333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Feb 19, 2020 22:36:05 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! THE LAST TIME THAT CHARLIE had been there, she was visiting with Theo and meeting his family. That week had been a whirlwind and Charlotte had wanted it to last forever-- meeting the family was a big deal, right? But then Theo left U.A. (probably indefinitely) leaving the prawn with an armful of feelings and unanswered questions. Sure, time healed all wounds, but it didn’t give you answers. And now that Charlie was once again in the U.K., certain question nagged at her mind.
Would Theo be there?
What if he was at the English hero school?
Logically, the prawn knew that this was next-to impossible. There was an entire country to get lost in, and the odds of seeing her former crush were slim to nonexistent. But they were marginally higher than seeing him in Japan. While she knew this logically, the more creature part of Charlotte caught itself glancing around corners, twitching at the first sign of short, brown hair or young, strapping shoulders.
That was why Charlotte was grateful for the distraction that Chimera provided. Rather than pacing around Valiant Institute as though she were teetering on the edge of neuroses, she would accompany her friend on his journey off-campus, for a file for his horns. It was the kind of menial trip perfect for taking one’s mind off of things. And so, Charlotte agreed.
The two arranged for a time, and the prawn found herself at the front entryway of the hostel where they were staying. Her hands were wedged deep into her pockets, and she seemed to be peering ponderously towards the electrical lights up above.
In terms of dress, she wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. And, of course, a black surgical mask. For a moment she’d contemplated wearing her school uniform (to make a good first impression), but she realized that “picking up a file for your friend’s horns” didn’t really necessitate formalwear. Besides, it’d look weird if Charlie was dressed-up and Chimera wasn’t.
She saw a familiar flicker of white in the corner of her eye, and she brought her attention back to the teen before her.
“Hey,” she greeted, her salutation sounding more like a relieved sigh than actual words, “Good to see you. You ready? How far’s your place?”
God, it felt good to be speaking English again. It was like flexing a muscle she didn’t get to use very often.
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322 Posts
1 EP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Feb 20, 2020 11:09:54 GMT -4
644 WC LORGE HORNS | Chimera was usually on the ball when it came to personal grooming. That wasn't a humble-brag, that was just a statement of fact. When one's body was covered in fur or when one had fangs and horns and claws that needed constant managing, one got very good at said managing. That wasn't to say he was vain--he really, really wasn't--but he had to have some skill with this or he'd wind up with a horn growing through his cheek or claws sharp enough to rip through his clothes when he was putting them on. Or worse shedding than usual. Anyway, point was he was usually better at remembering to bring along his necessities, but he'd been...distracted at the start of the trip, and had either forgotten to grab his file or had missed that it'd not been allowed on the flight.
Crap. He'd tried to ask the chat if anyone had a spare for him to borrow but to no avail--and he was NOT going to let Yojin use that goddamn mechanical one, not after the last time it happened. He could still feel the sinking terror that he was going to get his nose shaved off by that thing.
Thankfully Charlotte the Super Prawn had reminded him that this was his hometown, and odds were he had a spare one at his family's house. It wasn't a quick walk from the hostel but it was do-able, especially if one had a friend to talk to along the way. So he'd asked Charlotte if she wanted to come along, meet his siblings and mothers', and also just to hang out before things got crazy with the tournament-festival-thing. His hoodie only got a little stuck on his horns as he got dressed despite their extra-pointy-ness, so he was a little later than he wanted to be getting to the door, but once he was he spotted Charlotte quickly and flashed her a toothy grin, rushing up to her side.
"Heya!" Wow, English, who would have known he'd miss hearing a language he didn't need to translate in his head before processing. "I'm all set. It's, like, ten minutes if I'm running, so it's probably a half hour walking? That's not too bad, right?" He pulled out his phone to check the time. It was still pretty early in the day and there wasn't anything happening that he knew about, so they had no time limits aside from whatever Charlotte might have had planned for the day. "It's right between the Ouse river and the racecourse."
Chimera started strolling casually down the streets of York, which, while this area was not especially familiar to him, was still carrying the same feelings of his neighborhood of half a decade. It was so nice to be where he considered "home", even if UA had become so much like a second one over the last two years. He'd missed it. Some people even recognized him. It was nice. Still, there were some people who'd look at the humanoid goat and prawn and probably still give them funny looked. Chimera was getting better at ignoring them. "Lemme know if you want to stop for food on the way, I know all the best pubs and shops around here. Or at least the top twenty. That's still a lot."
He snickered. "How've you been liking York so far? I hope the girl's rooms are a bit roomier than the guy's--I've never been great with bunk-beds. I blame the horns. They keep bonking into the headboard." The paw not holding his phone raised to rub at the base of his left horn, which was a bit sore. He could have sworn they didn't grow this quickly in the past. Maybe he was hitting a growth spurt? Urgh, couldn't it wait until he was done growing height-wise?
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Feb 23, 2020 15:32:02 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! CHARLOTTE SMILED BACK AT CHIMERA, who seemed all-too-eager to embark on this file-retrieving adventure. He was getting taller, the prawn noted, or perhaps it was just the horns. She sighed in amusement, shrugging one shoulder-- it was a running joke between the two of them. Which behemoth was bigger?
"Half-hour isn't bad at all," the prawn agreed, pocketing both hands, "Let's go."
The two strode out the front doors of the hostel and into the brisk air. By now, most of the morning fog had cleared, but the chill still hung about. Anything beat snow, though. Chimera's further explanation of where his house was meant nothing to the prawn, as she had no knowledge of the area, but she still responded with a genial, "Oh, by the river?"
Charlie had only ever lived in the slums of Oakland, and in Mustafu. While Oakland was close to the ocean, without a car it was an impossibly far journey to see. The two strode casually down the mostly-unoccupied streets, the conversation sparse between them. With the tournament looming ahead of them, there was so much and yet so little to discuss. Chalk it up to nerves, the prawn supposed. Any anxious gazes the pair might have received were met by a sharp stare from the prawn. While Chimera chose to ignore them, the prawn met them head-on. Staring was rude, and the should know better.
