trans_9 | a stranger's just a friend you haven't met [CLOSED to Mia]

It often came to pass that Yuri was in the library these days. At her reach was the silly entertainment of a hundred universes, tales of high adventure among glittering castles, cosmic castaways on harrowing journeys to outwit eldritch things, romances between humanoid species, quests to bury magical orbs of destruction by plucky heroines...When not occupied with her studies or being forced into teaching Red Snout how to read (She made it a point to take her books out of there and teach him someplace private. She had no wish to taint the place in her memories.) she could spend whole days getting lost in there.

As she went to put away her discs, she caught sight of something happening in a meaty alcove. The place, being made out of meat, has a weird way of insulating sound. So as she peeks around the corner, she can hear, a girl's voice harmonizing with itself...OOoooohhh you gonna take me home tonight..., a chorus that implies the presence overdrive (it's there, but tiny and tinny in the headphones she wears).

There's a teenage girl with a cute ponytail, standing on her meatchair. She should be wobbling but practiced balance keeps her up. In fact she doesn't even seem to notice. Her head is thrown back, eyes closed. Totally in her own world.

Yuri can't help herself. She begins to giggle, which then escalates into laughter behind her fingers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mia finally snaps her eyes open and gestures wildly with one arm as she stomps a foot onto the nearby tabletop. "Get on your bikes and RIDE!" She headbangs a bit as a section with instrumentals and only background vocals bridges in, before noticing she's not alone.

"Oh... well hi there." She smiles at the little girl, climbing down, but not apparently embarrassed. "Cute hat."

In between laughs that shake her small frame, Yuri manages to get out "His...name's...Borg..." Linked to her elation, he's disturbingly grinning, showing white rows of hair-baleen. "I'm...Yuri...Otani...Nicetomeetyou..."

"Oh... well hi to both of you then." Mia grins, walking over to her and crouching down. "I'm Mia Dearden. Also known as Speedy, action chick and rising teen hero." She winks.

"Oh...you're another hero-person...Jaime-niichan told me about that stuff. It sounds fun..." That her own situation is remarkably superhero-esque escapes her brain. What Jaime does sounds fun and what she does brings her nothing but scraped skin and nightmares. She can't put them in the same category.

At that, Mia blinks in surprise. "You know Jaime?" She seems hesitant at first. "How's he doing?"

She then puts her smile back on. "And yeah, it's a lot of fun. A lot of responsibility, but it's one of the greatest things in the world to be doing with your life, if you decide to."

"Mostly he's ok. Sometimes he seems kindof...distracted. He keeps sighing at things, even though he's smiling. It's kindof strange..."

She thinks a moment, veeeery slowly making the connection to her own experiences. "Do you have to capture things? Do they tell you you're saving the world?"

"Distracted how?" Mia cocks her head. "I mean, I know that Yeerk thing messed with everyone, but..."

Enough of that, for now.

"No, no capturing stuff. Well, purse-snatchers and thugs, plenty of helping the police. Street-level hero stuff, y'know?" She smiles. "Only voices that tell me I'm saving the world are my not-quite family, and they're very outside my head. Not in it."

"He keeps looking embarrassed...It's almost like..." Oh. Ohhhhh.... Yuri wasn't the top of her class but she was very perceptive about certain things. It was fairly obvious here.

Jaime-niichan had a crush.

She hurriedly switches topics. "It's my teachers that tell us. Every school has its alien party. We have to wear these weird symbionts and capture all the aliens that land on the grounds and uh...somehow that's saving the world?"

She can't stay off it entirely though. "Are you one of his friends from back home?"

"Embarassed, huh?" Mia curls up her face a little, trying to decipher that as she can see gears turning in the little kid's head quite clearly.

"Are the symbionts alien too? We get all kinds of aliens on our planet, some of them are superheroes even." She nods. "Jaime and me are from the same planet, but our 'timing' is a little different we think. We hadn't met before, but we got along when we met here... I think."

She pauses. "I thought we did, at least."

"Yeah but they're...the good kind? They help us catch them." Yuri is vaguely aware that she's blindly regurgitating a party line but has no other evidence, no place for context. Being exposed to new points of view has made her suspicions grow but they can't be harvested right now.

"I see...He's always looking like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. I think he could use someone to talk to about everything. I try but the things he says are way too complicated...Or he just pats my head and tells me not to worry about it." Oh yes, Yuri has ways of bringing people together. She's just dangled the bait. Now she'll see if Mia takes it...

"Well, good for you then. I know Jaime's got an alien plugged into him that he seems to get along with, so I guess it's not that weird." Mia shrugs.

She still curls up her face as the girl goes on about Jaime. This is really not sitting well with her. "Well... next time you talk to him, tell him he can talk to me anytime he wants, if he's got stuff on his mind. You seem to be able to find him at least."

"You mean Khaji? It took a while for him and Borg to get along." She pulls what she wanted down from the shelf and gives a little bow, hands clasped, dangling, containing a CD. "I promise I will. It was nice meeting you, Mia-oneesan!"

Step one of the operation is complete. She turns to leave.

Mia grimaced. "Your hat didn't end up beating up Jaime's backpack, did it?"

She called after the half-pint as she headed off. "If you want to listen to any 80's rock, let's talk again sometime!"

a stranger's just a friend you haven't met [CLOSED to Mia]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject