Waiting for the Storm to Pass [Portland]

[Aiden]

[[Since we haven't really had any threads where all of Portland is interacting with each other, now is the chance before plot stuff happens. This thread is meant for fun and getting to know each others' characters, and doesn't really have a specific plot to it. They're just hanging out and talking, so if you have any in character questions for someone, shoot. Happy posting.]]

The tavern was unusually empty for the weather; when it was raining, it was hit or miss for business in both the few rooms left available to buy and in the bar. It was either packed or dead, but today Aiden was pretty sure not a single customer came in. Not that he was complaining, or working even, but it just went to show that the day was dull, and there wasn't much to do. Aiden himself decided to take a breather, and just relax for the day. Hang out, clean his guns, play some video games. There were definitely some virtual zombies that needed killing.

He just dropped his laundry into the washing machine when he darted outside into the sheets of pouring rain to salvage the recently arrived mail before it was soaked through. He brought it inside, and quickly separated it, sorting by alias. There were bills, advertisements, and Yuki's latest manga volume, plastered with Japanese on both covers. She paid to have manga imported to her since her arrival in Portland, and Aiden knew that days when it arrived were sacred to her.

He could do one of two things: he could give it to Yuki, or give it to Teagan. The latter would be for entertainments sake, since Teagan liked to switch the pages around before giving it to Yuki. It was funny in the past to see Yuki's confusion before the rage, but today Aiden decided to just hand it over to Yuki directly. He left the rest of the mail on the table, and then headed up the stairs.

He could hear music from several rooms playing, so he assumed that everyone was doing their own thing. He knocked on Yuki's door, and opened it before she answered. Usually he waited, but he wanted to get back downstairs. He didn't think it'd be an issue. He stepped in and held out the plastic wrapped book. "Your new book is here. Looks like it's the one about the samuri," he said, surveying the cover with confusion.

[Yuki]

What to do, what to do. Yuki sat in the chair next to her desk, looking around her room for something to keep her occupied. She had woken up early to supposedly practice her gun aim outside, but the rain had quickly dashed that aspiration. As such, she had been confined to the indoor life of the tavern. Even after opening time, there wasn't much to do in the place. Business was slow, no one was in need of any help, there were no calls from Casey, and even her own department of searching for the hunts was as good as dead. It seemed the whole world was destined to do nothing today.

She tried to complain about it, keep herself occupied, but midst reading every book on hunting and mythology, the thought of taking out her guitar to practice crossed her mind. It had been a long time since she wandered the streets of Portland seeking venues for her music. The supernatural world had gotten so busy that she had pushed her outgoings to the side, but it was lazy days like these that brought back the urge to play.

But she couldn't. Someone would notice. And then she'd never hear the end of it. And yet... No. She forced her eyes to look upon the desk shelves and away from the closet where her guitar was safely tucked away. She really needed to find a book. Where was that new volume of Bleach she had ordered last week? It was due today. Really, American shipping took ages to deliver. It would've been the perfect distraction from the accursed desire to strum that guitar.

Music drifted through her door from outside. She couldn't distinguish if everyone was listening to something, or if one person was just playing a terrible song loudly. As she listened, she paused in her thoughts hesitantly. Either way...surely, no one would hear her if she played. It would only be for a bit, right? Just a little while.

Taking out the guitar, she sat on her bed and picked at a few strings lightly, testing out their noise level. Really, there was no way they could hear it behind the door. Especially with that cacophony playing outside. Convincing herself of the impossiblity, she began strumming random chords, nothing really specific, attempting to reconnect with the instrument.

Then she heard it. A quick knock. Her mind raced frantically, but before she had time to answer, Aiden entered her room. Kuso. But before he looked up from a package he was holding, she quickly gathered her senses, got up from her bed, shoving the guitar towards her pillows in the process, hoping he wouldn't notice, and then swiped the book from his hands. "Took long enough," she spat. "And that's not a samurai. It's a shinigami. Idiot." Yuki rolled her eyes. That was probably the most ignorant comment she had heard in a while. "Also, what makes you think you can come into my room unannounced? Next time I expect you to wait for me to give you permission to enter my room."

She stood closer to Aiden than normal, attempting to block his view of her bed. If he spotted the guitar, she knew he'd have questions, and she wasn't sure what her answers would be if he asked.

[Aiden]

The differences in music made a sort of indistinguishable type of hum as Aiden made it to the top of the stairs. If he really wanted, he could rival them all and turn up the bar's speakers, much like the night of his birthday, and make their floors vibrate with rock music...but so far as he knew CJ would like that. Instead he stayed on course, holding the plastic wrapped book in his hand while he approached Yuki's door. Her room was quickly approaching, and he decided to just open the door.

