduled. Kai could eat the veggies, refrigerate the cheese. He didn’t even have any punch to store.

Low pressure, that was what he was aiming for - in general, yes, but also particularly here. From the sounds of things, from the stories they’d told, Elisa had had their fair share of problems with people getting overly attached, or being overly pressing. Kai wanted to do his best to prevent his name from ending up on that list - with anyone, and particularly with those who were already on edge about it.

As he read - Kiln People, by David Brin - he munched idly on some vegetables from the octagonal coffee/games table nearby, and let himself just sort of soak into the story.