OOC said:
Rin rested quietly on the lip of the marble fountain which was the center of the square. The water which coursed through the fountain during the warm months was all gone during the season of ice, all the better to avoid bursting pipes and destroying statuary and yadda yadda, but the quietus always had a sort of disappointing effect. Right now, the square was grimy with salt- and soil-greyed snow piled up around the periphery, heaped in alleys, or humped up in what might have been snowmen before the weather briefly warmed during the prior week.
She had gained something of a reputation for perpetually working, either in the shadows of the Torre or in the depthy deeps of the unknowable ANBU HQ. Even the Sennin, though, appreciated the necessity of a break. In a reading, in a piece of poetry or prose, it might be called a caesura--the pause, the indrawn breath. The halt was a psychological necessity. Just like sleep, it refreshed the mind, spirit, and body. She did not want to turn into some hunch-backed creature, myopic from reading, ink-stained from scribbling. So on this day, she had emerged again and laid down her labors.
At first she had thought perhaps to have fun. But she hadn't really planned, and spontaneity seemed more like a thing for violence (physical or reputational) and thus too much like work. Instead, she had picked up a loaf of bread, a steaming beverage of dubious provenance, and now sat at the fountain, tossing small chunks at the ever-present doves and watching them do whatever passed for competitive food dance among sky-rats.
Today's clear, at any rate, and sunny. The weather had taken a turn for the better for once. The usual mist, fog, and cloud layers which engulfed the village had burned away in the noontime sun. Wherever the light hit was warm--obviously that meant avoiding shadows cast by buildings. Whoever the hell thought of busting up a perfectly good sun line with buildings was a damn nut. The Torre itself cast its shadow over the buildings at this time of day, rather than the square. It was just as well. Having that shadow over the heart of the village was probably too detrimental to morale.
Rin's mind traveled these well-worn trivial ruts in an effort to not loop back to work. Civil strife would still be around for her inevitable retreat to a tactical operations center. She had even eschewed the identifying ANBU gear and dressed warmly in dark robes instead. A fur-lined hood pulled up around her head vented her breath in a monodirectional stream. Sometimes, she tried to exhale O's, but never quite managed the trick.