Failures

    She shrunk some, shoulders hunching. “Eh? Really?” the blue-haired idol glanced about as if to confirm Neru’s response. “Miku doesn’t mean physically. Just how it feels.” and oh, how was she supposed to explain what THAT meant? 

“It just feels like someone is singing the wrong lyrics.” whenever Miku struggled with a concept, she always seemed to fall back on relating it to music somehow. It was what she knew best. She glanced out into nothing in particular, blinked a few rapid times as another comparison came to her.

“Or…or someone tweeted something so strange it throws you off enough to not be able to even think of a reply. That’s how Miku feels. Feels weird.”

Neru looked at her like she just said the stupidest thing in the world. Which was a bit of an exaggeration since nothing will ever top the many conversations she’s had with Gakupo. Although she has had a conversation with Len about how to use snapchat that was pretty up there in terms of stupid conversations.

She continued to stare at the pop star in confusion through her whole weird singing analogy. Like we get it you sing, god fucking brag about it. Diva.

She finally started focusing when she heard the word tweeted. Now she was speaking her language. “Oh yeah now I get you. But I still don’t really see- or I guess feel anything wrong. You sure you’re just not feeling paranoid about something?”

“Your face isn’t interesting,” she mutters, rolling her eyes. “As for what it was, I was talking about how Miku needs to stop being popular. When I do stuff it’s not nearly as amazing as Miku!” 

“Wow that’s so original did you think of that all on your own? And don’t hold your breath, Miku’s popularity is not going away anytime soon. I mean she gets figure releases on other Vocaloid’s birthdays. Pretty fucked up.”

Neru looks back at her phone again trying to decide if this conversation is even worth her time. After a few seconds of thinking a mischievous grin appears on her face.

“Wanna try and get back at her?”

Neru rolled her eyes and scoffed at the younger Vocaloid. “Yeah those oh so many times I talked your ear off for,” she paused to look at her phone, “an hour about......Well I don’t remember what you were talking about since I wasn’t paying attention but I bet it wasn’t interesting anyway.”

Hailey watches, with faint amusement that doesn’t show on her face, as the woman yanks herself further back into the gazebo. A courtesy? Or is she merely recoiling? Probably former, actually, given that she’s already jumped. It’d be odd for someone to react twice the same way to a single thing.

“Quite,” the hellcat says, her voice just a little stiff. “Drunk humans. Always the same, no matter where you are.”

She makes no move to step into the shelter of the gazebo, content to stand there in the downpour for now. With her arms crossed, there’s only more things for water to drip off now.

“We met at some point when you were too drunk to be coherent. And now you are stuck out here in the rain, as am I. It was also raining last time we met, as I recall. Well? Does the whether always sour when you step outside, or am I particularly unlucky?”

That’s practically conversational by Hailey’s standards… But then again, she’s finding this woman faintly amusing this time, since she’s in a better mood.

Haku has to assume that the way she acted around this person when she was drunk wasn’t all that bad or else they would have avoided her completely. Unless that’s what she was doing now by not getting into the gazebo. From what she has heard from her usual drinking partners she can usually range from goofy-drunk to inconsolably-depressed-drunk. She wonders where on that spectrum she was that night when this girl encountered her.

None of the information they were providing were really helping Haku remember who she was. It also didn’t help that the harsh rain made it hard to see what the person looked like. “Yes, um, I go out drinking quite a bit so I still can’t remember who you are. I’m sorry.”

It did seem like rain was a recurring theme in her life. It always seemed that when she was feeling her lowest the rain reflected that sadness. Also, like in this case, she just had the worst luck. “Was it? I don’t think it’s every time I step outside. Just when it’s the most inconvenient for me.” She half-smiled at her joke. “Aren’t you bothered by the rain? There is plenty of room under here.” 

     🥖𝒯ℯ𝓉ℴ;;– There was a certain excitement that bubbled inside to Utauloid as she got the response. Finally, someone was willing to go and wasn’t totally busy! And someone she didn’t normally get to spend much time with, no less. She was practically giddy and bouncing as she took a hold of the other’s hand in her own with a brightening smile on her face.

     ‘ Mind? Why would I mind? As long as we’re having fun, I think we’re alright anyway! Now, let’s get going! ‘

Haku could think of at least 10 reasons as to why someone would mind hanging out with her. Maybe even 20. But she doesn’t think that Teto was asking for a real answer so she kept her mouth shut. She also didn’t have many opportunities to hang out with the other so she should at least save her self sabotaging for later. 

“Right! But uh you should lead the way since I tend to get lost very easily...”

“Uh…well,” she said, feeling embarrassed at the stranger’s offer. Depending on charity was something she had to be used to, but confirming out of the blue like this was still something she wasn’t exactly proud of. And if she knew Haku was just as poor as her, she wouldn’t know what to feel.

