[open]

[suddenlybees]

Who: Kano & OTA
What: magic practice, pettiness, finals
Where: Lumière, greenhouse, library
When: mid-month, before finals
Warnings: self-harm for prompt i., none expected for the rest
Notes: details of Kano's new Fey Contract can be found on his app

i. Lumière dormitory rooftop
[ Fey magic is a really... terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. But Kano is determined to make it work, this new Contract that he'd forged a couple of days ago, but it's just so different from his usual illusion magic that he'd worked ten whole years to get to the point where he is now, illusions seamless and effortless compared to him staring at his arm right now wondering what he's doing wrong?

Because his arm is bleeding, a bloody knife on his lap while he pokes at the wound with his other hand and it just comes back bloody, him wincing because it hurts and why isn't the magic working? There's nothing intuitive about this at all, and he has no idea how he's supposed to make it work, with the magic supposed to be healing and dulling pain but it's just doing the opposite for him, the pain making it hard to keep a smile on his face, and making him feel like crying a little.

With a sigh, he waves hand over the bleeding cut instead of touching it, and it disappears— simply masked underneath an illusion, but it's still there while he tries to figure out how to do this, preferably before he bleeds out.

It won't come to it, though. He has three years worth of band-aids stocked up, and he knew they would be useful someday. ]

ii. campus, on the way to the greenhouse or inside
[ But you know what always makes up for terrible days? Even more terrible ideas to get your mind off previous ones. This one isn't that bad, though, because it's something that'll have positive long-term consequences. Probably.

Anyways, it's Kano with long sleeves and pants and winter gloves and the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and eyes and also a bandanna over the rest of his face so he can have as little skin showing as possible. It isn't all because of botched healing practice, though, it's because he's lugging around a three gallon plastic jug in his arms— you know, one of those large plastic containers twice the size of your head that you can buy cheese balls in, but instead of cheese balls, it's bees.

It's a jar full of bees.

He had to ship them to a PO in town and then lug them all the way back to campus; this insect purchasing restriction is really an awful pain. ]

iii. library
[ But also, anyways, it's almost finals and while Kano did surprisingly okay on his midterms, he's got to do slightly more okay on his finals too, because exam scored are literally all that's carrying his grades without the homework to pad it.

So the library it is... Books, his arch nemesis... Him, sitting at one of the open study areas with a stack of brand new text books in front of him that barely look touched, a mug of something on the table that's a dark dark red to the point that it's almost black and also has four tea bags sitting inside it that's steeped so long the tea is no longer steaming, and also hands clamped over his ears like he's trying to block out ambient noise, or massage away a headache, or give himself a headache so he can go hang out in the infirmary for the next two weeks and not do finals.

Why does Daybreak have to be a school??? Schools suck. ]

Comments

[suddenlybees]

That's right, we can't stop now~ We've almost made it through! Next~

[ They have to power through a couple more short films, and also the musical... He's so tired and he hates this and instead of watching the screen has resorted to taking out his notebook and casting an illusion over it so it looks like one of the throw pillows on the couch that he can hug in his lap and he's going to study instead of wasting his time watching Shrek. ]

[playitagain]

I-it's an endurance test, then?

[Nana is a little concerned.

That may have been an attempt to abort mission. But she settles in, because... it looks like they're doing this.

WHY WERE THERE SO MANY SHREK FILMS? DIDN'T OTHER FANDOMS DESERVE THAT CREATIVE ENERGY MORE??]

[suddenlybees]

[ That sounded more like a challenge than a plea to give up, so they're in it for the long haul. ]

Yep~! We'll make it through, I believe in us!!!

[ "Just say no if you don't want to do something," Kano preaches, but doesn't adhere to at all while he sits back and goes through his notes for a fourth time. He's going to pass finals with flying colors at this rate. ]

[playitagain]

[The long haul...

The dreadful truth about the Shrek movies and the TV series and the rest is that they get... kind of boring. The memes get old. The jokes get lamer. The voice acting suffers. And though Nana said she wouldn't lean on him... at a point, he feels the side of her head lightly fall onto his shoulder.

And then a soft snore.

Oh no. Nana fell asleep, sometime before the horrible donkey costume of the musical declared war against the very concept of human dignity.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Oh no... But this is... okay. This is okay. He'll just do his best to use his feet to drag the remote over towards him without jostling Nana, and fast forward the video until it's at the end credits and he pauses it there, like they really did manage to finish the whole thing before Nana fell asleep.

She must be tired, so Kano just lets her sleep, and goes back to reading his notes, keeping an ear out for Nana waking up so he can restart the video at the credits again. ]

[playitagain]

[She is sleepy. The way she shifts, she actually gets one green ribbon in her hair loose, and the banana-tail falls out into longer hair down one side of her head. They're not tied very well when she only has one arm to do it with.

She takes a nap for about an hour; head rested lightly on his shoulder, and with a couple of snores. It's a little later that her eyes flicker open slowly and she spots the screen blearily. She doesn't register that it's paused.

