Juneau Where She's Going?

[doitrockapella]

Who: Carmen Sandiego (doitrockapella) and a bunch of other people!
Where: Various locations in Johto, over the course of the week!
When: The week of January 26th
Summary: This week, her itinerary's loaded with more than just moving violations.
Rating: PG as a default; deviations from that will be marked!
Log:

⛵ WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? ⛽
MONDAY January 27th	Goldenrod City — ALL DAY
TUESDAY January 28th	Goldenrod City — ALL DAY
WEDNESDAY January 29th	Goldenrod City — MORNING through 5:00 PM En Route to Ecruteak City — 5:00 PM ONWARD
THURSDAY January 30th	En Route to Ecruteak City — PRIOR to 11:00 AM Ecruteak City — 11:00 AM ONWARD
FRIDAY January 31st	Ecruteak City — ALL DAY
SATURDAY February 1st	Ecruteak City — ALL DAY

People interested in interacting with Carmen or having her pay your character a visit at some point during this week, feel free to throw in a starter with a date and location for the thread! You can either write the starter yourself and I'll have her tag into it, or you can drop a top-level just with date and time and I'll come up with a reason for their paths to cross, either way. o/

Comments

[doitrockapella]

It's all right. Naegi let me know your assignments might be a bit delayed.

[It's hard to look at him like this, frankly; it's not hard to spot the almost fidgety way he's casting about for something to do, and it conflicts so sharply with her impression of Ishimaru as so generally collected and self-possessed (or at least, putting on a good front of pretending to be) that it sits badly with her.]

I brought lunch, if you're hungry. There's steamed vegetables, rice, and noodles, among other things. I didn't know exactly how many I was feeding so I brought enough for twelve.

[ardent]

Twelve...?

[Well, that seems to get his attention; good lord, Miss Carmen.]

...Maybe in a bit. Not right now.

[...]

Do you play...?

[doitrockapella]

[At least she has the decency to look sheepish. Slightly. About as sheepish as Carmen ever can, anyway.]

I didn't realize half of you had gone on vacation. At least you'll have leftovers.

[But, once she has the last word (presumably) on that, she quickly turns her attention to the table.]

Enough that I could stand to give you a fair game, if you're looking for one.

[ardent]

[...Carmen, you do realize that you're one of the very few people who's actually taken him up on that, right - Nanami had been interested but doesn't know how to play, and he'd kind of kicked Kirigiri's ass immediately after she'd accepted, so...]

...I'd like that. It's not...It isn't really a talent of mine, but I'm not bad.

[doitrockapella]

[Hey, you run a criminal empire, you better believe the complex has got a well-stocked rec room. How else are you going to keep a couple barracks' worth of grunts and a whole lot of punnily-named subordinate henchmen occupied? Idle hands make plans to usurp you through delusions of grandeur, after all.

She heads around to find herself a cue from off the rack, pulling down a few one and a time and instinctively sighting along their length to make sure they're straight before selecting one she likes.]

Do you want to stick with your break, or re-rack them and go from scratch? It doesn't matter to me.

[ardent]

...I'll re-rack; I don't mind.

[Something to do with himself, after all. Just. Let him get on that.]

How have you been...? You look like you've been well.

[doitrockapella]

[Again, almost absently, she shifts so that she's opposite the table from him as he racks; she doesn't even realize she's doing it, really, but clearly somewhere along the way, she'd been instructed that it's just good billiards manners to stay across from your opponent that way.]

Oh, I've been all right. Challenged another gym, resolved some difficulties with a friend. I hope you don't mind my taking you up on your invitation to visit so suddenly.

[ardent]

Why would I mind...?

[He isn't looking up at her, but it's obvious that he's thinking; he isn't entirely sure why it's even a question, really -

And then it sort of hits him, and...oh.]

...

[Oh.]

...How much...did Naegi-kun tell you...?

[doitrockapella]

A little. Leon told me some of it, too.

[Pause.]

They've both been worried about you. And sometimes it just helps to have someone to talk to, doesn't it? I think that's part of why they decided to get in touch with me — to have someone who'd listen.

[ardent]

...Kuwata-kun as well...

[He seems more like he's trying to work out how he feels about that than anything; of all people, he hadn't expected Leon to do anything. Outside of maybe get the hell out, which he'd done.

Huh.]

I'm not...upset with them. For contacting you. Usually Naegi-kun tries to contact me first if something goes wrong.

That wasn't...really an option this time.

[doitrockapella]

Honestly, I think it was as much for their own peace of mind as it was out of worry for you. Which isn't to suggest that they weren't trying to find help for you. Just that...

[She pauses, considering how she wants to word this.]

I think it helped them, having an adult to solicit for help in general.

[She retrieves the cue ball and heads down to the far end of the table, putting it roughly into position and just sort of toying with it while she waits for him to finish.]

