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PRP involving:

Xiu, Hazeline (Rapid)
&
San, Diego(Graficcha)

Time: Early afternoon
Location: Sports Department.

Ah, it had been a while since they last came here. Hustly bustly places weren't San's preferred place to spend time at, but if it meant he could engage in some loud noise-making without people calling the civil guard...
Ah, not that he abused his weapons or anything, no. Even with his busted memory, he had retained a keen sense on proper handling and conduct. Never would he endanger people with his firearm. Usually he didn't even bring them with him, and he'd entrusted Diego with keeping watch on any ammo he needed.

The first time he'd begged him to let him try and polish his skill up again, the other man'd been a little appalled. Of course he knew San 'had a thing' with those guns of his, he'd never part with them. Some people get a watch for their sixteenth birthday, San'd apparently received some pistols as a very dear memento at some point in his life. The moment he saw him in action with them he knew why, too. For such a young human, he was pretty damn good with them, a proof of undoubtedly many, many hours and days of training. A bout of exercise seemed to refresh his mind as well. Maybe the intense focus handling the arms and aiming required relieved his tension a little and helped him gather his thoughts. Unlike others, he also didn't feel the need to loudly proclaim just how awesome he was, instead showed he was pleased with himself in all serenity. By now the other men and the occasional female were used to him already, and nobody looked at hm funny anymore when he produced his oldschool pistols.

Now, a mere fifteen minutes after this particular round of aim-and-trigger in the sports department lone shooting range, the redhead was drifting around, looking for his partner. Diego abhorred the practice, and San didn't mind being left alone for a while. The other shooters tended to be happy to be rid of the carpenter, too. Nobody enjoyed stifled chiding glances behind your back, no matter how hard Dee tried not to sulk. To get through the time, he usually hung around here to wait for the gunner. Now where was he...

San wandered around, blissfully without tension. Without concentration too, as he'd forgotten to put his shirt back on to cover his kevlar protector. At least he had his coat back on, victory. His broad-rimmed hat he tipped back slightly to let his gaze wander about to try and find Dee, not to much avail.


Diego he didn't find, but something else entirely suddenly caught his interest. Snowy white always stuck out in crowds, and... ooo. It moved. All senses homed in on that accidental lure, the redhead snuck closer, as if he wanted to look at a finnicky squirrel from up close. For about half a second the little rational voice in his head piped up indignantly, and then it was gone. Probably tripped and fell into dark hole of impulsions somewhere. Qieurly he snuck up on that white inverse candle from behind the Frei's back.

Watch out Xiu, there's a holy no-luck cat on the prowl!

Yessss little squirrel you don't move I won't harm you just... touch.. must.. not...

Ah who was he kidding, of course he'd touch it.


In his entranced state, like Xiu's braid-tip was the flute of a snakecharmer and the gunner was the serpent, San hadn't even registered the other interesting features of the Raevan. Oh well, the wings and the -floating- he'd notice soon enough, right after he cleared his first objective off the list.

Inching closer, moving so carefully he wouldn't have been audible even if there had been nobody else around, he approached. His left eye gave a faint twitch, blast that scar on his cheek, and then he was close enough.
Lifting his hand as if he was reaching out to kiss the queen's hand or something equally awe-inspiring, he touched the shiny white tuft.

Stroke.

Oooooh, look, it IS real. How pretty and soft...

Next thing he did after confirming that was close his grip around it and yank it closer, all reservations out the door. He'd just stopped being aware of the fact someone alive and feeling was attached to it, honestly.

Yoink!

This particular series of events San hadn't exactly been prepared for.

In an instant, his attention was drawn to what was BESIDE that wondrous braid he'd latched onto, leaving his jaw a little slacker than before, until he squeezed his eyes shut, anticipating the wings would start flapping in his face any second now.

Luckily enough his brain registered things faster than he could realise he it did, and he dodged aside to avoid the npleasantly heavy items clanging to the floor. The unholy noise they made rattled him though. In an almost shell-shocked reaction he let go of Xiu's hair and ducked to the floor, pulling the flaps of his hat down over his ears and making a pitched frightened noise. Talk about no dignity... hiding in public, on the floor, bum up and shivering, making the two pheasant feathers on his hat quiver.

