daybreakacademy

Entry tags:

[open]

Who: Kano & OTA
What: magic practice, pettiness, finals
Where: Lumière, greenhouse, library
When: mid-month, before finals
Warnings: self-harm for prompt i., none expected for the rest
Notes: details of Kano's new Fey Contract can be found on his app

i. Lumière dormitory rooftop
[ Fey magic is a really... terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. But Kano is determined to make it work, this new Contract that he'd forged a couple of days ago, but it's just so different from his usual illusion magic that he'd worked ten whole years to get to the point where he is now, illusions seamless and effortless compared to him staring at his arm right now wondering what he's doing wrong?

Because his arm is bleeding, a bloody knife on his lap while he pokes at the wound with his other hand and it just comes back bloody, him wincing because it hurts and why isn't the magic working? There's nothing intuitive about this at all, and he has no idea how he's supposed to make it work, with the magic supposed to be healing and dulling pain but it's just doing the opposite for him, the pain making it hard to keep a smile on his face, and making him feel like crying a little.

With a sigh, he waves hand over the bleeding cut instead of touching it, and it disappears— simply masked underneath an illusion, but it's still there while he tries to figure out how to do this, preferably before he bleeds out.

It won't come to it, though. He has three years worth of band-aids stocked up, and he knew they would be useful someday. ]

ii. campus, on the way to the greenhouse or inside
[ But you know what always makes up for terrible days? Even more terrible ideas to get your mind off previous ones. This one isn't that bad, though, because it's something that'll have positive long-term consequences. Probably.

Anyways, it's Kano with long sleeves and pants and winter gloves and the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and eyes and also a bandanna over the rest of his face so he can have as little skin showing as possible. It isn't all because of botched healing practice, though, it's because he's lugging around a three gallon plastic jug in his arms— you know, one of those large plastic containers twice the size of your head that you can buy cheese balls in, but instead of cheese balls, it's bees.

It's a jar full of bees.

He had to ship them to a PO in town and then lug them all the way back to campus; this insect purchasing restriction is really an awful pain. ]

iii. library
[ But also, anyways, it's almost finals and while Kano did surprisingly okay on his midterms, he's got to do slightly more okay on his finals too, because exam scored are literally all that's carrying his grades without the homework to pad it.

So the library it is... Books, his arch nemesis... Him, sitting at one of the open study areas with a stack of brand new text books in front of him that barely look touched, a mug of something on the table that's a dark dark red to the point that it's almost black and also has four tea bags sitting inside it that's steeped so long the tea is no longer steaming, and also hands clamped over his ears like he's trying to block out ambient noise, or massage away a headache, or give himself a headache so he can go hang out in the infirmary for the next two weeks and not do finals.

Why does Daybreak have to be a school??? Schools suck. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nana decided to head to the roof to get some air.

After the mission against the demons, she feels cooped up. Her arm is in a sling — immobilized so the muscles torn in her bicep mend right, with daily healing sessions do it lasts a few days instead of weeks. That means no hiking, no exploring tunnels, and lots of trouble with cooking and acting. She is more than a little stir crazy. The roof is... okay? Maybe?

And when sees Kano, she brightens because finally some entertainment! She hangs back a second to see what he’s doing, if she shouldn’t interrupt. And she just happens to be there in time to see the bloody cut on his arm — the bloody knife in his lap — and the blood on his hand. Nana’s eyes widen. She gasps after the illusion makes the cut vanish. Her mouth hangs open and uncertain horror becomes more focused. She walks up quickly, keeping her voice low. She wants to scream but that might not be smart.]

Kano-kun. What... what are you doing with that knife?

[She looks as tense as he’s ever seen her.]

[ People aren't supposed to go up to the roofs anymore, is what he'd wanted to bank on, but the fencing all around the perimeter just invites unwanted company— not that he dislikes Nana's company, it's the opposite, but he doesn't want anybody's company while he's doing something like this, throwing a slow glance over his shoulder at her rather than make any quick movements, as much as he wants to jump to his feet and hide the knife behind his back or maybe throw it off the rooftop if he didn't believe it'd impale somebody with his luck.

He'd made the decision to do this up here, rather than the relative privacy of his bedroom, so he'd come with a ready explanation in case things go wrong. An unreadable smile on his face, both hands held up and— the knife in his lap turns into notebook, and he lets the entire scene flicker back: one moment clean hands and the book, the next moment, a knife and him covered with blood. ]

Hehe~ It's convincing, isn't it? Did I fool you?

[ Like when he'd pretended to be dead in front of Nana, way back, he can pretend he's pretending the same way. The knife, the blood, those are the illusions, not the fact that he's hiding them. ]

[That--

That, actually, makes a lot of sense. Kano has appeared to be a corpse once. He made her think he fell out of a plane, too. This fits. She still looks on edge -- the way she does when anyone she cares about even seems to be hurt. There is some haste in how she moves over, and she jostles the arm in the sling. Nnnhh, she vocalizes, quietly.

