[ open ] have you ever wondered

[lyingheart]

WHO: Annie Leonhart & OPEN
WHERE: NONAH, HEROPA, anywhere
WHEN: 1st - 16th of May
WHAT: Annie takes Rex out for runs; Annie carries a giant stuffed squid; anything else is in the cards.
WARNINGS: n/a

NONAH | IN NONAH, DOG WALKS YOU
[ There's an almost full grown brittany spaniel trotting up to you holding its own leash in its mouth. Annie's still sprinting up the path Rex had taken off up ahead of her; she rounds the bend even as Rex sits in front of you and wags his tail.

He's a good boy, right? Right? Give his head a pet, he's taking one of his owners out running. He's such a good boy. ]

Rex! Stay!

HEROPA, A TRAIN, THEN NONAH | I'M 10,000 FEET AWAY FROM THE SEA
[ Don't ask. Annie has no good story to tell for why this has happened, but it has.

And she is walking down the sidewalk with a giant stuffed squid in her arms. It is so large she can't keep its arms from dragging on the ground behind her, mostly because each time she's wrapped them around herself a few have come loose anyway.

This is Annie, resigned, all of five feet tall and carting along a squid that's twenty feet of stuffed, tentacled goodness. And if you end of stepping on a tentacle: ]

... Will you get off the tentacle please?

[ Whereas if she runs into you at an intersection, she might ask: ]

Will you hit the cross signal button?

[ Or if you catch her on the train, she may simply throw tentacles across the seat in front of her and sit next to the darn thing with an unimpressed look on her face. ]

WILDCARD
[ Hit me up via PM and I can start something out for us, or make up your own here and roll on out! ]

Comments

I'm sorry again 8') I've been really behind lately

[hunterrabbit]

You didn't...come all the way out here just to get this, did you? [It's an awfully long trip for a squid??

Once the "walk" sign finally pops up across the street, Touka scoots around behind Annie to keep any of the tentacles from colliding with the oncoming crowds of people.]

you're okay! i know how that can be

[lyingheart]

... I was heading to Heropa on other business. Coworkers asked me to pick this up and bring it back.

[ One car honks as they cross the road. Otherwise, they make the other side without incident. ]p

I hadn't realised it was so... large.

;w;

[hunterrabbit]

[Touka raises one of her hands to flip the offending car off. YEAH THEY HAVE A GIANT SQUID- WHAT OF IT?]

Eh, I don't think it's something you can really anticipate. Except for your co-workers, I guess. [Just what...kind of is this for, she wonders.]

And they left you to lug it back by yourself.

[lyingheart]

I don't think they knew it was going to be this big.

[ Or they're playing a trick on her, but she suspects someone didn't pay attention to proportions and listed sizes of donations, bizarre as this one was. ]

Or there'd probably be someone stalking with a camera. That sounds like the modern thing to do.

[hunterrabbit]

No stalkers right now. I'm so used to dealing with Kaneki's- I'm sure I would've noticed something by now. [Ok, she probably would've noticed anyone who was straight up following them. It's hard not to be conscious of that sort of thing.]

[lyingheart]

[ Same with Annie - though rather than say that, she makes it a partly jesting statement: ]

Ken's stalkers, or his stalking?

[ It's funny because it's not funny at all... ]

[hunterrabbit]

........Both. [Sigh.]

I wonder he thinks we don't notice. Or- actually, he probably just doesn't care. [And carries on with it anyway.]

[lyingheart]

His concept of protection is stifling.

[ And annoying, to be honest. Annie shifts the squid, winding through the scant crowd of people walking on the sidewalk today. ]

[hunterrabbit]

It's awful. But I'd rather deal with this than him never showing his face.

[And Touka continues to glare at anyone who gives them a funny look.]

[lyingheart]

Ah... so he's worse after all this than before. Whatever changed for him... with him, changed him more deeply than even becoming a half-ghoul.

