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 Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:35 pm
Had he the implication to do so, he might have been thinking 'Awww, he's got a friend', in the most sarcastic manner possible. However, he wasn't exactly the kind to have his thoughts immediately go to some sarcastic quip upon seeing the two together.
In fact, he was moreso pleased they were at least -getting along- so he wouldn't have to listen to them bicker (he hadn't even heard what had started the last fight). Though it did support Shae's theory.
The fact that Asteria had scooted -right- up next to the other mercenary said it all to clearly. She may have been cold, but there was just that 'look'.
Which earned an almost.....Sympathetic sigh from Kanda, who watched the pair opposite of himself and Shae for a moment, then again went to staring into the fire with a very mute expression.
At least she kept up some appearances by shivering and not utterly -clinging- to him as she'd been doing minutes previously (though she wouldn't have complained to doing it), as well as wiggling her toes.
It probably looked as though Yoss was being subjected to some teenage horror with her pinned so close by. Too bad she was the oldest one (and the one freaking out the most) present. Then Yoss could have just told her to stay home.
Karma wasn't nice at all.
Asteria gave Yoss a concerned look when he sneezed. Concerned with a look of 'Oh god, I've made him get sick!' sort of look.
Mom had always told her not to go outside in the cold with wet hair. She'd just made Yoss go outside with a wet.... EVERYTHING.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:22 pm
This wasn't fair.
No, really.
He was covered in fur-- fur that should have made him the warmest and most insulated of the entire sorry crew-- and yet somehow, by some sick, twisted corkscrew of fate (and the stubbornness of one person who would NOT BE NAMED), he'd wound up soaked to the bone once in an icy lake, come in again and then very nearly warmed up again... just in time to go out again, get refrozen... and catch a cold.
Of course he didn't really know if it was a cold or not; all he knew was that he'd just sneezed, and his nose was running a bit, and those were symptoms that never happened because he was never ILL.
"... I'm fine," he growled under his breath when he noticed Aster giving him a very... pathetic look of concern, which only made him even LESS at ease about the whole mess. He'd deny it and, if that didn't work, he'd stab sickness in the gut and bury it by FORCE.
Hmph... Now, if only he'd get the feeling back in his feet soon...
... And stop the sniffling. Stupid sniffling.
Shae was certainly sympathetic to the miserable boy, being all too familiar with illness (of all kinds!) and knowing the woe of an imminent cold or flu... particularly in unfortunate conditions like this. It was difficult enough to survive in a harsh climate without any extra detriments... but this would just put the bitter, sneezy, mucousal icing (HA HA PUN) on their proverbial cake of woe.
For once, though, she was actually feeling... more or less adequate (and not just lying about it), finally able to move her hands freely and even feel her toes a bit. The only downside of it all was... well, now her chest was a little achy (okay, it was actually more of a HURT LIKE GETTING MAULED BY A TRUCK feeling), and it wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but... no, even that wasn't worth complaining over.
"... Thank you... for entertaining my weaknesses earlier, sir," she mumbled seemingly out of the blue, and very, very quietly (it wasn't the sort of thing Aster and Yossarian needed to hear), sinking back just a little, if only because she was a little worn out. "I... apologize for being needlessly obstinate about it. S-Such behavior... was uncalled for."
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:02 pm
"No you're -not-." she stated firmly, though not exactly loudly, leaning against his side and sighing -very- guiltily. Oh yes, she knew exactly who to blame for Yossarian having the sniffles, and it was her.
But she did cease giving him the sad eyed stare and instead stared at their toes, wiggling her toes then nudging the side of his foot lightly with hers, then looking up at him with a bit of a smile.
At least she was being -somewhat- positive?
Unfortunately for the given case, positivity didn't exactly cure a cold. It didn't really do anything to a cold except make it laugh in positivity's miserable looking face.
"I wouldn't say I entertained it." he stated flatly, the word 'entertained' emphasized as though she'd used it in the literal sense, like it had been an audience for -him-, rather than the other way around. However, he did have the respect to keep his tone low enough, in the same way as Shae had, to not be heard by the other pair who were likely to break out into arguement at the bar maid's actions.
"As well, apologies are unnecessary."
Frankly, he hadn't cared either way how he would have gotten the shirt off of her to treat the sorry state of her torso which, he would imagine, she was probably feeling by then.
Unfortunately cold only numbed things until the heat returned.
