Happenstance | NDE | INVITE ONLY:UE | PG13

[kara]

‘Plapf!’ The sound of a soft fluff filled tentacle slapping the store window echoed out into the cool nighttime air. Everyone was asleep, everyone except Kara that was. Her plush body didn’t need sleep, instead she needed something to do. While staying in a child’s room all day did have its benefits, sitting in one place for days on end was not one of the things Kara enjoyed doing all that much. Great as Himiko’s hospitality and secret keeping were, Kara simply couldn’t sit still. Especially at night when nothing was happening. It might be because her thoughts wandered towards what some sushi would taste like that the Modsoul had made her rounds into town and now sat on the ledge of a window staring into the ghostly quiet sushi bar.

‘Plapf!’ A second tentacle made its presence known against the glass. Kara’s beady black eyes stared hungrily into the restaurant. She couldn’t eat in her current body but even so the hunger still bothered Kara. ”Muuh… I wanna eat real food…” The octo-faced plush groaned to herself. Imaginary tea parties with Himiko aside, Kara hadn’t had the chance to eat anything since coming to the human world. She didn’t need to eat anything, but Kara still longed for the taste of fresh cooked delicacies to hit upon her taste buds. ”Kara needs a body…” She came to the conclusion perhaps for the hundredth time. It didn’t do the modsoul any good to know this however since her attempts at possessing a human body had thus far ended in utter failure. She couldn’t even properly animate corpses in the local morgue…

Lights flickered in the street behind her, Kara wound a tentacle leg around a hook in the windowsill. Why it existed there in the first place an agitated modsoul didn’t care to think about, she simply used it to swing her body down over the side of the window’s edge. From here her vantage point reversed its orientation and Kara stared into the streets with blankness in her mind. ”The world looks really funny when the sky is the ground” Kara chuckled to herself, speaking to no one in particular. Staring at the blacktop and white lines running across it, Kara began to think about what the road and other things looked like to her. ”…Oreos…”

[Raphael Laurent]

It was an exceedingly quiet night, for once, and Raphael was all the happier for it. Under normal circumstances, right now, he’d probably be fighting a hollow, or a Vandenreich quincy, if he was unlucky, and go home bruised and cut. This time, though, he was enjoying some quality “him” time and what a day it had been! First he’d gone out to a park for about two hours and just sat there reading. Then he’d gone and gotten himself a nice haircut and a little bit of work done on his nails. He hadn’t been taking care of himself as well lately, so that had been a nice treat. Then he’d gone and spent some time at an arcade and the library. And finally, just to top it all off, he’d gone to a decent restaurant and had a hearty meal. Though, that had been the majority of his money for the week. He sighed, checking his wallet, and seeing only a few thousand yen. That had been after his final, personal treat, a small thing of oreos.

He was passing by the downtown area and saw…what looked like a stuffed animal making a daring escape from a nearby house. Curious, to be sure. But he didn’t want to let it know that he’d seen it and so he didn’t make any movements towards the house. He began going over what he knew of, in his head, counting out each one of the different races. What on Earth could this thing be? It most definitely wasn’t a Shinigami, or a plus. Those kinds of things, he would’ve seen a ghost doing stuff with. It also wasn’t a hollow, or else it probably would’ve killed the family. Though, it was possible it was just a small one…

He shrugged and felt out the thing, and his eyes lit just a bit. Was it a mod soul? Really? He hadn’t seen one of them for quite a while. Might as well say hello, at least once they got a bit farther from the house. It was possible that this thing was moonlighting as a stuffed animal, to get free room and board. Or maybe it did like the family here and just stayed with them from a partial feeling of convenience. Not like it was all too important, in the end. He popped another oreo into his mouth, and crunched into it, savoring the taste as he approached, smiling warmly.

“Evening. Nice night, huh?” His voice would be just loud enough for the mod soul to hear.

[kara]

The voice was loud enough for Kara to hear, and to lose her focus over. The tentacle holding her to the ledge lost its grip and the pink octopus-faced plush flopped down onto the ground in a haphazard heap. Was it an enemy? Enemies didn’t normally announce themselves but Kara wouldn’t put it passed some villains to actually announce their presences to their potential victims. In fact that’s what a lot of villains seemed to do, at least according to the super hero shows Himiko’s family sometimes watched. She’d need to assess the situation, figure out if the unknown was friend or foe, Hollow or Shinigami… And also why she hadn’t noticed them until they spoke in an area of the city that, at this hour, should have been completely devoid of human life. But first she needed to hide.

