414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Dec 9, 2018 19:30:00 GMT -4
It had been a long time since Emi had resorted to thinly-veiled threats, and never on something that wasn’t working for her family. On one hand, trickery and intimidation was very un-heroic and not something to be proud of. On the other hand… she was surprised and a little excited that it worked. Luck had been on her side once again. The much-too-mysterious Robin Engell had practically gone out of his way to out himself. If he’d kept quiet, the viral video and growing threat of violence would had stopped her from chasing the mystery that was the second Robin… But he’d grabbed her attention with some suspicious texts, and she needed the distraction.
That was how she’d ended up in an unassuming restaurant, on what was perhaps the worst day possible for her to be outside. While Chimera had been the star, Emi had never been shy about plastering her face all over her channel. The chances of her being recognised were high, in her eyes, which was why she’d taken a few steps to disguise herself. Sure, if somebody was looking specifically for Emi, they would find her salmon fringe poking out of her hat, and topaz eyes hiding behind red spectacles. To Japan’s general public, however, she was just another patron – and that was exactly what she wanted to be for the day.
Still, she’d given Robin enough information to find her. He had a time and place, and few girls wore a cabbie hat, let alone one with a pair of horns atop it. Perhaps he would think it was fitting, considering how she had arranged the meeting. He might have even been right! But Emi was willing to accept a few insults if it led her to a breakthrough. She could already assume that whatever his secret was, it wasn’t totally life-threatening. If he had been some sort of military spy or his life was in danger, he probably wouldn’t have agreed to meet at all. Then again, he might have meant to trap her. She’d made that as difficult as possible too. The restaurant was famed for its specialties, served at a very reasonable price. That meant that the interior was no-frills, and almost packed with guests enjoying their meals. Nobody would listen in on their talk, but everybody would notice a scene.
She’d done as much as she could have without being gripped by paranoia, in her eyes. All she had to do was wait, passing the time with a glass of iced matcha in one hand and her phone in the other. Scrolling through U.A’s student chatroom was a pain, but it was the only way she’d ever spoken to the boy, and so it was the best place to start an investigation. Perhaps the mystery of Robin Engell would be her next hit.
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Dec 12, 2018 2:35:10 GMT -4
Vlogging is such a stupid word, he thinks.
It’s a stupid word for a stupid concept. It doesn’t even make sense as a word– it’s playing off the word “blog,” but can be pronounced “v-log,” which people only do because “vl” isn’t even an English sound. Everyone will pick sides without realizing the truth – that you can say the word two different ways, he screams in his head, and neither of them are right. No matter which option you choose, you’re inevitably wrong. In both forms, vlogging is the wrong answer.
In both forms, he’s found himself trapped.
With her eyes on her phone, she hears the scrape of metal on tile as Robin sits across, bundled practically in heavy winter wear. There’s silence for a long while, void filled with static from ambient voices and the chime of utensils on plates. Cheek rested on his fist, warped and molded by the contact. He glares, a hard shell to hide fear.
“Your hat looks dumb,” he suddenly breaks that void, “and it makes me think you’re way too self-aware about this whole thing.”
Two hours hadn’t been wasted – paranoia and fear blended and reacted, exploded in his face as the lines drawn between official acknowledgment of the female Robin Engell and the timing of her questions sent his heart to his brain, beating quick, uncontrolled. He’d spoken rashly, without plan or nerves, and tipped his hand.
But in two hours, he’d gathered himself, he thinks. Written a story, drafted a plan.
“So,” he starts, shuts his eyes, makes an effort to look relaxed.
“I see you’ve learned about my stalker ex-girlfriend.”
‘This is the worst fucking plan I’ve ever had.’
