[open] first star

[planetary_bonds]

WHO: Yusei Fudo and you
WHERE: Jeopardy
WHEN:the first few weeks after post-arrival
WHAT: Yusei settling into life as Jeopardy's newest dollar-store cryptid
WARNINGS: yusei being said aformentioned cryptid



[moving day (early January)]

[Looks like someone's moved into number four, if the sounds of rummaging around and banging mean anything. It's not that dangerous despite all the noise, but you might need to be careful lest you get beaned by the soft red velvet pillows being thrown out one of the windows.

What happens later is slightly less dangerous (but much more annoying): Yusei can be seen dragging out the iron spider statue that came package and parcel with every Jeopardy house. Or, to be more specific: the iron spider state's legs. Turns out he's been taking the damned thing apart and is intent on breaking it down for parts, no matter how disrespectful it seems to the local community, or how bad an idea it might be to get on their bad side.

Looks like someone isn't fond of the spider cult. He's not even trying to hide it, either - any glares from locals are met with an equally intense stare, pointedly looking at them while noisily hammering the mutilated statue pieces into usable parts. Although maybe he's been going at it a little too long - he's started glaring for indefinite lengths of time, head jerking up to look at whomever's passing by.

It's more than a little unnerving.]

[reported gremlin sighting (unspecified time after prompt 1, probably)]

[Sometimes it seems like there's not much point to 24 hour tiny convenience stores, especially in the dead of night when everyone is asleep and the only people awake are night shifters and the desperate. But to those few people, these small stores are an oasis in the desert, a fluorescent light in the darkness.

Although maybe even the most desperate of relief-seekers might not want to approach this particular 7-11, because there's something really goddamn weird sitting under the only working lamppost (and "working" is a stretch - it's flickering on and off in that irritating way lights do when the bulb is just a tiny bit loose).

The figure is humanoid in shape, perched on the lamppost's base in a manner that can only be described as "that one asshole on the subway": too long limbs splayed out everywhere as it leans against the post.What looks like horns adorn its head, and strange little four-legged creatures surround it, climb over its shoulders and make odd growling noises as they do so. The most eerie thing, however, the thing that keeps it from just being dismissed as a particularly oddly-dressed human, is the eyes. In the dark, they can't be seen, but when light hits them just so, they light up in that glassy way associated with night-time creatures. The little creatures surrounding it have their eyes light up the same way, so it's clearly not a person's eyes...right...?


Of course, getting closer reveals that it's just Yusei. The reason he's sitting there? He's eating what looks like tuna out of a small can with a pair of chopsticks, so it looks like he just went inside that 7-11 for a 3 AM snack. The horns? Just his hair, no big deal. His eyes look mostly normal, but there's clear shadows under them that wouldn't look out of place on a person who's been running several days without much sleep. Actually, he's carrying himself rather tiredly - his usual blank expression looks blanker than usual, and he only greets anybody coming up to him with a vaguely curious glance upwards before looking back down at his can to fish out another bite. Although, the usually deep blue irises do look a little brighter than usual, and if it wasn't for how they look from a distance one would think that the odd gleam in them is just a trick of the light.

The mysterious four-legged friends turn out to be a bunch of stray cats attracted by the strong smell of his food - or at least, what passes for cats in Jeopardy. Their eyes are just a little too buggy, too large, and their limbs are just a little too thin and long to be anything approaching normal cats. Yusei doesn't seem to have any problem with them, though - or maybe he's just too tired to care. Either way, whether they're cats or not doesn't stop them from yowling at him for food incessantly in a weird, guttural, almost catlike but somehow just wrong voice. In fact, just when he looks up and is about to greet whomever comes up to him, one that's perched right on his shoulder meowls plaintively and he gives it a side glance, before resignedly feeding it a small piece from his chopsticks. Apparently, it's difficult to say no even to weird abomination cats like these.

Although, when he lifts the can to feed it a little better, it's shown a bit better in the light. At closer glance...that can does have a picture of a fish on it, so it's an easy mistake to make, but...that's not tuna.

It's cat food.]



