View source for 2022-11-17 - Designing for Reality

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! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: Designing for Reality'''
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|'''Summary''':<br>
''Marinette and Raiko are taking in the view from Rainbow Bridge for their own reasons and strike up a conversation. Minor secret identity shenanigans ensue.''
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|'''Who''':<br>
[[Marinette Dupain-Cheng]], [[Raiko Takashima]]
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|'''Where:'''<br>
Rainbow Bridge
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|'''OOC - IC Date:'''<br>
November 17, 2022 - Wednesday, January 27, 2016
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 *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Rainbow Bridge +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
   Despite its name, the Rainbow Bridge spends most of its time bone-white,      
   like an angel's harp carved of driftwood in the dark water of the bay.        
   Periodically it crosses beneath an island every bit as man-made and           
   geometrical as the bridge itself, planting pillars to claim it and then       
   traversing water again. It's visible from a wide variety of angles from the   
   coastline, forming a hypoteneuse that crosses the bay via Odaiba and, with    
   the aid of less iconic bridges, permits quick travel from Yamanote to         
   Shitamachi.                                                                   
                                                                                 
   Foot traffic is possible across the bridge, and many visitors dare the long   
   walk to get a good view of the city on one side, and the sea on the other.    
   Walking atop a bridge is a poor way to see the bridge itself, of course, but  
   that is what the Yurikamome elevated train line is for. Slung beneath the     
   bridge for much of its journey, the fully automated, driverless train gives   
   a great view of the Rainbow Bridge on its way to Odaiba.                      
                                                                                 
   For a few hours every night, this expensive landmark truly lives up to its    
   name, glowing with different hues depending on the season or holiday.         
   Rarely, a combination of floodlights makes a genuine rainbow of the bridge,   
   with deep reds at its foot and violet at its peak. Small, colorfully lit      
   tugboats and civilian craft float beneath the gleaming bridge, buoyant on     
   the liquid dream of a starry sky.                                             

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The Rainbow Bridge across the bay is something of a sight to behold. It's best seen at night, naturally, when spotlights turn it into a true rainbow - but its gentle arc has an elegance even in the light of day, and it offers a spectacular view of the city and sea both.

After a day of school, fresh air - even chilled by winter's bite - is a welcome sight. Marinette did her time in class, and caught up with some friends in the Fashion Club, but ultimately...she wanted some better light and smells to create with. She bundled up in puffy pink, checked her handbag, and set out to find...something.

Which brings her here. Partway along the bridge, she just found a nice bit of railing to perch on, got out a sketchbook and pencil, and started to doodle. First little bits of the islands she could see, and then more abstract ideas. Some rough designs for hats, or some lighter coats that might befit the season, or...she has ideas.

And she's talking to herself, it seems. "...trying not to get upset about that shirt I lost, but those buttons - oh well. At least most of the bags were intact, so I've definitely got something to work with. But still, no ideas beyond that painting?..."

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It's been... well, it's been a ''thing'' recently, with all of the new things going on in Raiko's life. Changes upon changes to adapt to, and though she certainly has plenty to do, with either classwork or magical girl work, for the moment... she just needs to get free of Infinity for a bit. It's too easy to spend her whole day cooped up in that tower, after all, now that she lives there.

At the same time, though, she doesn't ''quite'' feel like going back home today. Sure, she could invent a bunch of reasons to, but... even with Shiori back, knowing what's really going on with her grandfather makes it hard to take solace there. Brings up too many worrying thoughts.

And sooo... wandering. There's some nice scenic thoughts that are good places for thinking, and getting some fresh air is sometimes helpful. She's bundled up in a blue coat, cupping a large to-go cup in her hands as she wanders aimlessly along the bridge, looking out at the view as she goes. She doesn't have her notebook out but there's still equations and diagrams running through the back of her mind.

Until she happens to look forward and blink. Oh, there's someone else here. Well of course, it's a public space, why shouldn't there be?

She's contemplating just silently turning around and going the other way, or maybe just trying to walk around them without saying anything when she notices who it is, and blinks. Should she say something...?

What kind of person does she want to be?

... What's the worst that could happen from saying hi?

