It's a love story

Romeo's nineteenth birthday started with a package from his father containing a collection of Lord Byron's works, a dagger that was about twice as elaborate as anything Romeo had any business carrying, and a letter that suggested -- in a polite, backhanded, and elaborate way -- that Romeo was missed and should make it his business to visit Verona sooner rather than later.

There was also a large box of chocolates. They were good. Romeo ate the caramels as his breakfast. He should have been reading about the equilibrium point in supply and demand, but that kept turning into perusal of the poetry. Really, the poetry struck him as more relevant.

[OOC: For the girlfriend, or for birthday emails/calls/texts/homing pigeons.]

Romeo had, it was true, said several times yesterday that he wouldn't go looking for a fight.

And he wasn't. Honest. But it was a rainy day, and there was a particular and rather inaccessible corner of the beach that he liked especially well when he was trying to write. He couldn't imagine many zombies would be out yet; if they were, he was armed.

Sitting on a rock, he stared moodily into the ocean and thought about death that was not death.

[OOC: For two zombies in particular and then someone else. Thanks!]

Note duly passed and ghost presumably defeated, Romeo quickly left hunting class and waited in the hall for Yurika.

He was still confused -- confused, with anger flashing under the surface like lava. But he'd talked to other people so much it felt like it was time to give Yurika herself a turn.

And so, he waited, and hoped she wouldn't hurry past.

After class and a nice, long "pillow playdate" with Yurika, Romeo was finally back in his room for the first time since Friday morning.

He downloaded the radio podcasts and listened to them as he unpacked his suitcase, frowning a little. He wished even more that had been home to try to help, somehow. Yurika had been right that he wouldn't know what to do against a spirit, but he could have tried.

[OOC: Door open.]

Romeo probably should have been sleeping in. After all, he didn't have to go to detention this week (and the king-quest-newt thing was still weird, no matter how he thought about it).

But for no particular reason he was up early, reflecting on his week as he flipped through a certain notebook. He'd spent some quality time with Yurika, helped dress Rikku twice (in a not-dirty way), gotten killed at paintball, discussed ladies and tigers in ethics class, and encountered (and mocked, and danced with) girls-who-were-boys.

He was glad, too, that things seemed to be going better for certain friends.

Most of the vocabulary in the notebook, like that in the book he'd found at the library, struck Romeo as useful but boring, but he smiled when he found one phrase and read it aloud slowly. "Kimite hontoni kirei dane."

Starting with compliments never hurt.

[OOC: Mostly linkdrop but door closed, post open.]