paixaorpg | Momentary lapse (and a snack and a half)

Sora had decided that this chocolate bar was probably the yummiest he had ever really had. He hadn't really expected anything good to come out of the food, and when he'd first bit into it, he had decided it was safe and not going to kill him (he hoped) and ate the rest of it.

He was licking his fingers when Alice walked in and he grinned. "See? Look at that selection! And it's practically dead in here!"

He found himself marvelling, for the first time, at all the conveniences in this place, and yet none of the locals ever seemed to take advantage of them! He frowned at the realization. "Huh."

Chizuru had made it onto the train by a small miracle and had promptly collapsed in the first empty seat she saw-- only to be painfully reminded of how uncomfortable the seats on this train were. A few frustrating minutes of trying to find a way to sit without straining something again later, she got up and wandered off, trying to find something to take her mind off the ache in her legs and rear-- preferably something in a skirt.

Food was always good, though, and somehow the lesbian found herself in a car dominated by a wide variety of candies and other unhealthy snacks. The boy with the taxicab shoes was contentedly stuffing his face with chocolate, and the girl she presumed was Alice from the journal was nearby.

Chizuru briefly wondered how the other girl could possibly think of someone else as suspicious looking-- there was something not altogether sane about her look, just like the two men Chizuru had met in Paixao didn't look sane. But Alice was a girl, and she could pass for cute, and that made it better, right? Besides, now was as good a time for introductions as any.

"Alice, I presume? I'm Chizuru-- you answered to one of my journal posts..."

Alice looked over and finally saw the girl she had talked on the journal before. She looked like an average girl in a short skirt, brown hair and glasses, although Alice reminded herself she'd have to get used to people wearing clothes that showed more skin than she was used to. She saw that the girl looked a little worse for wear, and a bit out of breath, so she decided it was better to treat her amicably. Without taking a breath, she managed a very tight smiled and curtsied (that was a bit of a habit).

"Indeed I did. I'm glad you made it, I had hoped we wouldn't miss you! I am Alice Liddle, and my spiky haired companion here is Sora. Now that you're here, I do wish you'd sit down with us for a bit of a drink and some sweets? we're a bit famished."

Alice gestured to the three available seats and strode over to grab some candy of her own, leaving Sora and Chizuru to get acquainted for the moment.

Sora grinned at Chizuru, his friendly self as always. "Hi!" he said brightly. He wiped the last of the chocolate from his face, and made a grand gesture at the stand.

"The sweets, they're really, really good here! You should try some!" He glanced out at the other compartments and sighed, his boredom showing through. "It beats looking out the window and playing I-Spy anyway, you know?"

"Hi..." At least this boy didn't seem creepy (though he had a GIRL name...). "I'm Chizuru. Hope you don't mind me joining you guys? I missed the train and got separated from my classmates, and the locals just... aren't all there, you know what I mean?" -performing the universal gesture for a screw loose in the head.

Nonetheless, the sweets did look appetizing, and after a few moments of oogling, Chizuru recalled that she'd used up one of her last shiny things just getting on the train and couldn't afford dessert.

Drat, now that was a problem.

Alice returned, adjusting her dress, an armful of sweets in her hand. Unlike some of the others, she had been diligently looking at journals and had made sure to grab at anything shiny she could find, and so allowed herself some indulgences. Upon seeing Chizuru without anything to eat, she immediately decided that this was not to go unseen. Without a word, she gave half of her sweets to Chizuru, looking her dead in the eye.

"This place is unpleasant enough with no way of returning to a former world. You needn't be without sustinance. I could never allow such a thing."

She tried to smile kindly, then looked to Sora. "Well, I think you have been abusing the sweets in your possession. It's all over your chin!"

Sora tried to glance at his chin, for just one moment, and then laughed at himself for doing it. He rubbed the choclate off with his hand and reclined. "I'm not a messy eater! Honest!"

He figured the chocolate was gone, and thus he settled for grinning. And then he stood up, because he really, really didn't want to sit down anymore. "Do you think we'll run into the Nobodies and Lumens?"

