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[topslug]

Who: Yako Katsuragi [topslug] and YOU
When: The week of March 10th-March 16th. Just indicate the day and time in the subject of the thread.
Where: All over Siren's Port.
Summary: For someone who's just turned 20, Yako's been feeling awfully tired lately.
Warnings: PG13 to be safe.

Comments

March 14th, evening...ish. dinnertime! grocery shopping.

[troparion]

Sometimes, he wondered how such a giant city could feel so cramped. It made him want to pace, like a rat in a cage - but going from one end of the island to the other was only enjoyable for so long, especially considering the degrees of wealth (and attitudes) the place went through. It was like having to set an old, cranky, bipolar woman who didn't know what she wanted out of life on a path-- a struggle to get anywhere, and once a fella did reach a point where he thought there was progress, she turned it all around on him.

But then he stepped foot in something like the grocery store, and the city once again felt too big.

As it was, this was one (Punisher-less, let it be noted) priest hovering over the peaches and plums and pears and apples, staring down at them all and looking a good deal confused. He'd split the grocery list with Tenma, but now that he actually had to get specifics, they were all...

Looking real alike. Much too alike. And mixed, too, somehow, as if just to spite him--! Wolfwood didn't know what Tenma's issue was: the bars might've served worse food, but at least you knew what you were getting. This stuff was too new.

(And he was griping mentally about it, just standing there like that, but, well. Such was life in Siren's Port.)

[topslug]

Yako normally wasn't one to like staying out until the sirens sound out, but the grocery store was along her route home and she was pretty sure Break said something about needing eggs...

Only of course, now she'd stayed much later than she'd meant to, and was hurrying to the counter, swallowing down the last of the bacon she'd been so kindly invited to taste. Why were grocery stores always so full of free samples, anyway? She could never walk out without snacking on at least a trayful, and now she was going to have to walk home through the Darkness. With groceries. The thought was enough to make her blood run cold... but not, alas, enough to persuade her to put her pack of chocolate chip cookies back on the shelf.

Since she'd intended to just duck into the store and leave, she didn't have a cart. Wobbling under the weight of her current armful of groceries, she didn't immediately realize when one of the snacks precariously balanced on top of the pile began to wobble, and then actually fall off, bouncing along the floor a couple of times before bumping against Wolfwood's foot.

"Ah--!" It was like watching a landslide suddenly change direction as Yako turned sharply, the pile of food in her arms looking ready to scatter the minute she takes a step forward. "I'm sorry-- that's mine."

wwwhoa sorry for the lateness. ._.

[troparion]

Having been so engrossed in his own food selection, he only vaguely noticed the bump against his foot. Glanced down to check what it was, and - that was most definitely no plum or peach or ‘cantaloupe.’ As a girl was stumbling after it, he turned fully around, blinked upward-

“You’ve gotta watch it!” That would be Wolfwood completely ignoring any apology and rushing forward to help give some support for those grocery bags, which looked to contain enough food to feed the old orphanage for a week, though he doubted she was actually taking any of it to an orphanage (too much variety in the bag: everybody’d fight). But he wasn’t snapping at her: the words were more of just a general exclamation, especially since - “Don’t you want one of those carts, Miss?”

When it got to the point of dropping things and being unable to pick them up yourself - not that he knew that personally, he was just guessing from the looks of things - something was most certainly a bit wrong.

no worries dude! also doing shorter tags now lmao cuz of semi-hiatus

[topslug]

"Thanks--" And that would be Yako sighing in relief as a minor food disaster was averted. She shifted the weight of the groceries in her arm enough to peer around them at whoever had helped her steady them, grinning embarassedly.

"I didn't mean to buy this much-- I guess I just... got carried away?" Forlornly, she looked at the groceries in her arms. "I guess I should probably put some of these back. I don't think I have enough money anyway..."

shorter tags are <33

[troparion]

"No problem, Miss. Listen, uh, you might want to get a cart before trying to shuffle anything back where they belong." A pause, (for a brief moment studying her face, taking in everything initial as a reflex) and then he couldn't help but ask, just a bit cautiously: "You remember where all of these were?"

He didn't mean to sound mocking -- it was just... a giant load of food, and here he was, barely able to tell what the hell peaches were from plums. Honestly, Tenma should've handled all the "fruits" and "vegatables:" he didn't recongize half of them.

"Here - let's just set 'em down here." And he didn't mean to be crude, either; it just seemed like a good idea. Meant they could pick up whatever was on the floor, too.

