recolle | OTA | you can call me honey but i just might sting

OTA | you can call me honey but i just might sting

WHO: Mary Saotome + you!
WHERE: Various locations: the Inkwell, the zoo, Churchill Downs...
WHEN: July 4th - End of the month!
WHAT: Catchall for bingo!
WARNINGS: none i can think of!

OTA 1. Churchill Downs.

[ now that mary knows that chocobos are not, in fact, normal, she can't help but wonder how the hell she ever thought otherwise.

it's not that she's afraid of them or anything--no, of course not--but they are...huge. and fluffy? mary's never really had contact with a chocobo, even if as a little girl she wanted riding lessons (with horses, which existed then) and couldn't afford them. the birds in the stables are, according to this stupid bingo card, able to be ridden, and she stands with her feet on the bottom rung of the fence, peering over the edge of the paddock to the birds, which squawk and amble about.

right. race a chocobo with someone. it shouldn't be that hard.

one of the birds notices her, though, and immediately makes a beeline for the fence--mary jumps, startled, and leaps back, right in time for the bird to make a swipe at the black ribbon hanging from her pigtails. ] Hey--

[ the bird kweh's! unhappily, and mary sticks her hand out to try to hold it away. it looks like she's having a staring contest with the bird at this point, a battle of wills...! she has to ride the damn thing, with another person, but first she maybe needs to get on it.

which means it needs to stop trying to eat her ribbons. please stop this standoff. ]

OTA 2. The Inkwell

[ the inkwell is mary's favorite hangout--something probably not okay for a nineteen year old--but whatever. it has nothing to do with drinks, anyway, since she orders herself a shirley temple and gets settled at her usual barstool in the middle, shuffling a pack of cards like a goddamn dealer and spinning a little on her chair.

challenge someone to a duel, says the bingo card. use your powers, says the bingo card. mary has never been a fan of following things exactly as they're supposed to be followed, and she decides to take the meaning as loosely as possible, setting her freshly shuffled deck of cards down. the cards themselves look plain, a set of blue "bicycle" cards, with no visible cheats or anything like that.

(visible to you anyway.)

she smiles, turns to the person next to her. ] Do you want to play a game with me?

[ look at this perky young girl. surely she just wants to pass the time in a fun way. how could you say no. you could probably fleece her really easily! ]

OTA 3. Wildcard.

[ though i didn't make a plotting post, mary's bingo card is here. anything marked in blue is something i really want, and anything marked in green is fair game! grayed out ones are already taken/planned out. ♥

closed, preplanned starters are gonna go in comments! ]

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[ mary doesn't really go out of her way to look at animals or cute things--that being said, she does, secretly, really like cute things, so seeing "pet a rabbit" on her bingo card was a tiny bit of a blessing.

the petting zoo's tucked into the zoo, full of tiny little kids and cute farm animals. at the front of the line to be let in--and easily the oldest person here that's not someone's mom--mary looks just as excited as the kids, though she's trying to keep it awfully demure, biting her lower lip.

she turns to ann to keep herself Very Cool. she's totally not excited. ] Of all of the things on this bingo card, this is probably the most arbitrary. Why the hell do they want me to pet a rabbit?

Edited 2017-07-05 16:11 (UTC)

[ Yoshiko isn't particularly much for the birds themselves; they come in some interesting color variations, and they're interesting enough to look at; the crow-like ones, with feathers black as night in particular, always managed to catch her eye, but approaching them is a different story...after all, they're loud, and a bit obnoxious, far moreso than a horse would be.

But she's ultimately here for the same reason Mary is; clear as day on her bingo card is a request to race chocobos, and though she's never so much as fed one, let alone tried to perch herself on one's back, the birds here seem docile enough; it's a riding academy, they're trained for this sort of thing. It'll only be for a couple of minutes, regardless, they're probably harmless, right...?

Her tune changes, though, when she arrives at the stables to see poor Mary getting snapped at by what she can only imagine is a renegade chocobo who's decided that enough is enough. And while normally she's willing to support rebellion of all kinds, the fact of the matter stands that it looks kinda scary!

...But she can't just leave the poor girl to get attacked. Delinquents have to be tough, right? She steels herself and approaches the chocobo from the side, hoping to at least be a distraction... ]

Come on, big guy, cute girls aren't for eating, alright? Chill the hell out...

