ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies

[psychofailed]

WHO: Shinya Kogami and Aerith Gainsborough
WHERE: Just outside of the rec center where Kogami works
WHEN: idk nowish?
WHAT: Just two people who don't know each other's names hanging out, nbd
WARNINGS: Probably none.


[Kogami walked to work, today.

In itself, that wouldn't be remarkable. He used to walk there at the beginning, before he'd familiarized himself with the bus routes. But public transportation felt too cramped and noisy for him, today.

What's more, public transportation meant close-quarters proximity with too many people for the duration of the ride, and that's something Kogami's nerves aren't suited to today, at least not without the aid of certain nicotine sticks.

It's perhaps a little foolish, to feel anxious about something he'd done a hundred times before in the month before Tsunemori arrived, but it's his first time going back out in public on his own after they had decided that keeping up their old arrangement of Inspector and Enforcer, with her escorting him everywhere wasn't working out. Somehow, the presence of an Inspector here in Pennsylvania with him makes the whole situation that much more real.

Just as before, though, he doesn't really know what to do with his freedom now that he has it again. He's not really been able to accept the idea of building a life here for himself, still in that phase of waiting to be sent home and finish what he set out to do three years ago.

It's not just the freedom weighing on his mind, though; it's Tsunemori herself, and a sort of bone-deep pensiveness about whether or not she'll regret trusting him like this. She reminds him painfully of himself, when he was younger, and look at him now--a wreck of a person with a ruined hue and a ruined life.

He's sitting out on a bench outside at his break, clearly lost in these thoughts, but he recognizes Aerith when she walks by, and he sits up a little straighter, turning to face her.]

...It's you. [He exhales out a puff of smoke, away from her, of course.] You live in Maurtia Falls?

Comments

[23wishes]

Ah?

[Aerith looks down at the man sitting on the bench, gears turning in her mind. It's the cigarette that reminds her first.]

The guy from FanPort!

[She smiles, pretty obviously happy to see him again.]

I'm from Nonah, actually. I just visit here a lot.

[It's not that she has friends in Maurtia Falls, or a job, or anything - it just reminds her of home. True, she never liked Midgar much but being away from her own world gave her a sort of weird nostalgia from the slum she grew up in. Midgar and Maurtia Falls are equally seedy, have the same dive bars and drug dealers...

It's... very strangely nice for her.

And she can handle herself fine, so it's not an issue.]

[psychofailed]

[He only nods to confirm her assertion, because someone's sure forgotten he never offered his name back at fanport.]

That so? You have friends here, then?

[Kogami doesn't actually think of Maurtia Falls as a place to visit just for fun. He doesn't actively dislike living here, but it's strange for him, how obviously on edge people tend to be, how people are perfectly willing to commit crimes right out in the open with no fear or hesitation. It's the exact opposite of the society he came from, so maybe that's why it is uncomfortable for him just as it's nostalgic for her.]

[23wishes]

None at all!

[It's pretty cheerfully announced, all things considered. Though it would be nice if she did. Then she'd have more excused to visit.

Aerith invites herself to sit down next to Kogami, settling her basket on her lap. There's only a few flowers in it - there's room for many more, but her garden isn't big enough yet to offer her much to sell.]

By the way, do you want to buy a flower?

[psychofailed]

[So she just...likes it here? It seems odd to him, given how clear her own Hue is--that she would like to spend time in this crime-filled city with various kinds of stressed out and on-edge people. Holdovers of social conditioning from before he became a latent criminal himself, perhaps.

Kogami's once again distracted by those thoughts when Aerith asks her question. He looks up, with a blink before his mind catches up to his ears.]

Mm? ...What would I do with a flower?

[That's...sort of a genuine question. He's genuinely unsure what possible reason he'd have to buy a flower, but at least it's...not a direct no?]

[23wishes]

[It's a weird, but valid question, and she can tell Kogami didn't mean it to be rude. People back in the slums sometimes asked the same thing.]

Well, it's pretty. You could put it in a vase on your desk or next to your bed and seeing it will make you happy.

[She hums to herself, thinking.]

Or you could hang it up and dry it, or press it in a book.

[So: not much.]

I'll only charge you... hmm... two dollars.

[psychofailed]

...It'll make me happy, huh.

[Heh. If only Hues were quite so simple, back home.]

I still have work for a couple more hours, but come by my place around seven, if you're going to be in town for awhile today. Government housing, #6. My housemate might like one, too.

[23wishes]

[Aerith's soft smile turns up and then erupts out into a giggle.]

You move fast. We haven't even been on a date yet.

