adventureic | (no subject)

WHO: Darcy and Adzuki Yamashita
WHEN: Monday, February 5th
WHERE: Creativity offices
WHAT: Darcy and Adzuki meet and chat about each other, work, and being people.
WARNINGS: None!

Before coming to the Adventure Society, Adzuki had had one job, and that job had very clear expectations and rules and tasks. Working at a fish market was easy, simply an extension of knowledge she already had, put into the frame of a job. Here, though? She's definitely still trying to figure it out. Illusions are second nature, but she finds that keeping busy and focused is difficult for her without a rote process to follow. It'll improve, she's sure, but for now? For now she thinks it's super valid for her to take some work time to just explore. She's got a lot to learn, after all, and surely the Society would view that as a good use of her time.

So, she's wandering the Creativity offices, seeing what others are doing, trying to look like she understands 90% of what she sees even though it's probably closer to 20%. She keeps telling people she's there for an audit, because that seems professional. No one questions her, even when she peeks her head into every office that's door isn't completely shut. Sometimes people explain what they're doing to her, which is very informative. It's unclear if it's actually a good use of her time, but finally, all that snooping around leads her to her shoving her head into one of the soundproof recording booths with the door slightly ajar.

"Hello, I'm doing an audit," she announces.

Eyes a little wide at the unexpected declaration and person now also inside the booth, Darcy pushes the headphones from her ears and quirks her head to the side.

“An audit,” she repeats slowly. “If this is about the fourth treasure trove I can explain where the gold came from. I stole it.”

Adzuki isn't entirely sure what sort of response she's expecting, but the one Darcy gives her is better than anything she could have made up. Treasure? Fourth? Stole???? Unable to help her curiosity (and the look of pure delight on her face), she leans towards the other woman.

"I was lying about the audit but now I have to know everything," she chirps. Her expression suddenly shifts though, as she remembers that she should be polite. "I'm Adzuki!" she announces, thrusting her hand outwards for a shake. A successful business interaction!

Darcy’s dubious expression transforms slowly to amusement as she takes Adzuki’s hand in a firm shake. “How incredibly odd, auditor isn’t where I’d usually go if I were faking an identity, but I guess that’s what makes it work so well.”

She chuckles and nods towards the empty seat beside her in the booth. “Have a seat babe, I’m Darcy. Who are you when you’re not an auditor?”

The handshake Darcy receives is somewhat questionable - a little flighty and unpracticed, but enthusiastic, at least. Much like Adzuki herself. She immediately goes to slide into the seat as soon as it's indicated, beaming.

"I saw it on a TV show once and people didn't like it when people came around to audit so they were less likely to ask questions and more likely to answer them." A hum, a wiggle, and Adzuki is back to talking. "I do illusions, but I'm still sort of… figuring out what that means as a job, you know? You do…" a pause, as she looks around, "Recording things? About gold?" Seems like a weird job, but she's not going to question it.

“Close, the things I record are solid gold,” Darcy smiles at her own joke, still musing on the brilliance of posing as an auditor to go undetected. “I’m an author and I guess they got good enough that people wanted to hear me talk all the time too so,” she gestures to the recording equipment around them. “Podcast. What kind of illusions do you do?”

"Wow," Adzuki marvels, Darcy's joke sailing neatly over her head because she's so preoccupied by everything else. Author - cool! Gold - still cool! Podcasts - cool! She's pretty sure! Examining the recording equipment without a shred of shyness, she bobs her head as she thinks.

"Oh, just like, junk around the Society. Decorating things sometimes. Hiding things from nosy coworkers. The other day I made like… a living mirror for someone without a reflection?" She fiddles with a cord before looking to Darcy again. "Are you like… a professor?" Professors write books and talk about stuff, right?

Darcy barks what might be both the most charming and sinister sounding cackle, utterly delighted by this strange thing that ended right in her lap. “The only thing I teach the masses is how to get off the way they always fantasized,” she winks and props her chin up in her hand to better assess her new companion. “I write smut, babe. But tell me more about this living mirror.”

Though the laugh surprises her, Adzuki seems delighted by it, just like literally everything else in this interaction. How could she not? She's making a new, very interesting friend! Listening intently, she nods as though she understands, but then has to take a few moments to process so she can actually understand. Realization dawns on her face. "Oh!" She lowers her voice, conspiratorially, "Sexy stuff." She returns the wink, mostly because it seems fun, and it earns her another charmed chuckle from the Leprechaun.

