[Video]

[selfishworld]

[A tiny girl, no more than five or six or so, stares down at the Dreamberry. She has reddish-brown hair and grey eyes, and a frown on her face.]

[... However, the call comes through as 'Tsukasa'.]

Mother? Mother, where are you? Did father leave me somewhere again?

[She looks around, frown deepening.]

Mother? Where are you? You didn't leave for

Comments

[insorrow]

[For a moment Ken just stares at the Dreamberry screen, then seems to shake himself. He blinks.

[Okay, this is... well. He doesn't know Tsukasa at all, but there are some things he just can't ignore. This - for several reasons - would be very much one of them.]

Hey, are you all right?

[selfishworld]

[She looks up.]

Where's Mother?

[insorrow]

I... well, I don't think I've seen her. What does she look like?

Are you lost? You're not by yourself, are you?

/headcanon goooo

[selfishworld]

She's got dark red hair like me. And she was wearing a red sweater and black pants the last time I saw her.

... Yeah, I'm by myself.

/same here, but hey... ^^;

[insorrow]

Well, where were you when you last saw her?

You know where you are, right? Do you need someone to come get you? You shouldn't be out there all alone.

\o/

[selfishworld]

I was at the library...

Um... there's a fountain. You're not a policeman, are you?

[insorrow]

The library... huh. Right then...

[There's a library here, of course, but... that's not likely to help much. This is either a new arrival or someone else who's been worked over by a card. Either way Ken gets the feeling this girl's mother's not gonna be anywhere. This isn't good.]

Yeah, I know the place. Wait, a policeman? God, no, I just sell flowers... Ah... and I'm sorry to keep asking you all this stuff, I know you don't wanna go talking to strangers and everything. I just need to know you're not in danger. Is someone gonna come find you?

[selfishworld]

I think someone said they were gonna come.

[insorrow]

Okay, that's good. As long as you're not gonna be all alone out there...

[He still wants to go after her. But if someone's already coming-- well, as long as it's not one of the local weirdoes anyway.]

Did you get their name or anything?

[selfishworld]

I think he had a yellow scarf?

[insorrow]

[Yellow scarf, yellow scarf... Ken frowns, thinking deeply. Yeah, he's seen someone about the place with one of those, right? After a moment there's a face to go with it: a kid, about Omi's age if Ken's any judge. He can't recall the boy's name, but he seems well-meaning enough.]

Oh, yeah? I'm pretty sure I know the guy.

[Ken relaxes a little, smiling. Not one of the weirdoes, then. That's something.]

Tell you what, you wanna keep talking until he gets here? Then you won't have to be by yourself or anything, and if he doesn't show up you can let me know and I'll come find you, okay?

[selfishworld]

Okay.

... Who are you?

/further headcanon incoming.

[insorrow]

Me? My name's Ken Hidaka. I'm a florist, I sell flowers...

[And you kinda remind me of me, when I was a kid. That's not a good thing and I'm worried about you.]

That's about it, really. I'm not very interesting, I'm afraid. Do you like flowers?

/whee~

[selfishworld]

Um... they're okay.

[She scrunches up her nose for a moment.]

Mother likes them a lot, though. She says they 'brighten up a room'.

[insorrow]

She'd like our shop, then. It's full of the things. Here...

[Ken sticks his head out of the backroom door, holding the Dreamberry up to give her a brief glimpse of the flower shop before ducking back inside. Yup, somebody's supposed to be working right now...]

You're not getting too hot out there are you? It's been pretty warm out today.

[selfishworld]

It's summer. I'm dressed for it.

[She tilts the screen so he can see her white t-shirt and blue jeans shorts.]