"Maybe a coffee shop?" she proposed, her breath coming out in small puffs. It was, after all, a bit chillier than the prawn had bargained for. And she was a bit jet-lagged...
"York's fine," the prawn replied, smiling faintly, "Haven't done too much sightseeing yet, though... but I've been enjoying the food." English food was hearty enough to suit the prawn's needs-- like, actually filling, and she really appreciated that, "Afraid that the beds are just as cramped, though. I have to sleep diagonally when I'm all stretched-out. Or curled into a little ball."
Thus were the struggles of being taller-than-average mutants.
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322 Posts
1 EP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Feb 23, 2020 21:40:30 GMT -4
532 WC Three years of roomba | Chilly air did little to deter Chimera with his thick layer of fur. If anything he felt more comfortable in the cold than he did the heat, just because he didn't feel like he was wearing a dozen extra layers in a sauna. Bleh. Once they got back from the tournament he'd decided to talk to a teacher about increasing the amount of A/C units in the dorms for those like him who were sensitive to the heat, just like Rowan had suggested. He'd been putting it off, but with new students coming in there were high odds that some of them might have the same issues but not enough confidence to bring it up to the staff. And, well, while he wouldn't call it "confidence", Chimera would be a third year in April.
That meant something to people, right?
It means I'll have reached three years living in Japan...and with...
...auuuurgh.
He didn't dwell on that train of thought for too long. Instead, with a quick sniff of the air, Chimera pointed to a few windows as they walked past them. "One of these places has pretty decent coffee. Or smells like it does, I'm still pretty new to the whole caffeine thing. Yojin shared one of those energy drinks with me and I was literally vibrating for an hour." As they drew closer it was easier to tell which one had the more pleasant scent coming from it; a dainty little place with old stone walls and wooden beams not unlike an old medieval shop. It looked cool, but it did have quite a few people coming in and out. That said good things about its coffee but he wasn't sure how Charlie felt when it came to crowds. "You want to hop in with me and grab something?"
An unspoken offer hung in the air: If you want I can go in and get it for you?
Chimera winced sympathetically at Charlie's bed woes. "I guess they'd need to get all our measurements to accommodate the, uh, larger of us. Or smaller. I hope Momoko doesn't get squished by any tourists." One of his ears raised up just a little as he tilted his head in thought, not unlike a dog doing the same. "I haven't memorized the roster for all the schools but I think I saw some big guys in there as well. Maybe they would say something if we brought it up."
It was funny. Several persons had encouraged him to be a little more vocal for himself and other mutants, and now he kept wondering how else he could do it, even outside of school. He'd never thought of himself as the sort to do so.
"Are you taking part in the tournament, Charlie? Like, the battle or other stuff?" Chimera looked up and over his friend. "Did you make tech for anyone in it?" He could recall Yojin rushing around to get people armor and tools through the last week, and Haruuhi's offer for a translation device had been met with a lot of positive feedback in the chatroom. He could see Charlie doing the same.
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Mar 8, 2020 20:12:27 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! THE FAMILIAR SCENT OF FRESHLY-GROUND COFFEE BEANS tickled the prawn’s antennae a good many strides after Chimera caught a whiff of it on the air. The antennae perked, and her lavender eyes followed the direction of the scent.
“Hey, as long as they got caffeine and creamer, I’m not picky,” the prawn assured her fluffy companion good-naturedly, lightly nudging him with her elbow. She didn’t pretend to have refined tastes, not in the least. As long as it didn’t have the consistency of mud, Charlie would be satisfied. The shop came into view, a quaint and decently-trafficked thing. The prawn paused for a moment, and Chimera extended his invitation.
“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding briefly, “Can’t be half-asleep when I meet the family.”
The two crossed the threshold, a bell over the door announcing their entrance. Chimera proposed voicing their concerns to the hostel, and the prawn huffed drolly. Sure, she bet they had loads of spare beds stashed in some bedroom just for their taller guests. They’d probably get told the professional equivalent of “suck it up”.
“I don’t care that much,” Charlotte said simply. It wasn’t worth the trouble. She’d spent a lifetime of sleeping beds (or mattresses on the floor) that didn’t fit her. Why would she start fighting now? She smiled to herself, “I tell ya what though, when I start making the big bucks, I’m buying a King Size mattress. And I’m gonna sleep like this-“
She spread her arms above her head, as if she had just achieved some victory.
The two queued-up, and Charlotte turned her shoulders sideways so that she faced Chimera, vaguely. Some patrons cast sly glances their direction, but the prawn did her best to not return their stares.
“The siege,” the prawn confirmed, “I’m not a fan of like… straight combat. Kinda hoping the castle has a moat…” She broke-off, her gaze pointing vaguely towards the ceiling. Chimera begged the obvious question for any tech-head in Support—had she made anything for anyone? The prawn grimaced slightly, her eyes pinching. She wasn’t as prolific or enterprising as the other second years. Haruuhi was making translators, Yojin was making literally everything else. And then there was Charlie—the loser of Support Studies. Sometimes she felt like she was just biding her time. Like maybe she just enrolled to appease her adoptive parents.
“I made some, eh… ear-pieces. Not translators,” she said modestly, “I’ve got a shockwave punch that can, like… rupture eardrums of anyone within range. So I made some, eh… noise-cancelling wireless earbuds that activate when the ambient noises goes above a certain decibel—so I don’t accidentally take my teammates out.”
Of course, there wasn’t anything to account for getting literally blown away by the explosive forces, but hey, at least they wouldn’t go deaf.
“Otherwise… just some cherry bombs, a climbing rope and grappling hook… yeah,” Charlotte said with a shrug and a lame smile. She didn’t even mention the goddamn self-inflating water-wings. Imagine trying to tell your friend that you, an aquatic mutant, needed tactical water-wings to stay afloat.
Sure, the Sports Fest provided an opportunity to show-off to the world, but Charlotte had moral qualms pulling out the “big guns” so to speak when going up against other teenaged students. So her technical involvement went for something more… pragmatic.
“How about you? You fighting?”