"The living mirror thing was because this was like, literally the fanciest man I had ever seen and he is a big deal? Or something? He said he was anyway, and I guess he's got some fancy party thing to go to, and since he doesn't have a reflection he can't see how his clothes look on him so I just like, made an illusion of him to look at. But living mirror sounds cool."

Darcy agrees: “that does sound cool. You could make a killing off of a stage name like that. No reflection though…” her brows draw tightly together in interest. “Was he a ghost? “

"So," Adzuki starts, sighing, "he didn't look like one but I asked him and," she throws up her hands, "he said it was rude to ask! Are you a ghost? Are you a classic Dracula man? Are you supposed to be a magic mirror but now you're not so all the other mirrors are pissed off about it? 'It's rude to ask, young lady, now spin him around so I can see the backside.'"

She sighs again, then eyes Darcy, wiggling a little in her seat. "Do you think it's rude to ask?"

“I never think a question is too rude to ask,” the leprechaun shares a conspiratorial grin. Sure she could be respectful, she did try to model that in the focus area of her work, but at the same time she just didn't understand the primness of some of these creatures sometimes (usually human). She’d lived far too long to develop any sort of compunction about most things anyway. “Sounds like you were doing him a favour babe, seems pretty rude of him to just use you like that. How was his backside?”

Though Adzuki agrees with Darcy's assessment (Questions aren't rude! They're learning!), she is very certain that most people don't have this attitude. However, knowing that her new friend is open to whatever she might ask is both a relief and rather exciting.

"So it's ok to ask what you are? Because I'm having a lot of fun learning what everyone is and what they know!"

"And yeah I was doing him a favor, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. I mean, about the rude stuff, I guess." She looks a little sheepish, wrinkles her nose, sticks out her tongue between her teeth for a moment before speaking. "Soooo, it actually looked fine but I made the pants look a little saggy in the butt on the illusion. That was rude, probably. I mean, like, probably definitely."

Darcy lets a laugh loose, delighted like she’s never heard something so fantastic. This girl was a trip. She leans in further, hand completely lost in her curls as she better props herself up, fascinated.

“No way, that’s just hilarious, and I’m an authority on mischief,” she declares, and with a snap of her fingers summons a nice gold coin for her lovely new friend. “I’m a leprechaun.”

Darcy's laugh feels like being absolved of any sins she'd committed with regards to pants fitting, so Adzuki's expression shifts back into a pleased one. Especially when the coin appears. "Magic!" she chirps, as though she herself is not a magical creature.

Her mind catches up to the leprechaun comment after a moment of peering at the coin, so she instead shifts her focus to the other woman, blatantly curious. Her smile slips into something a bit softer after a moment. "It's neat to meet so many different kinds of people. I'm a cat. Or, was a cat. Now sort of demon cat? Nekomata. But I always just lived with my dad, and only hung out with the other nekomata sometimes to learn from them, so… being around so many people who aren't like me but are is pretty cool. You know?"

Darcy’s own smile softens a little, uncharacteristically so. “I do, it's why I came here actually. A building full of supernatural who's who? I'll be cranking out like, two books a week at this rate,” she scoffs, feeling filled to the brim with inspiration and it's barely been a month. These weirdos were all so deeply dramatic and hot. Everything just kept coming up Darcy.

“A Nekomata is very cool. So this is like your coming of age story huh? Wide eyed girl busts out into the great big world, takes it by storm.”

"Who's been your biggest inspiration so far? And you only came here for books?" Adzuki asks curiously, unabashed, thinking that surely Darcy must also be craving a little bit of supernatural kinship as well. The world is wide and filled with all sorts of creatures, but without such a clear line to them as at the Society, how did everyone find each other? Maybe that was just something Darcy had learned at some point in her life.

"I guess it is! I spent like, fifty years pretending to be just a cat. It seemed like it was time to go out and learn how to be a person."

“Being a person isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be,” Darcy says unthinkingly, snorting at the thought. It takes a good few seconds for just how that sounded, to register. “Not that it isn’t also a trip,” she rushes to correct herself, curly hair bouncing a little as she presses a hand to Adzuki’s arm, familiar and comforting. “I just mean don’t stress yourself out with what being a person should be, the auditor, you know,” she gestures dismissively. “It means whatever you want it to mean.”

Adzuki hums, quiet and thoughtful, appreciating the gentle contact and the kind, reassuring words. There hasn't been a moment that she hasn't been grateful to be here, but every moment of real connection with someone just makes her all the gladder. Her nose scrunches up in a smile.

