2022-05-19: A Scarf I Don't Recognize
- Log: 2022-05-19- A Scarf I Don't Recognize
- Cast: Anti, Akane Shinjo's cute friend Ako Furuma
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-05-19
- Summary: Ako Furuma, Akane's friend from school, has a chance encounter with her 'little brother.' A lot clicks into place.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
TSUTSUJIDAI TRAIN STATION
SPECIFICALLY, IN FRONT OF IT
THERE'S A VENDING MACHINE
THAT'S WHERE WE ARE
And Anti is surrounded by wrappers.
That slight, pale boy is sitting in front of the vending machine, with a small pile of granola bars to one side of him, and candy wrappers just kind of scattered haphazardly about. He shoves a granola bar into his maw, and goes chomp. Little bits of muesli slick to his lips and his cheek in the violence of the motion.
He put the cash Asuka gave him into the vending machine fair and square, just like Nidaime taught him, and now he has claimed victory.
Victory is apparently the closest thing to CalorieMate in the magic food box.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The truth is: a week is a lot of time to skip school. Akane's missed a week solid exactly once prior to this; she'd wanted to tell Rikka something, then skipped a week, then never picked it up again.
Ako hadn't thought to be worried about it then. Akane was just Akane. She was Akane's friend, and that meant giving her space to have the feeling.
Ako is very worried about it now.
That means taking the train from her side of town to Akane's... she'd called ahead while she was on the train, but got an, <I'm fine. Just a cold.> text back by the time she got there. She doesn't really want to waste the trip, but now she's kinda at a loose end...
... until she sees a small, pale human(?) sitting next to the vending machines and eating granola bars and candy.
She walks over. He looks a little weird... which is fine, because that's about her speed. "Hey, everything okay over there?" She chews at her lip a bit, and asks, after a moment... "Are you homeless?"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
When the people of Tsutsujidai do acknowledge Anti, he typically ignores them. Then, like now, a girl calls out to him, and he just keeps eating.
He rips apart the wrapper, tearing from the serrated ending -- easier than just pulling it open. He's learned to push the bar forward, a bit, so he doesn't end up eating half the wrapping at the same time. Chomp, CHOMP.
Anti reaches for another bar.
This is about when he notices the girl is still there and still talking to him.
"..." Anti says, his gaze shifting up to stare at her. It's an intense thing, all coloured like the sunset, burning like banked embers.
The last time he told someone he had no place left to go...
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The people of Tsutsujidai, by and large, keep to themselves. That Ako isn't makes her an anomaly, certainly.
She's watching him eat, for the moment. He must not get fed at home... maybe they don't have a fridge, she thinks? He's quiet about being homeless -- which isn't a no to the question, but still...
... oof. Now that she stays her a minute, she notices he kinda stinks, too. But -- those eyes, that hair... it's familiar. Maybe he's not *related* to either of the fair-haired, red-eyed people in her life, but... 'similar stock,' Kaworu had said? Yeah, that might be it.
She considers pivoting away from Anti, but... "Hey -- what's your name? And... is that the only set of clothes you have?"
She looks him over a little more closely. Those flames... "... I like it," she adds. "Very distinct. That's the kind of look that makes it hard for some people to approach you, though... the flames stick out. I like them, though."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Being fair, Anti stinks less than he did a week ago, but: he ran into Rikka close to a week ago, now. That's still a long time to go without bathing!
He doesn't mind people watching him while he eats, because it doesn't really matter.
He does keep watching Ako for the moment, though. He is just as silent, as she asks him for his name, for -- his gaze glances down, without much movement of his head, to his beragged scarf.
His gaze lifts back up.
"Yes," he says, finally. An answer to her question. His voice is low, a shade gruff -- unfriendly, or perhaps the word is ill-suited.
He is silent for five beats, before he elaborates: "I don't need to be approached. It's fine if everyone else stays away from me."
It's a curious sentence, because it could mean, 'everyone other than Anti'.
Or it could mean, 'everyone other than ...'
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Scootching closer to Anti, Ako gets a little closer. Hm -- not that bad, actually... maybe he's not *homeless*, just kind of ill-mannered. She decides to take her evolving perception of Anti in stride.
She chews on his answer. She... kind of gets it, granted; that's why she does the delinquent bit herself. It's different hearing it from someone else, though. As he moves so little -- those precise eye movements -- she can't help but smile. She knows someone else who keeps the movement of her body minimal, and it brings to mind some fond thoughts.
