[action!]

[deathisanopendoor]

[Wherever you may be—at home on your farm, out and about in town, exploring the wildlife, or perhaps even wandering through the more dangerous areas—someone has come to approach you, seemingly patrolling the area with a confident stride.]

Excuse me. I wanted to inform you that I have assumed the position of Sheriff. My name is Munakata, first name Kyousuke, and I can be contacted under that name at any time if you have issues that require police intervention. If you are capable of taking care of yourself I encourage you to apply for a position under me. We could use greater numbers to enforce order.

[Kyousuke himself is white-haired and imposing, with large snowy owl wings on his back and feathers covering the area where his right eye should be, like so. He is visibly carrying a sword, with another one tucked hidden in his coat in a compact state. He doesn't give off the impression that he's going to be a very easygoing Sheriff... but at least if you're in danger, that might be reassuring?]

Do you have any further questions or suggestions?

Comments

[whisted]

...yes. [But.] The ones who hand down the laws. To stop the rest of us from making chaos.

[rockyxiii]

Mind some loser tagging along?

[The benefit to being the same person is that he can casually insult both of them at the same time. Only he would find that a benefit.]

[rockyxiii]

Aah . . . maybe we oughta talk about it with them later . . .

[Yeah, later. Not here and now! And definitely this needs full fourway consent! He clears his throat, shooting one more look around to make sure they haven't been overheard.]

—You bad girl.

[ringrust]

...Jeez, it does take a real loser to invite someone out and then ask if they can go too.

[Look at his stupid scrunched up face, he's trying really hard not to laugh.]

Guess I have to let you come out of pity now.

[rockyxiii]

Yeah, that's what I was going for. Ultimate seduction technique.

[Look, even he's pretty embarrassed by all this, and aware he is digging this hole deep and he'd rather not be, so, he shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair. Awkward.]

Can't even ask myself out on a date. How'd I end up with anyone at all?

[ringrust]

[Oh god it was a date date. Is this second-hand embarrassment, or still technically first...? 1.5-hand embarrassment. Would this have been as painful for everyone involved if Mallory was the one asking? He doesn't want to think about that!!]

Maybe the pity thing worked in our favour after all. Maybe we should brush up on our charm after drinks.

[After, because he's going to need to have plenty of booze in him to not punch the wall and run away in shame.]

[rockyxiii]

Practice on me all you want, we can drink to forget it.

[If them being the same person didn't already make this kind of the weirdest date ever, before it even begins, it's only getting weirder, apparently.]

[rockyxiii]

Don't think you're gonna get invested, huh? . . . Do you miss Arden Grove?

[He falls back so the two of them can get going on their beat again. Not too far back, though. He's still hovering close, within easy touching range.]

[ringrust]

Except I don't have to try to seduce you.

[rockyxiii]

Worried I might distract you?

[ringrust]

Maybe, considering you'd have your pants off before I'm even halfway through a pickup line.

[alloutoflove]

[ She chokes a little at the comment. She can't help it. Usually he doesn't call her that except in private!!

She needs to defuse the situation, make it into something a little less dangerous flirtation. ]

Ehhh, does that mean I'm in trouble, Officer?

[ That was a mistake. ]

[rockyxiii]

You better watch out with that crap, or maybe I'll get on my knees right now. You never know with me, huh?

[rockyxiii]

You just can't resist making a crack like that . . . yeah, maybe you are. I'll punish you after hours tonight, how's that?

[They can't do this now!! Why is she like this! (As if he's not. And as if he doesn't love it.)]

[alloutoflove]

Y...you could. In fact. If you wanted.

[ She wants, and hopefully that's obvious in the way she blushes again, fidgeting where she stands. ]

[ringrust]

I think I know you better than anyone. You've been wanting an excuse to do it ever since that one night.

[At least, Mallory has. How can he forget making out and fondling scars under the stars? Good times.]

sorry for the wait!

