29 Posts
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14 Years
Female
"Jankenpow"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Ayame Hayashi on Dec 18, 2019 18:28:20 GMT -4
Ayame always liked to socialise, even though back at her previous school she often came off as annoying. She hoped to be… well… less annoying this time. As soon as she got home from class, she buckled down and finished what little homework she had that day. Once that was over and done with, her bag found itself crammed full of snacks and hobby items that had previously been sitting on her desk. Corn chips, juggling balls, two decks of playing cards, more corn chips, and two different books filled with unsolved number puzzles. She barely gave herself time to take a breath before seizing her bag and taking it downstairs to the common room, excited to meet her fellow students outside of class for once.
People were around but they were all engaged in their own conversations in various corners of the room. That was unfortunate, but what was little Ayame to do? Inserting herself into conversations had gotten her into trouble before, but she'd hyped herself up for this moment, so going back up to her room was absolutely not happening. The only option was to wait around until someone decided they wanted to talk to her.
A chill brushed past the petite girl's knees and got her looking out for a warm part of the room. The kotatsu! Perfect! It was free and she was taking it. Ayame slid under the table rather energetically, taking a moment to savour the warmth of the blanket alone before switching the heater on. Perhaps a game of solitaire would keep her occupied until someone approached her. People liked card games, right?
The subtle sound of her backpack’s zipper brought her a sliver of anxiety before she carefully took out her normal deck of playing cards and laid them out on the table. Her second deck was used in her magic tricks, and totally unsuitable for card games, or at least fair card games. In hindsight she probably should have left it upstairs. It would look suspicious to have to swap decks if she wanted to show anyone a magic trick at this point. For now, the challenge of solitaire awaited, at least until a certain classmate of hers was ready to join her.
374 words
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348 Posts
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Male
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Post by kouta on Dec 18, 2019 23:09:20 GMT -4
Unlike Ayame, Kouta didn't really like to socialize much when he wasn't in one of his good days where he could actually tolerate social interaction without completely collapsing into a pile of awkward stuttering and panicked sweating. Instead, he'd spend his days training outside, constantly seeking to push his quirk to its greatest limits, in a desperate attempt to somehow, someday reach a point where he can break out of his "limits" and continue rising above and beyond. No formal training, no strange supplements or secret techniques. Raw, hard training was what he used to get himself to the heights of power.
Power this, power that.
Honestly, with this cold snowstorm outside that doesn't want to subside, might as well just put a stop to his training for the day. Not like he was training much, his quirk simply had no ability to move as he'd desire when covered with layers upon layers of clothing that left him looking almost like a funny, bundled up sausage with pink hair. An image to be sure, one that he usually wasn't keen on showing others.
"Man.. it's so cold outside!" Kouta muttered to himself while walking on inside, taking a moment or two to actually look at the small amount of people in the common area.
And the kotatsu.
Mainly the kotatsu.
It's just so warm and helps him regain his energy and vigor after a hard day of training, he just NEEDED to get in there and start relaxing -- and what do you know, the friendly looking girl with pretty hair that he saw in class the other day was there too, it was just the perfect chance to actually talk to her! With no horror, fear or panic, he had to remember that she more than likely was weaker than him. As long as the girls he talks to are weaker, then he won't lose it, rationalizing it all as a simple "If I'm strong enough, then there's no problem if they attack me".
Essentially, he was appeasing the paranoia that held his reasoning hostage.
"Hi there! I'm itsuki Kouta, great to meet you!~" The small boy greeted his new soon-to-be friend while stripping off of most of his clothing, down to a simple sweater and pants, both dark grey in color, in his hands one of the newest handheld systems by Nint*ndo, deciding to play it while talking to her. Should help to calm his nerves over meeting a new person, bonus points if they are interested in the actual game.
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29 Posts
0 EP
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14 Years
Female
"Jankenpow"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Ayame Hayashi on Dec 19, 2019 16:40:07 GMT -4
Only three moves away from victory. Ayame's eyes were locked on her near-complete game of solitaire until she heard and felt a bit of shuffling under the kotatsu's blanket. She gave herself a moment to memorise the cards' layout before looking up to see the face of none other than her pink haired classmate from 1-S! The dude with the Shadow Monster Man quirk if she remembered correctly. The guy was absolutely freezing. Just how long had he been outside in this atrocious weather?
Trying not to be rude, Ayame finished off her game quickly, coordinating her memory with only her left physical hand so she could move the cards around while still maintaining eye contact with Kouta. Itsuki Kouta felt the need to introduce himself again so the least Ayame could do was offer the same courtesy. "My name's Hayashi Ayame, nice to meet you too, like, outside of class for once!" She offered a cheery smile before noticing the guy had already brought out a handheld game console and switched it on.