[ She reaches out to pet the chocobo, hoping that it won't bite her when she strokes its golden mane. He seems excitable, so maybe he just needs to calm down a bit? As long as he doesn't start swiping at her bun... ]

[ this is clearly a very energetic and slightly renegade chocobo, considering it keeps reaching for mary's hair. she's getting clearly more and more irritated at the bird, when it reaches out and catches the edge of her ribbon in its jaw-- ]

Hey, hey--! [ but luckily, it seems like the chocobo and mary are both distracted by the visitor! the chocobo, still holding mary's ribbon in its beak, abruptly turns to its new visitor and makes a chirpy noise at the petting. it yanks its head towards yoshiko to try to get more pets, which makes mary stumble, but when it opens its mouth again, she yanks her ribbon free and looks at it in despair. ] Stupid bird...

[ christ. she looks at the girl who showed up to save the day. ] Thanks.

[ ann's slowwwwwly starting to catch on to mary's weakness to cute things, being her roommate and all. but she won't say anything about it. yet.

it's definitely kinda cute though, seeing her all excited for the petting zoo! ann can't help but smile when she looks over at mary and seeing the other girl's excitement. ]

You say that, and yet you've practically got hearts in your eyes!

[ such a tsun, mary ] Are you excited or what?

Don't do it. Trust me on this one.

[Excuse him, Chuuya is just going to squeeze between Mary and her new target here, because he is a man on a mission. He has his honor to reclaim, and he has a kind of embarrassing idea of how to do it.

He slaps down a deck of Uno cards in front of her. There is truly no purer form of completely random screwing-over.]

If you wanna play a game, that's my choice. No goddamn way you can stack this one.

[right...?]

Mr. Nakahara. [ mary puts her hand on her chest, as if she's completely and utterly scandalized, her brown eyes wide. ] Are you saying I'm a cheater?

[ she'd never! or, well, she'd never get caught, anyone. she glances at the poor, innocent sucker that she was going to destroy at bullshit and perches her chin on top of her hands, smiling at him. there's nothing evil behind her smile! not at all. ]

If that's a challenge you're offering, I'd be happy to take you up on it.

[ if it was at all possible, mary puffs up a little like a ghibli character, her cheeks going red. ]

I don't--it's just a rabbit. [ baka!!!!

well, either way, she doesn't get long to be tsun, as the gate opens up. inside the petting zoo, there are a myriad of small, cute animals, including goats, baby lambs and, of course, the rabbits! they're in a hutch, and mary picks her way over carefully to look at the rabbits, who are...

oh, they're so, so cute. ] Which one...?

[ Phew. That could've ended much worse...at least it was just her ribbon. She can understand the sentiment; had the bird wanted to eat her jacket, for example, she wouldn't have taken any prisoners.

At least, despite the bird's energy, it seems to calm down a bit when it gets pet. Her hand is still a little shaky as she pets it, but the situation's been resolved, thankfully. ]

The dumb thing probably just wanted attention. Can't really blame it, being cooped up all day.

[ ... ]

Sorry about your ribbon, though.

Uh-huh...just a rabbit.

[ ann Knows, you baka!!!

oh, now it's ann's turn to die. there are stars in her eyes as she goes over to the rabbits--look how tiny and cute they are?! she points to a caramel brown one off to the side that's just chillin and gives it a little pat. ]

Oh, they're all so cute! I don't know how you can choose, just pet all of them!

It's fine. [ it's not like it was expensive, but, The Aesthetic, you feel. mary rubs her thumb over the torn edge and tears it at the edge--it's a little uneven, but at least it doesn't look like she got mauled by a bird anymore.

she glances over at yoshiko petting the bird--seems like that scared her a little bit. setting back, she puts her hands on her hips, smile tugging at the corner of her mouth for the first time since this fiasco started. ] That was pretty heroic of you. Do you go around saving girls on the regular?

[ mary's gonna ignore that knowing tone, thank you very much!! she realizes she's disgustingly obvious, but look, she has a reputation to maintain, okay.

it's hard to maintain said reputation in front of the bunnies, though. they're all pretty small, and mary follow's ann's hand to reach down and pet the same rabbit as her, her thumb running over the soft fur on the top of its head. they are impossibly soft and fluffy, and, okay, most of her composure has gone straight out of the window in the fact of tiny, cute animals. ]

...they're pretty cute. [ but she can't admit to how cute they are. she can admit, though-- ] ...I could probably stay here all day.

[ That actually makes Yoshiko turn a little bit red, enough that she suddenly finds some random spot on the chocobo very interesting-- ]

Don't say shit like that. I'm supposed to be a goddamn delinquent...

[ Mary's not the only one who's a slave to The Aesthetic here, judging by the leather jacket she's still wearing in spite of this heat. She turns around to show off the patch on the back; it's not a particularly snappy logo, but, it gets the point across. FALLEN ANGELS, it reads, with little wings and a halo-- ]

Saving people is what my sisters want to do. This was just a one-time thing, got it?

[ This art teacher is just sitting sketching images from his memories, people from them, and sometimes drinking from the glass just close by, and he might be an unsuspecting target. (She may have seen him around, he enjoys spending time at his cousin's place.)

