2025-08-25: Being Understood
- Log: Being Understood
- Cast: Reiya Aomori, Minako Arisato
- Where: Iwatodai Dormitory
- OOC Date: August 25, 2025
- IC Date: July 01, 2012
- Summary: On an unremrkable Sunday morning, two SEES members meet at the ground floor of the dorms. Minako asks some questions, and Reiya even answers some.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
The left staircase is stable and sturdy, and doesn't have a sign assuring implicit threats to those who trespass. It has, instead someone occupying it; Reiya Aomori is trudging thoughtfully down the stairs fromt he boys' side, into the common areas of the dorm. Nearby is the kitchen area, still a little messy, the dining area, and ahead the couchs and television and computer and so forth. It is still Sunday, and still morning.
He is dressed nicely enough; slacks and a dress shirt, with a purple undershirt that offers a spot of vivid color.
He looks... Well, he looks like he always looks. He is stoic, thoughtful, and gives little away just by looking. His blue hair remains just a little shaggy.
Conveniently, the ground floor is mostly empty at the moment!
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako has been curious about Reiya ever since that brief conversation, during the briefing. She mostly knows that he showed up recently; that he has some connection to the Kirijo Group. And, of course, what they discussed.
She isn't dressed all that nicely. A cream-colored shirt, with blue jeans. She walks out of the kitchen, having heard him. And when she sees him--
Perfect.
She had been meaning to talk to him.
"Hey, Aomori-san," she says. "What are you up to, today? Going out?"
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Reiya is very mysterious, and has volunteered little about himself to others. A concerted effort could find he stays after for the Drama Club a lot. ...But today there is no club meeting! Today...!
Reiya pauses, his purple eyes tracking to Minako. "Hello, Arisato-san." A pause. "Not much," he admits. "I hadn't decided yet."
After all, his original plans can't really do anything until later...
He pauses, and then remembers to ask, "Oh. What about you?"
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
There is a smile, when he says he hasn't decided yet. She keeps smiling -- catching the way he doesn't ask at first, until he remembers. Mysterious or uninterested? Minako isn't sure.
"I haven't, either," she admits. "I'll have to decide in a little bit, before I waste the day."
She tilts her head. "So... you're pretty new still, right? You joined right before we went after Yamagishi-san." A beat. "How do you like it here?"
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Minako is very smiley! Reiya is less so, though his face isn't particularly sour; he just isn't very expressive in most conversations.
"Yes," he agrees with a bit more interest, "It's important to do something with each day."
He closes the distance that remains, so they don't have to yell to talk; he appears to have decided that it looks like Conversation Time.
"I am," he says. "Ikutsuki-san recruited me and I helped with the information gathering mission."
A pause. "...It's nice," he says of the dorm. "The various people make it very interesting, and my room is sufficient."
"...My sisters, I think, just appreciate having one fewer person to share the bathroom. I was previously living at home."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako has learned how to be around someone less than expressive -- it comes with being her brother's sister, after all. She nods once, and looks up at him as he approaches. Then, she tilts her head to the side.
She nods, once. "That makes sense... you, um, did you know Kirijo-senpai? Before you joined?"
Then, she cracks a smile again. It's a touch bemused, now.
"...Yeah, I've shared a bathroom before," she says, with a sigh. "Still, I bet they miss you."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Reiya in turn has learned to be around more expressive people, and is doing his best there.
"Not personally," he says of Mitsuru. "I wouldn't say that we're friends. But I knew of her."
He smiles back, briefly, as his joke is taken as what it was. "Yes. ...I miss them as well, but I think this is a good arrangement. We still see each other fairly often."
"...What about you?" he wonders. "You've been here longer than me, of course. How are you finding a leadership role? It can be... stressful, I'm aware."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Outside of being class president?" Minako asks, curiously. She wondered -- he did seem to be attached to Mitsuru. But, maybe, it's something simpler.
Then she smiles back -- and she nods, too. "Yeah. Siblings are important," she agrees.
There is a pause at the question.
She found the rescue of Yamagishi to be very stressful. The way that SEES seemed to almost fall apart -- the uncertainty that they would find her, at all -- and the sheer danger they faced, without the power they had...
