2025-10-15: About Penguins
- Log: About Penguins
- Cast: Ichika Kawase, Eri Natsuhara
- Where: Kameya Alley, Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: October 15, 2025
- IC Date: July 26, 2012
- Summary: Eri comes to Hirasaka to see about penguins. Ichika is on the scene.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Kameya Alley bustles, as it usually does, full of people going about their days--or their evenings, as the case may be. It's late enough now in the day that Izakaya Shiraishi is more serving its adult customers, who can drink, and less the teenagers who like to hang out during the day. So, Ichika isn't in there anymore! She happens instead to have spent the last few seconds staring at nothing in particular--that is to say, visiting the Velvet Room.
She is dressed as usual for her, having had time to change out of her uniform--green skirt, black tanktop with a skull, bracelets, boots. And she turns away from that place to look around the alley, thinking where to go next. She happens to be eyeing... the armory!
But a teenage girl standing outside a military surplus store isn't that unusual, is it?
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
Part of the Akihabara Almost Daily's mission is reporting on the strange, the unlikely, the goofy -- the weird little things that make life in the greater Tokyo area unique. Eri is on the case for an article on a pop-up store, selling exclusive and exclusively penguin-themed merchandise. This happens to be near the Velvet Room...
...not that Eri Natsuhara knows of such things.
She lifts her camera -- and snaps a picture of Pizuko's Penguin Pextravaganza, and then she smiles. She stands out; she has a light green, button-up shirt and blue jeans on. From behind, the straps of her eyepatch are mostly lost in her hair.
But the shiny red cane, adorned with stickers, and with a brace for her wrist are obvious.
"That should be perfect," she says. "And sure to delight~"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika hadn't been looking at the penguins. She was busy considering if she needs some new weapons, while she's also here handling business with her Persona and the Velvet Room. But now, she does look. She looks, because she sees the shop, and then hears the camera shutter noise, and then sees--
"Oh," Ichika says, looking at the woman there with the camera. "...Interested in penguins?" she asks.
She probably shouldn't bother a stranger like this, but...
She's got a camera!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
Eri lowers her camera, then turns to look at Ichika. Her one-eyed gaze is obvious, then; the leather eye patch over one eye stands out, and she smiles. Her crimson eye looks at Ichika for a second, then she nods.
"A little," she says. "Who isn't? But... I'm actually doing a story about this store, for the newspaper I work at. And I wanted--"
She taps the camera. It's now hanging from her neck, by a thick fabric lanyard. She screws the lens cap on, with her good hand. "--a good shot of the entrance, for the paper."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't flinch or react much; she has a teacher with an eyepatch, so it's a familiar way of looking to her. ...Though she'd hope she wouldn't stare anyway...
She starts to say 'well that's fair' or something along those lines. Her face telegraphs it. But then Eri mentions the newspaper, and Ichika blinks, her eyes lighting up. "You work for a newspaper?" she asks.
She pauses then, looks at the entrance. "Oh," she says. "Yeah that will look nice."
She looks back to Eri. "But... really? I mean, that's cool."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
Eri is used to people doing a second look -- the eyepatch is distinctive -- and the fact Ichika doesn't prompts a bit of surprise, though not too much. Some people don't, too. She smiles a bit at the expected reaction.
And then a lot more at the question.
"Sure do!" she says. "I'm with the Akihabara Almost Daily. I'm the editor. And a reporter. We're a pretty small outfit," she says. "I like to cover things like this. People think it's really interesting -- and it's charming, too."
She looks back at the store for a second. "Are you interested in penguins? Or newspapers?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Smiles are good reactions. Ichika is glad she hasn't earned a 'go away, punk' so far. Instead, she hears about, "Oh!" Akihabara... Ichika's never spent much time there, but it's famous enough. "Oh, so you do both?" But people think it's interesting... "Yeah," Ichika says. "Stuff like this is important, too. Stuff people just like, or would get interested in."
She pauses. "Uh, yeah. Newspapers." She pauses. "I mean, penguins are fine, I guess. But I'm thinking of trying to do journalism when I get older..."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"We're a small outfit," Eri says with a laugh. "So I do, but a lot of us do multiple roles. And we're all photographers, too."
She blinks when Ichika says that -- and then there's a smile on her face. She remembers when she was in high school; she remembers her passion for being a reporter. She remembers... well, some things changed. Some things, she didn't pursue as much as she wishes she did.
But Eri did become a reporter.
"It's really good work," she says. "I wouldn't want to be anything else. Of course... I might be biased, being a reporter and all."
She winks.
"But no, it's the greatest job in the world!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Oh, that's cool. I haven't tried photography much yet..." But it's a 'yet' because she's going to need to become at least passable if she wants to do the job, right? Or at least understand it. Ichika is indeed a high schooler, and a tall one, and she has that exact kind of look to her--a burgeoning passion for it.
"...Heh." Biased. "It seems pretty great," she says. "I met another reporter who interviewed me for her magazine, Coolest!. And, well..."
She gestures, since she can't quite explain it. "Anyway," Ichika says, "I got really interested. So that's cool. Uh..."