[[ooc: if you want to make other prompts for yusei and your character meeting during the month, feel free to PM me or hit me up at emexceedschangezearu for planning and we can make a prompt comment down below or something!]]

Comments

2!

[khajidont]

[ Jaime's been too occupied to look into Jeopardy too closely, but tonight's one of his lucky nights! The good thing about everyone knowing his ID means that it's a lot easier to just stroll around as the Blue Beetle in the middle of the night. Case in point, there's someone else here with a horned, glowing silhouette, and that's the Blue Beetle, distinctly less human looking than Yusei; he's covered from head to toe in a blue-black carapace, his eyes yellow and glowing, horns twisting out from his back and beneath it all, a set of human teeth.

Aforementioned human teeth are busy chomping away at a taquito, because it's 3 AM and a 24-hour convenience store. There is some law of reality that dictates that nine times out of ten, if you go into a 24-hour convenience store, you will emerge with a taquito.

He looks at Yusei. He looks at the cats. He looks at the cat food. ]

...Sup.

[planetary_bonds]

[That's because taquitos are fucking delicious and the perfect combination of starch, meat, and cheese to make you temporarily forget regretting all your life decisions.

Or something like that.

Which makes it all the stranger that Yusei opted for a cold can of tunacat food instead, but to each their own.]

...

[Yusei vaguely gives the Blue Beetle a once-over, his general expression making it look like he's barely bothered by something so alien suddenly appearing in front of him. In truth...he actually is barely bothered, but only because he's too tired mentally to care.

All that comes out is a measured nod and his current chopstick-full of food not being completely raised to his mouth, making it prime snatchable material for the "cats" on his shoulders.]

...Can I help you?

[khajidont]

Not really.

[ It's true. He's not in need of anything in particular, save for healthier dietary habits, but that ship's long since sailed. He munches thoughtfully on the taquito, eating about half of it in one go in a true showing of impulse control, measuring his options. On one hand, this dude looks like he really doesn't want to be bothered, and Jaime can relate.

On the other, he's totally eating cat food right now. ]

Um... how about you? Is the whole cat food thing by choice or out of necessity? 'Cause I got a few bucks.

[ Not that cat food is any less expensive than a taquito, but hey, Jaime doesn't know where the guy got it. He'd hate for someone to miss out on a hot (debatably a) meal just because they don't have the funds for it. ]

[planetary_bonds]

[Yusei lets the "cat" on his shoulder steal his mouthful of food, instead taking a few moments to glance at the can.]

...That explains the cats.

[Then he shrugs and takes another bite. Without hesitating...or cleaning off the chopstick the cat just licked off of, actually. Gross.

He didn't answer the question, either...]

[khajidont]

Um, yep. It sure does.

[ He eyes the guy a little warily - if he really doesn't want company, Jaime supposes, he'll just up and leave. It's not as though he wants to force his presence on anyone else. It's the good part about being able to fly; it's somehow a lot less awkward than just walking away. ]

You didn't answer my question, though.

[planetary_bonds]

[Shrug.]

I was tired, I suppose.

[That, combined with the evident confusion at seeing the cat food...it can be inferred that no, the cat food was kind of a mistake. That he's clearly taking in stride. Waste not, want not, and all that.]

[khajidont]

[ Well, it's something. He glances between Yusei and the convenience store again, shrugging a little helplessly. ]

Must be pretty darn tired, then. You sure you don't wanna go back in there and get something a little more meant for, um... human consumption?

[planetary_bonds]

[There's a slight incline of his head, which...doesn't really indicate Yusei's opinion, actually.]

I'm not going to get sick from eating this stuff, so I'm fine.

[Um.]

[khajidont]

Okay... but the convenience store is right there. You could just give the cats the food and get something real for yourself? I mean, there's more to food than not dying.

[ Which is hypocritical of him, perhaps, considering he fills his gut with taquitos and handfuls of dry cereal, but this guy doesn't know that. ]

1

[flameout]

[ Rodimus arrives at his new home a while after Yusei begins to settle in. In other words, when he approaches the yard, he sees his new roommate hacking away at that spider statue. No problem with that, though. He's seen weirder things. Not much bothers you after you've been cooped up on a starship with some of society's finest rejects for a few years. ]

Hey, uh... [ He raises his voice to cut through the incessant loud hammering. ] Hey! Hello! You live here, right? I think we're roomies.

