On receiving Pao-Lin's hairpin from completing a trial and so on

[sponsorigami]

No, in game, but we use this journal for memes too. It doesn't make sense to have it then. Besides, I don't have my jacket anymore, so... they're all inaccurate for Exit Void anyways...

Um, just please stop thinking about it. I already know people will comment on the hairpin, and I don't care.

[He's a guy wearing a flower hairpin, but he also has a very good reason to wear it in game.]

But, giving me an icon of it... it doesn't make sense.

Comments

[ustream]

Cute hairpin! [SINCERE.]

[sponsorigami]

I... a lot people seem to think so too, Mr. Sky High.

[Maybe he does look cute with it on, and in game, he hasn't gotten the ridicule he thought he'd get for it... but still...]

[ustream]

Yes! I couldn't have thought of a better hairpin; it even matches your eyes! ...And your outfit, usually!

Is it special to you? [not quite clicking that it belonged to pao-lin just yet...]

[sponsorigami]

Eh? It does?

[Ivan's hasn't really looked in a mirror lately, being in a horror game and all, and his beloved jacket has sadly fallen to tattered shreds in his locker.]

It... was Pao-Lin's...

[ustream]

It does, it truly does!

[it... was? was this some new fashionable thing teenagers did with one another, exchange hair accessories? except ivan usually didn't wear one, so that wouldn't work. or...]

I take it she's not with you?

[sponsorigami]

No. She's not anymore. She-She's gone. Along with Mr. Tiger and Mr. Barnaby.

[A hand goes to the hairpin.]

[ustream]

[a-aww. seeing ivan sad like this... seeing anyone sad, really. he's more well-acquainted with loneliness, not loss.]

I'm sorry you've had to experience that. [...] I've been fortunate in that regard, so far.

[sponsorigami]

I... really hope you never have to, Mr. Sky High. It's awful. Please say wherever you are is nicer.

[ustream]

[...] It is, beyond the occasional strange event or two.

But I believe you can get through it, because you're a Hero.

[sponsorigami]

I'm glad. I'm... really glad that's the case.

[Not commenting on the last part because Ivan believes he's not doing a very good job right now.]

[ustream]

[while he has no idea what ivan's been through, his demeanor says enough alone. sky high smiles, as reassuring as he's able to.]

Keep your chip up, okay?

[sponsorigami]

... I'll try to, Mr. Sky High.

[Although in game events are making it really hard as they keep piling up on him.]

[i_am_not_cute]

[The funny thing is that Pao-Lin is slightly more weirded out by seeing a second version of her hairpin floating around than she is by seeing it on Ivan. But only slightly.]

...how did you get that? Is that from when...

[From when he saw her die in his game?]

[sponsorigami]

[Not that he thought he was, but it's both nice and saddening to have confirmation that it's the same hairpin, even if it looks like it's seen better days.]

No, actually received this later after I helped an undine. When... well, it had gone with you.

[i_am_not_cute]

Why did an undine have my hairpin? Did I drown or something?

[She sort of means it as a light-hearted joke, but her voice is hushed. She remembers Ivan saying she somehow got zombified on the island, but he hadn't elaborated on how exactly she'd met her demise.]

[sponsorigami]

[Ivan may have gotten a shade paler at the mentioning of drowning, but he decides to concentrate on the first question and leaves the whole drowning thing be.]

No, that wasn't it. I think everyone who had helped and completed a trial got something... The undine actually gave me a key which lead to the hairpin.

[i_am_not_cute]

Was this set up by COMPASS, then?

[She's still trying to get a grasp on what's going on in Ivan's game. It doesn't sound good at all, but as a Hero she has to know.]

[sponsorigami]

I'm not sure. We visited an island that was in the middle of a civil war and that blocked our powers, and we were supposed to be reinforcements for Vidal. Many of us deserted instead.

For once the island didn't get destroyed when the time came for us to return to the ship... but then we met our new Project Head.

[i_am_not_cute]

[Oh, that power-blocking thing sounds scary. Pao-Lin can of course fight without them, but by this point in her life she's grown used to being able to call on them at will. Then of course there's the matter of Ivan's matter-of-fact comment of an island not being destroyed "for once"...]

New Project Head?

[sponsorigami]

[He got stuck as Sanji for a day, so he had two weeks worth of power troubles, and three islands out of four he's been on have faced a catastrophic end.]

As near as I can tell, the person controlling the experiment for COMPASS. He's... made of water.

[Don't mind Ivan turning a little paler at the thought.]

[i_am_not_cute]

Made of water? [She ponders this a bit.] I knew someone who was made of fire, so he could turn his body into flames and control them. [Good ol' Ace.] Is it like that?

[sponsorigami]

No... you look at where his body should be, and he's water. I don't think there's any turning into involved.

[Funny, he doesn't know that Ace can do that yet.]

[i_am_not_cute]

So he's just...a person-shaped blob of water?

