2025-08-18: Thorns Grow Here
- Log: Thorns Grow Here
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Hirasakan Streets
- OOC Date: 2025-08-18
- IC Date: Wednesday, June 27 2012
- Summary: Tsubasa and Ichika vandalise the streets late at night, only to get talking about Ichika's quest to bring down Eiji... and Tsubasa's insecurities, too.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa felt pretty good about getting to hang out with Myunghon, but of course, when Ichika sends them a text about hitting the town, they swing back home to pick up their gear and hit the town. They've changed out of their Kasugayama uniform to avoid being identified on sight doing crimes, at least; their blue shorts and cropped tank top aren't exactly subtle, either, but at least it's street fashion that could have come from anywhere.
FSSSSHHHTTTT says the spray can, as Tsubasa lays the paint down over the cardboard cut-out stencil. (There are many layers of paint dried on it already; they'll have to cut a new one pretty soon.) Soon the wall has a roughly A4-sized blooming rose painted on it, and Tsubasa tosses a black spray can to Ichika.
"Message's all you, Boss."
What screed will Ichika declare to the world, signed by her symbology?!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika has plans to visit the Cardboard Dragon sometime--but tonight, she had other plans. She was going to spend the evening with Mahiro Gotou, Spike Boss. That fell through when a houshold emergency demanded his attention. Ichika would've stayed to help, but Mahiro's mother was already able to do the parts that weren't a one-person job... and Ichika decided to leave them to it.
It's not so bad, a guy who cares about his parent. But she wasn't quite in the mood that night anyway. Ichika was restless.
Spray paint is a perfect way to get some of those feelings out!
She's not in uniform, either, having opted for a knee-length skirt, boots, and a tanktop with straps visible. It's not exactly her usual attire for something like this...
But she didn't feel like going back to the dorm to change.
So Ichika catches the can and thinks a minute. "I'm feeling..."
"Poetic."
'THORNS GROW HERE'
Looking over her handiwork, Ichika shakes the can a little more. Just because.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Poetic, Ichika declares, as she advertises her thorns. Tsubasa looks over the sprawling kana, and nods. "Sweet."
And Lance barks, wagging her tail, because she doesn't know what's going on but she's just happy to be included.
"If it's like that..."
Tsubasa digs around in their duffel bag for another stencil and their can of green paint, FSSSSSHHHHTTT, painting down a slab of cardboard carved out in the shape of winding, thorned rose stems. They turn the stencil around to get the opposite side, too, before they stash the green can. "Give it here," they hold their hand out, to take the black can back.
By displacing the same stencil a little to the left, they're able to spray out an outline to those thorns, too, creating the definition of winding thorns around her message. (Of course, they make sure both sides pop. They're an artist.)
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Lance is just happy to be here. Lance is so good.
Green paint! Ichika hands back over the black paint, and the outline...
"Man," Ichika says. "That looks great. Solid work."
She is proud of what they've done. And they probably won't even have to run from the cops on this one!
She stands with arms crossed and nods once. "Yeah. C'mon, unless you've got more to add?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa stows their shit back in their duffel bag, cracking their neck as they rub at the back of it with a hand. "Nah. It's good."
... it's important that Ichika thinks it looks good, too. They might have even smiled, when she called it solid work. You know. Briefly, obviously, they're too cool for that.
They step back, and shove their hands in their pockets as they amble off down the street. "Thorns, huh," they say, looking forward.
"How you feel about it? Now you're gettin' 'em together."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Cool," Ichika says, and lets it be in that case. But Tsubasa's too cool to smile about it much. That's fine. Ichika's not. She grins about it, and as they step back and start down the street, Ichika has her head up. She's not slouching down today.
But thorns... Ah. They mean...
"...Worried," she admits. "Gettin' people together to take care of something dangerous... Knowing it's not for everybody, but for me, especially."
"Part of me thinks I shouldn't trouble everybody for something like that. Part of me thinks I should trouble more people about it."