Somehow, Kanda was able to keep a perf-, okay not 'somehow' because he'd been able to do the same for getting his bite swabbed, but he kept a perfectly straight expression as Shae sunk back against him further, shifting enough to try and allow her to remain some semblance of comfortable against him.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:59 pm
"Yes, I a--" ... Funny how the realization that he was arguing like a cranky four year old wasn't enough to stop Yossarian, but a sudden sneeze did the trick very nicely... and earned a nice, lengthy grumbling of swears and curses, too!
No, this wasn't happening. He refused to believe that his immune system, regardless of circumstance (like standing out in the cold when naked and damp, for example!), was anything less than perfect and... dammit, just NO!
And just w... what in the world was she trying to do with her feet-- and his?! Granted, it was better to have her pestering him with strange appeasement gestures than having to chase the idiot outside, but... Oh, sigh.
Flicking back his ears in a kind of... intense studying look, he watched the strange little one-sided footsie match for a minute before he spoke up again, with a dull sniffle.
"You have... peculiar methods of entertainment," he grumbled, not really sure HOW to interpret this otherwise. Glancing over at her and seeing that odd smile didn't help to clarify things at all either. "... What... exactly are you meaning to accomplish here?"
Apologies... unnecessary? But... no, she'd been uncooperative, belligerent and totally illogical earlier-- that should have warranted at LEAST a sorry or two!
"Y... Yes sir."
... But no, he'd had the final word, and even if Shae didn't understand the reasoning, she accepted it quietly anyway. And... besides, there was really no point in persisting on much of anything; it just upset the atmosphere (of which was just about as comfortable as anything COULD be given the situation and she preferred to keep that way).
As for the torso bit? ... Oh yeah, that hurt like hell and then some-- but she seemed to be doing a pretty admirable job of hiding the symptoms and, once again, refused to complain.
".... So... what now?" Another rather out-of-the-blue question, but more than appropriate. There they were, four people trapped in a little cave for the night with nothing but a fire and their fellow company... and assuming they were all alive in the morning, how would they get back to civilization? She'd spotted something a mile or two in the distance during that horrible... crash-plummet, sure, but was it Salig? And even if it was, how would they make it there without freezing?
It was certainly going to be an interesting "adventure", no doubt about that.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:39 pm
The moment he looked towards her she looked away from him, rubbing her feet (which were actually quite warm, because she was smaller, thus it took less heat to warm her up), against his for a few more moments, before again looking to him.
"Part entertainment, part are your feet any warmer? Contact is supposed to help with producing heat."
Yeah, and all that scientific stuff she didn't know about, nor had probably been discovered yet.
Another smile, and then she went back to watching their feet again, indeed seeming very amused, complete with another one of her happy sounding sighs.
What now?
Kanda took a deep breath and closed his eyes to think about that one, his 'deep thinking' almost taking the same guise as sleeping, eyes closed with very even breathing. He could have been -mistaken- for asleep for a few moments, even.
Until he moved again.
"Salig is to the east." he replied, "When the sun rises, we'll know which direction that is and move accordingly. By the time we're close enough, we'll start seeing other Koshka."
Again, it was as though he had an answer for everything which, in a way, he did. Everybody did. Just not all right answers. But at least Kanda had thought his out. "Before we leave we can do a final look over the ship and make sure there aren't any supplies left on it that would be better suited to our walk."
He spoke quietly for now, knowing quite well that if he'd been announcing this out loud a fight would likely break out... between him and one of the pair across the way with other concerns on their mind....
..
Like Footsie.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:41 pm
... Oh, yes, she was doing it to warm his feet up.
When her toes were probably even COLDER than his and she was just REEKING of hidden amusement.
Right.
"... My feet are very ade--" STUPID SNEEZE INTERRUPTING HIM AGAIN. "... Adequate," he growled, plainly irritated-- though it was more at his own stupid sniffling than her, quite frankly (even if she being pesky and all), "and I find that theory rather... difficult to believe, woman. I'd say that you're drawing more 'entertainment' out of this than actual benefit."
Oh, good old normalcy coming back: a clingy Asteria and a disgruntled Yossarian... but with a slight difference.
Namely the fact that he was just sitting there and allowing her to cuddle up beside him like an eager little puppy, huffing and grumbling, but... not bothering to shove her off.
... And, right or wrong, the fact that Kanda had just taken such care to think out his answers was a mild comfort to Shae, who just felt better knowing that, if nothing else, he was confident. And if he was confident, then she could be confident too... if only a little.
