dated to the night before the plot starts, at midnight!

[payback]

[Before Uru left, Rin had suggested a cake date for the two of them. A midnight cake date! Something a little silly but fun for it. It's a magical castle of tremendous beauty, after all. In that kind of place a midnight cake-eating party is something that could easily happen.

Uru's gone now and the cake never happened. One half of the party is still here, though. You could guess that Rin stewed for a while and then thought "fuck it" and threw cares otherwise to the wind.

As such, at midnight she's in the dining room, dressed in a fancy traditional kimono and eating her way fastidiously through a very fancy slice of cake. She has to be extra-careful not trail her long sleeves through the frosting, but she's doing a good job of it. Rin has even gone to the trouble of lighting some candles to arrange a small centerpiece. The journal is open at her elbow. Between neat bites she dictates into it.]

Before my friend left, we had this idea of eating cake at midnight. The idea was, we'd make a party of it, you know? [Bite.]

Well, it seems like a shame to scrap an idea just because she's gone now. I don't think she'd care for that kind of attitude. She'd probably have something encouraging to say about it being worthwhile to do something else.

Anyway. My point is, I'm having cake in the dining room. It's midnight now. If you want some, come and get it.

Comments

[heloise]

1498, last I left. [ Though her canon is terribly vague! ]

And yourself?

[payback]

The second year of Tenmei. That's about three centuries after you. It's not common to find somebody from that early.

[heloise]

There are a few here from the same decade, at least. Are you from the Orient, Rin?

[payback]

I'm from Nippon. [A beat.] Does that count? Where are you from?

[heloise]

It does. [ They called it something else in her time, though. ]

I was born near Rome, though my family comes from Valencia in Spain.

[payback]

I only have a rough idea where that is... [She waves a hand a little. She studied more since coming to Paradisa, but geography of earth was never so much her interest.] So, from that perspective, how do you like it here?

[heloise]

[ She takes time to reply, poking at what remains of her cake. ]

The Italian states are constantly at war. [ And that makes her the pawn to be bartered for money and armies. ] There is more peace here than could be imagined where I come from.

[payback]

I know the feeling. [Noncommittal, with an invitation for more information to be offered or not, as Lucrezia chooses.]

[heloise]

Is Nippon also at war?

[payback]

Not so dramatically. It's a violent place full of disgusting people... or if not that, enough disgusting people to make life a lot more nerve-wracking for those who aren't repulsive.

[heloise]

[ She nods slowly. ]

You aren't repulsive.

[payback]

I appreciate your saying so.

I do hold my own sometimes anyway. I think. [How about you, Lucrezia?]

[heloise]

[ she's the most repulsive if you ask most people ]

It is no sin to defend oneself or to stand for one's own family against all.