Chaos in the Midst [open]

Mari was officially bored. There was nothing she could do besides wandering the wonderfully boring streets of Crocus and 'admiring' the 'dearly loved' palace situated in the city for all to see. When she had first come into the guild hall after a lengthy period away, she had made a stunningly beautiful entrance but as always, there was next to no one inside the entrance and those who were there simply told her to shut up. She had then proceeded to cry her fake tears and 'ran off' into the 'distance'. No one followed her so she assumed that she hadn't been missed as always. She didn't care though. She didn't miss them herself anyways.

After she had gotten herself re-acquainted with her extremely dusty room, she had sat on her bed pondering what she could do. She crossed out the option of annoying her fellow guild mates; they would probably brutalize her if pushed too far and she was certain if she tried pulling another stunt e.g. changing all the locks in the dormitories, she'd get suspended from the guild. The last time she did that she ran until she thought they forgot. Since she was in no mood of leaving after she just arrived she hesitantly had to cross out all the things she could possibly do in the guild just for safety. That left roaming around Crocus. So despite her gloomy mood at having nothing to do besides walk, she decided that her state of boredom would change if something came up.

As it was, nothing was coming up at the moment. Ever the optimist she came to an ultimatum that if nothing interesting occurred in the next 5 minutes she'd make something interesting happen. She started her internal timer and when the minutes were up she did the first that came to mind; she started screaming and running back through the large crowd surrounding the stalls lining the streets. This caused a lot of commotion for several reasons. For one, people were trying to figure out why this girl was screaming. For another she was pushing people aside in the crowd somewhat roughly leading to a domino effect where everyone was falling flat on their face.

She knew it was a benefit to her by being short. By the time she stopped screaming there was chaos in the masses and no one even recalled who the person who started it was. Mari decided this was entertainment enough and climbed to the roof so that she could gain a better view of what was happening below. What she saw caused her to giggle almost insanely – it was scary even by her fake persona’s standard.

The guild hall had annoyed Sharaku today. The one person he spent any time around was gone on a mission, and hadn’t begged him to come along. Everyone else seemed to annoy him. People were either idiots, or thought they were smart enough to manipulate him and the people around him. The company the Shadow Lord kept was unique indeed. Either leadership material, or pawns. That seemed to be the population of the hidden guild hall. He hated most of them. If he were the type to kill without orders, he probably would have ended a fair few lives when they came to poke at him in a group for his awkward and antisocial ways.

Dressed in a simple black t-shirt and matching cargo pants and sneakers, Sharaku looked relatively average, save for the loop earrings that adorned his ears and his natural ‘pretty boy’ face. Few people bothered looking his direction as he made his way through the streets of Crocus. He didn’t mind walks. They were relaxing, and despite the people that were usually around on the streets, they were usually something that he could do without being bothered.

That apparently wasn’t to be today. He heard the shrill shrieking as some girl ran around, and saw the nearby crowd  falling into chaos as they were pushed aside and tried to figure out what was going on. He also saw her climbing to get a better view of her handywork. “… her again…” Sharaku sighed as he started the climb, himself.

As the girl looked down from the rooftop, he squatted behind her. “Your shrieking is annoying.” He told her matter-of-factly. He wasn’t good with women, but he was annoyed at the moment and didn’t care that she was a girl. “Tell me you at least had a halfway decent reason for doing that.”

Mari stopped laughing when she heard Sharaku's voice say her shrieking was annoying. Instead, she formed a gigantic smile and jumped on him, possibly knocking him over in order to give him a big hug. While the girl herself was scared of being touched, she found no problem with herself touching others - especially since by her former observations of her fellow guild mate he was socially awkward and would most likely not enjoy the physical contact. "Yay! Entertainment!" she squealed in delight while physically assaulting him. She didn't hang on for too long though, drawing back to 'seriously' argue his statement. "If my shrieking is annoying, your stalking is creepy" she retorted with a pout "No one follows four and a half year old girls to the roof tops."

Mari did realise her retort hardly made sense and that she was, in fact, not four but eighteen in reality. While he probably could tell she wasn't four, it was the simple truth that no one in the guild actually knew for sure how old she was. They could make accurate guesses based on her appearance but she wouldn't affirm that fact for them instead responding that she was four so thus they couldn't be sure.

