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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 17:59:41 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy They were going to go see a big ass bear, and Aki could not be more excited for their little expedition. If the girl was to believe what was being said in chat, 'The Military' was a bear so large it could protect all of Japan, by itself. That was how the military had been described to the wildling redhead, by those that meant well, yet forgot that she took things a little bit too literary. A big bear protecting her cub, the cub being Japan. Aki thought bears were pretty cool, generally. They were predators, they were strong, fierce, dangerous. The girl had wanted to hunt bears on occasions, but as far as she knew, bears didn't live anywhere close to where Aki had her prior hunting grounds. The most competetive predator she had ever encountered, were probably foxes or wild dogs. Aki wasn't even certain she had ever met a wild wolf. It meant, unfortunately for the redhead, that the hunting season never arrived on anything interesting. From what Aki had been told of bears, it'd take maybe several hundred arrows to take a single bear down. So of course, she wanted to see if she could do it in fifty. Aki was told that bear fur could be made into all sorts of different clothes. It meant that she could make a better pair of winter gloves for Alex, who only had the deerskin gloves she had crudely crafted him before. So, when the message had reached her ears that the big military bear was finally open for them to go visit, the girl had been in a serious hurry to get to the person that had said he'd take her to see said bear. Dressed in the Yuuei trek suit, Aki was hopping across the field from the girl's dorms, heading directly for the guy's dorms. Without it taking practically any effort, the little redhead was scaling up the wall at a specific spot..The window was open. Ever since Aki's first couple of visits, it seemed that Alex knew full well that keeping it closed was a terrible idea. Mostly because, if Aki could not come in through conventional means, she'd find an unconventional way of getting in, likely causing a small path of destruction in her wake. The windowsill had also been cleared of items, so that Aki would not knock over or break several things. Tumbling in through the window, Aki ended up on the floor with an almost silent thud. Excitedly, the girl got to her feet, scanning the room, breathing fast and talking even faster. "Alex, alex, alex, alex!!! The bear has come, we can go see the big military bear!! Aleeeeex! Lets gooo!!!" If Aki was at all capable of locating Alex, the girl would rush over to his side, attempt to get a hold of his arm, and begin dragging him out the door. That is, right until she realized she had absolutely no clue as to where to go to find said bear."Wait! Alex knows where bear is, right? Alex can take Aki to go see all the cool things? Pleeease! Aki will be real nice, I promise. Will even make you a new, better pair of gloves as thank you? Pleeeaaaase!!!" The sheer level of excitement was through the roof. The chaotic, happiness, so overwhelming it might've blown up directly in his face. The wildling had put her mind to something, so that something was going to happen, with his assistance or not. At least, if he assisted, there'd be far less likelihood of Aki blowing something up unintentionally. The girl was beaming, bouncing up and down, her eyes meeting his without any kind of fear or reservations. Aki wanted to go. Aki wanted Alex to bring her.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 19:03:51 GMT -4
The general perception of Alexander was that he was not very smart. Honestly, he might even agree with that assessment. One thing he was capable of doing, however, was adapting. Whereas sudden visits out of nowhere to his room at first flustered the hell out of him, he was now completely prepared for their eventuality. It was extremely early in the morning, and Aki ended up actually waking Alex up by shaking him a bit and already starting to drag him out of bed.
”Aki!” he pleaded rather than yelled, bleary eyed but fully aware and honestly kind of expecting something like this might happen. ”Let me change real fast, I laid out clothes yesterday. Just turn around for a sec, please.” he managed to get out somewhat clearly as he stumbled his way like a zombie over to the clothes he had laid out on the ironing board. He didn’t need to be in U.A. gear, so he decided to just wear stuff that looked cool and he would feel confident in. A light grey shirt, a leather jacket, some thicker denim jeans, and his signature aviators were pretty quick to slip into. He also put on the deerskin gloves that Aki made for him, because why not and finally did a quick pass at the mirror to use his fingers to comb his hair a bit as he got dressed and listened to Aki bouncing up and down with the excitement and anticipation clear in her voice.
”All right, Aki, I’m ready.” he said when he was finished, and the wildling girl turned around and immediately grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room, still talking at a mile a minute about the military bear and how she was going to make an even better pair of gloves for him. He realized that he made a big mistake in comparing the military to a bear, but he quickly decided he would just let Aki jump up and down in excitement the entire way there and explain to her what it actually was once they got there.
The door was still open, so it was a simple matter to be out in the hall and close the door behind them before they were off to the races. ”We gotta hit the train first, and I think I know the way once we stop. The news had the location, and I can always look it up again if I forget.” he said as he pulled the arm that Aki was gripping up a bit so he could grab her hand with his own and lead her out of the building. He didn’t know why exactly that he did it, other than it felt right for some reason. With him holding his arm, it was almost like she was… dependent on him somehow? It just didn’t feel equal, and he wanted this to feel equal. Aki was a girl who could go out into the Amazon rainforest and survive for the rest of her life if she really wanted, she wasn’t some damsel in distress and he sure as hell didn’t want her body language to look like it. If anything, he was the one closer to being a damsel between the two of them so them posturing as equals was just fine to him and indeed probably a compliment.
”All right, Aki. We said we would talk later, and now is later. Any questions you have, just sho--” he said, turning and looking at Aki as he talked until he walked into one of the pillars in the dorms. Not very hard, thankfully, but enough to cause a yelp and a pause in his sentence. ”Okay, I’ll just keep looking ahead of me from now on. Stop distracting me!” he teased with a laugh as he pulled her along outside the dorm and onto campus grounds. This was an odd feeling, because most of their interactions so far had been Aki dragging him around and he relished the opportunity to do the opposite for once. So much so that he started lackadaisically swinging his hand forward and backwards as they walked, dragging her hand along for the ride as well in contentment.