[Now, she knows that's not what he means. But Kogami's also a stick in the mud and she's pretty sure it'll be easy (and funny) to ruffle his feathers a bit. But he might also change his mind after that, which is why she quickly adds:]

I'll be there.

[She stands up and straightens her skirt out. She can go grab lunch or something.]

[psychofailed]

[Too bad!!! Cause this stick-in-the-mud isn't quite so easy to fluster. He even smirks a little bit in response.]

We can add dinner, if that'd help.

[Not that Kogami even knows how to cook, but details.]

[23wishes]

[Wow, it's almost a shame he can fire right back at her like that. Buuut free dinner with a cute guy kinda makes up for it.]

Well...

Okay.

But nothing fancy, okay? I don't have time to go home and change.

[AERITH LIKE THAT WAS EVEN AN OPTION...]

[psychofailed]

That's okay. You already look pretty cute.

[KOGAMI SHINYA.]

[23wishes]

I think so too.

[Aerith, this isn't the way you're expected to act in these kinds of situations...]

I hope you're a good cook~

[You wouldn't want to disappoint a girl on the first date, right?]

timeskip to her showing up at his place?

[psychofailed]

You'll just have to wait and see.

[ahahahaha it's gonna be a disaster and Kagari will have to save his bacon + presumably laugh at him for months to come.]

[23wishes]

I'll be there.

[And she is! Though she's probably a couple minutes late, just because she walked there. Government housing 6 was easy to remember, at least, because that's Aerith's same address, just all the way back in Nonah. Nonah, which is pretty far away, actually...

It's not that she thought Kogami was dangerous or anything, but she still made sure to tell people where she'd be tonight.

Ding dong, Kogami, open up.]

[psychofailed]

[Tbh he'd appreciate your common sense, gurl. He may or may not have had a minor existential crisis that time that Matthew kid just blindly followed him when he was lost with only Kogami's word as evidence of his good intentions.

Anyway. When Aerith rings the doorbell, he calls out just a minute from inside before trotting on over to the front door and letting her in. He's dressed nicer now than he was before, wearing a crisp white shirt under a black jacket, slacks, and tie. He's only wearing socks, though, since they're not going out.]

Hey, come in.

[He steps aside from the doorway to let her inside, though if she happens to be wearing any manner of coat he's not offering to take it since what is being a gentleman, lmao.

He looks over his shoulder to offer a faintly self-deprecating grin, though]

Make yourself comfortable, food's not going to be ready for awhile. I may or may not have made the first attempt explode and I'm pretty sure Kagari needs time to finish laughing his ass off before he can redo it for me.

[23wishes]

[Aerith's fine waiting there patiently once she hears Kogami inside. It's definitely a relief, not that she expected him to ditch her or give her a fake address. Well... actually, that could have been a possibility. Get rid of this weird girl who keeps bothering him. She's glad he's still playing along with her.

When he opens the door, she (badly) suppresses a giggle. He looks just like one of the Turks. He probably doesn't even know what those are. He'd laugh if he did. Or maybe he wouldn't. Is he even the laughing type?

She very blatantly looks Kogami up and down (he's pretty cute actually), then smiles.]

You look really good.

[Her eyes linger on his feet for a moment as she steps inside and stops right there.]

Should I take my boots off?

[That's a thing in Wutai, right? And from what she's pieced together, the Wutai in her world is kind of similar enough to this world's Asia. She's not going to risk offending anyone.

--Oh, he was talking through that.

She sniffs the air, then giggles at the faint smell of something burnt, though it's kind of faint now.]

I don't know... Is it safe? If I sit down, is the stove going to explode behind me~?

[psychofailed]

[One would think he'd have gotten used to being giggled at, with the various teenage girls in that meditation class of his, but that actually does fluster him mildly, unlike her teasing about the date. Kogami recovers quickly enough, though, and shrugs mildly at her question.]

You can if you want.

[He and Tsunemori do it, since it is in fact a thing for them, but they never bothered telling Yuri to do it too. Ah, and she's teasing again. This he can handle, even coupled with the return of the giggling.]

The stove's pretty safe. [Because he has literally no idea how to even turn it on.] It's the microwave you have to watch out for.

[23wishes]

[Well, she's going to anyway. Better safe than sorry. Besides, Aerith's boots aren't clean. Or new. Or fancy. She doesn't want to track mud in from gardening, but also... they're much more function than form.

Once her boots are tucked safely out of the way, she heads inside and starts making herself comfortable, like Kogami told her to. She takes a look around, but she doesn't snoop too much. She's just curious, and they've got plenty of time to waste.]

A microwave... That's going to be an embarrassing death to explain to my ancestors.

[After a few moments of wandering, Aerith eventually plops down onto a couch. She looks over to him in a way that implies she expects him to join her.]