“So…I accept, if we get to be friends.” She said, in order to not let herself be so guilty. Though she did want to make lots of friends before her life ended, so this was at least something in that direction. “My…my name is Shimada Amara, but everyone calls me Mara, by the way.”

Haku figured this would also be a great distraction from the horrible day she had. Her extreme humiliation must at least warrant a decent meal. Maybe. She was really just trying to justify spending money on two lunches. Though she hesitated a bit when she saw the younger girl struggle to take her offer. She didn’t look like a weird person right? Though offering a child you don’t know lunch is a little weird. But-

Her thoughts shut up when the girl finally gave her answer. “Friends? Yes we can be friends! My name is Haku Yowane, but you can call be Haku. It’s nice to meet you Mara.” For a split second she wondered if giving her real name was a bad idea. She was like a C list, or maybe D list, celebrity after all. But she figured since she was out quite often, at least at night, and no one recognized her that it should be ok.

Hio regretted a bit he didn’t bring Cubi. The box demon could say some things to Neru…however, said box demon could also become friends with her and make his life worse.

“I’m not that old,” just a bit recluse…a lot recluse. “Kids like waifus. I know what a waifu is, and you’re not waifu material.” Maybe Hio isn’t hanging with the right crowd in the internet.

“Of course,” Maika said, also completely oblivious to the teasing, while clapping both hands, “Fire is just an expression of their artistic sides, the euthanasia of the masterpiece is such a powerful commentary. Mi chicos y chicas are so smart!”

Neru’s body physically cringed at every thing Hio had said. It was so painful and cringy and something you would hear put into one of those cringe compilations on Youtube. “Ugh. Just, ugh. I didn’t realize you were one of the 40 year old men on the internet who fantasize about marrying a picture on a screen and arguing with people over whether or not its okay to draw sexualized art of underage characters even though its ‘just a drawing and not real’.” She rolled her eyes at him. Sure that might have been a bit far for someone who just said the word waifu but still. It’s weird.

Haku had never thought of fire being used as a way to express yourself. Unless, you know, it’s arson. “Doesn’t the school mind that they’re doing that? Or at least their parents?”

If there’s one observation that Hailey has made before, it’s that humans most definitely do not like rain. Perhaps unsurprising; she can’t say she exactly enjoys being soaked either. But someone accustomed to life on the move will inevitably walk through a storm many, many times, so here she is, wandering the streets of the town, amusing herself however faintly by noting that all the humans have fled for shelter.

And then she sees a familiar, if not necessarily reassuring, face nearby. The hellcat sighs.

“And so we meet again, drunk lady.”

She stalks up to the gazebo, but does not slip under its cover. Rain slashes down from her in a miserable flood. Water has glued the tips of her hair together, trickling off her pink locks, and a fair share is dripping off the hem of her coat. She stands here, watching, her arms folded.

Her body physically jumped at the sound of the other voice and her phone almost flew out of her hands and into the downpour, luckily her reflexes were on her side that day and she caught it. She looked up and someone, who apparently knew who she was, stood there calmly in the rain. The problem was though was that she had no idea who this person was. But guessing by the drunk lady comment they met at a bar. To bad she frequents thoughts often and is often times completely drunk.

She pocketed her phone and grabbed her grocery bags and stepped back to make room. “Ah, hello.....you.” She tried really hard to remember but came up with nothing. “I’m sorry, you obviously know me from a bar or something but I can’t remember your name or anything...”

   LEN   GAVE   UP   LONG   AGO   IN   STUDYING   WITH   NERU — it was him studying on his own and taking notes that he was sure he’d end up passing to the opposite, it didn’t truly matter since the blond was a good student. The type that after a lesson was over, he’d review what just had been taught. 

   “ Sharp words as usual, Neru-san, you will kill this old man, you know? ” Laughing at her joke which was the truth, all he does is bring out his own phone. By the basic protection that lacked any style, it was evident he’d only use it for calls since texting was problematic for him.  “ So, I go to play store, right?  I am not familiar with apps. The only game I play is the one my phone came with it, pinball I think ”.

Neru’s grades weren’t that bad. She was a solid B and C student, which considering her grades back in middle and high school was pretty damn good. Besides school was boring and she didn’t want to spend her time outside of school going over the same stuff she just spent 6 hours going through.

“Don’t have a heart attack on me now. I don’t want to sit here awkwardly waiting for paramedics while your heart gives out.” She looked up from her phone again. “They could not have made it any simpler. Ok, you go to the app that is specially dedicated to helping you find apps, the play store, type in snapchat, and download it. Should I write it down?” She internally groaned when she thought about how she was going to have to explain how to add people on snapchat.