He had thought a lot about what he wanted out of this, but he didn’t really reach any solid conclusions. The fact of the matter was, he didn’t know what he wanted. Moreover, he didn’t know what the wildling wanted either. If she knew what she wanted, then maybe Alex could help her get it. If neither of them knew what they wanted, then they were probably just fucked. Somebody had to finally be decisive, or they would tiptoe around being whatever they were for the foreseeable future. That honestly wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the American certainly was in no rush. After the outbreak of the Quirk Enhancement Drug at Yuuei a while ago and what had happened there, he was honestly just fine in just seeing how this went and going as slow as it was meant to go. Even if it eventually led nowhere, he liked spending time with Aki and honestly had started looking forward to her surprise visits after a while. They livened up some boring days, if nothing else, even if it meant that he got even less homework than he usually did completed. It was a small sacrifice to pay, honestly, and he’d pay it any day of the week.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2018 11:34:55 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy It may have been fortunate for Alex that he was of a heavier frame than Aki, otherwise the wildling would've dragged him straight out the door in his underwear, far too excited to even care about such minute details. Not turning around, at all, the girl was watching him put on his clothes. The moment he was done, even before he stated he was ready; Aki could tell that there was no more clothes laid out for him to get into, she grabbed hold of him again and tried to drag him out the door, exceedingly excited to get going to meet this enormous bear everyone had been speaking about. As expected however, as soon as they were out the door, Aki was lost. The girl had absolutely no clue where to go. That despite the thing they were to find, being something that she'd usually have no problems tracking. Thinking about it, a bear of that size ought to leave incredibly large pawprints. How come Aki had never seen one?.. Before the sensation of being lost managed to settle in however, Alex was the one to tug Aki along. The arm which Aki had gripped onto pulled her in a direction. Along with the explanation that they needed to get onto a train, the redhead seemed fairly content in following in his wake. There was also no real reaction to the hand holding; At least not at first. "Aki was once on the train. To go to the festival with all the games and stuff. It was really fun!... It's when Aki met roommate Yumi!" The redhead explained. Unlike Alex, the redhead's attention was, however, mainly on where they were walking. When he was about to walk into a pillar, Aki tugged his hand, trying to pull him out of harms way. Alex, however, didn't seem to get the message. Closing her eyes, as if she was bracing for impact, the stone thud seemed to wake him up to the reason she had tugged at him."I tugged to wake you up, not distract you. Was trying to help Alex not get hurt. Now he go hit his head instead." Aki stated, bluntly, clearly not all too aware that she was being teased. At the same time though, there asn't anything in her demeanor that blamed him or laughed at him for walking into the pillar. The girl was about as straight forward as they could come. Both a blessing and a curse, depending exactly on who you were. "Talk?.." Aki, being who she was, had clearly not put too much emphasis on that they were going to talk later. If not for Alex, the girl might've forgotten about it. Now that he reminded her however; The light was on. The things Darren had said, combined with some of the things Alex had said, Aki somewhat wanted an answer to. Or rather than an answer, she wanted to understand exactly what had happened. "So, Aki doesn't really understand. Alex said that things were private. Darren said Aki could make Alex very happy. Melody said it was relationship stuff. Kanna said relationships sucks. Akio said relationships are great. Feeling like taking one person with you on every single hunt..?" Aki was not certain how much of this information was really neccessary, but, she had come to learn that taking things for face value, especially when the chats were involved, could get her into terrible trouble. The whole creaming one's pants incident had been one such occasion where things Aki did not understand had been blown out of proportion. "Did Aki make Alex really happy like Darren said?... Are relationships any good, or are they bad?... Are we in a relationship?.. Will you join me on my hunts?" The way Aki asked was simple, straight forward, simply trying to understand. No ulterior motives or meanings. The confusion was painted across her face. Likely caused by all the people that enjoyed leading a slightly underdeveloped wildling astray with their mathafors and other shenanigans. For as much as Aki was causing chaos in the real world, they managed to cause chaos inside her head.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2018 12:33:14 GMT -4
Alex had moved in and transferred too late to really participate in the festival, but he did find it interesting that Aki had only been on the train once. The American used it quite a bit to travel to Tokyo and other places, which made him blurt out a question: ”So you’ve never been to Tokyo, then?” he asked casually, mostly because he didn’t know he was thinking out loud. ”Because if not, I’ll have to take you next weekend or something.” he added on, only a bit flustered when he realized he had been talking out loud with his first question.
Aki did in fact try to pull him away from hitting the pillar. Alex, being himself, just thought he knew better and ran right into the damn thing. ”It’s OK, Aki. You tried but I didn’t listen. It happens sometimes, boys are dumb.” he commented with a smile. Yup, it was boys who were dumb, not just him. All of them. As one singular entity. That was just how it worked, right? Sure! It wasn’t like he was going to admit that it was just him that was dumb. She could figure that out for herself if she had not done so already! There was no point in helping her understand the negative parts about himself! There were only positives when it came to the Number Five Student at U.A., Alex Deraine!
The conversation soon changed, though, and Aki started asking about relationships and whether they were good or bad. There was a bunch of talking in the chat with a bunch of awkward teenagers trying to explain to the wildling girl what a relationship was, and Alex would be the next in line of many awkward teenagers to try his hand at it. It wasn’t because he was good at things like this by any stretch, it was just that Aki had made the questionable decision to trust him to explain to her things like this for some reason. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for them both, the American took that responsibility pretty seriously because he knew whatever he told her would be taken as gospel and repeated back every single time the concept showed up again. It was too much responsibility, honestly, and while he didn’t exactly want that responsibility he was stuck with it now and would do his best to make sure that she understood a very important concept for high schoolers as much as possible.
