there are worse ways to meet

[allsongs]

Date & Time: 8/30
Location: unit 309
Characters: Naoto, Simmaeri
Summary: The latter finally gets to her designated room. It's occupied.
Warnings: Underwear.



There was no mistaking it: the markings on that little card the greeter gave her were exact matches to the ones on the door before her. The room had finally been found. Simmaeri had notion of such a place for a while now, but...it really wasn't important. Thousands of years, never ill, even when chilled to the bone, made the direness of shelter very much less so. Besides, a room meant isolation, and there was nothing to be learned in silence.

Not nothing, actually, but...nothing Simmaeri was all too interested in. What was a faucet or an electric kettle to the nuance of a strange, new language? There was no contest for her.

Yet even so. She had the key – why not use it?

Because it was hardly a key in her mind, for one. What did she have to do? Wave it? Say a word?

It took a while, waiting for other tenants to pass by and give her an example to follow, but the time did indeed come to pass, and Simmaeri gently pushed the door open to slip inside.

It was a lived-in place, that was certain; a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar.

And a sound...

Comments

[allsongs]

At the question, Simmaeri turned, her attention completely dropping away from the room itself and back to the girl she'd intruded on. She had been flustered, certainly, but appeared to have quite the quick recovery. An admirable trait of the young – had Simmaeri walked in on someone older, no doubt there'd be a long tirade, all full of fresh, new words and insults.

Actually...thinking about it, Simmaeri thought she wouldn't mind that so much, despite offending someone. A harmless mistake gaining her more insight into the language wasn't the worst way to learn...

But back to the moment at hand. Simmaeri, her expression placid, yet interested, began to trace a faint smile on her lips. You, help? Well, yes. There was always need for a little help these days, it seemed, but it hardly mattered to her. The cadence of the words, the young tone...Simmaeri let the question float off unanswered, but hardly unheard. Instead, she settled a hand over her heart, her head bowing forward just slightly.

"I am sorry," she said, impressing each sound with great care to insist a true apology. Her hand moved, gesturing toward the room left behind them. "That, there."

[rota]

Naoto's eyes followed the hand's motion for only a second, but it was really more of a reflex than anything, as she already knew what the woman had meant the moment she said "sorry".

She shook her head in reply and tucked her gun at the back of her trousers (unsafe, really, but she made sure it wouldn't suddenly fire on her). No harm, no foul, as some tended to say-- besides, her reaction would have been so much worse if she had still been pretending to be male, and because she'd become more comfortable in her own skin now, it was surprisingly easy to brush off the mistake.

"It's fine. I understand it can be disorienting when you're new. I can help, if you want."

[allsongs]

Simmaeri didn't register any passing thought of threat from the gesture of holstering a gun – couldn't, really; she had no idea what it was. Moreover, her eyes were fixated on the girl's face, watching for the clues an expression gave to the meaning of sounds and words. Where none (or not enough) came, her gaze flickered away to the shifting of weight, a gesture, or a move – too late to think about that gun being put away, unfortunately.

I can help. Simmaeri's eyes lifted back up, quietly scanning the face. Not an unkind one, though not the warmest. Understandable. Yet if it were any trouble to offer help, why say so at all? Simmaeri was not the sort to refuse something freely given if it were in her interest. And help...well, help learning? That was high on her interests.

"Yes," she said nodding. Her fingers moved, remembering the key card in her hand once again, and lifted it up, offering it to the girl. "This. What is?"

[rota]

"... Ah." Right, some people were from completely different worlds and had completely different cultures, and not every Transport would have had the same kind of knowledge or experience that she had with certain types of technology. Naoto could only be glad that she'd landed in a place that she could understand the basics of easily, instead of some place so different that everything she knew would not have been useful.

"That is a key card. It is this world's version of keys. You use it to open doors such as our rooms," Naoto added for more emphasis. "As mechanical locks are easy to pick, these cards are the only way to open keycard locks such as the one you've surely encountered while entering this living area."

[allsongs]

That is a key card.

Still in-hand, Simmaeri drew the item back toward her, scanning it carefully, turning it over. Key card. For doors and rooms. It made sense, fit better into place in the context of its use. Having the name clicked it solidly there.

She nodded, accepting this.

"This key card," she said, holding it at an angle to expose the markings. She pointed at the numbers, tapping the surface lightly, before pointing to the entryway of the apartment. "That door." She traced one of the numbers. It's the same.

[rota]

A woman of little words, she noted. It didn't bother her-- in fact, she was glad to not have a roommate that was loud and noisy, and it was a small mercy.

"Yes, it is. And like a key, it will only open that door." Unless there was something else Naoto didn't know, but she wasn't about to impose that thought on someone who was obviously unused to such technology. "So you should not lose it, otherwise you would have problems coming in."

[allsongs]

Simmaeri responded with a thoughtful note, held in a hum. So the keys of this world were a different make...why not? Much was different. Much was not, however; her eyes lifted back to the girl, considering.

She smiled.

"You help," she said. "Thank you."