"And of course I did! I was bored!" she exclaimed like it was the most obvious reason before leaning closer to him. "I also did it because I felt like it," she whispered loudly as someone would if they were exaggerating telling a secret all.

Seeing people's reactions was one of the best parts of acting like a lunatic 24/7. She couldn't wait to see his. She remembered his name was Sharaku. She wasn't sure if he knew her name or not but was sure he knew of her existence. Either than her previous observations about him she gathered that he wasn't one of the less tolerable members of her dearly despised guild. That made him a person she deemed suitable for childish entertainment as she didn't think he would mind too terribly. Even though her persona was hardly real, it didn't stop the fact that she liked acting like an idiot anyways. So despite her feelings of chagrin in sticking around the guild too often, she enjoyed the brief time period where she could act like a total fool with no restrictions. When she was a psycho, she could annoy people as much as she pleased. However, she also had to keep in mind their tolerance levels so she wouldn't get kicked. As a result, she observed her fellow guild mates whenever she had the chance to. Then she could act accordingly.

Sharaku was bowled over almost immediately by the crazy girl. He grunted as he fell over onto the roof, telling him his stalking was creepy. His cheeks flushed red for a moment with the girl on top of him, which stopped him from pushing her off like he might have most people. “I- I’m not…” He sighed, getting annoyed at her again. He got up, forcing her to get up or fall off of him. “I’d have to be blind not to have spotted the chaos you were causing. I don’t make a habit of stalking kids or insane people.”

He knew she wasn’t so crazy. Someone so mindlessly crazy wouldn’t have a place in a place like Shadow Heart. It was probably a mask to disarm people, or something nefarious like that. At any case, she wasn’t one of the rank and file idiots he had to punch some sense into on a near-daily basis.

“Being bored isn’t an excuse, kid.” He told her, crossing his arms and looking more bored than anything despite his obvious annoyance. Sharaku didn’t have much patience for people being idiots. He never had, and especially hadn’t since joining Shadow Heart. "I haven’t forgotten the lock changing incident from before. I had to track down a locksmith before I could get something rather important from my own room. I don’t like Shadow Heart either, but I also don’t like getting messed with, Marianne.”

As expected, his reaction was golden. It wasn't the most expressive she had seen ever but that didn't hinder her amusement. There was something funny about serious people she found and Sharaku was a serious person from what she could tell. Usually they traversed the world in a very normal style and she doubted they had much fun. As a result if she could pull some other emotion out besides a serious one she found it hilarious. Blushing was one of the best. Stuttering was the at the top. Mari tried to contain her laughter by biting her lip to avoid smiling.  

She let herself fall off him when he got up from his knocked over position and managed to maintain control over herself. It didn't last for long though. She started giggling, albeit quietly, again when he called her a kid and berated her for her actions. Coming from someone who looked around the same age as her, that was hilarious. It didn't help that he started chastening her for the time she changed all the locks. If there was one thing she enjoyed more than making serious people embarrassed, it was annoying them. By the time he finished talking, she was laughing out loud and laughing genuinely too.

Aware that he probably did not enjoy being laughed at, she managed to stop. She pushed herself back up into a standing position and looked at him in the eye. "Being bored is a completely valid excuse. I mean, if I didn't do that, I would have done something else in the guild hall. Would you rather that?" she said in a matter of fact tone before deciding to twirl around. "And yes, yes. Poor Sharaku had to go get a locksmith when he could have easily just broken the door down." she teased in a sing song voice before stopping just at the edge and peering down. It didn't surprise her that he didn't like Shadow Heart. She also kept a tabs on how much he could be annoyed. She didn't think he was quite at his limit yet but she didn't comment on anything else he said just in case. She had to leave some room for more fun. Sometime below caught her eye and she suppressed a grin. "Ooh look over here!" she exclaimed, gesturing for him to come over. She pointed at a toy stall. "Someone's having a big serious argument!"

