Multiple Settings Anima Studies

[Verite]

Valerie Vu - New Assignment
Interactions: Tiguidi Stelle-Steel

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Valerie tilted her head curiously at a dog struggling to understand human speech, admittedly taken by surprise at Nikklaüs's disarmingly assertive approach and subsequent words. To his credit, he was right that Val proved open to the little fun activity thrown her way just by framing it as such. With a sparkle in her eyes, the young woman clenched her fists and shook them with intrepid vigor. Blissfully oblivious to the less innocent thoughts going around in her two cohorts' minds.

"Ooh, burial at sand, huh? I think we can arrange that!" She exclaimed, before glancing over at Cobalt following his own two cents. "A bucket, huh... Dunno if there's any nearby that we can nab, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there!"

Accepting the task at hand without hesitation, Valerie looked down at the sand beneath their feet. "I wonder if I can just blast a hole with my anima and call it a day. Or... should we like, find a shovel? My dad always said physical labor builds character, and that's why we never used our dishwasher, we just always did it by hand. He doesn't even call it a dishwasher, he just calls it the drying rack," she idly said, going off on a completely unrelated tangent for a moment there.

Perhaps the beach atmosphere and the summer air loosened up her inhibitions a little more, made her words slip out a little easier than they ought to. Like when she said that to Marianne in the spur of the moment. Rookie mistake, really.

"... Uh, anyway. Yeah, I'm on board!"

 

[November Witch]

Mariana

~{Casual Conversations Pt.2}~​

Status: Nervous
Location: Island Beach - ???
Interaction/Mention(s): Solirus

“Oh…” Mariana replied, upon hearing his answer. Was he not enjoying his time here then? Wasn’t the beach one of those universal things that everyone could find some enjoyment in? The girl had thought so, but started to question that notion now. But he admitted he was forced to come, and that he hated Jaquie… But he mentioned his core emotion… Was it hatred? She could only imagine how that must be. Focusing on hatred all the time. Mariana could never do something like that. She couldn’t fathom the thought.

“That… must require alot of strength…” She murmured. Or perhaps it didn’t. Maybe it was just second nature to him, like how it seemed to be second nature for most of her classmates. But even still, she couldn’t imagine relying on hatred for her anima arts. “It’s okay, I don’t mind.” She assured Ottar. “I guess… As long as you know he’s doing it to help you, it’s okay to hate him?” She said, almost as a question to herself. Mariana couldn’t find a reason to hate anyone. She found it incredibly difficult to think that way about anyone. Because of whom she was, but also because… Well, wasn’t it rude to hate someone? Doesn’t hatred breed hatred? Isn’t it a bad emotion? Then again, could someone choose their core emotion? If not, judging someone on it wouldn’t be fair. She couldn't remember the answer right now, and her study buddy was currently under the sea and giving her the cold shoulder, so she couldn't ask.

Mariana bit her lip, stuck in some philosophical loop in her mind, attempting to figure out how to feel. However, it didn’t take her long to come up with an answer. It didn’t matter as long as they were on the human’s side. Though something Ottar mentioned did bring up her self conscious side. “Has everyone in your class figured out their anima art?” She asked, half hoping someone wouldn’t have. Then she wouldn’t feel as alone and incompetent as she did compared to her classmates. But if all of them did? Well, she would be happy for them of course… But she’d feel even worse…

 

[Juju]

Mixed Up

Interaction: _Yua Watanabe_​

It was unfortunate that Lola began to have second guesses about approaching Marianne, for as soon as the suggestion was made, Annamarie was all for it.

“Yes! After the building we can ask Marianne! Then we can all stand in the water together!” she hummed, her eyes sparking brightly at the mere mention of her twin. A few giggles escaped her, unable to be contained just like the sunshine on her face. “Sometimes buildings make Marianne happy. We can… we can make this one good and then show Marianne!”

Yet the talk of water and cats caused this good mood to grind to a halt. Her smile paused, replaced by the wide eyes of confusion, astonishment even, “But Mittens isn’t a cat? Is a cat just a shape? If Mittens is a cat then why don’t…”

Without Marianne here to clear away the looming questions, a mere brush with philosophical thinking was enough to halt Annamarie in her tracks. Little clumps of sand fell from between her still fingers, plopping into the knee-high water.

Everything was set back into motion when Lola placed a gentle hand on her head. Not long ago, an unexpected gesture like that might have resulted in an undesirable response, but she knew better now. The soft, fleshy hand wasn’t here to hurt. Lola was a good human, and good demons never hurt good humans.

In an instant, the smile was back on Annamarie’s face. She looked up at Lola’s arm as the girl rubbed her head, ruby eyes glinting with something between curiosity and delight. A laugh escaped her as she dropped the incorrect clump of sand, “Oops, I will try again.”

Of course, there was more to it. As Lola explained the difference between too-wet and too-dry, Annamarie nodded along eagerly. She let Lola lead the way, and beamed with pride at the praise and second head-pat. Lola was utterly spoiling her, but it didn’t seem to bother her one bit.

“Yes, I’ll wait!” she called after Lola, standing dutifully where she had been directed to stay.

While she was bound to her post, Annamarie’s eyes followed the girl all the way to her bag and back. They fell down onto the brightly colored plastic as it was offered, like a crow given a shiny coin, “For me?!”

She took it into her hands and held it aloft, inspecting the cheap plastic like a fine artifact, “Lighter than the metal ones. Pretty too. I like it!”

With the pail passing her unknown standards, Annamarie quickly got to work. Bucket in hand, she scampered over to the area where the shore was just out of the wave’s touch. Here, the sand was damp and firm. As far as she could tell, it fit the description Lola had given.

She grabbed a new handful of sand and lifted it so that Lola could see.

“Is it good?” she asked hopefully.