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Dec 12, 2018 16:05:56 GMT -4
“Oh, hold on a second.” She’d had to scroll quite a ways back to refresh her memory, and in the end, there wasn’t much insight there… But Emi figured it was good to keep what little information she had in mind anyway. She looked up just as he spoke, bearing a smile that was either painfully oblivious or all too aware of the situation. Probably the latter. Mr Tachibana was a perfectly legitimate businessman, but that didn’t mean he was above coercion. In his eyes, it was a skill to help in every walk of life, and so he’d made sure to share the basics of the art with his daughter. She kept the first two rules in mind: keep in control, and make sure the other person knows you’re in control.
“Hm… Well, I like it a lot! And lots of my followers do too. I’ve got five like this, you know. One for winter, one for super-cold winter, one for summer, you know the deal. I was thinking, if I get really famous, I might start my own merch line of these. The signature Emi look!” Whether she forgot to or didn’t care to respond to his other comment was anybody’s guess. She let him continuing, quirking an eyebrow as he gave his alibi. “Hey, hey, Robin-san… Where are your manners?” She put on her best frowny-face as she flipped her phone over, placing it face-down on the table. “We’re meeting for the first time! No handshake, no introduction… You didn’t even look at the menu! I told you the food here was good and everything!”
She slowly shook her head, and yet, the ghost of a smile remained. “Just jumping straight to it, then… Fine, fine. But I want to order soon.” She paused, drawing her finger across her open menu. A crazy ex-girlfriend wasn’t quite what she was expecting, but it wasn’t entirely ridiculous either. In the age of superheroes, anything could happen.
At the same time, he’d already tried to lie to her once before.
“Ex-girlfriend…? Sounds cool. I like gossip, in case you couldn’t tell!” She leaned forward in her seat, watching the boy with curious, almost playful eyes. An interrogation would reveal the truth, she figured – about the mysterious girl, and about Robin himself. “Tell me about her. Her name, what she looks like. Her quirk, if she has one? Well, I guess she must have one if she’s at Yuei. What’s she like? Besides being a stalker, I mean. I guess it’d be nice to know why she’s stalking you too.”
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Dec 14, 2018 18:16:08 GMT -4
His body’s tense, frozen in a pose that looks casual only in a still frame. One eyebrow twitches.
“Gomen. I’m not really in a spot where I’m too worried about being polite. Her name is...”
One tensed finger taps his cheek.
‘Uh...’
“… Robin...”
That casual pose becomes strained, like loose cloth wrapped tight over skin.
‘UH...’
“… Wiiilliiiams...”
’OH MY GOD YOU’RE WORTHLESS’
“W- We shared a name, so that’s how we met. Her quirk is...”
Mental images flashing through from that day, actions taken on camera, anything that he could claim as a quirk.
“She can see in the dark. It’s really low level, not really hero material. She’s not actually a student, but she, uh – well, she’s really attached, really dependent. She didn’t take the break-up really well. I know she was trying to impersonate me in America, but I had no idea she followed me to Japan – that’s why I got so worked up in chat when you brought her up. She definitely knows I’m at UA, so –”
One eye creaks open, strained and pressured, desperate, twitching in tune with another stray hand rising alongside. A flat vertical palm, a Japanese gesture memorized from anime.
“I’d really appreciate you keeping it under wraps, for my safety if nothing else. Onegai.”
As hard as he tries, he struggles. Nerves suffocate reason and finesse – the promise of blackmail, of a camera overrides his liar’s skill.
That hand becomes a fan, waves away the topic but not his scowl.
“Anyway, uh, just order what you want. I’ll trust your judgment.”
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Dec 16, 2018 19:07:36 GMT -4
Blackmail was definitely a terrible, terrible thing to do. Underhanded, deplorable and just plain mean. And yet, she couldn’t deny that watching the boy before her squirm was much more entertaining than she’d thought. She kept a devilish cat-like smile on her face as he attempted to explain away the mysterious girl. Truth be told, there wasn’t much she could poke holes in. ‘My girlfriend from America’ was the kind of lie the class nerd in an anime would give, but there weren’t many ways for her to break through that testimony. She might have had to leave it at that, if not for his demeanour. He couldn’t keep a straight face, or look her in the eye, or even sit comfortably. Those weren’t the acts of an honest boy, or even one with an embarrassing secret.