Minako nods, though, and she smiles. "I'm adjusting. It's good to do. And... if I can help, that's enough for me."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Yes," Reiya answers. Outside of being class president! But... he doesn't actually elaborate. He doesn't clam up or look particularly secretive so much as he just doesn't say more.
Instead, he agrees, "They are. I'm the oldest in my family." Which says things, to him, anyway.
But Minako's answer...
"That's good," he says. "It's a burden, but it's one someone has to take. I think you and your brother are doing very well."
"And it does help. If we didn't have designated leaders... It would be chaos for the group, and harder on Kirijo-senpai."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako realizes that he won't elaborate, which only makes her wonder more. Though, of course, she understands having something she wouldn't elaborate on. She nods to him, though; it doesn't surprise her to learn that Reiya is the oldest.
"A little worried about them?" she asks, with a smile.
She nods, though, at his answer. "I'm glad," she says. "It's... well, I'm glad I can help everyone out. And I wouldn't want chaos. I've never done something like this before, but I'll pick it up as I go."
She smiles again. "You worry about Kirijo-senpai?"
Tyler Gould has arrived from Historia: The White Chronicle.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
That's how Reiya gets you.
...But her question gets a nod. "Yes," he says. "That's my responsibility. We all help each other, of course, but still. ...Sachiha goes to Gekkoukan, and she would probably say I should worry more about myself." That being his next-oldest sister, presumably.
But, "...You really want to help, don't you?" he finds. She's never done something like this... "Some people are trained for it," he says, "But some people have natural talent that they can hone the same way. I think you two are the second one."
A pause. "I do. ...She has a lot on her shoulders. I know what it is to have your family count on you. And the rest of us, too."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako smiles again at that. "That sounds like a younger sister," she says. "Well... try to not worry her too much."
Then, she looks up at him. There is a blink -- it's not the question she expected, but Minako has trouble imagining someone being in her position if they didn't want to. It may say more about her than him.
"I do," she says. "I don't want to pretend things aren't happening around me. So..." She smiles again. "...I'm glad I have talent."
She tilts her head, then. There is a blink, before Minako nods. "That's true. She... probably has a lot of pressure from her family and members of the Kirijo Group."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"I will do my best."
Minako seems surprised by his question. It's not that he thinks it's a bad thing to want to help, of course. But it's not something everyone is willing to put themselves on the line for.
"Yes... That seems to be the attitude a lot of us have. That seeing what we have, we can't ignore it." A nod.
Then, "Yes. ...And some of that is from me," he admits. "I grew up here. I've been around the Kirijo Group all my life. So..."
"I'm conscious that I can add to or take away from that pressure, depending on my actions."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Mm. Yeah," Minako agrees. Even if, in the past, she thinks she did ignore things she saw. She had always been good at dissociating -- and even now, she will over the right thing. But some things...
Some things, she doesn't want to look away from.
"You did?" she asks. She blinks, her head tilted to the side. "Does your family work for them, then? I--"
He can add or take away from that pressure. She blinks. "I doubt you're trying to add to her burdens, though."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Reiya doesn't know Minako too well, of course.
"Yes," Reiya answers. "My mother works for the Kirijo Group. And my father taught at a school here, when he was alive."
A pause. "Not at all," Reiya answers as to adding. "But inherently, each of us can. We all have our own needs, our own quirks, our own ways of doing things... and she has to consider each of those in order to accomplish our missions. The more people we have, the more burden--but the more we can act to alleviate it, as well."
"...I'm expected to lead in my family," he explains. "So I understand."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Ah... I'm sorry," Minako says, a little quieter.
How many people in SEES have a story like that? How many people lost a parent -- a loved one -- and it shaped their lives? Minako has to wonder. But then, she stops herself from wondering too much. She doesn't like the answers about herself that she finds.
She looks down for a moment, and then she nods. "...Yeah," she says. "I know a bit about that, from the whole leader thing." She looks up at him, then she blinks.
"Lead your family?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Thank you," Reiya says. "It was a long time ago."