As he predicted, she swiped the book out of his hand as if he was holding something of value, and she was quick to chastise him about his choice of words. "A shini-what? Look at his sword, he's obviously a samuri," Aiden complained, motioning to the cover. "And why is his hair orange? That makes no sense, red maybe, but orange?" This was just for kicks, he knew that picking on anime was something Yuki despised, and it was funny to watch her reaction.

His eyes quickly drifted over her room, which was much like his; littered with books, papers, and newspapers. All she was lacking was the big bulletin board linking everything together that he had downstairs in the meeting room. Then there was her insurmountable collection of clothes, a guitar, and other knick knacks that proved Yuki was legitimately Japanese.

"You have a guitar? You should teach me," he said, walking over to pick it up. The weight was unfamiliar in his hand, but he held it and strummed awkwardly on the strings. "I didn't even know you had this, when did you get it?" he inquired, looking at it. "A while, there's dust on it. Huh," he said, setting it back on her bed. "Anyway, I'm just going to order pizza for lunch, so you can come down and wait, or I'll just get you when its ready, since I get the feeling you're being antisocial today," he said, drifting his way back towards the door.

He didn't ignore her previous statement, just took time in choosing his answer. "And also, you're like, the most boring person I know. What danger is there in not waiting for an answer? Stop being so uptight," he said with a hand motion, pulling himself around and out of the door frame.

[CJ]

CJ was walking around the Tavern blasting his music on his mp3 player. Right now the song San Sebastian by Sonata Arctica was pounding his eardrums into submission, but he could care less. Being in his own little fantasy was all that mattered to CJ right now. In his head, everyone left him alone and he could do whatever he wanted without having to worry about any individual harassing him, both normal and supernatural alike. This still didn't stop the real world from existing, which is why he should have probably paid more attention to the path he was walking because sure enough he bumped right into Aiden as he was coming out of a room.

"Ouch, watch where your going! Oh, it's you...hey wait isn't that Yuki's room? What were you doing in there? I don't think she'll like you being in there, unless it's OK to go into her room now...is it?"

[Yuki]

Wow. Did he really just ask what a shinigami was? And did he really just mock Ichigo's hair? Yuki glared at him, condescendence seeping through her look. "Shi-ni-ga-mi," she repeated. Even if she made the word as monosyllabic as she had, she didn't think that he would be able to say it. "Death God. Soul Reaper. However you may translate it." She then clutched the book towards his face and pointed to Ichigo's hair. "And vibrant-colored hair is a technique used by manga and anime artists to draw attention to an individual. Orange or red, it doesn't make a difference when the point is to make the main character stand out. Baka." God, he was so stupid. Had she not explained this a dozen times before?

As she stood attempting to block his view and yet mentally insulting him, she saw Aiden's eyes waver as they scanned her room. She waited for an answer to her demand as to why he came into her room without her saying so, but was earnestly more concerned with him not seeing her guitar. Yuki knew he had spotted it when his eyes lingered in one spot for longer than the usual. She just knew he had seen it. Internally, she prepared herself with answers. Research showed that certain supernatural creatures could be stopped with a musical instrument. She wasn't playing. She was just...training, in a sense. Right. Yes, training. Avoiding eye contact with Aiden, she looked straight ahead at the hallway as he walked passed her, waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for--

Huh?

Yuki blinked a couple times before turning around. Wait a minute, wasn't he going to say something else? ...It was like she had braced herself for an impact that never came. "Uh...yes. Yes, pizza. Downstairs," she managed to say. "I....I will be down there. Shortly. Momentarily." Her hands were folded across her chest, trying to play off the whole situation. No, she wasn't caught off guard. No, she didn't completely expect him to say anything else. This was a perfectly normal reaction from him. Of course. What had she just agreed to? Oh, right. Pizza. Food was her last concern. Yuki was more preoccupied with regaining her composure. Just get the hell out of here, Aiden...

She watched Aiden as he made his way out the door, somewhat stunned still, but his exiting remark snapped her back into her usual state. Again with the uptight comment?! "Just because I'm not loud an obnoxious doesn't mean I'm uptight!" she retorted, but he was already out of sight, likely walking down the hallway. Though she was sure he heard her. And he left the door open. Of course. With a sigh, Yuki put her book down on her bed and then went over to the door, but right as she was about to close it, she heard that new kid, CJ, in the hallway. What did he just say? ...She was pretty sure her eye twitched a little at his question.

"No, it is not okay to go into my room." Taking a step out of her room, she glowered at him, and then at Aiden, of whom CJ had apparently bumped into, being the inattentive fool he was. "Ever," she drawled emphatically, stressing the importance of not going into her room without her consent. Maybe she wouldn't do anything to Aiden because he was her faction leader and she respected him (to a certain degree), and also because she was accustomed to his stupidity. But if CJ ever went into her room, he'd be dead meat.

