[open] i wouldn't do this for just anyone.

[whatagoodgirl]

Who: Nakama and anyone who wants to be crashed into?
What: Teaching herself a new skill. Again, badly.
When: Day 143
Where: All over the city!
Rating: Assuming G, will edit if necessary.


Nakama's on a mission. A very cut up, bruised, aching mission.

No, it's not fighting or weapons this time. She's brought so much drama and sadness into Roxas's life lately, and they may have plans for fun times later, but she feels like this needs more. A gesture like the ice cream on the roof, something bigger that's all her.

So she's dipped into her savings and bought herself a skateboard, and the plan was to expand on his one brief lesson until she was good enough to go out riding with him. Unfortunately, that first lesson didn't go very well, and she doesn't know anything about skateboarding other than that. So she's careening around the city, arms waving wildly to keep her balance and legs occasionally flying out from under her and sending her sprawling onto the pavement. But like the thousands of needles she took to her fingertips while learning to sew, she barely feels any injuries left behind.

If you find her early in the day, she'll look alright; later in the day, there'll be a large tear in the left knee of her jeans with a bloody knee beneath, and a limping gait that suggests more bruises and wounds under her clothes. Heck, you might even meet her halfway and have to leap out of the way. It's hard to say!

Make your choice, but choose carefully.

Comments

[thoughts]

Different Earths. Many-worlds; strings come in different colors.

[ Cryptic again, but quantum physics doesn't make sense to most people on the best of days. She doesn't hold it against you, Nakama. ]

Made to Earth-That-Was' likeness, but they're all different. Some like it that way; some don't have a choice.

[whatagoodgirl]

Well, there will always be people who are unhappy with the situation they're in. [She's testing the waters gently, seeing if it's a legitimately bad situation or just the usual disagreements between countries extended out to planets.]

[thoughts]

[ River stares at her for a moment, blankly almost, like whatever answer she might've had once is missing data. She doesn't know, or she can't know - but she stares for a second longer before starting to play with the skateboard again.

At which point, she's just going to hop right up onto it without asking. Sorry, Nakama, she has no concept of ownership. ]

[whatagoodgirl]

[Whoops - she has a feeling she made a mistake. She's about to apologise, when -]

River - ! Be careful! It takes a lot of practice...

[thoughts]

[ Oh, but she's already on and 'be careful' sounds an awful lot like 'have no fun ever.' River ignores both and pushes forward, only to be completely thrown off balance once it's moving and she falls backwards onto her butt.

Then sits and stares at the board with wide and wondrous eyes. ]

Loss of friction. Poor traction on the wheels, imbalanced by pivot.

[ She looks up at Nakama, wide eyes turning to something bright and enthusiastic. This is a Great Discovery. ]

Can I go again?

[whatagoodgirl]

I - I don't want you hurting yourself... your brother worries about you a lot...

[She's wringing her hands, torn between the urge to protect this girl and how beautiful she finds the look of pure joy in her eyes. What should she do?]

[thoughts]

[ There's a fraction of a second where her smile falters before she rolls her eyes comically and grins as she gets back to her feet. ]

Simon's a worrier. He worries.

[ She leans in closer to Nakama to whisper conspiratorially. ]

He's getting wrinkles.

[ She straights back up to trace a finger across her forehead in imitation of the crease between Simon's brows whenever he frowns at something she's doing. She even mocks his Stern Face, and it's such a childish thing to do, but in many ways, she is a child, which is why she laughs and sticks out her tongue afterwards. ]

[whatagoodgirl]

[Part of Nakama wants to laugh, but instead she puts on a stern face.]

That means he cares about you. It's not something to take lightly.

[thoughts]

[ It's there again - a falter, nearly a flinch - and she smooths out imagined creases in her skirt as she speaks in a hushed sort of frenzy. ]

Lightly, like - flying. Hollow the bones out, grav-thrusters to break atmo, zero-gravity in the Black and there's - floating. And falling.

[ She stops her patting of the fabric to take small fistfuls and look back up at Nakama. ]

Simon caught me. He's the only one that would. I know. She's ... broken, and she breaks. But hollow wings can fly, won't know until you jump out of the nest.

[whatagoodgirl]

[There's a long pause, and then the meaning comes through.]

You want him to trust you.

[And for the first time, she wonders what Simon meant by sick. Is she terminally ill, as Nakama assumed, or... or mentally unwell? Is her fanciful speech and confusion the sign of something seriously wrong in her head?]

[thoughts]

[ Oh.

She stops. She releases the material bunched in her hands, the tension leaves her body, and she just. Stops. A slate wiped blank. ]

Trust. Noun. Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. Dependence on something future or contingent.

[ She blinks. ]

Hope. Tuōlāsī.

[ She can't make those kinds of connections in her head. They're all severed and torn, one path leads to three roads and none of them have ends, none of them lead anywhere. She knows what it means, but she doesn't understand it, can't see it clearly until -

Oh. ]

Simon doesn't trust me.

[whatagoodgirl]

No, no, that's what I was just about to say! It's not an issue of trust. Someone can think you're the most capable person in the world and still worry about you. I'd trust my mom to carry me on a tightrope over a ravine filled with dragons, and I still worried about her every night when she went to work.

[Nakama leans forward earnestly, wanting to take her hand or something but not wanting to scare her.] That's not what it means, River. So you don't have to worry about that.

[thoughts]

[ The conclusion is sound - or, maybe it isn't. She's not sure. It makes sense, but - maybe it doesn't make sense. She ducks her head and shakes it. ]

I don't understand. Can't be both, that doesn't make sense. Value of x can't have two corresponding y values, not a function, it's not - functional.

[whatagoodgirl]

Emotions aren't functional. [Softly.] They're confusing, and they're ugly sometimes, and they can look like completely different things from the outside. I don't think anyone really understands them.