Strawberry Short-hair (Seiya Hangout Thread) (RANK UP!)

[seiyayamada]

((Open RP, I welcome multiple threads! <3)) It had been a few days since... the incident. Seiya and her friends were able to save Miho, however, there'd been some emotional side effects. Well, and physical. Seated behind the Yamada Mart counter, it was her first day back in the saddle after the whole ordeal. Mr. Yamada had somehow had a miraculous moment of compassion and let his daughter stay home for about four days. Now that her little mini vacation was up, the girl was expected to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for a while. Still, despite the expectations put on her, Seiya couldn't help but feel down. Self-consciously tugging at her now stubby pony tail, the girl reflected on what she'd told Greg about her hair. How important it was to her, and how it was the one thing in her life that she could control. Oh well. Win some and lose some. Propping her feet up on the counter, she opened a magazine, deciding to lose herself in the lives of celebrities for a while.

Comments

[americandiplomacy]

He took his bag and followed the apparent tour guide, having a look around and not really paying attention to everywhere she was pointing. Greg could probably figure this out by himself! Maybe. There /were/ labels everywhere, to be fair. "I'd rather put the gummies on top. If they're on the bottom, uh... They get a little squished." Doctor Harman, Ph.D in physics, thank you very much. "Do you have, like, jolly ranchers here? They're kinda... Fruity. Hard candy... You suck on them, and stuff."

[unexamined]

"Your fault for keeping them that clean then." Kota grinned at her. However, the expression faded slightly with her next statement, and Kota put the bottle down on the counter as he glanced around. "...I can imagine." Doing something like this as more than a part-time job was his nightmare scenario.

Pushing that thought away with practiced ease, he returned to his usual cheer. Usual when not in the mirror world, at least. "I know you play video games. Do you play anything else?"

[seiyayamada]

"Oh good point." Nodding, Seiya made her way to the chocolatier stuff. It was always nice to have some snowcaps or M&Ms at the bottom in her opinion. Taking the little plastic shovel, she began to layer her bag. "Jolly Ranchers?" Thinking for a moment, she gestured to the hard candy section. "Maybe over there?"

[seiyayamada]

"I'll be dirtier next time, I promise." Seiya crossed her heart with a playfully serious nod. When he mentioned his empathy, she just nodded her head with a 'what can ya do' shrug. Seiya had been working for her dad for as long as she could remember, so it really wasn't that agonizing anymore. Just dreadfully slow.

"What do you mean? Like tabletop games?" Seiya scrunched up her nose, "Or do you mean sports? Because I am about as athletic as a three-legged baby seal."

[americandiplomacy]

"Yeah, I'll give it a look." The boy scurried off to that hard candy section, still a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of candy here. That jingle on freaking loop was going to be stuck in his head for the next several days, by the way. It didn't take him too long to find a Jolly Rancher-esque candy, and Greg loaded up the bottom of his bag with that. What next? Maybe something... Chocolate. Back to Seiya's side! She might've caught him grinning, but it was hard not to in a place like this. "I got something, uh, close enough."

[seiyayamada]

Seiya was busying herself with the reeses pieces. Slowly, her bag was becoming quite colorful! The girl only put half a scoop of each candy in her bag, resulting in thin carefully chosen layers. When he returned to her side, she flashed a thumbs up. "Good work!" Skipping off across the way, she became infatuated with various chalky candies. Scooping up some multi-colored bones, she couldn't help but giggle. It was just such a joyful environment!

[unexamined]

"That'd at least make you a good swimmer," he pointed out. "But I was thinking Go, since we could just draw a board on some paper and use coins or candy or something for the stones. I'm assuming you don't have a bunch of stuff stashed behind the counter there."

Then he smiled, a little ruefully, at her. "And I wouldn't mind an excuse to sit down for a while. But if you've got a better idea I'm all ears."

[americandiplomacy]

Her friend there proved a little more greedy; he'd already filled at least 1/4 of the bag with those hard candies. Now he was surveying the chocolates and rubbing his chin... Just chocolate, or chocolate and peanut butter? Seiya had gotten Reese's Pieces, which meant in a pinch he could realistically just steal a few from her. Plain chocolate it was! Several little foil-wrapped chocolate coins went into the bag, and then he moved right along to sour. These were his favorite! The more of that sour powder stuff, the better. Speaking of, did they have Warheads? Time to look.

[seiyayamada]

Peppermint man danced his way into the store, shuffling like a pro. He wiggled, moonwalking towards the back. Seiya snickered, dumping a few more choices in her little bag. Of course, after that beautiful display, Seiya had to put some individually wrapped mints in as well. "Howsit goin over there, Guregoriiii?"

[seiyayamada]

"Home-made Go, huh?" Seiya fished around behind the counter, producing a note pad and pen. Hopping over, the girl jogged to the candy aisle, gathering a fist full of little wrapped peppermints. Likewise, she took another grasp of blue hard candy in her free hand.

Returning to Kota's side, she dumped the candies on the counter with a grin. "Should be interesting!"

warning: my knowledge of go is tiny, so i'm hoping to mostly handwave the moves after this

[unexamined]

As Seiya grabbed their makeshift pieces, Kota carefully drew a grid on the paper, making it the intermediate 13 x 13. Hey, didn't want the game to be too short, or it'd hardly serve its purpose of entertaining Seiya! And he didn't really have the patience for a longer game.

He returned her grin. "Y'know, that was the point." Obviously the peppermints should stand in for the white pieces, leaving the blue candy for the black side. "I'll take that," he said as he took one of the blue candies, placing it in the right hand corner. The traditional opening move, and one of respect to the other player. It could almost make one think that Kota was actually good at the game.

