Shinya Kogami (狡噛 慎也) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
carnivorously) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trustfelled2017-06-24 07:34 pm
carnivorously) wrote in trustfelled2017-06-24 07:34 pm
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
[Well, that was one hell of a trial. Kogami’s tired and hungry. He’ll get his staple hamburgers, but maybe he’ll be nice enough to help make some for everyone.
So there’s a note that goes out:]
Food in the dining hall – K, P, Q, & R
[It’s quickly written and straightforward.
And indeed there is food. There’s a shitton of hamburgers made by Kogami and Rose, the sliced cheese prepared by Pizzaz, and cake by QQ. Pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and other such condiments are set out as well as an assortment of buns.
There’s not lighted candles this time, so it’s clear that the usual preparers didn’t help with this ‘buffet’. (Well, if it wasn’t clear with the note).
So rest, relax, and well, you’re probably going to have to get your own drinks this time, sorry…]
So there’s a note that goes out:]
Food in the dining hall – K, P, Q, & R
[It’s quickly written and straightforward.
And indeed there is food. There’s a shitton of hamburgers made by Kogami and Rose, the sliced cheese prepared by Pizzaz, and cake by QQ. Pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and other such condiments are set out as well as an assortment of buns.
There’s not lighted candles this time, so it’s clear that the usual preparers didn’t help with this ‘buffet’. (Well, if it wasn’t clear with the note).
So rest, relax, and well, you’re probably going to have to get your own drinks this time, sorry…]
no problem!
If she knew, she'd most likely ask you for a contract, so I wondered.
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Huh. His reaction is on the mixed side.]
Really? [...] I suppose there is no shortage of need for a contract in this place...
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[Added very quickly, almost instinctively]
There are worse people to ally yourself with, and Tohsaka-senpai is a genius, so--
[Though there's an abrupt pause in her words, like Sakura startled herself out of a thought. She suddenly smiles]
Mmm... Actually, I brought it up specifically so you'd know you didn't have to form a contract with her, even if she gets pushy about it, but I seem to always end up defending her instead...
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You care for her.
[That's the simplest way to put it, right? That should be a takeaway from this recent trial. Others may have seen what Sakura did as extreme, but Lovecraft hasn't seemed all too judgmental about it.]
I do agree, though... I suppose if a day comes that she desires a contract, I would at least hear her out.
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[Spoken softly, with he gaze pointed inward. She'll admit it to Lovecraft, because he's never pushed her to speak.]
I want her to make it home.
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[He says "now" because Rin obviously took that incentive very seriously. Otherwise she's been quite good at this whole investigation/trial thing.]
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She's brilliant, isn't she? [so she says with pride]
Neh, Lovecraft-san, do you--
[have any siblings?
... Probably too obvious. She adjusts the question]
Do you have family?
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[He definitely knows he sure isn't.
...
He tilts his head curiously at the next question.]
No. I have always been alone. [At least...he thinks? As far as he can remember... It's easier to just say no.] Why?
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I don't know that much about you.
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... People wouldn't be confused, but they certainly wouldn't like what they hear.
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Lovecraft shifts in his spot and has a bit more pie before speaking up again.]
If you do want to know more, I can tell you...
[He'll continue to not pry.]
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Though you don't have to... [Which isn't meant to be as dismissive as it sounds to her ears, so she attempts to explain]
I already suspect you're not human...
[She's a lover of horror. Those stories used to console her once upon a time, a promise to a child that there were scarier things in the world than her Grandfather.
... Turns out it wasn't true, but. She still loves certain tales.]
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I don't always look like...this.
[What Sakura sees before her. Within this tall, gaunt and perpetually exhausted form of a man lies something much different.]
I'm not quite sure how to describe my...more natural form, though. I told Asgore the best distinction would be...well, I can move around more easily like this. I probably wouldn't fit in this building, either...
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Do you have tentacles?
[This is hands down the most invasive question she's ever asked someone. She's gonna need to repent for years.]
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Y-Yes?
[That's all he can stammer out, entirely too taken by surprise to say more. How did she...?!]
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[WHELP someone is equally startled by this revelation. Sakura did not expect to be right]
I-- um. It would make sense...
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But...why do you say that? That it would make sense...?
[That's a strange thing to say about a wild guess that turned out to be true.]
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Still mulling over the position she's found herself in, Sakura places her pie to the side and leans more fully against the window, hands in her lap. It's story time]
I'm sure by now, a few people have pointed out your name, yes? It's identical to an author from my world: H. P. Lovecraft. At first, I thought that was you, but the connection comes from a different angle...
... The author is famous for his horror stories -- that's how I know of him, even from Japan -- and his most well-known is a very large and powerful creature that lives underwater. I can't remember how it's described in detail, but depictions usually have tentacles...
[Her expression softens as she continues] I can't verify if the creature is real on my world. Most people would certainly not believe anyone who claimed otherwise, but it seems there exists a reality where he is not a story...
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This...only serves to increase that unsettling feeling tenfold. He's very obviously not sure what to do with the information. Even in his world, his existence is something of a legend. But to discover that someone with his name would be the one to write of such a legend... What sort of coincidence...
He ends up directing his gaze out to the fog and snow beyond the window, attempting to mask the slight trembling working its way through his body.]
I cannot say for certain if I am that creature... I am simply myself.
[It's a lot of coincidence to take in. He just...wants to settle for that right now.]
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[She's not looking at him yet. Her eyes are somewhere else for a time, as if locked in a daydream. But she speaks easily in her usual soft tones]
There's only one of you who has experienced what you have. It's what makes you you. [His life, his interactions, his uniqueness. Even though she's thinking of somebody else in the moment, that's what she believes...
Though with that pause, she seems to come to and finally glances in the other's direction, taking in his body language. Her mouth slides into a worried frown]
... But I should've assumed that would be strange for you to hear. [She's sorry for it]
If you'd like, you can ask me something... [Even the score, as it were. To her, it seems the only way to keep it fair]
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[But as Sakura put so eloquently, that's all it is in the end, right? Something that, as he reflects on the way Sakura explained it to him, doesn't seem to bother her all that much. Focusing in on that part of it helps him calm down, and he stops gripping his plate so tightly.]
Are you not concerned? About...what I am.
[That seems to be his question for the time being. Sakura just described him as something out of a horror story. And yet...she's not acting afraid. That should be the natural reaction, shouldn't it?]
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... So... I think you have just as much right to be what you are. [She has no right to criticize the existence of another, no matter their form. That's something she reserves for one person only.]
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But this acceptance... Lovecraft can't even count the amount of times he's been looked at and referred to as a monster (and not in a good way)- contracted as a weapon because of his strength and ability to scare the hell out his contractor's enemies. Many of his co-workers in the Guild haven't even made an attempt to get to know or understand him. Sakura, though...she genuinely doesn't mind. She isn't afraid. It's so rare that he would come across a human like this.
He smiles. It's small, but it's there.]
...I am glad to hear that.
[With humans like Sakura and Steinbeck around... They make it difficult to be entirely indifferent.]