Post by Emi Ryoko Tachibana on Jan 22, 2019 20:06:20 GMT -4
The video lacked the polish and charm of Emi’s usual work. She sat, cross-legged, on a bed that stretched beyond the borders of her phone’s camera. It wasn’t easily to tell that she was using that; both hands rested on her thighs, and the camera lacked the jitters that came with a handheld shot. She hadn’t bothered to tie her hair up, and appeared to be wearing the school’s shirt, but the rest of the uniform was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t leave much opportunity to question its whereabouts, for she was off on a rant within a second of playback.
From the start, she didn’t sound happy, but her confidence and composure remained. “So I live by myself, more or less. My parents own our house, but they’re away on business most of the time. Or… all of the time.” Her eyes flickered to something out of the shot. “The point is, it’s just me here. One teenage girl, alone in a, let’s face it, really nice house in a good part of the city. There are a lot of criminals, thieves, opportunistic thugs, whatever, that would love to take a chance on this sort of place, and that’s before I made a name for myself by calling out terrorists and the military. I say this so that you might understand why I don’t go sharing my address with everybody I meet. I also do my best to make sure it can’t easily be found – just like my parents did from before I was born. It’s basic security when you’re known for having a lot of desirable stuff. So imagine my surprise when your friend Yojin-“ She couldn’t stop venom from seeping into his name. “turns up at my door. Unannounced and uninvited. I thought he was casing my house before he told me who he was!”
“You know how he got his hands on my very private, deliberately hidden details? I get my physical fan mail sent to UA. Since the school already has my address from enrolment, I thought there was no harm in getting them to forward it to me. That was, until your friend admitted he’d gone rifling through to find out where I lived.” From the way she was glaring at the camera, it was as if she thought he was watching the video. “So we’ve already got an invasion of privacy right off the bat. Eventually I let him come in, because he’s probably not looking to beat me up, and it would be rude not to. And then he just starts…” Her eyes narrowed a little. “Spouting some weird shit about what happened at Semper Fi. Like, don’t get me wrong, it was terrible, but it has nothing to do with me, but he was making it sound like it did…” She tapped a pair of fingers against her forehead. “Really wasn’t making any sense. And then it comes out – why he was at my place. He was mad at me.” And she was mad at him, if her tone didn’t make that clear enough. “For the video we made. And instead of, I guess, talking to either of us about it, in school, to your face or using the public chatroom we met each other over, he felt the best course of action was to stalk me to my door and ‘confront’ me himself.”
She let the words sink in, giving the viewer an exasperated look to stare at in the meantime. She was skimping on the finer details – mostly the ones that made her look bad – but in her eyes, most of them detracted from her point. “…I guess something really hit me about that. Like, I’m not a stranger to people hating me. It’s kinda part of the package when you make things online. But that was new to me. Having somebody that hated me that much, that they… basically hunted me down, to make sure they saw the look on my face when they tried to tear me down.” Her eyes fell to her lap, but once again it was a brief break. “So, yeah. I got mad about it. He started trying to act like he’d forgiven me for my terrible crimes against him, and that he’d decided I was better than he thought already. I don’t know if he just didn’t think his plan through or was just that surprised to see that I was an actual human being, but either way… Your roommate’s fucking nuts, Chimera.”
“I told him to get out. …Among other things. But mainly that. Why would I want somebody in my house that admitted they only had bad intentions? And then, the fucking nerve of it… He starts acting like I’m the crazy one! Yelling the house down, acting like I’m some… some pathetic child, for not bowing down to him because he ‘changed his mind’! What the fuck is his deal?!” She paused. A deep breath in, and out. She wouldn’t notice until after she stopped the recording that her face had reddened a shade.
“I got him out. Without hurting him, before you get any ideas. And I’d hoped that would be the end of it. He’s not the only person at UA that has beef with me – just the one that’s the most passionate about it, I guess. I have to keep an eye on the cameras to make sure there’s no unwanted visitors around the place now, in case he decided to leak my address in revenge… So far, no trouble there. But ever since then-“ Another deep breath. “I can’t have a single conversation in the chat without little ol’ Yojin chiming in with his comments. And he thinks he’s being so cute, always throwing shade at me or making these sly little comments about me. I bet there’ll be one waiting for me when I log back in after this. And you know, that’s whatever too. Nothing new – everybody loves to shit on Emi once in a while. I ignore it and move on with my life, but he just doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up with his asinine comments that are only there to try and get a rise out of me-”
She groaned as she threw her head back. A hand reached up and dragged it over her face. “And he got it. Congratulations to him, I guess. But you need to talk to your friend. Put a handle on him, before I do it myself, because I was tired of his shit a week ago.” Her free hand reached forward to hit the stop button, and the recording abruptly ended.