And so she approaches, calling out, a bit uncertainly, "Hi, um... Dupain-Cheng-san? G-good afternoon..."

She's glad to see the other girl got out of the arena unharmed, in any case.

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Marinette is very engrossed in her sketching as Raiko approaches. Her coat has a wonderfully fluffy hood which is carefully nestled around her neck for the moment, but she forewent earmuffs. She has every excuse in the world to hear Raiko coming, and yet-

And yet, the dark-haired girl jumps nearly a foot into the air when Raiko speaks up. "Who what where- oh! Hi! Takashima-san, right? I was just, um."

She stammers a moment, wondering what was overheard, and if she's going to be thought of as an eccentric renegade artist, and the next thing she knows she'll be missing an ear and rambling about sunflowers-

Marinette manages to shake off that little bit of catastrophe within a minute, at least. "Good afternoon! It's, um. It's a nice view for the day - er, day for a view..." She trails off uncertainly. "What brings you out here?"

Marinette's own answer to that question, the sketchbook, sits opened in her hand, a page with a witch's hat facing the other girl.

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko actually takes a half-step back--or maybe it's more accurate to say she flinches--when she realizes she's startled the other girl so terribly much. "O-oh, um, yes, that's right." Her gaze flicks downwards. "Sorry if I bothered you, I can, um... leave you alone...?"

She was so lost in her own thoughts she wasn't really paying attention to anything Marinette might have been saying.

She's considering turning and leaving with an apology when the other girl actually asks what brings her out this way.

"Oh, yes, um... I suppose it's the view, but... mostly I was just taking a walk and... trying to clear my head a bit. Get some fresh air."

She blinks a little as she sees the witch's hat in the sketchbook. Did she see--

No, that just has to be a coincidence. There's plenty of magical girl shows and manga around, plenty of witch-themed ones, that's probably it. It's probably one of those.

"Um... did you draw that?" she says, gesturing to the notepad. "... That's really good."

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Marinette is rather easily startled, especially when interrupted in the middle of talking to her...self. Because there was no one else here she would have been talking to.

"Oh, c'est rien - I mean it's not bothered. I'm not bothering. I'm not bothered!" She closes her eyes for a moment takes a deep breath, and tries to figure out why her tongue always gets so tied.

It's a nice view, she doesn't want to ignore it too much, but she can't exactly go embarrassing herself in front of people. No matter how much she's troubled by what someone didn't know and that she can't easily just go ask for information about.

"Draw? Oh, my sketching! I just, um, try to doodle ideas that I might try turning into something later..." She flips the book up to see what page she'd been accidentally showing Raiko, sees the hat, and pales a moment. "And this, um. Um. The thing is."

She glances down at her feet, then looks up at Raiko. "I kind of got tangled in, er, all the stuff I'd been carrying at the arena. So I got a glimpse of who was fighting that big monster before I got away - they looked like classic witches!" She flushes a bit. "And, um, I kind of have a habit of doodling things from some of the heroes that go out to protect us...I think I've got half a sketchbook of the Sailor Senshi's uniforms..."

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko, in a strange way, is somewhat relieved she's not the only one who feels--or at least seems--a bit awkward by the surprise encounter.

She waits patiently for Marinette to regain her compsure, looking out at the view so she isn't looking at Marinette and adding more pressure to her. She takes a few sips from her cup while she does.

Raiko blinks at Marinette's reaction to seeing what she was looking at, unsure of why it would be such a big deal. And then pales a little herself.

So she ''did'' see. And she remembered. Oh dear.

Maybe she'd better ask Shiori or Yumi for advice on this.

But, she's used to keeping the secret of magic, and she's already got something of a justification in her head already, so decides to roll with it. "Oh, did they put on a show or something? I didn't stay for very long since my arms were kinda full, but it's too bad I missed it."

"Um... it's a really nice drawing, though! You're really good at it."

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
...Raiko thinks that the Ogre was a show of some kind.

Oh ''no''.

Marinette is pretty sure that some people pay more attention to supernatural goings-on than others - she sits next to someone who runs a ''blog'' on the subject after all - but she got too careless! Now she's spilled the secret of magic to someone who knows nothing and the Magic Association is going to hunt her down and she'll have to bequeath the Miraculous to Alya before fleeing the country and she'll have to change her name and take up schniztel-making in Germany!

