The Devil's Workshop [semi-private]

[Deleted]

It was cloudy outside, and the air was tense and moist as the world prepared for the coming storm. It had been especially gloomy lately, to the delight of some and the dismay of homst. The wind rose and fell in brisk howls, carrying the scent of rain with it and making the buildings sing songs that sounded like the wails of the damned. Looking out the window, Sachiko could see the rain falling further away in dark slanted sheets. She didn't much relish it coming this way...she hated rain. She hated snow. She hated sunny days too, actually. It was a pretty accurate thing to say that Sachiko hated any weather or time of day that wasn't a cool night. She tapped her fingernail impatiently on the side of her cup. The tea inside had heated the ceramic until her fingers began to tingle and burn, but she held on anyway.

"Bored."

Sachiko disliked lulls in work, in activity. She tended to be a very one-track mind and had become quite the workaholic in recent years, and so she found herself going mad when she had nothing to do. She had spent the last week or so in heaven tackling her work and that of a pregnant colleague, but now both stashes had run out, and the work was so evenly divided that no one else was willing to share. Her supervisor had just smiled at her and told her to take a little break. "You deserve it," he had said. "You've been working especially hard lately." Did he not understand that that wasn't the point? What was the point of working if you were just working so that you didn't have to work? She had no paperwork to take care of, no missions to go on, and yet she was in the most hard-working, in her opinion, of the divisions! Nanao-sama would understand, she decided, but she was not so presumptuous as to go and complain of idle hands to her Captain, no matter how close they were or how maddening it was.

But she had basically been dismissed, and so was stuck here, sitting alone at a table with a cup of tea she wasn't going to drink and waiting for the rain to come. When she'd first come in, the room was full of people on break, and so she'd managed to get a bit of a kick off of their high, but now most of them had left. It was only her and a couple in the corner, and they were all perfectly content to ignore each other. Boredom began to eat at her, though due to the activities of her companions, she was not suffering in silence. But eventually, even the sounds of their arduous activity began to get on her nerves. She tried to hang on as long as she could, but what felt like hours to her was in fact only three minutes to everyone else. When her patience ran out, she took a sip of her tea, almost spat it out when it scalded her tongue, and got up, leaving the cup there for someone else to take.

She almost slammed the door behind her, her restlessness manifesting as aggression. She didn't walk...she stalked the halls, content to wander around looking lost, angry and aimless until someone stumbled upon her and gave her something to do. She even began to walk in and out of rooms, standing in or beside the doorway with her arms crossed, watching people work for as long as she could before turning and leaving again. She was about two corridors away from breaking walls (quite literally...in two corridors she would come to the offices that weren't used at the moment due to some kind of accident). Yes, boredom drove Sachiko crazy.

words: 639
tags: yama, open
muse: poison

[Kurosawa Ryou]

There was a certian young Shinigami who unlike his bored superior, had a quite a bit to do. In fact Ryou was doing it, though like he always did... it was his own certian flair. He had especially been keeping himself busy since the recent indicent that had almost gotten him in trouble. Kurosawa was simply keeping his mind occupied, and also letting his normally odd nature come out in other ways. Which it certianly did at the moment that he was walking along the roof, and signing off on some papers that he had received earlier. If there was one thing about the 4th seat that you could count on, he was willing to do whatever peice of work you handed him... meaning that paper work was never a bad thing. Especially because the young Shinigami was kind of nit picky sometimes, and so he just took things in a manner that said 'If you want somthing done right, then do it yourself.' It was the reason that he had chosen Nanao-sama's Division. The Mistress had always understood the value of hard work, and that was somthing that Ryou had always been thankful for, since he knew that he wouldn't gotten anywere without that. Around that time he was nearing the dining room, and was actually expecting to get his afternoon tea. The young man wondered if maybe there would be someone whom he could share it with? As the 'Mad Dog' passed by a window he looked out and could see some rain in the distance, which made a Cheshire like grin cross over his face.

