::Open RP - A's Garden::

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely day, really.

Even if the weather had been less than ideal, A would have gone to the garden. The plants needed to be tended, after all, and right now he's kneeling by the catnip bed, pulling out the few weeds that have dared to encroach on his territories.

Now that he has a computer with an internet connection, A is Discovering music, and he's singing, very badly, as he weeds.


"Everyday seems a little longer
Every way love's a little stronger
Come what may
Do you ever long for, true love from me"


He can't carry a tune, but there's an odd hiccuping tone to his voice that's a clear attempt to mimic Buddy Holly.

Comments

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Naomi had also noticed the fine weather, so she had her wand in a jacket pocket and some books under her arm, in search of a good study spot on the grounds. She doubted a spot near the singer would be particularly good for study per se, but she decided to look into it a bit before she resumed the search. If there was some dangerous magical creature that lured with music, after all, it would probably have a better voice.

On the way over, she spotted someone else. A few inches shorter than her, she noted, carrying weapons as well as books, maybe from the same place as Drizzt Do'Urden. As their paths converged Jezz nodded in acknowledgment, she nodded back, and they continued walking several feet apart, in silence, up to the edge of the garden.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A little more alert now, A notices two people approaching. He recognizes Jezz and smiles a little shyly, but he doesn't know the other; in fact, women in general are kind of new and strange to him.

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

"A." Jezz looked around the garden, managing to tamp down on any hint of his unreasonably disconcerted state. "This is yours?"

A second later Naomi said, somewhat awkwardly, "Hello."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"My garden, yes. It feels good to make things grow." His smile is hesitant but genuine.

To Naomi, his smile is a little more uncertain. "Hello."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Jezz nodded. "It's good to have yourself established." Trundling around the Underdark was not conducive to gardening. Nor was banditing around the Dalelands. Jezz hadn't exactly longed for agriculture, but he appreciated the potential meaning.

Naomi, meanwhile, was wondering. A - was he connected to L and B, or was it just a coincidental nickname? After puzzles like LABB and incidents like the busjacking, she was more inclined to doubt coincidence.

Jezz turned halfway toward her. "We all know his name, so why don't we make it even. Jezz Jaelre."

She nodded. "Naomi Misora."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" That was a name he recognized. "Ryuzaki knows you. He mentioned your name." He doesn't mention the Summer Christmas party, both because he's not sure if L is positive he wants to invite her, and because Jezz won't be invited.

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Ryuzaki. "Did he...? Which one?" She hadn't heard of B reusing the name but it wouldn't do to assume.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Which... one?" A tilted his head, clearly confused. He'd been dead before B used the alias. "I don't, there... only one, only..."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

"You see, I know two people who've used the name. In some ways one looks and acts something like the first, but in others..."

Jezz listened with some interest. Naomi, aware of this, kept her words oblique for the moment.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A's eyes widened at that, realizing who she meant. "No," he said, almost moaning. "They're not alike, no, no, not, not...." he shook his head, wringing his hands.

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Taken aback, Naomi lowered her voice. "No... of course not. It's all on the surface."

And not so much on the surface either, for her. Otherwise she might have had a heart attack when she saw L in the subway, well before he threw himself at her.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Not... he doesn't even... it's fake, it's all fake, mimicry won't, won't make him more, no, no, Backup isn't good enough, he's not, not..."

A was still crouching, almost hunched in on himself, but there was a faint defiant gleam in his eyes. How, how could she dare compare B to L!

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Jezz was looking at Naomi as if she was supposed to know something about this. She gave him a Look back.

B, the candidate to succeed L - was A another candidate? (Though what kind of name was Backup?)

"Of course not," she repeated. "Otherwise he wouldn't be a murderer, would he?"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"B," A whispers. Murder? Well, why not? B would do anything to keep himself amused. "He's filthy, he... he doesn't leave anything alone."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

"He has a lot of nerve." Showing up at the scene of his crime as an "unprivate detective" + walking her through the clues he'd planted himself (she recalled his vehement insistence on Akazukin Chacha's relevance) + attempting self-immolation = oodles and oodles of nerve if nothing else.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Not when he's outnumbered," A said, and giggled. The memory of torturing B always made him smile. "No, no, he pleads then, yes."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

Naomi blanched somewhat, unnerved despite herself. B had been well outnumbered in the courtroom, she remembered, but he hadn't pleaded. He'd sat there a sullen bandage-swathed wraith, giving everyone the creeps. What, she wondered, would make him plead?

"So you struck back," said Jezz, looking vicariously pleased, some of the dots connected in his mind. "Good for you."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A still looks distressed, but he smiles at Jezz with a touch of savagery. "Yes." As if he'd done it unaided, but he didn't see the point for going into detail. "And if I need to I will again."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

And now for something completely different! "You know about Kira, right?" On the slim off-chance L hadn't told him.

Jezz, who'd been smiling back, gave her another look that said damn it, I wanted details.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"That was..." Hadn't L mentioned that name? "That was someone who killed people, a lot of people."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

In other circumstances, maybe she would have figured that if L hadn't told A already he must have had a reason to. In these circumstances, she said "Yes. That's true. And I think you should know, Kira is also here. In this place. His name is Light Yagami."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I know," he told her. He'd pieced it together from what Ryuk had told him. "I don't like him."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

"So you do. Good." She didn't know about the piecing together, just that he knew more than his initial description might have suggested. "He says he doesn't remember any of it, but I'm not about to trust him twice. I would've been surprised if... Ryuzaki... hadn't told you himself, considering what he did to..."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"...what?" Despite the fact that he did it fairly often, A disliked it when people left sentences dangle. "He said it was good that I didn't like Light."

[misoramassacre.livejournal.com]

"That... that would make sense. I know I wouldn't be too happy if someone important to me-" Because at the least, she could figure out that L was important to A. "- made friends with the person who killed m-"

Her reasoning caught up and her mouth shut.

Please, she thought, let L just have not mentioned it to him through some brain blip. Happens to the best of us, world-class detectives included, right?