[planetary_bonds]

[The hostile atmosphere continues all through the greeting, but as soon as the word "roomies" passes Rodimus' lips, it all evaporates into nothing. The sudden disappearance might just be as unnerving as said presence itself, but the strangest thing is that his facial expression nor his attentiveness to his work hasn't changed at all.]

Roommate...?

[Sounds like he didn't expect that.]

Sorry for the mess.

[...at least he's being polite? kind of?]

[flameout]

[ Oddly enough, this kind of behavior makes him feel right at home ]

It's no problem! You can keep... [ He looks at the partially dismantled statue for a moment before deciding what to actually call this activity. ] ...Breaking that. I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Rodimus. And I have to be this size to get through that door, but just so you know...

[ In a flash of light, Rodimus the normal looking guy becomes Rodimus the 15 foot tall robot. ]

...This is me.

[ And on top of that display, he makes sure to transform while he's at it, rearranging himself into a sporty muscle car with a tsch-tsch-tsch. ]

This too.

[planetary_bonds]

["Breaking that" is exactly the correct phrase for it, thanks.

Yusei actually stops what he's doing when Rodimus transforms into a giant fucking robot, the first visible sign of shock he's shown all day. His expression doesn't change afterwards beyond his mouth dropping open slightly, but there's an odd glitter in his eyes when the change to a sports car happens immediately after.

He's still a mechanic at heart, after all.]

So...that's your power...?

[Yusei's trying very hard to reign in his excitement. He's mostly successful.]

[flameout]

One of 'em, apparently. Can't say I agree that my ability to just be my normal self is a power, but if that's what it's considered here, I guess I'll roll with it.

[ Realizing that it might be a bit weird for a human to carry out a conversation with a talking car, he transforms back into robot mode. ]

The human form though, that's new. I'd call that a new power except all it does is make me short and squishy.

So, yeah. That's me. What about you?

[planetary_bonds]

Compared to humans, being a giant robot or a car is considered a pretty interesting power. But you're saying that's your true self...?

[Why would they give him a human shape, then? Convenience...?

Either way, Yusei shrugs.]

Nothing nearly as impressive. Some kind of navigation power I'm still figuring out, and a little bit of wind control.

[He hesitates, as if there's another thing he wants to say, but can't quite figure put how to put it into words.]

[flameout]

Heh, well, it's not really that interesting when you've been surrounded by a bunch of other "giant robots" all your life. Did you not have your powers before you got here?

[ He pauses and squints in suspicion. ]

...Wait. I forgot to ask. Why are you hacking away at that thing? And why are there pillows on the lawn?

[planetary_bonds]

[Yusei shakes his head no.]

That makes sense...but no. I didn't have any special abilities before I got here.

[Oh. Right. That.]

It seems like the locals saw fit to put some kind of shrine to their local god or something in the house. Didn't like it.

[Pause.]

Although, if you want to keep the pillows, you can have them...

requisite gremlinry

[dragony]

[ Jeopardy doesn't sleep much. She had a sense of that, before she relocated; the hum of energy from the plant, the strange specters at the edge of her vision unwilling to be focused upon, the mood of the people in the daylight hours. In a strange way, she feels like she fits in alright here — a place built from a severed, suddenly-remembered history, a place at odds with all around it, with strange values and eerie occupants. It is a place that doesn't belong. It suits her, in all the wrong ways. Predictably, she hates it here.

The pain came later, but it persists. A dull burn along her right arm, pulsing with a heartbeat's throb that doesn't match her own, more-anxious tempo. It's not the familiar flare of her brother's return, and it's not the sear of danger. It is somewhere else. Illegible now, for the length it's been since she had to decipher any other meaning from it, and for how much effort she expends not to focus on it. It's persisted for days.

She is not conscious of following the thread of it. It's somewhere in the vicinity of three, four am — that transient time, where the only people out are the ones with nowhere to go, and nowhere to be. For her, it's both, but pain persists, and anxiety persists, and an occupied house is a stuffy environment when the hearts of dreams are crowding in the vents. So she's been out, driving through the city and outside it, running away from something she can't put into words.

