paradisalogs | I trust you're well rested...

Who: Altaïr ibn La-Ahad &: Maria Thorpe, Sheena Fujibayashi
What: Altaïr refuses to use his room even during the cold, but not for long. Later, he gets hit by snowballs.
When: June 13-14 (backdated like whoa)
Where: Castle stables, the duck pond
Rating: PG i think

He'd camped out on roofs for dislike of the Castle, even if its power drew him to wander its grounds and halls more often than was necessary. He didn't use his assigned room at all, for fear of being ambushed or having his identity discovered. He used the Castle's amenities only as much as he needed. He wasn't anti-magic, but he didn't trust the Castle to do anything but materialize some cloaks and blankets out of his wardrobe.

With the cold setting in, Altaïr was presented with an obstacle he hadn't had to face here yet. On the first snow-covered night, he bundled up and hunkered down in the stables next to his favorite horse. (Making friends with the horses was good Assassin training, of course.) The Castle had fine stables, and they were marginally warmer than outdoors. If anyone was after an early morning ride, they were in for a surprise.

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Since arriving in Paradisa, Maria had had to radically adjust her routine. It wasn't enough that she was far from the time and place where she belonged; she was without a purpose, too. Not that she'd had much of one after leaving the Templar. So she had to occupy her hours with other pursuits, riding among them.

At the end of a long evening out, she took her usual mount back to the stables, and once its needs were taken care of, nearly walked out without a second thought—but something caught the corner of her eye, and she moved back to see a very surprising new resident of the stable.

"Oh, for God's sake," she said, reaching out to prod Altaïr gently with the toe of her boot. "Don't tell me you've been sleeping here."

Altaïr was a light sleeper. He was cautious when sleeping in places that weren't Masyaf, and he also suffered from chronic nightmares of Adha's death. Not to mention, he was sleeping in a less than comfortable place. He shifted at the sound of a voice close by, and Maria's boot did the rest. He sprang up in a flurry of mismatched blankets, left wrist cocking in a way that should bring out his hidden blade. But both hidden blade and a proper adversary were absent.

"M-Maria! What are you doing?" He hitched up the cloak least likely to fall off him, rather like an angry elderly lady, and invaded her space. "You should know better than to disturb a sleeping As—one such as myself!"

No one saw that, right? He even shot a quick glare at the horse, though all she did was indifferently blow some air on his face through her nose. Silly humans.

Maria was suitably unimpressed by both his abrupt awakening and the way he puffed up to intimidate her. Rather like an angry bird, she thought—that was fitting. But if she hadn't backed down that day in the cemetery, she wasn't going to start now.

"Checking to see whether someone killed you and dumped your body here, or if you're really silly enough to sleep with the horses," she said. "I couldn't imagine the latter, but it seems I was wrong."

She squinted at him for a moment, then reached up to pluck something from his head. "You've got straw on you."

Indeed, he looked like his feathers were ruffled. And she looked stolid and immovable as ever.

"There are better places to hide a body," he said dismissively. He would know.

He let her take the bit of straw, but brushed her hand away as soon as she had it. He even tugged at his hood to make sure it was secure, thought there was no point hiding his face from her. It just made him feel better.

"I get hay on me all the time. What are you doing here?"

Too late, he realized the distinct lack of air between them, and stepped back a more suitable distance.

Maria had no doubt about that, and no doubt that he'd found most of them, nor did his defensive fussing. That part was amusing, even a little endearing, but it would be best not to show it.

"I was stabling my horse after a ride," She said, diplomatically ignoring the way he quickly moved away. "People tend to do that here."

And he had been...sleeping, which didn't make sense to her. The castle held much more comfortable lodgings, and there were ways to adjust anything not to his taste, through wishing or coin.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "This isn't the sort of place I'd fancy a nap."

As if he didn't know what stables were for. She could be infuriating sometimes, though he managed to take her sardonicism in stride. He'd had plenty of practice with Malik. Her tone was not nearly as biting, probably because Altaïr was not responsible for getting her arm lopped off or her brother killed.

"I had been sleeping outside the castle, because I did not trust its rooms. But this sudden cold is too strong to bed on the rooftops."

He realized how not normal all of that sounded, but he stuck to his guns, figuratively speaking.

Maria was more than used to abnormal things, here or back home, but that still took her aback.

"I doubt there's a need for such paranoia, but even if there is, couldn't you find somewhere more suitable than the stables?" she asked. "They're not exactly private, as I've just proven."

If nothing else, he might have faced a lot more mocking if someone else had found him.

Having found a warmer place than the stables to sleep and some extra clothes to layer, Altaïr set about exploring this new, snow-covered Paradisa. He wanted to see if anything had changed that he should be worried about. He didn't trust the castle at all. Perhaps he could also ask after the decorations. Apparently Christmas was different here than to the Christians back home... more festive.

He was not too bothered by the snow, having grown up in the mountains. The hooded man in white loitered near the duck pond, the birds having abandoned the water for the warmth of their nests. Powder-soft snow flanked the ice. Other than the decorations, it seemed there was nothing of great importance here. Altaïr turned and prepared to slog back through the snow.

And when he turned, he would discover one Sheena Fujibayashi making--of all things--a snowman, while a black horse stood nearby whinnying in approval (or disapproval). She would have been out and about sooner, but she had to get some supplies for her creation. Now, she knew she could have wished for them, but half the fun was looking for those things to begin with.

She was comparing two scarves of different colors when Onyx alerted her to someone behind her, and Sheena turned around, her eyes wide. The horse didn't seem alarmed, so the ninja wasn't, either.

"Hi, there!" she called out. "Wanna help build a snowman?"

I trust you're well rested...

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14th; Sheena

Sorry this is late!