Hunter Hunted PV Winnie

June 20h, 2021
Outfit:Dress

Winnie had never been the best at taking a hint, but she had lived most of her life in isolation and didn’t understand how to navigate her way through social formalities. Perhaps that was an understatement. Either way, she wasn’t entirely aware how inappropriate it was to seek the company of someone who had avoided you at every twist and turn. Someone who was definitely not interested in being your friend. It just happened that, so far, Winnie had enjoyed the company of everyone she had met through Ruka, so she really wanted to get to know Shimada better. Not only was he friend’s with her personal hero, but he was also probably dating Dee Prince, another person she admired.

She and Shimada were in the same year, so she had seen him during her classes with Hufflepuff, but they had never really interacted until the blossom ball. Regardless of how the ball ended, Winnie had really admired how beautifully it had been decorated and she could appreciate the time and effort that went into it. She wanted to tell Shimada as much, but he always seemed to leave whenever she was entering a room.

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She had not followed him to the lake that day. She had actually already been there by chance, having interacted with Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood earlier in the day. She was curled up underneath a tree; her legs folded carefully underneath the skirt of her pale green sundress. Her travel watercolour set was in her left hand, while she slowly slid her paintbrush across the surface of the cotton hot press paper with the right. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth as she concentrated. She was painting a little fox. His head tilted as he gazed off into the distance. She would need to allow the paint to dry before adding the finishing touches. She sighed softly as she laid her notebook down into her lap.

As she tilted her head back to rest it against the tree, her eyes caught the sight of a boy dipping his feet into the lake. Oh, it was Shimada enjoying the weather. She smiled softly to herself before she suddenly gasped and jumped into a standing position. He was far too close! What if a grindylow tried to pull him into the lake? It was likely fine, right? Ruka had told her they didn't actually do that, and it did sound like something her father would say to keep her from jumping into lakes... Perhaps if she stayed nearby the boy, she would be able to help him if anything were to happen? It was also a great opportunity to finally talk to him. She quickly leaned down to gather her watercolour supplies, pouring her water out and shoving whatever supplies she could into her satchel bag. She left the notebook open since the painting was still drying, and carefully carried it on top of her flattened palms.

"Hello, Mr. Shimada." She carefully greeted as she walked over to the Hufflepuff. She took a seat on the grass nearby and set her notebook in her lap again. She was still several feet from the lake, she didn't trust the dang grindylows. "Are you enjoying the sunshine as well? I came out here to paint."

Mister Shimada.

Mister Shimada was what the professors sometimes called him. Mister Shimada was how those English politicians greeted his father at work. Mister Shimada was not a boy on a beach a hundred thousand miles away. Mister Shimada wasn’t even what he expected to hear from the other students. He certainly hadn’t expected to hear it from Miss Winnie Harper. His impression of her indicated a girl who didn’t respect personal boundaries so why would a girl like that address him so formally? And honestly, how had she even found him? He pondered the situation silently, opening his eyes to cast his gaze across the dark waters of the lake. How deep must the lake be to hide an akkorokamui and an entire colony of ningyo. Possibly even some strange variation of hags that lived beneath the water’s surface. How far down could one swim before they found the bottom? Something broke the surface and Kazuo had a devilish thought. The long silence must surely have been unnerving, perhaps an indicator of his disinterest in her presence yet he had a suspicion that she would not see it that way. Let him see if he could trap a gullible girl.

“You ruined it.” He broke the silence with a heavy sigh and cryptic words, tone mournful. “She won’t come now.” He moved then, turning around to face Winnie. His eyes narrowed as he took another long silent moment to study her. Red hair… he remembered a time when it had fascinated him. When he had been deep in the dustiest corners of the library stacks, puzzling his way through a book and Jack Burnett had come across him. He had been fascinated by Jack’s hair. Now it seemed to him that there were more redheads at the school than any other hair colour. A plain green dress that had all the fashion aesthetic of a child - perhaps that was uncharitable. She was a child. It wasn’t entirely awful, simply not noteworthy. Average. Typical. Uninteresting. A satchel bag and a notebook. “It seems to me that the classrooms would provide a more practical place to paint. At the very least, a flat surface.” He observed in reply to her statement. “You seem to be lacking paints.”

He contemplated her question, wondering if he should even bother to answer. It was the sort of question that had all the markers of small talk, something he was skilled at when necessary but generally despised on a personal level. There was very little of interest to be learned from someone through small talk. “I was enjoying the peace.” He finally replied. “Is that why you are out here, koinu-chan(puppy-chan)? Enjoying the sunshine? Or the view?” His lips curved upward at just the edges, a hint of a smirk. “Or maybe you are hunting.” He mused, almost more to himself than to her though his gaze remained fixed, watching, waiting for a reaction.