The raven haired male loved the rain. Just standing outside, and letting it pour down all over him. In a way it seemed that it was symbolically washing away all the problems that the world brought him. That feeling of liquid on his skin was always the best one. He realized that he might need a break later on during the day to step outside. So turning himself over the male landed down on the floor gingerly, to step into the dinning area, around the time Sachiko was leaving. Of course it took the the 'Mad Puppeteer' a few seconds to notice her, though when he did his eyes gleamed... and he was about to try and get her attention. Until he noticed that there was an abandon cup of tea which sat at a table, the sight of which made him lick his lips. Recently he had had get ahold of tea the normal way... and not with his usal tricks like he had done in the past. The young man still had a desire to follow after Sachiko though, especially since she seemed to be in a bad mood. Kurosawa didn't like to see Sachiko-chan in a bad mood.... She was someone that he liked... not as much as his Mistresses, but it was pretty close. So with the thought in mind that he would need to cacth up to her, before she damage anything the young Shinigami skipped on over and first drank down Sachiko's tea, before leaving the area. He stared floating again right outside, though the way Kurosawa was doing it now.... made him seem plain lazy... since it was a combination of him laying down... or on his belly.

Like always though, the man was pretty good about it. Staying near the ceiling so that no one else was distrubed. All the young man had to do in order to find the 3rd seat was follow after the various sounds of slammed doors, and complete annoyance. The site of it had him cackling in his normal manner the entire way, though if Sachiko looked back she wouldn't seem. Kurosawa always made sure to stay a corridor behind. Well at least until he was quite sure that her fustration levels were probably at a point were someone would need to come in and put them in check. Which was exactlly what Ryou planned to do, but he wasn't sure how. Well... there was one way... and the very idea of doing that to Sachiko made him grin in a manner that could only be discribed as creepy. So the male landed on the floor and speed up his movements slightly to cacth up with Sachiko. Closing the distance, the younger Shinigami said with a grin on his face, "Ssssachiko-ssama... how are you feeling today?" In the time differnace bettewen when he said her name and the rest of the sentance, the Shinigami suddenly wrapped his arms around her for a suprise hug.

[Deleted]

The storm grew closer, and she paused to look out a window and curse at it before moving on. There was no thunder, but she could already hear the rain falling on roofs not too far off. She hated rain. She blamed it now for her restlessness, among other things. She never felt quite at ease when there was a storm; old habits died hard, she knew, but this one was going to kill someone. She sought desperately to find something in her head to occupy herself, but no avail. Thinking of work only made her want, remembering the past only made her feel worse, and she hadn't a single mystery at the moment she could try to solve. No, she was left quite on her own here, and that was the worst hand the world could deal her.

"Give me a Hollow any day."

Now, Sachiko wasn't stupid, nor was she ignorant, nor was she out of practice. In her distracted state of mind, however, she might not have paid attention to the fact that there was someone behind her, and she certainly didn't find the information pertinent. There were plenty of people in the Division, after all. (Or so one could justify; the truth of the matter was, she wasn't really paying attention.) She ignored the voice in her head that suggested that maybe she should turn around. The faint cackling might also have given away her pursuer, but here she was perfectly safe, and so she ignored all the signs in lieu of taking her annoyance-turned-anger out on the rest of the Division.

There were fewer occupied rooms to walk in now, but the sight of every empty room only made her more upset. She growled under her breath at this newest one, the door letting out a none-too-healthy crack as she slammed it closed.

Sachiko might not have been paying attention to her pursuer, but something did go off in her head when she heard footsteps, and the voice finally rang out to inform her that perhaps she should turn around. A very different voice echoed and reinforced the sentiment, but she spun directly into the arms of a man she almost immediately recognized.

Recognition or no, old habits did die rather hard, and Sachiko's first instinct upon finding a person flying towards her was to lash out. Not too hard, because logic dictated this wasn't an enemy, but logic didn't control her. Her hand, loosely balled into a fist, flew out to strike at the stomach of the man who had draped himself over her.

Whether she hit or not, she stumbled back in the same breath, simultaneously grasping at the distraction and groaning at who had provided it for her. She didn't know Kurosawa well, but one hardly needed to. Much like her, word of his behavior had a way of...getting around. And, much like she had been (and occasionally still was), he was one of those people that you tended to stray away from.

"Kurosawa-san..." she muttered, her voice low and annoyed. "What are you doing?"

words: 520
tags: yama, open
muse: poison

[Kurosawa Ryou]

Unlike his superior Kurosawa was certian having a bit better time. With the rainstorm that seemed to be coming this way, he was sure that he would get some time outside. The Shinigami quickly found his frantic mind reflecting itself towards another target, at the sight of his dear Sachiko-sama. Walking down the hallway with that angery look about her. He couldn't help, but laugh as he followed along by floating through the air in his ususal off key manner. Though Ryou was moving a bit faster than normal since he did want to make sure to cacth up the 3rd seat before she got really angry and decided to break somthing. Which was somthing that one did have to worry about from time to time. Plus he just wanted to check on her and make sure that she was alright... and that even gave him a chance to play a little game with her in the process, which actually only made things more fun. So following her down the halls, the male ignored one or two more offers for more paperwork... since techinally it wasn't his to do anyway. The Shinigami knew he could get away with not doing it, and plus having a broken wall would probably be an even worse problem... than some slighty late paper work.

