poly_chromatic | v i d e o / a c t i o n ][ 018

Entry tags:

inception - yusuf

v i d e o / a c t i o n ][ 018

[ You may either find Yusuf laden with an armful of cookie tins- in which case, please stop him and ask for some, contrary to a single person's belief, the house literally cannot handle any more cookies in it- or walking back from the grocery with the tins in a bag and about four other bags of what can only be baking supplies. Likely, if your house needs butter, it will not be getting it on this good night, as Yusuf has just bought pretty much all of it.

You can thank Ariadne's mom.

Finagling the bags around on his wrists, Yusuf flips open his device just long enough to ask a question of the network. ]

So people make brief or repeated appearances in the city on certain weekends. Is it then, a rule, that the people who appear have a relation or acquaintance to someone else in the city?

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Quite an armful there.

[ Green eyes flicker with amusement but it's not a mean sort. There is too a motive behind the way the young woman reaches out to take a stack of tins, tilting her head at the stranger. ] Bakesale, is it?

[ If the tins are especially sensitive (perhaps it isn't cookies or brownies or whatnot in them after all) she imagines he'll take them back rather quickly - if he can, given the unwieldy load he's still trying to carry. If not, then she's here without immediate explanation of cause or reason and she'd rather ask a person face to face than through some machine - useful though they are. ]

Baking crises, actually. [ Yusuf makes no move whatsoever to take the tin back, in fact, he gives the ginger woman a thankful smile- around his armload of baking tins, that is. ]

Please, if you fancy biscuits, take as many as you like. I am positive I am carrying around a small bakery right now...

Crises? That's a little...dramatic. Though I suppose if this is only the tip of the iceberg... [ The sugar-and-flour-berg rather... well. She tucks some flyaways back and pops open the tin in her hand inhaling with more enthusiasm than a cautious person might employ, but it's fine because whoever is responsible for these confections knows what she's doing. Grinning fairly ear to ear she takes five tins off of the stranger after punching the lid back down. ] I do like them. But there's an orphanage I passed by, and a hospital too. If you're still trying to get rid of the rest, you could take them to one and I'll take these to the other.

[ Suffice to say she hasn't been idle in her time here since the midnight hour. An appetite for discovery plays well in this kind of arena, at least for today, and this time her grin is more a crooked smile that radiates more from her eyes. ] I'm Lily, by the way.

[ Then she waits. The prompt of 'and you' seems altogether unnecessary when it's implied. As another group of people pass by, close enough that arms brush, she sidesteps just a touch. Some people she knows would greatly dislike the overcrowded quality of things, the noise, and varying displays of origin. But she tries not to think about that too much at the moment.

How did she come here? Shouldn't she remember? Magic?

Something else entirely?

She redirects her gaze back to the man so-far dubbed in her head as Cookie-Crises, sincerely hoping he'll give her a better option than that. ]

It is a dramatic situation, I promise you. [ Although, now that she's taken a few of the tins off his hands, he doesn't sound nearly as frantic about it as he could have- if it really were a cookie crises. If he's surprised that she takes so many tins, he doesn't say anything. The Hospital and Orphanage are good ideas, places that could definitely use some of the excess cheer Yusuf is hauling around, and he says as much. She seems to know where she's going, as she nods in the direction of the Hospital.

Trying to recall if he's ever seen her in the City before, Yusuf introduces himself. ] A pleasure to meet you Lily, my name is Yusuf.

[ She has the look to her that newcomers have- not the frantic, terrified ones (and for that, he is thankful) but the one that reminds him, a little bit, of Ariadne. Not so much in looks- no, there she looks like she could belong to the Weasley family, but that's another thing on Yusuf's Things Not To Think Too Hard On list- but in the way she looks at things like they're hiding a bit of inherent excitement from her, and she'll not be having any of it. Newcomers don't usually know about the Hospital, unless they're sent there, and rarely ever venture near the Orphanage unless the deities are feeling particularly spiteful. He can't imagine anyone would be terribly spiteful to this woman.

Unable to figure out if she is a resident or just a very savvy visitor, Yusuf motions for her to walk with him, so they're not run over by foot-traffic. ] Forgive me, but are you one of the visitors in the City? You seem to know your way around, but I don't recall ever seeing you...

[ The foot traffic reminds Lily of London crowds and on a smaller, concentrated scale of Diagon Alley the week preceding a new term. She isn't by any means old but her First year is a considerable leap behind her and though she's not nostalgic per se there is something of a subconscious longing for certain things to be as they were - an ease of trust. Blinking equates to shaking the underlying shift of light and dark and she clicks it back a pace with a conscious smile as well, keeping step beside Yusuf who really does seem a great deal less frazzled than he was. ] Visitor, I think. Though one person told me I might be surprised to find myself here afterward. I suppose I've no way to know for certain until Monday.