@Winnie Harper

Interacting with: @Kazuo Shimada

June 20th, 2021 Outfit: Dress

Winnie’s brow quirked curiously at the boy’s comment. "Ruined it? Who isn’t coming?" She glanced around the area, as if this ‘someone’ would appear before her and tell her to leave. Had Kazuo meant Dee Prince? Was she meeting him by the lake? Was she interrupting a date between the two of them? Her cheeks burned a rosy hue at the thought. They had made such a lovely couple at the blossom ball. "If I’m interrupting I can leave." It didn’t really shake her that much. If someone didn’t want to be around her, they would surely tell her as much, right? "I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the decorations at the blossom ball. I know you had a hand in planning it, and I wanted to express my thanks and apologize for how things turned out."

She was about to push herself onto her feet when one of his comments caught her attention. Indoors? Mr. Shimada seemed like the studious type. If he didn’t have a favoured art form, maybe he didn’t understand that anything could provide inspiration, and how it often kept an artist on their toes. "As someone who just helped coordinate a Greek-themed ball, I imagine you understand how muses work. Classrooms can be terribly draining inspiration-wise. I always like to go outside to plan my painting first. I create a rough draft that I use at a later date to create a larger painting." She held up the notebook to show him the fox painting she had completed and then laid it carefully to the side. "I’m more careful when I create the finished product and I do use a flat surface. I usually prefer to stay inside the Ravenclaw common room and gaze up at stars on the ceiling. We also have a few art books available in our common room’s library that I also find to be a useful resource. I cannot, however, predict when inspiration will strike, so I always carry my travel kit with me."

Winnie’s brows furrowed at his comment about her lack of supplies. Did he... Did he not see her satchel bag sitting next to her? Was he simply teasing her? That was a fun type of back-and-forth thing that people did to communicate with each other, right? Her smile reappeared, and she decided she would also join in. "Well, there's this great thing, it’s called a bag." She chuckled and twisted to grab her leather satchel bag and hold it up. "It just so happens to hold a variety of things, such as..." She flipped the leather flap open and dug into the bag, grabbing a familiar shaped box. She would recognize it anywhere. She pulled out the Koi Sakura brand travel watercolour kit and winked playfully over at the Hufflepuff. "Tada! My paints." She dropped the box back into the bag and repositioned the satchel next to her.

"Koinu-chan?" Winnie repeated with a tilt of her head. What did that mean? Did the Hufflepuff have a nickname for her? Were they becoming friends?! "What view? The lake?" She smiled softly as her gaze panned across the sparkling lake, the calm water only interrupted by late spring's gentle breeze. "Yes. It puts me at ease and reminds me of home." She admitted, any sarcasm or hostility in Kazuo's voice going unnoticed as she took in a deep breath. Her voice almost carried a soft hum to it when she spoke, "I imagine that Japan must be beautiful, being surrounded by the ocean. Do you miss it?"

Winnie’s offer to leave caused his lips to twitch into an amused smile. “What is the point of leaving if I’ve already said she won’t come?” He asked, arching an eyebrow at her. “The ningyo isn’t coming. You call them mermaids. I’ve spent most of the year trying to befriend her. Ever since my friend Eirian and I snuck out onto the lake and spotted a glimpse of her. She won’t come when other people are around. She’s very shy.” There were small truths in the story he was spinning. “Have you been out on the lake? Seen AkkorokamuI? The squid, I mean? Or the ningyo?”

Another long pause followed his questions as he considered her compliment and apology combo. He waved a hand dismissively. “I wasn’t the only organizer.” He replied to the compliment. “But thank you, I am glad that you enjoyed it. Is there a particular reason you are apologizing for the unmannerly behaviour of other students? Or are you apologizing specifically for the part you played in the events?” His gaze shifted away and up, taking on a thoughtful expression as he recalled their first meeting if you could even call it that. He pressed his knuckle to his lips as he smirked. “I am not at all sorry about how things turned out.” He finished with a shrug, returning his gaze to Winnie.

She went on to talk about muses and inspiration and rough drafts. He watched her silently as she spoke, letting her go on about her chosen method of drawing. He was not at all unfamiliar with arts and her assumption that he would either need educating on or care about her particular desires earned her a snort. “Inspiration means nothing if you are incapable of acting on it and regardless of your motivation, a flat, hard surface is more often than not superior to trying to draw on your lap. In my experience, anyway.” He replied, prodding her back a bit. The truth was, shudo - Japanese calligraphy - was nearly impossible to do without a decent surface to work on. He watched her pull out her paint box, giving her a look of mild amusement as she attempted to tease him. “A bag, you say? Sounds like a Muggle artifact. Are you sure you’re allowed to have those here?” He asked with a perfect deadpan.

When she repeated the name he had given her with question in her tone he didn’t bother to explain it. When she asked ‘what view’ he arched a brow but bit back the urge to reply with a snatch of cutting sarcasm. Instead, he merely turned his gaze back to the dark, rippling waters. She was Irish like Ruka so he surmised she must live somewhere close to the coast. This lake might remind her of home but he couldn’t say the same. It was too different. Too cold, too rocky, too freshwater. “Japan is beautiful. The ocean is only a small part of that beauty.” He replied matter-of-factly. “Certainly more beautiful than anything I’ve seen here or in London.” He didn’t respond to her question. She had not earned the right to ask something personal like that and he had no interest in giving her an answer.