She looks down, seeing the knife covered in blood, and then not. Her eyes are a little wide, before she looks up at him. Her smile is flickering and brief, but not out of disbelief.]

Y-Yes, definitely... I really thought you'd been cutting yourself, and... [She doesn't know how that ends. It's like the fear and worry that brought on won't quite go away; thinking about it would invite it back.]

...You're really okay? What are you doing up here, practicing something like that?

[ And... She doesn't need to finish that thought, because it'd be too much like all the thoughts that'd run through Kano's mind when he had thought Minako had been hurting herself, or planning to. So he's going to deny that with everything he has, keeping his arm as close and still as possible so he doesn't jostle it and give himself away, laughing under his breath and waving his good hand dismissively in front of his face. ]

I'm okay, I'm okay, it's nothing like that! It's like you said, though~ I'm up here, 'cause I'm practicing something like that. It's not perfect yet, so I can't show off to anybody else... Catching me in the middle of practice, it's pretty embarrassing for me, Nana-chan~

I-I'm glad. [Calm down, she tells herself.

She swallows, and she tries to force her question down with it -- like she could. She looks down for a moment. Then... the question comes back up. It's been there ever since the snow mountain. But the plane, this, and just seeing all the illusions he can do has reinforced it.

Nana blurts it out, then regrets it:] ...Why do you make illusions like you've been hurt or died? Is it--does it bother you, to think of that kind of thing happening? Imagining it?

[ "Why" is a more difficult question to answer than the other two, and not something he thinks he can explain without it sounding horrible. But whether it bothers him, creating illusions of death and dying, the answer is no, not at all. The illusions he makes are strong when he can imagine them clearly, and even stronger when it's something he's personally experienced— lying on the ground covered in blood, it's convincing because it's an experience. It never bothered him, even when he was little, and— sitting here, blinking mutely at Nana— he thinks maybe it should. ]

...Hm... how to explain? It's because it's fake, isn't it? Knowing that, it doesn't bother me.

[ As long as it's fake and he knows it's fake, it shouldn't matter, or something like that. ]

Anyways! My reasons for them are no good!! But it's useful, so sorry you had to see that~

[The injury makes nana think of Yuya, and how she didn’t really keep him safe. That same sinking feeling that never really left, and even an illusory (as far as she knows) injury keeps it from leaving her mind entirely. It’s a little more effort than usual to make herself smile.

She does though.] It’s okay. I’m sorry I snuck up on you.

[She looks around at the chain link fences that make it harder to enjoy the view up here.]

I came up here for fresh air, not anything important.

[ There's nothing Nana can do about this, so that even if she'd told Kano what's on her mind, he wouldn't be able to reassure her anyways. This is his secret, until he learns how to use the magic, and even after.

Gingerly, he hugs his arms to his chest so he can have a hand covering the wound at all times, trying his best to numb and heal it even while he talks, but there's a settling suspicion that maybe it just doesn't work on himself.

Outwardly, though, smiles. ]

Feeling a bit stuffy cooped up in your room all day? The weather's getting nicer, so you should definitely come out and play more~

["There's nothing Nana can do about this" tends to be the root of her very worst decisions, unfortunately. She watches the way he hugs his hand to his chest. There is just a prickle of suspicion, there, and then she looks down at the ground.

She sighs, and it's a little frustrated. Not with him; with herself, the world, and maybe just plain stir craziness.

All of those.]

Yeah... I have to not move my arm. It tore the muscle in my bicep when it bit me, and it's regrowing--um, they're using healing magic on it twice a day--but they don't want to strain it at all.

And it's kind of hard to go hiking, cook, play a video game, or even do more than walk around with that. I think I've walked all across campus twice in the last two days.

[ Ugh... if only he could figure out how this whole healing thing works, he could have helped, maybe. Healing something in an instant... there's a certain something he wants to heal at his end goal, but maybe if he can figure something out by the end of the week, he can help Nana and that'll be a good first step.

If not mending, though, surely there's still other ways he can help. ]

There's lots of things you can do without moving your arm, though? Exciting things, too! Movies, and amusement park rides, those sorts of things?

I'm not sure if amusement park rides are the best idea--if it shook my arm or something... but I could do a movie.

[She brightens, standing up straighter. And she tries to ignore how her arm stings a little, when she does.

It does sound like a nice distraction. She could use it; if she gets away from thinking about her arm, she gets to thinking about Yuya. That's not much better.]

Any suggestions?

Have you seen any of the Shrek movies?

[ IF THERE'S ONE FRANCHISE TO DISTRACT SOMEBODY, IT WOULD BE THIS, second tier only to bees. ]

Oh, it's... the one with the green person? I think I saw pictures of them, but I never saw any of them before!

[It's true...]

[ !!! ]

With the green person! And the kickass dragon!