"Yeah, I don't worry too much about it I don't think. It's all just stuff to learn, right? And there are lots of people to learn from. I'm excited to be a person, though, even if I know it sucks sometimes. I mean, being a cat sucked sometimes too, though it was like, obviously simpler that way, just living at home with my dad and stuff. But I'm going to be around for a while, so getting used to people things is good for me. Whatever people things I want to get used to." She glances off for a moment, almost dreamily, "Plus I get to eat so many more things than I ever used to."

“Cat food just wasn’t hitting the spot eh?” Darcy tries to follow the far off look on Adzuki’s face to whatever food fantasy she's dreaming. She bites back a smile. “What's your favourite then. Best thing you've eaten since the whole person business.”

Adzuki, laughing brightly, looks back to Darcy. "Oh, I still love cat food; it's the best kind of stinky. But I don't eat it as a person. It's kind of weird as a person." For various reasons that she figures she doesn't need to get into.

"I feel like everything new I eat is my favorite thing - everything here is so good? Like, Leeds is good at food? And I love not having to feed myself, I did that for five years and it was suuuper annoying. Also, do you eat? I hope you eat, some people here don't have to and it seems like a bummer."

“Leeds is good at everything,” Darcy settles back into her lean, watching her new friend (muse?) in rapt attention, like she’s the most fascinating thing in the world (and she is). “He’s my answer to your previous question, by the way. Everyone is inspiring, I mean hot, but,” she makes a clicking sound with her tongue against her teeth. “I think I could do a whole series on him. He’s going to be tumblr’s newest cryptid of the month in no time flat, mark my words.”

She’s gone off on a tangent now, but can you blame her? She’s struck gold at this Society, and if there’s anything Darcy is an expert in, it’s gold. And whisky. And having a good time.

“I do eat,” she gets herself back on track, fiddling with the headphone cord distractedly. “I don’t really do the whole cooking thing either. If food’s been made, I’m there. Not picky about it either. You ever had a pixy stick?”

"He's very nice, and I'm not surprised he's good at everything," Adzuki says, immediately trusting Darcy's word that he is, in fact, good at everything. And where her new companion is fascinated with her, she's fascinated back in turn. The idea of being able to write a whole series on someone, mostly because she's never written a single thing in her life, is astounding.

"It's so cool that you're so creative," she sighs appreciatively and Darcy’s smile goes wide and pleased. "And no, I've never had one of those. Is it a people thing? Or a pixie thing?"

“Depends on where you're getting them from,” lazily, Darcy snaps her fingers and one appears, long and brightly coloured, innocent like a poison tree frog. “This one is just plain, glorious sugar. Some pixies got a little annoyed about the whole name theft and humans using them for profit thing, understandable, they turned me into cereal,” Darcy is talking fast, waving the stick around. “Don’t accept a Pixy Stick from a pixie because it likely isn't sugar. From a leprechaun though,” she smiles and extends the candy to her new cat friend. “I think you’ll like’em.”

In true cat fashion, Adzuki's eyes follow the waving of the pixie stick, enchanted by its bright color and its apparently very exciting history. She happily accepts, examining the packaging - it's like nothing she's seen before.

"Oh, they did make you cereal," she says somewhat forlornly, trying to sort out how to open her treat. "My dad's grandkids are obsessed with it but they're not allowed to have it because of all the sugar. Which is maybe why they're not allowed to have these either."

Darcy reaches over to help Adzuki tear open the little tube. “I have no issue with the marshmallows it's the whole, they’re after me lucky charms bumbling buffoonery,” she huffs as she leans back and reaches for her headset. “Do I know a few idiot leprechauns? Absolutely. Am I? Absolutely not. Really ruins the whole image, you know?”

She was cool, she wore leather pants.

“You know anything about podcasts?”

"You're very much not an idiot," Adzuki agrees earnestly, making a small noise of excitement and thanks as Darcy helps her open her treat. In a show of surprising control, she only tries a little bit at first but, moments after, finding the pixie stick absolutely delightful, she dumps the whole thing in her mouth.

She beams at the podcast question. "I know it's a talking thing and that's it. But, I like to learn."

Perfect. “That’s what I like to hear,” Darcy grins sharply in return, gesturing for Adzuki to take the other headset. “How about you trade auditing for producing – I can show you a whole new world babe.”

Adzuki wiggles in her seat, enthusiastic about this new job and enjoying the lingering sweetness of the pixie stick. Quick to do as instructed, she slips the headphones over her ears. "You got it, babe." It only seems right to return the term of endearment.