[ She'd witnessed what those breakdowns looked like. The Ken of these days, these months, is broken in a different way now. ]

[hunterrabbit]

...Yeah. You're right. I guess he didn't actually change a whole lot after becoming a half-ghoul...[Of course- he'd just been a customer to Touka before that, so it's hard to guess the extent of any changes. Other than his outlook on ghouls. That was something she got to see firsthand.]

His personality didn't change, anyway. Not like it did this time.

[lyingheart]

Trauma changes people. There are different levels.

[ She shifts the squid again in her arms, sighing out in a soft way. ]

He lost pigment in his hair. I've heard of that happening with people who go through big mental shocks.

[hunterrabbit]

I was part of a rescue raid, so...I have an idea of what happened, at least. [And there's what her brother, Ayato, had said too. That Kaneki'd been with "Yamori"...And that Yamori was a "torture-loving pervert".

Touka frowns and squeezes the squid tentacles that're in her arms.]

[lyingheart]

[ Annie hits another crosswalk, aiming to take them through the park and toward the train station. She glances back, making a noise of acknowledgement. She doesn't speak again until the crosswalk colors white and mimics someone walking - such a silly symbol in her eyes. ]

What was going on?

[hunterrabbit]

He got himself kidnapped. By a group of ghouls. [Which is the short version.]

One of the-...[she hesitates as the memory of Ayato flashes back in her mind. It's...not an easy one to remember.] ...one of the ghouls there told me about the man who was in charge of Kaneki. And that he...[some hesitation again] liked torturing his subordinates.

[lyingheart]

[ Confirming what she's suspected for a while without hearing directly from Ken. Annie looks down toward her feet, which doesn't work: the squid is in her way. ]

There's a bench up ahead, isn't there?

[ There's a park. The park has benches near the entrance. She wants to sit for a moment - this is her way to invite Touka to do as much too. ]

[hunterrabbit]

Ah- yeah...A break might be good. [Just her, Annie and the squid sitting between them on a bench. What a mental image.

And one that quickly becomes reality.

When they sit down, Touka fusses with some of the tentacles- trying to find a happy medium between sitting comfortably and not letting them flop onto the ground.]

I wish he didn't feel like he has to hide something like that.

[lyingheart]

[ Annie looks comical with her arms wrapped around a head and torso bigger than her own. So it goes.

So far it goes. ]

Ken's never been that forthcoming. If he's not keeping it in, he's burdening himself with what he probably thinks is too heavy for anyone else to help carry. Nothing to be done for it, unless you want to beat it through his head that it's not the only way.

[ Not that she thinks that works as a purely physical endeavor, but a physical side to it helps. ]

[hunterrabbit]

[You could sit on it, it might make a good pillow]

Ah. I already did that once, actually. Back home when I saw him for the first time in six months.

But the next time I saw him after that was here, and...at least he's not avoiding me anymore.

[lyingheart]

[ with her luck some wandering import with stuffed animal powers would make it come alive, and then it'd be attack of the squid versus titan shifter. ]

... That's like an improvement.

[ she says, dry in tone. ]

If he's actually learned any of why it's annoying to be avoided like that. Not that stalking's great. That's irritating too.

[hunterrabbit]

Hell yeah it is. But he's been doing the stalking for a while now. [She reaches into her pocket and takes out a little rabbit keychain.]

Unless some other eyepatched kid gave this to my friend to deliver on my birthday.

[lyingheart]

I guess that depends how many eye-patched kids you know.

[ She says, looking over at the rabbit keychain. ]

Why a rabbit?

[hunterrabbit]

It's probably cause he saw a couple of my drawings. [Which happened to look a lot like the keychain] And, ah... you know...the little coffee designs too? In the cream. I'd made a few that were rabbits.

[lyingheart]

... You can do that?

[ Genuine, honest surprise right here. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC ARTISTRY? ]

[hunterrabbit]

[Her surprise is kind of cute, because it's so genuine. It makes Touka smile, at any rate.] What- the coffee thing? Yeah, I'll show you sometime. Anyone could do it with practice.