(Untitled)

[supaahiro]

Hiro was down in the bar again. He was, sadly, rather preoccupied with a certain brand of woe here. But that didn't mean he wasn't trying to figure out a way to do something about it

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[precocioustilda]

Paper cranes are a subject that interests Tilda. She wanders outside with the intent of finding someplace to set up shop for making explosives, but is destracted by the origami.

"Hello," she says cheerfully. "Would you like some help with that?"

[supaahiro]

Thirteen, fourteen cranes.

"...ano?" Hiro blinks at the girl. "Ah-- you know-- origami?"

[precocioustilda]

"Yep!" Enthusiastic nod. "I love making paper cranes. They're so simple and pretty."

She takes a piece of bright pink origami paper out of the bag on her shoulder and gives it a glance. It rises a few inches into the air and folds itself neatly into a crane (her eyes never leave it during this process), which then falls back into her hand.

"See? Here you go!" And the crane is offered to Hiro along with a slightly shy adorable smile.

[supaahiro]

"Oooh."

Twenty-one cranes.

"Thank you. You-- have power, too?"

He folds another as he speaks, his eyes going back to the crane. Twenty-two.

[precocioustilda]

She giggles a little. "Yes. I can move things with my eyes. It's useful. D'you mind if I ask why you're folding those?"

Flump - Tilda's bag lands on the ground. Flump - she sits beside it, taking out another piece of paper and idly folding another crane. She's quick with them. The lack of any need to use her hands probably helps.

[supaahiro]

Forty-three. Forty-four cranes.

"Very interesting. I stop time an' space," Hiro replies.

[precocioustilda]

She takes a stack of origami paper and starts folding. One crane finished in the time it takes her to form the question,

"How d'you stop space, then?"

between giggles. Another in the time it takes to stop giggling afterwards. She appears to be getting into a rhythm.

"Stopping time sounds like it would be all kinds of fun though."

A third crane joins the first two to punctuate the end of that sentence.

[supaahiro]

Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight from Tilda.

"Time and space bend. It's-- hard to explain," he says. "Sometimes it just slows down. Sometimes it stops. I am still learning.

Fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one cranes, from Hiro.

[precocioustilda]

She nods solemnly. "I was learning once, too. Everything gets better with practice." Flick - a crane, fresh from folding, leaps to add itself to Tilda's growing pile.

"You could even say I'm" flick (another) "still learning, really. Lots of things," flick "not just about my power. I like languages, for example." Flick (a fourth).

[supaahiro]

Seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one, from Tilda. He glances over, watching her gift make art, and he smiles, smiles for her. What a pretty use for that power...

"Oh, I know. It's hard," he replies. Eighty-two. "But all you can do is try." Eighty-three.

[precocioustilda]

(flick) She looks up at him, pausing in her work briefly as a question occurs to her. "Are you from Japan?" she inquires, a delighted smile hovering about her face, ready to appear at any moment should the need arise.

When she looks back to the next paper in her stack the smile is still just as ready to appear. "I was just thinking the other day that I wanted to learn Japanese. It'd be" (flick) "a nice ninth language to learn."

[supaahiro]

Ninety-nine, and then, a blurted, "Yatta!" marks the 100th crane, as it folds under Tilda's will.

"You know lots of languages, then?" he says a the hundred-and-first crane appearas. "I taught Charlie Japanese. But she was special. Kind of like your special."

But he's not sure he could teach Tilda Japanese. Not like he taught Charlie. One-hundred-and-two...

[precocioustilda]

"Yes." (flick) "English, French, Russian, sixteenth-century" (flick) "Welsh, Sindarin, Shistavanen, Latin, and Greek." (flick) The list is delivered slowly, as she focuses on the cranes. The delighted smile from earlier has bloomed in full, and is as adorable as ever.

"What kind of special was she," (flick) "then?"

[supaahiro]

One twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three!

"She couldn't forget anything," he replies. "No Asian languages?" he asks with a frown. Twenty-four, twenty-five, one-hundred-twenty-six!

[precocioustilda]

"No. For some reason" (flick) "I haven't met anyone who speaks any Asian languages, till you." (flick) "I don't suppose you'd..." She hesitates slightly. "...teach me Japanese?" (flick)

[supaahiro]

With one-forty-three, one-forty-four, and one-forty-five drifting to the pile, Hiro considers.

"Not a very good teacher," he says, as one-forty-six appears between his hands. "Charlie was special. We had books. And her memory."