[ Here the generous curve of her mouth softens a little, closer to neutral, closer to the logical contemplation of what-if. ] It's really something though, this place.

Even in the daylight it reminds me of a city at night.

[ And it isn't so much that the flower girl in her has been to too many urbanized night life scenes, but locales carry feelings just as people do, as sounds and tastes. Everything issues forth some sentiment of identity. Night is like that, even in the day. ]

could be. Some times its people who have lived here before

so there is a reason, be it a person or connection, for these people to be here?

i dont know about "reason"

but similar circumstances perhaps yeah

[She finds him on the street, with bags of baking supplies. He smells like - cat.

A cat person.

Celina likes that in a man]

Do you need help?

[She's dressed beautifully, sharply, like a lawyer]

[ There are only a couple blocks to the rowhouse, and Yusuf must be imagining that he can smell the baking catastrophe happening there from all the way over here. Somehow, he's managed to get rid of the cookies he was sent out with, but he's still laden with baking supplies. ]

Do you happen to be headed that way? [ Yusuf nods in his intended direction. ] I wouldn't want to take you out of your way.

I wasn't heading anywhere in particular.

[She reaches for a bag]

It's no trouble.

Thank you, very much. [ He'll hand the bag with the almonds and the confectioners sugar over (aka, the bag that doesn't weigh approximately seven pounds in pure butter) but keep the others for himself. ]

Just out for a walk then?

A bit of one, yes.

Kenya? Is that what I hear in your accent?

[ Blinking, before he smiles at her and nods, regarding her with the new light of someone who knows and possibly appreciates something you also hold dear. ]

Mombasa, to be precise. Most people don't catch it.

[ The underlying question being, of course, how did you? ]

[She smiles back]

My mother was from Kenya. It inspired me to go into International Law. I spent some time there growing up.

I like Mombasa quite a bit.

Oh, how interesting. [ Though he tries to catch a lilt in her speech that might tell him which part of Kenya she comes from, he can't quite place anything specific. Either she hasn't been in a while, or that ability simply isn't in Yusuf's repertoire. ] I'm not a native, actually. I moved there for.. entrepreneurial ventures, some ten years ago and never had a desire to leave.

Are you one of the visitors here this weekend?

[No, her accent is purely American]

I'm here visiting my sister.

Oh.

[ Realization, this is your moment!

Yusuf's smile turns knowing, catching on to something in the smile- in the history that sounds familiar because he's heard something similar once before. On a limb, he asks, ] Your sister wouldn't happen to be named Saya, would she?

Ah, of course you know her.

That would make you the man whose cat she found.

Yusuf, [ He clarifies, though amused that this is the way he's being introduced to Saya's sister. ] But yes, your sister did me the favor of finding Rhada when she snuck out of the flat.

[ We're going to avoid the conversation about what happened to said flat, if at all possible... ]

Celina.

I like cats, too.

They're smart creatures.

Do you have any?

[Her smile widens]

I do. Three of them.

For their sake I hope your visit is pleasant but short.

You're sweet.

Do not be fooled, cats are my weak spot. [ His tone isn't nearly convincing though, and he's obviously out running errands for someone else... Jostling the bags, he adds, ] And apparently mothers who stress bake...

All cats?

[She's moving closer, now. If she were in simba form, she would be purring]

Mostly. [ If he notices the closeness, he gives her the benefit of the doubt- the streets are crowded with newcomers, figuring out their on-loan devices or just marveling at their new surroundings, and Yusuf can understand not wanting to be bumped into every few minutes. ] I am convinced the local strays consider my home their own.

Maybe you smell friendly.

How's the shopping coming? I am sorry that I've sent you but I just can't leave this dough behind...

Almost home, Mrs. Mariani. [ Yusuf answers, respectfully if not a little off-skew of the camera. ] No need to apologize, you're the one doing all the work.

Well, I couldn't just leave without leaving something behind until next time.

[ One minute there doesn't seem to be anything there and the next it's a tall... well, skeleton dressed in black. There's a hint of blue in his eye sockets, but otherwise there's no color to be seen, just black fabric and eerily white bone. ]

NO. NOT IN THIS PLACE.

[ Although there have been some very strange things in the city, this is the first time Yusuf has encountered an ambulatory skeleton. He's trying to take this with a grain of salt, but he's not going to get terribly close to this... thing. ]

Well... then you are here for no reason?

[ baby don't be like that ]

I AM HERE BECAUSE IT IS MY TIME TO BE HERE, THOUGH ONE COULD SAY THAT I AM HERE ALL THE TIME.

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v i d e o / a c t i o n ][ 018

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