[anappleaday]

[ those are promising reactions. she's still not exactly inspired to confidence by the entire concept of a police force, but... someone who recognizes that they can be overzealous and considers it a potential problem is miles better than someone without that self-awareness. ]

...Not to sound overdramatic, but "what haven't I seen" is perhaps the question with a shorter answer, at this point. But, for examples... on the smaller scale, an elderly woman bullied by a member of the police because she might know the location of a monster that had been sighted nearby.

On the larger...

[ mulling it over for a moment. how to even summarize that tangled mess... ]

I've seen someone beheaded for voicing concern over what was otherwise a consensus decision for how to handle a potential threat to our community, to prevent them from changing our minds or sabotaging our choice. ...They turned out to be right, too— not that it matters.

[deathisanopendoor]

...How many?

[Because when she looks like that and says she went a "little wild", for their standards, it sounds like they have 50 fish now. And that's probably okay but?!]

[deathisanopendoor]

Ah, that would be a great help. I don't have the time to properly scour the information available, myself, but it's of great interest for me to outsource that task. Please tell me your findings.

[rockyxiii]

I don't need an excuse, just an opportunity. Probably not while we're on the clock.

[But that's not for much longer, now, is it? That realization sinks in seconds after he says it. No, date first, then their reward. Their long-awaited reward . . . ]

[rockyxiii]

I'll—take care of that then. Part of my duty.

[Well, now he's got some plans for tonight to look forward to.]

[alloutoflove]

Only four.

But, um, they're kind of big... I don't know what to feed them regularly so I've been feeding them leftovers, so they're sort of getting kind of...

[ She gestures a little, vaguely. It's like a vaguely fish-shaped gesture, only maybe about the size of a large cat at this point. ]

I mean they might be getting too big for the pond right now. [ Oops. ]

[alloutoflove]

[ They both do now, that's becoming rapidly obvious. ]

Y... yeah! If you don't teach me, I'll keep causing you trouble, you know.

[deathisanopendoor]

[He could be surprised, and he is, by the size she's implying. But when you attend Hope's Peak, you become more numb to ridiculous circumstances. As someone who was in charge of helping to do damage control on whatever the students chose to do to the campus, and then someone who was giving orders in particularly high-stakes situations later in life, his mind skips over the period of shock to the period of problem-solving.]

—We could dig a new artificial pond, but we'd need to account for proper management of the water, and of course that would be taking land away from any other projects we may have had in mind. If we want to keep them, we'll need to consult about the proper standards and dimensions, and their proper upkeep, before starting the project. For the time being, don't feed them any more leftovers. Fish can survive for some time without food, and there are natural sources of food for them available. If they lose weight that way, perhaps we won't need to move them at all.

[Luckily, in his way, and in a way that is probably true in the DR universe and probably true here too, he believes that the lovely Ultimate Housekeeper's Ultimate home cooking could never be poisonous to the fish or their habitat in any way. The concern is purely spatial.]

i forgot to edit the subject line but i'm also late so

[deathisanopendoor]

[ His flat expression does twitch with dark amusement at her quip on "what haven't I seen". That's a promising reaction from his perspective, too; he couldn't even consider listening to her opinions on the matter if her point of view were too small-scale. That means he ends up looking almost approving through both of those examples, which isn't a reaction he ever thought he would have to news of a beheading. Eh, stranger things have happened. His face doesn't register any shock at the extreme. ]

I see. And in these situations, did you intervene, or is your position on these matters different in retrospect? What would you suggest as the best alternative courses of action for the police and for the community, considering their priorities at the time?

[ He sounds almost like he's putting her through a job interview—which he is, in a sense. It's not like there's a single right answer, but this is a demonstration of how much she's engaged with solutions for these problems. If she's never thought about things from that perspective before... Well, he'd still be interested in comparing outlooks with her, but just knowing what one shouldn't do isn't as helpful as having an insightful perspective on what one should do. The latter is what he'd find worth paying a consultation fee for. ]