[ Closed ]

[noholdsbard]

WHO: Shiho & Tristan
WHERE: Shiho’s place, Ruga
WHEN: Backdated to sometime during the event
WHAT: When there’s something strange in the neighborhood…
WARNINGS: N/A

[ He can only feel some relief that these things aren’t out to harm them (at least not physically) before it’s superseded with the fact that he remembers his last chat with someone involving ghosts.

Which are something he’s really come to expect, despite how empty the churchyard is, but harmless or no, he gets the feeling that Shiho’s not going to appreciate having them around. But what to do when you’re a medieval man with only the most rudimentary understanding of social media who needs to find a damsel who might be in distress? You basically go on a quest.

Roaming about town—it’s as good an excuse as any to look around and watch what the ghosts are doing—is the best he can manage at the moment, despite his magically enhanced senses. But more importantly, he hears that scream, and immediately sets off in the general direction of her voice. ]

Comments

[good_ideas]

[The last person Shiho wants to be is the one who goes into a town full of ghosts when she could spend her day safe. In a closet.

But even then, food had to happen and it's when she turns around with a plate full of lunch that she walks straight into a patch of cold and a transparent ex-resident of her home. She feels a chill run straight down her back and she drops the plate with a crash and a scream.

Is she over-reacting? Probably. But ghosts are scary and her reaction to them has always been visceral and impossible to rein in. She scrambles back with a painful bang against the front door and crouches on the floor, hands over her head.]

[noholdsbard]

Shiho! [ He arrives in record time, his voice already on the other side of that door as he calls out to her.

It occurs to him then that he’d never checked to see if she was living alone—she seemed like the sort of person who could take care of herself, and yet…well, that scream said it all. ]

Shiho, are you all right? Shall I come in? [ Because he really will break down the door if she doesn’t stop him. ]

[good_ideas]

[She isn't living alone but she is also probably the only one who refuses to leave the house while the ghosts are out and about. And normally she is very independent. Lazy and a bit of a big bully but she is definitely able to do anything she wants to.

Right now though, she jumps when she hears the voice outside the door. She knows who that is.]

A-Archer? I-

[A ghost walks right through her, going through the motion of opening the door and she backs away with a strangled noise.]

[noholdsbard]

[ This is bad. There are less upsetting ways to go about saving damsels in distress that don’t involve breaking and entering, but that scream is deeply concerning and he decides not to waste any more time dithering over it. ]

Please stand back. I am coming to get you. [ he says as that ghost exits the premises to walk through him—and doesn’t that feel funny! After which he promptly rips the door off its hinges in one swift motion.

He’ll…explain how he managed that later. ]

…Shiho?

[good_ideas]

[Goodbye, door...

Shiho jumps from where she is on the ground, looking up at him teary-eyed and more than a little terrified.]

What-... W-Why? Did you just-

[THE DOOR.

She tries to stand but her legs are shaky and she... doesn't manage it at all.]

[noholdsbard]

[ The sight of her breaks his heart. Had he come too late? As harmless as these shades have been in his experience…well, no time to dwell on that now as he gently places that door against the wall and kneels in front of her.

Right. He’ll have to fix that later, somehow. For the time being, however, all his attention is focused on her. ]

I will take care of it later. Are you all right? Would you like me to take you elsewhere for a little while? [ He’s already offering his hand to help her up. ]

[good_ideas]

I'm fine. [She knows how this looks... so she doubles down by being stubborn.]

And a-aren't there ghosts outside too? Where are you going to take me? [The hand gets a look... at the same time that the ghost walks back in through the now non-existent door because they forgot something.

Shiho moves fast, gripping onto Tristan's hand and attempting to hide.]

[noholdsbard]

[ He swiftly drapes his cape over her, if only to shield her from the sight of these ghosts, as he considers her question. He’d thought about it on the way over, sure, but it’s a little difficult to really put his plans into action when he sees her like this—so painfully vulnerable and not like her usual snarky self.

But he does make up his mind on one point: ]

Do you mind heights?

[good_ideas]

[She appreciates the cape a lot, curling up smaller in a bid to hide herself better.]

....Heights? Of course I don't mind them. [Kaoru regularly takes her very high above the city, after all.]

[noholdsbard]

…Very well. [ It’s a little drastic, but…he quickly sweeps her off her feet in a princess carry and makes a flying leap to her rooftop, where they’re at least safe from ghosts unless you count the sight of so many milling about town at this vantage point.

Are you tired of all these surprise superpowers yet. ]

[good_ideas]

[When you come from a world where superpowers are the norm, Shiho really isn't... that surprised. She's still holding onto him, after all. The jumping is different though, that's for sure, especially when she's used to the weightlessness of psychokinesis.

She clings onto him again, her grip tightening when she sees just how many ghosts there are below.]

...They're everywhere...

[noholdsbard]

[ He can imagine that she wouldn’t be rattled at all, after he’d seen Kaoru demonstrate her own powers. Still, he can’t help feeling concerned— ]

That is so. [ None of them can really help that. ] It’s strange…nothing can be done to them. It is as though they are not really there.

[good_ideas]

Well... yeah... because they're ghosts, or something. Right?

[And from what she's seen in movies and scary TV shows, there is nothing humans can do to ghosts. They're here for ghosts to torment and now she's scaring herself again.]

.....At least they don't seem to care that we're here.

