walkersystem | 4 ✶ video/action

Entry tags:

4 ✶ video/action

[Hello network! Today we have a pretty excited looking Molly who's keeping the camera turned around on herself as she's walking through a busy Goldenrod street. Her Natu is perched on her shoulder, on occasion chirping quietly to herself.]

This city is really big! I mean, I knew it'd be big, and I know it's not as big as New York, but it's really big compared to Violet.

Anyway, I bought a map, and I saved up some money, so ... does anybody know any good places that I should go to? Like your favorite spots or something? Everybody has those.

Okay, bye!

[She waves at the feed before she turns it off.]

[Action: she is anywhere and everywhere throughout this and the following days, having fun in following that tourist map of hers to well known stores and coffee shops and craft stores and town squares and yes she wants to see everything. Feel free to run into her anywhere.]

Audio, private to Jimmy: Hi Jimmy, I'm in Goldenrod now! If you still want to fly here.

Audio, private to Rin: I'm here now! Where are you? Can I come see you if you're not busy?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So it's not like ... letters?

Wait.

_{[She picks up her backpack from the floor and pulls out a journal and a colored pencil, then opens on a blank page and starts copying the symbols down while she asks and listens.]}

Yeah, they are. The tree one's straighter though.

In a way, but not exactly. Letters make up words in English, right? With Kanji, the whole symbol itself means something, as do the parts that make it up. And different kanji together mean different things.

[When Molly suddenly starts copying what he's written, he feels something in his chest tighten. It's not uncomfortable so much as it's...a strange feeling of longing that he never thought he'd get during his time here.

He swallows hard, adjusting his grip on his pen as he watches her, turning his notepad a bit so she can see them upright.]

That's...why they can be tricky, sometimes. Some look a lot like others.

[He leans over a bit so he can see what she's written.]

Yours look good, though. Make sure this line here connects...or else your tree will turn into water.

Like this?

_{[She adjusts as he points it out, her own strokes obviously a lot less refined and smooth than his are, a little uneven in that way kids' letters often are. But with that comes a certain energy too.]}

So ... they're both letters and they aren't.

Yes, exactly. They take some time to learn, but once you know them it isn't so bad. And it really is a lot of fun, writing them.

[Hide nods firmly in agreement from across the table, looking up briefly from his book with the tip of his tail wagging.]

It's so weird.

_{[Which she says in that entirely non judgmental way. She just lacks the word she's seeking.]}

I didn't know you could write without letters. They look pretty, though.

They are pretty, I agree.

[He's idly writing on his pad now as he talks; not actually writing more kanji, but just moving his wrist to let the pen write in small circles to give his hand something to do.]

You can keep this paper with your name on it, if you would like. You can practice writing your name in kanji.

Thanks!

_{[She gladly takes the offered piece of paper, neatly folds it in half and tucks it between two of the pages. ... then she changes her mind and writes her own name beneath where he'd written it.]}

What was your name again?

_{[So she won't forget what it means.]}

My name is Kaneki Ken. But you can just call me Kaneki.

[He replies, resting his forearms against the table as he folds his notebook closed again.

For a moment, he seems like he wants to say something else, but doesn't. After a second, though, he changes his mind and continues anyway, reaching up to scratch the side of his face.]

If you...if you ever want to know how to write something else...I would be happy to show you, Molly-san.

_{[She diligently writes this down beneath his name in kanji. It's a mixmatch of neater and not so neat writing, and in different colors, but that has a lot of appeal.]

[She looks a little surprised at the offer too, but then she lights up and nods.]}

Okay! I'll ask you if think of anything.

_{[Putting the note in her journal again, she puts it back in her backpack and digs around a little.]}

Do you want to draw?

[Kaneki blinks, pushing his book aside for the moment. He'll have plenty of time to finish it back at the hotel, and now it's his turn to be surprised by her offer.]

Well...sure, I guess.

[He turns the pen around once in his hand, looking up at Hide still leafing through his big picture book. It seems that he's been looking at the same one this whole time.]

What do you want to draw?

_{[She pulls out her sketchpad from her backpack and picks up a number more coloured pencils that she just kinda drops in the middle of the table. It means help yourself, Kaneki. You can borrow them if you want.]}

I don't know. I just want to draw.

_{[... BUT WHAT IF]}

We could draw each other!

[Well that causes him to smile, even as Hide bends over to grab one of the pencils to examine, his picture book momentarily forgotten.]

Alright, we can do that. I'm...not all that great, but my friend and I used to draw some back home.

_{[When Molly notices Hide reach over to take one of them, she shoots him a smile and a quick "hang on" before she tears out a paper from her book to give to him. In case he also wants to draw.]}

You draw little houses all the time!

_{[Teasing, in that very friendly way.]}

I bet you're good at it.

[Kaneki exchanges his pen for one of the pencils as Hide takes the paper excitedly from Molly, putting his book aside and immediately getting on his belly on the table to start to draw.

He chuckles good-naturedly, starting to draw lazy circles on his paper again.]

Yeah, I guess you have a point, there.

_{[Molly, on the other hand, throws herself right into the drawing. She picks up a black pencil for starters since Kaneki has black hair, and watches him as she draws and starts carefully drawing the shape of his face.]}

Well yeah. I'm really good at points.

_{[Just nonchalantly, but again in a friendly tone, even as she gets a little distracted as she starts mapping the drawing out.]}

[He notices a bit too late that he picked up green. Molly's hair certainly isn't green, so that will just uhh...be the grass. Yeah. So he starts busily coloring that in while she talks, glancing up slightly at that quip.]

You know...you remind me of someone I know back home. A little.

[Molly definitely has a lot more of an outgoing personality than who he's thinking of...but they still share similarities.]

_{[She's surprised by this, but not as much as she probably would have been half a year ago. Pausing from one of the straight lines that would be his neck, she looks up at him, tilting her head a little.]}

Really? Who?

[He finishes with the grass before answering, moving to pick up another pencil so he can actually start drawing her.]

Her name is Hinami-chan. I helped teach her how to read kanji, sometimes.

_{[She nods, a little more serious on this topic for some reason. Maybe it's something in the way he's talking about it that just seems to be that way. She darkens a line a few times to make it stronger and then draws a half circle for his shirt collar.]}

Were you friends?

Mhm. We were.

[Well, they are. Nothing has happened to her, after all...at least, he hopes not.

He is silent for a moment as he starts drawing Molly's hair.]

I think she would like it here, if she ever shows up.

_{[So he misses her. Molly gets that. There are a few people she really misses, too.]}

Are any of your other friends here?

[He pauses, his expression shifting just slightly as he draws her shoulders, lightly.]

Well...yes. ...sortof. They're from home, and I do know them...I just don't know them very well yet.

_{[She frowns a little, looking up at him for a moment from where she's filling in his shirt.]}

Do you want to?

[...he couldn't tell Molly, but it was...a bit more complicated than that. Especially with one of them.]

I think so. It might take a little while, though.

Okay. I guess even if you don't get to here you can talk to them back home, right?

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