Strangeshrimp: Created page with "'''Log: No Thoughts Head Empty''' '''Cast:''' Maria Sakurai, Tsubasa Seki '''Where:''' Kameya Alley '''OOC Date:''' September 26, 2025 '''IC Date:''' July 16, 2012 '''Summary''': ''Maria is breaking into the old location of Gatten Sushi... again. Fortunately, a more adept hand than she is around to supervise this time. The Eight Wonder of the World is surely how Maria has survived this long on her own, as Tsubasa discovers.'' ---- Maria S..."

2025-10-20T02:37:20Z

Created page with "*'''Log: No Thoughts Head Empty''' *'''Cast:''' Maria Sakurai, Tsubasa Seki *'''Where:''' Kameya Alley *'''OOC Date:''' September 26, 2025 *'''IC Date:''' July 16, 2012 *'''Summary''': ''Maria is breaking into the old location of Gatten Sushi... again. Fortunately, a more adept hand than she is around to supervise this time. The Eight Wonder of the World is surely how Maria has survived this long on her own, as Tsubasa discovers.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Maria S..."

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*'''Log: No Thoughts Head Empty'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Maria Sakurai]], [[Tsubasa Seki]]
*'''Where:''' Kameya Alley
*'''OOC Date:''' September 26, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' July 16, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''Maria is breaking into the old location of Gatten Sushi... again. Fortunately, a more adept hand than she is around to supervise this time. The Eight Wonder of the World is surely how Maria has survived this long on her own, as Tsubasa discovers.''

----

<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Ughhhhh.

It's super annoying, isn't it? When you did something once, and you nailed it! And then you come back and try it again, and it's just not working. It's the worst! You should be able to nail the same thing every time you do it, right? At least, that's the way that Maria thinks it ought to go.

Of course, some context is warranted: deep in the confines of Kameya Alley stands a spot that was, until the start of the year, host to a sushi restaurant. After getting a Wang Long reading about how the dragon lines here were totally bad for his business, the owner moved to Rengedai. It's stood empty and locked since then.

Well, mostly empty, after that time Maria picked the lock about a week or so ago and went inside here with a boy and then scooted on out again when she realized her shoeprints could give her away. She'd avoided the place like the plague since then, and then--

Nothing bad had happened! Maybe her time of Joka is finally ending.

So of course, with crisis narrowly averted, she's come on back here to... try the lock again?

There's no question about the girl with the long pink ponytail in the Sevens uniform is trying to do. She's giving it her best go, but the lock just isn't giving. Maybe it's because they replaced it since the last time? "What did he say..." Maria murmurs aloud. Oh yeah. 'Relax'.

And she takes a breath and she rolls her shoulders and she siiiiighs out a long sigh. "Okay. Okay, okay..."

It's time for another shot at it.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
Pad, pad, pad. The sound of claws click on the stones of Kameya Alley, as if in tune with Maria's chorus of 'okay, okay'. Is the jig up?! Did she get caught?! Oh no, it's --

a dog

it's a god damn dog.

Lance, a scarred and scrawny Tosa Inu -- a ''fighting'' dog, though dog fighting is illegal in Tokyo -- ambles up to Maria, with a wagging tail. She sniffs at Maria, her tail wagging harder. She knows this trick!! That's why she's not borking!!

Tragically, where dogs go people follow, and the person following Lance today is a -- boy? -- in a Kasugayama High uniform, hands shoved in their pockets, wild white-and-green-and-purple hair slouched close to their shoulders. Their top has been unbuttoned at the bottom to the middle of their shirt and tied across their belly, revealing a black-and-blue undershirt beneath it, amongst the rest of their uniform's disarray. Their skin hosts an outrageously fake tan -- they're just about ''orange'' -- and it can't quite hide the lighter discolouration and strange texture splattered across their right side, despite the concealer trying to cover it up.

Tsubasa was just taking Lance for a walk before they headed off to that art exhibit with the gang, but...

"Wait up," Tsubasa calls, their voice dragged through gravel and grit as it rumbles towards her. "I ain't the cops. What you up to?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Pad, pad, pad. It's such a soft sound, and yet it's enough to make Maria, her piece of wire not even yet inserted into the lock, just about jump out of her skin. She's up on her feet in a flash, bracing herself as if preparing to run, but--

"Eh?" It's just a dog, though. "You scared me!" she tells the dog, pointing right at Lance with her left hand (the one that's not holding that bit of wire). "Don't you have any manners? Where's your--"

Oh.