Yeah, Marianne was annoying. He didn’t hate her, but she was definitely annoying, which was good for her because she couldn’t be trying harder to be. Maybe she really was four. “Leave my room alone and I don’t care what you do the guild hall or how it comes back to bite you,” he told her. It wasn’t entirely true. He would probably try and keep her from being maimed or killed or something over a stupid prank. He sighed though. It wasn’t that he had to go to a locksmith. “You’d trust the rest of the guild with your things without a door to keep it safe?” he asked her in an even tone. Despite his obvious annoyance he was keeping his composure rather well. The locksmith was someone actually from Shadow Heart, obviously. The hidden guild hall wouldn’t have suffered a random service call from a civilian.

Sharaku glanced at the ‘serious argument’ that Marianne commented on. It was like she was watching a play or something. She didn’t seem concerned at all about the chaos. Should he really be surprised, though? Shadow Heart wasn’t known for it’s warm-heartedness. Sharaku’s eyes would have widened if he was one to show emotion freely. The serious argument was a rather angry looking man shouting at a young girl. He didn’t have superhuman hearing, but he was pretty sure he was accusing her of stealing a toy during the chaos, judging from the gestures. He was also pretty sure the girl would never be able to afford a toy based on the rags she was wearing.

In a flash, Sharaku was off the roof and between the angry man and the girl, standing defensively. “Whatever’s going on here, that’s no excuse to look like you’re going to harm this child,” he told the man, his blue eyes glittering with malice. “Whatever the problem is, take it up with me. Let the child go."

Sharaku was good at keeping composure, she'd give him that much. She had to be annoying him way more than he let on. She probably would have responded with something stupid but his second sentence interested her and for a moment she lost her act, her body immediately relaxing. "Doors don't guarantee no entry," she responded, matching his tone. She knew for a fact that she could get into most locked entries with ease. She used to be a thief and she knew her locks. That was how she achieved changing practically all of them in the guild after all. However she also would never using her talents to invade other's privacy; she wasn't that kind of person.

While she wasn't expecting Sharaku to merely sit complacently and watch the poor girl get told off by the toy person, she certainly didn't expect him to take off to protect her. Her act of 'watching the show' faded momentarily. That reminded her of Pieter. While she had took off from Crocus, she had also left Sabby and Pieter behind. She hadn't seen them in ages. For a second she was disgusted with herself. Sometimes she didn't understand how she could be so selfish and cowardly, willing to put others at risk so that she wouldn't get hurt instead of fighting. She began to feel a growing self-hate and breathed deeply to regain control.

In an attempt to switch off her inner struggle, she focused on what was happening at the stall. She quickly deduced Sharaku was about to get into a fight with the stall owner. She hadn't listened to the exchange but she could have guessed how it went. She felt a tinge of sympathy for the girl cowering behind the young man in front of her. The stall owner grew red in the face and looked about ready to fight with his fists. Mari didn't take it as a good sign. As much as she didn't want to get involved, she gathered it wouldn't be great for a Shadow Heart member to get into a fight either when the girl possibly was on the wrong side of the law.

Seeing as she had no choice, Mari slipped off the roof quietly and made her way to the stall unnoticed. The owner was sneering at Sharaku currently "Oh yeah? And what's it to you?" He seemed about to go further when she made herself noticed to the angry man. "FREE TOYS?? ON THE FLOOR?? I SOOOOO WANT SOME!" She squealed loudly, grabbing am armful of toys from the floor and pressing them against herself. It took approximately one second for the man to start going after her. Mission accomplished. Now that his attention was averted from the girl, she decided the next best thing to do was run for her life so she did, with the man in hot pursuit, shouting at her to stop. She didn't, however, stop and ignored him, rounding the bend, just like how any other normal human being would do when running away. A brief moment of concern washed over her but she brushed it off quickly. She didn't think anyone else on the street would follow after; no one seemed impressed by his lung display at the girl earlier on so she doubted they would care about to lost of his business. She sneaked a look behind her shoulder and saw him still giving chase. He sure was persistent. Now all she needed to figure out was how to lose him.

Sharaku was more than a little bit surprised when Marianne suddenly jumped in, crying out how she wanted free toys. Within a heartbeat, she had a large selection of toys grabbed up in her hands and was running off, an even more angry shopkeeper in tow. Sharaku dropped his arms with an exasperated sigh. “Well, kid. Take what you want. I’ve got this,” Sharaku told the child as he tussled her hair gently. She thanked him, picking up the stuffed animal she wanted and walking off quickly before the man came back. He sat money for it on his stand, as well as enough to cover whatever Marianne actually ended up keeping.