"Took your advice, by the way. That lady... Big Sis. She's in to help."
"...And it's a little weird, like... I'm not telling most of them it's me going."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yeah," Tsubasa nods. "Went to see Yeo-sama earlier. They said no one deserved to get left when they heard 'bout how we found Lance... but that felt kinda rough, so I just told 'em she didn't. It's like that, right?"
Their story comes at it from the opposite end -- struggling to expand compassion to everyone when they're part of everyone instead of struggling to claim compassion for oneself specifically instead of the whole -- but Ichika might understand the logic, anyway.
"Seems like it's the part of you that wants more people onside... that's pushin' against what you got. That you got that feelin' means you're not out, yet... it's cool if it's hard to go all in. Reckon Big Sis'll watch your back, tho'."
Tsubasa shrugs, grabbing a shopping cart someone left in the street and aiming it down the hill before they give it a good kick. Down it rattles, picking up speed before it slams into the side of a parked car.
They grin, just briefly. A hint of a snrk.
"But yeah," their tone drops back to seriousness, "gotta be weird to have a double life about it. ... where you goin', anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
-Sama! Ichika notes the sheer respect Tsubasa puts on them. She'll remember that, when she gets to meet them properly. But Lance... "Mm, yeah," Ichika answers. 'Felt kind of rough.' Ichika does understand the logic. "Hard to say 'everyone' sometimes. ...But Lance, for sure. Lance didn't deserve to be left behind. And now she's not."
Tsubasa, too... But that's a harder sell to Tsubasa.
"Yeah," Ichika answers. "...I think you're right about that. There is part of me that's just not... free. And it's hard to acknowledge that. But it's true. Maybe this is what I need, to bring that part of me along. ...To really be free, instead of just want it."
"But maybe not," she admits. Down, down, down...
"Heh," Ichika answers that snrk. "She's cool. I've fought with her a few times."
Double life. "...There's people it's safer not to give all the details to," Ichika thinks. "So if something goes down, they don't know about it, don't have to worry about it."
A pause. "There's this... sort of... magic place," she says. "It sounds like bullshit, I know. But it's like, this version of the world where things are weird and metaphorical. And he's got a place like that with another version of him."
"I'm hoping the 'double' part will mean I can get some evidence or something..."
"...But I'll probably feel good if I can just fuck some things up, too."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"She got us now," Tsubasa says, as Lance says 'ruff!!' because Lance heard her name and LANCE KNOWS THAT WORD.
A part of her isn't free, though... and that means something, when she's built so much of herself around it. "Way I see it, you can either kill the bits of you betrayin' you or work 'em out... but if you don't look at 'em at all, they can do whatever. And whatever'll fuck you up."
It's easy to be a philosopher about this sort of thing, when it's anyone else.
"Yeah," they add, thinking for a moment of Shinobu. "She's cool. Always figured no-hopers like us ended up in prison or dead or pretendin' it never happened..."
Tsubasa shakes their head, kicking a can down the road, too. "Another version, huh... yeah, hope you get somethin' out've it." They're quiet, for a moment, as they watch the can roll, roll, roll.
"... y'know, I was pretty mad for a while there I couldn't just go for round two," Tsubasa admits. "Pretty selfish of me... but it wasn't 'til after I felt like shit for not bein' able to take a bite out of this other asshole mom I met that I figured out what I was doin'. Like... it's easy to get mad at people hurtin' someone else. You think, 'if I just break this guy's face, it'll all be solved, and it's gravy'... even if they freak you out, you can look at it and think, yeah, you could fight that. But if you're doin' it for yourself, not the person they're actually eatin'..."
They shrug, shoulders hunched. "You know? You gotta kill your own monsters. Me, I can't even, like..." A shadow falls over their gaze. "... well, if your fuckwit hadn't been gettin' in our faces, guess I dunno what I'd've done. Maybe I woulda hit him again." 'Again', of course, indicating Hajime; Tsubasa's told Ichika how they hit him back, once. "But I sure as hell ain't gone to prove that, so..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika smiles at Lance.