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322 Posts
1 EP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Mar 9, 2020 19:44:39 GMT -4
641 WC Mm meat and breab | Although Charlie was quick to decline to ask for a larger bed at the hostel, the thought still lingered in Chimera's mind. A lot of them, all of a similar nature, had been doing that lately. It'd be nice if he could figure out how to make them work into something he could do but given that he wasn't as handy as Yojin or any of the Support Studies kids, the best he could do was advocate for the sort of things they made instead of actually making the accessibility-friendly things that might line up with his thoughts. Other pro heroes did that already, didn't they? And probably better than he ever could...but...the thought still stuck.
Chimera snorted at her silly pose. "Going for the starfish style of sleeping?"
That was a bad joke.
As they got into line, Chimera's ears picked up more and more of the voices around them. Nothing was super clear unless he tried to focus on it, and he didn't really want to right now. He could already see people looking at them and pretended not to as it was--he didn't need to hear whispers as well.
"Oh yeah? You know what, I was torn between that and the jousting thing. Everyone else I know is either in that or on that crazy train one and, uh, that one sounded a bit extreme for me?" He chuckled weakly, ignoring that the real reason he hadn't signed up for that one was because Yojin had, and he was already in the same tournament as him, and he could only handle so much of his face right now. He also didn't like the thought of train-to-train combat. Not with the kind of engineering bullshit some of U.A's "best" minds could come up with. He was a little surprised Charlie hadn't gone for that one too. But if the castle did have a moat, then she'd have an advantage. Because shrimp.
"Maybe I'll pick that for my own showcase. What do you think, want me to help storm the castle with you, lady Charlotte? And hey, I can help beta if those earphones you've made work right, since I've got such sensitive hearing?"
He was way too used to playing the guinea pig for support students.
One of Chimera's ear perked at her own question. "Yeah. I didn't last year, and I almost didn't this year, but...I want to feel more confident being in the spotlight, you know? That's why I signed up for the disciplinary committee. So getting out and fighting for the crowd felt like the next step? And since there's a loser bracket this year I feel, uh, less shit if I get knocked out in round one." He shrugged his fuzzy shoulders, grin turning cheeky. "And if I get to punt a few of our more draining classmates then that's just extra catharsis."
They got to the front of the line with the sort of timing one might expect from your standard popular coffee shop, and Chimera went for his wallet in the pocket of his jeans--simple black and made of cloth, nothing fancy. The barista behind the counter didn't seem phased by their appearances, so she was either a really good actor, too tired to care, genuinely chill, or a Quirker herself. Who knows. Whatever the case was she gave them the standard "Good morning! How can I help you two today?" with a bright "please tip me" smile.
Chimera tilted his head, ears flopping a little as a dog's would. "Mmm, do you do the breakfast sandwiches without cheese?" She nodded. "One of those and a bottle of water for me then. You want to pay together, Charlie?" He gave her a glance up from over his shoulder. "Since I've dragged you out?"
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Mar 10, 2020 21:34:47 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! CHARLOTTE NODDED VIGOROUSLY WHEN CHIMERA insisted she’d be sleeping “like a starfish”.
“I think that’s what it means to be successful,” Charlotte said simply, “You can sleep like a starfish in your bed, and your arms and legs don’t hang off.”
The prawn inched forward as the line did, doing her best to listen to Chimera’s rationale—the train and jousting had been too crazy for his liking. Charlotte nodded in agreement. She’d never been a fan of outright combat. At least the castle had a certain degree of brainpower required to succeed. She assumed the other tech-heads would go for the train, with all the “best and brightest minds” crap they’d been spouting. But Charlotte wanted something a bit more… down-to-earth? Maybe she wasn’t being enterprising enough in her decisions, but ah well.
“That could be fun,” the prawn said gently, as Chimera offered to join her in storming the castle, “Don’t settle for the siege if your heart’s elsewhere, though. I can lend you the earbuds no matter what.”
Of course, the question of the earbuds called into question the structure of Chimeras’ ears. Were they humanoid? Or would she need to make modifications to the ergonomic earbuds? She’d save those questions for after coffee.
She laughed along at his “punting the more draining classmates” comment. This was why she liked Chimera—although he was a hero’s studies kid, he had support studies sensibilities.
When it was their turn to order, Charlotte’s antennae perked. Pay together?
She misunderstood the offer, and was grateful for the spending money her parents had given her.
“Ah, sure,” she agreed, digging into her pocket for her wallet, “And a… sandwich with cheese, I suppose, and a coffee, please.”
Perhaps Chimera had meant that he was offering to pay? Or maybe he’d forgotten his money! The prawn was clueless and not bothering to ask, eager to treat her friend. Besides, she was already pulling-out pound notes from her wallet! There was nothing that Chimera could do to stop her! The total was given, and the order was declared as “to-go” before money was surrendered, and change was made.
“Your drinks and food will be out in just a moment,” the barista said brightly. The prawn tipped some of her change, pocketed the rest.
“Thank you,” the prawn replied, before stepping aside. She found an empty space against the wall, in an area near the counter that was relatively devoid of tables. Charlotte leaned against the wall, facing Chimera.
“So… your family… how much should I… psychically prepare myself for?”
There was a smile in her eyes.
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322 Posts
1 EP
EXP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Mar 11, 2020 8:05:17 GMT -4
921 WC big happy nerd family | "Hey, I mean, you might not have to wait to be making 'big bucks' to do that, yeah? How pricey are king-sized beds versus queen sized ones? Maybe we can Frankenstein one together for third year," Chimera mused, though the thought did sound pretty cool if it meant making Charlie's life a little better now instead of later. Though would a king-sized (or a bed made to be bigger than a twin) even fit in the dorm rooms? Especially if one had a roommate, which he wasn't sure whether or not Charlotte had. Chimera put a claw to his chin in thought. There was something he'd been thinking about since another pair of U.A second years/future third years moved out of the dorms, but it had felt a little unnecessary at the time. But...now there were a few factors making it look better, if not worth it. Maybe he should seriously consider moving out.
He'd voice that later. He still had to figure out some more personal stuff.
