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[sonicstriker]

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text | un: AHHHHHSHIOKI

[ashioki]

[ he stares at his phone for a long, long time. he's more or less gotten the hang of it now, though he knows he's fortunate enough that the learning curve for him hadn't been so drastic. he wishes he had the excuse of being completely inept with it to justify why it's taken him so long to reach out but...

he's not sure what happened. one day, he's newly arrived, and then the next he's been here for over two weeks, rotting in bed because it seemed the better alternative to — literally anything else.

eventually, he gets out of his own head enough to remember he'd more or less made a promise to be a better friend. a better person. it's clearly coming with a lot of bumps along the way but... better late than never, right? ]

hey
tifa?
it's oushi
i'm just checking in

[sonicstriker]

[ She almost deletes the text, because she doesn't immediately recognize the name. But it's been a busy weird few weeks. She definitely wasn't totally herself that first day or two.

And...maybe he was in trouble. Weird things had been happening. ]

Hey
Everything okay?
Did you need help with something?

[ashioki]

[ instantly, he feels stupid for even trying. ]

no i'm good
more or less
like i said i was just checking in

[ he wants to put his head through a wall, or perhaps a meat grinder. ]

i just figured i should
since we're friends

if you're busy tho don't worry about it

[sonicstriker]

[ oh. he was serious about that? ]

hey that was really nice of you
it's definitely been a busy few weeks. i've been working out a lot to try to deal with...the shifting thing.
I don't know how you're dealing with that, but you're welcome to join me sometime if you want

[ That's a quick way to figure out if he's actually being friendly or creepy, and it's public sooooo win all around.

It would honestly be nice if he's not though. It's...getting lonely here without her friends. ]

[ashioki]

[ oushi, by nothing short of a miracle, still hasn't shifted. he's been doing everything in his power not to even think about it, in all honesty, and he all but flinches when tifa brings it up first. ]

i'm not
dealing with it i mean

[ which must make him sound like a coward, but it somehow feels worse to pretend he's handling any of this okay. ]

i'm not much of a gym guy...
does it actually help?

[sonicstriker]

[ Tifa hasn't either, and she'd like to keep it that way. ]

I get that
I've been through some other tough stuff or I would not be handling this as well

It does help me, but I've always used physical activity to help calm my mood.
Walks can be nice too, or any kind of hobby. My friend gardened.

[ Has she immediately fallen into the mom-friend role and not realized it? Sure has.

Also hasn't realized what a comfort it is to feel useful to someone else. ]

[ashioki]

[ oushi... has very quickly realized just how different he is from the rest of the augmented. he didn't come from a world with powers or abilities, where even superheroes were the stuff of fiction. his world wasn't dying, or on the verge of being overtaken by an evil mastermind or corporation, and modern enough he had grown up more or less in absolute comfort.

the only hardship he's ever really faced in his life was suffering through a broken heart... and even then that was all entirely of his own doing.

he's completely out of his depth here, and every day just further cements how in over his head he is. with little else to distract him, it's really all he can think about. ]

makes me wish i had more of a hobby back home
all i ever did with my free time was play video games

[ not exactly something he can easily indulge in now. ]

i'm not completely out of shape though
we could go for a run together? if you're into that

[sonicstriker]

[ Honestly, they're probably closer to each other than some of the other worlds. Until the last six months, Tifa's life hadn't been that crazy, and her "superhuman" abilities were pretty much entirely from years of hard work.

She did have an unfortunate pile of trauma, though. ]

Never too late to start one!
I wasn't a big video game person myself, but I get the appeal.

Honestly, that sounds great. It'd be good to get some fresh air.

[ashioki]

yeah i'll have to find something sooner or later
too much sitting around doing nothing
or waiting for the next stupid task
is probably gonna just drive me crazy

[ but that's depressing stuff to talk about, and that's probably not what tifa wants to hear right now. ]

it's good to go out in pairs or groups anyway
so if you ever feel like going out for a walk or run, just hit me up

[sonicstriker]

I mean, my schedule is wide open and I prefer not to be idle
You want to go this afternoon? It's not supposed to rain
Sounds like you could use the distraction too

[ashioki]

yeah, i guess there's no better time than the present
wanna meet up towards the entrance? around 2?

[sonicstriker]

I'll be there!