“Yeah, yeah… I get the idea. Shared name is weird, but sure.” She paused for few seconds, pretending to give the menu a once-over. She’d already decided what she wanted on the way there – she just needed to get her words in order. “Let’s just run through the rest quickly, shall we?” She fixed her eyes on him. The questions came, fast and furious, and she answered without waiting for him to open his mouth. “Your ex-girlfriend, right? You don’t look much older than I do, Robin-san, so if you guys were together, it can’t have been that long ago. Where are all your lovey-dovey pictures? You got any to show? No, right, you deleted them all. Clingy, crazy ex-girlfriend. Why would you keep any of those? Online, then? On your FaceSpace? Oh, but you have yours locked down, right? Hiding from the crazy girl and all.”
That was a bit of a leap, she admitted to herself, but given his oddly vocal stance on his face being put online, and what little she could grasp from the article, she wouldn’t be surprised if he was a digital ghost. “Makes sense, makes sense. What about hers, then? She clearly loves you enough to cross oceans, so I bet she had plenty of pics up from your time together, and more personal details on it too. Ah, but I bet she’s hard to find on there as well. The article said so itself! Oh well, we’ll just have to find her on campus, since the only thing the journalists could find out about her was that she was a student at Yuuei!”
Emi quirked an eyebrow. From where she was sitting, Robin was telling at least one lie… And considering how badly he’d tried to pull the wool over her eyes over text, she was willing to bet there were many lies instead of just the one. “…You know, I don’t usually do all this. If I want to look into something, I just get up and do it. Find out what I want to find, and then report on it however I like.” Her first lie. Her vlogs hadn’t called for any ‘investigation’ yet, besides her interview with Chimera – and she’d spent a fair bit of time convincing him to willingly partake. “Was going to do that for this too. God knows I’ve got plenty of time at home now, waiting for all this video hype to die down. Last I checked, the video was at five million hits. Crazy, right? …Anyway. I’ve got a lot of time to burn all of a sudden, and I thought I had something to fill it with. But then you messaged, and I thought we could try something different. I’d take you out to eat – my treat – and you’d get a chance to come clean, so we can figure out where to go from there. …Doesn’t sound like you want things to work out that way, though.”
She let out a sigh, letting her eyes fall shut for a second. There was a good chance she was playing with fire. The article about ‘Robin’ was very opinionated, but nobody had come out and tried to deny the facts it laid out. One of them was that the other Robin Engell had some sort of mind control quirk, and there was every chance that it would be turned on her if she pushed too far. Her best bet at stopping that was to make sure they reached a resolution before they parted ways – before the by before her had a chance to meet with his cohort. “So let’s try again, shall we, Robin-san? The truth this time, before I make my order to-go. O-ne-gai.”
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Dec 18, 2018 21:11:39 GMT -4
“Where are all your lovey-dovey pictures? You got any to show?”
“I-”
“No, right, you deleted them all. Clingy, crazy ex-girlfriend. Why would you keep any of those?”
“R- Righ-”
“Online, then? On your FaceSpace?”
“N-”
“Oh, but you have yours locked down, right? Hiding from the crazy girl and all.”
“Uh… Uh huh.”
He gulps down nothing, no oasis in the desert.
“Tachibana-san, I’m begging you… This doesn’t make much sense to someone who lives their life through a lens, but some people have real reasons to hide, and it’s not malicious or important – I just don’t… Can I not have things I want to myself?”
Eyes and expression dull – he rests his chin on an arm, looks wistfully to the wall behind her.
“I don’t understand you. How does somebody live so willingly in the spotlight, you know? There’s nothing you’re ashamed of, no information you want to keep as only yours? You want everything available all the time to everyone, and that’s okay with you?”
“You must be stupid or stupid lucky to live without any sort of shame like that. Where every part of who you are is wrapped up ready to present by default.”