Tentacles flailed about until they found the ground. Securing an identity for the surface, Kara righted herself, hopping up slightly before scuttling away. She didn’t move far however, just around a corner in order to hide within the restaurant’s entryway. Once certain that she couldn’t be seen from any of the remaining angles, Kara cautiously poked her head out. Beady black eyes took in the individual approaching. He knew she was here! Was it a human!? But if it was a human wouldn’t the first choice be to freak out about a toy walking around by itself at night? This fact bothered her but one thing more than anything else bothered her even more. The human…? He held in his hand the strangest thing. She’d just been thinking about those… Oreos… Just who was this guy? And why was he here? And why was he talking? Was it to her? She wouldn’t conclude the notion until after he spoke again… Maybe he hadn’t actually seen her… Her other questions remained silent as well. If he hadn’t seen her then it would be foolish to speak a response, especially if he turned out to be some sort of enemy… or even worse a Shinigami operative!

Kara chose to remain silent and still, peeking out from behind the entryway. She could outrun the average human if the need arose to actually do so, but she couldn’t be so sure about this guy. Beady black eyes stared out at him, waiting, unblinking. Kara wanted to see what would happen if she chose to ignore the voice. Maybe he would pass on by without even glancing her way. Yep that would be ideal, then Kara could go on looking into the sushi bar. But… those Oreos… Kara inwardly cursed her unfortunate lifestyle and her body’s inability to consume food.

[Raphael Laurent]

The stuffed animal seemed to flail for a few minutes, falling from the window of the store and down onto the ground. Were that a normal human he would’ve probably winced, but thankfully, as a stuffed animal, however, he didn’t think that she would’ve felt any kind of pain from that. Then… Where did it go? It seemed like the stuffed animal had suddenly scuttled away, disappearing into an entryway. He stood there for a few minutes, thinking. There were many things that he could do. He could certainly keep walking and pretend that he hadn’t seen anything and then tail it, once it started moving again. Or… he could… He smiled after a moment.

He stood there, for a few minutes. “Huh… I guess… I was just seeing things?” He mused to himself lightly. He took out another oreo and ate it slowly and sighed. “Hmm… I should go get some udon or something… Maybe some rice too. Nah. Some ramen would be better, maybe…” He sighed. “I don’t know… Maybe some sashimi… I haven’t had that in a while and it would probably be good to finally have some sashimi. It’s… Oh wait…” He put the oreos under his arm and pulled out his wallet, and checked over the money he still had. “Mmm… A few thousand yen. Yeah, I’ll need this for the rest of the week for groceries. I mean, I already ate, but I feel hungry still…” He sighed, put his wallet back and then looked up. Fine…

He smiled a bit and then shook his head, if he wanted to talk, apparently, he would have to make himself a bit more known. Watching where the modsoul had disappeared, he thought for a few moments about the best way to do what he was hoping to do. Then, decided that the best way to go about it was to simply be confrontational. He heaved a light sigh, felt out where it was and then, activating Bringer’s Light, he would momentarily disappear from view a small column of green light from where he’d disappeared. And then, he landed right behind the small plushie, squatting down as he landed. He pulled out an oreo and took a bite. “Sho…what are we hiding from?”

[kara]

‘Curse this fiendish human and his choice of foods!’ Kara mused. The small pinkish plush pictured herself eating those delectable bits of unhealthy food and her mouth watered; or it would have if she’d been possessed of a living body… Instead Kara’s tentacles slapped angrily against the wall she hid behind while tracking the human with her beady black eyes. Kara breathed a sigh of relief, it didn’t seem like he’d spotted her. ”He’s just talking to himself, Kara has nothing to fear from this one.” Six tentacles slumped out from under the plush, allowing her body to slide down onto the hard constructed floor beneath. Even so, a cautious Kara glanced back out into the street, only this time something was off. The human who’d been speaking to himself was gone, no longer walking by like she’d anticipated he might do. Too much space sat between where he’d been and any of the places he could have possibly disappeared into… Curious, the octo-plush wrapped a third tentacle around the wall in an attempt to see if maybe there were an angle she’d missed…