It'd be fun being in the finale with Charlotte, too. Though at her insistence that he'd be given the earbuds whether or not the did wind up together, he lifted up one of his long, fluffy ears to show the underside. Pink, soft felt lined it much like a real rabbit's ear, and only against his skull proper was there an opening to his ear canal. It was notably larger than a normal human's ear. "Think it'll fit? I usually have to go for over-the-head headphones, but turned on their side to fit under these things." He released his ear. "Yojin's tried to make me ear-buds but I get a bit nervous when he'd poking around near my skull. I think I'd be less worried if it was you? You've got, uh, less of a track record..."
Ah, wait, he'd meant he was going to treat Charlie, but she was already pulling out money and setting it down and it was whisked away before he could so much as protest. Chimera's ears pulled back and drooped in slight surprise, then begrudging acceptance, before falling at their normal place on his head. He chuckled weakly. If he told her would she get embarrassed? But if he didn't would she think he had forced her to pay? He raised his own wallet and waved it back and forth, and smiled. "I'll get the next one then, to be fair."
They relocated to wait for their order. While Charlie leaned against the wall as tall and dramatically as possible, Chimera stood a couple feet in front of her, arms relaxed and paws in his pockets, his tail swishing back and forth in steady, anticipatory flicks. His eyes met hers and promptly rolled at her words. "Well let me think," he said oh-so-seriously, "I've got five siblings. You know Angie and she's back in Japan, so you're spared the medical inquiries I usually have to warn people about--can't make any guarantees about when we're back on campus though. Nadia's twelve and will try to fight you just because she can. She's the werebear. She does it to everybody. Jake and Isaac are both toddlers--not related, they're about a month and a half a part--and Jake will try to climb you because he always wants to climb. Jake's, like, a wooden doll?"
Chimera moved his elbow up and down in a jerky fashion, like he were moving on set joints like, well, a doll. "His joints are wooden and he looks and feels like it, too. But he bleeds, and he doesn't get clogged up by water, so we're not really sure how that works? Isaac has feather but we aren't sure yet if that means he'll be a full-on bird or just, like, something closer to that girl in 1-A with the angel wings. When I was here in spring last year he was pretty calm still. I don't think that's changed...he might want to chew on you at least. And the last one is Martha. She's a baby, so she's too little to do much to you."
"When she was born, the muscles in her arms and legs were all..." His voice grew a little quieter, and his expression hardened just so. "...wrong, I guess is the best way to put it. They're inverted. So, like, that scene in the Exorcism where she walks backwards up the stairs, but permanently. Maybe when she's older and her Quirk gets clearer we'll figure out what it really is but for now it's just kind of...well...she's with us, so, her birth parents probably just got too freaked out by her. Which was the case with all of us, in the long term."
Chimera sighed and shrugged his shoulders, mood somewhat dampened. He had to get it back somehow. Trying to perk up as best he could he met her eyes again and gave her a half-grin, pointing with one claw at her arm. "One of my moms will want to arm-wrestle you. That's like her go-to when meeting a new Quirker. She's Quirkless but she's strong as hell--she coaches football. And my other mom--she's the one with the Quirk--she's a lot calmer but she'll probably ask you a lot of questions. Not as bad as Angelica, just...about how you do day-to-day stuff, or how your senses differ. Little things. It's neat."
"They're...both really, really kind. You'll love 'em. And they'll like you a lot."
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Mar 11, 2020 18:20:57 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! CHARLOTTE GAVE AN UNCONVINVED CHUCKLE and a quiet, “Yeah, sure.”
Her bed was right by the door to the bathroom, and she doubted that Jun would agree to having to climb over Charlotte’s king-sized bed each day to reach the bathroom. At least her bed was a Twin XL, which gave her another foot to work with rather than a normal twin bed. Most nights she just laid on the floor anyways.
The prawn had inspected his ear from a distance. Yeah, she’d need a different silicone casing for the device. But such adjustments would be easy to make.
“Well, if you don’t mind me taking impressions of your inner ear… making earbuds that fit you shouldn’t be a problem. I could even make little ergonomic hooks that help keep them in place.”
The prawn spoke pragmatically, in a near-murmur. Adaptive tech was her jam, and any excuse to make it for some friends was welcomed.
As the two transitioned from ordering their food to their place in the queue, the goat-boy began to list through his relatives. The proclamation of five siblings made the prawn’s antennae lift slightly. Five?! As if Angie wasn’t enough! Thankfully, she wasn’t there. Charlotte nodded. Her first impression of Angie hadn’t been the greatest, and she hadn’t really quelled that unease. Medical professionals made her uneasy. Aspiring medical professionals with a mad scientist-grade interest in mutations even moreso.
The rest of the descriptions passed with marginal reactions-- a fighter, a climber, and a baby… one of his mom’s was full of questions, the other liked to arm wrestle people. And all but one family member was quirked, and only one of the quirkers wasn’t a mutant. It sounded chaotic, to have all those quirks under one roof. But it sounded like a family. Charlotte was admittedly a little jealous… and perhaps a little sad.
There was really only one way to get such a diverse array of quirks all under one roof-- and that was adoption. And while it was so wonderful that there were people like Chimeras’ moms in the world-- it was so tragic that there were even more people like each of their biological parents, too.
Charlotte watched Chimera with quiet eyes. Had he told her she was adopted? Charlie could’ve sworn that she had… she wasn’t exactly secretive about it…
“I’m glad that good people like your moms found all of you,” Charlie said reassuringly. The corners of her eyes pinched slightly, “Just like how my family found me. It gives people like us a chance.”
“Charlotte!” a barista at the counter called, snapping the two to attention and interrupting the solemness that had settled. The prawn roused herself from the wall, briefly surveying the sandwiches before retrieving her own. Each sandwich was wrapped in white parchment paper and still warm from its preparation.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said brightly, retrieving the empty coffee cup from the counter. She found the station for the coffee, doling-out a generous amount of creamer before selecting a medium roast. Before taking the coffee cup up in her hand once again, she unfastened her surgical mask so that she could eat while they walked. The surgical mask was pocketed, as was her sandwich, and the coffee was taken-up in-hand. Charlotte nodded to Chimera, and the two set-off again.