There are many indeed. But Minako knows--she understands. "Yes," he says. "I thought you would. The fact that you can think about it is good. ...At the same time, it's important not to dwell too much on it."
But--? "Yes," Reiya says. He considers. He could offer context, but he probably shouldn't. So instead he simply says, "My mother is very competent, but my family is large, and there are some things that they will only accept of the oldest male."
"...My family is kind of old-fashioned," he admits, aware of that. "But I can't perform those duties until I come of age. So I am learning the best I can until then."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Mm," Minako murmurs, but she doesn't say anything more on loss.
She tilts her head, though -- and there is a smile again. She does smile easily, after all. "Yeah, I don't plan to dwell on it," she lies. "The best thing to do is keep moving forward!"
There is a blink, though. Old-fashioned...
"No kidding," she says. "That sounds like a lot of pressure, Aomori-san. You... don't mind it, it sounds like?"
Or he hides it well.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
She does smile easily. Reiya finds the conversation a little more pleasant for that. "Yes," Reiya agrees. "It's important."
To move forward.
Then, "It is," he admits. "But I don't mind," he confirms. "It's my duty. I do not object to that."
A pause. "...Sometimes it results in difficult decisions," he admits, thinking of Beniho. "And I enjoy that less. Duty is light. ...Interpersonal troubles are... heavy."
A shake of his head.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"You don't, huh?" Minako smiles again at him. She tilts her head to the side. "You really are straightforward." The same thing she said to him during the briefing. "Some people, you know... they'd resent doing what they think they have to do, versus what they want to do."
She blinks, though, and then she nods at him.
"Interpersonal troubles suck," Minako says. "But... they usually come with something good, too. It'd be easy if you didn't care."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"I think so," Reiya says to Minako, "But some people seem to think that makes me difficult to understand." He seems genuinely baffled by this idea. But some people? "Hm... I've noticed that," he says. "It's hard to understand. But I try. It's important to try to understand others."
Why? Well, don't worry about that.
A nod back. "Yes... And easy doesn't mean right."
He smiles. "But I shouldn't talk about myself so much. I hope you don't think the mission is all I care about. But it is important."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Well..." Minako hesitates. In trying to frame this carefully, she has to think about her own feelings and approach. "...A lot of people aren't. It's hard to be straightforward, sometimes. And sometimes people want to be understood."
And if they say what they feel plainly, does someone else really understand them or were they just told?
She laughs then she shakes her head. "Fair enough," she says. "I admit, I was curious... but, it helps to know the people you're in charge of." She pauses. "But I'm also not just doing the serious business SEES stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Hmmm... Yes," Reiya thinks. "It confuses me when people act that way, but I know they aren't being intentionally difficult. It's... natural, to want to be understood. Isn't it?" He's pretty sure of that. "It was always easier for me."
A laugh! Reiya smiles back. "I thought so. I know I'm very serious... it's because we've had so many important operations lately that I've focused on them."
It helps! "Yes."
Not just doing serious business...
"Then it would be fun to see something other than business sometime," Reiya thinks.
...Presumably not now, from the way he says it. Maybe he made a decision on what to do today. But still!
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Yeah. Everyone wants to be understood... and it doesn't feel good to be misunderstood," Minako says with a shake of her head. She smiles back at him -- and then she tilts her head.
"We have had a lot," she says. "So it's also important to take a break."
She pauses a moment, then she smiles. Minako nods her head and grins up at him. "Sounds like fun. And fortunately, you know where I live and vice versa!"
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Is that something Minako's experienced? Being misunderstood?
"A break..." Reiya nods thoughtfully. "Maybe we should organize some kind of relaxation for everyone." Or maybe that defeats the purpose. He's very organization brain. Either way, he smiles back. "Good. I think... I have decided what I will do today."
"I will see if my sisters are free."
"Take care, Arisato-san."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Sounds like a plan! To make a plan," Minako says with a smile. She nods at him -- smiling a bit when he says he'll see his sisters.
"That's a good idea," she says. "I think I'll go check the shrine."
She waves a hand. "You, too, Aomori-san."