Cogs [Open]

        Winter was a time of snow, and for Mona, it's one of the better days of the year. What's that? Snow? Cold? Meaningless. For people like Mona, Winter is a time where she can simply bunker down inside her room, with her games and books, and watch cozily at everyone outside her window, laughing in poor idiots who would rather trample around snow and freeze their skin off. Now picture her expression as she is standing outside a closed market in the freezing cold, with the only things that are trying to keep her warm is her short leather coat, a orange wavy scarf, and puffy beanie.

    Normally, Mona wouldn't be out in this weather, instead, she MUCH rather prefer leaning on a heater, all safe and snug, but due to her poor planning and various other wastes of time, she ran out of her food supply (aka: snacks) that would've been all tucked away in her dorm room. The future hurts. Now as an insult to injury, the village's market just happened to be closed for "harsh weather". leaving Mona's journey as a waste of time.

        With her constant shivering, she sat on a bench, now pondering on what she was going to do now. Her first thought was to quickly return to the academy, but she really doesn't want to be left empty-handed. She thought about calling Halcyon to help her out, but he was busy with his teaching schedule today, and as much as she wants him to pick her up, his income for working here is the only thing keeping them afloat financially.

    The witch shivered in thought, still seated on the bench.

The pure, unadulterated whiteness of the winter and its cold breath was like paradise for Kyland. Well, as close to paradise as he could get, considering the demon living inside him. In wintertime, he could almost manage all the visions of fire. Walking on fire and slowly charring to death. Being burned alive at the stake. In the snow, some part of his brain processed that these were mere hallucinations, and made them slightly more bearable.  Thus, he made it a point to spend as much time outside as possible during the winter, so he could take advantage of the three-month respite. 

There was one downside to winter, though. Alastor tended to leech a lot more energy off of his host when it was cold, as demons were, by nature, creatures of fire. A wave of exhaustion washed over Kyland, and in his momentary fatigue, he collapsed onto a nearby bench without noticing there was already someone on it. He only became aware of the other person when he began to regain his energy--Alastor was feeding off of someone's displeasure. He swiped at his eyes, and when they opened, they burned a faint crimson color for just a fleeting moment before returning to their normal foggy amber color. Vision blurry, it took a moment before his mind fully processed what he was seeing. 

"What are you doing out here?" he asked brusquely. He hadn't expected anyone else to be around in such bitter weather, and he was a little irritated at having his peace disturbed.

     Mona felt a weight seating right next to her, and to her surprise, some scary-looking fellow was just looming over her, or so she thought. She still was trying to keep herself warm, so any nasty remark or insult that was going to come out of her was kept inside her mouth besides her breath. She already has a bad mood, so she decided to keep on looking forward. When he spoke, it only bothered her. She turned her head towards the scary-looking guy, now with a better look. He was tall, no doubt about it, and that relentless frown is annoyingly present. While Mona knew that she wasn't great at smiling, she thought this guy was one of those grumpy, no nonsense kind of people.

    So instead of ignoring the guy, she simply let her mouth loose, "How about you stop intimidating little girls and get your ugly frown away from me, you creep." She said it under her breath, but loud enough to be heard and to get her point across. she some how surprised herself when she realized she insulted some random stranger. Normally, she talks smack about someone if they deserve it, but she must have been in a bad mood. Well, shit. That's a nice thing to say, huh?, Mona thought to herself, now getting ready for some backlash for her sour attitude.

Alastor snickered in Ky's mind at his rudeness, making the boy's mouth twist slightly into an expression of displeasure. The moment the girl turned towards him and opened her mouth, he knew that this was going to be an ordeal. It wasn't that he was non-confrontational or a pacifist--quite the opposite, actually. But at the moment, he was sick of dealing with other voices, both in his head and out. "Refuge" included refuge from other humans, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. He was nearly amused at her brashness and temper (which almost matched his), especially considering the fact that she considered him an "ugly creep" and considered herself a "little girl". 

To be fair, it wasn't his fault if he had resting bitch face, but he wasn't about to try and placate her. "You're not exactly a 'little girl', and if you're intimidated, that's your problem, not mine," he snapped back, glaring at her. 

Aaactuallyy... the demon laughed in glee. 

"Shut the hell up," Kyland muttered under his breath, glancing upwards as if in an appeal to the gods. Of course, there were no gods--none that would help him, anyways.

