Stake out time (Open later)

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

Setsuna felt it had been enough time for Duck to get settled in, and he was bored, yet again, so the day was deemed perfect for a special stake out attempt. He honestly didn't think they'd find anything, but it would be worth it to try. And still, one could never know.

He left a note for Kira, Sara and Katou to let them know he would be out with a friend and not to worry, then composed a letter to Duck, and another to Cayce.


Duck,

You doing well? Settled in, I hope?

Anyhow, I thought today would be a good day to stake out the mail boxes. I'm gonna send out a letter to Cayce for her to write me back, but not too soon. To wait an hour or so. Then we'll stake out the area near my mailbox. If we don't see anyone by evening, we'll check the mailbox.

I'll even take a pen and write replies from the mailbox if I have to.

You can find me over at Tomorrowland. Do you know where that is? I live at the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience theatre with Kira, Katou and Sara.

See you then.

- Setsuna



Cayce,

Wish I could say I was writing to find out what's going on in your life around here, but...that's not it, though I would like to know.

That aside, Duck and I are going to stake out the mailboxes to see if anyone ever makes deliveries, so if you could just hold off a response for an hour or so? Maybe even two? That would be great. We should be set up by then.

Thanks!

-Setsuna


That done, Setsuna sent off the letters, then waited in front of the theatre.

[ooc: Anyone is welcome to come along and ask what the heck they think they're doing. XD They'll just shush you and try to make you hide with them. Or you could talk sense into them?]

Comments

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"O-oh, yeah." Duck gave a nervous little laugh and waved her hand. "This, um. Happens. A lot. I'm really pretty clumsy, especially for a ballerina. But I'll get better!" She jumped to her feet and adopted a very determined stance. "I'll be a better ballerina, I know it! I should never give up and say 'I can't do anything' because it simply isn't true! ... Sorry," she added after a pause. "I, um, got a bit carried away."

She looked down at the bag she'd packed with any food she'd been able to recognise that was travel-friendly. Duck gingerly took a peek inside and sighed. "Not much of it. Sorry, Setsuna. I can go hunt for something else to eat while you guard the mailbox. Or would you prefer me to guard while you hunt? I'm fine with either, but I should do the one you don't want to do, because it's my fault for spoiling the picnic."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"I'm a little clumsy too, but...yeah, not that bad," he admitted. Setsuna had been about to help her up, but since she got herself up, he just grinned. To her getting carried away, Setsuna shook his head. "Nah, it's fine. Actually, your attitude towards it is how more people should be, but aren't. Everyone should keep trying to improve and not giving up no matter what anyone says."

He laughed. "Tell you what. I told Cayce to wait for a while, and there's a place with food near here. You want to go together?" he asked her. "Then if we take too long, I'll just send you back and keep getting food. If we come back and Cayce has already responded I can just write back to her. No problem."

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"I almost gave up, before," Duck said softly. "Did, really. But I realised I couldn't give up no matter what, whatever happens, because there are people depending on me. Like there are people depending on us to find out the secret of the invisible postman!" She smiled, cheerful and sunny and quite unaware this whole thing wasn't really as dramatic as she was making it sound.

She nodded. "Okay!" She took a few steps, then stopped and turned back to Setsuna with a sheepish look. "Um. Now? And, um. Where?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

Again, Setsuna laughed. "Well, I don't think it's quite like that, but I'm sure someone must be curious other than us. And if we find out anything, it might help us."

"Yeah, now. Before it gets any later," Setsuna told her, then pointed to the closest restaurant. "And there. Come on, let's go."

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"And if it helps us it'll help everyone here, right?" Duck smiled. "That'll be worth some of our time."

She followed his finger, nodded once, and set off at a brisk walk towards the restaurant, taking extra care not to fall over anything. "How long have you been here, Setsuna?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully," Setsuna said with a shrug. "But we might not find anything at all. But we'll just have to hope we do."

Setsuna noticed she was being careful and grinned, also keeping an eye on her, but since he wasn't watching out for himself, he ended up tripping this time.

With a huff from the ground, he groaned, then got up and answered her question with, "Probably a year and a half? I think. It's hard to tell. Might even be longer. I know when the Halloween decorations come back it's been a little over two years."

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"Ah!" Duck was at his side immediately, forehead creased with worry. "You okay? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" She laughed, not cruelly, just one of her usual happy giggles. "Sorry. Guess my clumsiness could be catching."

Her eyes widened. "Two years? Wow... It must be really hard, being trapped here for so long."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Haha!!!" Setsuna laughed when Duck asked if he was okay. "Yeah, I'm all right. Don't worry. Like I said, I'm a little clumsy too. I just haven't tripped...in a long time." He was about to say clumsiness couldn't be catching, but decided to run with what he just said. "Yeah, like the common cold. And I'm not hurt, no."

He nodded to the two years, then opened the door to the restaurant, which was the pizza one, in fact. "Yeah. It drives me kinda crazy sometimes. I really want out, but oh well. Grab yourself some slices. Or whatever you want." He quickly grabbed a few for himself, and some napkins.

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"I managed to go three hours without being clumsy once," Duck said, fairly wistfully. "But then I ran into a window, so it didn't really last."

