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Post by minzhe on May 23, 2012 17:42:05 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][STYLE=float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px;][/style][STYLE=width: 350px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 10px]Min Zhe didn’t have anything against people, not in general. He was accustomed to the bustle of cities, to crowds and noise and busy streets and being jostled by pedestrians—it was talking to them that was inexplicably difficult, acknowledging them as individuals. In his mind there was a clear divide between him and everybody else, and anyone trying to step past that line, as a rule, made him extremely nervous. He was alright with people who kept their distance, who didn’t try to talk to him or understand him or touch him or generally get too close. And he liked that about cities. The way they swarmed with people, but people who were unfamiliar, who could care less about each other. He could see hundreds of people each day, and none of them wanted to so much as exchange a single greeting with Min Zhe, which he was more than alright with.
There was something else that he liked, simply the feel of a city. He liked to get out sometimes, walk around, though inevitably he ended up bringing along his netbook and occupying a corner of some small cafe for a few solid hours, his focus often ending up shifting so completely to whatever puzzle he was trying to solve that whatever he’d ordered grew cold and was left untouched for the duration of his stay. He gave off the impression of being strange and solitary, so nobody ever really tried to talk to him, nobody came over to ask what he was doing. Just as well—sometimes he was solving a month’s worth of newspaper sudoku, and sometimes he was developing illegal and dangerous weaponry, though Min Zhe was probably the last person anyone would expect to be capable of committing a crime.
He always lost track of time, and today was no exception. When he looked up from the numbers he’d scribbled on the notepad in front of him (theorems, unlike people, were something he could understand), the café was near closing time. A glance out the front windows gave him a glimpse of darkening skies and near vacant streets. Min Zhe stood, tucking his notepad into his messenger bag along with his netbook and a few other necessities, digging out his wallet—which identified him as Ren Yonezu— and dropping a few bills onto the table by his untouched order. He didn’t bother to wait for change or exchange as much as a goodbye with the server as he passed, exiting onto the emptying streets without a single glance in her direction.
It was humid, the sort of tension that was always precursor to rainfall. The man raised his head to see the mass of clouds gathering above—it looked like a storm was building. He didn’t particularly care either way, as long as he got back to his apartment before the rain got too heavy. He dropped his head, staring down at the sidewalk and clutching the strap of his messenger bag as he headed back at a brisk pace. The walk had seemed shorter on the way there, though Min Zhe had let his mind wander to other things—weaving through pedestrians was instinctive, just as the streets of Hokkaido had become familiar enough to navigate without much conscious thought given to it.
But it seemed most people had noticed the oncoming storm, and headed for shelter, earlier than he had. The streets were all but empty, and Min Zhe’s thoughts wandered, as they often did, to the object of his affection—what was he doing now? Was he out working in the rain? Should he check up on his apartment before heading home?
Min Zhe held his gaze low to the ground, but didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what was in front of him as he cut across a local park. Had he been, he would have noticed the person in front of him before they collided. He’d been walking quickly, and despite not having braced himself in the slightest for the impact, only stumbled slightly—the other person was much smaller than Min Zhe (though most people usually were, the difference in size seemed rather notable in this case) probably having received the brunt of the collision. In fact, when the tall man stopped it was more out of politeness than the crash itself. “S-s-sorry,” He mumbled hurriedly, bowing slightly. He kept his eyes trained on the pavement, without daring to make eye contact with the other person. [/style][STYLE=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 90%; background-color: #000; color: #dedede]tags: nao! words: 750 notes: mmm not much to say, hope it's alright~[/style] |
[STYLE=font: normal 11px helvetica]made by bubbles of btn[/style]
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Post by brighty on May 24, 2012 2:23:48 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,bTable][atrb=style, width:350px; border-right:50px solid #ac8bcc;][style=float:left; border:8px solid #ac8bcc; margin:3px; opacity:0.8;][/style][style=text-align:justify; padding:5px; color:#000; font-family:arial; font-size:11px;]Naoya, as he so often did now, had gone to the park after school. He'd gone to class, and then went to tutoring with his math teacher - someone who was trying to explain how basic math worked, while the boy sat for an hour in his normal class completely confused by the more complex theorems. Half the time, the boy couldn't even add properly, much less plug information in, use exponents, or divide into fractions and decimals. He didn't understand any of it. It was awful. That class, like many of his other classes, was difficult and often left him more confused than knowledgeable. He was slowly learning the rules, but without the foundation those rules meant nothing. So, the teacher tried to teach him - and Naoya did his best to learn so he could catch up. He didn't want to disappoint.