[ And she is, dressed in a sports bra and high-waisted leggings. She knows the people here are a lot more modest, but she's not passing out from being dressed wrong for a workout. ]

[ashioki]

[ oushi, meanwhile, opts for the standard fare of an oversized t-shirt and basketball shorts, leaving only his forearms and his legs from the knee-down exposed. the stipend they've all been afforded allowed him to acquire a decent amount of clothes to fill his otherwise empty closet; he'd never been an overly fashion-forward kind of guy, so he had opted for things that were more comfortable than they were particularly flashy. honestly, he's just glad the style here is familiar. ]

Hey...

[ he lifts a hand in greeting as he nears. in his other is a waterbottle he'd filled up along the way. his eyes do make a brief, unconscious sweep over tifa — and while he doesn't blush outright or anything like that, the way his gaze skitters away in afterthought has him looking almost guilty. don't worry, his thoughts aren't full of anything unpure; he had more or less gotten used to the fact that everyone else here was drop dead gorgeous in varying ways. but tifa's chosen outfit made her particular beauty all the more pronounced and oushi is, sadly, still a man with functioning eyes. ]

You wanna start with a walk first or just go right into running?

[ "running." more like light jogging for him.............. ]

[sonicstriker]

[ Her smile is bright, and if it falters when he checks her out, it's only for a second. It's not that kind of attention she minds; it's if people are weird about it. And she's trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. That was the whole point of this.

She, too, had noticed how many people here were eerily beautiful. It made her feel better, honestly, like she wasn't sticking out in this way she'd never understood. But...it turned out it was only the Augmented, and that she still gets strange eyes on her. Oh, well; she'd rather be seen as a monster than as a romantic option, at least to strangers. ]

Let's warm up first. [ She could use jogging to cut the conversation short if she needed to. ] There's a loop I do sometimes that goes out by a park.

[ She starts that direction, her own water bottle in hand. If this goes well she wouldn't mind eating lunch with someone, but she knows better than to get ahead of herself. ]

[ashioki]

[ the look he gives her is briefly confused, which really just goes to show how out of his depth he is here. when was the last time he'd willingly engaged in any kind of strenuous activity that didn't involve helping his sister move apartments? too long, honestly; to the point he didn't even remember a job required any warming up. does she mean stretches? she probably means stretches........ but then what's the loop for? is warming up just walking???? god help him. ]

Uh — right.

[ he follows her lead, hovering uncertainly beside her. the pace she sets is a leisurely one, for now, and he wills himself to simply relax and focus on the steps.

after he counts to the thirty-fifth step, he feels compelled to break the silence and blurts out, ]

Is it a lot different from this place? You world.

[sonicstriker]

[ Maybe...he's just awkward?

He's not trying anything, which she appreciates. But she does wait, to see how he'll initiate. It takes a little while, but -- okay. She can work with this. ]

I think they're similar. I lived in a big city too, on the poor side. Our technology was similar, though we were denser. We had a big company doing research and experiments on people and monsters, but...they were evil, for sure. And kept a lot of their research secret. [ And the world was ending. ]

What about you?

[ashioki]

[ no that's pretty much it — he's awkward. ]

Yeah, mostly. [ he shrugs, the gesture itself sort of dismissive. ] I mean the look and feel of it is probably the same — we have cities, we have buildings. The people all look like... people, and we had phones and stuff like this too.

But I'm not aware of any group that can do the things these Patho-Gen people can do. That kind of science is.. pretty beyond what the science in my world is still capable of.

But, uh. Did you say monsters? What were they like?

end of semester grading ugh

[sonicstriker]

That's nice at least. Some people come from way earlier times historically. That has to be hard, you know? Suddenly the materials are different, electricity exists...I don't know if I'd like that.

[ She doesn't notice it, but she's relaxing. Moving her body helps, and easy conversation helps. ]

It's pretty new on my world, as far as I know. There weren't monsters when I was a kid. Then they installed the mako reactors, and a mix of the energy seeping out and secret experiments meant they started to appear in the area and attack. I moved to the city after my town became uninhabitable. They weren't there at first either, but toward the end, they were literally everywhere.

I guess...you could tell they were animals. Most of them anyway. I didn't mind those as much. The ones that looked like someone had spliced them together from parts...and some of them had been human before...those give me nightmares, honestly. [ Her voice has gotten quieter, tighter. ]