Should she have taken offense? It didn't seem super polite to talk to someone and then start gaming, but it wasn't like Kouta here was even obliged to talk to her. He was just warming up under the kotatsu. The fact that he even offered a greeting at all was polite enough, she supposed. Besides, Ayame was playing cards at the time. Maybe he thought she was still finishing up. Yeah, let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
The console itself piqued her curiosity even if just a little. Ayame never liked spending very much Yen in one go so she never really got into gaming. It was an expensive luxury she didn't need, and her cards were more than enough to keep herself entertained. She hurriedly cleared up her cards and left the deck in a single pile in the middle of the table. Did she dare to scooch around and take a peek at whatever game Kouta was playing? Too forward perhaps. She opted for the simple approach instead. "Oooh whatcha playing, Kouta?" she asked, as if she knew of any video game titles to begin with.
365 words
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348 Posts
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Post by kouta on Dec 19, 2019 17:39:42 GMT -4
Kouta did remember her name, though it was always a nice thing to actually introduce himself to someone outside of that environment of the classroom. It just felt more personal, really. So personal in fact that, not being aware that he could be perceived as insulting or dismissive, the boy really had just started playing because, in his view, just being in the presence of someone else was more than enough to enjoy their time together, without the necessity of empty words to fill the time. When you're in the presence of someone nice, that's all that matters.
Of course, doesn't mean that he doesn't like talking or actually interacting with the other person so, when she asked him what he was playing, the boy found it easier to show her while explaining so, raising a finger to signal her to wait a second, the boy shuffled around a bit in the carpeted floor, scooting closer to Ayame so that he'd be sitting right next to her, allowing them to actually both look at the screen without a problem.
"It's a simple platformer. It's actually quite a good one, they keep revolutionizing this funny little plumber! Would you like to try it?~ It's pretty simple, I'm in the hub world so no dangers here!"
Kouta showed himself to be quite the forward, friendly person simply because the way he had been taught (or not been taught) allowed him to actually be close to someone physically and friendly without actually going insane with anxiety. He much more feared emotional closeness with someone he wasn't used with or physical closeness with someone he saw as threatening. Ayame? Not an insult to the fact that she's somehow shorter than him and thinner, but she is just so friendly that he couldn't even see her as threatening right now.
"Here, take it!"
The young boy offered the console right to her hands, shuffling a little in place so that he could be comfy under the kotatsu, his torso leaning over just a little towards her so that he could really see her playing. Maybe she knew how to play with it and would completely impress him right away. Maybe she didn't know and he'd have to teach her!
Either way, the young lad would surely love to play with her, since that means that he'll have a new friend and his mommy taught him that friends are always good to have.
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29 Posts
0 EP
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14 Years
Female
"Jankenpow"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Ayame Hayashi on Dec 25, 2019 19:43:38 GMT -4
The paranoia around being too forward to shuffle over to Kouta was proved to be completely pointless as the boy himself came over to her. That took guts. Not a lot of guys can just come up and talk to girls as comfortably as he just did, especially guys of his diminutive constitution. Then again, Ayame wasn’t exactly the scariest girl in U.A. herself. She could probably engineer some scares with her quirk but even so, Kouta had already seen those characteristic lilac hands with his own eyes.
She listened intently to Kouta’s explanation of the game he was playing. “Platformer” he said. Already Ayame was lost. At least Kouta did come around to show her the game so she could see herself just what this platformer game was all about. He said it was simple so hopefully she’d be pretty okay at it. He also mentioned something called a “hub world”. Again, the girl was baffled, but she decided to nod and pretend she knew what he was talking about. She’d probably get the terminology eventually.
“Sure, I’d love to try it, but are you absolutely, positively, definitely sure?”
He then offered the console directly to her. “Here, take it!” Take it? These things were like at least 20,000 Yen! Was he that rich or was he just bonkers? What if Ayame broke it or deleted the save file by accident or something like that? Was it really okay to just let someone else play with it? If Ayame had one of these, she’d make sure to the best of her ability that nobody else knew.
She was cautious while playing, so much so that she held the console only just above the table and played it like that, just in case she dropped it, while making sure Kouta could still see the screen. It didn’t take long to get a grasp on how to move the little virtual plumber - the controls were quite intuitive - but she did accidentally open up the pause menu more often than she’d have liked. It wasn’t an easy mistake to make, but her fingers kept mistaking the jump button and the pause button for some reason.