He looks up from sketching a portrait, and at her and the cards in front of her. He has no idea what the is supposed to be for. ]

I guess that depends on the game....

[ aha! ann knew it, you can't hide your weakness forever mary!!

these rabbits are so fluffy, so well taken care of and ann's impressed. as an employee at a pet store, she knows when animals aren't properly groomed and these rabbits have certainly been given love and care. she switches over to a little while dwarf rabbit to her right, letting mary take over the brown one. ]

So can I! Oh, look at how they wiggle their noses--aren't you so cute?

A game, huh?

[Mary's sure made a name for herself around the bar. One she's giving Zoro a chance to diminish just a bit right now. Standing on the stool, he reaches over the bar and pulls out two glasses and a full bottle of whiskey.

One glass for him. One glass for her. He keeps his hand on the neck of the bottle.]

Alright. Name the game. Loser's the first one down.

[Like hell he's just challenging her at cards alone. He's seen what she does to Chuuya. Get your drinking game on, Mary.]

[Hard to say how she's doing with customers, but Mary's going to fleece every idiot who works at the Inkwell at this rate. Count Toshi in for yet another easy mark who raises his eyebrow, puts the glass he was polishing back on the bar, and sits down.
You'd think he would know better, it's not like he doesn't see her in here all the time.]

Sure, I'm game. Not playing for nothing though, are we?

[Because c'mon, that's boring.]

[ mary's smile is bright and perky. there is nothing to be afraid of. look at her, she's so pure and innocent, and she clasps her hands together, looking excited at the prospect ~~of utterly destroying someone else~~ of playing a fun little game. ]

Have you ever played Bullshit before? [ a tilt of her head! ] If not, I'll explain the rules for you.

[ mary's gaze flicks to the whiskey glass that zoro poured for her. she usually avoids actually drinking in the inkwell, considering she's underage and while she loves robbing chuuya blind for his liquor, she doesn't want to get him arrested, especially because she's confident in not getting caught.

...but she also hates losing anything.

well, as long as chuuya's not paying attention. ] Let's play bullshit. Do you know how to play?

[ fuckin yolo ]

[ He tilts his head as the hand with the pen lowers, resting against the edge of the sketchbook. ]

Bull...? [ Bullshit? ] No, I don't know if I have heard of it.

Of course not. That'd be boring, wouldn't it? [ though mary's not going to get toshi for any liquor like she would the owner of the bar, she can definitely take his pocket money.

she fiddles around in her bag, and comes up with a $20 bill, setting it on the table. ] Let's just start with this. Can you match me alright~?

Don't worry, it's really easy. It's one of my favorites. [ because she is certified an incredible liar.

she taps her hand against her pack of cards. ] The goal of the game is to get rid of all of your cards. We take turns discarding cards to a discard pile, and when you discard, you say what the card is. We go in numerical order, so if you have an ace in your hand--which, statistically, at least one of us will--you'll play an ace. You can play up to four cards in one turn, since there are four of each card in total. After that, I'd have to play twos, then you'd play threes, so on and so forth.

But then, what happens if you don't have the right card? So, if it's my turn to put down a seven, and I don't have a seven...maybe I put down a nine and say that it's a seven. If you have all four nines, you'd know I was lying.

So if you call "bullshit", then you get to check and see if I was lying. And vice versa. If you get caught, you pick up the entire pile on the table.

Make sense?

Oh, sure. [ ok honey, if you say so. mary doesn't think she looks very delinquent-like, considering that cute little red spot on her cheeks.

but, she's tactful enough (or not rude enough) to pick a fight with someone about it, so. mary leans across the fence now that the chocobo's satisfied and she's out of danger. ] So, what's a delinquent doing with a bunch of chocobos? Don't tell me you wanted to try and steal one.

[ a pause. ] Though, I guess I wouldn't tell on you if you were.

[ yeah... from ann she really can't, can she?

all gay thoughts aside, mary ends up squatting down carefully amongst the rabbits, so she can get a little bit closer. their noses twitch, their whiskers move, and she can't help but give it a little extra scritch. ]

It must be nice to get to work around things this cute all the time. [ are the rabbits cute or is ann cute??? the answer is both. rabbits make a good distraction, though. ]

Okay....

[ He listens to her explanation as he ignores the itch to draw. ]

I...think so, yes.

[Excellent. Nothing like getting a minor drunk in order to reclaim an establishment's honor.]

'Course I do. Deal the cards.

[He fills their glasses perhaps a bit too high for whiskey. There's a sadistic side of him that wants to see if she can handle a full glass in one go.]

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OTA | you can call me honey but i just might sting

♠ ann | the zoo

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