After he did, he took off after Marianne and the shopkeeper, deciding he might as well make sure one of them didn’t kill the other. He was pretty sure he knew which one was actually in danger if things got more out of hand, and it wasn’t the “four and a half year old.” Sharaku kept running, spotting a familiar face in the crowd; another Shadow Heart mage. That could be useful. Sharaku reached out, touching the man on the arm as he kept going. The man probably didn’t know what was going on, because he didn’t give chase.

Finally, Sharaku saw the man still chasing Marianne. Apparently she had been zigzagging a bit, because he’d caught up a lot faster than he’d expected. With a sigh, sharaku stopped, planting his feet firmly and slamming his hands into the ground. As he did, a wall of stone appeared in front of the man, stopping him from giving chase. It didn’t matter if she got away; the toys were paid for, even if he didn’t know it. The man stopped short of the wall, jumping and cursing as Sharaku placed his hands in his pockets and turned, walking nonchalantly in the other direction. Part of him wondered if he should go find Marianne again, or just give up on the day and go home.

Spells: Copy (Level 3), Stone Wall (made up, level 3)

MP: 150/200

The shop owner would have never been in danger of being killed by Mari if he caught up. The girl made it a point to not kill others unnecessarily. She also made it a point to not be stupid. Killing the shop owner constituted as 'unbelievably stupid' in Mari's books. It would attract unwanted attention and due to her registered name relations with two other citizens still most likely living in the city, they could possibly track them down using whatever blasted technology the Magic Council used and punish them without reason. Mari did not want that to happen. Her adopted family may hate her for what she did but they were her only motivation in sticking around and so she planned on keeping them safe. She laughed dryly. It was ironic how she had given her real name to Shadow Heart yet at the same time, never acted real. It was vice versa with opposite situations.

Mari heard panting noises behind her and shot an annoyed look behind her shoulder. While she wouldn't kill, she wouldn't hesitate to slow him down. She was about to turn and trip him up when to her surprise, a giant stone wall separated her from her chaser. She blinked twice. That was unexpected. When did giant walls spring up from the ground at random? It then occurred to her that Sharaku must have done that. She couldn't remember if she even knew what type of magic he used. She started towards the roof but hesitated just shy of pulling herself up. Did she really want to go back and find him? She shook her head. Might as well. She didn't want to be left alone with her thoughts. She took a deep breath and filled her head with thoughts on the character she was meant to be playing. After she decided she was in character enough, she jumped off the ceiling and spotting the boy walking nonchalantly.

"Wait for me!" she exclaimed, an excited grin plastered on her face as she stepped in line with him. "Would you like one?" The girl shoved the option of a toy lion, a soft doll or a toy elephant in his face. She let him decide what he was going to do while she recollected her thoughts. "And thanks for the stone wall, you saved me some trouble," she added with a smile on her face. She spoke in as serious a tone as she was ever going to get around Shadow Heart. It didn't last for long though till she was back acting like a little kid. "Soooo you obviously don't like my idea of fun, so what do you want to do??" she asked, peering up at his face.

Suddenly, Marianne was back, shoving a selection of stuffed animals in his face just as he stopped to wait for her for some reason. He wasn’t entirely sure why he had stopped, truth be told. He wasn’t particularly fond of her, and despite his actions at the moment, being around women in general put him on edge. They were fickle and confusing, and often intent on flirting with him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like women, he just didn’t think his general goals in life lined up well with having any kind of relationship. His eventual revenge on the councilman that got his father killed would likely end badly for him.

“… Keep them. I already paid for them anyway,” he told her, trying to push down the slight blush from the sudden invasion of the annoying and yet cute girl in his face. She thanked him for the help, and he only shrugged at first. He’d stopped one of them from doing something stupid, though he couldn’t be sure which one without asking. He didn’t plan on asking. “Just don’t expect it next time. I’m not great at pulling off the same tricks twice.” Mostly because his magic didn’t work that way. He had to touch someone to acquire their spells, and he didn’t stick around the same people enough to regularly acquire the same magic.

Suddenly, she was assuming they were going to be doing more together. Sharaku’s slight blush had faded after a short moment, and now it was replaced with a slight twitch of his eyebrow. “What makes you think we’re hanging out?” he finally asked.

