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[fujimaru]

Ritsuka Fujimaru | 藤丸 立香
19(?) / F / Who knows!!

This is Ritsuka! Leave a message and I'll get back to you.

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[impostorsyndrome]

It's not, but I'm more worried about incompetence than malice. Not every technomancer out there's gonna be a pro. Especially if they're cribbing their ideas from TikTok. At least they're not asking us to make a briefcase out of a pizza box or some crap like that.

[YET.

But whatever. Okay! This is probably going to be normal and fine! He taps the button to start the game, taking in a breath, half waiting for them to get sucked into the phone or something else stupid and predictable. But no: all that happens is that it comes up with a cutesy text box that says CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATION.

Kadoc instantly turns back to the front door of his place to usher them inside.]

This one's easy as hell. Though I guess it'd have been a pain if we started out in the shopping district or something in the middle of May.

[fujimaru]

What's wrong with Tiktok? I like Tiktok.

[ She follows him, waffling for a few seconds on whether she should take her shoes off--she's inside! but they might need to go out again? what does she do?!--and then follows him with the shoes on, saying a silent prayer of apology to the gods of housing. ]

Did you guys actually have a whole tree? I'm sorry I missed it.

[ WHAT IF THEY HAD STOCKINGS... THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN CUTE... ]

[impostorsyndrome]

Yeah, we did. Gareth had this whole setup . . . it was pretty cool. Presents under the tree in the morning and all that crap. It made me feel like some kid in a Christmas movie.

[His own childhood had not really been like that, though. But it'd been nice to get to live the dream this time. He nods her along to one of the big closets, definitely not offended at her shoes being on, but then again, this is a house full of white people.]

Anyway, you can like TikTok all you want, just don't start thinking everything you see on it's a good idea.

[fujimaru]

[ Wearing her shoes inside feels bad and wrong and she does this half-expecting her mother or grandmother to pop out of a hidden door to scold her for it. But she heads for the closet he indicated. ]

At this point, I think I take everything I hear with a grain of salt, and not just what I see on social media. Tell me that the sky is blue, and I'll have to get back to you on it.

[impostorsyndrome]

[Kadoc snorts as he throws open the closet and pulls out a few boxes, nudging one across the floor to her.]

I'm not sure which one of these has Christmas tree stuff in it, but it's gotta be one of 'em. There's nowhere else it'd be. So just let me know if you find something. Good thing this isn't my closet.

[He has his limits, and a girl going through his closet is one of them.]

[fujimaru]

I promise not to judge you on any porn I find.

[ He'd just said it wasn't his closet, but she can't resist. She has to tease a little. Just a little! She grins at him as she says it, to hopefully take some of the sting out of the comment.

And then she starts digging through the box. ]

...this feels weirdly nostalgic... not for anything in Chaldea. For when I was a kid.

[impostorsyndrome]

First of all, who even has physical porn anymore . . . except Tennouji, I guess. And second, if you find porn in our Christmas junk, you're like morally obliged to judge me.

[Please judge him for that! It's fine, it's all bookmarked on his laptop anyway—but despite him handling the joke with grace and without sputtering about it, he does go pretty bright pink over it.

Anyway! Box! These are all Christmas decorations, they're just not all tree decorations. It's a hunt. Yes, there are stockings.]

You had boxes of porn and Christmas decorations when you were a kid, huh, Fujimaru?

[fujimaru]

The boxes of decorations, yeah. The porn? My dad was better at hiding it if he had any.

[ Which is a possibility. She doesn't really want to think about anything her father was hiding; it's more fun to tease him, grinning at the way he blushes. It's cute. Turns out, when he relaxes enough to play along, it's pretty cute!

She pulls out a string of lights, and ends up just draping them over her shoulders to get them out of the way. ]

It's not like we really celebrated Christmas with any seriousness... but my mom and grandma loved decorating.

[impostorsyndrome]

[He watches her sidelong, a little more caught up watching her than the box he's digging through, but luckily they have plenty of time to find something; the app is giving them the time they'd need to actually go somewhere and find a shop, not to just run inside a house five feet away and dig through a box. Unfortunately, the lights she has are outdoor lights and not tree lights, so she's probably in the outdoor decorations box anyway.]

I wouldn't think you did. It's a huge deal in my country, but it's not like mages do a lot of that kinda thing either, so I was in a weird position. Mage society is its own society outside ethnicity. . . . If we're still here for Christmas, I'll let you do my half of the decorating work, how's that? Heh.

[fujimaru]

Only if I don't get recruited into being Santa's Reindeer again somehow!

[ It is entirely a possibility. Maybe it'll be Santa Beowulf this year, or Santa Gareth--who knows? But if it does happen, Ritsuka knows she'll get dragged in regardless of her other plans.

But it sounds nice. It's been such a long time since she's gotten to do anything like that. ]

I'll be sure to ask what colors you like, though. Red and green? Red and gold? Blue and white?

[impostorsyndrome]

I'm more of a green and gold kinda guy. Maybe some white. But I think Gareth's aesthetic outweighs mine on this kinda thing anyway. She's the—

[Oh, wait. There's the tree topper! It's in his hand! He pulls it out and looks at it blankly for a moment, almost having forgotten what they came here to do, and then grabs his phone to snap the photo. Success!]

