The New Conjunction (a Witcher->Real World crossover)

[justmedk]

Ciri couldn't help but giggle a little about Daniel's "language"-remark. It was clear that he wasn't being serious, and she'd heard the non-commital in his tone, so she wasn't intimidated. Nor did she feel the childish need to go on, just for the heck of it.
When she saw Renata fall, Ciri gasped for a moment and rushed towards her friend to make sure she was okay, only to smile relieved when she saw that she was well enough to give a little bit of a lighthearted attitude back towards Daniel. That was a good sign. When she saw her get back to start the course again, Ciri decided to time it herself to see how much faster than Renata she was. Not, of course, to rub her friend's face in it, but just to compare. She seemed in fairly good shape, so it was good to see where the baseline for a "normal" kid her age was. Especially if she was going to represent the school.


When dinner eventually was ready, the girls had definitely worked up an appetite, and Ciri devoured it with great satisfaction, while she and Renata gossipped and she let her friend bring her up to date on important local matters that the news on the moving images box didn't mention. Such as the best places to get certain snacks, which houses of the village to avoid going near, etc.
Ciri paused for a second as the radio downstairs - when they'd cleaned up after dinner and the girls were "hanging out" in Ciri's room chatting - started going on about how no one yet knew what those strange flowers that'd been found at the mall were. She did think it odd that it'd be found right where she'd had her unfortunate accident, but pushed the thought from her mind, smiled apologetically at Renata, and said:

"I'm sorry, you were saying?"

[guesswho]

After their after dinner retreat to Ciri's room, she starts answering some of her questions, but notices when Ciri drifts off. The radio downstairs that Daniel left playing to have something to listen to while he's...doing something on a large number of papers and blueprints, yet again talks about those strange flowers.


"Just that take care around the other end of the village, there's this old witch living there who always complains about slightest noise...and literally anything else. Like, first time she complained about me, my parents were like, well, don't do it again. Then she complained again and again and there was some shouting, but after that...she calls my parents, complains, they take note and hang it on the fridge. I have a pic." Other kids have their artwork on fridge. Renata luckily avoided this, but her dad had the bright idea it would be a lot of fun if he hung pointless complaints about her on the fridge. She fishes out her phone and finds the picture of the list.


Wearing all black is mentioned multiple times. There's also that time when she had to run through the village in a swimsuit because they were bathing in the river. Being rude due to apparently not saying hello in a sarcastic tone of voice. Rude staring is there. Deliberately walking their dog past her house and it being noisy.


"So...you should definitely avoid her." She looks around, makes sure Daniel is not on the same floor and closes the door. "Wanna piss her off with something?"

[justmedk]

Ciri's eyes grew wider and wider, and her expression more and more annoyed as Renata's examples about the woman piled up. And then she hears the conspiratorial tone in her friend's voice, answering her with a smirk and a nod, before leaning in.
She very much DID want to piss that person off. She listened to Renata's plan, and while she was vaguely aware of the risk involved to their bottoms if they got caught, she thought that the risk of being captured was small enough, and the payoff big enough, that she wasn't too worried.

"So...when do you wanna do this?", she asked "Gotta wait for the right moment to avoid being caught...because...well, I don't wanna be grounded", she finished, not wanting to admit the reality of what awaited her if caught, to her friend.



_________________________

When Renata eventually left, Ciri headed back downstairs to clean what hadn't been cleaned yet after dinner. Daniel had cooked for them, she felt the least she could do was help clean up afterwards. Then she headed to the living room where he was watching something on the moving images-box, though she couldn't really make out exactly what.

"What're we watching?", she asked as she plopped down next to him, and leaned in against him to relax. It had also been a long day for her. A good day after school, yes, but long!

[guesswho]

By the time Renata leaves and Ciri turns up in the living room, Daniel is sprawled in front of the TV, having a relaxing evening with a beer and watching a series. He adjusts slightly, so Ciri can lean against him comfortably and puts an arm around her shoulders.


"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It's...difficult to explain and probably won't make much sense to you. We can watch something else, if you want. Anyway, so how did the day go? Did anything interesting and slash or problematic?" If a teacher is going to call him, he'd like to know up front. Whatever happens at home afterwards, he'll always defend her in front of teachers.



"How did you find the school?" It's great she managed to find some new friends and her first school day didn't end with Ciri locking herself in her room and swearing never to go there again. It was a scenario he was half expecting, and definitely wasn't looking forward to explaining she'll need to go tomorrow as well.