There’s a heavy pause between words.
“And honestly it kind of pisses me off that you think you’re entitled to know in the first place.”
Heavier pause now – he adjusts himself, moves his body and arm and face with gaze still locked fast to the far wall.
“How about we reverse this then – what do you know about the other Robin Engell? It’ll be a lot easier to set up my lie if I have everything laid out in front of me.”
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Dec 20, 2018 12:29:42 GMT -4
What game was he playing? Buying time until backup arrived? Channelling his quirk through words somehow? Trying to get her to say something incriminating? It had to be something, because it was much too late for him to try and appeal to her better nature. Whatever it was, it’d managed to wipe the smile off her face. Paired with a raised eyebrow, her expression had gone from playfully mocking to unamused.
The girl made a show of sighing. “You’ve got me all wrong, Robin-san. Which is pretty impressive, considering how much of myself I put out into the world. Guess you’re not much of a fan. A shame, but I can’t please everybody. That’s pretty naïve, though. Thinking I don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Everybody does. I spent most of my life hiding my quirk because I was told it was something I could never be proud of. So of course, I make it my business now to let everybody know that I am proud, and they should be proud too. I can’t do that if I’m hiding or holding back.”
She continued dancing around his questions, though talking did seem to ease her mood. “Everybody has a private life, even me. What interests me is that yours is very private, and you seem awfully invested in keeping it that way. I remember when I first popped into the student chatroom, how quick you were to let everybody know that I had a terrible idea. I guess you could say that you being so against the idea is what put me on your trail in the first place. What kept me on it is another story, but why should I start telling all when you won’t?”
“So I thought ‘what the heck, I can be nice about this, and I don’t have much else to do tonight. I’ll treat Robin-san to a nice meal and give him a chance to come clean, and we can work something out from there. Together.’ At least, I thought that was a solid plan, but you don’t seem to be on board…” Her eyes fell shut for a moment as she shook her head.
“If you wanted me to take your word for things, you shouldn’t have tried to feed me two different sets of lies… In as many hours. And insulted my hat, but I can forgive that. I mean, really? If you thought I was that stupid, why did you bother coming out here? Because right now, it feels like I came out to strike a deal, and you came to waste my time.” Or trap her. Then again, if he really did have the mind control quirk that the news claimed, wouldn’t he have used it already?
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Dec 28, 2018 23:06:49 GMT -4
She talks past him, and he speaks past her. Spoken words follow his gaze, past her head and into the aether behind and beyond.
“What’s your quirk, Tachibana-san? You’re in a hero program, so it must be something impressive. I’ll bet it’s something flashy, like ice manipulation, or useful like flight or strength or something. Or maybe it’s weird and niche – it doesn’t matter. My point is that…”
He sighs.
“My point is that it’s bound to be cool, right? Good enough to be a hero. If we were a hundred years in the past and you were fictional, you’d have a manga and a bunch of avid readers, and just because we have baseline humans afraid of quirks doesn’t change the fact that you have something inherently desireable, something dreamers and writers have always wanted.”
“What you are isn’t inherently…”
“Wrong.”
His free hand wanders, taps a the fork against the table – he fills his silence with a gentle rhythm, constant tapping in time with an imagined beat.
“… If you’re not satisfied, if the alternative is some hit piece… I can arrange it, if you want. A meeting.”
And those eyes, defeated and focused, flit from wall to hers, masked by a blink.
“With her. You can ask her whatever you want, and she’ll have an answer.”
He cracks a half-smile.
"You'd have to believe it if it comes from her, right?"