In the end, she arrives here. The building throws more light from its windows into the parking lot than its fixed posts do, and peeling in to a close spot casts her into much sharper illumination. Sure, it's likely Yusei wouldn't pay much attention to the comings and goings of people at a time like this, but it is a nice bike — black underbody to slim the profile, red upper, curved and plated and almost animalistic in form. Custom-designed, by the shape of it, and custom-built, from the sound of it.

She kills the engine. She dismounts. Her hands fuss with the fastening strap of her helmet, but she stops. Tenses. Sudden. Like a doe catching the nearby crack of a gunshot.

The pain persists. Anxiety intensifies.

Even if Yusei does not move, or say anything, her head snaps his direction, her own face still masked by the wind visor, but her tension reads clear in her posture. ]

Who's there?

changes yusei's username to ``gremlinry`` to match ruka's

[planetary_bonds]

[It's odd. For all he'd come to recognize the mark as something that bound them all together, had felt the burn so keenly back home...there's no resounding twinge, not even a dull ache in answer to hers. It's almost ironic.

He's not aware of what drives this person here as a result, feels no resounding anxiety beat hard in his chest that doesn't belong to him, nor does he care. Rather, in an almost sardonic inversion of Ruka's mood, he's irritated at the interruption, caring nothing for it. No one's ever accused Yusei of giving too many fucks, but the complete lack of them is almost apathetic. It's that transitory mood that comes with being alert at 3 AM, the time of night that only exists as a buffer between midnight and sunrise, only intensified by how long he's been awake so far - a week, at least? He'd lost count.

Unbeknownst to him, his eyes glitter strangely as he hunches his shoulders to deliberately stir his can of tuna cat food, as if trawling through the slop would provide all the answers this new arrival seeks. It only serves to make his silhouette more inhuman, more eerie to anyone who's still unused to the comings and goings of Jeopardy. The cats(?) around him seem to pick up on his mood, their sinuous tails suddenly stiff and alert, eyes wide open as many of them choose to turn and look in Ruka's direction.

The overall effect is somewhat off-putting, even if it is unintentional.

It's only broken when Yusei tilts his head to get a better look at who called him out. He can't get a good read on the person, only make a guess at how high-strung they seem to be. But the bike itself garners more interest: red, oddly-shaped. It brings back fond memories. So he's inclined to answer a little less rudely than usual.]

...Who wants to know?

[...He's still being hella rude, though.]

gremliny is also good. hangry would also be acceptable tbh

[dragony]

[ There's a moment that hangs, silent save for the thrum of electricity around them and the noises of the stray... whatever they are, lingering in the darkness. Ruka stays planted where she is, jaw tight, one gloved hand curling into a fist and stretching out, trying to stave off the ache. It hurts worse, now. It burns — but the light it emits is cut off, smothered beneath a habitual bracer for that specific purpose. There's no neon sign for him to read, to catch her name.

She takes a breath, and walks towards the flickering darkness.

The girl that approaches isn't too strange, at a glance. The footsteps each have a two-beat step — high heeled boots give her a couple inches, but she's still a small woman in the physical sense. Red shoes; red jacket, fastened for the ride; red gloves that go up her arms beneath the sleeves; red helmet, visor down. There are only a few things that break up the blood-hue of her attire. The riding shorts, black, which end well over the knee, so the bare expanse between that and ankle is exceedingly bright in comparison — a deliberate choice, to direct focus. The other is a small splash of color on her helmet: a hand-stenciled heart in pale green.

It's not until crosses the edge of the street light's flickering circle that she stops; he'll see the tilt at her neck as she looks him over, and his ... "cats" ... and the state of him. Her fingers twitch, and after a long, silent moment, she pushes up her visor. Unlike this guy, her eyes don't glow, and also she only seems to have the one. The other is shadowed. ]

I asked first. [ Her expression is intense, eye narrow for focus — like trying to decipher a code with only part of the key. ] ... You look like shit.