[justmedk]

"I mean....the chemistry teacher was a.....was like Renata and the others said", Ciri confided, stopping herself from using the B-word about her. She knew that adults tended to stick up for eachother unless in extreme cases which, she was loathed to admit, this wasn't.
So she was pretty sure he wouldn't very much approve of calling that teacher what she was.

"She treated me like I'm stupid because I don't know what electrolytes bond with which kind of water", she rolled her eyes, confident that she had said it right, and not spoken complete gibberish. "But the Czech-teacher was awesome! She thought I did very well, even better than I should be able to!", she recounted proudly. "So that was cool. Yeah, and apparently there are some bullies at school but nothing I don't think I'll be able to handle. As long as they stay out of my way", she finished, not recounting the conversation she had with Renata earlier about standing up to them. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.....nor her butt!

"C....could we watch the one with the wolf and the bird with the strange sounds?", she asaked cautiously, and somewhat embarrassed. She didn't want to justt come in and throw off his evening, but she had to admit that she loved those particular narratives on the moving-images-box, though she didn't know why. Perhaps it was the absurdity of the things that happened, but it was always funny to see the poor hunter stifled.

When it was eventually bedtime, she went without a word, but hugged him tight with a smile, then went upstairs to her room. When she laid down to sleep, it was with a smile on her face. Today had been a good day
____________________________________

When the day of the prank arrived, Ciri could not help but be a bit nervous. Everything depended on not getting caught. If they did...well, she didn't know what Renata's parents would do, but she had a pretty good idea that she herself would be sleeping on her stomach for a couple of nights! And she definitely did not want that. Especially not before a schoolnight. So she was a little bit on edge.

"Alright....let's go over the plan again?", she asked nervously.

[guesswho]

It's way past dark, and none of them should be here, according to their parents. She has arranged a sleepover kind of alibi with one of her friends. Hopefully Ciri did something similar, but even if not, Renata has already seen her move quietly and doesn't worry too much about her ability to sneak back home. Even she can do it without getting caught. Truth be told, this is more of a one person operation, but she wants to see Ciri in action. She doesn't tell her that, but this is sort of a test. To see if she can be relied upon in more complex troublemaking operations. Renata has recently hit fourteen, and she can see how boring this village is. And yes, of course, she had heard all the cautionary tales about that troublemaker that's now going to university in Brno. She plans to outmischief that one. The tales sound more awesome than cautionary anyway.


"So, here's the plan." She pulls out a map. It is, in fact, a drawing made in a notebook, with crayons. But she felt a map is required. "This is the fence. This is the shed, and this is the house." She points to various squares on the map, not yet quite skilled in finer arts of covert cartography. "We approach from the fence, covered by the shed. Then I'll go and check in which room she is, and give you a signal. You'll turn on the light. The shed has zero security, there isn't even a lock. I did my recon. Then we sneak out, wait for her to come and turn off the light, and do it again. At that point, she'll either call the cops or come out and turn off the light by herself again. In case of cops, we scram. Oh and wear this, so you don't leave fingerprints." In extreme example of overestimating competence and overall willingness of village cops, she made sure to bring gloves, in case they dust for fingerprints...

[justmedk]

Ciri listened and nodded. Sneaking out of the house had proved no problem at all. Just out the window, climb down. Piece of cake. This would be trickier. Trickier, but by no means impossible. She smiled eagerly, then took the gloves. She'd seen enough of these "crime movies" to know that protecting against fingerprints is very important, and was a little embarrassed that she hadn't thought of it first! But no matter: To business.

She kept low - even lower than Renata, almost making her a bit annoyed that her friend would be too easy to spot - and silent as the grave. She kept in position near the shed to turn the light on, tuning her senses as much as she could, to be ready to go when Renata gave the signal.
Ciri had no aspirations to take Denisa's throne as Queen of the Troublemakers, but she was happy to be hanging out with her best friend, and, honestly, also to be repaying the nasty old woman in the house in some way that didn't harm her at all, merely inconvenienced her.

When Renata DID give the signal, Ciri moved as fast as she could...which turned out to be pretty darned fast! Barely five seconds after the signal, the light came on, and Ciri retreated with a mighty jump and crouch into safe distance away from the shed, using the tall grass and darkness as cover.
Nevertheless, she had to physically restrain herself from giggling with gleee, by covering her mouth with her hand, when the old hag came running out and complaining about everything in the world, not least "kids nowadays! When I find you, I'll make sure you can't sit for a week!". The giggle she stifled was partly a nervous one, at that thought, but she kept it together. So when the woman went back inside after having turned the light off, and she got the next signal, Ciri returned as before, turning the light back on, and quick as the wind disappeared into cover.