”Relationships are like… You remember when I told you about marriage and how that’s how humans pick who they mate with? They have this big old ceremony and a holy man says some fancy words and boom they’re married? Relationships are like what happens before that. Humans normally only mate with one other person, and relationships are like how they check to see if a person they like is mate material.” he tried to explain as he walked, his speaking pace even slower than usual before he was struggling to find out how to explain this in terms Aki could understand – or that he could understand, for that matter. He stopped swinging both of their arms up and down at this point and just kinda started making circular motions with his thumb on her hand out of instinct and didn’t even really realize he was doing it.
”If you’re in a relationship, you go on what are called ‘dates’, which means you and your potential mate go out and do activities like go on hunts together to see if you mesh. To see if you still like each other after spending a whole bunch of time and doing a whole bunch of different things together. The marriage thing I mentioned earlier can only be done with one person that you want to mate with and have everyone be okay with it, so you have to make sure you won’t get sick of them before you do the marriage.” the American continued, trying to convey his own limited understanding through a medium that the wildling girl could comprehend and thus probably messing up some stuff in the process. At least it would be better than the understanding she had started with, and at least he was trying.
”So relationships are like making sure you won’t get bored of the person because marriage is hard to get rid of. You can’t just pick someone else and have the holy man do the magic words and the whole big ceremony again. It costs a lot of money and there are a bunch of rules about it. It also takes a lot of time, so if you mess up you have to do the whole thing over again with someone else. You do the whole thing to pick your one mate that you choose, so if you get sick of them and leave the whole thing just starts over. That’s the best way I can think of to explain it, if you have more questions I’ll try to answer.”
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2018 18:40:47 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy Listening to what he had to say, it all sounded awfully confusing. The girl was trying to index it inside her mind in a manner that may make some kind of sense. So far, it seemed like there were a series of steps to being together as two people in this kind of world. First, you went through a bit of a testing period, to see if there was any kind of interest. Then, if that worked out well, you could enter a relationship. Going on dates, getting to really know another person, all their strengths and weaknesses. Then if that was still amazing, you'd go on and get married, settle down somewhere, mate and have children. So very complex compared to nature, where everything moved a lot faster. Where mistakes were less of a thing animals got hung up on. If it got screwed up, you simply tried again, no hard feelings. It worked a lot more fluidly and simply. "..Does that mean the first bit of a relationship is less serious too? That people can try out things to see if it works?" Aki asked in a curious tone. It was all very foreign and very constraining to her. It seemed like the risk of screwing things up far outweighed the chances that everything worked out nicely. That, and she honestly had no respect for magical men in the sky. If they did not speak to her, they didn't matter to her either. Thinking about what Yumi had said, the redhead was a little confused. The roommate had been far more open and accepting at the idea of relationships. That they needn't be so difficult as some made it out to be. Alex, on the other hand, seemed to make relationships very difficult. Scratching her cheek, she looked ahead. "..Aki has never been on a date before. How are dates different? I mean, Alex and Aki are going out to have fun and get to know each other, right? So is this a date?... I don't really get it. Aki does also not really get relationships. Is it not okay to simply enjoy being together and have fun?.. Aki has a lot of fun with Alex, and if thats a relationship then Aki likes relationships, but.. I don't really think it makes a difference?... If we aren't in a relationship, what would really be different if we were?" For all intents and purposes, everything Alex had said so far, was something Aki considered them already doing. In fact, in many ways, aside from the whole mating thing, under these constants, Aki was probably dating quite a few people. It confused the girl. The blurred lines, the strange rules, it was all... Just a mess. With so many people filling her head up with nonsense, she really could make out one thing from the other. The questions hailing down like arrows. At this point though, Aki was sloooowly starting to understand the differences. Depending on Alex's answers, maybe she'd finally get it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2018 21:00:00 GMT -4
One question that had run through Alex’s mind for the first time was how it was possible for Aki to not know of a bunch of things that normal society did. Was she actually raised by wolves in the forest or something? He had never asked, mostly because he never really had that question before and had just kind of accepted it without question. Now he was more than a little curious, but asking about that could come later. It was better to have these answers out the way now rather than later, and it might also let him sort out his own feelings and what the American himself wanted.
”Yeah, the first bit of a relationship is less serious. Basically it’s like, the first time or two that you go out and do stuff you just make sure that you like the person. Like, it’s a bunch of stages. First you go out for a first date, right, and then if you like them you do it again. Then if you like them still and want to move onto next stage it’s called ‘Going Steady’ I think. I don’t know why it’s called that, it’s kind of weird. At first, you can hang out with other people and kiss and all that sort of stuff because there’s no like commitment. You’re not agreeing to anything. After like the second one, generally people commit to that one person and basically saying okay, I think you would be a good mate so I’m not going to do mate stuff with anybody else. Just that one person.” Alex responded to the wildling’s first question, his tone very detached because in his mind the conversation they were having was completely separate to whatever situation they were in now… which was complicated and he didn’t want to think about it, but Aki’s next questions kind of forced him despite his best efforts to think about it.
”I guess… I guess hanging out and having fun is what you do if both people aren’t interested in each other as a mate. Like, for example,” he paused, trying to come up with words to make this very important distinction. ”I hang out with Risaka a lot. I like her as a person and we train together a lot to become better heroes. But I’m not interested in mating with her, so it’s not a date. It only becomes a date when both people go in with the interest of seeing if the other person could be a potential mate.”
”What would change… I guess being in a relationship and going to that next stage is kind of like marking territory on a person and kind of claiming them I guess. Like, if we were in a relationship what would change is that neither of us would be like allowed to find any other potential mates. It would just be you and me and uh…” he trailed off, growing noticeably flustered and changed the subject to something less associated with them and particular. ”But yeah, announcing you’re in a relationship is like making them off-limits for anyone else looking for a mate. You can still decide to back out if you decide you don’t want to spend time with them anymore easily, but there’s more commitment where both of you are like I choose you. It means you can do things like kiss or hold hands in public all you want without anyone getting upset and stuff.”