He sounded excited, and he really couldn't contain his curiousity over the strange monsters! This whole city was just one wave of suspiscion after another! And Sora wasn't sure what he was really supposed to be looking for, except that it always had to do with following the trail of monsters.

False humility was the way to go in this situation! "Oh, Alice, you don't need to deprive yourself on my behalf! It's my fault for not stealing some paper clips from school when I had the chance... um... yesterday... before I got here..." Nonetheless, Chizuru wasted no time in selecting a few choice sweets from Alice's offerings and proceeded to nibble--

-- and choke at Sora's query. "Wait... what? Did I miss something?! What are you talking about?"

"Methink the lady doth protest to much," Alice said, raising her eyebrows. "Though I'm glad to see you'll take them anyway. Now that were getting ready for our next big adventure, its better we start it in a group. We'll introduce you to the others after we get settled down."

Alice glanced over at Sora, then at Chizuru. "Yes, apparently Paixao is not only home to strange village folk and wanderers like us. From what I've heard, there are these strange creatures called Lumens roaming about, and we may encounter them on our travels. As for Nobodies, well, the information about them is sparse, but there seems to some sort of Organization in Paixao that stir up trouble." She turned to Sora and smiled. "Our little friend here seems to be a sort of hero in his world, and so if we encounter any baddies, Sora will come to our rescue."

Alice looked over at Chizuru and winked. "Of course, some of us have come to Paixao with ways of saving ourselves anyway. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that sort of brutish manner."

Sora grinned and stood tall as Alice said that he was the hero, and then slouched back into his normal posture with a laugh. "Some woman on the journal keeps calling me that, anyway. It's kind of weird!" He paused and scratched his head.

"I don't know her name. Do you think she's part of the Organization? She was asking me about what I was doing, and it seemed really weird for her to ask that... I dunno," Sora heaved a sigh.

He had too much pent up energy, he realized, because his attention was wandering from object to object, and he couldn't quite stay focused on the subject at hand, either! Maybe it would have been better to walk?

Chizuru blanched at Alice's comment about possibly having to resort to violence (she was never good at fighting, or even defending herself from the homophobic evil that was Tatsuki, or even avoiding the homophobic evil that was Tatsuki), but when Sora expressed concern over a woman on the journals, she calmed and snorted lightly.

"We have something a lot like these journals back home," she mused, turning the otherwise-pointless anecdote into an explanation for Sora's sake. "And let me tell you, these things are looney magnets even when they're not the only form of communication around. I've seen blogs-- journals-- belonging to girls who fantasize about boys kissing boys! It's pretty scary until you get used to that sort of thing. Still... being asked for personal information by a stranger never bodes well..."

Alice was puzzled over Chizuru's bizzare recount of what girls did on these supposed journals. "You know, I think the male and female gender have gotten much stranger than when I can remember. They seem to obsess over the opposite gender, and it seems now its ok to obsess over the same gender engaging in courtship. Still, its a rather interesting idea. I find it much easier to engage with girls not obsessing over boys and boys who haven't gotten their growth hormones yet."

Alice said this last part with disgust on her face, thinking of the lewd things the Tweedles would say to her while she was "under treatment. She may have known close to nil about with sex, but she did know what was comfortable.

"Nonetheless, I think we shall all have a rather interesting time once we get to our destination." She look over to Chizuru and gave another one of her devious smiles, which came more naturally then her "let-be-cordial" kind of smile. "Do you suppose you'll be able to put up with the likes of ragamuffins like us?"

Again, Alice made a mental note to not mention her "uses" in battle. It seemed to make Chizuru nervous.

Sora tilted his head at the mention of the journals back in Chizuru's home, and he realized that those little computers must have been common there! She probably had no trouble typing out those little messages (he could spend minutes trying to find one button)!

But that thought was ruined with her second statement. "They fantasize about what?" He asked with a disbelieving face.

He really didn't care about gender (he never really thought about those sorts of things, and why should he?) but, to waste time playing with those journals when one could go outside and play? And what's worse, to waste time with, what he figured were, rumors?

He was shocked to say the least! "You mean they don't go outside and play? I mean... Not everyone lives on an island, but there's gotta be better things to do on the mainland, right?"