After the two had struggled through the second lesson for the day, and all of the homework for the first math lesson, Naoya had been free to go. First, he went to the cafeteria and quickly got food for himself, as was his usual habit. He'd get there early, grab a small plate of whatever they happened to be serving that day, find a corner to sit and hide by himself, and he'd eat quickly - as if someone was going to take it away from him. Which was, in fact, a decent fear for a child who did lose food if he didn't eat it fast enough. Hence, his small stature - not like he got enough to eat in the first place. Once the plate was emptied, he'd return it to the proper location and quickly scurry out of the cafeteria, praying no one would bother him.
Then, he went to his room, where he had to finish the rest of his homework. It was hard, and he didn't understand most of it, but he tried his best. If he'd been learning since the normal age like everyone else, instead of trying to cram all of it into his brain now, it would be easier. But, life just had to kick him all over the place, and so Naoya struggled. It took some time, but his assignments were light tonight, and he managed to get through them with time enough to go to the nearby park. No one else liked to go there - Naoya didn't know why, and he really didn't care. All he knew was that none of the older boys would be there, and that was all that really mattered.
So he went, and sat on the swing set, and reveled in the solitude. No older boys anywhere, no one to hurt him. There were very few children out at this time - their parents had ushered them home by now, usually. That was even better. But, he knew he couldn't stay long. For all that it was getting easier to get back, and he didn't get lost as easily, he didn't like to risk being back late. What if he got held up by something, or an accident happened, or something else like that? Then, if he had waited too long, he'd be late and in trouble, because they wouldn't care that something bad had happened. He would have broken the rules - and rule breakers get punished.
After a time, the boy got off the swing carefully with a sigh. It was time to go. He didn't notice the heaviness in the air, that a storm was due. He'd just been introduced to weather two years ago - he wasn't familiar with the different signs of the weather. All he knew was that when it was bright outside, it was sunny and day time, when it wasn't it was night time. The white things were clouds, though sometimes they were gray and almost black and that meant rain was coming - but not always because it might be getting dark and that's why they have dark colors. He didn't really understand it, and he didn't mind weather in the slightest - it was something he never got to experience before. Rain was wonderful; so was sunshine and wind.
But, he had to go. So, he made his way towards the exit, glancing around to make sure he was going the correct direction. He didn't want to get lost again. He knew there was another person on the path, and he thought he'd been keeping good track of where they were in relation to him. But, their speed was greater than he'd anticipated, and while he was glancing around, they collided. The boy stumbled backwards and fell, landing heavily on his the ground - it was lucky his head didn't crack on the cement. As it was, he'd have bruises on his tailbone and it would probably hurt to walk for awhile and he'd scratched up his palms on the ground in the collision. With a wince, he cautiously propped himself up off the ground, using his now-bleeding hands to lever himself up - probably getting more grit and dirt into them. He glanced up slightly at the person, who was muttering a stammered apology and bowing - they weren't looking at him. They didn't see that he'd cut himself. They probably didn't care.
But, because the man wasn't looking at him, he couldn't see Naoya and his attempts to communicate. It also meant that Naoya's sudden tensing and hunching in on himself went unnoticed - it was a strange man, much taller than he, and he was most definitely someone who was dangerous, even if he was bowing and apologizing. That didn't matter. He was older, he was important, and he would hurt Naoya even more. That was no doubt why the child had fallen - the man was angry and needed something to take it out on. Naoya was always a good tool for that, and he didn't blame the man one bit. That he'd apologized was probably for show only - he undoubtedly didn't mean it at all. So, Naoya stayed where he was, completely still with wide eyes and bleeding hands. His tailbone hurt from the position he was sitting in, but he struggled to keep the pain of his wounds off of his face - he was almost positive that there was no sign of it there.
