The Plot Thickens? [Active]

[teloschain]

Characters: Minato and Karin
Location: Outside the girls' dorms, then to the boys' dorm... and then all over the place. 8|
Time: Wednesday evening.
Content: Minato arrives to help Karin. SASUKE-SEEKING SHENANIGANS ENSUE.
Warnings: .... shenanigans?

Comments

[usedattract]

Karin strode purposefully through the girls' dorm, an unconscious sway to her gait that she'd developed years ago. She tugged absently at her log sleeve, trying to ignore the assault on her senses. Which, to be honest, was kind of like trying to ignore a punch to the face; she hadn't been surrounded by so many mutants in a long time.

Still. Whatever. She could deal; she always had. If there was one thing Karin Carmody had learnt over the years, it was how to ignore things.

She reached the exit, and immediately set eyes on a guy who looked suspiciously like Sasuke himself. That wasn't what hit her first, though. Instead she found herself suddenly hit with a wave of irresistible feeling, a tugging that she couldn't ignore. It wasn't as powerful as when she was near Sasuke, and there was something off about it, something that made her head spin in circles, but oh boy it was definitely there.

She hated when this happened. Placing her hand against the wall to steady herself, she closed her eyes. "So, are you the guy I'm looking for?"

[teloschain]

Minato noticed the red-haired girl almost immediately. Could she be the one he was looking for? He smiled at her and moved closer, only to pause in momentary shock as she seemed to suffer a wave of disorientation. The dark-haired boy walked closer to the strange girl, ready to offer assistance if need be. "Are you alright?" he asked softly, a look of concern crossing his features. Even if this girl was a stranger, if she needed his help, he would do his best to give it.

He blinked at the question as it caught him off-guard and chuckled a little. "I think so," he replied. "I'm Minato."

[usedattract]

Feeling impressions were the worst. The others were all just annoyances that Karin had learnt to deal with over the years, but it was impossible to ignore this, the faint prickling of her skin, the whisper in her ear demanding go to him, go to him~

Well, if it was there, she may as well enjoy it, even if it was making her dizzy as all hell. Keeping a hand on the wall because staying standing was fun, she opened her eyes and gave the boy - Minato - a smile.

Karin had a lot of smiles. Creepy ones, triumphant ones, I'm-going-to-kill-you-in-your-sleep ones. This one was none of those, but rather almost shy. "I'm fine," she said easily. "You just leave such a powerful impression. I'm Karin."

[teloschain]

Minato smiled back, confident now that the girl wasn't in danger of passing out. She seemed coherent, at least, and that was enough to convince Minato that Karin wasn't in any need to be escorted (or carried, if needed) to the nurse's office. And honestly, after the last time he'd done so, with Sasuke passing out for a day, he wasn't in any hurry to repeat that experience, especially if it was something that was, however inadvertently, his own fault.

Minato's smile was easy, charming enough for a school boy. He nodded at the girl, who looked to be around his age. "It's nice to meet you."

[usedattract]

If Karin had known carrying was an option, she might have just managed to stumble and fall. She wasn't aware that it was on the cards, however, so she stayed upright as she removed her hand from the wall and stepped towards the boy.

The sensation was something akin to slowly walking from the shallow end of a pool to the deep end, feeling the water rise up her body and eventually, slip over her head, pulling her under. This particular feeling was a little harsher though, grabbing her by the ankle and spinning her about.

"It's nice to meet you too," she said, and cocked her head to one side. "I suppose I should thank you for offering to show me around." Even her voice was different from how it had been when they'd first spoken, soft and higher pitched. When it came to this sort of feeling, Karin's usual nature was quite often easily overwhelmed.

[teloschain]

Minato held out his arm to Karin in case she felt the need to further steady herself. She must be a psychic of some sort, or perhaps an empath. He didn't envy them; although he was a sort of psychic himself, at least he never had to listen to other people's thoughts or feel emotions that weren't his.

He shrugged. "It's no problem," he replied. "I got pretty lost around here my first week or so, and it'd be good if I'm able to help other students, right?"

[usedattract]

Karin smiled again as Minato offered his arm. He wasn't having quite the same effect on her powers that Sasuke did, but being near him at least dulled some of intensity, and she was all for that. She reached out and took his arm and holy crap this was nothing like Sasuke at all.

She jerked her arm away, but it was too late. The disorientation that had hit her before gripped her firmly now, rather as if there was a giant plug hole in her swimming pool metaphor, and she was being sucked down it, tugged in different directions. It only lasted a second, but that was more than enough to have her lose balance and hit the ground.

She sat there for a moment, looking distinctly pissed off until the positive effects of this guy's mutation started to work on her again. "...Psychic multi personalities," she said after a moment. "Just great."

