towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Akihiko and You (Open)
Setting: Cafeteria, Floors 22 and 25
Format: Whatever floats your boat
Summary: Akihiko's back from his dead world, getting back into the swing of tower life and a little unsure what to think about the experience.
Warnings: None at the moment

Cafeteria

There wasn't a lot of food to be found in the ruins of his world, and he's lost some weight from lack of nourishment. Most everything he ate was in a can or vacuum-sealed. Everything full of preservatives and cold.

It's fortunate that the cafeteria has a somewhat normal menu upon his return. It's not good for his regiment to eat so much, but letting go one time can't hurt, especially after what happened.

Hell, he can even tolerate the candy hearts that seem to have ended up into everything.

Floor 22

Akihiko's nothing of an art critic, but today the gallery catches his interest, as he catches a glance of a painting depicting children playing together in a room. There are two boys and a little girl in it, one boy and the girl with short, fair hair and the other dark brown. Their faces are turned away from the the viewer.

As he goes to leave, another work catches his eye. It consists of orange and red lengths of yarn glued in shapes to a collage of brick textures that look like they've been cut out of a home improvement catalog. In fact, closer examination of the cutouts shows white space from around the images, and their glossy feel is the same as magazine paper. It wouldn't be so horrific if the yarn hadn't been adhered to the canvas in the shape of flames. That and the piece kind of smells like smoke...

The art is so unsettling but he can't pull himself away just yet.

Floor 25

Nobody seems to be ~~sleeping~~ in the meadow, so Akihiko decides to do a few practice maneuvers here. It's the closest thing to a pleasant day outside he can get anymore.

He wouldn't be against someone wanting to join him, to spar or even just talk.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He finally cracks a small smile. He's kind of glad he stopped by the gallery now. Meeting someone nice like this girl helped.

"It's good to hear you still have them to support you. My friends are my family, and that's okay with me. Heck, Shinji's practically my brother." He laughs. "I'm Akihiko Sanada, by the way."

At that, Tohko couldn't help but chuckle a little as well. That..kind of reminded her of how she got along with her friends and family.

"It's great to hear that you have such great friends to support you then! I suppose Ryuto is like an older brother to me..and I like the friends I've made, even if some of them are a little rude sometimes."

If only Konoha would quit calling her a goblin..

"And it's nice to meet you, Akihiko! I'm Tohko Amano, the book girl."

"They're rude to you? Huh." Akihiko didn't quite understand why they would be rude to her if she was their friend. He's heard of playful joking, but that seemed a little weird.

"You like to read, Amano-san?"

"Well..sometimes one of them is, but not all the time. But I'm sure he'll stop making fun of me eventually!"

At least, that's what Tohko thought. If she had stayed in her own world, she would have found out that Konoha would never stop teasing her, and Maki would never stop trying to get her to pose nude.

At the question, Tohko smiled and nodded.

"Of course! I wouldn't even be a book girl if I didn't read!"

"Yeah. People used to call me a crybaby. Then I became the boxing champ at our school." ~~And Shinjiro still calls him a crybaby.~~

"I thought so. I've never heard the term 'book girl' before."

"While that's great, that probably doesn't stop some people from calling you that..but there's nothing wrong with that! It just means you have a good heart!"

..At least, in Tohko's opinion.

"Well, of course not! After all, it's a title that belongs to only me right now!"

..Or so she thinks.

"You're the first person to make it sound like a good thing." He laughs.

He sees a lot of his own strength to push forward in her as well. It's too bad there can't be more people in the tower like that.

And Tohko looked a little surprised at that.

"Really?! I think it's pretty obvious that it's not a bad thing. In stories, that's usually the case..characters cry a bit more because they have really good hearts and can't stand all the cruelty that they see around them."

"I guess I should read more. My extra-curricular stuff kind of eats into my free time."

Finding strength in your weaknesses is an interesting concept. For most of his life his goal has been to eliminate them as much as possible.

"Oh, you really should read more! The things you'll find in stories are quite wonderful, and you can't find them anywhere else! If you have a free moment here, you should read a book or two."

Since Tohko couldn't destroy her weaknesses, she tried to make the best of them and use them to her advantage.