justscribing | The City

Can do!
Don't worry, I don't think you'll have much luck hiding.

[Ominous? Either it's something to do with that sixth sense of hers or she really thinks Alhaitham sticks out like a sore thumb.

But true to his word he's around the fairgrounds come tomorrow evening. With a hollow metal bar from a dismantled clothing rack, because you really just never know. He tends to linger around the rides to watch them and mentally piece together how they function, but he'll give the full perimeter a walk.]

[ It's probably both. She knows what to look for and it's fairly easy to guess he won't be on the rides themselves (yet), so mid-perimeter jog, she spots him just up ahead and brightens. ]

Al!!!!

[ Enthusiastic waving too. ]

[Alhaitham turns slowly over his shoulder to look at Tsuruno at recognizition of her voice. The name takes a little longer--very few would dare act familiar enough with Alhaitham to shorten his name, and those who would usually use the back half.

So he's Al now. It's not a bother.] So you found me.

[Him, standing here, not even trying to hide at all.]

Yep! I knew I could do it.

[ A good humble teenager. Here she is. ]

Did you find anything weird?

Nothing that I would call an anomaly. Though in this place, that itself is an anomaly.

[Even the university pool had something strange with it. The ice cream shop. Only the bank and mall involved locking people up but not having some external horror or influence on their senses is... unsettling in a different way. Like waiting for the other shoe to drop.]

That is weird... it's just a fair? Nothing's going wonky with memories or feelings?

[ Hm. ]

... I don't know if I trust that.

It would be wise not to. [Hence the metal bar.] But the only thing to be done now is wait and see. I thought I'd stay after hours and see how things change once it closes.

[Just refuse to leave because really, who's going to stop him?]

Oh, I was thinking that too! It's when there aren't a bunch of people here that you should see if anything changes!

[ Alhaitham is so smart. Good man. ]

[It would be in opposite to the bank and mall but maybe this place just wants to keep them in their toes.] Then you must have prepared to be waiting around here for a long time.

Yep!

[ She gestures to the backpack she's got with her. ]

Granola bars, water, bandages, a jacket, a flashlight, a whistle, a--

[ Etc. ]

[Alhaitham sure does just let her list out everything. Once she's finally exhausted her preparation:] And is all of that for you, or other people that need it?

I've got enough to share! I'm used to working with a group back home.

[ Of... do-gooder delinquents? ]

A group related to your do-gooding delinquency, perhaps?

Yep. There are five of us.

And who is the leader among you?

... Mm, I wonder if there is a leader? Yachiyo's been doing it the longest, but Iroha-chan's probably the most earnest about it...

And where do you fit into that? [Not longest, not most earnest. And yet, she she's clearly invested. This isn't something she does that she doesn't want to do, as far as he can tell. But expecting yourself for others is demanding, and bypassing the law is risky. It's not a casual affair.]

I'm the mightiest!

[ Cheerfully. ]

But also I'm the plan-maker if the first set of plans doesn't work out. And the mood-maker to keep things lively! Oh, and I guess I've had to go for diplomacy a few times and I hit the hardest when I have to and...

[His first thought is oh, she's the strategist, but then her list of responsibilities goes and goes...]

If you're doing all of that, shouldn't you be the leader?

I don't mind taking the lead, but I'm better as support. Not everyone can do that.

[ And she says this so calmly and straightforwardly. ]

Not everyone can lead, either. Everyone has different responsibilities in a group, but you seem to have more than most. It would be difficult for most people to keep up with being the strategist, moral support, diplomat, and front-line fighter.

I'm not most people, Al! I'm Tsuruno Yui!

[ Emphatically, at that. ]

If something needs to get done, I'll do it!

[Heh.] That you are.

[She says it with such ease: that she's not most people. She recognizes her own potential above others, and Alhaitham believes that same self-certainty that he shares must benefit her the same way. She is able to achieve more because she recognizes her own difference.

Uniqueness is an asset.] What if you fail?

[ "If" he says, and Tsuruno's gaze grows a little distant before she answers him.

Because of course she's failed before. Her wish. Her choices. Her weakness.

It's nothing she can really talk about with Alhaitham, as much as she already likes him. He's sharp, incredibly perceptive, and doesn't talk down to her. He's Kaveh's roommate, which would have automatically made him good in her book, but she likes what she's seen of him.

But she's very bad at talking about herself in more specific terms. ]

I keep going. And if it's something I can fix, I fix it. And if it's something I... can't, I do what I can to make sure it never happens again.

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