If one could see into her head, there might even be a tearful Marinette wearing a fake moustache under a German flag.

"Hahaha. Yeah, I had to go, I only caught the beginning. But, um, thanks! I just thought, well, witches can be really cool, and I started wondering about wide-brimmed hats, and trying to think of cute designs that could go with them!"

Divert divert and she might yet escape the wurst-case scenario.

Marinette flips through her sketchbook in a hurry, showing another page of ideas. They're all rough, unpolished. Some hats are less pointy, some are adorned with fancy embroidery, one pointy hat has chess pieces dangling from the brim with a note saying 'bad idea'...

"...and, um, yeah. It's just an inspiration that hit at the wrong time of year - I know this would be more appropriate for October or something, but hats are kind of easy to make. Just trying to make up my mind..."

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko... is perfectly fine letting giving Marinette all the time she needs to panic/regain her composure. She's been more than a little awkward herself for a while, so... she can't judge her too harshly for it.

Doesn't make it feel any less awkward on her part, though.

Internally she's relieved Marinette went along with her own deflection. She really wasn't prepared for this, and having to keep fabricating more details would be... well, she's already distracted, and doesn't trust herself not to make her own slip-up.

She looks as Marinette flips through the sketchbook, genuinely interested.

Okay, there's far, far too many witch's hats for her taste--there's nothing ''wrong'' with them, but it's a little uncanny being so close to someone who feels so close to finding her own secret.

She should really go, just for her own safety, in case she somehow recognizes her, and yet... "These are all really good..." she says, as she looks... there's a small giggle when she sees the note on the chess-inspired one.

"Easy to make? Do you make hats?" Topic change, topic change is good. And actually kind of interesting, if the other girl answers in the affirmative. "What are you trying to make up yor mind about...? Which one to make?"

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The chess-hat was an idea that wandered into her head and that she regretted immediately.

"It's just sketches. The tricky part is coming up with something I can actually make - like, this one?" She taps one of the very wide-brimmed sketches. "It would never work - the only way to keep the brim from flopping down into your face would be to add so much reinforcement it'd be way too heavy for your head. I, uh, did the math later. I mean, sure, if I had magic cloth that ignored basic physics, but I try to design for reality."

See? Totally mundane Marinette Dupain-Cheng here.

"But, um, I make clothes and hats and so forth for fun. I mean, I'd like to do it professionally, I'm just...you know, middle school student. So I just make stuff for friends! Like the coat I made for - a friend!"

She's kind of flushed in the face. It must be the chill.

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko nods along as Marinette points out the extra wide-brimmed hat. "Oh, I see. So that'd be about..." she mumbles some numbers, doing a rough estimate of the surface area. "That does seem like rather a lot..." She's not sure how much reinforcement you'd need or how that all works, but she'll take the other girl's word for it.

Though she does look thoughtful when Marinette mentions magic fabric. You could do an enchantment, surely, to refinforce the properties of the....

She's about halfway through diagramming out a rough idea in her head when she mentally kicks herself. Not the time or place. How would you even get that on a hat Marinette made, anyway?

Marinette's not the only one who can space a little.

"... right, designing for reality seems... prudent," she agrees, quietly. "Oh, that's nice. Is that why you had all that stuff, to make clothes with? Well, your drawings are really good. Um..."

There's a moment pause as something triggers in her memory. "The... the dress you wore, to the art show... did you make that yourself?"

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Could Marinette make a hat like that work? Not...easily. Could ''Ladybug'' pull it off? Probably. But...

Marinette designs for the materials she has, not magic ones she shouldn't have access to. It's a fun design project, sure, but not exactly practical for 'normal girls' trying to keep secret identities.

"Yeah - well, yes and no, sometimes the Fashion Club just tries to make outfits out of whatever we can pick up from a thrift shop. But I was also looking for anything I could use for scraps - cloth with interesting patterns, or unique-looking buttons, that kind of thing." She brightens, ready to elaborate further -

- because she can always geek out about her passions -

-but Raiko's memory stops her in her tracks. "You remembered that? Um, yeah. It's one of my ongoing-project dresses - any time I find a neat embroidery technique I want to try, I add another flower. Did it...look okay?"

