2020-04-30 - Just Go: The Art Of Movement
| Title: Just Go: The Art Of Movement | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Yumi wonders what it's like to be free to go wherever she'd like. Mikoto has an answer for that question, but not what lies beneath it. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Asakusa Traditional District | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2020-04-30 - 2015-08-25 | |
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Kana..?" Mikoto's head turns, as they step out from the shadow of the shrine. Her face all lights up when she sees something in the distance, and, more eagerly: "Kana! Kana Kana Kana!"
She does not stop to explain who or what a Kana is before she starts scrambling off. Down the winding side-streets, into one of its parks: finally we come to Mikoto, sprawled in the afternoon sun, a black-and-white tuxedo cat sitting on her chest.
"Kana!" Mikoto laughs, more air puffed out than brought in, as she knead-knead-kneads at her breastbone. It's not the most comfortable place for cat paws, but Mikoto doesn't seem to mind much. "There's Kana! Where'd you go?"
Miaow, says the tuxedo cat, who keeps a hundred secrets.
Meow, Mikoto replies.
It's only a moment later that she looks up, cat still on that pink cat-print shirt, because she's realised... "Oh, Yumi!" It's hard to look over the sword-case beside her from this angle, but Mikoto should probably be a little concerned about whether her friend could keep up...
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Kana! Yeah Yumi does not know what a Kana is to begin with. She can make some guesses, but...
...They are kind of hard to focus on at first!
Because when that moment later comes Yumi finishes running over and is leaned against the wall looking down, sucking in air. "Whew--I--"
She looks over, peeks open an eye. "O-Oh, cat," she starts, and the tuxedo cat must have many secrets. Cat paws...
Yumi is going to need a minute either way; she is in pink and teal herself, though a skirt and a blouse instead of a t-shirt. Her glasses sort of perch dangerously on her nose.
"It's--fine," Yumi starts, "Glad you... friend..."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Oh... Yumi, you okay?" Mikoto at least has the grace to look worried, when Yumi finds them again. "Didn't think about that..." That, presumably, being the fact that not everyone can run around like Mikoto can.
She's usually good about remembering Yumi's circumstances, but... there was a cat!
"I haven't seen Kana in forever," Mikoto explains, holding up the cat in demonstration. She dangles, and is shortly returned to Mikoto's chest. "Not for... a few months," and that's a delicate sort of phrasing, because July was the month everything went wrong, for Mikoto.
"Yumiii," Mikoto lifts a hand from cat to reach out to a girl much more out of breath than she is. "Sit with us!" The grass is soft...
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Fine!" Yumi answers quickly, and while she's pretty flushed, she isn't falling over or anything. Instead she's a little happy to have managed to more or less keep up, and besides, there is a cat... And cats...
"Oh--" Yumi nods, and then pulls something from her purse as she listens, looking to smile around her breath at the cat when she's held up and then--
"Ohhh," Yumi answers. But she's reached out to, and... Yumi takes a hand, and caaarefully brings herself down to the grass, only 'flopping' when she's most of the way there. "Sure," she says, and--
After a moment with her inhaler (fast air noises go!) she finishes the flop down, staring up at the sky with her back to the ground. "Nice..."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Flop goes a Yumi, in eminently controlled fashion, and once she's puff-puffed with that puffer Mikoto promptly reaches back out to find her hand again. "Yup," she affirms, looking up at the clouds. "It's good!"
These are well-manicured grounds, and probably at least a little bit holy, given the nearby features. There are footsteps going by here and there, but it's an open enough area that for once the people of Tokyo can enjoy a bubble of personal space. No one seems particularly interested in invading Mikoto and Yumi's.
"Kana's a shrine cat," Mikoto explains, "so we get along real good." Her other hand is, of course, occupied in scritching that cat behind the ears. She looks pretty pleased with herself, as cats do.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
It's the little things! If she flopped straight from standing up she'd have bruises later. But the grass is soft, even if it's ticklish too. Maybe the ground is a little holy--but then, if you ask Yumi's staff, more is than people would realize...
"Very good," she agrees, and takes Mikoto's hand again after all. She appreciates the little reprieve of space.
"Ohhh," Yumi answers, and uses easier words now. "Yeah, that makes sense." Yumi smiles over, "Hi, Kana." She waves with her free hand at the cat, because of course she does, oen of those little waves with bent fingers.
"I'm glad you get to see her again."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto doesn't have to worry about bruises from flopping down, or really much of any of her regular physical antics. Sure, maybe if she really messed up and fell off a roof... but it would take a lot for Mikoto to fall off a roof, with her sense of balance.
Kana meows at Yumi when Yumi says hi. Does the spiritual nature of the shrine cat infuse her with understanding...?
... or maybe she's just comfortable enough around humans to know that waggly fingers are a friendly gesture.
Mikoto nods, with an affirmative grunt which is terribly pleased. "Me too! I mean, I wasn't really worried... some of my cat friends just disappear for a while, sometimes." Mikoto draws no conclusions as to her own general behaviour in that regard. "But I'm still happy to see Kana again!"