Luckily, pizza was one thing Duck did have in her world, and so there was no initial confusion as to what exactly she was eating. She made a beeline for some bread rolls and pineapple pizza, saying as she did so, "I don't understand why anyone would want to trap people here. Unless it's accidental. Maybe they don't really know what they're doing, or what they did, and they're trying really hard to find a way to send everyone home. Maybe," she waved a hand at all the food, "this is like their way of making sure we're at least a little happy while we're stuck here as they try to find a way to change whatever they've done."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

Three hours? Setsuna, of course,laughed heartily at that too. She was adorable. "I hope...nothing bad happened with the window?" he asked worriedly, but was still a bit amused.

He listened to her about the trapping people stuff and nodded with agreement. "Well, I don't understand why someone like that writer guy you were telling me about would tell people to play certain roles. I think, if someone's trapped here, they don't think like I do." But, Duck had a good point. "But yeah, they do try to make sure we're happy, I think. But I doubt this was an accident." But they didn't want people to die, or age, or get severely hurt.

"There are worse places to be, though. You got your stuff?" he asked, ready to head out. "We can eat -" he was about to say when they walked but thought of Duck choking and changed that to, "- when we get back to the mailboxes."

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

Duck shook her head. "Mr Cat made me stay after school and clean it, but that happens every day, so it wasn't so bad." She wasn't insulted by his laughter; she'd suffered worse at the hands of Pike and Lilie.

"I don't get it either," Duck said softly. "He really seems to want the story to end in tragedy. But I don't want that at all, because that would mean my friends would be sad and I'd never get to see Mytho's smile. I guess there's just some ways of thinking people like us will never ever get." She tilted her head to one side and continued, "And you never can tell what's an accident and what's not. Sometimes what seems to be on purpose really was just an accident."

She nodded and held up her plate, which was admittedly mostly bread. Duck liked bread. "Okay! I really hope I don't drop this..."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"...." Setsuna shook his head. "Well, at least you were used to cleaning, I guess." There was a bit more laughter, but then he was right back on the different ways of thinking.

"Yeah, see, I wouldn't want it to end badly. So I don't think we'll understand either. Not in this case, not without more information about the person," Setsuna added, realizing he might be able to figure it out if he knew the person better. He started out and once again shook his head. "No.... Us being here.... How the place is prepared for people? That's not an accident. This place was meant to be filled up. Maybe the people aren't specifically chosen and it's just luck who gets thrown in here, but no.... It's no accident we're here." At least, it didn't feel like one to Setsuna, and until proven otherwise, he was going to keep believing as he did.

He noticed the bread then and looked at her wide-eyed. "You know, maybe I should help you."

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"I'll do my best to stop it from ending badly," Duck said determinedly, and it was quite evident that she really would. These were not empty words. Duck would do everything in her power, no matter how small that power was, to bring a happy ending to the tale of Prince Mytho.

"Or maybe," Duck countered, "the bringing people here was the accident, and everything else just sort of... shaped around it. I'm not arguing," she added hastily, "I'm just trying to think of other options. Maybe one of them will turn out to be the right one."

Again, Setsuna got one of Duck's sheepish smiles. "Would you? I'm sorry for being troublesome, but, well, you've seen how clumsy I can be..."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Good," Setsuna told her. "And maybe one day I'll get to read your story with it's happy ending. And I'll get my happy ending too." He was happy to think of it, but then added, "After we get out of here, that is."

Duck did have a point with what she said, but Setsuna couldn't shake the feeling he had. He wasn't always right about thees things either, but this time.... "You might be right. We weren't the first ones here, so it might've worked that way in the beginning. But things don't just form or happen now. It seems set up.... This place is just so weird, and I really just want out."

When she asked him if he would, Setsuna nodded his head. "Yeah, it's okay. You're not really troublesome, and this is better than it ending up in the dirt." He took the plate carefully, and balanced it on top of his own, then held the whole thing close to his body as he walked carefully this time and watched where he was going.

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

"I hope you'll like my story," Duck said thoughtfully. "It's pretty interesting, if you ask me. Of course I'd say that because I'm one of the main characters, but I mean it. Rue and Mytho and Fakir, and Miss Edel, and Uzura, and Pike and Lilie, and everyone else are really good people. I'm sure you'll like reading about them. I hope I get to read your happy ending too, or at least hear about it." Though true that Duck was inclined to think the best of people (well, unless they were really mean), there were some she was utterly certain about, and she was quite sure that Setsuna was a good person, and someone like that ought to get their happy ending.

She smiled softly, encouragingly, and touched his arm lightly. "We'll find a way out. I know it."

Duck swiped two of the top bread rolls, as they looked in danger of falling off, and ever so sneakily munched on one as she followed Setsuna back to their target. "Thank you," she said politely, as good manners ingrained into Duck.

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"I bet I will," Setsuna said, positive. "With you in it, it's gotta be funny. And I like laughing." He was also certain Duck was a very good person, and she deserved a happy ending as well. In fact, no, it was obvious she was a very pure-hearted, innocent person, and he...wanted to protect her, much like he felt with Rukia or Kurai.

When she said they'd find a way out, he nodded his head. "I know. We just have to keep looking." And that, they would.

He saw her take the bread rolls - eating, the thing he had been worried about - and playfully teased her with, "Don't choke. And you're welcome."

Thankfully, they were already back at the spot and now could go back to waiting for a return from Cayce. Problem was...they'd miss the delivery of the Tinkerbell postcard (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/296127.html?thread=17061823#t17061823). Setsuna wrote back to Cayce in hopes she would write back as well, otherwise...this would never happen.

"We'll just wait for a return," he told Duck as settled in and started to much away at his pizza.



[[Pick up on that thread down there? And then other people can come in too?]]

[duck-lake.livejournal.com]

((Okey-dokey-zura!))