"Everyone else... besides someone important, right?" Here, she smiles again. "That... doesn't work as well as you'd think." Here, she laughs a little bit. It's... mostly at herself.
With that, she loops back again. "It's gonna be hard for us to talk if I don't know your name, though... I'm Ako Furuma." She's not letting Anti slip out from under the name prompt that easily, even if he is kinda gruff...
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti's eyes narrow, slightly, when the girl hits on 'someone important'. He grunts, which could be noncommittal, but which could also be a confirmation. There's a little extra tension to his face as his frown deepens, hearing what she has to say about that.
And then she asks his name again, and Anti is ready to ignore her, again. Except --
'My name's Rikka. What's yours?'
His chin ducks, slightly; his lips press tightly together. His name is part of him, and each time he gives it he gives it away. Pieces of him he will never see again, distributed amongst people who aren't Akane, irrelevant to him. But the people of this world...
They give him their names, too.
They're not invaders, he justifies to himself, pushes the discomfort of the invaders he's playing nice with out of his liver. Finally, after far too long, he says: "Anti."
Just Anti, apparently.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Parts distributed -- connected, perhaps.
"Anti... that's an interesting name." Ako scoots a little closer, and then squats down near Anti. Giving his name seems to have gotten her a little closer. "No last name...? Three characters doesn't leave a lot of room to play around. Even in English, it's just four." She taps at her chin a bit. "That's kinda sad...! You're missing out on nicknames. There's honorifics, but still..."
... that's a bit of a thing to unpack, though, so she decides to move to a more salient topic. "You know, vending machines aren't bad, and it's a good way to get food when stuff's closed, but you could probably do better for the same amount of money if you shopped around a bit," Ako offers. This kid looks like he needs some help with the basics... money doesn't seem like it's a big problem for him if he's buying all this vending machine food, but you never know when you'll run out.
"I get the feeling you've never been in a store before. Do you wanna check out the Megateles?"
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti watches Ako very closely as she squats down nearby, as if he might bolt -- but he doesn't. He frowns, and blinks.
He knows about other places where there's food, but Nidaime told him about this place. He doesn't say that much, though. In any case, he has granola bar money. That much is obvious. How much money he actually has...
"... what's the Megateles?" Anti asks, frowning. "And nicknames?"
He... doesn't know about... nicknames..? He doesn't sound like he's being sarcastic..
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"It's a store," Ako says. She doesn't seem to mind walking the apparently-homeless kid through the basics of commerce; honestly, to be homeless and a middle schooler, something really horrible must have happened. It's fine. "You can bring stuff to the counter and give them money for it."
She stays squatted down next to Anti for now, rather than moving along... just yet. "MegaTeles is a place where you can buy a bunch of different stuff... some stores only sell one kind of thing, but some sell a lot of different things." She picked that one because she doesn't want to complicate things by giving Anti a bunch of different places to go... plus, it's cheap. She doesn't need to tell him that part, though.
"And nicknames are..." Oh, God. How to explain this. "... It's a variation on someone's name. You use it when you want to signal that you want your relationship to be a certain... way, I guess?" She needs several seconds to construct this concept... or she could just go for an example.
"There's a girl in my class -- Marusa Ramo. When I decided I wanted to get closer to her, I started calling her Marusan... then *everyone* started calling her Marusan so I went back to calling her Ramo." This kid has had a rough go of it, and it makes Ako want to be a little kinder -- which means being more honest. Admitting things. "I wanted her to know that I didn't want my relationship with her to be the same as everyone else's... but I couldn't quite get myself to say it, either."
Here, she starts laughing. "Ahahaha, wow, when I spell it all out like that it sounds *super* weird, right? But... that's how it works." She places her hands on her knees, gearing up to stand up. "Do you want to come with me to MegaTeles? It's a bit of a walk from here. It's not where I was planning to go, but..."
She checks her phone again, and says, "... I kind of wanted to look for a get-well present for Akane anyway. I know the selection isn't as good as Sevendarake, but some of that stuff is out of my price range..."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"Oh." Anti says, as he processes that information, matches it with what he already knows, draws some conclusions. "Inside." Which explains a lot -- Anti lurks outside the commercial district often enough, because there are good things people throw out, but he's reluctant to go inside. Or, rather, it explains a lot to him, because he hadn't much wondered what was inside the buildings he wasn't invited into.