“I… think… I'll be okay,” the prawn announced. She tried to take a premature sip of coffee, and it burnt her more sensitive mouthparts. She sputtered slightly, “M-meeting the family, I mean. Little kids make me nervous, but… if they’re all quirkers anyways, or at least… around people with quirks… it’ll be okay.”
Sheltered kids were sometimes a bit much with the severe mutations-- overly enthusiastic or understandably afraid. That took an extra dose of mental fortification.
“Your moms are like my mom and dad,” Charlie said brightly, changing gears, “My mom is quirkless. Dad’s a fish-man, I guess. He was absolutely pumped when I told him I found-out about being able to breathe underwater… no siblings, though.”
It was a much happier conversation than failing midterms, that was for damn sure.
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322 Posts
1 EP
EXP
Total
16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Mar 12, 2020 9:37:25 GMT -4
961 WC Hmmmmm, future... | Did all Support Studies students have the same "techie murmur" thing when they got going? Chimera only really saw Charlie and Yojin get into it, but he had a suspicion that they weren't outliers here. He let his ear drop back to his shoulder with a soft "fwp". "Sure, impression away. Do you think after this you could make me a pair of just normal earphones for music and stuff? It'd be a lot better than trying to wrap my ears around normal headphones. I can pay for the stuff to make it if you want." And if they worked well he could try to get other animal-ear'd mutation Quirks to commission some for themselves. She'd be one step closer to getting that king-sized mattress in no time.
Chimera finished prattling on about his strange family and looked up at Charlie with what he hoped was still a smile, though he felt a little anxious about it. The only other person to meet his siblings and parents was Yojin--half of them had come to visit for the first sports festival, even before this weekend--and he wasn't from a small family himself. There were always going to be people that thought his mothers were crazy for taking on so many children, even without the wide array of Quirks that all of them wielded. Charlie was understanding though, right? She must be. After all, with how she'd spoken of her own birth parents, she had to be from a similar situation to them...but that made him nervous in a different way. He couldn't remember what her current family was like. He wasn't rubbing in her face that he had an accepting family, was he?
She wasn't still in the system, was she?
Her words did a quick job of removing that fear. Chimera's smile grew brighter, his ears perking up and tail moving faster in the most obvious display of joy that he had. It would be embarrassing later--it always was--but for now, fuck it.
They made their way out of the shop with their food in hand, once Charlotte had her coffee as well as their sandwiches. Chimera unwrapped his to let it cool off in the brisk February air before he tried a bite. Only when Charlie had started speaking (and burned her mouth on her coffee in the process) did he really notice she'd taken off her mask. He couldn't remember if he'd ever seen her do that in public. Around the dorms, sure, or at lunch, but eating while walking down the street was considered a bad thing in Japan, so he didn't recall seeing her do so there. Nobody seemed to be look at them extra hard--they already had been getting looks, but he'd ignored them--so it seemed okay.
Chimera took a bite of his sandwich. With the size of his mouth and strength of his teeth it nearly ripped the thing in two. Whoops. Muzzle problems. As he at and listened to Charlotte talk about meeting her own adoptive parents he felt even more of his fears fade away. Even if it was just her and them, they sounded like just as tight-knit a family as his own. Which was wonderful. "Is he a fish-man like a mermaid, or like...a reverse mermaid? Or like a full-on fish person." Chimera tried to visualize either. His mind wound up tilting toward that one romance film about a fish-man and a human woman from back in the early 2000's and...well, Charlotte had said her mother was Quirkless, but.
Uh.
"Siblings are a handful. I'm still getting used to having them after, like, six years? It doesn't help that Angie and I are so close in age, but she'd been with my moms for a lot longer than me. Heck, Nadia was there before I was. So they were already pretty close by the time I was fostered...it made me feel like I was butting in, for a while. And god Angie asked me so many questions I was ready to throw her through the wall in the first week." Chimera snorted aloud, finishing his sandwich in literally two bites. "Sometimes I still am, to be fair. But ginger-mom--that's, heh, what my quirkless mom calls herself with us--was just kind of a maternal force of nature. I got sucked in. She's wild. They both are. But I guess you have to be a little crazy to adopt so many of us..."
Down the streets of York they continued to venture, and as they went the area became more and more familiar to Chimera. Shop windows and restaurants that he'd known from walking too and from the secondary school began to stand out, and he pointed to a few he knew as they went with brief quips about things Nadia had broken in there or how that one had really good snacks. As much as U.A felt like a second home to him, this place still held first place.
Which made it a little hard for him to admit to himself that he probably wouldn't be returning here for a long time, since...well...all his hero friends would be in Japan, at least for the next few years. He'd feel strange coming back to the UK and not know a single one of the graduated heroes. Maybe after visiting more and getting to know them better he'd come home to stay, but...that was so far in the future, he couldn't think about it for real right now. Not yet.
But it did get him wondering. "When you graduate," Chimera started with a bit of caution, "Do you think you'll stay in Japan for a bit, or go back to America?"
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Mar 23, 2020 17:42:01 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! THE PRAWN SEEMED TO GET GIDDY at Chimera's request-- well, as giddy as a bug-faced creature could get, anyways. Make normal earphones for his music? Her lavender eyes glittered eagerly.
"I totally could," she breathed.
Charlotte nibbled at her sandwich, her mandibles making quick work of it. There was something flagrantly "not right" about the way that she ate. Her outer maxilipeds, the large digits that were externally visible, "bit" food by tearing it free. Rather than her jaw moving up-and-down, the mandibles chewed sideways. Having no lips to keep the food in, meant that sometimes crumbs escaped, although her maxillipeds mostly did a stellar job at keeping the bites in place. Watching Charlie eat my give any observer a sense of "uncanny valley"-- a sense that this face didn't move the way that it was supposed to.
Chimera was thankfully focused on his own food, however, and the streets weren't too busy with foot-traffic.
"Full-on fish-man," Charlotte said distractedly, having finished her bite, "Think like... Monster from the Dark Swamp, but waaayyy better looking. In my humble opinion."
Early 1900's horror films/sci-fi's didn't do fish-men justice, unfortunately. They looked all lumpy and soulless.