Got it.

[fujimaru]

Ha! Good job, us.

[ She flashes him a V-sign, laughing. It's probably a good thing he found it when he did; she might have continued draping herself in the decorations as they pulled them out if he hadn't. For now, she does start unwinding the lights from over her shoulders. ]

I mean, if you guys are living together, your decor should be a compromise, right? I doubt she'd mind if there was more of those colors around.

[impostorsyndrome]

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say she's a Santazilla or something like that.

[He smiles to himself as he repacks the box he'd been working on, glancing at his phone; it looks like the scavenger hunt will give them a few minutes before prompting them to proceed to the next item, so that works. They can not leave all this in the middle of the floor when they go rushing out the door again.]

It's more a me thing. As usual.

[fujimaru]

I'm still interested if it's a you thing. I don't know as many you things.

[ Obviously she knows some, at this point. It would be ridiculous to pretend otherwise, even as a joke--and they're not quite close enough yet that she feels she could make that joke easily. But she's still curious, and that she isn't ashamed to admit. She's curious! She wants to know more about him! They're friends now. ]

Do you just feel like you don't really get a say in the decoration? Or is it that you don't care to have input?

[impostorsyndrome]

[Geez. He finishes packing his box up and gets up to shove it in the closet, and grabs his phone to look at that too, and that's a good assortment of things to look at that aren't her. Why is it embarrassing? If she's showing interest in him? It just is. In fact, it's relevant, too:]

I just . . . I don't like speaking up about that kinda thing. Or much of anything else. You might've noticed. I know it's just my own personal issues, but when I open my mouth to come out with some kinda preference, my brain just fills in the other person's response with "no one cares," even if I know they'd never actually do that.

[fujimaru]

Mm. And I know you've known Gareth long enough to know she wouldn't do that to you.

[ She's finished packing up her box again too, carrying to to put it in the closet on top of his. She glances over, but she can't see his phone at this angle... what she can do is just bump her side up against his, a quick and hopefully companionable sort of gesture. ]

I wouldn't either. So I guess this is me asking. In advance, technically, but I'll ask again when it's closer to the time.

[impostorsyndrome]

[He automatically turns to her when she bumps him and holds his phone out for her to see, assuming that's why she nudged close all of a sudden. She was just trying to peek at the app, right . . . ? But he doesn't move away, either, from her standing right there. He just swings the closet door closed and leans in to show her that the app is giving them about three more minutes before it's going to prompt them with the next item they need to find.]

. . . If you actually care, you can just help us pick out some new stuff closer to the holidays.

[That's so cheesy and domestic?!]

[fujimaru]

I can do that.

[ She smiles at him when she says it, and she also does not move away. This is okay! Bond level 2 means that you can get away with things like this, and it's all right and fine and good. ]

But that means you've gotta give me input, too.

[impostorsyndrome]

Yeah, yeah. It'll be your Christmas miracle this year, promise.

[Maybe she'll forget by then! Maybe he will! Ha!

He nudges the phone at her, turning his head and realizing again how close she is, but it's fine. It's cool.]

You want me to just push it and we run for it, or do you wanna try and get outside before it makes us do the next one?

[fujimaru]

[ She snorts at that, amused, then leans closer to get a look at the screen. ]

Eh, you know what? Push it and let's see what we need to do. It's a challenge challenge, or something like that.

[ The point is technically finding whatever the app gives them, but also the point is to have fun. Right? Right. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

[There's a fraction of a moment when she leans in where Kadoc realizes that he could just lean forward a hair and have his nose in her hair, and, whoa. No thanks, train of thought. That's fully unnecessary knowledge. Both obvious and useless, cool.

So he presses the button. This time it comes up with: HOLY GRAIL REPLICA.]

. . . Seriously?

[fujimaru]

...

I mean, we are in Camelot... do they also have a Galahad running around?

[ He's probably also a jerk. She's not so naive that she thinks that purity of heart means that someone could be defined as a good person, and she's still got a bit of a grudge for what he did to Mash. ]

Or I guess maybe we could see if there's a Daiso equivalent...

[impostorsyndrome]

A what equivalent?

[Poor Kadoc's been missing out his entire life. He has never seen a Daiso. He looks to Ritsuka blankly.]

I mean, I've never heard of Galahad addressing us or anything like that, but there's gotta be merch the same way they had those blind boxes from the con. Right?

[fujimaru]

It's a dollar store kind of place, but some of the stuff is pretty nice. They can rotate for holidays and seasons, but some stuff stays year-round.

And like you said, if they've got general merchandise, then... what else do you give to Galahad, other than a fake Grail?

[impostorsyndrome]

Oh yeah? That sounds exactly like the kinda place we need. I bet in this world, you can buy big bags of tiny fake plastic grails the same way you can buy those babies in our world. Or plastic dinosaurs or whatever.

[Party favors . . . bake a tiny plastic grail into a cake . . . yeah, that all sounds legit. He's going to start heading out the door, searching on his phone for the nearest Camelot Dollar General or Party City or whatever they have.]

I mean, maybe they meant something more like a museum piece, but I bet that's harder to find. And if it's actual museum display quality, it's probably crowded as hell from other people who're playing this game right now.