The way his voice casts closed judgement on the stores might be something of a mystery to everyone else, though.
He watches Ako, steady and unflinching, as she hesitates over her next explanation. He does blink, but not terribly often. His fingers are still, over his granola bar.
Humans vary each other's names to signal what their relationships mean to each other. But what are humans, to Anti? What is his relationship, to all the creatures around him? They are such small creatures -- he can reach around them, and crush. They are -- such COMPLEX creatures, whose depths will crush him.
He shoves his remaining handful of granola bars into his pocket, and places one hand on his knee; the other presses to the ground, as he unfolds himself from sitting to standing, in one fluid motion.
"All right... Ako Furuma."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Right. Stores have hours where you can go inside, and hours when you can't. You can tell if you're allowed to go in because of the signs and the locks..." This isn't how she thought today was going to go, but it turns out your day can get weird fast when your first move isn't the right one.
The full name... that's kinda stilted. Still -- after how hard it was for him to even give her his name at all, or acknowledge one given... that's a start. Ako isn't sure she'll ever see this boy again -- but that's no reason not to concern herself with his future well-being.
Ako stands up alongside Anti, starting to lead him along toward Teles. "Clothes are like that, too. It's why I asked you if you only had one set," she eventually says. "People react differently when people look different. I don't think I would've guessed you were homeless if it wasn't for that scarf... some of the boys at school wear kinda raggedy stuff, but not that raggedy."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Hours he can go inside, and hours he can't...? "Hm." Anti grunts, and keeps his confusion over all the rules about buildings on the inside. So he's not allowed inside, but if he's invited inside it's okay, but sometimes he can go inside at some times and not at other times, and there are signs, but there aren't always signs, because Akane's house doesn't have a sign...
Ako knows Akane, though. He noticed that much.
Anti's gaze drops down to his scarf, for a moment, as he walks. (He doesn't walk into anything, though.) "... she wanted me to look this way."
He keeps walking.
"Akane Shinjo..."
Is she the one who -- "... she's not well?" Anti presses, a beat later, and maybe he was asking about her health instead.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The modifiers get lost somewhere along the way, and Ako loses track of them. She's an attentive, thoughtful person, but she doesn't have the full story...
... *but*, she orients on names, and -- "Huh. You know Akane?" She doesn't think she mentioned Akane's last name, which means Anti has to have previous knowledge of her. Ako thinks about those red eyes again, and that silver hair... With *that* on the table, she feels a little braver about her earlier hypothesis.
"Are you two family...? Or are you related to Nagi-chi? Akane's never mentioned any family at school. I think that's why she and Ramo are friends..." That's a sidebar that's only relevant to *her*, though, so she stops herself.
As they keep walking...
"She's been out of school since the concert," she answers, instead. "She just texted me... she said she was out because she was sick." They round the corner. "I'm kinda not sure I buy it... she misses a lot of class, but I've never actually seen her even have the sniffles. She skipped all through Valentine's week, too... I wish I knew what was up. It sucks not to know."
Around another corner. The Teles can be seen off in the distance, a bit, with its enormous yellow sign and its dumb little dinosaur mascot:
MEGA te le s
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti looks confused by that second name Ako drops, which might clarify his statement when he finally answers: "Yes." It's something of an elaboration, but since Akane used the same story, it must be fine.
Further clarification, a moment later: "I disappoint her." Which must mean, yes -- she and Anti are family. He discloses this without any particular variation in his intensity, as if he were remarking on the shade of the sky.
It would explain why she doesn't talk about him.
His lips part, soundlessly, in the wake of Ako's wish. "..."
His head tilts forward, chin over his neck; his bangs fall over his face, shadow his features, as he slows, a half-step behind the older girl.
"... she was counting on me, but I got distracted. Something happened... I didn't listen."
There's a lot in there. He gives context for none of it. But there's a tenor to the edge of his voice which sounds -- upset.
"Then I talked about it."
He thinks he knows very well why she's sick, hearing Ako give an explanation like that.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... Startling. It's at this point that Ako realizes she's kind of out of a second-year high schooler's depth with this whole situation. It doesn't make her want to drop Akane or anything -- no, far from it; she's worried. There's something going on with her -- something more serious than she'd realized. A whole family member Akane's never brought up before?
... she's not a very bold person, though. The flashy jacket covers up the fact that she isn't.