All this took exactly two seconds, those dumbbells probably hadn't even settled yet.

The sudden eruption of noise attracted another person too. Diego'd been looking for his friend for a few minutes now, concluding San had probably forgotten they were supposed to meet right at the exit. Indeed he had, heh.

At least now he had an indication of where to go, and with long strides the man moved towards the origin of the sound.


San had been trying hard to gather his nerves, and the sudden distraction Xiu provided was more than welcome. Oh sweet mother of yore, an anchor to the world and reality. At the gentle touch and soft voice, San peeked up from under his hat, looking quite distraught.
No, not throwing a fit now. He wasn't autistic or any other sort of prone to random outbursts, if only the joyous kind.

"Ah..."

Largely unaware of the mass of gawking people around, he focused on the Frei, and slowly, the memories relating to the events of the last two minutes trickled back. Yes, that pure shining white, of course that'd been him there, no doubt... Wings? Noise?
He glanced aside, and found the explanation for the crash right beside him. Okay, one mystery solved. "... whoops."
No, that hadn't been planned no. On with the analysis then... Oh. Oh!

San gave a little twitch when he recalled what he'd been doing there, backed away from Xiu and sat up, now looked at him directly. "Oh dear.. Gah, I'm sorry." the distress practically radiated off him, remorse about what he'd so thoughtlessly done catching up with him. The little voice piped up again. 'Told you you'd regret this'.
His gaze flitted away from the Frei then, and he stood up, trippled over to the remaining weights to get them back where they belonged. Surely not the floor.

Almost he rushed into the task too fast, but he reigned himself in to do this with some care, before he caused more problems. As he picked up one of the items he looked back at Xiu.

"I'm alright... a.. are you?" he really did sound very worried, and ashamed.

Oh, that reaction San hadn't quite expected.

"Really?" stare. Eyetwitch. Thinking things over once more he put the dumbbell he was holding back in its place, a little clumsily due to only half looking at what he was doing, but it didn't drop again.

"... I honestly don't think it was your fault though..." he murmured, with a little pout. A bit too ashamed to speak up there. He forgot things, but if he actually remembered them they were usually right. He'd tugged his braid, and made him flail around, so it was San's fault, not the Frei's.

Keeping his gaze on Xiu, he picked up another two and placed them back carefully. "Sorry for.. err.. yanking your hair, that was mean." Now he was stuck between looking at him apologetically and flicking his eyes down to stare at the floor. How awkward. By now he's started to register that the other lacked a few crucial bodyparts and had a few too much -wings and, oh look, horns, how twee- but he was hardly in any state of mind to make a fuss now.

"... look." San gestured at him, in a vague, restrained flick of his hand. There, lower, on your back. He'd glanced him over again and found that indeed the braid was a little mucked up now, and that was at least some proof that it really wasn't Xiu's fault.



By now, Diego's made it to the right area, but where *exactly* had that sound come from now? Oh, there... always follow the gawking masses.

"Move along people, move along."

An energetic voice came from aside, not as much booming as almost cheerful, that sent a jolt through the crowd and ushered them on. It's not hard to disperse such flocks when you were confident enough to at least make yourself sound like an authority figure, or a shop's employee.

"Nothing to see here, ah, you're blocking the way ma'am. Yes, that's kind of you, have fun shopping." skitter ditter, within seconds they'd flushed away. Diego gave the elder lady a wave, smiling, and saw to it everyone went their ways. Damage and attention control, essential skills when living with somebody like San.
The fact that many people are uncomfortable with being taken note of while they were so clearly snooping into other's business was easy to exploit. Only troublemakers tended to linger once they'd been found out to revel in observing someone else's embarrassment.


While his partner shooed the crowd away so casually, San stood there looking a little lost, and still very much ashamed of himself. That didn't keep him from watching this Xiu and the lady that had suddenly appeared, concluding she was with him, but in what was her relation to him? At least it was clear she cared about the floaty-person, and Xiu didn't appear to want to be met with her disapproval.

"Ah, miss.. " he began, taking a shy step towards them. "It's not his fault, he didn't do anything wrong, honest." he pleaded, with an edge of despair in his tone. Please don't blame him?