words, 1062 tags, min zhe/laika notes, poor nao. [/style][style=margin-top:2px; font-family:georgia; font-size:25px; color:#ac8bcc; text-transform:lowercase; text-shadow:-1px 0 #333, 0 1px #333, 1px 0 #333, 0 -1px #333; text-align:center;]nothing but blood on my hands[/style] |
[style=font-size:10px; font-family:ms gothic;]made by RIVER! of BV, CTL and OTE[/style]
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Post by minzhe on May 24, 2012 23:03:56 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][STYLE=float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px;][/style][STYLE=width: 350px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 10px]Min Zhe had been waiting for the other person to say something, but when no reply came, he let his gaze flicker up from the ground. He blinked, catching sight of the boy sprawled on the ground, knocked right down onto the pavement by the collision. It eased a bit of his tension to see that it was a child, and a small one at that—Min wasn’t very good at reading other people’s intentions, and so generally assumed the worst, but the boy hardly looked threatening. (Then again, neither did Min Zhe, and he was a wanted criminal.) But the fact that Min Zhe lacked any sort of experience with children didn’t help to ease his nerves any. Talking to other adults was enough to make him deeply uneasy, never mind the addition of having to make adjustments when speaking to children. He obviously wouldn’t bother to do that, but the thought was still there in the back of his mind, making him feel anxious.
The boy was staring up at him with wide eyes, though his expression remained otherwise blank. Min Zhe simply stared back for a few seconds before averting his gaze once more. He knew that grown men shouldn’t be knocking children over. His eyes scanned the park, wondering if the boy’s parents or guardian were around, and if they would be by to tell him so. He didn’t think of things in terms of wrong or right, good or bad; and the way other people clung to those concepts confused him. He’d receive reprimand enough times in his lifetime that he knew when he did things that were wrong—and he did them very often—but the knowledge didn’t invoke any sort of emotion in him. It was mostly the thought of such reprimand that made him nervous.
“Are you al-alright?” He asked dutifully. He should wait for the boy to stand. Min Zhe wasn’t one for remorse, and although he caught sight the reddish stains on the boy’s hands, he was devoid of sympathy over it. Min Zhe wasn’t one for physical contact either, and he didn’t so much as think of offering the boy a hand to help him up. He could be an outright sadist at times, but when he wasn’t deliberately inflicting pain on others, he was largely unconcerned with other people’s suffering. Not that the boy really looked to be suffering. If there was one aspect of people that Min Zhe thought he understood and related to, it was pain. He had trouble reading subtleties in expressions sometimes, but expressions contorted in pain were a sort of comfort in their familiarity. He didn’t really take in the boy’s tense posture, the way he curled into himself, didn’t so much as consider the possibility that he could be afraid. Min Zhe himself often looked far too anxiety-ridden to come off as threatening. [/style][STYLE=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 90%; background-color: #000; color: #dedede]tags: nao! words: 481 notes: don't worry nao he's only a criminally insane wanted man, he's not going to hurt you are they just gonna stare at each other for the rest of the thread lol [/style] |
[STYLE=font: normal 11px helvetica]made by bubbles of btn[/style]
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Post by brighty on May 25, 2012 15:07:58 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,bTable][atrb=style, width:350px; border-right:50px solid #ac8bcc;][style=float:left; border:8px solid #ac8bcc; margin:3px; opacity:0.8;][/style][style=text-align:justify; padding:5px; color:#000; font-family:arial; font-size:11px;]Naoya and Min Zhe had at least one thing in common - their tendency to believe the worst in everything. Naoya, for all that Min Zhe might look nonthreatening, was terrified of the man because he was bigger and because he was undoubtedly older. That made the man doubly terrifying to the child, and then add that to the fact that he'd been knocked over and you had a recipe of terror. He didn't mean to be afraid, and it seemed to bother people a lot, but fear was safer than complacency. If he didn't fear, the important people would think he was being rebellious and bad, and then he would get punished. He didn't want that.
The man looked down at him after a long moment of silence, staring at him before looking away and glancing around. Naoya wondered who he was looking for. Maybe one of his friends, someone he was trying to catch up with, and Naoya got in his way and so the man pushed him. But, if he had been trying to catch up to someone, or meet someone, wouldn't the man have kept going? Unless he wanted to make sure Naoya was alright - and if that was the case then the man would be even more angry because now he was running late with his friend. Naoya expected the man to lash out at him at any time for being a bigger nuisance than he already had to be.