Oh gosh I know absolutely nothing about Go. I mean I read volume 1 of Hikaru No Go and that's it cx

[seiyayamada]

Scooping up the peppermints, she pulled them towards her side of the counter. Seiya knew little of the game, just what she'd seen on TV or when her dad played when she was younger. Hopefully that wouldn't be too detrimental to their little distraction.

Placing her peppermint willy-nilly, Seiya glanced up at Kota, hoping she hadn't messed up royally.

excellent, then i'm not going to go frantically read up on the game

[unexamined]

It was just the first move - hard to screw up! Though Kota's grin might worry her a bit. "New to the game?" he asked casually. "I'd say I'd take it easy on you, but I'm no pro." He placed another piece on the board without hesitation.

And indeed, 'play fast, lose fast' went the proverb, but fast was exactly how Kota liked to play. He tended to work on his own strategy of gaining territory, only really responding to his opponent's moves when necessary. Kota was used to losing, really.

"I mean, I know all the terms and rules and stuff, but I've never really bothered with the various tactics, no matter how many times people tried to teach me." He looked up from the board to smile at Seiya. "Just so you know that I'm not taking advantage or anything."

[seiyayamada]

A little embarrassed, she scratched the back of her neck. It was still bit weird not finding a 3 foot poinytail back there. "Yeah, kinda."

Putting her piece down, she tried to stay in one little area, though the girl wasn't too sure if that was a good idea or not.

"I watched my dad play a lot when I was a kid. But he moved too fast." That's how the man was. Fast paced, here one moment, in the next before you can blink.

[terminalshow]

Whenever Seiya checked her phone next, she'd find a little text that read from Miho Tanaka. If she opened if, she'd find this:

I'm sorry about what happened in the mirror. I miss you. ): I know my shadow said a lot of bad things, but you're my best friend!!! I'm sorry!!

[unexamined]

Kota seemed content to continue building up his own side, not yet interfering with Seiya's plans. He smiled quietly as he put another piece down. "And I played against my mom a lot. But she'd end up leaving in the middle of the game. I don't think we ever finished one."

Despite his words, his tone indicates that the memory is a good one. "So don't give up. You'll have a chance for a late surge during the endgame."

[seiyayamada]

When her phone vibrated, it danced across the counter and landed straight in her lap. Lifting it up, Seiya peered down at the screen. It was the first time she'd heard from Miho since the battle, and honestly she wasn't quite sure how she felt about the whole thing still. It had been easier when it was Kota, or Ren. After all, she didn't know them.

I'm @ work. I am holding ur fave candy hostage. Come by or else. \(0_0)/

[terminalshow]

Miho honestly didn't expect Seiya to reply so quickly – she was almost a hundred percent sure the other girl hated her at this point. How could her shadow self say such cruel things, act so mean? The girl sighed, letting her shoulders slump a little. This was all so blehh! Still. Senpai had replied. That was something, right? With that thought in mind she smiled to herself and replied again.

I'll come by ^_^; ........ R you and G-san dating yet???

[seiyayamada]

Seiya didn't really know what to expect. Miho would either come in guns blazing like her shadow, or sobbing for forgiveness. She would have to admit that she didn't know her friend as well as she thought. Seiya glanced at her phone, cheeks flushing.

what????? why do u ask???? \(O____O;;;)/

[seiyayamada]

"You think so?" Another peppermint hit the board, her moves inching towards his side hesitantly. Seiya turned back to the radio behind the counter, which was probably the radio Jesus used, and flicked it on for some background noise.

"My dad was really good. But he never let me play him." Shrugging, she smiled. "It's nice that your mom played with you."

[unexamined]

His eyes flicked to her setup, and he hesitated slightly before placing his piece, his playing becoming a little more defensive. "Yup. It always falls apart at the end for me." Kota looked up at her. "And have a little more confidence!"

He sat back, taking a more conservative drink of water. "I guess it was. She was using me as a distraction, but I didn't realize that back then. She'd make up stories about what was going on... it was fun." He laughed. "Like I said, I never really paid much attention to the game."

[seiyayamada]

"A distraction, huh?" Seiya knew she wasn't the only one with a strange parent-child relationship, but she hadn't really expected him to talk to her about it. Then again, he did bust her window and play video games with her for several hours. Oh, and the whole saving the world thing. "What kind of stories, if you don't mind me asking?"

[terminalshow]

Just wondering!!!! OMW over!!!

The walk to Yamada Mart was a bit of a slow one for Miho. Her usual peppy stride was subdued, and she found she kept glancing at her phone for the time, and to see if she'd received texts from anyone else. She was still literally convinced senpai hated her deep down, after all! She'd just have to come out one hundred percent honest, and apologize her butt off.

[unexamined]

Kota was a talker, almost all of the time. If it wasn't going to upset or anger people, he'd happily talk to you just about anything. And yeah, having your life dominated by something out of a fantasy novel removed a lot of barriers.

"About anything, really. Sometimes it would be two armies valiantly marching on each other." He put a piece of candy down and kept his fingers on it as he slid it forward like it was marching. Then he pulled it back next to a line of already established candies. "Or one of us would be building walls while the other one laid siege. Sometimes we'd be laying out plans for a fort," and he sketched a few lines in the air over the grid. "Or a treehouse. Or anything."

He leaned back. "Or sometimes we'd be the characters. Once I got to be the grizzled old Go master and she the student looking for guidance." Kota shook his head. "Might be silly, but that cracked me up back then."

[seiyayamada]

Hopping the counter, Seiya gathered up a handfull of delicious nougat bars. In fact, she took every single nougat-y bar off the shelf and gathered it behind the counter with her. Hostage indeed! Tapping her fingers on the edge of the wood, Seiya eyed the door with a mix of nausea and anticipation. She'd pretend things were normal, but honestly, they weren't. Waiting was agony, and Seiya was beginning to regret inviting Miho over.