"Any tips for somebody who wants to break in? I know my grades aren't great, but I'm trying to get good at the right stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"I wasn't much about it at first. I wanted to be a wordsmith, change the world with what I wrote, that kind of thing," she says. "But even if I'm not taking pictures for my articles... pictures are great for research. What I saw, who I met... that helps me remember when I'm writing later."
Then, she smiles a bit, and she shifts her weight a little -- leaning on her cane, while her hand comes to her chin.
"You'll want to really work on your writing," Eri says. "So classes with writing, with essays--that will help your writing be in shape. The next thing is experience. Internships or a school paper are great."
A beat. "But the most important thing..."
Eri Natsuhara is not above pausing for effect. Sorry, Ichika.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Oh." Wordsmith! Ichika definitely isn't at it from that angle--writing is something she's still working on getting down. It's the way it affects people that interests her most. "Oh, yeah. That totally makes sense," about pictures. She does want to get better at writing, though. Especially after this advice.
"Hmm. OK." Ichika nods, and there's a very real way in which she's committing that to memory. Writing... and experience. "...We don't really have a school paper," Ichika admits, unfortunately.
But the most important thing?
Ichika waits for it. And waits for it.
"..."
The effect is definitely in effect.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"You need to write about something you're passionate about," Eri declares, making a fist with her free hand. "That's the way you connect to someone. Not just by clever turns of phrase and writing clearly, but letting what you believe in and your spirit come across through your words. That's what will move people."
Eri nods her head, seriously.
"Like, after I got hurt..." She holds up her hand with her cane for a second -- just a second, to emphasize it -- and then puts it back down with a 'clack.'
"I started really paying attention to how technology can hurt about someone who's disabled," she says. "Things that make it easier to get around the house -- things so I don't have to ask for help. And I started writing about things like that... and how technology can change people's lives, for the better."
She smiles. "So... it has to be personal, I think. I'm not sure they teach that in school, though."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Something she's passionate about? Ichika wonders about that. But Eri seems very convincing, in any case. "So it's about connection... And moving people. That's what I want to do, too. When that reporter interviewed me for her magazine, I thought... It was a way of feeling connected to all the other people who read it, because we all want to reach out to each other. So..."
She nods. After she got hurt--Ichika nods. Clack!
"Oh," Ichika says. "I see..." Disability and technology. "That makes sense. It's something important to you, so it comes across to other people."
"...Well, if they don't teach it in school, you just told me, so I guess I'm ahead?" Ichika wonders. "...I kinda... learned it other places. The school I go to... it's not one where people expect anything out of us."
"So you sort of learn to find your own ways to matter."
"I want to do things like that."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"Mm-hm. The connection is the most important part to being a successful journalist, I think," Eri says, as she considers for a second. Then, she looks sideways at Ichika. "You were interviewed? That sounds like it was important."
She considers for a second, and then she frowns for a moment. A school where they don't expect anything out of them -- how horrible. Eri frowns, as she considers that. The injustice of that. It rankles something in her.
"I think... I understand that a little," she says. She smiles, after a moment. "It's good for that. For finding ways to matter. Even if it's... in little ways, and maybe not the ones you expected, sometimes."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Well, it wasn't a big deal to the magazine," Ichika explains. "Just a little thing about how I'd chosen my outfit, stuff like that--Coolest! is that kind of magazine. ...But it made an impression on me. She was so... cool, I guess. She made me feel like I could do something."
She notices the frown--but doesn't elaborate. Instead, she smiles back.
"Yeah?" Ichika wonders. "Thanks." For the understand. "...Oh."
"I'm Ichika," she says. "Ichika Kawase. I'm a third-year at Kasugayama High. You told me what paper you work for, so... I should give you my name."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"Coolest? That's a good magazine," Eri says, with a moment's thought. She nods her head. "I do some lifestyle writing, but--a lot of it's electronics. Or fun things." A glance over her shoulder, at the store full of penguins. Then, Eri smiles.
"It's nice to meet you, Kawase-kun," she says. "I'm Eri Natsuhara. Editor at the Akihabara Almost Daily."
She reaches into her pocket, pulls out her wallet, and then slides over her business card. "If you ever want to see how a place operates... call ahead, but I'd be happy to show you around sometime."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"I like it," she says of Coolest. But, a lot is electronics? "I guess that makes sense," she says, given Akihabara. But fun things! Ichika smiles back, glancing at the penguins. "Maybe I'll get a penguin something after all."
"Natsuhara-san," she confirms. "It's nice to meet you."
Ichika accepts the card--but it might be notable that instead of the rough delinquent way of taking it, she takes it with both hands politely. "Thanks," Ichika says. "I definitely will. ...On both counts."
"Thanks." She steps back, as if to let Eri go, and after a moment, will check out... penguins.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Natsuhara has posed.
"Tell me what you think about it, if you do!" Eri says, with a smile. "And definitely let me know when you're coming by. I'll give you the grand tour."
She winks, again. Then, she nods. "I'll catch you later, then, Kawase-kun. Have a good day!"
She gives a wave with her free hand. Then, Eri turns -- and she starts off for the subway. She moves a little slowly, still, but there's an obvious cheer.
It's nice to meet someone that reminds her of her own interest, in the past.