Post by Tetsuko Shindou on Feb 22, 2020 9:30:08 GMT -4
Ever since she was young, Tetsuko had been afraid of thunderstorms.
It was somewhat embarrassing factoid that she rarely ever shared, despite it being still somewhat relevant now, even at the age of 18. Though, nowadays, rather than causing her to curl up and almost jump out of her skin every time lightning struck... Thunderstorms just made her extraordinarily uneasy. It was like an enhancer to her usual anxiety, a booster shot that heightened her discomfort and paranoia. These days, thunderstorms were just a reminder of how deathly afraid Tetsuko was of the heavy inevitability that came with her duties and pressures.
The dread that storms brought embodied her root fears, they instilled a sense of unstoppable and inevitable pain. After all, as a child, the Shindou girl had been entirely convinced that she was going to be struck by lightning someday...
Nowadays, the things she considered inevitably painful weren't nearly so deadly, nor so simple. Not that that made them any easier to cope with. All this to say, that the feeling that Tetsuko had been filled with for the past few months wasn't entirely unlike a perpetual thunderstorm, with her own family's drama pulling her into this sense that things were fragile and about to collapse.
All this to say, that this 'Exhibition Festival' felt very much like the eye of that thunderstorm. The moment of calm whose brevity could not be understated...
The Shindou girl sighed to herself. Sitting idly within the Valiant Institute grounds, she slumped back against a bench, taking another swig of water as her tired body melted into the seat. Her training sessions had been uniquely intense in the lead-up to the main events. After all, it wouldn't do her any good to give a poor showing against the international students.
Tetsuko relaxed her body, trying to clear her head at least a little. Even now, she couldn't shake the feeling the 'storm' etched into her. This Exhibition Festival wasn't stressful for the same reasons as last year's Sports Festival. She didn't feel the intense weight of her position as the Shindou heiress. Instead, it was, more than anything, the uncertainty over how she'd perform without those same solid motivations. With how tense things were in her family, how complicated matters had become, she hadn't been made to feel that same pressure bearing down on her...
And she almost missed it. For reasons she herself didn't quite understand.
Once again, she let out a sigh. Uncertainties and anxieties, was this the eye of the storm or was there worse yet to come? She knew not, and that was the worst part. At least she had her efforts to expand her social circle, which did broaden her support network, but even they couldn't help her with things that she needed to fix herself. Perhaps, rather than 'guidance' she simple needed another perspective...
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Tetsuko spotted another fellow student of hers. A peer she had, in all actuality, rarely dealt with. They were in very different circles, one might say.
"Ah, Yumi-san?"
It was somewhat embarrassing factoid that she rarely ever shared, despite it being still somewhat relevant now, even at the age of 18. Though, nowadays, rather than causing her to curl up and almost jump out of her skin every time lightning struck... Thunderstorms just made her extraordinarily uneasy. It was like an enhancer to her usual anxiety, a booster shot that heightened her discomfort and paranoia. These days, thunderstorms were just a reminder of how deathly afraid Tetsuko was of the heavy inevitability that came with her duties and pressures.
The dread that storms brought embodied her root fears, they instilled a sense of unstoppable and inevitable pain. After all, as a child, the Shindou girl had been entirely convinced that she was going to be struck by lightning someday...
Nowadays, the things she considered inevitably painful weren't nearly so deadly, nor so simple. Not that that made them any easier to cope with. All this to say, that the feeling that Tetsuko had been filled with for the past few months wasn't entirely unlike a perpetual thunderstorm, with her own family's drama pulling her into this sense that things were fragile and about to collapse.
All this to say, that this 'Exhibition Festival' felt very much like the eye of that thunderstorm. The moment of calm whose brevity could not be understated...
The Shindou girl sighed to herself. Sitting idly within the Valiant Institute grounds, she slumped back against a bench, taking another swig of water as her tired body melted into the seat. Her training sessions had been uniquely intense in the lead-up to the main events. After all, it wouldn't do her any good to give a poor showing against the international students.
Tetsuko relaxed her body, trying to clear her head at least a little. Even now, she couldn't shake the feeling the 'storm' etched into her. This Exhibition Festival wasn't stressful for the same reasons as last year's Sports Festival. She didn't feel the intense weight of her position as the Shindou heiress. Instead, it was, more than anything, the uncertainty over how she'd perform without those same solid motivations. With how tense things were in her family, how complicated matters had become, she hadn't been made to feel that same pressure bearing down on her...
And she almost missed it. For reasons she herself didn't quite understand.
Once again, she let out a sigh. Uncertainties and anxieties, was this the eye of the storm or was there worse yet to come? She knew not, and that was the worst part. At least she had her efforts to expand her social circle, which did broaden her support network, but even they couldn't help her with things that she needed to fix herself. Perhaps, rather than 'guidance' she simple needed another perspective...
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Tetsuko spotted another fellow student of hers. A peer she had, in all actuality, rarely dealt with. They were in very different circles, one might say.
"Ah, Yumi-san?"