"I could show you a picture of my folks once I'm done with the sandwich," the prawn suggested. She took another bite. She was noticeably quieter when the topic of his sister Angie was brought-up. Charlotte's first encounter with her had not been... the best... and so the prawn was not eager. At least the frustration with her laundry-list of periodically-invasive questions was ubiquitous.
The prawn had basically polished-off her sandwich when Chimera popped the graduation question on her.
"Oh, that's easy," the prawn replied, "I'm staying in Japan. Probably permanently."
The obvious follow-up question was, "Why?", so Charlotte answered it before the question could even be spoken.
"When my folks adopted me, I got dual-citizenship because my parents are Japanese," Charlotte explained, "So it's not like I just have a student visa, and need to return when my schooling's done." She finished her sandwich, crumpled the wrapper and tucked it into her pocket.
"Besides, the states never really felt like home to me," she said, somewhat hesitantly, "The closest thing I had to a home was living in the slums with Chief. And he got offed in a raid."
Wow, Charlotte had really just laid that all out, hadn't she? She'd only mentioned her life before foster care, before adoption, to a handful of people. Maybe just two? And they had both left the school, and her secret gone with them. So she'd skirted under the radar as "Totally Normal Student" for now. Not like other students, who aired their trauma and drama like laundry to dry. It only came to a head in really specific situations.
"Long story short, there's nothing for me there," Charlotte said hurriedly, "C-can't get rid of me that easily."
She laughed, it felt a bit too forced.
"Wh-what about you?"
Having freed one hand, she reached into her pocket and procured a cell phone. Charlotte unlocked the device, and with a few taps found her gallery. There had to be a family picture here somewhere... she needed something for her hands to do while she tried to forget this shameful instance of oversharing.
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322 Posts
1 EP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Mar 25, 2020 22:32:36 GMT -4
1192 WC Interrupting bear | Charlie got so excited at the thought of making Chimera a pair of headphones that it was honestly adorable. She was so into adaptive technology. Sure, Yojin and Momoko had made controllers and keyboards and the like, but it wasn't really their "thing"--Yojin made a lot of weapons and Momoko...actually he wasn't sure what it was the Support Studies president was best in. He had heard Yojin say once that she made a DDR-esque pad for typing on her laptop but he had a suspicion that he'd been bullshitting him. Maybe. Probably.
Somebody who didn't have mandibles might have found it hard not to stare at Charlie as she ate, but Chimera was a literal goat-dog-cat-rabbit person, and had perfected the niche art of accepting every unusual sight as "normal" when need be. Which was now. Though he was still trying not to think of that film with the fish-man and the human woman which helped take him mind off that.
He nodded along as she explained why she would be staying in Japan once they'd graduated. She was a citizen, her parents could just return to see her if they wished, and she didn't really have a reason to go back--
What was that?
Chimera's expressions were bad at being fake. When he was worried it was as obvious as when a dog was--his ears drooped forward and his eyes went wide in that "sad puppy" manner he wished he could call on on demand. Right now though he was too focused on Charlie to notice it. She'd been in the slums before she was adopted? She'd lost her...who? A friend? A sibling? A parental figure? Was it something to do with gang violence? He couldn't see soft-spoken, anxious Charlotte being in a gang, let alone in a gang raid. But then again she was here at U.A, and she was tall and, admittedly, intimidating. It was just that under that outer shell she just seemed too nice for that life...
...it would have been really easy for him to get mixed in with bad shit, too, if he had been left in the system as a teenager. With how lonely and sad and mad he was at the world, if he'd had a fraction of "teenage rebellion" in his system, he could have gotten into loads of trouble.
Maybe the same had been true for her.
She's changing the subject...I don't want to press...god dammit, me, stop with the puppy eyes, you're not going to help anything!!
"Right, yeah, that makes a lot of sense." Chimera glanced aside for a second to try and force his ears back into "neutral", and only once he was sure they were returned to look at her. And had a phone shoved into his face. That just made them draw back in surprise instead. Oh! That was her dad! He was, in fact, a fish person. "...I don't know what I was expecting but that's pretty much it. Uh, is your mom a fan of The Shape of Water?....errh, fuck, never mind."
Good job, brain. Smooth.
"I'm torn. Honestly. One of my mom's is Japanese but second-generation, and she says she's not on good terms with her parents. She still has some kind of citizenship? I'm on a student visa though. And. Could turn it into a work visa once we graduate anyway so that's not a problem." Chimera let out a small awkward chuckle, scratching the back of his neck with his claws. "But I guess the big thing is that I'm having a lot of fun in Japan? Like, living with all the others and going through so much together makes me like all of them, even the ones I probably should be more annoyed at? I don't think I could take coming back here to do hero work and not know a single one of the heroes."
"It'd be really lonely. Even though my family is up here, and I love them and do want to be with them, I don't think it would make up for the rest of it. Angie may stay down there too if...um..." Her job. Her job. Not that. She wouldn't stay in Japan over him. Not unless it was serious. And we're all young. She knows that because she knows fucking everything. It's not like...like... "...she gets into one of the medical colleges she's been looking at over there. Hah."
Had he gone quiet for too many seconds between those words?
Mmmmaybe.
Chimera opened his mouth to say something else. Anything else. As sharp a turn in the subject as he could muster. But before he did a familiar scent tugged at his attention and he looked forward at a suddenly rapidly approaching figure. They were short and wearing a very baggy overcoat over plain jeans and a t-shirt that jostled with every step they took--and they were taking a lot, and moving very, very quickly. Not as fast as Chimera could get by a long shot but certainly too fast for what appeared to be a child to be going. He knew exactly who she was before he could even make out her face.
And the very white, very sharp rows of teeth she was displaying as she smiled.
"Brace for impact!" He heard himself saying with a laugh choking his voice.
"CHIMEEEEEEERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" The girl screamed and lunged, and now was when it was very clear that she was not a normal human (as if the speed wasn't an indicator). Over her naturally tan skin was thick brown fur framing her face and blending into the pair of brown pigtails atop her head. Her ears were round and furry, too, though they were in the same place as "normal" ears. Her hands as they reached for them were also inhuman--even more so than Chimera's own furry-but-still-hand-shaped paws--with thick pads and sharp claws sticking out over each "bean". Chimera did actually, visibly, brace, for when she collided with him, yet it still knocked the air from his lungs.