If Sharaku was worried about being around Mari because he was used to being flirted with, he had another thing coming. Mari didn’t think 4 and a half year olds knew how to flirt. In actual fact, Mari didn’t even think 4 and a half year olds had half the brain capacity she usually showed in Shadow Heart. If he was worried about Mari being fickle…then he had every right to that; she was liable to be unpredictable. Probably not in a relationship sense or in reality but since she had no intention in letting him see her when she was ‘normal’, he’d have to deal.

The girl stretched her eyes wide and pouted when he declined her offer. “Awwww!!! But but, I don’t want to keep allllllllllllllll of them!” She complained tugging on his arm ‘And and, if you don’t take anything, it’s like what those lovey dovey couples do in those movies and stuff because the boy allllways buys fluffly animals for the girl!!!’ she continued on, struggling to maintain a straight facial expression. Mari looked at the toys and made a quick decision. “You know what????? You can have the doll! Because I like stuffed animals!” She stuffed the doll in his hand and continued skipping alongside him. “Copy Mage right?” she asked jovially, glancing up at the sky because it was so preeetty (In reality because she felt that was what her character would do).

After a few moments after her question she heard no response and looked quizzically at Sharaku. She hid a smirk when she saw his expression. When he finally said something she tilted her head down and pointed to the stars. ‘Be-cause!’ she said, giving a pause in between her words ‘The stars say so!’ she continued before turning to grin at him ‘And because I want to. Also, you were about to stop and wait for me so I assume you don’t mind hanging out with me either,’ she added confidently.

"You assume a lot of things," Sharaku answered Marianne as he held onto the doll that was shoved into his arms. He wasn't a big fan of dolls. He didn't mind them, but he also didn't really feel the need to own them. He also didn't need anything that would make Tabitha either jealous or tease him. It was hard to say which she would do. He let out a sigh. "What's so fun about tormenting me, anyway? You're the second girl to decide it's her favorite pass time." He didn’t mention who the other one was, though if she did much digging at all she’d probably hear about Tabitha hanging around him and taking him on missions lately. Oh, the rumors that one would spawn.

Scratch that, it had already spawned a fair few he’d had to beat out of the people who wouldn’t leave him alone. He found he rather liked hitting idiots, especially peons in his own guild. He wasn’t a fan of Shadow Heart, after all, so why not relieve his stress on people that didn’t matter to his orders or his own reasons for joining? “I’m not entirely sure I want to know,” he mumbled to himself as he walked along, shoving his free hand into his pocket.

Mari continued giggling/grinning when the boy said she assumed a lot of things. She could only wonder what he was thinking while he was holding the doll she had shoved into his arms. When Sharaku commented that she was the second girl who seemed to think tormenting him was her favourite past time, her giggles increased further. Oh she had noticed Tabitha and Sharaku. Who wouldn't? The rumours about them was hilarious and she was never sure which ones to believe or not. As a person, Tabitha didn't strike her as one of the 'nicer' Shadow Heart members which made Mari wary. "That's pre-sump-tious Starry Night!" - by Starry Night she was referring to him- "My favourite past time is tormenting EVERYONE! You just hit the jackpot today!" she gasped before leaning her head against his arm. "Plus, you NEVER say your fiancee is tormenting you! She's giving you love! How would Tabby Cat feel if she heard you said that??" She looked up and pouted at him, pink eyes wide open with 'shock'.

She whirled around soon after and continued to skip alongside him. "Anyways, how did you guy-" Mari froze. A dull buzzing noise was droning in the back of her head. Her mind screamed at her to leave. She stayed put. Just a few seconds more. "-s meet...I think...I just saw someone more interesting!" she finished vaguely with as much character as she could muster. She gave him a dazzling grin, barely concealing her pained expression before she let go of his arm and dashed off, two toys in arm. "Gotta go! See you around Harp Seal!" She couldn't have escaped quicker.

She didn't understand. She thought they had finished. She'd combed through every memory she owned and there never seemed to be any gaps. Something must have triggered the flashback. What did she do differently? She couldn't think. The buzzing noise intensified and she knew it wasn't long till she'd see something else, someone else. Mari slipped into the back of a restaurant and leaned against the cool surface. She hoped it wouldn't last that long this time.

[EXIT]