Then she looks at Tsubasa. "...Mm, that makes sense," she says. "I think.. that's what I need to do. Look at stuff. Not just act, but think about it. ...hard, though. Thinking... gets me places."
But, "Hmm. So she's like that, huh?" Ichika asks. "...That's cool. I kinda figured the same... I've been wondering lately if it has to be that way."
"Yeah. The 'real' him, we go after him and his dad just shuts us down." She shakes her head.
But, Tsubasa... Round two, is it? "...You want to hurt somebody who hurt your friend," Ichika says. "Self-centered, maybe, but not selfish." A pause. "...But yeah, you're right. I don't..."
"I don't know what I want for the 'real' one. It hurts, thinking about it. It's easier just to avoid him. But I can't only do what's easy."
Kill your own monsters, though. "Maybe," Ichika says. "...He deserves it. But he's your monster, like... Eiji's mine."
"The way some guys like to just... think they own you. I hate it."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"I mean, I ain't thought about a single god damn thing in my life," Tsubasa lies to Ichika's face, just like that, "and that's why I got a concussion, prob'ly."
They shrug. "Well, Big Sis figured somethin' out, so..."
When they come to a bus stop, Tsubasa puts a foot on the back of the bench, hopping up to balance there so that they can grab a permanent marker and scrawl a message up at the top of the plexiglass: GARDEN'S OVERGROWING. WAR ROOM AIN'T GOT NO KING.
"Yeah," Tsubasa spits, as they hop down. "Bet he's a real trust fund baby." They don't know the half of it.
They sit themself down, on the bench; of course, it's far too late for buses to come by a side-street like this. "... nah, I'm plenty selfish," they shrug, propping a foot up on the side of the shelter. "Anyone tells you they're not, ask what they're hidin'."
Who wouldn't be in it for themselves, anyway?
"Thing about that is, if you know who you're doin' somethin' for, you know what to, what's the word, y'know, to put first... whether that's number one or someone else. Push to shove, I'd rather you be cool. So... you gotta do it. Am I wrong?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Heh," Ichika answers that blatant lie. "How's that doing, by the way?" The concussion. She's not a doctor.
"Yeah. If she can do it, why not us?" Ichika ventures. She nods in approval at the poetic message on the plexiglass. Then, of course...
Well, "Yeah. ...His dad's part of why it all went down how it did. He's got some kind of connections. Dried up all the schools that I could've gone to."
A pause. "...He used to tell me I was doing a good job 'taking care of his son'. ...I'm pretty sure he realized we were sleeping together a long time before I got... you know. Isn't that a weird thing to say? I mean, being OK with what your kid's doing is one thing. Telling a girl she's 'doing good' because of it..."
"It's weird."
But Tsubasa insists they're selfish, and Ichika's not gonna argue at the moment. She's not sure how she feels about 'selfishness' right now.
"...Mm, yeah. You gotta know what's important to them, what'll make them feel better--right?"
"...That's pretty much it. I do. Even though it's hard... I gotta face it."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Pain in my ass," Tsubasa grumbles, and of course Ichika will be familiar with the anger they have over staying out of trouble.
(Well. They're picking less fights. They're only human, some people are stepping to them, they've gotta answer that.)
"Kinda thought that," they're hedging, but they're at least considering that they might have a future outside of an early grave. ... not that Tsubasa knows that Ichika gets their problem, there.
But... his father's got connections. Tsubasa clicks their tongue to their teeth, as she relates how he spoke to her. "Scary shit." Maybe it weighs more, that they'd say that despite being the toughest thing on the block. (Shut up, yes they are.)