[ Helping. ]

gremliny matches syllable count better

[planetary_bonds]

[When the light actually manages to stay on for longer than a few seconds, the glow in his eyes vanishes. There's no visible glint of recognition to replace them as he looks her over, no remaining strangeness to renew the mysterious air about him when the light reveals him for who he really is. A sad, strange hobo surrounded by weird-ass cats.

Compared to him, Ruka is far better put together. Even so, he only glances vaguely at her legs; as if observing them was just an incidental happenstance on his way to looking up at her helmeted face.

Red, red, red. He's starting to get sick of that color, and he doesn't really know why. He shrugs, more to get the encroaching feeling off of him than to actually give an answer.]

Better than actually being shit, I'd think.

[...Yusei, that comeback was awful, and you know it. You're tireder than you thought.]

I'm no one important.

tru...

[dragony]

[ There's no recognition in his eyes, and no flicker of it in his chest. There's no response to the call of her mark, still burning along her skin. There's no confusion, no unease — no tentative sense of uncertain familiarity. All he sees is a stranger.

Of course. With the bond severed like this, how could he recognize her voice? How would he know her face? He doesn't look any older than the others she's known; no older than the one she met, when she was still a child. He's the age she is now. If eight years, ten years had aged him, then maybe he would look for her in a meeting like this, but as it is... how could he? Why would he?

She loops her thumbs into the belt loops of her jacket, and takes a breath, and hopes the tremor in her heart will stay hidden inside her ribs. She shrugs her shoulders. ]

So you say, but it doesn't make it true.

[ If she tells him the truth, how much damage will it do? How much hardship will her existence burden him with, if he learns the scope of it?

... If she doesn't tell him, would he ever make the connection? She's made mentions of her past to people before, mentions here and there, but would he ever find them? Would he ever look? If she doesn't tell him, can she protect him from the pain of it? ]

You're new around here, aren't you? To this dimension.

[planetary_bonds]

[The real answer to that can never be guessed, but it could be inferred. How much does she recall of those scant few weeks? How much grief does she remember him shouldering in a single night? How much does she know of his almost absurd ability to blame - to blame and blame and blame he, himself, and no one else; and yet still manage to somehow have enough room in his heart to shelter everyone else's hurt, their hate, their despair?

Maybe very little. Maybe only the idealized memories of a twelve year old who could still reenact the adventures of Narnia, who could still at least pretend to know of innocence. Maybe the Yusei she remembers is more of a shimmering white knight; rather than the squalid, grimy mess that snorts at her question, openly sardonic and meeting her question with a wry glance.

Who knows what the future could bring, or how fruitful her endeavors would be to shape it?]

How'd you guess?

[The cats at his shoulder...purr, in a sense. They sound more like the rumbling of a motor, the deep throaty growl of an irate beast. Like they, too, are impatient at this exchange of words, this dancing around the subject, the paltry attempt at niceties. ]

[dragony]

[ deadpan: ] The locals are weird, but they're not "eat cat food in a parking lot with chopsticks," weird. They'd just use their hands. Or a fork.

[ Her head cants a little, attention drifting to one of the "cats" — she doesn't need empathy to sense their mood, transmitted as easily as it is in their body language, in the strange noises they make.

Don't get attached, she wants to say, but she doesn't know who it's meant for. ]

Should I bother asking again, or do you not have a name to give, in the first place?

[planetary_bonds]

[Oddly enough, the comment gets Yusei to actually look at his can for a split second, a quick darting glance to confirm the label before shrugging and taking another bite.]

If it works, it works.

[For once, Ruka doesn't need to worry. The "cats" just seem interested in the food, and Yusei's only tolerating them because he's tired as shit. When morning comes, this will just have been a transitory meeting, a pit stop to be forgotten.

Speak for yourself, they'd likely say if they could. Maybe their eyes already speak volumes of truth without needing the words. If so, then it'd be no wonder they look on human interaction with such disdain.]

It's not a name worth having, but if you insist.

[And yet, he doesn't actually go on, instead opting to give a cat another mouthful - does that can even have a bottom? Shouldn't he have run out of food by now?

Like he's giving her another chance to back out, to pretend this chance encounter never happened.]