<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;">Between Time and Outside</span></strong></span></div><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a5/4a/d0/a54ad0c78fe6f6ed9893fe8a6eb846e1.jpg)</div><strong>NAME:</strong>Date Toshiro | Date Marceline<br/><strong>DAY:</strong>June 15th, 2021, 9:30 AM<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>SOPHE Headquarters, Main Floor<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Kyless | Mentions: Mallory<br/><strong>EXTRA:</strong><br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>As pictured, but with a few more wrinkles in his clothing and a far more disheveled head of hair. | A red nylon collar with a small golden bell<br/><hr/><br/>Unable to gauge a reaction to his touch, Toshiro withdrew his hand from Kyless' shoulder with a smile at her realizing one of his primary interests that he had intended to explore by questioning her story. “I usually manage to be curious about more than one thing at a time, but I'd be a liar if I said that I'm not always interested in finding out more about you Kyless.” Holding up his now free hand in a sign of placation he continued, “But right now, I'm only trying to find out more about The Last. I promised to never forget what you've told me about him, and I won't. But it would be a sad thing if my memory of him was as abstract... as...” Toshiro closed one eye in focus as he rolled his once shoulder locked hand in the air in search for an explanation before gesturing towards his drawing, “What you've told me of him is like this sketch, perfect in it's own right, but what I've drawn doesn't compare to what you showed me.” He imagined that even what she showed him paled in comparison to the experience of standing among the Jollytwills, but he saw little reason to voice the thought.<br/><br/>As true as this desire for more information regarding The Last was, Kyless next statement regarding how she saw herself, her distaste for 'Rulebreakers,' and the unspoken logic to her words lead him to continue his questioning before she had a chance to reply to his first point, “You do not know the 'Rulemaker' because you are not a 'Rulebreaker?' Does that mean you would know the Rulemaker if you did break the rules instead of going around them? Why is that?” Toshiro couldn't help but feel a minor pang of disappointment at hearing that Kyless' relationship regarding rules was more akin to a criminal attorney getting their client off on a technicality rather than an anarch breaking down a system they disagreed with, but given his unfortunate role as the establishment in their dynamic, he figured it was better not to bring up this particular grievance. Still, he'd have to remember her aversion to outright breaking the rules in the future, as abiding by them seemed to be a topic Kyless regarded quite seriously, some<em>thing</em>that had 'benefits' to magic. This beneficiary aspect stood out in particular for the odd emphasis the trickster placed on them.<br/><br/>Of course it was presumptuous to assume at this point that all demons might benefit from the potential boon abiding by rules might grant as Toshiro hypothesized from from what Kyless had told him. His instincts begged for more detail, to press on every faintly defined notion until every minute trace of knowledge was pulled from Kyless, but Toshiro wasn't so greedy as to burn the opportunity for greater understanding for the sake of expediency. Were he to continue to press on positions that Kyless kept vague by intent, it was likely that she might clam up as a reaction, either from discomfort, or due to an adherence to some 'Rule' of her own. While the latter seemed more likely given the subject's importance in the second of Kyless' stories, Toshiro had little desire to risk either or both outcomes for both the sake of his continued studies, and the emotional well being of his charge.<br/><br/>Toshiro's chain of analytical thought came to an abrupt halt as he found himself snorting into laughter at Kyless' joke, less in acknowledgment of her less than stellar delivery of a tepid punchline with no discernible setup, and more in appreciation for the attempt and her incredibly dry delivery. Lifting his hands from Marceline's course black fur with his palms towards Kyless in an exaggerated show of defeat, he conceded humbly, “You're probably right, I'd make a terrible Nosthervim. I'm bad at following rules, and I can't keep a soul down for the life of me. On the bright side, I'm not likely to get my cap poked by a stalactite, one of those... downward pointing sharp rocks.” Staring at Kyless for a moment and realizing the potential for his statement to be misconstrued he clarified, “Not that following the rules is a bad thing. Mal follows the rules all the time and she's great! A great role model. I try to be more like her everyday.”<br/><br/>Fortunately Kyless provided an escape for what would surely be an awkward pause following the unintentionally backhanded compliment to his assistant. “Why didn't they believe in the eventual sun? Oh, well...” Toshiro idly scratched at the orange fur beneath Marceline's chin in an effort to look distracted by the task rather than in fabricating an answer that wouldn't require him to explain the deficiency of details often found in parables. “W-well. It wasn't that they didn't think the sun would rise, odds are Amaterasu hasn't gone back to her cave, they just knew there was a chance they wouldn't be alive to see the sun if they didn't know what was going on around them. All sorts of people and creatures pick on the unaware, and one of the best ways to avoid a bad situation is for those traveling in the dark to know if someone or something might want to hurt them.”  Nodding as if this answer should be regarded by all in earshot as satisfactory, he waited silently to see if Kyless had any additional questions either regarding her upcoming assignment, or anything else, she'd certainly earned a chance to air her curiosity.