"Yasuda-san had this shrew of a mother... that's what he said, anyway, but seemed more like she was stressed out bein' a single mother and tryin' to do him right." Their gaze grows a touch distant, as they compare notes. "Even got him an apartment in Rengedai so he could get to Sevens quicker... made it easy for him, but she never told me to sort her son out or nothin', just said I'd better not be bein' a bad influence on the fuck. Don't reckon she liked me, but I don't reckon she knew, neither... it was my father who was fine with it. I mean, once Yasuda-san met him, anyway."
Tsubasa's always been quite blunt about their own shortcomings. ... but do they really view selfishness as a 'shortcoming'?
Rather, they think, it's a fact of life. And people are either honest about it... or they're not.
"Yeah," they affirm, though. "That's cool. You know what you're about. ... reckon that's where I came up short, bein' honest. 'Cuz I'm not. Actin' tough about the fuckwits... but truth is, I'm a coward."
They stare out at the opposite side of the street, a peeling commercial sign for a storefront that closed years prior.
"No wonder I'm dead weight," they say, quiet and bitter.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Yes, it tracks for Ichika.
Kinda thought it. That's a start. Ichika nods along. "Yeah..."
Still, scary shit. Ichika nods; that's right. And yes, Ichika thinks Tsubasa is pretty tough. But talking about other parents...
"Yeah... My parents had me an apartment out there, too," she says. "...single mom, huh." A nod. "That makes sense. ...Ugh, yeah."
"Mahiro-kun's not like that," she says. "He's got a single mom, too. ...But he respects her. It's why I'm out here instead of at his place. He had to help her out. ...So I'm not mad." A beat, "Glad I could hang out with you, anyway."
Then a sigh. "...But the other stuff..."
She can't say anything about Tsubasa's dad. She thinks about talking about her own parents, but...
"Mm," Ichika says, shakes her head. "A coward, huh...?" Maybe someone who doesn't know them as well would argue the point immediately. Ichika just tries to roll it over a minute.
"You're the only one who can say that. But you don't look that way to me."
A pause. "...And you're not dead weight. You know how much you've helped me out? I dunno where I'd be, without you."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Seems like he really resented her," Tsubasa supposes, with a shrug. "Guess that's where his winnin' attitudes to chicks comes from. Pushin' me around was how he got back at her... or somethin' like that."
They shrug. "Cool that Spike Boss ain't like that, though. ... wonder if that's why he's like that. Y'know. Wantin' to do better than his dad did." Maybe his dad died, Tsubasa! Don't be a dick! "Might be a 'him' thing... could be worth tellin' him."
Tsubasa looks down to Lance, who's curled up under the bus shelter. "Uh... I like hangin' with ya, anyway," they add, a touch more awkwardly, because emotions are for losers.
... Ichika's parents are much nicer than theirs.
Tsubasa tries not to resent her for that.
They can't resent the approach she takes, at least, rubbing at their opposite arm with a hand. It's not what Ichika sees, and...
"Yeah," they say, a touch moody, "but you can't rely on me, either... I'm too weak to watch your back. Don't, like -- it's true -- this nun asked me what happened, and I swear to Christ or whatever they do in there I cannot explain that Sumaru's just weird okay? But I like... I completely checked out, man. Like -- I know what happened, but -- the minute I really think about it -- look, if you hadn't told me Dr. Inoue was full of shit, I'd really believe I was just fuckin' nuts." (They've buried the lede here a little; Ichika's account disproving the doctor who's been gaslighting them for years is far more significant than they present it.) "And, I just..."
They kick at the concrete, sneaker scuffing at the ground. "Dunno," they mumble, looking away. "... just mad at myself. Like... I'm not pullin' my weight. I thought I was pretty tough... but I really ain't shit. Feels like I can't do nothin'... uh, not that I'm sayin' you're lyin' to me, Boss. Y'know, that's not nothin', just..." Between Eiji completely disregarding their effort to get him to give them some space, Chidori cutting their chair in half, and Hanzou assaulting them with no recourse, Tsubasa's whole self-image as someone who can fight back has taken a real beating, lately.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"..." Ichika looks down. That idea... upsets her, somehow. "That sucks," she says. "What an asshole."