Oh, oh. ''Oh''.

Maria's dark eyes widen as she spots Tsubasa. And she stares at them, her gaze taking its time as she takes all of them in. A boy? And from Kasugayama, no less. She'd gone and seen that concert of theirs a while back, of course, and it's not like she's got any reason to run off just because this is a boy from Cuss High, but in this moment, she sure looks like she's thinking very hard about doing just that. "I'll scream," she says, and it's more threat than out of fear. In spite of herself, she's holding her ground, staring right at them. "If you come any closer, anyway."

She'd threatened Reiya in a similar way, come to think of it.

But 'wait', they say. They ain't the cops.

What ''is'' she doing?

Maria takes one, two breaths.

"Why do you want to know?" Maria says, hiding the bent piece of wire behind her back. "Are you trying to break in, too?"

...maria...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
Lance wags her tail, ears perking up, when Maria addresses her. 'Whuff', she borks quietly, not entirely able to contain her glee. (Someone turned the bass all the way up on this dog, so of course she borks instead of barks.)

"Be cool," Tsubasa says, leaning one shoulder against a stone wall rather than approaching any further. "I ain't no mugger or nothin' like that. Jus' curious."

They look past her, to the abandoned restaurant. "But here? Nah," they shake their head. "It's bad luck. Y'ain't heard? Guy what ran the joint packed up after he realised the dragon lines were sinkin' him. Ran all the way to Rengedai, man."

They look over with some interest, though, as they say: "... don't run into many folk what pick locks. Well, 'sides from me..." With a shrug of their free shoulder, they introduce themself: "Seki, by the way. Tsubasa Seki. Who're you? Could swear I saw yer face somewhere, but..." ... well, it was at the concert, so it's hard for them to ''place'' it.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Maria, of course, can't hide her own glee when the doggie ''wuffs'' at her, even if she'd been lecturing it a moment before. "Aww, aren't you--"

You know, before she spots Tsubasa and wraps it up there and then.

"Oh, good," she tells Tsubasa, the edge on her smoothing off as if it hadn't been. "If you tried to mug me, I'd kick you, you know. And scream." Because this is the sort of thing you have to tell someone all about when you've met for the first time under somewhat compromising circumstances...?

"Oh! So you know about it, too? I don't want to go in, you know. I'm just practicing," she says, producing the bit of bent wire again as if this weren't something she should try to make some effort to conceal. Some people are just too naive for their own good! How do people like Maria even survive to the age of sixteen, anyway? "It's okay if I don't go in." She pauses, as if she were a little uncertain about the fine points here. "...Right?"

"But, I wish it was that easy to run away from dragon lines. If you're under Joka, they say you can't do much about it. I got a new charm, though. I think it's working!" She must be feeling more relaxed around them. Or something. "I haven't had trouble in a little while. Or maybe I'm finally out of Joka? But yeah, I'm learning how to pick locks!" She nods, enough that her ponytail bounces. "Seki-kun! Got it! I'm-- Maria. Maria Sakurai. Ah--"

She's gone rigid, all the easy animation she'd had moments ago gone like dust on the wind.

"My... face?"

Not in the newspaper, not in the newspaper, please, not in the newspaper.

She turns silently, stiffly, towards the lock.

"I like your hair," she tells them, after a moment of that terrible silence. "Do you dye it those colors? I want to dye the tips of my hair, but granny said no."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
"Fair," Tsubasa shrugs. "But nah. My Boss'd kick my ass right into next week if I menaced some chick in a dark alleyway."

They rub at the back of their neck, as they straighten up from the wall. "Uh..." They start, honestly taken aback, because frankly they've never much thought about Joka beyond the surface level of being entirely sure they were stuck there. "Sure?"

They don't sound sure! Why don't they sound sure?!

"It's cool," they shrug. "I been stuck in Joka for years. Ain't killed me yet." Give it time, Tsubasa. Maybe that will have changed by the end of today! "Sakurai-san, huh..."

But Maria freezes up, and Tsubasa notices, glancing away. (''Lance'' notices, too, and pads up to Maria with a concerned little whine as she noses at her.) "Uh, lemme think," they say, awkwardly, now feeling that they really ''ought'' to remember where they saw her if it freaks her out that much. (Does she have a bad rep, or something?) "Uh... oh, yeah," they snap their fingers, "at the Death Boss's concert? Y'know, Gas Chamber." Not the newspaper!