Diego took a calm glance at San, glad to find him in one piece and unharmed by the look of it, and at Xiu and Hazeline. The sight of the pale Frei made him quirk up an eyebrow and flicker a vague smile. He'd on occasion caught glimpses of beings like him before, even if he had no idea what exactly they were. Despite that interesting sight, he ignored them for now and moved past them, into the array, and quickly put the remainder of the items back on the shelf. With deft motions, he arranged them neatly to make the display less of a mess again, before turning to his partner and the other duo.

"Ah... Diego, I... think I did it again." San acknowledged his expectant gaze and tried to explain, only to be met with the carpenter's usual forgiving headshake. Gah... sometimes he wished he'd be scolded more, this just made him feel worse about it. Both knew he couldn't really help it though. Trying to discipline him would lead to nothing, and he really, really did his best to avoid mishaps such as these. That fickle pure white tuft had been all it took to shatter his resistance though.
Dee left him to squirm for a bit and addressed Hazeline and the Raevan now, with his usual warm-friendly tone.

"I suppose an apology is in order? If San hasn't offered you one yet." he smiled, briefly glancing at Xiu, noticing that enticing tip of his now messy braid. He'd looked after San for several years now, and he'd developed a sixth sense for potential sources of disaster. While he couldn't tell what exactly had happened, it didn't take a genius to piece together a vague scenario. A noodle-incident came to mind, from two or three years back.

This is pretty cringeworthy, yeowch. But all in all a natural reaction. Diego couldn't say he wasn't familiar with situations like this, but you didn't really 'get used' to having your partner be taken for some sort of freaky mental deal. At least if you knew better...

Okay, facts on the table, San's pretty off-kilter at times. Unrestrained, giving into his impulses, and yes, he never did like growing up. The moment he had taken the leap and given that 'mature'-thing an honest try,... errrr. Yeah. Stuff happened. He was perfectly capable of being reasonable, it was just a rare occurrence for him to be lucid with strangers.
This was a classic 'awwww crap I wished I hadn't' situation. In the end, there were no damages this time and nobody'd been harmed, if only Xiu's dignity. Hard to speak of such a thing for the gunner though. He'd long given up on that.

Upon Xiu's reaction to him, San halted where he was, no longer approaching him in the slightest. He knew a defensive reaction when he saw one, and he could hardly blame that creature for not trusting him. First impressions-wise, he had all reason to. Second impressions-wise probably too, after all, who was stupid enough to open up to a strange nutcase like himself.
I'm sorry.
His life's policy was 'no regrets'. Forgive and forget, made easier by the fact he had no choice in the 'forgetting' part. Still, he'd allow himself to truly, deeply regret doing this for a moment, it was only proper. He looked away, reluctant to meet their looks, wary of finding them once again hostile now. He imperceptibly moved a bit closer to Dee.

Caregiver.
Look-afterer, nanny, 'mom', guardian.
San winced slightly at the wording,setting off a light eyetwitch, and he almost wanted to whack Diego for what he knew would come now. Don't kid yourself man, I'm the biggest failure ever, how could I be your...

"He's my partner." Diego said. He'd listened to Xiu's explanation as well. Yup, made perfect sense. What a fascinating being he was, too.

"Nice to meet you miss Hazeline. My name is Diego, and yes, I do help him out when the going gets tough. Just like... you do for him?" he glanced at Xiu with a twinkle of a smile. He gave a little jolt when San suddenly nudged him.
"You really have to stop defending me like this Dee..." murmur.
"And let you work yourself into a bigger mess?" Tsh, as if that would help, they'd tried letting him 'fix things' plenty of times, only to have him slip deeper into panic. "Ah... feeling a bit better now?" he gently asked the redhead, and San nodded, a little forcedly.
"I'm... okay now."

Somehow his voice'd gone softer, less tense and finnicky, his entire demeanour had shifted into calmer waters. Yes, I'm here now. Feeling damn well ashamed of myself, as I should be, but I'm here. Seeking some comfort, he laid a hand over one of his pistols, felt along the intricately shaped little designs on the grip, and he straightened up. Now he was able to look them in the face again, like an actual person.