His face turned red after this, because it was only now that he realized he had been holding hands with her this entire conversation and swinging her arm around without a care in the world and just equated holding hands with being in a relationship. Oh no. Now, for the first time, there was this very real fear of rejection and honestly that terrified him more than a bit. He liked Aki, and he liked Aki a lot. Maybe he did see her as a potential mate, and maybe he would like to be in a relationship with her. Maybe he’d even enjoy that a lot! Maybe he’d even like to kiss her right no----actually, just the thought of that made him even more red and his breathing started to quicken again despite himself. Why was he effected this much by just the mention of a relationship? He was going to be a hero, damn it, he shouldn’t melt at just talking about things!
But at the end of the day, that wasn’t his choice and this was the first time that their personal relationship with each other would complicate and blur that line because he had grabbed her hand without a care in the world just a bit earlier. It wasn’t his intention to be super forward, on the contrary it was just to more efficiently lead the way! But now that she likely equated it with relationships she might pull away with disgust. She might laugh at him. She might give him that nasty snarl that some of the more pretentious and uppity members of U.A. like Akio gave him. That upturned nose and snarl that indicated that they were too good to associate with him. Being treated like the scum of the Earth, like because of his differences and lack of abilities in some areas it made him worthless in their eyes. Like he didn’t matter and would never be able to matter. It would cut extremely deep if someone like Aki looked at him that way, and in that moment his only hope was to not feel that sting of rejection. Red eyes turned to his classmate, filled with trepidation, awaiting her final response in the matter.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2018 23:44:09 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy Listening to him speak, things were beginning to make a whole lot more sense. Relationships, their different stages, their different levels of commitment, the things that came along with a relationship. It was all beginning to fit into a larger picture. Another thing had also become clear to Aki, though. Different people had different understandings of what relationships were about. If everyone had the same idea, then there'd be very little need to go on this many dates. There'd be very little need for having all these rules surrounding it all. Though, it was also becoming clearer by the moment that Alex wasn't entirely sure what he himself thought of it all. Looking at him as they were walking, she interjected halfway into his explanation, a little curious. "Alex has never been in a relationship, has he?" It was a simple, curious question. The redness of his face, Aki wasn't really noticing or reacting to. Afterall, whenever Aki was around him, he tended to get redheaded. At this point, the girl almost saw that as his normal state. It was almost as common as him having a regular expression, hilariously enough. As he explained the following section, currently avoiding anything that was personal, Aki simply listened. Alex had gotten quite adept at shifting the direction the conversations went, although that only left Aki feeling slightly more confused in certain aspects. Why oh why couldn't he just speak openly, it'd make everything so much easier. "Many animals claim their partners, fighting off anyone else from getting too close to mate." Aki noted, nodding understandingly to his explanation. There were, however, also many animal species that had multiple partners. Either way, the stance made a lot of sense to the redhead wildling. So, that was the next step in a relationship. Claiming another person. It is what would make a dear friend different from someone that could be a potential mate or partner. Then, the followup question, was how someone could claim a partner. Fairly certain she hadn't done anything to claim a partner, it was still good to know if there were specific things she should absolutely watch out for. Though, Aki did suppose there was somewhat of a safety net, as he had mentioned backing out prior to or while on dates. Before Aki got to really ask the question however, Alex answered.It means you can do things like kiss or hold hands in public. Lowering her gaze to his hand, he was holding onto her hand, guiding her way forwards, in public. Blinking a couple of times, the gear's were grinding in her head. Tugging slightly at his hand, as if to make sure that this was in fact going on, Aki raised her eyes to meet with his. "Does this mean Alex has claimed Aki?" Lifting her hand slightly, to indicate that this referred to the handholding. For a few moments, silence befell Aki completely, as she was weighing all the things that were said and shared. The silence might've been torture to Alex. Aki wasn't great at picking up on those kinds of things."...Does being claimed mean I could kiss you and its fine?.. No rules broken?" Acceptance. Aki hadn't been thinking of whether she wanted to be in a relationship or not. Never once considering whether it was something she wanted or not. Afterall, as Alex had said, either it worked out and it would continue, or it didn't work out and the dates and relationship would stop. Aki also didn't let go of his hand, nor did she pull back, just continuing onwards, casually.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2018 11:49:13 GMT -4
Aki blurted out a question that temporarily made Alex’s brain just completely stop working out of embarrassment. ”No, Alex has never been in a relationship. U.A. is the first ‘normal’ school that I’ve ever been in since like kindergarten, and even then it’s not super normal.” he explained, his face and tone betraying wholeheartedly how embarrassed the comment made him. ”I’ve mostly been in classes alone and haven’t really had a whole class filled with other students in like – almost ten years.” he didn’t count the grades in his head, but to him that sounded right. He was pulled from public school in America during the first grade, so it matched up at least mostly.
When Aki asked if that, and to indicate what she meant she held up both of their hands meant that Alex had claimed her, the American couldn’t find words. He just kind of stared blankly at the redhead as the silence to him seemed to stretch about seventy years. The delinquent could almost feel his hair turning from black to grey to white in that timespan, it was so damned long. Basically every awful scenario possible was running through his head in those moments, and a several shades of something very foreign to his dumb face appeared just briefly – and that something was fear.
Physical threats were something that he could face down. Maybe not well with his own body, but he very rarely got scared from the threat of physical injury. Some people like Kanna had noticed this and asked very rudely if he was too stupid to feel fear like a normal person, and perhaps he was when it came to stuff like that. Every living thing has a weapon against which it has no defense, though, and to Alex that weapon seemed to be the woman in front of him. The American was a person who hated being on the back foot, but the wildling had forced him to that position from the moment they met and he had never recovered.
When the girl finally responded, Alex visibly and audibly let out a shaky breath that he didn’t realize he was holding in. She didn’t pull back, and she didn’t let go. She just asked if she could kiss him and it was fine and no rules would be broken. ”Almost.” he stalled, in his usual state of being flustered around Aki once again and panicked for a completely different reason. ”You haven’t claimed me yet. If only one person claims, there’s no relationship. If you claim me, it becomes okay.” he explained, forcing a bit of a smirk on his face despite his breath continuing to be as shallow as ever and feeling like the sun had taken up permanent refuge in his face with all of the heat that was radiating from it at the moment.