They elect ''not'' to amble up, seeing her sudden horror. Instead, with a moment's hesitation, they say: "Tell ya a secret," because she seems like the sort of girl put at ease by getting into things she really oughtn't. "It's really a wig. So, like... my hair's whatever the fuck colour I decide on wearin' that day. ... natural pink's pretty cool, tho'," they add, complimentary.

They let that sit, for a second, before gesturing to her. "Mind if I come have a look?" They ask, putting their approach in ''her'' court. "I know a thing or two, so..."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Her head bobs in an easy nod. "Good! Your boss sounds cool. I don't think anyone should get menaced in a dark alley. Tell them I said so!" Maria declares.

"Right! I thought so, too. You have to watch out for your shoeprints if you go inside. Or, I wonder if you could go in stockings? I mean, barefoot they can probably tell you went inside," Maria continues on, because there's absolutely no stopping this girl.

"You can survive in Joka for a long time, but it's not a lot of fun. I messed up my bike, so I'll have to get a job? Granny said money's tight right now. I guess I could ask dad, but..." She shrugs, carelessly. "It might not be bad, getting a part-time job. I could meet new people, you know?"

There's no stopping her, that is, until she ''does'' stop.

Oh! At the concert. All at once, it's like Maria comes back to life again.

Particularly when Tsubasa tells her a secret. "Really? A wig? That's so cool! You can change your hair whenever you get tired of it," she says, chattering on once again. "Mine's not bad. Having long hair's a pain, though. It takes forever to wash. But I was thinking about green tips? But, if I come home like that, I'd get a lecture for sure. Maybe when I graduate and go to college?" she says, looking up at Tsubasa as she crouches down by the lock again. "They changed it from last time. See?" she says, picking it up in her hands loosely. "Last time, it was pretty tough too. I'm still learning, I mean. But! I did get it last time. This one's not budging yet. Maybe I'm too tense?"

She pauses, as if in thought (whatever that is for someone who seems like she's never once had the braincell). "He said I was being too tense, last time."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
"I'll let her know," Tsubasa says, revealing in the process that their Boss is a ''girl.''

"... reckon it's more about how you carry yer weight than what's on yer feet," they point out, as if they weren't just pulling that answer ''right'' out of the conjecture zone. "Uh, unless you were walkin' through mud or somethin' 'fore you walked in... but like, wouldn't the difference 'tween shoes'n stockins' jus' be how heavy ya feet get?"

They rub at the back of their neck. "Yeah," they agree. "It ain't. Haven't worked a baito for ages... ain't bad for gettin' cash, tho'. Uh... jus'... careful if you grab shit to sell on, yeah?" They add, feeling the terrible weight of suspicion that Maria isn't the type of person to think things through. "Can get... tough if you don't got a fence or nothin'. Y'know. Your grandma'd prolly freak if you got caught out."

One might think that Tsubasa would urge her ''away'' from crime, seeing the cliff she's dancing besides, but... nah.

"Pink and green's cool," Tsubasa agrees. "Uh, you can get shit that washes out if you wanna try it without it bein', like, permanent... your family might still hate it, tho'." When Maria invites them to ''see,'' Tsubasa ambles up, leaning down to examine the lock... and Maria's lockpick.

"You make this yourself?" They ask. "It's pretty good. Could be you're tense, sure... kinda seems like you wanna be more patient, tho'. Give it here?" If Maria assents to relinquishing her lockpick, Tsubasa will kneel by the door and get to work fiddling with the lock themself. She might note how ''quiet'' they are... and how unhurried their movements are, despite the tension of the crime they're committing.

There's a little ''click,'' and Tsubasa asks: "You hear that? That's one'a the tumblers workin'. You wanna remember where you were when you got that workin', and work from there to get the next thing down. Jus' like lyin'."

They fall back to silence, as they keep working. Click... click... click!

Tsubasa works the lockpick out of the lock, hands it back to Maria, and demonstratively turns the handle... as the door opens!

Ta-daaaaa. (There is no ta-daaa, but in a just world, there ''would'' be.)