Leon in particular talked with me awhile. He felt bad that his efforts to help you cheer up kept seeming to backfire, and wanted to know if I had any insights into how to keep that from happening.

[ardent]

...Did he...?

[...right. Right, he's doing something, isn't he. He should probably focus on that some, give him a second and...there.]

...I wouldn't have thought he would.

[doitrockapella]

Do you mind if I break?

[Might as well give him the chance to think about something else before he risks stalling out on the Kuwata-kun thing.]

He's a lot like me, in some respects. Wanting so badly to help that he couldn't really sit back and accept the fact that there might not be much of anything he could. I remember what that feels like.

[ardent]

[He shakes his head at that initial question; no, he doesn't mind, go right ahead. Hopefully it gets the point across; usually it tends to.

It's fortunate, really, because this entire thing with Kuwata is a little on the overwhelming side; it's not bad, it's nothing that's rendering him tempted to withdraw or freeze up, but it's...different, and he's not sure what he should be thinking about all this, and it's...well.

"Stalling out" is one way to word what he's doing, anyway.]

I-I...

[...]

He...tried to talk to me. After I woke up.

[... ... ...]

I don't...know him that well.

[doitrockapella]

[She lines up her shot, bringing the cue stick lightly forward a few times as she tests the swing of her arm and the angle that the tip will hit the ball, and then follows through with a smooth and unhesitating shot that impacts off of the waiting triangle of balls with an audible crack.

Not too shabby, Sandiego.]

Well, I left you a nice shot on the six to the corner, didn't I.

[Don't lose him now. He likes pool; let's stick with that for a while.]

[ardent]

[Well, whatever she's doing, for the time being it works; while normally he would have been a bit irritated at the blatant attempt at directing him, at pointing out the obvious shot, as it stands it just gives him something else to focus on that isn't whatever's going on inside his head.

He paces the table for a moment, trying to work out whether he does, in fact, like the shot on the six; the angle is good and after a moment so is his positioning, leaning over the table without disturbing the rest of it, feinting once before sinking the ball easily into the pocket.

Admittedly, he has nothing useful beyond that; just the same, there's no sense in not at least attempting something, especially this early; the next shot he lines up banks off the side of the table, connecting rather solidly with a few of the other balls clustered near the center of the table, scattering them a little more but not accomplishing too much there.

Well. It's something.]

[doitrockapella]

An old rival of mine was a master at billiards.

[She eyes the table, taking stock of the striped balls relative to the cue, then shifts around the table once she seems to have found the one she wants.]

The fourteen, in the side.

[It's an odd shot to call, given where she's at; the angle is bad on the straight shot, but she's not planning to hit a straight one, anyway. Instead, she takes careful note of a series of spots on the felt, then takes her shot — banking it three times, with just enough force to tap against the fourteen and send it rolling gracefully toward the pocket.]

[ardent]

[Ishimaru watches without comment; he can see what she's going to do before she does it - the thought pleases him, really, that he hasn't lost that any.]

...what was your rival like?

[doitrockapella]

Brilliant. And cruel. The sort of person who drives you to push your own limits out of an ambition to surpass his.

[She taps her cue thoughtfully, then reaches for the chalk and scratches some onto the tip as she considers her next shot.]

I couldn't have beaten him at billiards, that's for certain.

[There's an easy shot now, on the eleven, and she'll take that one, too.]

[ardent]

...Some sort of genius, I'm guessing. Right?

[doitrockapella]

That's right. My Professor Moriarty, if you're familiar with Sherlock Holmes.

[She frowns at the table; none of the shots look very good, so she settles for landing the cue ball down into a position that'll give Ishimaru a tough time with his shot, instead.]

Back when I was a detective.

[ardent]

[He tips his head a little at that - if anything, the difficult shot seems to focus him, and not just in a way that constitutes "having something to do"; he's always preferred having to work out things like this, all angles and lines and trajectory, more a formula to be solved than a proper game to be played. It's how he likes it, really; he takes his time looking at it, trying to work out an approach.]

Did you defeat him?

[It's not quite as impressive as Carmen's earlier shot, but he manages to bank the ball twice off the felt, sinking the seven hard into a corner pocket.]

[doitrockapella]

August 31st, 1985. That's the day I beat him.

[And she hums softly in approval as his shot goes in.]

That was nicely handled.

[ardent]

...Thank you.

[He tips his head a bit once that's out there, however, finding some of the chalk stationed around the table and setting to rubbing some on the edge of his stick.]

...That's the same day as my birthday, actually. August 31st.

[doitrockapella]

It's also the day before Dr. Robert Ballard and his team found the Titanic. You have good taste in birthdays.

[She eyes the table.]

I see a shot on the one and the three. Is that how it looks to you?