”It’s only okay if both people claim each other. For humans, you can’t just decide to relationship with someone without them claiming you too. That’s not okay and is very bad. Both people have to want it for it to be okay.” he continued, mostly to stall. It was an important distinction, and one that he had to make sure he added in if they were going to do this. Alex himself couldn’t just decide they were together, Aki had to want it too. There was no point in even trying to deny that he was extremely attracted to the girl, so he was basically doing his thing and in the most awkward way possible for a human being asking the redhead if she was attracted to him back.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 12:33:48 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy In many ways, the little information Alex gave in regards to his own growing up, resonated with the redhead. At least to an extent. The girl listened to him, explaining he had never been around people his own age, at least not to a significant degree. It was in many respects the same as Aki, who had lived most of her life sheltered from society, hiding out in the woods outside the major cities, hunting, crafting her own things. For the first time, Aki decided to open up and speak a bit about where she came from. About the life she was used to, how they usually did things. "Aki -- I, was born in the forests. Parents were mutation type quirks. As were their parents. They say city people are evil, dangerous. Should spend as little time with them as possible." Aki began explaining, trying to put her own experiences into words. Trying to give Alex a reference to how things worked where she had come from, plus how she had been dragged from that home by force. "We only trade minimum with the cities people. Get only bare minimum neccessaries. Make rest ourselves." That was how Aki had lived for a vast majority of her life. Day to day, worried only about exploring, having fun, gathering the neccesities in nature to survive. For many weeks at a time, Aki had been on her own, rarely returning to the camp she grew up at. The girl was a free, unbound spirit, travelling across nature. All of nature was her home, and she could survive almost anywhere. Society might've been the place where she struggled to survive the most."One day, Aki climb a fence. Shoot a big fat cow with arrows. It look delicious, Aki swear. Angry farmers catch Aki, bring her to judge. Guilty of poaching." Still holding his hand, still walking forwards, she was quietly remembering all of the things that had resulted in her ending up at Yuuei. It had been a few months since that time. "Aki was in custody. Small room, bars for the window. No freedom. They say if Aki not be good at Yuuei, she got back to place with bars and no freedom." That was the main reason why Aki hadn't fled Yuuei immediately. There was something so horribly terrifying about being behind locks. It really was not a nice place to be. Either case, Aki didn't dwell on it too long, immediately switching to explaining relationships. "In nature, if you like someone, you like that someone. You do fun things together, kiss, mate, whatever you want. There are no rules... but mom once said, be careful who you like. Should have good person, to help hunt when having children." Aki nodded sagely, as if she was spilling ancient wisdom onto Alex. Wisdom that, being he was a city boy, he clearly wouldn't know of......Either case, if Aki had understood the conversation properly up until this point, Alex had currently claimed her. Yet, they were not in a relationship, unless she claimed him in turn. The redhead wasn't sure what relationships were in this world. Equating it to her own knowledge of how things worked in the woods, the redhead girl bit her lip. Alex was most certainly someone she could play around with and have tons of fun. They already were doing that. Kissing him, also seemed fairly fun, even if she hadn't exactly tried it yet. Mating with him wasn't something she needed to consider, though, from what little she knew of him, he seemed like he'd definitely be there to assist hunting if he was to have children.. Adding all of the things together, the girl tugged at his arm, pulling him closer, before placing a soft, gentle kiss onto his cheek. Perhaps this wasn't exactly what Alex had meant, but it was how Aki had understood it. Holding hands and kissing in public was how you claimed. Since Alex had taken charge of the hand holding, then the only option left was kissing him. Yumi had told her to kiss him on the cheek; So Aki had simply added the math together, coming to this conclusion... "...So now Aki has claimed Alex too... Is this a relationship?"
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 15:45:58 GMT -4
When Aki began explaining how she grew up, Alex just gave her hand a little squeeze and for once shut the fuck up and let someone else talk freely. It… explained a lot, actually. So she lived in a tribe at the edges of society, like the nomad people they learned about in history class. They didn’t live in towns, but in the wilderness and hunted and gathered food and stuff to live. He didn’t know too much about them other than that, but the way that Aki was describing her life prior to going to U.A. it all clicked in his head. That was why she didn’t have any social skills, because like him she had never learned.
She was also much more used to animals than humans, that made sense. She had accidentally gone into a farmer’s field and killed some of their cattle, and she got arrested. At the mention of the place with bars and no freedom, Alex winced but didn’t say anything yet. Not only arrested, but thrown in jail. He squeezed her hand in what he hoped was a reassuring way as she continued explaining that she was at Yuuei – and another thing clicked into place in the boy’s head as well. Aki would be considered by most to be a bad fit for school, and likely considered herself to be too. But to her U.A. represented the opposite of what it represented for him. For him, it was a freedom he had never known before in his life. For her, it was just a bigger cage with more space and tons of people who looked, acted, and sounded strange to her. It must be like being thrown into a foreign country without even really knowing the language or the customs, which was something that Alex could relate to much more than most.
Still, at this point he kept silent. This was the most he had ever heard Aki talk at once, and he wasn’t about ready to interrupt her while she was on a roll. Not even when she swapped subjects back to relationships. He nodded along to her explanation of how things worked in nature, but he had no idea how that applied to them specifically until she pulled him in close and kissed him on the cheek. He was still confused, until the redhead asked him if they were in a relationship now that she had claimed him back. Instead of responding verbally, Alex released his hand from Aki’s and cupped her face with both hands and kissed her properly on the lips. ”It is now.” he breathed as he pulled away after one good one and reached to grab her hand again. ”Also, I think it’s only fair that I tell you where I come from since you trusted me enough to tell me where you came from.” he continued, his voice much lower than usual so that even if anybody else was around they wouldn’t be able to hear. ”You can’t tell anyone, though, okay? You’re the first person I’ve ever told. It’s a secret. People would do a bunch of very mean things if they found out.” he added, his tone deathly serious to impress the gravity of the situation to the wildling.