[CJ]

The music was now a distraction to CJ, especially if he wanted to hear what Aiden had to say. Taking out the earphones, anyone in half a radius could tell that he had them at max volume. How he hadn't gone deaf yet from the constant noise was a mystery to CJ, but as long as he had his hearing then he would continue to try and ruin it, yet he didn't want to ruin it with the voice of Yuki telling him that no one was allowed in her room.

Angry was such a small word for what CJ was feeling at this moment. Enraged? Infuriated? Blood boiling? Yeah, these were much better at describing his feelings toward Yuki at this moment. Teammate or not, no one talked that way to CJ without him getting a bit ticked off, and definitely no one looked at him in that manner.

"Listen," CJ uttered through clench teeth, "I just asked a simple question. A mere yes or no would have been sufficient in answering it. I did not need the little attitude you seem to be portraying to me. Got that?"

CJ stared at Yuki, interlocking eyes with her. He then broke contact and put on his right earphone only. The song had changed, but he wasn't paying too much attention to it. His head was thumping to the beat of the blood that was gushing through his temple area. Placing his forefinger and thumb in that area, he began to massage it to calm down. CJ kept telling himself "she helped you out with those witch bastards" to keep himself from doing something stupid.

After calming down a bit, he turned back to Aiden and said, "So, what are we eating today?," completely ignoring Yuki.

[Aiden]

Aiden looked back at the cover of the book, scrutinizing the character. "Yeah, well, your shinigami looks like a samuri to me," he said with a shrug. He ignore the rant about the hair, seeing as he already heard it a dozen or so times. Draw attention, artistic style, Japanese culture, blah blah blah. He was only doing it for kicks, to mess with her, because Yuki was just so damn uptight about everything. Seriously, he only recalled seeing her smile probably five times in the year he knew her, and half of that was during cruel acts against supernatural creatures.

Then she seemed to lose her train of thought, so he took that as his cue to exit the room. She said that she would be down shortly to get the food, which actually wouldn't take that long to get here. Luckily for them, the pizza place was just up the road, catering to the suburbs on the outskirts of town, so once the pizzas were cooked it only took a few minutes to be delivered. He swung himself around the door, and smacked into something hard. At first he thought he overshot it and flung himself into the wall, but it was too short to be a wall.

CJ was knocked back a little, and immediately began telling Aiden to watch where he was going. He was going to answer the kid and tell him that he'd just been talking to Yuki, but the aforementioned female burst out of her room, giving them death glares, and warning that they were never allowed in her room again. Ever. Or death. Aiden cracked a small smile, and looked right at her. "Jeez, so uptight," he said, and while his tone was serious, she would know that he was mocking her.

Suddenly CJ started arguing back, something that took Aiden by surprise. It usually took longer to adapt to Yuki. "Wow, the kid has stones. Maybe he's more mature than I took him for," he teased, and then but then decided to just give CJ a heads up. "As much as I support you fighting back--and I do, really, Yuki needs it--just be aware that she is a professional black belt and top of the country, so she won't hesitate to drop you."

Aiden began walking back, and then stopped when he heard CJ's voice. "Ah, that. Pizza, it'll be here shortly. I'll be downstairs if you need me, guys," he said, starting his descent down the staircase and back into the private dining area for the faction.

[Teagan]

And one final press for perfection, Teagan smiled to herself as she lightly kneaded the dough in her hands. A stormy day provided the perfect opportunity to make a dessert that would warm up the tavern in a way no one had been able to do for awhile. A slice of homemade apple pie rivaled water in the desert on a scorching hot day.

Making it also set Teagan in a lighthearted mood. The complex simplicity of creating a masterpiece soothed the girl and reminded her of the times her mother shared with the girl the techniques of the trade. They'd hum along with the radio while cutting and dicing, preparing some new recipe for her father to try when he returned home from work. The younger version of Teagan would often try and sneak tiny samples before they had finished, despite the constant smacking of a spatula on her messy hands. She smiled fondly at the memories as she carefully added the fruit to the pan and added the final layer of dough crisscrossed along the top.

What she wouldn't give to see her parents again. Were they worrying about her? Probably. Then again, if they sent her to math and science camp, perhaps they didn't quite care that much. The thought stung, taking her out of the reminiscent moment. Of course they cared! Wasn't this a moment like the ones she had wished for all her life? An escape from the overbearing parents fate had blessed her with?

You get what you wish for, she reluctantly shrugged, pressing lightly on the crust to form decorative indents around the edge of the pan. She then opened the oven, grateful for the hot blast of air. Despite being mid afternoon, the rain had drastically cooled the building. A visit to the heater controls was in order.

Footsteps echoed down the stairs as she closed the over door. "Hey Aiden. What did they say about the pizza?" She set the timer about the oven to an hour before turning around and smiling at the faction leader.