Moreover, though: Anti is here, in front of her, now. Akane... isn't. The bravest thing she can do right now, then -- the thing that would make her the person she'd like to be -- is...
"... That's a lot," she says, blinking a few times. "Ramo would probably have a better idea of how to help, but she's kind of private... even telling you that much makes me feel a little weird."
A bolder person would confront this herself, she thinks. But what she *can* do is...
"... She's not being fair to you," Ako eventually says. "And I don't know how to get her to change that."
They approach the Mega Teles. Ako doesn't head in quite yet, puzzling at it. "If she's never told me why she skips... I'm guessing she doesn't tell you much about why she's disappointed, either." Part of why Ako, Marusan, and Akane all get along is that they're all kind of private... but when it comes to untangling something like this, that's kind of an obstacle.
It's at this point that she goes through the full situation in her head, a little. She wishes she knew what was up... and what was up was 'something happened'? That's --
-- "Oh, that guy who was hitting on her?" Akane didn't get the clean sweep. "... That's kind of on me, too," she admits, a little sheepishly. "She texted Ramo to come give her an excuse to get away from him, or at least a few other friends, but we didn't get to her in time. She left -- uh, during that long intermission, I think?"
Ako's puppydog eyes take on a bit of a kicked cast. "I wanted to tell her I was sorry we didn't make it, but then she didn't show up at school, and now I think bringing it up again would mostly just make her mad. If that ended up falling on *you*, uh..."
Ako's fingers bunch up in her skirt. "... Sorry, I'm probably not making any sense," she admits. "Let's go in."
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"Then you shouldn't tell me." Anti says, when Ako says it feels weird, to talk about her friend. There's -- a certain assumption, in such a stern statement, but --
Maybe it at least absolves her from disclosing any more.
He says nothing, when Ako makes her next guess. She's wrong, he thinks; Akane tells him quite clearly what he does wrong, makes it painfully obvious how he isn't measuring up. But -- as he just said, he talked about it, and now apparently Akane's not seeing anyone. He's already said too much.
Agreeing would be a lie, but... he can let her think what she wants.
His shoulders hunch up, and his chin ducks down, when Ako says someone was hitting Akane. (Not quite, but -- he's only five months old. He doesn't know these things.) There's something cold grasping his heart, and --
At first he wants to be angry at Ako, but how can be angry at her for doing what he did? At least she didn't destroy Akane's kaiju.
He tries: "... we let her down."
It doesn't fit very comfortably, like a pair of new shoes. The difference might be hard to tell.
Anti hesitates, at the entrance, but -- Ako says they should go in, so after a moment, he follows her in.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"... You're a really direct person," Ako offers Anti, as they head in. That actually wins Anti a lot of points with Ako; she expects people to meet the barriers she puts up with other things. When she gets something different, it's a surprise -- and a warm one.
The inside of a Teles is... kind of a visual barrage. Ako's jacket makes natural camouflage within a Teles, which is saying something because anywhere else -- in *any* world, really -- that jacket is a blast of color.
"We kind of did, but... that doesn't make it your fault, and it's not right for her to take it out on you!" The emotion in Ako's voice actually surprises even *her*. "I'm not saying she should be perfect, either... but she definitely ought to at least say she's sorry."
She looks over the shelves, asking, "... Do you need a change of clothes? Does you guys's guardian not buy much of that kinda stuff? ... I just realized I've only ever seen Akane in the one outfit, too, other than her swimsuit." That... never clicked before.
Ako feels something churn in the pit of her stomach, and it's not hunger.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
Anti nods, when Ako calls him direct. That makes sense, to him. He'll call himself direct.
He... is not very colourful. Most of his clothing is dark, actually, aside from that off-grey scarf. All the clutter and colours of this Teles are somewhat overwhelming -- Anti does his best not to knock anything over, and yet it seems like he's always having to turn his head to make sure he's not about to trip over another line of strung-up bears.
That means he actually stops, when Ako's voice raises like that, so that he can turn to stare at her instead. He grunts, his lips parting without sound. It's... not right..?
He just keeps standing there, in the middle of the aisle, as Ako frames things that way.
"Our guardian..."
There's only one person who fits that description. But what does it say about them, if their guardian is the devil?
"No," Anti says, after a stunned moment. Which -- at least must mean they have a guardian. Perhaps he never thought about what it meant, that he didn't buy them things like that.