[noholdsbard]

They can’t be. [ He’s technically ghostly himself, so… ] Even ghosts must respond to external stimuli. These people seem more like… [ what’s the word— ]

…illusions?

[good_ideas]

[She forgot he was a ghost expert but thinking of ghosts responding to anything is just as scary as when they don't.]

An illusion to do what? To scare us all? [....probably not... now that she's thinking about it.]

And what's the point?

[noholdsbard]

Perhaps…they only wish to be remembered.

[ Then again, he might not be talking about the ghosts at this point… ]

[good_ideas]

[....how dare he make her sad about ghosts.]


....Well.... I guess this is one way to make sure we never forget them.

[noholdsbard]

But why do they vex you so, even if they have done nothing?

[ From his perspective the ghosts can’t help being what they are, after all. ]

[good_ideas]

I'm not vexed, I'm just-

[...Scared.]

I'm not good with occult stuff like this.

[noholdsbard]

[ He can read between the lines there, at what she won’t admit to. ]

I’m sorry. It was presumptuous of me to ask. You need not explain any further, of course.

[good_ideas]

...You're allowed to ask, you know. You don't need to apologize.

[Long ago an old lady scared her when she was a kid.... and she's never been able to shake it off since.]

[noholdsbard]

[ Shiho… ]

A woman’s secrets are not mine to take. Especially where it concerns her…vulnerabilities.

[good_ideas]

If you ask and I'm willing to tell you, that's me trusting you. I wouldn't tell you anything if I didn't want to.

[BESIDES:]

...Just because I'm afraid doesn't mean I'm vulnerable to ghosts. [It just means she's completely useless around them.... But that's fine.]

[noholdsbard]

[ That sure sounds like a vulnerability to him…but okay he’s not going to argue this. He does smile a little, however. ]

I am honored that you would trust me with such a secret.

[good_ideas]

[It's wise of him not to say anything about it because there's only so much explaining she can do before she runs out of excuses.]

...You should be. [Because she definitely doesn't allow herself to be vulnerable around just anyone.]

And you still owe me a song too.

[noholdsbard]

Indeed. I cannot think of a more romantic location than a rooftop. [ He just has to set her down first because has he really been carrying her all this time— ]

[good_ideas]

[As soon as he sets her down, she's setting her hands on her hips:]

Romance has nothing to do with this. It's supposed to be uplifting. [Did he hope to distract her from the ghosts? Because it's working.]

[noholdsbard]

[ WHATEVER WORKS.

But he’s working with a harp here—and also his chronic depression. Maybe don’t have high hopes about this.

But once she gets nice and comfortable on the rooftop, he’ll take a seat next to her, legs swinging out over the edge as he pulls out his harp. ]

“Over the Future”… Even the name is uplifting.

[good_ideas]

Of course it is. [That's what their entire series is about, after all. It's too late though, she already has high hopes for this, looking at him expectantly.]

It's a song that will help people overcome the past and head towards the future. Or something.

[noholdsbard]

Ah, how inspiring… [ He sighs, not exactly feeling uplifted in that moment, alas. But his fingers glide over the strings in that moment, humming the opening lyrics before he launches into that instrumental section— ]

But these lyrics…they did not come by without hardship, did they?

[good_ideas]

[It's been so long since she's heard someone play their opening theme. Smiling from the nostalgia of it, she looks so much more relaxed than she ever has.]

...No, they didn't. [But there is a future for them to look forward to, to shape as they saw fit. She's going to grin at him though:]

Someone had to write them, you know?

[noholdsbard]

[ Wonderful, wonderful. If this is what it takes to get her mind off of all that ghost stuff, then she’ll have all the encores she wants. And her smile…it’s catching, more so than the tune of “Over the Future” itself. ]

Do you mean yourself, then? [ It feels like a very Shiho song. ]

[good_ideas]

I think it was Mitsumi Sumiyo-san, actually. Besides, you say that like I had no friends to help me or something.

[Because she probably could not have managed it by herself. She is, after all, a pessimist and has been since she was five years old. The only difference is that now though she believes things may still go pancake-shaped, she also has confidence in her ability to force it back into a more acceptable state of being by any means necessary.]

[noholdsbard]

[ The name doesn’t strike him as anyone familiar, but… ]

Then I stand corrected, Miss Shiho. Friendships make triumphs all the sweeter. Oh, friends are truly the balm of one’s soul.

[ Even if he feels that his presence in some way contributes to the downfall of all he holds dear but shhh shhhhhh… ]

I am sure that young Miss Kaoru feels the same way.

[good_ideas]

[Have to give credit to the lyricist, of course!]

.....That's cheesy. [But she knows it's true. Thank goodness for Kaoru.]

But I guess I'm glad I have friends like her. And I guess you can count too, technically.

[noholdsbard]

“Technically”? [ He chuckles, stopping mid-song for the moment as he lets that sink in.

She just admitted to them being friends. Like, it’s not even implied or anything!!! ]

Surely you can give me more credit than that, Shiho. [ Oops, where did the “miss” go. ]

[good_ideas]

Don't be conceited. You count as my friend and that's all you get. [For today, anyway. Being Best Friend takes more than just a song and saving her from ghosts.]

[noholdsbard]

Then I will happily accept this friendship. [ And with that, he continues to play the rest of the song, humming along to the lyrics as he does so. ]

[good_ideas]

You'd better. My friendship is difficult to earn, you know.

[But after that she does quiet down some and actually listen to him sing the rest of the cutesy lyrics.]