”My mom is actually in that place you mentioned with bars and no freedom right now. I don’t know where, but that’s the last I heard a few years ago.” he paused for a second, and seemed to just stare off in the distance for a few seconds before continuing. ”I might be from the city, but I didn’t grow up in a normal city way. My dad was uh… Well, my dad was a villain. Same powers as me, actually. Real strong. Real angry. Gave me the scar on my face when I was really small, cut me to the jaw bone. They took me out of public school after that so people wouldn’t ask questions, and while Mom did her best uh… The homeschool thing didn’t turn out too good. That’s why I’m so bad at normal school stuff, I never learned. I had a house, but it was basically just a bunch of big rooms with bars and no freedom instead of one small room.” he continued, shrugging a bit as he finally stopped staring out in space and looked back to Aki for a second.
”Dad ended up getting killed by heroes back in America, and me and Mom fled the country over to Japan. We were both locked up in the small rooms with the bars and no freedom for a while, but since I was so young they let me go into what they called ‘foster care’.” the visible shiver and grimace that went through the American’s features told Aki all she needed to know about that, as well as the tone of absolute disgust with the term. ”Basically the adults think that kids can’t fend for themselves, and since my dad was dead and my mother was in jail they considered me an orphan who needed supervision. So I got thrown into this big house with adults who didn’t care, and mind you I didn’t speak a lick of Japanese at this point either. The person in charge was this old lady who hated everyone, all I did was mostly get beaten with sticks and yelled at in a language I couldn’t understand. I eventually got out of there to bounce around to a couple of more normal houses with foster parents, but none of them really cared anyway and I never stayed in one place longer than three months after the mean lady house.” he continued, the disgust lingering in his voice.
”U.A. was the first time I’ve had any freedom, really. It’s weird. I’ve never lived outside the city, or really ever went at all before this. Heck, I barely even got to go outside at all. It’s weird, but we’re learning.” he finished awkwardly, squeezing the redhead’s hand a bit as he said the word ‘we’. ”It’s kinda the opposite for you, isn’t it? U.A. must feel so small compared to what you’re used to.”
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2018 13:37:27 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy A soft, inexperienced and slightly surprised squeak left the redhead wildling as Alex stepped in closer, somewhat firmly kept her head in place, kissing her deeply. At first there had been a bit of unease. Alex was, for all intents and purposes, massive compared to the tiny redhead. Normally it wasn't something that bothered her, but when he got up this close and personal, it had slightly bewildered the wildling, for a few short moments. There was a softness over him, that the girl wouldnt' have attributed to him, if she hadn't just experienced it. Slightly confused, the girl just looked into his eyes as he pulled away. A soft, inexplianable blush on her cheeks. Breathing softly, as he took the girl's hand, she ended up with her shoulder almost pressed into his. Stepping forwards by his side, breathing softly, Aki was feeling strangely calm. As evidenced by the string of questions and comments having come to a natural end. Rather than replying to him verbally, she just beamed, practically skipping while walking. The good mood easily enveloping him if he allowed it to. That's when Alex decided he wanted to tell Aki more of where he was from. On a condition. The wildling girl was to promise that she'd never share with anyone. "Aki promise. Promises in nature are never broken." Nodding sagely, despite how awkward it may have looked initially, the redhead took the statement extremely seriously. Promises were instrumental in nature. The moment promises were broken, it had tragic consequences, typically for both parts. The moment in which the alligator ate the Egyptian Plover bird, the bird would lose it's life, and the alligator would lose it's teeth. The promise needed to function both ways.Occasionally, instinctually, Aki nudged her head against his shoulder in a soft, gentle manner, as if to let him know that she was still there, still listening, still paying attention. Something that, the girl struggled with doing in class a majority of the time. This, however, had her full attention. Alex was speaking of the world she had become part of. About the other individuals who could end up in that horrid place with the bars. Custody, jail, prison. A soft shudder went through the girl's body. As Alex took a short break between explaining about his parents and his own life, the girl took the opportunity to explain. "Aki kinds of get it. To live in the cities, you make a ton of promises. When you break those promises, you go to bad places... Is good thing Aki so great at keeping promises!... If only she knew all the promises she had to keep." The redhead understood inherently how the society was meant to be built. How laws were a bit like promises everyone had to make to live properly together. Of course there were some laws - some promises - that Aki simply didn't understand, nor particularly agree with, but she conceded that they might've been important to someone. "Heroes, what we're trying to be, are to prevent promises being broken, right?... That' makes Alex kind of cool." Continuing to listen to Alex's explanation, the girl somewhat understood. There were a few things that Alex may have misunderstood about the wildling however. Biting her own lip, the girl was thoughtfully trying to put the words together in a manner that made sense. It was not often that talking was this difficult. Aki inherently knew what she wanted to say. What the girl wanted Alex to know. It was just proving far more difficult to actually get it across in such a manner. "..Aki understands. To be unable to go where you want. Unable to do what you desire. Unable to hunt. Alex is free'er now!" With her free hand, she carefully scratched through her own red hair. Sighing softly, this was possibly the most difficult thing for Aki to really speak about. "Aki loves freedom. Loves the woods, the nature... but Aki was always so alone. No pillowfights. No pranks. No military bear. No relationship either... and even then, was Aki really free..? So many places I could not go. Still in trouble if not understand the promises." It was what had gotten Aki into trouble to begin with. The girl had not understood the boundaries of the fences, of the farmers territory..."Here, at school, Aki is learning to be free. For real. Even if it's really boring at times... and Yuuei is really small compared to Aki's nature."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 20:39:03 GMT -4
There were very few instances in Alex’s life where he wanted to talk but couldn’t find any words. There were even less instances where he didn’t even know broad strokes what he wanted to say even if he could. He was new to this whole being emotional stuff, because his whole life it was kind of just suppressed and not really talked about. God, this was weird.
