Virgo Campfire; Thursday Evening.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

When Cal returned to the cabin after having spent all day inside at work, he realized that he wasn't really feeling up to just killing more time in his alcove. He considered hitting up the gym, but his body made a surprisingly loud argument for something so silent, and that settled it, then. He stepped outside, set up a fire, and had himself a seat, lighting up a cigarette and taking slow drags from it. He stared into the fire, contemplating the standstill he was reaching in this endeavor. Step out for fresh air, and then pollute it straight away.

Ah, well.

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[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi was passing by and was about to say hi to Cal when she noticed the cigarette. "What is that?" she asked, gawking.

In her world, smoking pretty much disappeared in the mid-21st century.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal stared at Hoshi for a moment, and then shook his head, before taking another long drag. "I still can't get over," he said, throatily, speaking as he held the smoke in his lungs for a moment before letting it out in a long exhale before continuing, "how many people around here don't know what cigarettes are. I envy you guys."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"That's a cigarette?" asked Hoshi. "Don't you know how many people died from those before they were outlawed?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Outlawed?

Well, technically, it was outlawed for him to have them at his age, but he wasn't going to mesh with details.

"...I'm going to guess a lot," he guessed.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"I don't know the actual number off-hand," said Hoshi, thinking. And since the fifth Geneva Convention wouldn't happen for another two decades, there was no way she was going to find the total number in this time period.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Did they outlaw cars, too?" Cal asked sardonically. "Lot of people have died from cars, too. Oh. Or how about death? I hear that's a big life-taker."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi frowned. "Are you being sarcastic?" she asked.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal pressed his lips together for a second. "Nawwww," he said, fighting against a smirk as he shook his head a little.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi looked warily at Cal and the cigarette, but she sat down anyway. "I heard on the radio that you got a job in town," she said.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal grinned a little; as Hoshi went to sit down, he politely put the cigarette out on the log he was sitting on. Carefully, too. They weren't cheap, after all, so he didn't want to ruin it. He pulled his pack out of the inside pocket of his jacket, carefully tucking what remained back in for later. He slide the pack back as he got around to responding, "Yup. At Luke's, the diner."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

The saving of the cigarette caught Hoshi's attention, but she didn't react. "Cool. I work over at the hotel on Wednesdays," she said. "I don't think I've ever been to Luke's, though. They used to have weird guy running it."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal brightened quite a bit at that. "Was his name Luke?"

...Hoshi had no idea how eagerly he'd been awaiting the chance to ask that.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"No, I think his name was Yitzhak. He had a thing for sparkly wigs," said Hoshi. "The only Luke I knew of was a student who just graduated. I took his dad's Ethics class."

[intraspective]

Ino was a) freezing and b) soaking wet when she detoured to the nearest lit campfire and flung herself down in front of it.

What? Staving off a cold was totally secondary. And she felt better than she had for most of the week besides the whole wet thing.

She quirked at Cal. And at his cigarette. "Asuma-sensei does that," Ino informed him.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"You're wet," Cal informed Ino right back.

[intraspective]

"Well spotted," she said, wrinkling her nose at him. "Good to see your eyes are in working order. My brother took me flying."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"...Not good flying weather, I take it," Cal commented, taking in another drag and then tilting his head up before letting out the smoke slowly. "When you say flying, I imagine it could be anything from a helicopter to, I don't know, a broom or something, right?"

[intraspective]

"On a broom," she clarified, "and the weather wasn't too bad, but we decided," read: she'd decided, "that it'd be fun to try flying underwater."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"So, it really was a broom," Cal mused, shaking his head.

Oh, this place...

[intraspective]

She grinned. "He's going to make me a broom of my own, so I can fly without him 'cause he's the only one that can control his."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal considered what it might take to make a broom that flies.

"...Magic?" he guessed, if only because he had trouble imagining putting a jet engine on a broom.

[intraspective]

"Of course?" she glanced at him, amused. "What else would make a broom fly? Well, 'less someone was tossing them into the air, which is possible around here. Or if someone was using telekinetic powers... hmmm."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Or...really advanced jet engines."

[intraspective]

...

She tilted her head. "That's... a plane... thing, right?"

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal nodded. "Yup. It makes things go fast."