    "How dare you?! I am like a maiden! I'm the definition of youth, unlike your wasteland of a face!" Mona really didn't mean to insult the guy, it was more of an impulse than a purposeful act. Still, Mono stopped herself from calling the guy a "melting pot of shit and semen," and instead took a deep breath, she didn't want to stack one problem with an additional one. "Look, I'm cold and I'm annoyed, alright? I'm not up for someone with a face of an ape to be in my space." And by distance, she meant the entire bench, but she didn't say anything about that. Instead, she just glared back, matching his.
    
    As a personal rule to Mona, if someone bothers her when she's annoyed, she will snap back. In her time, Mona learned that if someone is bothering you, it's either that they're a dick be default, don't trust you with anything, or they're having a bad time. She really didn't have any right to go on the aggressive, she knew that already. But by any means if she is going to turn this bad day into a decent one, then by all means, she will, even if a scary-looking boy is looking down at her.  

Kyland scoffed aloud at her claim of "maidenhood". That seemed like a ridiculously medieval notion, and from what little information he had garnered from all those years of public education, "maidens" were nowhere near as bitchy as this girl was. "Sure, if 'maiden' is synonymous with 'bitch', you're definitely a maiden," he answered mockingly. 

He almost--almost--felt sorry for his insult when she seemed to begin an apology, but the feeling quickly dissipated as she continued to speak. "This isn't your space. If you want isolation you should go back inside. And stay there and save us all from your absurdity." Her excuse that it was cold just pissed him off more--it wasn't as if he was immune to the cold, but he didn't start yelling at some random stranger without provocation. He hadn't even fallen onto her, which he could've understood her anger at. No, he'd sat down on a public bench (and he felt it was worth pointing out that he hadn't done it intentionally or consciously), and here she was, claiming some sort of ownership to this space.

    While Mona has no desire to inflict physical violence, at least not anymore, there are times where she decides that its for the greater good, and by greater good, she means for her own greater good. With the freezing cold, her waste of time, and now her agitated partner here, she was already beyond the boundaries of pleasantries. But somehow, Mona was keeping all bottled up.

    While there are a few leaks here and there, by the force of her very will, she managed to not slap this guy silly. Instead, she was going to handle this situation with almost care. It was simple really, Mona decided that she was going to apologize, yes, apologize to this unfortunate individual who happened to be in the vicinity of her moody state. After once all is forgiven, she will walk over by the restaurant to get something warm inside her before her eventual trip back to the academy, where she'll slide in a cozy blanket and warm up with some games. Yes, that was the plan, ingenious. After all, there is no one capable in the world to shake the iron will of Mona Sothfiann. She forced a smile while the guy blabbered on.

    Of course, when she heard the word "bitch" all of what was said, shattered.

    Once he was done speaking, Mona continued to smile a delightful smile as she stood up and said, "Oh, that's nice." where right after, she did an impressive kick to the guy's shin.

Kyland was almost impressed with the girl's self-control with keeping any ire under control. Of course, he knew it was just an act, and narrowed his eyes slightly in suspicion at her words. Alastor laughed at the girl's pathetic attempt at a physical attack--given the drastic difference in build and weight between the two individuals, the kick (though solid) had a minimal effect, especially because he was sitting. If he'd been standing, perhaps he would have at least moved backwards or moved his leg. As it was, he simply stood up and grabbed the girl's arm, twisting it outwards sharply, fingers wrapped tight enough to cause pain from the grip alone. 

"You really wanna get physical, 'little girl'? What happened to being a maiden?" he sneered. It would be a ridiculously terrible choice on her part, even if she had offensive-type powers. Ky could just tackle her and cause a fair amount of damage without the use of any magic. Then again, if she did have magic that would allow her to attack him, then he was in a precarious position. His incensed expression gave none of this away, only portraying pure fury.

    The kick did barely anything, and to Mona's chagrin, the guy didn't even flinch. Instead, he stood up and grabbed poor Mona's arm. "H-hey, now yo-," she started before her opposed twisted her arm, which made her screech in pain. Mona was voicing her discomfort with "EHOOOO" and "OWOWOWOWOW"'s into the air. her face twisted into one of that wasn't really experiencing a sense of comfort at all. The witch saw that her opponent wasn't in the mood for bullshit, and now she was suffering for it. Oh no, is this the end of Mona?!

    Mona gripped her oppressed arm and lowered her head in agony, where she hid her face away from her tormentor. She squeals of pain continued to bellow out, as her arm was suffering from pain, well, would if she didn't harden her arms before she kicked the guy. It was all going according to plan. Mona, being the most brilliant mind that she thinks she is, morphed her arms into mechanical ones before she kicked the guy. With an evil grin hidden from sight, she continued to cry out in pain.

    Mona then rose her head back up with her grin still intact, and with a glint in her eye as she didn't waste any time uppercutting the guy with a fist of steel.