The man asked him if he was alright, and Naoya gave a hesitant nod. He didn't think the man had seen his hands. Most people he'd met after his first life - he tended to think of his life with his mother as his first life, the one where he had to work (and one he expected to return to at any time), and this one as his second (a second, very confusing life where nothing made sense at all) - seemed to care very much if he got hurt to the point of bleeding. If he knew the man was unconcerned with his bleeding, it wouldn't be much of a shock - plenty of people he had met during his first life didn't care about his pain, especially because they were the ones who were inflicting it and reveling in it - but it would definitely make him more nervous of the man. That lack of upset over the boy's pain would bother him - because in Naoya's mind, the man had done it on purpose. Therefore, he was like those people from his first life, and all those times had led to one end.
When nothing else seemed to be forthcoming, Naoya cautiously made to get up off the ground. At any time he expected to be pushed back down again - he hadn't been given permission to get up, how dare he think he had the right to do something without permission? - and was tense as he moved slowly to his feet. Not all of the slow movement was due to his fear that the man would get angry - he wanted to be as close to the ground if the man decided he didn't want Naoya to be on his feet. No, the tailbone injury made it very awkward and painful to move - he was trying not to make it hurt more than it already did. During this process, he couldn't keep all of the pain off of his face, though for the most part he managed to keep it schooled blank. Once he made it to his feet, he would give the man a bow of his own - Naoya's own, wordless, apology for bumping into the man - not rising for a long moment. When he straightened, his eyes would be focused on the ground beneath their feet and his hands would be clasped behind his back, so the man couldn't see him bleed.
words, 658 tags, min zhe/laika notes, naoya thinks you're lying. maybe xDD [/style][style=margin-top:2px; font-family:georgia; font-size:25px; color:#ac8bcc; text-transform:lowercase; text-shadow:-1px 0 #333, 0 1px #333, 1px 0 #333, 0 -1px #333; text-align:center;]nothing but blood on my hands[/style] |
[style=font-size:10px; font-family:ms gothic;]made by RIVER! of BV, CTL and OTE[/style]
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Post by minzhe on May 28, 2012 23:23:53 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=width,350,true][STYLE=float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px;][/style][STYLE=width: 350px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 10px]The park was empty, and there didn’t seem to be anyone coming for the boy, much to Min Zhe’s relief—there would be nobody to deal with, no reprimand for doing something that he knew to be wrong but didn’t quite understand the morality behind. Knowing nothing about children, he didn’t think anything of the fact that the boy was unsupervised, just as he didn’t think anything of the rest of his strange behaviour. As far as Min Zhe was concerned, people were unsolvable puzzles, ones that simply made no sense to him. And he didn’t care to analyze or consider their behaviour in vain, especially not that of an insignificant boy.
The peculiarity of the situation didn’t occur to Min Zhe. Here he was, dangerous and criminally insane, alone in a park with a very much defenceless boy, yet hardly posing a risk to him. He might have knocked him over, but that could have been anyone, and a good deal worse would generally be expected from a criminal of his notoriety. Min Zhe was undoubtedly dangerous, but he never really considered himself as such. He simply saw it as either self defense or obedience, and had little regard for consequences. He was harmless to most people, provided that they weren’t intrusive or on bad terms with his boss. He wanted to be left alone for the most part, and whether that was achieved through sympathy or fear didn’t matter— but he’d found that the latter was significantly more effective at any rate.
He watched the boy standing, little by little, but didn’t think to attribute the slow movement to fear. He caught the flicker of agony in the boy’s expression, but found himself indifferent to it. He realized that Naoya, then, wasn’t alright as he’d said; it was a rare lie that he was able to catch, but that didn’t make it anything of importance to him. The boy’s returning his bow was expected, but his next actions—or rather lack of—wasn’t. He looked to be waiting for something. But Min Zhe didn’t give orders. He didn’t command respect or fear or concern himself with anyone else.