Pfft, poor Minato. XD

[teloschain]

Minato stared at the girl in shock for a few moments, then hurriedly looked away from her, his face oddly blank as though to hide the emotion underneath. "I'm sorry," he managed, his voice as steady and blank as his face (he didn't want the shame to show, nor the fear that he had hurt another person, it didn't help them and it wouldn't help now). Luckily for Minato, looking away meant he didn't catch that look on Karin's face.

He knelt in front of her after a few long moments, finally managing to bring his eyes back to her face. "Are you okay?" he asked her gently, not wanting to reach out again for fear of Thanatos deciding it would be a good idea to injure her.

XD I feel bad. Karin is just like, eh.

[usedattract]

Karin stared back, before smoothly pushing herself off the ground to stand again. She might not have had any physical mutations, but she did have several years worth of martial arts training that gave her movements a certain grace. "I'm used to it," she said, not forgiving or accusing. To be honest, that sort of thing happened to her so often that the positive side of his powers was more than enough to wipe away the sting of pride that came with falling on her ass. "You didn't make me think I was seventeen different people at once, so I don't really care." She glanced at him, the coy demeanour of before totally gone. He felt nice, but like hell she wanted to go through that every time she touched him. "You're showing me the dorms, right?" She'd come across stranger people than him in her life.

XD <3

[teloschain]

Minato noted the easy movement of the girl. He'd seen it before; the members of the Kendo team at Gekkoukan High moved with that same sort of grace (as did Minato himself, but he had been on the swim team instead and so was an obviously different kind of movement). He nodded, still nervous, as Karin seemed to wave it off. "All right, let's go." He turned and moved in the direction of the boys' dorms, a step or two ahead so he could lead the way. "I don't know if Sasuke will be in his dorm right now, but it's worth a try, right?"

<3!

[usedattract]

Like hell she was going to walk behind anyone. Also, the strength of Minato's mutation was still dimming the others, and she was tired enough of dealing with them that she could deal with the disorientation that came with being near this guy.

Seriously. Feelings were the worst. In fact, the entire freaking mutant thing was the worst. Karin was almost on the verge on just turning the whole thing off; the only thing stopping her was that niggling fear that she would never be able to turn it back on again if she did.

"I'll need to know where it is for later anyway," Karin replied, walking alongside Minato. "So it doesn't really matter if he's not there. Well it does, but it won't be a complete waste of time if he isn't."

[teloschain]

Had Karin voiced her concerns, Minato might have expressed a mild sort of envy; while he didn't mind Orpheus, he definitely wished that Thanatos would go away. Losing control of himself was fearful enough without having to worry about a half-mad Persona. And what if Thanatos could materialize, like Orpheus? No, Minato would have to stop that from happening. He didn't want to hurt anyone else. He'd never wanted to harm anyone to begin with.

He nodded at Karin. "He'll show up sooner or later," he replied with a shrug. He'd seen Sasuke around the dorms a lot, and it seemed unlikely that he'd simply leave.

[usedattract]

That was the thing about Karin; she didn't tend to notice the concerns of others, and if she ever did, they usually just confused her, because they weren't hers. So, noticing that the whole discovering-his-mutation thing might have made Minato uncomfortable? Not likely to happen, ever. Karin understood people only insofar as it affected her personally.

"He'd better," Karin muttered, focussing her gaze ahead. "I didn't come all this way for nothing." She tugged on her sleeve again, not even realising.

[teloschain]

Minato was quite uncomfortable upon having a third person discovering firsthand just what his mutation consisted of - however, he sucked it up and tried to act as though it didn't bother him. Luckily for Minato, he was good at hiding his true emotions, and Karin didn't really seem to be paying attention to that matter anyway.

The dark-haired boy merely chuckled at Karin's statement, noting the way she kept tugging at her sleeve but saying nothing about it. It wasn't as though he considered it any of his business, anyway.

[usedattract]

Karin noticed what she was doing with the sleeve of her shirt and stopped, immediately. Like hell she wanted to draw attention to that. And maybe it wasn't strictly the weather to be wearing a long-sleeved shirt just yet anyway, it was cold enough that she could justify it. She could think about what she'd do in spring later. Making the assumption that they would even be there in spring.

She looked over at her companion. "What can you tell me about this place?" she asked. To be honest, Karin hadn't done a huge amount of investigating into the place. She'd tracked Sasuke down, stayed in town for a week as she researched the basics, and then gone and dumped herself on the doorstep. She might have looked into it a little more if she'd had another option, but she hadn't.

[teloschain]

Minato told Karin what he could think of about the Institute - about the teachers (several of which he was sure were off their respective rockers, but he didn't mention that part. Okay, so he mentioned Wade WIlson being insane, but everyone knew that), the classes, and the clubs. He left personal details out of it, of course, just giving Karin what he thought might be useful.

"It's pretty nice here," he finished with a slight smile.