Sora could only marvel as Alice spoke, and he felt a pang of homesickness, too.

Chizuru slowed down to mentally sort out the questions before answer. "Most of the kids in Karakura Town spend their time out and about. 'Hime has to take care of herself, so after school she's usually running errands and stuff to pay bills... Tatsuki spends every waking moment at a karate dojo or at school using me for target practice because I'm-- I was-- in love with 'Hime... um... Ryo usually has track practice after school, otherwise she's studying because she's one of the top students..." After a moment of awkward silence, she added, "I really don't know about the guys because I don't pay as much attention to them... I'm a little 'different' that way."

It was the first time she'd ever even stopped to think that she might be missing something in life by not liking boys. "At any rate, we spend plenty of time outdoors or doing the important stuff in like, unlike the crazy online stalkers. Like I said, the people who do that kind of stuff are crazy-- they even have online DATING. Can you imagine trying to find romance, or even stuff in common, with someone you can't see face-to-face? One or the other is just going to end up being all wishy-washy and lying through their keyboards because they don't want to be rejected."

"Things are still the same for the most part," she turned and explained to Alice, blushing a little bit at the other girl's inquiry. "It's just the crazies that get more attention because they reject real life to waste their days in front of a screen. Most girls like boys, most boys like girls. I happen to be different-- and Tatsuki reminds me pretty painfully on a regular basis, usually by violent means. It's not that I don't like you guys, it's just that when you talked about possibly having to fight..." she added slowly, "I'm not any good at self-defense or anything. I'd kinda be useless..."

"I see." Alice took all this information slowly, trying to get a feel for the words Chizuru said that she was not all too familiar with. "Well, I personally believe that finding love in this world can be as much of a battle as anything else. I daresay I haven't been in love, but it strikes me to have the same principals. You have to be stealthy, steady and you have to be willing to give in a little. It sounds easy, but is actually one of the hardest things in the world to do. I can't see how going 'online' would strengthen such ideals, but everyone is different I suppose."

Alice wasn't sure why, but she bristled when Chizuru mentioned what this "Tatsuki" person did. "I can't say I approve of bullying for such an absurd reason, but I suppose there is much about people I must come to understand. Let us be frank, my dear: Sora and I could not think anything less of you if you were able to throw wagons or could barely throw a ball. The only that matters is that now that we're teamed up, we will stay that way. If it comes to fighting, I am more than fully prepared to take down an army for your safety."

She said the last part with certainty, then looked out the window. "Well, it looks as if we're almost there."

Sora grinned. He'd play hero, if he had to! It didn't bother him any (except that maybe he felt she should stay behind JUST IN CASE...), and he wasn't alone doing the fighting. Then again, was he ever?

Chizuru's speech also reassured him about her homeworld. Good, everyone didn't stay inside with those little... journals all day! What a waste it really, really, really would have been if they had. He placed his hands behind his head.

"Your friends sound really busy! That's always a good thing, my mom doesn't like it when I'm bored..." Because that usually led to him bugging her, and her threatening to tell his Dad on him when he got home!

He glanced around as the train lurched to a stop. "But don't worry! Just stay with us, we'll protect you! I am, after all, a Junior Hero!"

Chizuru bit her lip and blushed a little more. Between Alice's patient acceptance (then again, someone who had survived a looney bin was probably gonna be a little more accepting of weirdness by default) and Sora's cheerful grin, she felt a little better about making a fool of herself a moment previously. "Thanks, you two. It... means a lot?"

It did, actually. Being the odd one out in a group made Chizuru a target to a lot of people. Having friends was a good thing. And Sora was one of the first guys Chizuru had met in a while who wasn't either too cool to hang out with girls (like Kurosaki Ichigo) or too busy trying to date all of them at once (like Asano Keigo).

At the very least, they both claimed to be okay at fighting and agreed to help take care of her. Hopefully their other friends would be okay, too. She could calm down (she always got so high-strung and ditzy around cute girls!) and apologize for causing confusion, and things would be okay.

Chizuru smiled. "Then let's go learn some things about Paixao!"

Hopefully the fighting wouldn't get too rough...

Momentary lapse (and a snack and a half)

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