Kana looks happy to see Mikoto, too, judging by the way she's mashing her face into her hand.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Mikoto is special that way! Or maybe, Yumi is special in that way. Either way...
Yumi smiles a little more at seeing Kana petted, but doesn't move to interfere or get closer to her instead. She thinks, instead, "Yeah? I guess that's just how cats are. You can't really pin them down so easily..."
Yumi looks up to the sky again, letting herself stay quiet for a few moments before--
"It must be nice. Free to go wherever you want to go... I only really feel like that on my broom, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Yeah," Yumi answers; she knows Mikoto's like that. The way she is, it's sort of written on her. "Haha. Sometimes it matters," Yumi says. "But sometimes it's just people wanting to have some control, too. Over stuff."
"Yeah, it is," Yumi agrees, and thinks, and--pause. "Miroku can fly?" Yumi asks, and then, "You are really good at climbing, though. I'd never make it up that far in a tree," she says with a laugh.
"...But that's kind of what I mean, too; you don't have to think about it. But there's so many rules. Places I shouldn't go, things I shouldn't do..."
"I guess I've been thinking about that kind of thing lately. It's not the worst thing in the world or anything, but it's like... I wonder what it's like, to just go."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Don't like that," Mikoto scrunches the corner of her mouth, when Yumi shares how it's just about control. Why she would have a bad reaction to control for control's sake is, of course, an exercise left to the reader.
"Yup!" She chirps, when Yumi asks about Miroku. Infuriatingly, she does not immediately extrapolate. Maybe Miroku is a flying sword. Is that... possible?
What is possible, of course, and what is impossible...
Possibility for Mikoto and possibility for Yumi are two separate beasts, and Mikoto listens and hums affirmation as she wonders about hers.
"... wanna know?" Mikoto asks, finally, head canting against the grass. She says it like it's a curiosity which has a straight answer; perhaps, for someone like Mikoto, it does.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Of course, sometimes it's because places are dangerous," Yumi admits. What's it say that so often she naturally assumes it might be something less kind now? Does it say something? Well, it wasn't a big hard assumption or anything; just sometimes, that's all.
"Cool," Yumi says when Mikoto confirms. If Miroku is a flying sword, maybe Miroku is a flying sword! Mikoto would know better than she would, after all.
They are different though--and to Yumi's surprise, Mikoto just asks outright that way. Yumi blinks, tilting her head sideways and watching Mikoto with big, pink eyes. "Sure," she answers.
What, is she going to say otherwise?
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Flying sword...
The world is full of mysteries!
Mysteries are of course held by cats, and Mikoto is kin to cats, adjacent to the mystery of the world. Yumi wants to know the answer, and Mikoto presents one, concrete, without a care for the abstractness of the subject.
"I got stuff I have to do in the day," Mikoto explains. "Like being home for dinner!" This is the most important thing because Mai cooks dinner, obviously. "And catching up at school, and stuff like that... so I make sure I'm in those spots at those times. But there's lots of times where I don't gotta be nowhere, and that means I can be anywhere."
She ceases scritching Kana for a moment so she can stretch a hand up to the sky. "If I feel too crowded, I can go to Nishitama. If I'm lonely, I can find a cat, or meet up with someone. If I want to have a nap, I just gotta find a nice sunny rooftop or tree... so no one'd bother me," she explains.
"But I don't really think about it like that," Mikoto explains, hand lowering back down for cat again. "I just want to do something, then I do it. Sometimes not thinking about it isn't great," understatement of the century, "but usually it's okay! Even if there's problems, I just deal with them. Like if someone doesn't want me climbing there, I run off somewhere else. Then they can't yell at me, and no one got hurt."
Trespassing is the most unreasonable law.
"I guess everyone talks about me," there are a cascade of rumours about Mikoto in Ohtori, in fact, "'cause I don't really worry about the rules. I do what I want. But that don't bother me, neither. I think they'd talk about me even if I tried to do everything right. So why worry?" It's a rhetorical question, as Mikoto explains: "I don't." This explains so much. ... including why Mikoto is happy to prance around in clothes which very obviously came from the most convenient op shop. She doesn't really care about any of that stuff!
"I mean, it's not like I never had to deal with rules... but none of them were for Tokyo, not really. Not before..." Mikoto hums dissatisfaction through her lips, and shakes her head. "I guess for most people, Tokyo's got lots of rules, but I don't know what most of them are, so I don't worry about it. I don't got rules like Yumi, neither... um, except if I don't eat it's really bad, I guess. Does that count?" Mikoto sounds honestly unsure, on that point. "But I don't like thinking about stuff too much. So I just do stuff."
Between those three HiME who met on that fateful ship, Mikoto is inarguably their id.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Perhaps that is why witches and cats are so often together. Secrets. ...Or maybe it's something rather simpler.