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko's never thought about enchanting cloth before, it's a bit outside of her wheelhouse, but regardless, she can't exactly offer that possibility to Marinette. She can't really know how much she knows about magic without outing herself, and she's not willing to do that.

At least, not yet.

"Oh, cool," she says, of trying to make designs with things you pick up from a thrift shop. "That's really neat, trying to be resourceful like that." She was doing her own version of that, in a roundabout way.

She's glad her memory served her correctly. "Yeah, um... I thought it looked really nice." She blushes a little. "I, uh, didn't get a chance to notice the detail about the roses, though, but I thought it looked really nice overall."

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Marinette flushes a bit at the praise, a passing truck giving her a moment to find a bit more composure - and to close up her sketchbook. "It's, um, thanks. Sorry if I'm boring you with this - design is kind of a passion of mine, and I can sometimes get a bit worked up over it. So I just-"

She waves out at the bay. "I go, I look at things that catch my eye, and see if anything inspires for what I'm working on! That's why I decided to go for a walk, I've kind of seen the clubroom enough times already..."

...okay, she's still a little flattered. "...did you have any interest in sewing? Or other crafts? I don't mind sharing neat stuff I've stumbled across..."

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
"Nonono, it's not boring at all, it's... it's really interesting." She says, earnestly.

Being so into your passions that you're worried about boring the people around you? Or maybe even drive them away?

The familiarity of that is so uncanny it ''hurts'', because it was exactly how she drove her friends away.

But it involved magic, and she can't really say... well, ''shouldn't'' say, without being sure if it's safe.

But she can be supportive, regardless.

"... I get the feeling. Sometimes you can spend a whole day inside Infinity and never leave, and sometimes, well... I just want some fresh air."

"... Like today," she adds, after a moment.

Marinette's fluster is met with equal amounts of timidity and shyness on Raiko's part. "Well, I, um... don't do a lot of crafts, per se, but... I do a lot of work with electronics, and like working with my hands that way, so... Um... that's why I was at the flea market, to find a spare part for a blender I'm fixing for a neighbor of mine. Well, neighbor back home, not at--" She cuts herself off. No need to get into /that. topic. "For a neighor," she finishes.

 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Infinity Institute. Marinette hasn't been there that often, but she's seen some of the facilities - they're a sight to behold, especially for someone who attends the quiet little public school among the Sister Schools.

Quiet being an entirely relative term.

"I can kind of imagine - I mean, that art gallery was amazing, but spending every day around extravagance of that sort..."

She shakes her head, but brightens again at Raiko's own hobby. "Oh, really? I've dabbled in some mechanical engineering - puzzle box kinds of things - but it's great to work with your hands, isn't it? Especially when you can help people out."

Marinette might have...a few hobbies. And a few projects. Hino-senpai has at least gotten on her case about not over-committing too much.

"Well, if you ever need a spare set of hands, let me know! I mean, okay, sometimes I get caught up in one project or another, but I can always try to make time to help out." Her smile is a lot more relaxed, as the sun gets lower in the sky - brilliant light refracting off of the waves below.

"I mean - assuming you'd like to hang out again sometime?"

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It's not really the extravagance that gets to Raiko, but... to explain that would quire explaining quite a bit, and that's a lot to put on a new aquaintance. So she just nods, "Yeah... I thought they did a really good job with the gallery, too."

Raiko herself perks up at the mention of mechanical engineering. "Oh, cool." She nods, a bit more animatedly than a moment ago. "Yeah, it is. After I found the blender part I needed, I picked up a few other things to try and fix them up. I'm hoping I can do something with them, maybe sell them or something."

She nods, actually smiling herself for the first time--a real smile, anyway, not a timid, transitory one--as she agrees, "Sure, I'd like that. Uhm, and if you need any help, I could..."

She looks a bit surprised when Marinette explicitly mentions hanging out again--it takes her a moment before she nods, slowly at first, and then a bit more quickly. "Um, sure. I'd like that."

[[Category:Logs]]