[ And the donkey, but the donkey is the best part and he's not going to ruin it for her. ]

We'll marathon it! Today!! The movies, and the musical and everything too! You'd probably like the musical!!

[Excitement is infectious. Nana starts to look all the more excited, eyes bright and her smile going from tired and forced to the usual, animated expression. Marathoning a movie series!

With Kano!

And it's a musical!

And the main character is green, KIND OF LIKE A FROG.....]

I love musicals! I bet I would love it! Where should we go? Do you have it on DVD? Should we find it online? I can't make snacks but maybe I could manage popcorn...

[ I've never seen the musical but a brief look at Google Images makes me want to cry, and that is exactly the reaction from Nana that Kano's excited for, even if he also has to suffer through it. ]

I got that covered, so leave them to me~! [ Illegally downloaded!!! ] We can watch it over at Aube dorms, in the first floor lounge~ A movie night with popcorn would be fun!

[She visibly wants to clap her hands, the way she does when she's really excited or happy. Instead, Nana's good hand awkwardly pats the air once, twice -- and then slides down to her side.

She smiles, sheepishly, at him.] Aube... I can do that. Want me to prepare the popcorn while you get the movies?

[ He's going to make her fall in love with the movie and then be horrified by the musical if it's the last thing he does.

First though, he laughs and extends his good hand— ] Here, I'll help you clap~ [ High five, Nana! ]

And yeah, popcorn would be great! The plain kind, with no butter or salt? While I'll go ahead over there and kick everybody out of the lounge~

[High five!! She cheers a little when she does it.

Nana turns, eyes on him for a second, as she considers it. Should she complain that he'll kick everyone out?

Nope. Nope, that means they're alone. She's fine with this.]

I like plain popcorn, no salt or butter. [It's healthier!] I'll get it set up, then meet you there.

Roger that~!

[ He'll walk her downstairs until they part at their respective doors, Kano slipping into his room so he can clean himself off and do a somewhat okay bandaging job and then exit out the "fire escape" next to his bedroom window instead of taking the stairs.

The lounge at Aube is cleared out, and there's a wide screen monitor set up with the first Shrek movie on the title screen ready for their marathon. ]

Edited 2019-03-21 03:26 (UTC)

[Nana takes a little longer than usual to get the popcorn ready. When she comes into Aube’s first floor lounge, she has a large decorated ceramic bowl with a still hot bag of microwaved popcorn inside it. It’s tucked under her good arm.

She looks around, surprised despite herself. He really did kick everyone out. She wonders if that was hard or easy.

Nana smiles at Kano, though, and heads over to the sofa. She has to do a bit of gymnastics to get a hand under the bowl and hand it out to him.] Here you go!

[ He absolutely did kick everybody out, and once the movie starts playing, he has no doubt anybody who walks in on them would just pull a face and turn around and walk the other way. ]

I'll take it, I'll take it~ Careful around the steam, okay?

[ He shifts over so that he's at one end of the couch, comfortably tucked in the corner with the back and arm protecting his sides and bowl of popcorn on his other between the two of them— purposely on Nana's bad side so she'd have to reach awkwardly across herself to get any popcorn...

She couldn't pull open the bag with just one good arm, huh? He's not in as bad a shape, though tearing the bag open does remind him that he's doing something stupid such as marathonning movies while his arm is just wrapped up with gauze with nothing much else done to it. ]

I will, I will.

[She starts to move to sit to his other side, but he's already moved against the arm and back of the couch. She starts to sit down, then... tries to reach for popcorn...

And that seems inconvenient.

She glances sideways at him, and smiles.] I, um, may need to sit on the other side of you, if that's okay.

There's no room on the other side. But if you need somewhere to sit...

[ He uncurls himself and sits up properly, back straight and legs flat and together, and pats his lap, looking at her expectantly.

Trying really hard not to laugh. ]

[Nana looks at him.

Then she looks down at his lap.

Then back at his face. Somewhere in all that looking, her cheeks started to turn red. But she also thinks she should actually try to keep up with the teasing rather than ignore or tell him to cut it out.

Because she has a lot of fun doing that.

So she scoots over. But no, she thinks, she's too tall to sit in his lap, it will block his view of the screen, and also it is SITTING IN KANO'S LAP AND THAT FEELS LIKE A LOT TO ACTUALLY DO.

But, not content to just roll her eyes at him, Nana shifts over closer -- like she's actually going to sit on his lap. Instead, though, she leans against his side. She rests her head on his shoulder, and reaches her good arm across both of them to try to get a piece of popcorn.]

Okay. This works. [...yeah no she's still reaching all the way across her and him and it's some effort to even reach the bowl. Mrrf!!] Really! This works!

[She finally picks a piece of popcorn up. She throws it into her mouth.]

i, because I guess I wanted to write more Nana panicking?

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omg the donkey in the musical

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