It was a good plan, really; if they knew the general direction to go and all four of them were able to head out, surely they could manage their way. Stopping at the ship might give them an opportunity to find some extra supplies to make the journey and--
Oh. The ship, that was right.
The ship... full of bodies and blood and the mensch man she had...
That she had.........
Her mind glazed over in a curious blank for some seconds, muscles stiffening until her chest started to throb from the obvious EXTREME DISCOMFORT... and snapped her out of it with a wince.
"... A... And what if we encounter... survivors at the site?..."
Damn, she didn't think she would've sounded that choked.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:06 pm
Well, at least she was making normal responses, pouting at him as cutely as a partially frozen face would allow. Which was actually quite a bit, the movement keeping her blood flowing to her nose (which was the coldest part of the entire thing!).
"It's hard to be 'entertained' when I'm slowly freezing to death." she stated flatly, glancing towards her clothing which Housewife!Kanda had set aside to allow to dry... and willing them to be some semblance of -warm- when she put them back on the next morning.
That thought causing her to shiver quite violently.
From her clothing she looked up at Kanda and Shae, apparently whispering to each other, and curled up together. Had it been anybody else they probably wouldn't have done the dramatic -sigh- of overexaggeration.
But really she made no comment about it. If she had the epic -jealousy- would have seeped out.
Frankly he'd been hoping he'd covered all of the bases with his rather well (though off his head) thought 'battle plan' for the next day. What else could there have been to ask about?
Then she asked about survivors of the opposition, causing him to frown, though not quite as visibly as would have been normally appropriate for just how serious that thought was.
"If they stay put, we'll be finding them tomorrow and we'll deal with them then. If they leave their safety, there are some unhappy and probably hungry wolves outside who know better than to come near 'my' territory."
Go figured Kanda to scare off furry creatures with probably pure -HATE- and a sword to go pick off his enemies. But he had a point, wolves were smart enough to -not- continue persuing something that wasn't worth it energy wise. Now if he could have been so conservative with his own.
Frankly, he would have been quite content to go to sleep now that he was warm, but -those two- were still awake.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:49 am
... Tch, if the idiot was honestly freezing to death Yossarian doubted her tongue would've been working so sharply, and so the dark male dismissed her commentary with a little snort... which once again deteriorated to a sneeze, and then a swear, and a sneeze and a swear and a WOEFUL GRUMBLE of WHY ME...
But wait, just exactly what was she glowering at now?
Apparently the other 'couple' had caught her eye for some odd reason, and she was looking them over with a face akin to...
... No. Oh, no.
"You're not... honestly jealous of that debauchery, are you?" he asked before he could stop himself, face caught somewhere between a pout and an unnerved frown.
Somehow, he knew this wouldn't end well.
Shae had never really thought about it, but... the two of them must have really been quite a sight to outsiders: two people 'cuddled' up together in a blanket, shirts discarded and whispering 'sweet nothings' to each-other by the fireside... except not. No, they were just a couple of half-frozen, worn out, injured and exasperated koshka trying to suffer as non-excruciatingly as possible on one another's company.
... And it was actually working a little, too.
Except for the current topic of discussion.
She wasn't sure which one was better-- dealing with a ship full of dead and bloodied bodies, or a a ship full of only-mostly-dead and bloodied bodies that would probably still try to kill them all over again in vengeance for their broken brothers in arms.
It left her feeling vaguely ill inside, ears sagging a little and heaving a soft, vaguely trembling sigh to relieve the stress a bit. No, put Luke out of your mind. Stop thinking about the man with no eyes and the screeching maniac who chased you so far, yelling horrible names and trying to hunt you down... Deep breath, and release.
"... I suppose... it's just best to take things as they come," she resolved at last, albeit a little quieter than before and watching the fire with bleary, half-lidded eyes. "Tomorrow will be... a-a very long day..."
As if today hadn't been?...
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:09 am
Again, she winced when he sneezed, giving him a concerned glance, before forcing herself to look away upon remembering he was -not- going to appreciate her worry for him (she'd only spent -too long- worrying for him several weeks previously.. oh god, don't let your brain go back to then, you'll start crying!) to again mull jealously over Kanda and Shae's closeness.
When Yossarian asked his... well worded (as Asteria had no idea what he meant) question, she turned to look at him with one eyebrow cocked up as high as it could go and a light frown.
"I dunno what a d'bauchuree is." she stated calmly, horribly mangling the unknown word because.. well.. she didn't know what it was, before adding on, "As for jealous, I don't know what you're talking about."