Nadia buried her face into Chimera's chest, paws digging deep into his shirt as she squeezed him in a hug. He could have gotten his arms free if he wanted to but, uh, that might hurt her. And her claws were right against his spine.
"H-Hi, Naddy," he huffed, trying to get air to his lungs through her literal bear-hug, "You know--oof--you saw me like--hff--yesterday, right?"
"So what!? You're in U.A for the rest of the year, I'm going to hug you A LOT until you leave!! So DEAL WITH IT!!" She let out a shrill laugh before being nice and relaxing her arms so she wasn't crushing Chimera's ribs that much. It was then that she noticed Charlie. Green eyes that, unlike her brother's, did look more human than not, took in the magnificent prawn before blurting: "WHOA, are you a UA student, too?! Can I fight you?! CAN I FIGHT YOU?!!"
Chimera tilted his head back and groaned.
This was not the first time this had happened. Not even this weekend.
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Mar 28, 2020 21:14:09 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! CHARLOTTE MADE A POINT OF not looking at Chimera after letting slip the true nature of her life in Oakland. The thing about not looking at someone, though, is that it made you acutely aware of what they were doing in your peripheral vision. However out-of-focus, she knew Chimera was pouting at her. Oh, god, please don’t look at me like that, Chim, she thought with a sigh. That life felt so far away. That almost-parental relationship that somewhat hinged on Charlotte’s usefulness—running “errands” of the illicit variety, blowing-out doors to other gangs’ places of operation or businesses they were ripping-off, rolling with the worst of them. She only got-off without jailing because, as the courts argued, Charlotte was too sheltered to understand that what she was doing was wrong.
That was only mostly true.
Introducing the picture of her Dad, however, was enough to redirect the conversation.
“The what?” the prawn muttered. Yeah, if Chimera was going to go there, he was going to have to explain what “The Shape of Water” was. Charlotte was clueless.
Charlotte was equally oblivious about the relationship between Yojin and Angie, so Chimera’s incredibly pregnant pause was not cause for suspicion, for her.
“Japan really is the place to be if you’re-“ Charlotte searched the overcast sky for the right word, “-trying to be a hero?”
It was then that a smallish figure came barreling towards them full-tilt. Charlotte started to take a step back, towards the edge of the sidewalk furthest from the street, to allow them to pass. She kind-of unintentionally had tucked herself behind Chimera, too. It seemed to be someone Chimera knew—if Chimera’s humored warning wasn’t enough of a dead giveaway, the absolute shriek of his name was.
The prawn took another step back as the girl outright tackled Chimera, her courage starting to dwindle ever so slightly. Strong kid. Very fluffy. One of the siblings, probably. Charlie had already forgotten their name. Shit.
Chimera huffed a greeting as the girl dealt a spine-popping hug, which was met by an unruffled retort. It was then the girl—Nady—Nadia—finally saw Charlotte, her green eyes sizing Charlie up before she boisterously ascertained that Charlie was a U.A. student, and demanded a fight.
The prawn held-up her hands, palm forward, in a placating gesture.
“I know I don’t look it,” Charlie began shyly, “But I’m really not much of a fighter. I’m more of a techie. You’d totally kick my butt.”
If the girl was strong enough to knock the wind out of Chimera, she could probably wipe the floor with Charlie.
“I’m Charlotte,” she introduced herself, “Charlie is fine.”
Charlotte clutched the front of her jacket and fussed with it awkwardly, cracking her own, hesitant version of a smile. The brush of a breeze against her mouthparts reminded Charlie that she had taken her mask off, and the prawn fumbled into her jacket pocket to retrieve it. With uncharacteristically bumbling hands, she hooked the elastic bands around the spikes of her jaw, carefully tucking the mask under her chin and over the outer maxillipeds, before fastening the mask on the far side. Fully concealed, the prawn turned back to face Nadia, and smiled more confidently from behind the black mask.
The irony of hiding an aspect of one’s quirk from a quirk-friendly household totally escaped the prawn. But it was more of a habit of comfort, and less of a “I think Chimera’s family will judge me for my freakish mouth." Charlotte was out of her element, and found security in covering-up more.
“You, uh… like to fight? Are you good at it?” the prawn asked. She’d been robbed of the childhood experience of rough-housing with siblings—so when Nadia asked her to fight, Charlotte expected a literal fight.
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322 Posts
1 EP
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16 Years
Male
"Instinct"
Student-Rank Quirk:
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Post by Chimera on Apr 3, 2020 15:23:51 GMT -4
918 WC Whoops post v2 | "UH. It was a really old movie that one of my moms was a fan of? Or a fan of the director of? It's--just--it's good, so look it up later, but don't judge me???" Chimera covered his eyes with his paws and, for a moment, wished that the ground could part and swallow him up right now. Sure he had compared his appearance with the thousands of pictures of anthropomorphic animals on the internet, but doing something similar to one of his friend's fathers??? Dammit.
There were some things on the internet that made him question humanity.
Thankfully Nadia's sudden and slightly painful entrance was enough to take Charlie's attention off of Chimera's stupidity for a little while. Nadia released Chimera to turn and look over his friend, paws planted firmly on her hips as she listened to Charlie's introduction, before her look of awe turned into a sharp frown. "Whaaaaaaat?? You're a support kid?? Chimera why do you keep bringing all these wimps home?? Where are the hero kids?!? Did Angie put you up to this?? HUH?!?" Nadia turned to glare at her brother with a most childish scowl, and Chimera only grinned back while rolling his shoulders. Nadia huffed and returned her glare to Charlie. "Well whatever! Even if you aren't a hero student, I'll still fight you!! Even if it'll be fast! So prepare to lose!"
"Naddy, you already got to suplex Yojin yesterday. Twice." Chimera, done loosening his limbs again, placed his paws on Nadia's shoulders and turned her in the direction they had been walking, pushing her along without any visible effort. She started walking entirely unfazed. "Wasn't that enough?"