As the younger Shinigami closed the distance bettewen the two of them to give his friend a hug, he could not help the Cheshire like grin that spread across his face. As he said her name and wrapped his arms around her, the male didn't exactlly expect to be embraced back, but he didn't expect to have the wind knocked out of him ethier. Her punch was quite sudden, but the 4th seat had known Sachiko engough to be sure that she was not exactlly a person who enjoyed a random hug. At the same time though, she would find that hitting Ryou... wasn't really much of a discourgement ethier. There was no attempt to dogde by the younger Shinigami, but instead he just grabbed hold of her wrist. That face which was covered by a curtian of hair turned to look up at her. His voice held a certian breathlessness to it that showed she had knocked the wind of out of him, but he didn't seem hurt by the blow. It had more to do with Ryou's high tolerance for pain, and masochist tendanceys that his own Zanpakuto had imparted on him. The grip with which he held her wrist was unusally tight as he said in a playful manner, "Now now... Sssachiko-sssama... I think someone ssshould calm down before they hurt somebody." He then let go of her wrist so she could back as the more creepier version of his laugh trickled through, "Besides you need to do a bit better than that if you going to ssset a good example to the ressst of the pack on how to throw a punch."

If there was one thing Ryou liked to do sometimes, it was find out things about people and pick at them. Not in mean spirited way, but it was just how he was. He contiuned to stare her without really answering the question, just standing there and staring... wondering if she would even appericate the fact someone came to ask what was wrong. "Well really Sssachiko-sssama I was just checking on you. Since I sssaw you storming through the halls, I consssidered it might be wissse to find out if there was somthing I could do for you? Since it really is not good to remain stressed out for so long." It was a rare thing to here Ryou geninuely concerned about someone, and this ususally only happened when it had to do with someone he cared about.

[Deleted]

Now, Sachiko had hit what she considered a fair amount of people in her lifetime, and thus has recieved a whole host of reactions to the act, some of which were more enjoyable than others. But this was probably among the most...shuddering-inducing, which was more attributed to who was doing than the reacting than the reaction itself. Sachiko growled slightly under her breath at the cold fingers around her wrist, but was torn between the desire to pull away and the desire to push. Both were impeded by the extremely tight hold of his fingers. It was just tight enough to be uncomfortable, but not quite tight enough to illicit another violent response.

She stumbled back gratefully when he let her go, and she grabbed her wrist, rubbing it in indignation. There were faint red marks on her skin where he had held her, and she attempted to rub them back to their proper coloring.

Ryou's first sentence was ignored, because he simply parroted the voices already sounding off in her head, the voices she had been perfectly content to ignore for the past hour or so. The second statement however...it irked her. "The pack" he spoke of was not only mostly empty, but also something that was none of his business to know, speak, or think about. How he even knew that was what she called it was something she didn't even want to think about, considering she was fairly certain she had only mentioned it to Nanao a few times, and she was sure the woman wouldn't have betrayed their trust.

"I wasn't trying to throw a good punch," she finally answered, her hands dropping to her side. "I was brushing off vermin." An insult used in the heat of an angry moment...or perhaps it wasn't. She would have to come back to this moment later when she was in a slightly better mood.

Ryou's hissing drawl put Sachiko on edge and a chill or shiver ran up her spine. Her sometimes inconvenient devotion to honesty manipulated her thoughts so that she couldn't even try very hard to like Ryou. He was creepy and odd, and while she appreciated an oddity just as much as the next person...his odd was the kind she tended to avoid.

"Well...your concern is appreciated," she replied, absently rubbing her wrist again, "but seeing as these halls were due for renovation anyway, I would say I'm doing a service." His offer brought a brief smirk to her face that she wiped off for the sake of...well, nothing, really. "And unless you are offering your services as a punching bag, I don't think there is much you can do to help me."

words: 453
tags: yama, open
muse: poison