But, maybe... "Mm, yeah. Might be. ...I should tell him. I should..." She looks up to the sky for a moment. "...I've been thinking about him lately. Maybe I'll give him a real answer one of these days, instead of putting him off."
But Lance is there. And, while emotions are for losers, Ichika smiles. "Yeah."
But resentment aside...
"A nun?" Ichika asks. "What, like, a real one?" That's not something you see every day. It doesn't even occur to her that Tsubasa might mean a Buddhist nun which would maybe be less weird. She goes right to the other kind. "It's pretty crazy," she says. And... "Hey. You're not nuts, though."
Mad at themself...
Ichika can't really just say 'no you're not' and expect that to work. So she's quiet for a few moments, looking down again. "Tsubasa-kun..."
"Maybe," she says. "Hard to do much in a world like this. ...But it should be better," she says. "...Still, even if you feel that way... I rely on you. That's important to me. You're in a rough spot. ...But maybe it's like that Big Sis. Maybe it gets better."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yeah," Tsubasa scowls.
They wonder, for a moment, how they feel about Ichika saying that. But... "Figure out what the answer is, and you can say it clearly," because ultimately, how they feel about someone else coming in and trying to make a housewife of Ichika after what Eiji did doesn't matter for jack.
What matters there is how she feels.
Besides... she likes hanging out with them, too. "Cool," Tsubasa echoes, back, with a small smile of their own.
But then --
"Yeah, a real one!" Tsubasa insists, with a touch more stress. "But -- but I know, like -- that's the point. It'd be easy if I was nuts."
Ichika says she relies on them, though, and Tsubasa blinks a little too heavily. "... yeah?" They ask, looking over to her. "Boss... I..." For all they always talk about how selfish they are, it's clear in the gnarled emotions of their voice that...
Well, it's hard for them to say things like this. It takes them a moment and change to get to, "... you're important to me," and that explains why they're so bothered they can't help her with this new problem of hers.
"Maybe... maybe it will. I dunno. But it's gotta... get better for you, right? Life would be way too cruel if... you got everythin' together to do somethin' about it and... nothin' happened. Ugh," they shake their head, "but I say that, and I know life's like that all the god damn time... fuck, I'm tryin' to at least cheer you on, and I can't even do that." Tsubasa's frustrated by their own cynicism, but they can't bring themself to lie, either. ... they're so sick of lying about it all.
They sigh, shoulders sinking. "No, I... I gotta put it another way... I know life don't just get better. But you -- you ain't just waitin' for it to do that. You're makin' your life better, with your own two hands... so if somethin' gets in your way, you can kick it clear and keep goin'." Like a can, or a shopping cart... "That's how it's gotta be. Y'know? Well... guess if I'm sayin' that to you, I'd better practice it, too..." Heavily, Tsubasa pushes themself off of the bus stop seat, swinging standing again. "C'mon," they say, grasping the strap of their bag. "We got, like, five more streets to hit. Yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
It sounds like a saying, the way Tsubasa says that--or maybe it just sounds that way because it sounds like good advice. "...Yeah," Ichika says. However it would turn out, Ichika hasn't dismissed that particular idea out of hand. ...The truth is a little more complicated than good or bad. But she's not sure how to express that. Instead, she says, "...I'm gonna like. Really think about it. Instead of just not thinking about it."
But cool. And--
"Man. That's wild." A real nun. Hmm.
But it's hard for Tsubasa to say that, and still, they say it, which... Ichika appreciates. "...Thanks," she says. "It's mutual."
For her...
Ichika sees it; but life has been cruel to Tsubasa. "It's cool," Ichika says of cheering her on. "Anyway I get it. ...Yeah. We gotta do something. ...For me, at least..."
"That means something. So we'll both do our best. And right now--"
"Heh. Yeah, let's get goin'."