#thiefpaint

Isn’t it past curfew for you…?

      He finds Yusuke, unexpectedly, while looking for something that would keep well without needing too much heating or cooling. Ramen seems the natural choice, as it only needed to boil, and he’s fairly certain the stoves aren’t electric, but a man can’t live on Ramen alone. At least, not one that’s gotten used to making himself curry at the bare minimum of twice a week. However, things as they are, he has no way to store it, or to keep the ingredients fresh without worry, and so he relegates himself to something simple and cheap in the interim.            Yusuke, it seems, has no such concerns when he finds him poring over a few sparse packages of thinly-sliced beef.           “You know...” His voice rises only enough for Yusuke to hear, hands in his pockets and eyes skimming from his friend to the refrigerated goods he was poring over. His chin lifts, tilting toward the faint hum of a generator. A backup, likely keeping everything in the place running since they didn’t have to worry about the lack of power elsewhere. 

     POP!

crack.

A proud display of marksmanship, no doubt about it, and one that drew the eye of several who had simply been minding their own business in the streets of Sector 004. It was for the sake of one such individual that Naoto had drawn her BB gun in the first place - so engrossed in his sketchbook that he didn’t seem to have noticed the simple earthenware planter that swung above his head on a far-too-worn rope.

But any good detective was aware of their surroundings and how they may change at any given time. Keen eyes had caught sight of how the rope had continued to fray under the combined weight of the pot and the plant it housed, and Naoto hadn’t spared a single moment in drawing her toy gun once she realized that harm could have possibly come to the young man if she allowed things to go on the way they were.

A well-aimed pellet fired at a crucial moment is more than enough to knock a target off course.

Rather than leave him startled after the rapid succession of events, Naoto approaches after holstering her BB gun.

     Strong in the belief that others should be given their space as she would like hers, the Manakete makes sure to do so with the stranger... Yet despite this, she still finds herself leaning over to get a better look at what the other might be sketching. While not much of an artist herself, Nah can still appreciate such things or at the very least, try to.

Should she surprised this place had a beach? Some part of her thinks so, but another thinks that after everything they’ve gone through, this should come as no shock. Still, after seeing all the endless expanse of buildings and concrete streets (when she actually went outside), it’s amazing to see nothing but blue over the horizon.

Sometimes, the outdoors is...nice. When everybody else is on the other side of the beach, anyway. The company makes the anxiety ease, too.

Her toes wiggle as she works, tongue sticking out in concentration. There’s little tension in her shoulders as she piles wet sands with her hands, leftovers drying and flaking off her arms as the waves gently lap at her legs. 

“Yes...this is it...my masterpiece...!” Her mumbling is determined, especially as she grabs a seashell to stab onto the front of her slightly sunken-looking castle. After scraping out the door, she sets a piece of driftwood to cover it’s delicate sandy contents, and gets to her feet with an excited hop, turning towards her companions

“What do you think? I call it...Fort Futaba! Pre-tty classy if I do say so myself!”

           It wasn’t every day one was sent to another world. Even for someone who was used to taking regular trips into a cognitive reality separate from their own, something as big as being sent to the Hive would send a shock right through them. The strangeness of it, the foreign elements and the countless people who had come from every different walk of life made it impossible to adjust quickly. Even for Ryuji, who was more brawn than brain and tended to take things in stride, the experience was rattling. And, if he admitted, a little frightening.

   Which was why, upon coming across the familiar scene that lay before him, the Phantom Thief couldn’t help but think that it was a little out of place. And yet, at the same time, he felt a measure of relief. This, at least, he could deal with. After all, Yusuke being weird was just a normal occurrence when it came to Ryuji’s friend group.

     “’The Book Of Five Rings’…”

     Musashi found herself in Sector oo4, perusing the books at a local bookstore. The dusty tome she held in her hand caught her eye, since, well… this was hers. Or at least, some version of her had written it. She had heard stories about who she was in another timeline, and she couldn’t deny that she wasn’t at least a little bit curious as to what her inter-dimensional self had to say..

     She was so engrossed with her book she failed to notice the man standing dangerously close to her. Mild embarrassment bubbled up in her at the half self indulgent act of reading her own history.

needle