(no subject)

[electro_kinetic]

You know, after a little while of being injured and feeling like crap, you just stop caring about what you look like, and the days sort of blur into one long feeling of I don't even know what happened here. Noriko can only imagine that's what happened the last week or so; today she's actually feeling okay. For a definition of okay, since her left arm is still cushioned in a cast from mid-palm to above the elbow.

But she's clothed and downstairs and has food that might possibly be considered healthy; this is as far as she's going. Though she might also be interrupted while painting her nails--toes this time--glossy black, with bright yellow and blue stripes and dots. Noriko has kanzashi pins holding her shock of hair back; it's been a long time since she wore the, but it's hard to do ponytails with one functioning hand and otherwise her hair gets in the way.

Comments

[says_the_booyah]

"Hey." Cy has a tablet in one hand and a milkshake in the other as he passes close by.

[electro_kinetic]

"Mmm."

Talkative Noriko is talkative. She puts down the burger, out of which she has taken two large bites, and inclines her head. "Hey."

[says_the_booyah]

"That looks good. Tried that when we were in Tokyo.

"How you doing?" He's looking at the cast when he says that, wondering what happened but not asking yet.

[electro_kinetic]

"Tired," she answers. "Feeling kind of like crap and having no clue what happened to the last week. I think I was asleep for most of it."

[says_the_booyah]

"That's creepy. Was your arm broken before you feel asleep?" Cy wasn't here at all. Too much schoolwork.

[electro_kinetic]

"Yeah, I broke it pretty spectacularly," she says. "It's kind of crushed."

[says_the_booyah]

"Hero stuff?

"Think one of your enemies did something else to you?" He could name at least four Titans foes who'd try a sleeping spell or potion.

[electro_kinetic]

"Pretty sure it's the result of not having gotten enough or any sleep in the past month," she says, but shrugs her one unrestrained shoulder. "But yeah. Hero stuff," she sighs.

"That term is such bullshit sometimes. We're not really heroes, are we? We're just people, doing what we can with what we've got." It's not their fault they've got the conditions and abilities to do extraordinary things. Is it?

[says_the_booyah]

"Hate to tell you this, but that kind of makes you a hero to some. Not the powers. But using them for good.

"At least, that's what I think. Fact is, I didn't ask to be like this, either. And didn't plan to be a hero. It just happened. And I guess that was a good thing."

But if she wants to call herself something besides hero, it's not his business.

[hecu_marine]

Shephard's been busy as hell this week. It happens when you find yourself with an unexpected grub. But she's gone, and so are the kids in general, so he's hoping that either she's gone back to her side of the door or Nepeta handled things without him. He could really use a drink about now

"I ain't even gonna ask what the fuck's goin' on with that poor innocent hamburger," he says when he catches sight of the plate. "You all right there?"

[electro_kinetic]

"It's just got fried noodles instead of bread on it," she says, mouth half-full of what is otherwise a damn fine hunk of ground-up dead cow.

Say what you want about Asian people not being big red meat eaters. Occasionally Noriko wants a cheeseburger, cholesterol and living until she's tiny and someone's great-great-grandma be damned. "Got cheese, lettuce, ketchup and an egg. And some kind of teriyaki glaze I didn't ask for, but what the hell."

As to the 'are you okay' question...that may take a while to come up with an answer for.

[hecu_marine]

"Huh." Shephard considers this as he grabs a convenient chair. Asking permission is for other people. "Guess that's one way of usin' up extra noodles. Can't say I'd'a thought of that one myself."

Mind you, his usual approach to noodles is to follow the instructions on the box and add the orange cheese powder after the boiling and the draining.

[electro_kinetic]

"Well the freeze-dried kind do sort of suck as far as boil-and-eat noodles go," she says. "Why not fry them again and make buns? And you don't have to eat the beef-flavored salt packet on them, either."

[hecu_marine]

"Might git some from the Bar before I go home, then," Shephard says. "Been too busy here with all the weird shit goin' on to git back to my side of the door."

You try dealing with the responsibilities that come with being a not-lusus to a jadeblooded grub.

[electro_kinetic]

"Weird shit?" she echoes.

That's never good to hear in Milliways.

"I lost like...most of last week. Either I was dead asleep or I just have no recollection of what the hell happened."

[hecu_marine]

"Kids," Shephard says. "Shitloads of 'em. Looked like the Greenbriar's gonna look a couple years from now. I dunno if Bar was pullin' in folks from when they were eight or nine or what..."

Then the rest of what she said sinks in, and he considers the next part carefully.

"One of 'em gave your name'n said she lived in Tokyo. You remember any of that or was I talkin' to some other Ashida Noriko?"

[electro_kinetic]

"...Uh."

She blinks, and tries very hard not to pale or wince. It kind of succeeds. The internal monologue here is: please god tell me Milliways did not fuck with me and turn me into a child please please please.

"What'd she look like, and what'd she say?"

[road_to_calvary]

Valjean comes down to the bar, as he tends to do in the evening. He looks as calm as ever, and does not seem at all bothered by the fact that he is a grown man, wearing a paper flower on his lapel.

He catches the eye of the young woman with blue hair as he makes his way to Bar herself, and offers a polite nod. The curiousity on his face might show however; for one, her face looks familiar. And two, he does not understand what she is doing with her nails.

[electro_kinetic]

Every once in a while she gets this feeling she's being watched, and Noriko just blinks when she sees a guy staring at her trying to do her nails.

"...What?" she asks, hoping in some vague part of her that this isn't another guy that apparently met her when she was a kid. The brush with neon blue nail polish hangs suspended from the fingertips of her good hand, almost forgotten in the moment of curiosity.

[road_to_calvary]

He averts his eyes. But just for a moment, because despite her appearance, she really does look familiar.

'Apologies, mademoiselle. I was simply curious as to what you were doing.'

[electro_kinetic]

"I'm painting my nails," she says, straightening up and screwing the brush back onto the tiny polish bottle. One arm is still encased in a cast, keeping it immobile from above the elbow to the middle of her hand; the rest of her is dressed fairly normally for a twenty-first century American.

"And my name is Noriko. Please call me that."

[road_to_calvary]

'Noriko.'

He smiles then, and his shoulders relax.

'Yes. We have met before, but perhaps you do not remember. You were somewhat shorter.'

Nail paint. Of course. He has seen it on ladies after all - but never in the act of application. It is of no matter.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko, for her part, still looks mostly nonplussed.

Until she sighs, and her eyes close with a mutter. "Seriously? How many people did I meet as a kid?" Since that whole time period is basically blank to her, it is actually a valid question. "Yeah, I...don't remember. But apparently we didn't hate each other," she says, nodding to the origami flower he's wearing.

[road_to_calvary]

'On the contrary. I would hope, at least.'

It is good that she recognises the flower. She herself is only just recognisable.

'I apologise if this is difficult. Would you prefer I left you alone?'

[electro_kinetic]

"No, it looks like we could both use the company," she says, pushing out a chair for him to sit.

"How'd you recognize me? I look...nothing at all like I did as a kid."