This went on for in total three times, until the woman just didn't come back. Ciri at first thought she'd decided to say "Screw it, not dealing with this more tonight", but when police cars pulled up, she knew what had happened.
She very much doubted, of course, that any of them would go to jail for a prank like this. That wasn't what she was worried about.
What was, was being driven back home to Daniel by the police. She was 99,9% certain she knew what that meant.

So with the same urgency and speed and silence as before, she sprinted back in the direction they'd come, to avoid the police. She was later ashamed to admit to herself that she wasn't even sure where Renata was, but comforted herself with the idea that Renata was a much more experienced prankster than she was, and likely knew how to escape on her own.
She grinned widely when she arrived back at the hosue, and climbed back up the wall she'd crawled down from, through her open window.

"I did it", she whispered loudly to herself as she climbed in through the window. "And no one is any the wiser"

[guesswho]

Renata has been expecting the cops way earlier, and also had a better view of the street. They didn't even bother not coming by car. By the time they started looking around, she was long gone, and by the lack of shouting, looks like Ciri made is as well.



Daniel's been sitting on Ciri's chair in her room for more than an hour. In the dark. It was a random chance he'd noticed open window when he came out for a breath of fresh air. The fact is, he didn't expect Ciri to start sneaking out in the night this early. So he went to check, and indeed, it was so. He had an urge to close the window and make her come through the front door, but in the end, decided to prepare her a nasty surprise. Not knowing how long it'll take her to turn up, he ran an audiobook. And fell asleep. Luckily, he woke up before Ciri turned, cause otherwise, that'd be embarrassing as hell. Finally, the troublemaker is sneaking back in again. And whispering.


"Oh really? And what exactly is it that you did?" Daniel asks, just as he turns on the light. "Let me see, couldn't sleep, so you went on a little walk, but didn't want to disturb the night and the window was oh so handy?" He says sarcastically. He's not even trying to act like this could end without a very sore backside, No happy ending to this, as far sitting at breakfast is concerned.


"So, I want to know where have you been, what have you been doing there, and most importanly, names of your accomplices in these nefarious activities." To emphasize the effect, he even produces a notebook and a pen, as if to make notes of Ciri's misdeeds, to document them for posterity.

[justmedk]

Ciri let out an actually audible "EEP!" when she heard his voice and shielded her eyes from the sudden bright light, like some comical interpretation of a vampire. But of course she knew what was up. She'd been caught.
She paled quite a bit when she looked at him and saw the expression on his face. She knew things weren't going to end well already then, and she braced herself for it.

"I....Uhm....", she began, trying to buy herself some precious time to get her story straight. Maybe a half-truth would do? There was no way out of trouble for HER, but she didn't want to get Renata in trouble too. So she looked at the floor to avoid his eyes, and answered.

"I....I pranked the old witch", she said with a quiet, mousy voice. "T..turned the light on in her shed, then hid, then when she left again after having turned it off, I turned it on again....and...and then I ran when the police came, so they wouldn't catch me", she explained. "So....technically....I wasn't caught?", she gave him a sweet, hopeful smile that she knew wasn't going to be successful. But she could hope, after all!

Just to finish off the ruse, she fidgeted and looked down again

"I...I was alone", she lied, as she once more tried to keep him from asking too many questions by coming over towards him on her own, reluctant though she was, and start to pull her pants down. Perhaps he was also tired and wanted to get it overwith without asking too much about anything else.

[guesswho]

He listens attentively to her story, and even grins, when Ciri says what she's been up to. But he doesn't believe she acted alone. Oh it's quite possible she did the thing on her own, why not, but he's absolutely sure this wasn't her idea.



"Awfully quick to end up over my knee, I'd say. Eager to receive your well deserved punishment, are you?" He says, when Ciri approaches and starts pulling down her pants. He pulls Ciri closer and pulls her pants down, leaving her standing there in just her panties, but doesn't take the poor girl over his knee just yet.



"Well, maybe you were alone, but I want to know who put you up to this. Up until now, you had no quarrel with the old hag. I know her, and I would also know if you came in contact with her, because frankly, she'd complain about you. She always does about everyone else. So...go downstairs and grab a spoon, and maybe stop by in the bathroom and have a taste of soap? That's what I'll wash your mouth with if you try lying to me. Understood?" Daniel gets up, turns Ciri towards the door and gives her a good slap on her butt, a taste of things to come.


"Have a good think about your situation. I'm not interested in getting anyone else in trouble, but you will tell me who's behind this." He says that with absolute certainty, knowing that, worst case scenario, she'll spill the beans once the nasty wooden spoon comes in contact with her backside.