”Aiiieee!!!” Voices from behind! Right behind! Kara freaked. If she could jump out of her skin she would have done so right then and there. Instead the startled modsoul jumped nearly a foot off the ground before running forward. Except forward in that direction was a wall, which Kara promptly smacked into with her fabric body, creating a “plomph” noise upon hitting it. She tumbled backwards and saw the culprit, immediately sprang up and formed her tentacles into a defensive stance. Two tentacles sprang forth towards the Human who’d startled her and a brief moment passed before Kara realized she couldn’t do anything to him with her currently restricted power. Either way he hadn’t done anything that she could properly react to anyway… ”You lied! You do see Kara!” A modsoul’s accusation. He’d said he couldn’t see anything. Kara fumed, but she also looked for an escape route… Of which few were actually available considering the circumstances. First off, how had he managed to get behind Kara without her even noticing, this she couldn’t understand. Secondly if he could move without her noticing it probably meant that physically escaping would be impossible for her now that she’d been noticed…

The only solution to deescalate the situation Kara could see would be to converse. Perhaps she could distract him with a surprise just long enough for him to take his eyes off her and escape. With that thought on her mind, Kara raised her best acting face and drew across it a look of terror. ”We’ve been spotted! There’s a hollow!” Kara’s body shook and she pointed behind the human with one of her free tentacles.

If her distraction worked, Kara would take the opportunity to scuttle away as quickly as plushingly possible.

If her distraction failed to catch the human’s attention then she would stand there trembling, pointing, and cursing her awful luck.

[Raphael Laurent]

"Of course I see you." Raphael replied, blinking a few times. "I'd have thought you'd realized that when you saw the green pillar of light..." He pointed to the small pillar of green light that had been left behind by his usage of Bringer's Light. He wondered, slightly, if she was new to this whole... spiritual world thing despite being a modsoul. He knew, looking at her, that she'd be able to see hollows. Meaning...she should've been much more used to this than that, though she probably hadn't been in many fights yet.

He sat there thinking. "So... just as an aside, why did you run from me? Did you think that I wouldn't realize that you're a modsoul?" The octopus plush was an interesting choice, Raph couldn't deny. "Just..." That was when the plush started emphatically gesturing behind Raphael with a tentacle and he looked at it, head tilting. "Uhm... Not...to embarrass you, but if there was a hollow behind me, I'd have felt it and probably would've already blasted it..." He scratched his head.

"Hey... Look, look... Let's start over, ok?" He smiled, extending a hand. "Hi. My name's Raphael. I'm a fullbri-- Well, I'm technically a fullbringer but-- That part's kinda complicated, but still I am a fullbringer. So a spiritually powerful human." He smiled. "So, I know that you're a modsoul and I've met a modsoul before." He smiled a bit. "What's your name?"

[kara]

Her luck was bad it seemed as the human didn’t buy her façade even for a second. He could see her… That was normal for anyone staring right at her like he was doing currently, and she couldn’t pretend to be a spirit since he mentioned himself to be some sort of spiritually gifted human. A Fullburger or something of that sort? Kara glanced over at the green light, then back towards the human, staring into his eyes. He hadn’t yet grabbed her so that could be counted as one plus at least…

The fullburger’s name was Raphael. Kara wondered what his being a burger had to do with his spiritually gifted powers… Could he make burgers appear that made people full? Or was he full of burgers? He’d definitely eaten some burgers right? The Oreos must’ve been the desert. Maybe that meant the burgers hadn’t completely filled him up then?

Plush body relaxing slightly, Kara looked to Raphael’s hand half expecting to see an Oreo peace offering, but to her dismay there was none. ”Kara is called Kara. Why is Fullburger Raphael out now? Shouldn’t Fullburger-san be sleeping now because he’s a human?” Kara quirked a tentacle, pointing it at the Fullbringer. Then a thought hit Kara like a sack of potatoes, causing the modsoul to jump back and assume a mock kung-foo stance with her tentacles. ”Is Fullburger-san working for the Shinigami!?” Kara’s couldn’t hide the frightened crack in her voice as she braced herself against the dangerous potential this human’s affiliation might have against her continued safety if he happened to respond with ‘yes’.