“The little plumber jumps so high! That’s a pretty awesome quirk he’s got there. Super Jump! Oh hey Kouta, which way to level 1?”
Ayame was ready to face whatever enemies were waiting for her in stage 1. After all, she knew how to jump now… with about an 80% success rate. She was getting pretty immersed, and if not for her uncanny ability to focus on multiple things at once, she probably wouldn’t have noticed if someone took her 400 Yen deck of cards from the table top. She did have the cards in the back of her mind, especially since she planned on playing with her new friend at some point later. At this point she figured she should find out if he’s actually interested in that sort of thing.
“Wanna play cards after this? I know a pretty fun two-player game we can try.”
512 words
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348 Posts
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Post by kouta on Dec 27, 2019 11:37:57 GMT -4
Whatever happened, Kouta would not really mind it one bit. To share was one of the most important things that he had ever been taught by his mommy, being told repeatedly that sharing was the best way to make friends, since it made the other person happy to play with something that they didn't have, make himself happy because he'll be proud he made someone else happy and, because they were both happy, they'd become friends! So, when she was apparently worried about making sure that he was ok with it, Kouta just insisted and almost pushed it on her, the boy clearly overjoyed to see her get the hang of it pretty quick.
Indeed, the controls were very intuitive, even though she had a weird habit of pausing when trying to jump, though it was fair to do it since the buttons were quite close to each other. Just weird that it happened so many times. Had she never actually played videogames? That just felt like a thing that really doesn't happen these days, in the dang seventies! He ain't gonna judge though, he'll just have fun with it and, once she asked about the level one, he directed her to a hat-shaped flying airship and instructed her on how to go to the first level. Sure, he had gotten most of the moons there, though she could very much have fun with it. Maybe even find one if she just walked around.
"Cards? Well, I know how to play cards, though I'm sure you know things that I don't. Of course I'll play with you!" Kouta agreed to her offer quite happily, even wrapping an arm around her to give her a squeezy, energetic hug, the boy soon letting go so that he could get himself under the kotatsu as much as he could, his eyes still fixated on her, choosing to quietly observe as she played. Sometimes.. it was just nice to look at someone else play. Kouta could not explain why he felt like this or why was this something that he enjoyed, though it just.. was.
It felt like those times that he taught his siblings how to do something he had just learned, or how they taught him so many things and then they'd just stay there and watch him struggle and, eventually, get a grip on how things worked.
Maybe this was exactly what they felt at the time.
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29 Posts
0 EP
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14 Years
Female
"Jankenpow"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Ayame Hayashi on Dec 28, 2019 12:54:26 GMT -4
As uncomfortable as she felt playing on someone else’s expensive console, Ayame couldn’t stop. It wasn’t so much that the game itself was addictive - as captivating as it was - but whenever she did something even remotely successful with the plumber, Kouta’s face would beam with absolute glee. Confusing as it was to her, it made him so very happy, and that was enough to keep her going. She felt good about herself, and his smile was just so cute!
Her muscle memory gradually managed to direct her right thumb away from that notorious pause button as she continued to play through to the first level. Being a lefty really didn’t help since her right hand had a lot more buttons to have to deal with, but she was getting there. Ayame didn’t find any new moons, but she did manage to collect a bunch of the ones Kouta already had, without dying once.
She was really seeing the appeal that video games had on the boy, and wished she’d started gaming sooner so she’d have more to talk about with him. Well, even if she didn’t own a console, at least Kouta would have a blast telling her all about the different kinds of games he played. As she played, light banter about the game would surface, ranging from the game’s bizarre emphasis on hats to whether or not the plumber was actually going to be doing any plumbing.
Oh, he did want to play cards! Ayame sometimes felt that people who played video games were on some high pedestal beyond the reach of traditional card game players like herself, if those were even a thing in this day and age. They wouldn’t be interested in such a peasant’s hobby, no way. “Master Race Gamers” they called themselves. They even scoffed at people who played games on their phones, which was a step up from Ayame’s 52 standardized pieces of printed card. Kouta wasn’t like that, clearly.
The hug completely caught her off guard. “Kouta? What?” She responded in bashful surprise, but did nothing to resist the embrace. Her face turned bright red as she swung it back towards the game screen. She’d never been hugged by a boy her age before. Was it too forward to hug him back? At this stage, probably not. He did hug her first after all! Well, at least hugs were free.
She paused the game and set Kouta’s console down on the table. Her movements were slow, hesitant. “Calm down Ayame, a hug doesn’t mean like you’re asking him out or anything. If he did it first then it won’t be weird. You can do this.” She had to mentally compose herself, before ultimately deciding to abort that mission and start setting up her card game. Maybe she’d hug him after the game, that is, if she could muster up the courage.