But she murmurs an incoherent:] Kano-kun? Oh--did I miss the ending...?

[suddenlybees]

[ -—! Kano reaches forward to pick up the remote and pretend to pause the screen, that's already paused. ]

Mmhm, it just finished! It was pretty surprising, right? Totally blew my expectations away~ [ He didn't think it would be so terrible, but here they are.

That said, he doesn't make any move to get up and stretch or clean or whatever, just leans slightly into Nana's side and lets his head fall sideways to rest against the side of hers. ]

So... What'd you think?

[playitagain]

[Clever! Nana, as she's waking up, doesn't quite register that. She blinks, but--no he must have paused it. Scrolling credits are hard to follow.

She lets her head lean against his and decides this is nice and worth the slow deterioration of a funny franchise.]

The first two were great. The last two were okay. I think they should have stopped with two. But... it was interesting?

[oh no, a theater kid is happening:] How an idea for a script and formula can work, so they keep doing it. So even though Shrek should have learned that he was good enough for Fiona as he was after the plots of the first two films, he had to do something about it again and they had to keep doing weirder and weirder takes on fairy tales, where the fourth movie basically repeated the emotional context of the story from the first and second combined.

Instead of trying something new. It makes me appreciate how hard it is to write a good script, especially for a sequel.

[A beat, then the important question:] Also, why are a donkey and a dragon able to breed, Kano-kun? That knowledge is going to live in my nightmares.

[suddenlybees]

[ As long as it brings in money, there's no reason to try anything different, he can understand that, the same reason he does the same things day in and day out and nobody ever suggests he do things differently.

Other thoughts: writing a good script, especially for a sequel, would have been easy? He could take this and make it 560924583 times better, just like he'd made the Bee Movie better. It just needs more demons. ]

Hm... Something like... The power of love?

[playitagain]

Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All we need is love. [She catches herself before she literally starts reenacting the scene or singing the song. She's not sure if he knows that movie.

Then:] But it doesn't make horrible dragon-donkey babies possible.

[suddenlybees]

[ He has absolutely no idea she's quoting a moving and instead just lifts his gaze at the ceiling. Nana believes in love. Terrible. ]

You can't know that for sure! Isn't it the same way with Pepita and Indrik?

[playitagain]

...Miss Rivera's cat? I-I mean... Pepita is a cat...

[She starts to make a face. She's not familiar with Indrik.]

...maybe they can adopt..?

[suddenlybees]

[ Why does she and Maverick keep insisting Pepita's a cat and not a terrifying monster-- ]

Hm, yes, I guess they can. It'd be real scary if they had kids together.

[ It wasn't what he was thinking— something more along the lines of them being examples of hybrid monsters that shouldn't exist, but this is an interesting point too. ]

[playitagain]

[She has no idea about Pepita's true nature. Maybe this is for the best.

Nana laughs and he feels it against his shoulder.] Maybe so... is Indrik a neighborhood, um... dragon? Do we have a neighborhood dragon?

I don't think I've met him.

[suddenlybees]

Huh... I'm not really sure what he is?

[ Indrik is a... something... ]

But isn't Odd-Eyes a dragon?

On my phone for a bit so I’m gonna pick up Yang tags when I’m not, he’s so wordy

[playitagain]

He is! I think.

[Thinking of Odd-Eyes makes her frown. Her arm got hurt in that business.]

I don’t know for sure, actually.

npnp! o7

[suddenlybees]

[ He catches that frown, but takes it as just Nana thinking hard about what Odd-Eyes really is. ]

Hm, well, I thought maybe not 'cause he doesn't have wings, but not all dragons have wings? The East Asian ones?

[playitagain]

That’s true. I think he must be, or close enough. I wish I could ask, I’ve known him for awhile, but...

[He doesn’t talk.]

I’m pretty sure Odd-Eyes is single, though. No donkeys for him.

[suddenlybees]

You could ask Yuya, right?

[ Isn't that the first thing you would think of, not asking Odd-Eyes directly?? Nana... ]

But it's really such a shame Odd-Eyes is still single! I wonder if the zoo has any donkeys?

[playitagain]

[She wants to talk to animals. It’s a thing.

And then she makes a face.]

Oh my god, Kano-kun. No! He needs a cute other probably a dragon to be with!

[suddenlybees]

What if he likes donkeys? You can't force love, Nana-chan.

[playitagain]

...if he wants to be with a donkey then I’ll love and support him anyways.

[She sighs dramatically. Then she giggle-snorts because she just said that.]

[suddenlybees]

...Say that again so I can record it for posterity.

[ He has his phone out and everything; Yuya needs to hear this. ]

[playitagain]

[In a not unfamiliar refrain, and with the fondness that she usually says it with:] Oh my god, you jerk!

At least offer something in exchange for saying something embarrassing!

[She is... learning?]

[suddenlybees]

[ She's got to take it one step further! ]

Position of power, Nana-chan! You should be asking something of me, in exchange for saying something embarrassing!