DENIAL
There was a -heavy- layer of it when she said she wasn't jealous, pretending she was actually paying attention to something else when she looked in that direction again...
Like her toes.
She was tired.
Kanda could have told that even if her eyes had been wide open. She was starting to mumble and seeming to 'crash' against his chest, but for some ungodly reason was forcing herself to stay awake.
Deducing the tale-tell signs of her exhaustion had become one of his 'talents' upon being expunged from sleeping in the room with Yossarian, instead having been forced to share one with Shae. Oh the comments when the invalid had been able to poke them again.
Until he'd prooven a counter-point of 'Water, riiiiiggghhhht'. Only with less sarcasm.
"It will be, and under that pretense, you should be getting sleep." he stated. "You have no need to force yourself awake."
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:55 am
... Oh, ow.
Yossarian had heard his share of lazy tongues and ill speakers throughout the years, sure, but there was just something particularly magical about the way Aster could take a word (and only four simple syllables!) and mangle it to a completely unrecognizable auditory ASSAULT that made him physically CRINGE in pity for the language she'd butchered.
God, how could someone so (assumedly) intelligent be so damned BARBARIC SOUNDING!?
"The word is 'debauchery'." He just couldn't stand to let her get away without a correction, however, wincing slightly. "It refers to the crude and uncouth behavior of those... oh, forget it!"
Apparently the cold had worn down his patience to an icy little nub... even if his 'snap' was pathetically lacking in the usual volume or energy. No, the only thing that gave him away was tone of voice in the end... and a look of disgruntlement more exasperated than ever.
"If you're desperate for that kind of petty coddling to spare yourself the cold, then just speak up about it and cease this useless prattling and denial about it!"
... Yeah, someone was getting a little cranky, huh?
Damn... was she really becoming that transparent?
There had been a point in time when Shae believed that no one could see through her superb little acts, that all of the weaknesses and faults remained comfortably obscured... but now?
Maybe she was just too worn out to feign "normalcy" properly, but then again... maybe this was how a 'bond' worked, with the accommodating and observations and all sorts of interesting things she hadn't dealt with in years.
Sleeping in plain sight of others was something she had always made a point to avoid (it was weakness, and weakness, she told herself, got a person killed in times like these) and yet... somehow, taking his suggestion as a command somehow gave her a feeling of justification behind it, and... yes, if she was just following an order, then... it was perfectly alright in preparation for tomorrow...
"Yes sir..." The usual response, if not unusually incoherent, since she'd finally given up the ghost on forcing alertness... and it wasn't two minutes later that she just sank back like a rag-doll under the blanket, already out like the dead.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:11 am
"Well -sorry-. I never got to go to the fun 'school' stuff most everybody else did, alright?"
The tone she said it with was like she was admitting to having a hereditary disease. You know, now we never bring it up that I have this problem ever again. "De-bau-cher-y. There, better?"
Oooh, a little nerve. Now Yoss had a -list- of problem associated with the bane of his existance who continued to make stubborn and pouting faces. Obviously her lack of schooling wasn't something she liked to admit to.
"But in case you don't get what I just said, I'm stupid and you keep using big words, how about you speak in such a way that little stupid people can understand your big words?"
REALLY didn't like admitting to. On one hand she could have just sucked it up and admitted he'd used -two- words she didn't know and it was making her feel more and more pathetic and like she shouldn't have been there (which might have made all present parties a bit happier), while on the other that would have left her open for another one of his...
SIGH, explain, leer at her 'teach the dumbshit' lessons.
Mentally, Kanda was thanking god that Shae had fallen asleep before the pair across the way started to argue (quite loudly, might he have added), less she try and calm them down only for one of them to snap at her.
If he was anything, it was observant.
He looked at the sleeping Shae for a moment, shifting his arms to support her in a way she'd stay sitting (as he was sure a sudden thunk against the ground would have been a cruel way to wake up), before he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.
If not to sleep, to 'wait'.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:04 pm
Oh, of all the petty, useless, absolutely trivial things for her to get snarky over!...
It really was for the better that Shae was too dead to the world for having a part of the inevitably epic duel, because it sounded... yep, both inevitable and epic-- and big too (or at least, as big as a fight between any two semi-frozen people COULD be).