"If you're dead set on crackin' locks, grab a lockpickin' set insteada usin' wire," Tsubasa says, straightening up. (They're only an inch taller than Maria, and frankly the way they're slouching eats that extra height right up, but it's the spirit of the thing.) "They keep 'em in hardware stores... or, like, online. There's these fancy swiss army knives what have sets in 'em, but I ain't managed to get my hands on nothin' like that yet... pretty cool, tho'."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
A girl. Boss. A... girlboss. "A girl! Really!" Maria utters, her eyes widening. "I didn't think boys would listen to a girl like that! Not at Cuss High!" Wow, a school where boys listen to girls...

She might have gotten the wrong impression here. Actually, several wrong impressions here.

"Oh yeah? Oh! If you put on really thick socks, they probably couldn't see what your feet looked like, right? So you wouldn't leave footprints. Or, maybe you could swish your foot around while you walked?" She demonstrates. Swish!!! "See? I bet there's a lot of ways to walk around in a building like this." She pauses. "Um. Not that I'm going in again!" She has absolutely no tact.

"Oh yeah? What's it like? Is it hard? I haven't worked a part-time job before, you know," yes, it's rather obvious, Maria, "but it seems pretty fun. --Ehhh? Do you mean, stealing?"
Yes, Tsubasa does mean stealing.
"Huuuh. I never thought about doing that. Can that make a lot of money-- oh, oh, good point. If I got caught stealing, granny would kill me." She exhales sharply. "Well... maybe I should play it safe?"

She glances sidelong at the door, because while she's oblivious, even she has her limits.

"Safer."

Oh! This is a revelation to Maria. "That's how it works?! I saw some girls at school who added some color, but it was gone the next day. So that's how they did it." What did she think they did, use magic? "Well, if I can earn my own money, a little, I can try it!" Oh no.

Did she make that pick herself? "Uh huh! I found some guides online. It took a bit to find the right sort of wire, but I managed. Oh, you want to take a look? Here," she says, handing over the wire. It's stiff, with a little give: not so much that it would be too flimsy to hit the tumblers or snap or bend, but also not so stuff that it can't readjust to match up against any given lock. Maria, uncharacteristically, is listening. "Uh huh. That's what the guides said. You can listen for it, and you'll know. Patient, huh... I guess I am a little impatient," she says, rocking back a touch on her haunches. "And I guess I get nervous, too. I keep thinking someone's going to pop in. But no one has."

Yet, Maria. The key word is 'yet'.

But the tumblers click one by one, and--- there, the door opens. "Just like last time!" Maria chirps, poking her head inside. Oh, there are footprints. Along with some larger footprints. Her heart pounding in her chest, she takes a step back and presses her hand against the door, but doesn't close it just yet.

"Yeah... that's what the guide said. I'll need some money of my own for that, too," she says, not looking back at Tsubasa just yet. "There's no way dad or granny would buy me something like that." She looks back at Tsubasa and smiles at them. "Right? That swiss army knife with lock picks thing sounds pretty cool. Do they have the knife, too?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
"Well... I ain't exactly a boy," Tsubasa explains, rubbing at the back of their neck. "You're close, tho'. People like me call ourselves 'X-Gender', 'cuz we ain't girls or boys... if I had to pick, I'd rather run with the guys, tho'. But I ain't neither one." They gesture, with a hand, as they explain: "But we got boys in our gang, too. An' girls. Jus' so happens the Boss's tougher'n sharper than any of us, so her word is law. Bein' fair, you ain't wrong thinkin' ''most'' gangs ain't like that... mostly, girls run under girls, boys run under boys." They shrug. "We jus' don't give a shit."

They're too cool for society's ''expectations,'' man.

"Man," Tsubasa says, actually looking quite ''impressed,'' "I ain't never thought 'bout all that. Maybe swishin' 'd work..." Could it be that Maria... is a natural talent at crime?!

Tsubasa should really warn her against that at some point here.

"Uh... can be," Tsubasa glances aside, a touch evasive, when Maria asks about the dreaded ''part time work.'' "Yeah, it's good cash, but, like -- turnin' shit into cash is another thing. Can end up feelin' like you're usin' the barter system when everyone else has yen... and that's assumin' ya don't get caught." They pause, giving Maria a long look. "I'm gonna be real, here? You'd prolly get caught. No shade, but it seems like you're doin' this on your own... and ya keep gettin' caught by dudes who know what yer doin'? One of those days it's gonna be a cop, statistically speakin'." They shrug, and add: "Look, if you wanna go for it, at least get someone to teach ya proper. I don't like seein' chicks get crushed just 'cuz they didn't get a chance."