“Have you ever played Speed before? It’s a neat game that really tests your reflexes and quick math! I bet you’d be good at it!”
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348 Posts
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Male
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Post by kouta on Jan 12, 2020 11:55:11 GMT -4
Kouta continued to hug her for as long as she'd allow him, being blessed (and possibly cursed) with a complete lack of a sense of personal space, or respecting other's personal space, at least until they actually told him anything about it -- like being told that they didn't like it when people got so close. Being understanding and being accommodating of others was one of his strongest virtues. Until he got told anything, though.. it's hug city for you!
Hug city for Ayame indeed, since he didn't even notice her embarrassment over it, instead snuggling close to his newest friend, tremendously happy over sharing warmth and closeness with someone else, deeply grateful of his personal growth and progress to finally be able to hug girls, at least the ones he wasn't scared of, feeling like he'd be seriously missing out on happiness if he couldn't give her hugs.
Playing "Speed" sounded good too and, upon thinking about it, actually got him to let go of her, since he had to move to the other side of the kotatsu, so that they could play the card game without any side having the possibility of cheating, that is, looking at another's hand. Maybe that wasn't needed, but still, it was just to be safe.
"I dunno anything about that game, but I'll still play! I'm kinda weak at maths, but I'm super fast, for sure!" Kouta almost seemed like a braggart over his speed. In the grand scheme of things, he was just slightly better than the school average, way lower than the high-tiers of speed that were in the school, though he could still pride himself over it. After all, he was continuously improving, day after day of pushing himself past his limits until he collapses! One day, he knows he'll catch up and become really cool.
"So, uh.. what are the instructions? How do I play? The only card games I know are blackjack, go fish and a few others." Why did Kouta specifically know blackjack? Because of Pok*mon. One of the fan games he had played a while back had blackjack as part of the casino and it turned out to be an incredible way of getting dollars! Turns out he was pretty good and lucky at the game too, which he made sure to gloriously abuse of.
It had taken a few hours, but he made sure to get all the prizes possible there.
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29 Posts
0 EP
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14 Years
Female
"Jankenpow"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Ayame Hayashi on Jan 20, 2020 16:20:31 GMT -4
That hug went on for far longer than necessary. What if anyone saw? Talk about embarrassing. Kouta's overly affectionate self even started to arouse a trickle of suspicion from Ayame at least. Nobody with half an ounce of normality would be that forward with a girl he met in the classroom only a few days ago. Was this his way of hitting on her? Ayame wouldn't object too harshly if that was the case. Kouta was lovely, and kind of adorable when you overlook his disregard for personal space, but there was still so much she didn't know about him. Besides, she was 14. The odds of papa Hayashi letting his youngling go on dates were practically non-existent.
Enough thoughts about romance and dating! It's far too expensive anyway. With Kouta finally releasing her from hug city, Ayame promptly got to arranging the cards and explaining the game they were going to be playing, although she did take a mental note that her new friend was indeed familiar with blackjack, which she used to play often with her uncle whenever they visited each other.
"Speed's pretty easy to learn but it takes a lot of practice to be good at. So first I split the deck exactly in half, 26 cards each." She shuffled the deck and proceeded to do just that, dealing one card at a time into alternating piles until there were two stacks.
"One of these stacks is your deck, the other is mine. At the start of the game, we pick up 4 cards from the top of our own deck. Take your time to familiarize with them. Once the game is ready to start, on the count of three, we both flip the top card of our decks face up and put that card in the middle of the table. Make sense so far?" Ayame looked over at Kouta to make sure her explanation was sinking in.
"The aim is to use up your entire deck before your opponent does. You can only have up to four cards in your hand, but if you have less, then you can take cards from the top of your deck. Anytime after the game starts, you can take a card from your hand and slap it on top of one of the face up cards if its value is exactly one higher or one lower. If they're the same, you can't play it. Jack counts as 11, Queen is 12, King is 13, Ace is 14 and also 1. So you can put an Ace on either a King or a two. Card suits don't matter." Ayame's explanation was picking up the pace a little. She was getting excited.
"Now here's why it's called Speed. We don't take turns. If we're both aiming to put a 4 on a 5, whoever puts it down first gets to leave their card there. Whoever was slower has to return it to their hand. Simple enough, right?"
That hasty explanation got Ayame's throat all dry, but she hadn't packed any water! Bah! Hydration wasn't necessary to play Speed, nor was the skeletal girl intent of leaving the enthralling warmth of the kotatsu. Ayame was staying right where she was, ready to answer any questions Kouta might have before the game starts.
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