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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]

[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.

[fujimaru]

They just said a replica. They didn't say it had to be a good one.

[ So if the organizers of this game are disappointed with what they get, they have only themselves to blame. ]

Besides, if they do want a museum piece? Sorry, but I'm not the phantom thief type. The only time I've ever stolen something was when I accidentally walked out of a store with a souvenir magnet I was looking at.

[impostorsyndrome]

You know we've only gotta take a picture, right? But this is funnier anyway. You think Gareth would get offended in a Round Table way if I hid these things all over the house later?

[She will be finding tiny shitty holy grails for months, and the idea makes Kadoc smile, as he turns down the street in the direction his phone is leading him and begins heading at a quick clip to the shopping district.]

[fujimaru]

I think it depends. If it doesn't look like the Holy Grail does back home, she might just think it's weird.

...I'd help you hide them, though.

[ It's still funny. And giving Gareth something silly and annoying to focus on might be a good idea in general. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

I mean, she's not gonna be wrong. It is weird as hell. But she might need something like that in her life right now anyway. Maybe I do too.

[He'd agreed to go along with this whole hunt thing, and yeah, he has financial reasons, but those wouldn't have been enough for him to make the time for this if he didn't have personal reasons too.]

[fujimaru]

Like a customized little scavenger hunt for her? I think that'd be nice.

[ That's... cute. It makes her smile to think about it, and the fact that he suggested it himself, if in a roundabout sort of way. Now that they've gotten past the initial hurdle, she's seeing more and more why both Da Vinci and Mash called him a kind person. It makes her happy to see for herself. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

I was thinking more like a prank, but a pretty fucking stupid one. I wasn't gonna tell her ahead of time or anything like that.

[But this is still hardly the most unkind of things he could do. A prank, but one he would be hoping would be funny, not frustrating. He just doesn't have casual cruelty in him.]

[fujimaru]

It could be a prank with a prize. If she finds all of them, offer to buy her something nice.

[ There's the Camelot Dollar General or whatever up ahead, and when she sees it, she automatically picks up her pace. Who knows if someone else has had this silly idea? Better to get in as soon as possible. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

[He picks up after her, easily keeping pace. He's never been in this place before, and it's going to be hard not to linger looking at all the wacky things they surely have here. Styrofoam Excaliburs? He might have to get one if he sees one, or at least hit Ritsuka with it.]

So basically a prank with a built-in apology.

[fujimaru]

Those are the best kind!

[ It is entirely possible they will get kicked out of this dollar store because of a stupid and badly executed toy swordfight in the aisles, but that's a problem for future them to worry about. For now, Ritsuka looks around when she enters, before making a beeline to the toy section. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

I'm gonna go look at the party favors.

[He gives her a wave and darts off that way, because he's still imagining some kind of game where you bake a tiny grail into a cake and whomever gets that slice gets to be King Arthur for a day or something. Damn, they should hire him for their festivals in this town. . . . Like hell. That would require knowing how to have fun.

But he's also keeping an eye out for any convenient Excaliburs hanging around to whap a girl with. Just in case.]

[fujimaru]

[ Frankly speaking, there are probably some Excalibur-themed decorations; regardless of anything else about Arthur's reign, he's still king here. Surely capitalism has seized upon this.

Ritsuka does in fact find a brightly-colored package that appears to be a "Galahad action set," which a rather unfortunate-looking doll, complete with sword and tiny plastic cup. It barely looks like the Grail as she would recognize it, but surely it counts. She picks it up, then turns to go looking for Kadoc. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

[She may have won this round; there aren't actually any bags full of tiny plastic grails the way Kadoc had hoped. But he did find an Excalibur-shaped inflatable giant party balloon, so who really wins here? He does, because when she approaches, he turns around with it and bops her on the head.

Look, he couldn't resist once the idea got into his skull.]

[fujimaru]

--?!

[ It doesn't hurt, but it does startle her, enough that she makes a high-pitched ridiculous little peeping noise when he does it. Her eyes go wide as she stares at him. Did he really--?! ]

W, what, hey--

[impostorsyndrome]

[Oh no. He's both extremely amused at that sound, and extremely embarrassed that he did that and she seems more confused by it than . . . happy to play or anything. Of course she wouldn't be! It was just a dumb and embarrassing whim! He turns around to put the sword back and . . . pretend it didn't happen, maybe.]

. . . You find anything?