[That's kinda trippy, ninjabro.]

[sponsorigami]

He does wear clothes, but that's pretty much what he looks like...

[He is kinda classy though.]

[i_am_not_cute]

[Not as classy as LinLin. ]

His clothes must be soaking wet all the time, then.

[More attempts at joking! Sort of.]

[sponsorigami]

[He gives a weak laugh that sounds hollow. He tried.]

Yeah they must be...

[i_am_not_cute]

[Even someone as normally dense as Pao-Lin can pick up on the emptiness behind Ivan's laugh. Her own smile drops from her face, and she lets a few moments pass before speaking.]

...I wish I could be on the Charon, too. Even if horrible things keep happening there, you shouldn't be by yourself.

[She's seen Origami Cyclone go from a background Hero to one who actually tries to live up to heroic expectations within less than a season's span, but she still thinks of him as the wallflower kid keeping to himself. He's the last person she'd want to see subjected to such trials, especially when there's apparently no other Heroes on the ship.]

[sponsorigami]

No! D-don't even say that! I wouldn't wish even my enemies in this place. You've already been here--there--You died!

[Which one is the other's senior? Right now, it seems like Pao-Lin is the senpai. With how he is in game, he could probably do well with some hero influence.]

[i_am_not_cute]

Well, I died in Luceti too, you know. So it's not like I'm not used to it. [The cynical edge in her words is a strange thing coming from someone normally so earnest. That, and it also helps that she confessed this to Ivan in their 4th wall thread.] Besides, I'm allowed to want to protect a friend, right? That's what friends do.

[Did you say Ivan needed some Hero influence? Apparently he's getting a friendship speech instead, with a generous side order of mamoruing.]

[sponsorigami]

Yeah, but... this place can even turn friends against each other... make people who'd never want to kill someone think they want to kill the people they care about and wanted to protect.

[i_am_not_cute]

Luceti does that, too.











...I know, because that's how I died.

[sponsorigami]

... These places just have the same horrors in different settings... don't they?

[i_am_not_cute]

Yeah. [She scratches her neck.] But it sounds like you have it worse than I do. [A corner of her mouth quirks up a little, like she's trying to smile.] It's weird, you know...even after all the bad things that's happened, I still kinda like Luceti most of the time.

[She feels a little guilty about it, though. But she has so many friends there and got to do lots of cool things and even still got to help people out every now and again. She couldn't help growing fond of it a little.]

[sponsorigami]

... There are some really nice people stuck with me. I guess that keeps the place from being a complete nightmare... though they deserve better.

[ The rest of it though? Yeah, he can completely do without. ]

[i_am_not_cute]

[Pao-Lin nods.]

It's what I like about Luceti, too. I have more friends there than in Sternbild. It's just easier to talk to people there, you know? I don't have to worry about keeping a secret identity or anything.

[And no one cares that she's a NEXT. Hell, she's probably one of the more normal people in the enclosure.]

[sponsorigami]

I tried to... it didn't work out that well. People figured out who I was really easily.

[ Who else used ninja de gozaru? ]

And I've got people who consider me their brother. I mean, I don't know why they want to, but they do...

[ Okay, so he's not entirely sure if Mr. Sanji considers a brother anymore, but... well, Ivan would understand. ]

[i_am_not_cute]

Well, it's because you're a nice person, of course!

[PAO-LOGIC. BOW DOWN BEFORE IT.]

[sponsorigami]

I guess... but I seem more like a burden or an enemy to them lately.

[ And it really sucks because he's supposed to be a Hero and logic is deflected by pessimism. ]

[i_am_not_cute]

I can understand that. [She's been there, bro.] But if things were switched around, you'd want to support them too, right?

[That's what friends are for!]

[sponsorigami]

Of course. I'd do anything for them.

...

Well, almost anything.

[ He doesn't want to kill people or traumatize them "for their own good" ... ]

[i_am_not_cute]

Yeah! So, they probably know that and are just returning the favor!

[Funny how she can talk like she's an expert on friends when she only really regained them recently. [paoblood]...]

[sponsorigami]

But there's no favor to return. It's not like I've been able to help anyone lately.

[ Ivan stop being emo. You haven't lost any friends from after what had happened. ]

[i_am_not_cute]

[Uggggh Pao-Lin is so bad at this pep talk thing. Why can't she just punch the depression away? That would've made her childhood much easier too.]

But if you're friends, that shouldn't matter. They'll help you whether or not you can help them. Have they said that they don't want to be friends with you anymore?

[sponsorigami]

[ It would have made Ivan's childhood much easier as well. Why can't life be more shounen like? ]

... No, they haven't.

[i_am_not_cute]

So I think you're fine! If they don't want to be friends, they'll just come out and say so.

[Because that's what happened in her childhood, so obviously that must be the case elsewhere. Right?]

[sponsorigami]

[ His too. Oh the life of a NEXT... ]

Yeah... I guess they would, huh.

... Thanks.