[topslug]

"I think I remember where most of them came from. Sorry for all the trouble, mister!" A sheepish laugh-- and, awkwardly, Yako shifted the groceries from her arms to where Wolfwood was guiding her to. On closer inspection, Yako wasn't as young as her clumsiness would have it seem.

As the groceries were set down, a pack of biscuits wobbles suddenly, threatening to fall off. Yako quickly moved a hand to steady it, fingers brushing against Wolfwood's in the process--

And with the contact came an increasingly-familiar feeling of light-headedness. It's a good thing the groceries weren't in her arms anymore as her knees folded up beneath her, dropping her to the floor.

[troparion]

Wolfwood didn't stagger under the sudden amount of weight, but he did wobble just a bit on arranging them into a balanced sort of way-- especially with her falling down, folding up like she'd just had her knees taken out. Whoa, whoa, what was that supposed to mean - was this some sudden medical attack? Hearts issues, or something--

"Hey, girl? Miss? Are you all right?" He was following his own advice, setting the bags quickly to the side and crouching down himself to the side of her, eyes doing another, more assessing once-over; but she seemed fine, wasn't even crying or anything like that, so what gave? His nose felt a bit stuffy (suddenly), but it wasn't like touching him'd give her an instant cold.

She might've been older than she looked, but she still looked pretty young - his protective instinct was evidently throwing its lot in, and quickly.

[topslug]

"I'm all right!" Yako managed to cough out, though she was still wincing with the effort of trying to get her world to get back into focus. She had been pale when she'd collapsed, but the color was slowly creeping back into her cheeks. "Just, ah, give me a minute--"

It was considerably less than a minute later that she looked at up Wolfwood suddenly, with real anxiety on her face. "You don't feel weird, do you?" It was perhaps a strange question to ask so suddenly, but Seth's words had been churning in her head:

You have an interesting ability.

[troparion]

Wolfwood didn’t do more than frown at that ‘give me a minute!’ wave-off, but he didn’t say anything to it; watched her out of the corner of his eye as he carefully set the bags aside, actually moved over to pick up that sugary-looking packet of something. It would’ve been a fine recovery, if she didn’t suddenly jerk her head up like that.

He kept down a jump- no reason to be afraid of a tiny girl like that!- and tilted his head back toward her, eyebrow raised. His arms felt unusually shaky, his nose was itchy and there was a weird smell wafting over, but that last one was probably from something in the aisles that he didn’t want to know about and the rest were-well. He’d been working on repairs the last few days for the shelters. Probably from that. Or he just had to sneeze; who knew?

Nothing ‘weird,’ though, as far as he’d be willing to say. Didn’t make her question any less suspicious-still, he kept his voice pretty light. “Nah, I feel fine. Why d’you ask?”

[topslug]

Yako's shoulders slumped in relief; chewing on her lip, she looked at him with some mild embarrassment. "Okay, that's good. I, uh..." She straightened, brushing herself off. "It's been happening a few times this week," she ruefully admitted, absently twirling a lock of hair around one finger.

She wouldn't give someone a reason to worry unless she had better proof.

"Anyway, thanks for the help, mister. My name's Yako!" She beamed-- in other circumstances, she might have held out her hand, but all things considered...

[troparion]

"... What has?" His suspicions suddenly skyrocketed, though his tone was the same neutral bit that it had been before-- behind his glasses, though, his eyes were narrowing. She didn't seem like a violent girl, and he'd prided himself on being able to tell that, but with powers and things--?

Still, he evened out his voice, rocked back on one heel. Having experience as a traveling priest came in handy sometimes. "Wolfwood. Nice t'meet you, Miss."

[topslug]

Before she answers, Yako pulls herself to her feet, dusting herself off. "You felt it, didn't you?" She asked, slowly. "Just before I fell down, I mean-- that's what's been happening a lot recently."

Worried eyes turn to Wolfwood. "I don't really know what my power is yet, but it seems to mess up other peoples', somehow. That's why I was wondering if you felt anything."

[troparion]

"... You sure you aren't turning into a little battery? Since that felt like a shock." He was rocking back on one heel, eyebrow raised skeptically; had hesitated in the start before he remembered right. Powers.

Well, in regards to powers-- "I haven't got any supernatural powers. What happened with the other fellows you... uh...?"

Touched? How had that happened in the first place?

[topslug]

A sheepish laugh, hand awkwardly against the nape of her neck as though to hide the flush of embarrassment that was rising there. "W-well, it was only really confirmed for one person, but uh..."

On second thought, it might be good if she wasn't within Woflwood's arm's reach for this, so she took a careful, ginger step back. Hopefully that was subtle.

"As far as I could tell, it just... made their powers go out of control." She cleared her throat awkwardly.