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Jan 3, 2019 14:37:54 GMT -4
There was that smirk again. “You’re half-right. I can see myself having a manga. But that’s only because I see myself having one a few years from now, anyway. Call it ambitious, but I think I’ve got pretty good odds.” She leaned in an inch further, growing a little less amused as she went on. “Not inherently wrong? You might have had a point, when superpowers were a fantasy. Unfortunately, looking at the past isn’t going to do either of us good right now. So, focusing on the present, are you really going to pretend there aren’t people that think there’s something wrong with both of us for existing? Or…” Her head tilted slightly, as if expecting a weak rebuttal. “Not that it matters much. I’m looking to fix all of that, one step at a time. So if whatever you two are up to stands to get in my way… Why wouldn’t I look into it?”
Another suggestion came up – one of much more interest to her. Her eyes showed less irritation and more curiosity… And then satisfaction. A meeting meant progress, which was more than she could say for their conversation. She almost agreed to it. Almost. Then came his smile, wiping any trace of happiness from her face. His grimace meant he felt under pressure. Conversely, anything close to a smile had to mean he had a plan… Or more lies.
Of course. If they had to meet later, he had plenty of time to make another alibi. A fool proof one, at that. She didn’t know anything worth believing about the girl, but it was safe to assume that she would be willing to plot with him. Sure, she would have time to make sense of his words (what did his ‘wrongness’ and shame have to do with anything?), and perhaps find an ally of her own… But they would be able to build up the perfect defence too. “A compromise, then. Why doesn’t she come here?” A raised eyebrow. “I don’t mind paying for three. And it sounds like she cares a lot about you, right? Maybe too much, if you’re telling the truth. I bet she’d drop everything to come down if you told her it was important.”
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Jan 15, 2019 4:24:39 GMT -4
He screws his eyes shut, buries his face in his arms and his arms on the table, and for a flash, for an instant in his mind, he hallucinates with synesthetic memory. Graphite carved into wood in his nose, squeaking markers and the faint alcohol they smell of. Dillon – ‘Christ,’ he thinks, ‘I haven’t thought of Dillon in a long time,’ – jabs at his arms and cheeks with the extended nails of his quirk.
“What’s your quirk, Robin?”
“We’re quirked up just like you, so you don’t have to hide it.”
The moment it’s revealed, those years later, the moment a red-faced girl in boy’s clothes arrives and sits, their reassurance is void. They laugh. He – she – both are abandoned.
“Fuck,” he curses in English, “Tachibana-san, why do you care. Why do you even care. Do you want my fucking biography?”
One eye rises from his cave, dull and listless and pressed beyond vexed, matte like an overcast moon on the horizon.
“Nothing ‘we’ are going to do is going to get in your way. Nothing ‘we’ do could even get in your way. If I wasn’t so sure you were gonna put me online for views, I’d almost be tempted to tell you what’s up just to get you off my back. But you would, right? That’s the whole point of this dinner, isn’t it? Blackmail or coercion or whatever? ‘Come clean or get caught in the dirt when I dig up the truth’ or something right?”
“Look, you want her? That’s fine. But I’m not going to be here when she is. So take your pick, do you want her or me? You’re getting a brick wall either way, I guarantee.”
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Jan 18, 2019 16:52:09 GMT -4
Circles. Round and round they went. All Emi had learned was that he didn’t like her hat, so he might not have been the best judge of right and wrong. More to the point, he was still set on delaying the inevitable. Playful eyes narrowed into mildly irritated ones as he had the gall to get frustrated with her.
“Ahp.” She raised a finger. “Hold on. I’m the one asking the questions, remember? Maybe I’d answer, but to be honest I’m not feeling too great about this. In fact, I’m getting a little annoyed.” More than a little, but she couldn’t let it show. The moment she lost her composure was the moment she lost her advantage. As long as she could fool him into believing she knew more than she did, she could keep turning up the heat.
That, and she wasn’t too fond of the word ‘blackmail’. She wasn’t a mobster, just a concerned citizen.
“Since I got here – hell, before I got here, I’m pretty sure all you’ve done is feed me straight bullshit. Stories you can’t even begin to back up, and for what? Why should I believe a word you’re saying now, as opposed to everything before it? You didn’t give me an answer – if I’m that much of an idiot, in your eyes, why are you here?” A pause, and a raised eyebrow.