"Anywhere," Yumi repeats thoughtfully. She listens to Mikoto, but doesn't look at her; she looks instead to the open sky, letting her ears and her heart handle the way Mikoto is expressing instead of her eyes. She imagines it, too, as she does; the open space of Nishitama, the meetings she's had with Mikoto... places she's found her nap.
"I see it," Yumi answers abot how she doesn't think. And the rumors... Well.
"Haha... Yeah. I guess they would," Yumi admits. She really doesn't seem to care, though Yumi is sometimes that way, too, for a different reason. Maybe she'll mention it, but the rules...
Ignorance is bliss, maybe--but Yumi doesn't like it in those terms. Instead...
"Sure, it counts. Most people have the basics like that. ...I tend to kind of ignore the stuff people say, too. I always just thought it was too much trouble to keep up with, though, instead. I know the rules; I've always had to pick them up, you know? But..."
"I don't think I could do it," Yumi answers after a little while, kind of amused now that she's really looked at it. "I think about everything, all the time. It's kind of funny. But even when I can't think in words, I just think in paint, instead, or images, or... or whatever else. And I'm so used to not picking where I get to go. I mean, I used to have a driver," Mikoto's been in that car, "But there were only so many places I could really go anyway. But that's..."
"That's about it. I guess I don't know how it feels because I think too much," she allows without really being too upset by it.
"It's fun to know you're like that, though."
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
And Yumi and Mikoto...
"Yeah," Yumi answers with a smile that shows when she tilts her head back over to look at Mikoto and Kana again. "Oh, yeah? That seems like you," she says of thinking. "I like words and all, but sometimes they're just not... enough, right? Well, you get that better than most people."
Yumi recalls; orders, and why. It's okay... "I like who you are, too," she says, and pauses--before squeezing Mikoto's hand back, too.
"You do, huh," Yumi answers, and looks up to the clouds again. "...I'm glad. I'm just... trying to figure out who that is, lately."
"It's nice to be able to talk about it."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto scritches Kana; Kana purrs. "Yup!" She affirms. "I think city people get confused by words sometimes, 'cause they're used to just listening to words. So if the words don't make sense, or don't say everything, they get messed up. But words are just one part. You can't talk to cats with words," Mikoto says, scritcha-scritcha-scritch. "You talk to cats with sounds, and movement."
Beat.
"Unless it's Tama," Mikoto clarifies. "Tama can do words."
Magic cats are exempted from cat communication protocols. ... except for Lion. Lion is very much a big cat.
But who they are, and how good that is...
"Can't answer that one," Mikoto says, on the topic of who Yumi is. "I know who I am, but Yumi's gotta know who Yumi is. That's something for Yumi to deal with, not anyone else. It's better that way, right?" Mikoto smiles, as she tilts her head to look over to the witch. "It's no good if someone tells you how to feel about that stuff."
It's fairly obvious where Mikoto would have learned that lesson, but the seed it came from...
It's okay.
"Talking's good," Mikoto goes on, brightly. "'Cause we're not alone in all this, right? We're all together!" Even if there are some things they have to figure out for themselves, it doesn't mean they're alone.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
City people--well, Yumi's definitely a city people... But it's a little different too. "I think when you have words, you forget there are other ways to talk. ...But when your words don't work, you have to find the other ways. Maybe that's why I get it. I didn't have anybody to talk to a lot of the time, when I was little."
A laugh. "Tama I think can talk any way she feels like, right?"
"Yes," Yumi agrees, taking the more formal way of speaking for this because it's important. "It is. I know it's something I'll have to figure out for myself. But... yeah, you're right..."
"We are together."
"Haha... and just kind of in the middle of the park too, huh? ...Thanks, Mikoto-chan. I'd been wondering about that, but now I kind of feel better about my way, too."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"This is the way!" Mikoto chirps, cheerful. "Yumi's way is a good way, yup. I know that much for sure." This small catlike girl has faith in you, Yumi Ohzora.
Tilting her head up in the grass, she adds: "Why not the park? We get to be here just like everyone else. It don't always gotta be in the right spots. What even are the right spots to talk about this?"
Mikoto tries and summarily fails to imagine the correct place to muse about who one is.
"Sometimes it's good to find a place and lie down," Mikoto insists. "Take up space, Yumi!" Such are the lessons of cats, like the cat who has settled down upon Mikoto and is definitely not getting up any time soon.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"I had a good feeling," Yumi smiles her way back. She can feel that faith, and... well, hopefully that faith is good for Mikoto in the future, too. It's a big responsibility being a good friend... But--
"I guess that's true, huh?" Yumi answers. "I dunno. Some cafe or something. Or... Hm, I dunno. I guess the park is where it is in the movies and all too, sometimes."
Find a place, and lie down...
"Haha, yeah. I can be here anyway I feel like, and... I'm not moving for a while, either!"
She's around dirt even! She stretches out a little more and gets comfortable. "Good thinking, Mikoto!"