"I don't need to change clothes." There's something a little thin about the assertion, though. "I don't need people to react differently to me."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
... This is *definitely* beyond Ako's ability to help. There is so much going on here and all of it is bad. Even Ramo's home life was a little bit above her pay grade; this, by comparison, seems...
... it makes her understand why Akane doesn't talk about home, but it also makes her feel a little guilty for not asking.
"It's not... sanitary, to only have one set of clothes, either, unless you're washing it every day." She guesses Akane does; she guesses Anti *doesn't*, which is a little bit... much. "Plus, some places you *need* different clothes. If our school's uniform regulations weren't as loose as they are, I'd definitely need something besides this."
She starts leading Anti toward the clothing. All the prices are clearly labeled, at least. "More than that, though... Dressing up differently isn't any different doing exercise to get stronger. Even if you just change what you're wearing, sometimes you get to see a whole new side of yourself, Anchan."
She seems to have decided Anti gets a nickname, now.
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"Sanitary?" Anti, who regularly digs through garbage cans, asks. It's the sort of question which might illustrate just why the problem was with him talking about it -- Anti, evidently, is much too blunt to bother lying about their strange home life.
(Is that why he sits on the ground in the street and eats granola bars from the vending machine?)
He trails after Ako towards the clothing store, regardless. "Dressing up differently... makes you stronger?" He presses, frowning. "Like transforming..."
What Anti thinks of transformation might be different to what Ako thinks of it, but he's reflecting to himself more than anything. If he can change himself by copying his opponent's abilities to get stronger... can he also get stronger by changing his appearance like this?
He frowns, deeply, and looks up at the dizzying wall of accessories. It feels impossibly tall, as short as he is right now.
His fingers twitch, at his side.
The most powerful ability he could copy at this size is...
Anti reaches up and takes a dark bow-tie from the little racks, the closest thing to a bow in his line of sight. "This." He decides, stern.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"... Uh -- healthy? You might get sick, or like, a rash, or something. I guess if we were gods we wouldn't have to, but for the rest of us..." Ako laughs as if at a joke, though it's a little awkward.
... He really does need a lot. Ako knows better than to try to give everything to him, and she doesn't know who you even ask if your parents and teachers aren't picking up the slack. ... maybe she can ask for help, but she doesn't know how -- oh, she can just tell Akane. Even if their home life is pretty bad, it can't be...
"You should get another uniform shirt and pants to go with it," she says. "If you don't have enough money, I'll cover the rest! ... I already owe Akane for a dozen or so lunches. She won't mind if I put some of that toward you, I think."
She loops back to the question of getting stronger, transforming. "Well -- do you think I transformed?" she asks, not picking up the subtext, instead... fishing out something from her bag:
A photo of herself, in middle school. You can *barely* tell it's her; the face is obviously a match, but her hair is a crisp, natural blue-black (whose blueness you can *just barely* see if you look at some of her hair now -- her dyejob isn't completely even), and she's wearing a normal middle schooler's uniform...
<Pose Tracker> Anti has posed.
"I won't get sick," Anti tells Ako, and he sounds entirely confident in that answer. There's a lot to unpack there. Has no one seen any of this before now?
With no knowledge of Ako's plans, he is left to nod, when Ako tells him what else to buy. "All right." It might reveal him to be pretty agreeable, for all he seems so standoffish -- as soon as Ako tells him what he ought to do, he just goes along with it.
Then again, he DOES look younger than Akane; perhaps it's no wonder the little brother is used to following along.
His gaze darts to her bag, as she rustles around in there, paying full attention to what she's doing with her hands. When she pulls out a photo, he leans forward, a little, to examine it. His gaze flicks from the photo, to Ako, and back again. He doesn't ask anything as ridiculous as, 'is that you?'
Instead, he straightens up, and says: "... so you're capable of adapting, too. I understand." It's strange that humans have that ability, but the evidence is right there.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Ako turns a little green, and it's not just the blue-yellow contrast of her hair doing that. "... I wouldn't be so sure," she says. "Just because you haven't doesn't mean you won't... things can change for the worse, too." She gets the sense that flat contradiction will just get discarded, by now, but pointing out alternatives...
She puts the photo away, once she's proven her point. "... Let's get you sorted out, okay?" She scoots along the racks and shelves, before realizing:
"... Do you even know your sizes, Anchan?"
She has an undertaking ahead of her, she thinks. ... but even if she doesn't know anything she can do about the big problem, she can do something about the small ones.