He legitimately had no idea what he was supposed to do. Did he hug her at this point? Did he kiss her again? Did he cry? Did he just squeeze her hand more? He was already doing that a lot… He listened without interrupting when Aki talked again, mostly because he had no idea what to say. He did realize something very clearly just then, though, and that was anyone who called Aki dumb was an idiot. The fact that she was able to take concepts that even the American didn’t fully understand and convert it to a medium in which she understood so quickly was quite frankly extremely impressive. She was able to pick up those concepts within a single conversation what probably took him years to internalize and research, and that was super cool.
Honestly, that bit on heroes was something to really think about. Is that was heroes were? Was that the role that they supposed to take up? Is that what their duty was, at the fundamental level, to prevent the promises that the government made to society from being broken? Were they just the evolution of law enforcement into the modern era? If that was true, then were villains just the next evolution of the violent psychopaths of yesteryear? He had never really thought about this before. The American had always equated heroism with the military really more than anything, seeing their purpose as to violently put down threats to society when all else was insufficient.
”So does that mean heroes are like police, then?” he asked aloud, his tone making it extremely clear he was asking a question rather than explaining something. ”If heroes keep promises, then the promise they keep would be to keep people safe, right? Because I don’t think anyone ever made a promise to beat up all the villains, just to keep innocent people safe…” he trailed off, not making a point because he really didn’t have one. He had never thought about being a hero like that before in his life. He had always just kind of assumed that beating up villains was the primary duty of a hero, and that was what he had focused most of energy to get good at.
Was that wrong?
His red gaze fixed on Aki, looking at her for the first time wondering what other giant surprises like being a goddamned genius she had in store for him. It may have been a trick of the light shining down on her just right, but she also seemed to become even more beautiful than she normally was in that moment. When she talked about the differences between U.A. and her home, Alex actually sniffled a bit and when she was done talking he stopped walking forward and turned towards her to wrap her up in the biggest hug he could possibly give her. For all of his faults, he knew all too well the feeling of being painfully alone in the world. He could relate to feelings of isolation, of having no friends or people to do anything with, and nobody to talk to. What he wanted to do in that moment was to make sure that the girl in his arms knew that she didn't have to feel that way ever again. She didn't have to learn to suffer in a crowd like he had to, no. He would prevent that from happening.
”Hey Aki,” he said, basically whispering in the girl’s ear at this point. ”Since heroes stop promises from being broken, I’m gonna make you a promise ok?” he continued, his voice as smooth as silk in that moment. His heart was absolutely racing and he had no doubt that she could feel just how fast it was beating when they were this close. ”I want you to remember this, okay?” he stalled, trying to think of how he wanted to word this. When he initially hugged her he had absolutely no plan of what he wanted to say, but realized suddenly that anything he said would be held to like it had the force of law.
With that in mind, Alex let himself speak with no filter because it just felt right for some reason. ”You are never going to be alone again, okay?” he started, sniffling and clutching the redhead close with renewed vigor. ”No matter what happens, I’m on your team, okay? Neither of us have packs, so we’re gonna make our own. We’re making our own pack, and you’re in it. You’re in it forever, okay Aki?” he said, continuing to sniffle to try and hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes. Oh god the emotion. Oh god he had no idea how to deal with this so he just continued to hug Aki tight to his chest so she couldn’t see him struggle not to cry. ”You’re getting all the pillowfights. You’re getting all the pranks. You’re staying here, okay? You’re gonna stay here and become an awesome hero, Aki. You’re gonna be super awesome and you’re gonna keep all the promises. You’re gonna keep all the promises, Aki.”
Dammit, why were his cheeks suddenly hot? Were those tears? God dammit why was he crying? Why did his heart feel like it was pounding seven thousand times per minute? Why was his breathing so shallow all of a sudden? Dammit. Couldn’t he just spend one day with Aki just feeling normal? What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just be normal for one fucking day that he could have fun with a beautiful girl in? Why did he always have to be like this, ruining nice moments with his stupid emotions and feelings?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2018 13:14:36 GMT -4
WORD COUNT; TAGGED: TAGGED: Fluffy The girl was quite frankly not sure exactly how the heroes promises to the society they lived in worked. It was unlike the promises that people made to simply live in society. The wildling also wasn't entirely caught up on how police and general law enforcement worked, so having Alex ask these types of questions had her furrow her brow in an attempt to understand exactly what she herself understood of the whole situation. "Aki does not fully understand how police works. Still learning. It more like, police make sure promises in society are kept. Heroes make their own kind of promises, Aki thinks...? Like, rescue heroes, like Cian Glave. They promise to help people who're in trouble from accidents, but they not fight villains." At least, that was about what Aki had understood from the teachings that Yuuei had provided her with. Thus far, it was still a very new concept for the girl. Being introduced to society was, in many ways, incredibly troublesome. It was like having one's head consistently filled up with information. Rules, regulations, customs. There were things that were allowed, yet frowned upon. There were things which Aki could not understand being banned, yet they were, for whatever reason. Society was nowhere near as intuitive as nature, where it mostly came down to doing whatever you had to, to survive. While they had been talking, a sudden movement from Alex slightly startled the redhead, who would've taken a soft step back, but instead found herself embraced in his arms. There was an emanating wildness from Aki, as if the girl had been prepared to absolutely destroy Alex for so suddenly taking a hold of her. Instead, the emotions he conveyed, the sadness he felt, it resonated. Though she had, at first, been startled, it only took a few moments for her to raise her arms and wrap them around his torso, hugging him in towards herself. "Making Aki a promise?" This was new. Entirely new. Never before had anyone wanted to promise Aki anything. It had always been Aki being borderline forced into making promises to others. Promises that she herself hadn't chosen, yet kept being punished for not