Tsubasa, you're teaching her things right now!!!

They're at least nice enough to ''try'' and redirect her, though. "Yeah, like... go ask the konbinis if someone wants help with the afternoon shift or somethin'. That's what most kids do, an' it'd get ya hair dye money easy. Uh, maybe warn ya folks before ya show up all green, tho'..." Tsubasa doesn't know what kind of strict Maria's family is, but, well, it behooves them to warn her.

They demonstrate on the lock, though, and nod to her as they pass the makeshift lockpick back. "Yeah, that'll screw ya, tryin' to rush through. Uh, not that bein' quick is always a bad thing... but ya gotta be confident about it. If ya hands shake, or ya hesitate, you'll lose all ya progress."

But they can see the way she steps back, on seeing those footprints. They sigh, rubbing at the back of their neck. "Yeah, no way they'd buy somethin' like that... but yeah, they got a knife! An' like, a can opener an' a corkscrew an' all kindsa shit. They're totally sweet, but also, like, cops hate 'em? I forget if they're, like, illegal, but... y'know, carryin' is, an' it's still a knife. Not that I give a shit," they add, bravely.

"Here," they add, stepping forward. "My luck's shit, and it ain't changin' soon. Lemme go clear those prints for ya." And lo, Tsubasa ventures into the horrorshow of ''bad luck,'' intent on scattering the evidence Maria left of her intrusion.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Tsubasa isn't exactly a boy. One can just about see the question mark hovering over Maria's head.

They explain, though.

"Oh! Okay, I get it! You're... none of the above, right? Like someone who doesn't want chicken or beef! You know, I'm starting to eat vegetarian, too," Maria natters on, apparently intent on saying every last little thing that comes into her empty head. "And-- okay, it's not the same thing. You're not a vegetable, or even vegetables with rice, right? But it's ''like'' that," she continues to say, gesturing vaguely as if she were trying to align two different objects with one another. "Like... none of the above. Except, for gender? I wonder if we could get boys to join our club," and then as if to explain her train of thought, she adds, "Like your gang, you know? If it's mostly boys or girls, but yours is mixed, can't literature club be like that?"

It might be hard to imagine Maria sticking with a book long enough, though.

She beams, at being told her idea about 'swishing' her feet might have merit. Hooray!

She at least seems to be listening when Tsubasa explains to her how it can work -- stealing from a workplace, that is, and then tells her, as directly as possible, that she probably shouldn't try that. Because she'd get caught. ...After all, hasn't she gotten caught trying to pick the lock of this same place twice? She's probably lucky no one's been a cop (as far as she knows). "Hmmm. Yeah. You're got a point! I was just trying it to try it, you know? But," and she glances at the door, "I don't want my granny to kill me, either. I wonder if there's a good way to practice. I thought this would be good because no one cares about it, but, now you've got me thinking. What if someone did? Maybe I should get that part-time job, and get some practice locks of my own. I can't keep picking the lock on my granny's jewelry box!" One assumes, given past performance, this is also because she's been caught.

She nods, emphatically. "Got it! I'll stay on the straight and narrow, and get my bike fixed! And get some hair dye! And lockpicks!" Congratulations, Tsubasa, you've probably stopped a girl from getting arrested... for now.

"Aha! Got it, got it. I think," she says, taking her lockpick back, "that's what was messing me up. I'd start getting all jumpy, you know? And then I kept starting over. So I've gotta be cool. I need to be as chill as..." She thinks for a moment, then points at Tsubasa. "As you, Seki-kun!"

Especially, given the chat about the knife stuff. "Maybe?" says Maria, who only knows the laws in a very loose, general sense. "It would be really cool to have a knife. You could pull it out and say like, 'I can cut that rope! I have a knife!' ...Oh, but, I guess those situations mostly happen in movies... I wish life would be more like a movie. Then, something cool might happen."

That would be nice. It would be better than something sad happening, again.