You know, it's funny... I don't know anything about you. What's your world like?

[psychofailed]

[He smirks faintly at that mental image.]

You'll never be able to live it down.

[Get it? Haha, he's so punny. He stands around while she investigates his living room, then follows when Aerith sits down on the couch.]

Mm? Well, it's pretty similar to this version of earth in most ways. The history is about the same up until the Cold War, which ended back home when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. That was over a century ago for us, though, so our technology has grown more advanced, too. You wouldn't see all these paper books around, anymore, for one thing. They've mostly gone digital--the paper ones are like rare antiques, now. Not to mention all the superpowers and such don't exist outside of fiction, for us.

[And of course, then there's the Sybil System, but he's not so sure he wants to get into that, honestly. Not because he wants to hide it or because he's ashamed, because he's openly talked about it all before. It's just...people here don't tend to have particularly positive reactions to the idea, and he's realizing that the last thing he wants to deal with right now is this girl feeling sorry for him. So he skips it, this time, and asks, instead:]

What about yours?

[23wishes]

[Did he just say he was from the future? It's not the most unusual thing Aerith's heard, but it's up there, somewhere around two entirely different kinds of vampires coexisting and the variety of domestic dogs here.]

Well, "superpowers" and magic are pretty normal for my world.

[She raises a hand, curling her fingers around a wisp of blue-green glowing magic before it dissipates.]

Our technology is kind of half-and-half. Our cars look more like the cars you'd see in old movies in this world because we focused on making airships instead. But because of all the development, it's really polluted. Everything is so much cleaner and prettier here. My flowers are so happy.

[No mention of the Lifestream for her, either. Not because- Well, actually, yes, because she wants to hide it. Things are going so well, and that could so easily spiral into a hundred different terrible first date subjects. "I'm not really completely human and I was a lab rat because of that so that I could one day use my powers to ruin the world more than it already was, against my will" isn't something she needs too many people to know. Besides, she'd hate it if he pitied her.]

[psychofailed]

[No, he feels you. Time travel shenanigans are factually bullshit, not nearly as cool as in Kagari's movies, F-- 0/10 would not recommend.

He's about to ask about whether by "airships" she means "planes" or something more like the zeppelins of old, when she says the thing about her flowers. Kogami opens his mouth, closes it, then gets that one distinctive really pinched expression like he's trying really hard not to a.) lapse into that mild hysteria of the "I have gone fucking insane" variety or b.) say something that he might/probably would later regret.]

...Your flowers are sentient?

[Was he going to buy a sentient flower???? He's pretty sure he cannot Deal with that.]

[23wishes]

U-um.

[Her cheeks flush bright red. NO ONE USUALLY QUESTIONS COMMENTS LIKE THAT? EVERYONE ALWAYS JUST THINKS SHE'S A WEIRD HIPPIE. EVEN HER FIRST BOYFRIEND.

Now she has to quickly decide whether or not it's worth telling him the truth so early on. This world has made it a bit easier for Aerith to open up about her Cetra blood, just because there's so many other non-humans running around... but still only to certain people.

But...

It's not like this guy knows anything about her as it is. They don't even know each other's names. Revealing things now might ruin the fun, but this can't go on forever, anyway...

She clears her throat.]

No, it's not that. I can hear them.

[psychofailed]

[There were magic healing sparkleflowers on his first day here, man. He's got to ask these things.

Her answer doesn't make any more sense to him than sentient flowers, though. He can't even begin to unpack that, even with all of his literary and philosophical nerdery.

On the plus side, he only looks confused, not horrified or disturbed or anything else she might have been worried about.]

What do you mean?

[23wishes]

[Aerith puffs up, lips pursed.]

Everyone here has powers and that's mine! Is it that big of a deal?

[Her cheeks are flushed and her arms are crossed. What business of his is it if she's Cetra or not? Why are stern dark-suited guys always bothering her about this? What kind of coincidence is that? How annoying.]

[psychofailed]

[...Huh. He wasn't expecting the defensiveness.]

I guess not.

[Beat.]

...I don't really know anything about taking care of flowers, is all.

[So, uh. If you can ~telepathically sense~ their happiness and such maybe he shouldn't buy one after all because it'd be miserable probably and he doesn't need another thing to feel guilty over.]

[23wishes]

[... Well. She'll let it go. Chalk it up to other-world weirdness that'll just never translate correctly. It's PROBABLY not his fault.]

It's not hard. Most of them aren't too picky.

[Aerith you should probably stop, he's already uncomfortable.]

So... What can you do? If your world doesn't have magic and stuff, were you one of the people that got powers from coming here?