understanding. Being given a promise... Now that was highly interesting. "Aki will remember, always!" The redhead wildling responded in a joyous tone, clearly interested in hearing what Alex had to say.What followed from Alex, was unlike how the boy usually spoke to her. When the two of them had first had their shadow practice, Alex had been borderline busy attempting to keep the redhead at an arm's length. Not exactly pushing her away, but more so being uncomfortable explaining things that he didn't completely grasp. Now, Alex was simply conveying what he felt, even if he was repeating himself, even if the words spoken weren't carefully thought through. Perhaps that is exactly why Aki understood it so many times more clearly. "...Aki.. be part of a pack?... A-always?" This pure, emotional honesty that came from Alex overwhelmed the wildling, who was typically not concerned with tomorrow. The future came to her one step at a time. As long as she was free, happy, there hadn't been a need to think of tomorrow... but lately, she had learned that being happy, having fun, was a lot easier when around other people.A singular wet line dripped from the corner of her eyes. Sniffling softly, the warm excitement in her chest wasn't going to let her simply remain still in his grasp. Fortunately for Alex, he was quite the few kilos heavier, or the girl would've likely sent him on his back as she pressed in against him, somewhat digging her head into his chest. With her current excitement, her speaking pattern had also completely reverted to talking about herself in third person. "Aki want pack!.. Aki want friends, Aki likes!!... Aki loves? Alex always part of pack! Aki would really like that..."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2018 19:26:15 GMT -4
What Aki said about Glave-sensei made a lot of sense. Nobody could do literally everything it took for an entire team of active heroes to do. Like, it would be reasonable to assume that Darkshine was the strongest hero out of all of them at the moment because of her handling of the Tokyo Hospital incident and an exceptionally powerful villain that would have wiped the floor with almost any other hero with his devastating quirk in a one on one scenario. Her quirk, though offensively absolutely devastating and perhaps the most powerful offensive quirk in existence period would be next to useless in a lot of situations that a hero may encounter, though. What could she do with her quirk if people were drowning in a river, for example? She would need assistance from heroes with quirks that fit the situation better, just like most heroes would be unable to respond to the hospital incident.
A hero would then be useless in a bunch of different situations outside of their niche, so it made sense for them to focus on one particular area to be really good at and focus on saving as many people as they could in that area. That was a whole new way of looking at it, and it was a lot to chew on. Did that mean he would in fact be a terrible fit for Darkshine’s sidekick because they had too similar styles, or would the versatility of his quirk outweigh that doubling down of weaknesses? There was no time to think about this now, though, all it would do is confuse him and hurt his head a lot more than it already hurt trying to get all of these new concepts and way of looking at the world through his thick skull. He wasn’t always the best with new concepts and stuff, but this would be a lot to take in for anyone he thought simply because it was an entirely new way of perceiving the world and not simply a new idea or two.
Emotions overwhelmed him, as they always seemed to at some point, as he wrapped the wildling out in an embrace. He wasn’t the most perceptive in the moment, so he completely missed the step back and instead almost leaned into her more than he normally would have. When he got done pouring out all fot the words he had to say, he resigned himself to just letting the tears stream down his face as he struggled to regain composure and a steady breathing pace. In response, Aki shoved forward against him with force and buried her head into his chest as she exploded with excitement that was crystal clear from her tone. It just made him choke up all the more hearing how excited she was about the prospect, mostly because he had no idea if he could live up to it. No idea if he was even capable of keeping the promise that he had just made.
He had just set the bar insanely high for himself, and it meant that he had essentially committed to not only being in a relationship with Aki but to be her rock forever. Impulsive, absolutely, but it was what Alex thought was right to do at the time. ”Yeah, Aki.” he ended up choking out in between belabored gasps between sobs, ”Always part of the pack.” he paused again before managing to finish: ”I’m not leaving, not now and not ever.”
He didn’t know what to do, honestly, so just held Aki as close to him as possible as he just let the wave of emotion wash over him for as long as it took to actually become able to think, to be able to breathe again. He definitely felt a new weight on his shoulders, though, one he wasn’t used to at all. If the job of a hero was to keep promises, he had just made a big one that he had no idea if he could actually follow through with. What if she was taken back to that discipline school again? What if he couldn’t make the grades and was forced out of the school? What if she ended up hating his guts in a few months? What if he simply wasn’t good enough for all of this trust that Aki seemed all too willing to place in him?
He wasn’t even that great of a person, not really, not like some others at Yuuei who had truly noble reasons for signing up. There were way better people, way more trustworthy people she could have latched onto but didn’t. He didn’t know why that was, but he had made a commitment in the here and now and was going to do his absolute best to see that commitment through if it was the last thing that he ever did. A hero who couldn’t keep the promises that they made was a useless hero, and Alex was never going to settle for being useless. He had already mentally accepted he wouldn’t be the best, but the very least he could do was put himself on the map. A hero’s job as to save people, and if he could save Aki as his first… Well, that would be the most fitting, wouldn’t it?
That’s the entire reason that some people became heroes, right? To protect the ones that they loved? Did making a promise like that, such a permanent promise mean that he loved Aki, then? Was that the source of the feeling of warmth in his chest and the unsteadiness in his legs? Was this what love felt like, then? He sure hoped not, because he couldn’t stomach feeling like this all the time forever. He hoped love felt lighter than this, and a heck of a lot happier to boot. At least, that’s what he hoped it felt like because he didn’t know if he could handle feeling as heavy like he did currently for another second – let alone forever! God, why couldn’t he just stop crying for two seconds?
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220 Posts
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4 years Years
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Post by Kelolon on Oct 25, 2018 22:24:22 GMT -4
Aki - 90 EXP Alex - 124 EXP
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