"No way! Yojin's, like, my size! And weak as heck! She's at least super big so it'll be more fun!!" Chimera bit his tongue to keep from saying anything on top of that. Ouch. Poor Yojin, being smack-talked by a tween. As they walked and talked Nadia's scowl did a one-eighty into a smile, stilling looking at Charlie as she answered her next question. "I am! I do! I'm good at anything where I can use my muscles! I'm even doing rugby in school!...except I got in trouble for throwing one of my teammates, so I have to sit out of games for the next week. She asked me to toss her, it wasn't like I didn't do it with no permission. But I'm still the one who go in trouble. It's stupid. School is stupid. I want to go to a hero school like you guys!"
Chimera sighed and kept pushing and walking. "You can enroll in Valiant or at UA in three years. Maybe stop tossing people until then?" He paused. "In fact, don't toss them when you get enrolled, either. You'll probably still get into trouble." The mental image of his sister chucking a student through the halls and being caught by a teacher like Junko was both horrifying and hilarious.
Nadia studiously ignored him. "When I'm old enough I'm going to be the best student ever at Valiant. So they won't care what I do. It'll be awesome."
"Whatever you say."
As they continued down the street, the shops and restaurants thinned out into rows and rows of houses, each of them made of the same red brick. All of them were similar enough in appearance to appear "uniform" at a glance, but a lot of them had different colored doors or the fences around their little yards in the front of each home were sometimes made of a different color stone, or even out of wood instead. A lot of their yards had children's toys in front. Chimera pointed to a street two rows down with a claw. "We'll turn down that one, then it's a straight shot to the one right by the water. Naddy, you did tell mom where you were sprinting off to this time, right?"
Nadia turned her head sharply away, and pouted her lips. Chimera frowned.
"Nadia..."
"It's not like there are any other main roads from our house to that school. She knows where I went. It's fine. I'll tell her where I went when we get home."
"Nadiaaaa..." Chimera spoke her name on a sigh this time.
Her cheeks expanded with air. pout growing deeper, before, suddenly, she looked up at Charlie and behind her--as best she could at Chimera. "So is she your girlfriend or something? Is that why you came with him? To meet us?"
Chimera nearly tripped over his foot at that. He could feel his muzzle growing hot under his fur. What. WHAT. Oh, God, no, there was nothing wrong with the thought of him dating Charlie and he didn't want her to think that the look of dread that was so goddamn clear on his face wasn't going to be taken wrong, but he wasn't--he wasn't into women! He hadn't told Charlie that yet, and Nadia was too young (and a goddamn idiot) to really understand that sort of thing yet, but he knew the reason she was asking and really didn't want to--
"What?! No! We're friends! Wh-Why would you even think that??"
Nadia blinked her large green eyes. "Because you brought the other guy over, and he's Angie's boyfriend? So that's why you brought her this time, right?"
Auuuuuuurgh, he'd known, he knew it, but he still had asked anyway. Was he sure she was the idiot and not him? No, they both were idiots. Idiot siblings.
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333 Posts
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27 Years
Female
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Post by Charlotte Fujioka on Apr 15, 2020 12:20:11 GMT -4
SO COME ON IN! THE PRAWN'S BROW-RIDGE QUIRKED in confusion over Chimera's stilted explanation. Old movie that his mom liked? Don't judge him? Well, that was rather telling on its own. She huffed in amusement. If she could commit the title to memory, she'd watch it (or at least Boogle it) and give him the appropriate amount of grief.
Thankfully, Nadia bought the prawn's frantic dismissal, even bemoaning the fact that Chimera was bringing home yet another Support kid. Ah, so he'd brought Yojin over? That was nice of him.
Charlotte offhandedly wondered ifJun would've taken her to her folk's house.
You know, if Jun hadn't fallen off the face of the earth, that is.
Charlie rose her hands again in surrender when Nadia's attention returned to her, shaking her head insistently.
The prawn couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped her as the child outright dragged Yojin, for being small and weak and absolutely no challenge in a fight. Okay, she'd give Nadia that. Charlie was a lot bigger than quite a few people, even Chimera if you didn't count the horns.
"Not all big people are fighters," Charlie insisted.
Thankfully, her diversion worked, and Nadia's attention shifted from wanting to kick Charlie's ass, to her involvement with rugby.
"Heh, that's too bad," Charlotte insisted, "I land in similar trouble with the Sports Club all the time. I'm fast, but not agile, so sometimes I accidentally body-check other members. And I'm very… pointy."
The spikes along her jaw, shoulders, lower arms, and legs were killer in sports. But sanding them down was so tedious.
"I once gave the club captain a pretty sizable bruise on his arm."
His sister was certainly spirited, for sure. She wanted to go to Valiant and be their best student ever, so great that they didn't care if she bent the rules. Charlotte glanced sidelong at Chimera. Quintessential hero student.
"I think you'll do well there, if it's anything like U.A."
As the city gave way to suburb, Charlotte let her eyes wander. Funny how you could go so many places in the world, and so many had the same vibe. This one felt like Emeryville, towards the foothills-- cookie-cutter houses with quaint yards and narrow driveways. It was a side of England you wouldn't see unless you knew somebody there.
The prawn was so lost in the surroundings, she missed Nadia's "girlfriend" question altogether. She didn't snap to attention until Chimera's subsequent stumble, and she made a hasty grab for his forearm so that he didn't face-plant on the sidewalk. Chimera looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"You good?" the prawn asked, ever clueless.
It didn't take a genius to piece together Nadia's initial question after Chimera frantically babbled a response, and Nadia innocently connected the dots.
Hm? Angie's boyfriend? She didn't mean Yojin, did she? Whaaaaaat? Angie was dating Yojin?! Why?
The prawn really was, truly, very clueless.
"I'm… not allowed to date, anyways," the prawn began slyly, glancing at her bewildered friend, "'cuz I'm, eh… part praying mantis. So if I dated Chimera, I'd have to bite his head off. It's the rules. The Female Praying Mantis Rules."
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