It's beginning to look a lot like shippy shenanigans...

[i_am_not_cute]

[It's sunny, snowless, and warm -- odd adjectives for a winter day in Luceti. But if the shifted Christmas decorations on all the buildings didn't tip someone off to the true season, certainly the sprigs of mistletoe popping up everywhere would.

At this point, Pao-Lin can practically draw a photographic image of the parasitic plant from memory; she's just seen so much of it. Such things happen when a girl makes it a point to zap any mistletoe she can spot as she goes for her usual run around the village. Though she doesn't harbor a hatred for the plant the way other Lucetians seem to do, it gives her a little more purpose in her days for the moment. It's kind of fun, in a way, like a game. One with awkward consequences if she loses, but by some stroke of luck she's managed to miss out on mistletoe misery thus far.

That being said, there is one person she wouldn't mind being stuck under the mistletoe with. But she hardly needs an excuse to kiss him.]

Comments

[i_am_not_cute]

Yeah, I guess so!

[No point in worrying about it too much, especially if Hubert says it's okay. If she's under a Shift, she'll probably find out soon enough, and she can deal with it then.]

So what're you up to? Are you busy right now?

[alacritous]

[Just like that, she drops her line of query. Pao-Lin is gullible, in that sense – and, normally, that would drive him over the moon – but the trust she puts in him similarly warms something in Hubert.

He shakes his head.]

As a matter of fact, I'd just finished my business for the day.

[It's still early, so he'll find something else to do. Because he's just built that way.]

1/2

[i_am_not_cute]

[Well, if Hubert's in need of something else to do, Pao-Lin has the perfect task for him.]

Good! Then you can help me find a present for Asbel.

[She turns and begins to walk off -- ]

2/2

[i_am_not_cute]

[ -- only to find that her feet seem glued to the ground. Her momentum carries her into an awkward flail, a hand lashing out to grab a hold of Hubert for support. Hopefully she doesn't end up clocking him in the face.]

[alacritous]

[A present for Asbel . . . yes, that –

She does end up clocking him in the face, even despite him stepping back on instinct. And Pao-Lin clocks hard, as if she were punishing his body for moving back instead of forth to support her. With a stifled cry, he stumbles, but it's like his feet are also glued to the ground, so he just ends up on his rear with his arms propping him up from behind.

Why. He's so confused.]

[i_am_not_cute]

A-ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean --

[Of course you didn't, Pao-Lin. This isn't a sparring match, after all. Either way, don't mind her sprawled questionably on top of Hubert.]