Yossarian's face might've still been numb all over, but that didn't stop his eyelid from giving a TWITCH of indignation, just glaring at the bitter little offender for a minute before he could bring himself to speak, and when he finally did--
"Schooling has nothing to do with proper articulation!" he snarled (... er, snifflesnarlwheezed), pointing a finger at her, "and that should be of no consequence to your learni--"
... Damn that sneeze for cutting him off. DAMN IT.
And not just one sneeze, but FOUR before he finally got them back under control, so miserable and exasperated by the time he time he'd gotten through it that... huh, what had he been so pissy about a minute ago again?
"... Look." And now his voice had taken a much flatter and more... deadpan tone, even sullen enough to let out a bit of a groan. "If you, Aster, are wanting of something, I would appreciate it if you ceased beating around the DAMNED BUSH and just came out with an OPEN REQUEST instead of sitting there and feigning some PATHETIC SHOW OF TOUGHNESS TO HIDE YOUR OTHERWISE TRANSPARENT JEALOUSY . Now..."
He tried so hard not to sneeze again, but failed anyway and sighed, looking down at her with a... yeah, a face. The exasperated one again.
"Does that register a little more clearly to you?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:39 pm
With every sneeze she winced, giving him as much of a leer as her rather wounded ego would allow, then leering at the fire. Oh her temptation to shove her toes into the fire was increasing. Warmer (okay, -CHARRED-) toes, a way to distract herself from Yoss....
..
and a reason to be bitched at later. Dammit, not worth it.
The first answer Yoss was given was a sigh, again as though she were pretending to ignore him, staring at her toes (which were numbish, but she could sort of feel them. That was a good sign......?) for a moment, then giving him a half look.
"Yeah, I understand."
And a frown before she looked back to her toes, wiggling them to at least make sure they could still move, then sighing again.
"It just..." she paused, then shut up with a frown for a moment, seeming to rethink that plan of action, before taking a deep breath and revisiting that thought.
"It just seems like a lot to ask, alright? Not like you'd enjoy it either. It's why I'm -not- asking. Because I...... don't like asking people to do things for me."
Which was true, she just liked to manipulate her way around a situation to put it in her favor so she could just -tell- people to do stuff for her. Though in many a sticky situation with Yoss she'd not actually 'asked' him anything.
However, the entire statement was followed by a groan as she practically shoved all her upper body onto her knees. A groan of pain. "Damn cold makes them hurt."
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:28 pm
... She was rather smart for avoiding that little 'Let's Shove Our Toes Into The Fire' impulse, really, not just because of the blatant stupidity in the action itself, of course-- but because she was perfectly correct about the would-be reaction.
After he'd gotten himself so nicely refrozen chasing her sorry a** outside, there was no way in HELL Yossarian was about to let the idiot do something else so stupidly self-destructive and--
... Wait, had she just conceded?
Now there was the shocker of the century he hadn't seen coming, mind glazed in a sudden fog of disbelief as he just sort of... stared her way for a moment, looking very much like a stranded fish on the side of a creek bed. Rebuttals were easy enough to churn up, but this? Actual... concession?
And back to the SIGH once again.
"... If you want something, then asking is the most straightforward method of obtaining it, regardless of what you're after," he more or less mumbled, making a secret effort to use... short words, as awkward as it sounded. "I would suggest that, at the very least, you make the attempt before petty manipulation and squabbling comes into play. So now..."
Stupid, worthless sneezing again-- but at least it had waited until he actually paused to come out this time.
"... What exactly are you after, Aster?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:59 pm
"For the scar on my stomach to stop aching." she stated as her first answer, groaning again before forcing herself to sit up in semblance of normalcy. She had to damn how it seemed the scar tissue was just a lightning rod for cold into her abdomen. It was miserable, really.
"For the ability to stare my father in the eye without having the fear reflex kick in so I can shove something sharp and rusty into them, or maybe blunt would work too......" she sort of trailed off and smiled up at him.
"I'm after a lot of things, and I could continue that line of pointless answering with things you can't help me solve. However..."
She paused as her lungs went 'Hi, we're still mad at the water' and caused her to break into a hacking fit to share Yoss's misery to an extent, pausing to attempt to breath amongst it, just to cough some more.
Damn lag. Maybe her lungs had given her a break so she'd be able to LIVE before punting this onto her.
Once she was done, she forced a smile, "-HOWEVER-, what I'm after right now......" again, she paused, pulling her feet under the blanket with her then sighing.
"OKAY, I'M JEALOUS." she finally half-blurted with a frown, sinking into the blanket.
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