But Tsubasa says they'll go in and clear those prints for her. "Really? Okay, then, I-- I'll keep watch! And, I'll... do something if I see someone." Probably talk at them. That's plenty disarming, to get the full force of tropical storm Maria.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
"It's like that," Tsubasa encourages Maria, even if they're really getting the sense that she's operating on a different wavelength to... like... reality? It's weird, but not, like, ''bad'' weird. And then they encourage her ''twice:'' "Sure, clubs can be like that. Plenty of books dudes like. Like -- manga and shit. Or, like... 'pparently there's a tonna dudes love fantasy books. Uh, it's kinda lame, but I like non-fiction stuff that like, goes into how shit works and stuff..." dear god they like reading textbooks, "... why, what kinda books you into?"

They rub at the back of their neck, as they consider how Maria just wanted to ''try'' it. "When I was learnin', I picked up some like, padlocks an' stuff," they say, helpfully(?). "Y'know, like, stuff to lock gates or bikes up... an' ya can just do that in ya room."

Tsubasa has at least stopped a girl from getting arrested while using makeshift tools! Gotta look good when you get arrested. (TSUBASA HAVING TOOLS IS WORSE.) "Straight and narrow's safer, yeah." Even if Maria might be a secret crime prodigy...

Luckily, Tsubasa's fake tan and concealer handily covers the way their cheeks colour when Maria declares them to be ''chill,'' in a decidedly uncool and uncollected away. "Aheheh," they chuckle, gesturing with an open palm. "Y-yeah, jus' like me."

She thinks you're cool, Tsubasa. Don't fuck it up. She can't know that you, too, are a lame-ass teenager.

"Uh, mostly, knives help when a bigger group comes up to ya wantin' to start shit," Tsubasa explains, 'helpfully'. "Like, ya pull a knife out, and suddenly all that tough shit goes out the window, y'know? No one wants to start a fight if they might get stabbed. Like... don't reckon I've ever actually had to ''stab'' someone when I pulled one out, it just kinda... makes the other gang come back later." Which means ''they'' carry a knife?! How cool is that. "... y'wanna hide it pretty good if ya carry one, tho'. Cops'll pat ya down lookin' for shit." ''They get in trouble with cops too.''

Maria helpfully offers to keep watch, and Tsubasa says, "... jus' call out and bolt, I'm pretty good at gettin' outta shit." When Lance tries to follow them in, though, they tell her to, "Stay," because they're not risking their ''dog'' getting cursed with bad luck.

They pull out their phone to act as a flashlight, showing them where all those footprints are hiding, and just as Maria suggested... they swish them away with their sneaker. (Is that what she meant? Well, it's what she meant ''now.'') After a heart-pounding minute or three of silence, they emerge back outside, shoving their phone back in their pocket. "Aight," they report, nodding to her. "Reckon yer good."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
To be fair, a lot of people get that feeling with Maria, like she's operating on some other plane of existence.

"Hm!" Maria hums, when the conversation comes around to books and the sorts of things guys are into. "Us? We're into romance. I mean, I'm into romance. But everyone else in the club reads romance, too." Tsubasa might get the not-incorrect feeling that Sevens 'literature club' is actually like 3-5 girls reading slightly dirty novels...

To be fair, there are definitely guys who are into that.

When Tsubasa got into lockpicking, they just picked up several kinds of locks and got on with it in the sanctity of their own room. "Oh, just like that?" Maria says, which suggests that she... didn't think of that in the first place. Where do girls like her come from? Space, maybe?

"You are!" Maria affirms, clasping her hands behind her back. "You're like, my secret mentor! Or something like that. Ooh, this is kind of exciting! I always wanted a secret mentor..." Hopefully she's not talking about 'in the sense a romance novel might use'. That would make this weird! And awkward!
(She really just means it in the 'movie' sense, though. Rest easy, Tsubasa.)

At the mention of 'stabbing', Maria's eyes go wide. "''Really''? You've been in situations like that? Wow!" She sounds less terrified and more... fascinated? Definitely an alien, this one. "That's pretty smart. No one wants to get stabbed," Maria observes. "Oh yeah! A lot of knives are illegal. Even if you put a steak knife in your purse, it's trouble, right? Even if it's for steak, and not people? I thought that was weird. But I guess, you could hurt someone with a steak knife," Maria natters on, as if she hadn't just suggested something mildly horrific. Hopefully, none of the things she's just said are something she's attempted!

"That's right, you want to be careful around cops, huh... that's what it's like in some movies."