“Unless I’m not an idiot to you, and you’re just floundering. I think that’s the word. Fishing? Hoping I take the bait? Something like that.” A nonchalant wave of the hand brushed the issue aside. “My point is, nothing useful. To either of us. If it feels like I’m trying to pull your life story out of you, it’s because I have to ask five questions just to break down every lie you throw out. What’s that one phrase? The truth will set you free? And stop you disappointing me. So get her over here. Then I can order my food, and we can actually get somewhere with all this.”
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121 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Uncertain-male?
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Robin Engell on Jan 27, 2019 5:17:35 GMT -4
Flash point, compressed and released and ignited – she’s infuriating, casually monstrous, stupid and smug and everything he hates and the words boil over and spill without connection or remorse, flood from his mouth as water from a spigot that’s burst. He only hears the audible shimmer of shattering glass, the burst of bass from a smoldering drum.
“I’M HER YOU FUCKING MORON!”
He screams in English. He doesn’t breathe.
When thought returns, when rolling boil falls to simmer, he realizes where he is and what he’s done. Glittering shards lie at the floor below, coated in the laminate sheen of the water they’d contained. He stands, hunched, lunged forward and in her face. His palm lies on the table, leaking smoke and the smell of charred tablecloth.
Some Like It Hot scorches him in his cheeks and ears.
The weight of a hundred eyes makes him small – Robin slumps, gradually, sheepishly, until he’s disappeared save for that smoldering silhouette.
And in that seat, he’s defeated. He pulls one knee up to his chest, hugs it and buries his face.
“… Is that what you wanted? Got your scoop?”
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414 Posts
0 EP
EXP
Total
17 Years
Female
"Halo"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Jan 29, 2019 18:08:17 GMT -4
Her head reared back of its own accord, eyes wide and ready for a fight. Light glimmered off newly-formed crystal shards hovering where her face had just been. Her instincts lost control before they could grow any larger than her nails, but she let them hang in the air while she reprocessed the scene. She’d pushed too hard - or just hard enough. He didn’t seem like the type that knew how to lie convincingly, or put on a good act… Unless everything before had been the act. What he was saying didn’t add up with what little information she had on him, though. Deraine had said nobody could confuse the boy before her for anything but male, and her eyes confirmed that much. Then again, he’d also insisted that he was quirkless, and the wisps of smoke curling into his nostrils strongly argued against that.
What was it? Another lie, a half-told story or something else altogether? A few questions ought to answer that, but he was making a good show of being unstable. If she prodded him too much, he might-
“Excuse me? Miss?” Her gaze darted towards their waiter, who looked as worried as she did surprised. Right. Looking around the room confirmed her suspicions; they’d drawn too much attention to themselves, and her ‘deer in headlights’ look hadn’t helped any. Neither had the floating bullets. Shit. The last thing she needed was for somebody to match her face to one of her videos. The shards floated onto the table as she gathered herself, settling into a more modest pose.
“Is everything alrig-“ “Yeah. We’ll get the chicken katsuni and a small portion of shrimp tempura. Thanks.” The man was understandably annoyed, but before he could show it, she’d turned her attention back to the living conundrum. She kept staring as he got to work cleaning up their mess.
If they weren’t careful, they’d cause another scene, and it was safe to say that neither of them wanted that kind of attention. But she hadn’t stepped outside to accept failure, so she had to press on. “Would you be mad at me if I said no?” She paused, though they both knew an answer wasn’t necessary. “I’m going to need a little more than that, especially after everything else you’ve tried to sell me. How about some proof this time? Or something that might convince me that you’re being honest.”
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348 Posts
EP
EXP
Total
"Busty"
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Post by Busty on Jun 17, 2019 3:29:04 GMT -4
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989 Posts
EP
EXP
Total
26 Years
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Post by Maya on Jun 17, 2019 11:14:51 GMT -4
Distributed EXP
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