A rumble of thunder cut across the silence stretching between the two social retards. Min Zhe had been staring at the boy for lack of knowing what to do, and now he raised his eyes—naturally a deep shade of blue—to the sky, expecting rainfall any second now. He could only hope that it wouldn’t be a sudden torrential downpour, though he was still far enough from his apartment that it would probably turn into one during the walk, regardless of what it started out as. Min Zhe couldn’t help but smile slightly as a bolt of lightning lit up the dirty grey backdrop of clouds above. He had a bit of an affinity for electricity—mostly in the form of weapons and torture devices, but it was interesting in its natural form too. Even though it was uncontrolled, it could be calculated and explained in ways he understood—temperature, speed, distance. The mechanics of lightning certainly made more sense than the boy standing in front of Min Zhe ever would. [/style][STYLE=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font: normal 11px arial; line-height: 90%; background-color: #000; color: #dedede]tags: nao! words: 532 notes: muse, where you at?[/style] |
[STYLE=font: normal 11px helvetica]made by bubbles of btn[/style]
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Post by brighty on Jun 1, 2012 20:25:34 GMT -5
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,bTable][atrb=style, width:350px; border-right:50px solid #ac8bcc;][style=float:left; border:8px solid #ac8bcc; margin:3px; opacity:0.8;][/style][style=text-align:justify; padding:5px; color:#000; font-family:arial; font-size:11px;]His backside hurt from the bruise, and bowing hadn't helped at all. Still, he just gritted his teeth against the pain - he'd suffered much worse, this was nothing - and forced the bow and then forced himself to stand up after that long moment of holding the agonizing position. The other male was as quiet as him, and that was disconcerting for the young male. Most people would have spoken, or left, or something, but this man was silent. He didn't tell him what to do or anything - which was weird. Many thought him to be much younger than he was, and thus treated him like the small child he resembled. Then again, with his lack of knowledge for everything in the world, he had many qualities of a young child. His looks, for one, plus his submissive tendencies and that of not knowing almost anything. He was actually worse off than the ten and eleven year olds he resembled - he could hardly read or write, and he didn't understand social nuances in the slightest, much less the tendencies of vehicles, the weather, and animals.
The thunder clapped then, making the boy jump in fright - he didn't expect it. The darkening of the clouds didn't mean anything to him; he honestly thought it was getting late and so he should go back. The thunder - not that Naoya could put such a definite name on it - symbolized rain, he knew that. Not that rain bothered him - having only just recently experiencing it for the first time, it was still a pleasure to feel the cool water on his skin. Before, when the thunder pealed and the rain pattered on the roof, he was working or sleeping. Now, people scurried away to hide from it so that they didn't get wet, but Naoya just revelled in the rain falling from the sky - it was something different, something his brother never got to see. It didn't matter to him that he'd get sick - being sick was another abstract concept to Naoya. You got sick, then you got better - there was no reason for your getting sick, it just happened. It didn't occur to the child that being cold and wet, being hungry, or eating bad food could make one sick.
He felt the mans eyes lift from his form, and Naoya risked a glance up to see if he was right - which he was. The man had looked up at the sky, and Naoya wondered what he was thinking. Most people didn't like rain, so Naoya could only believe that the man was worring about escaping it before it got too bad. Naoya would be sopping wet, probably, by the time he made it back to the Academy - and he wouldn't care. His father, if he found him, would fret and no doubt his room mate would be mad at him for bringing the wet to their room - so Naoya should care more. Maybe he wouldn't go back to his room tonight; he might just hide somewhere on the grounds until he was dry. By that time it would be after lights out and it would bother Marco if he wandered in. But what about his teddy? He couldn't sleep without it. Maybe he just wouldn't sleep tonight. That was a plan. It wasn't like he slept much anyways.
Then the lightning lit up the sky, making the child jump again at the sudden brightness that resulted. The rain was one thing - water falling from the sky, the droplets cool or warm against his skin - but thunder and lightning were another. They were unpredictable, suddenly occurring and startling him. Unpredictability was the worst - Naoya's whole life revolved around things being predictable. Not knowing what would happen next, or at least being able to guess, left him anxious. It was a wonder that the boy hadn't suffered a heart attack yet.
words, 660 tags, min zhe/laika notes, if you need me to edit anything so that you have an easier time posting, just pm me! [/style][style=margin-top:2px; font-family:georgia; font-size:25px; color:#ac8bcc; text-transform:lowercase; text-shadow:-1px 0 #333, 0 1px #333, 1px 0 #333, 0 -1px #333; text-align:center;]nothing but blood on my hands[/style] |
[style=font-size:10px; font-family:ms gothic;]made by RIVER! of BV, CTL and OTE[/style]
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