But Tsubasa goes in to clean up after Maria's past mess, more or less, and tells her she should just yell and run, and Maria nods perhaps a little too readily (but then, she's only ''just'' met Tsubasa...). Waiting here near the alleyway entrance, Maria lingers one minute, two minutes, humming tunelessly under her breath.

And then, it's done. "Oh good! Thank you, Seki-kun! I was wondering if the prints would still be in there. I didn't touch anything in there, you know. I was just curious," she goes on, and on. Then, just like that, she pops on down to pat Lance on the head.

"Your dog's really cute," she says to Tsubasa. Pat, pat, pat.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
"Uh... romance, huh," Tsubasa scratches at the base of their ear. "That's cool." Maybe she likes touchy-feely emotional stuff! It's not ''necessarily'' dirty!

It's not ''not'' necessarily dirty, either, though.

"Yeah," they nod, and their leading guess as to where Maria came from is frankly some kind of spirit realm where faerie queens trick you into staying there for all time via muffin. (Tsubasa, that's just the premise of your children's card game.) "I didn't want my parents to find out, so... I jus', like, hid 'em in my room."

But Maria declares that Tsubasa is her ''secret mentor,'' and given her proclivity for romance novels (even if they're surely not ''those'' types of romance novels!!), Tsubasa's mind inevitably goes there. Rapidly, thoughts crowd into their mind:

- Has she already invented the type of person you are in her head???
- Is she, like, the kind of chick who should be hanging out with you at ''all,'' like, look at her,
- This chick is ''definitely'' younger than you what are you gonna do if she actually has a crush on you holy shit where's the Boss when you need her,
- If no one actually looks out for this girl is she going to get completely plastered by running her mouth off one day?!
- Wait, are you seriously the kind of guy that just decides girls need protecting, she's clearly survived ''this'' long just fine --

At this point, Tsubasa realises they're just kind of staring at her and they should really actually say something. "You wanna learn my kinda shit, huh? It ain't exactly 'model citizen' material..."

No, stupid, they yell at their own head, the right answer was to tell her to go find someone nicer to follow around!! Oh well, it's too late now.

"Yeah," they nod. "Like, I got this craft knife so I can keep it in my hem without stabbin' myself, but even that'd get me in hot shit if anyone found it." They pause, considering her perspective on the cops, and add... "You watch a lot of movies? I like the stuff by that foreign guy, uh, Quinton Tarasino." There was that one movie about a bride who did ''ten thousand murders.'' They're all kind of like that.

"If you didn't touch nothin', there won't be nothin'," they point out, rubbing at the back of their neck. "If you're worried 'bout that, tho', jus' wear gloves. I heard some hardcore guys burn their fingerprints off, but that's yakuza shit, man, don't fuck with that." They pause. "Don't fuck with organised crime none at all," they add, for emphasis. "That shit follows ya, even if you figure ya wanna do somethin' else. Sometimes, that jus' means declinin' deals what are too easy or too good to be true... reckon I dodged a bullet like that, once. This guy wanted to give me easy money for deliverin' a package, but the Boss pointed out the deal stunk, an' later all these rumours came out 'bout kids gettin' used as drug mules by the Syndicate."

And, Lance!! Who eats up that affection, and furthermore tries to ''lick Maria's hand.'' "Thanks," Tsubasa smiles -- actually smiles! -- when she compliments her. "Her name's Lance. She's real friendly." Tsubasa really didn't have to say that; Lance's lower half is presently being wagged by her tail.

</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:Season 1, Episode 1]]

2025-09-26: No Thoughts Head Empty - Revision history

Strangeshrimp at 02:38, 20 October 2025

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:38, 19 October 2025
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	*'''OOC Date:''' September 26, 2025		*'''OOC Date:''' September 26, 2025
	*'''IC Date:''' July 16, 2012		*'''IC Date:''' July 16, 2012
	*'''Summary''': ''Maria is breaking into the old location of Gatten Sushi... again. Fortunately, a more adept hand than she is around to supervise this time. The ~~Eight~~ Wonder of the World is surely how Maria has survived this long on her own, as Tsubasa discovers.''		*'''Summary''': ''Maria is breaking into the old location of Gatten Sushi... again. Fortunately, a more adept hand than she is around to supervise this time. The Eighth Wonder of the World is surely how Maria has survived this long on her own, as Tsubasa discovers.''

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