From the start, she didn’t sound happy, but her confidence and composure remained. “So I live by myself, more or less. My parents own our house, but they’re away on business most of the time. Or… all of the time.” Her eyes flickered to something out of the shot. “The point is, it’s just me here. One teenage girl, alone in a, let’s face it, really nice house in a good part of the city. There are a lot of criminals, thieves, opportunistic thugs, whatever, that would love to take a chance on this sort of place, and that’s before I made a name for myself by calling out terrorists and the military. I say this so that you might understand why I don’t go sharing my address with everybody I meet. I also do my best to make sure it can’t easily be found – just like my parents did from before I was born. It’s basic security when you’re known for having a lot of desirable stuff. So imagine my surprise when your friend Yojin-“ She couldn’t stop venom from seeping into his name. “turns up at my door. Unannounced and uninvited. I thought he was casing my house before he told me who he was!”
“You know how he got his hands on my very private, deliberately hidden details? I get my physical fan mail sent to UA. Since the school already has my address from enrolment, I thought there was no harm in getting them to forward it to me. That was, until your friend admitted he’d gone rifling through to find out where I lived.” From the way she was glaring at the camera, it was as if she thought he was watching the video. “So we’ve already got an invasion of privacy right off the bat. Eventually I let him come in, because he’s probably not looking to beat me up, and it would be rude not to. And then he just starts…” Her eyes narrowed a little. “Spouting some weird shit about what happened at Semper Fi. Like, don’t get me wrong, it was terrible, but it has nothing to do with me, but he was making it sound like it did…” She tapped a pair of fingers against her forehead. “Really wasn’t making any sense. And then it comes out – why he was at my place. He was mad at me.” And she was mad at him, if her tone didn’t make that clear enough. “For the video we made. And instead of, I guess, talking to either of us about it, in school, to your face or using the public chatroom we met each other over, he felt the best course of action was to stalk me to my door and ‘confront’ me himself.”
She let the words sink in, giving the viewer an exasperated look to stare at in the meantime. She was skimping on the finer details – mostly the ones that made her look bad – but in her eyes, most of them detracted from her point. “…I guess something really hit me about that. Like, I’m not a stranger to people hating me. It’s kinda part of the package when you make things online. But that was new to me. Having somebody that hated me that much, that they… basically hunted me down, to make sure they saw the look on my face when they tried to tear me down.” Her eyes fell to her lap, but once again it was a brief break. “So, yeah. I got mad about it. He started trying to act like he’d forgiven me for my terrible crimes against him, and that he’d decided I was better than he thought already. I don’t know if he just didn’t think his plan through or was just that surprised to see that I was an actual human being, but either way… Your roommate’s fucking nuts, Chimera.”
“I told him to get out. …Among other things. But mainly that. Why would I want somebody in my house that admitted they only had bad intentions? And then, the fucking nerve of it… He starts acting like I’m the crazy one! Yelling the house down, acting like I’m some… some pathetic child, for not bowing down to him because he ‘changed his mind’! What the fuck is his deal?!” She paused. A deep breath in, and out. She wouldn’t notice until after she stopped the recording that her face had reddened a shade.
“I got him out. Without hurting him, before you get any ideas. And I’d hoped that would be the end of it. He’s not the only person at UA that has beef with me – just the one that’s the most passionate about it, I guess. I have to keep an eye on the cameras to make sure there’s no unwanted visitors around the place now, in case he decided to leak my address in revenge… So far, no trouble there. But ever since then-“ Another deep breath. “I can’t have a single conversation in the chat without little ol’ Yojin chiming in with his comments. And he thinks he’s being so cute, always throwing shade at me or making these sly little comments about me. I bet there’ll be one waiting for me when I log back in after this. And you know, that’s whatever too. Nothing new – everybody loves to shit on Emi once in a while. I ignore it and move on with my life, but he just doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up with his asinine comments that are only there to try and get a rise out of me-”
She groaned as she threw her head back. A hand reached up and dragged it over her face. “And he got it. Congratulations to him, I guess. But you need to talk to your friend. Put a handle on him, before I do it myself, because I was tired of his shit a week ago.” Her free hand reached forward to hit the stop button, and the recording abruptly ended.
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