♬♪ ♫ ♩ ♬♪ ♫ ♩

“A what?” now she’s calling him something else he’s never heard of before, but judging by her reaction, Kurogane’s sure he won’t like whatever it is she’s implying. “Oi, I’m not from some weird planet– I meant the place I’m from. We were all brought here from different worlds, ‘s not that hard to figure out.”

Though, he’d be leaving the part out where he was a seasoned world traveller.

Her persistence on the matter was grating on the man quite visibly, letting out a groan as he reaches to rub the bridge of his nose. Looks like he won’t be getting out of this one that easily.

“Fine. If it’ll get you to leave me alone, go ahead ‘n try. You’re gonna need a hell of a lot of luck to get me to laugh though.”

The last thing that she had expected was for him to actually take the bait and she’s clearly taken aback momentarily by the response, eyes widening. Trying to get an uptight stranger to laugh is really piling on the pressure and as such, the blonde catches herself faltering. 

❝ Oh. ❞ Suddenly, it’s like her entire memory bank has been wiped clean,  ❝ Uh... ❞ But instead of counting her losses and admitting that she can’t come up with anything or, worse, giving up, she clumsily pushes onward, hoping she can just improv it along the way. 

     At first, the only thing the half-esper can do is simply give the stranger a confused stare, a brow slightly quirking as she does so. Silence now governs the air between the two of them, with Terra just… Continuing to stare at the stranger. It’s only after a few moments that her azure gaze slowly begins to look down, gently holding out her foot so that she may get a better look at her own boots. 

     … Has this person never seen boots before?

      ❝ … They’re boots, ❞ she states plainly, now looking at the younger blonde with some degree of concern.

      ❝ Have you never heard of boots before…? They’re just like shoes but they offer more coverage… ❞

❝ ...That’s not what I-- ❞ The words die on her tongue, expression souring as she narrows her gaze at the stranger’s feet. Clearly, she’s not going to get very far attempting to explain the joke to someone as oblivious as this girl is and so Rin doesn’t bother wasting her breath, only deadpanning,  ❝ Sure. Ya got me. I’ve never seen a boot before in my life until this very moment. ❞

“Hah?!”

“How the hell does that make me old? Those things don’t exist in my world, so how should I know what they are?” he clearly doesn’t appreciate the comment about his age, eyes narrowing at the girl that now stands before him.

It always has to be a blonde that annoys him, huh.

“Jokes, huh.” Kurogane ponders on it for a moment, before crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, not interested. I don’t do that.”

❝ Your world? ❞ She repeats in disbelief, nose wrinkling and expression giving way to her confusion as she eyes the stranger up and down with a newfound suspicion, ❝ Then... Does that make you some sort of alien or something? ❞ She shouldn’t really be surprised at this point if so considering she’s far from human herself.

“… what the hell is a ‘meme’?”

Although more accustomed to technology than he used to be, these images that keep appearing on his.. “cellphone” don’t make any sense. Why were people sharing so many pictures of crying cats?

❝ You must be way older than you look if you don’t know what it is. ❞ 

She points out rather bluntly, never even pausing as she continues to barrel on ahead, ❝ It’s, like, jokes that get really popular and imitated by other people! ❞

Nonetheless, it doesn’t stop her from picking a target in the crowd of people gathered around to see the newcomers of Spirale, smile so huge it nearly splits her face as she rubs her palms together and does a karate chop with one hand to bring attention to the stranger’s footwear.

She shouldn’t do this. Anyone over the age of five knows that it’s wrong to shove a stranger. It’s even worse if you intentionally shove them into the glistening water of the lake that said stranger is leaning forward to admire in all of it’s glory. It’s not like she hates the girl who is doing nothing aside from minding her own business-- unfortunately, the stranger just so happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The logical side of the blonde knows that this would be a mistake. There are too many bad possibilities that could arise from this little stunt. But the mischievous side of her is the one that always comes out on top and Rin realizes that if she’s going to go through with this then she only has a small window of time remaining to get it done before the stranger moves along with their day.

The adrenaline that is suddenly coursing through her veins is what finally motivates the blonde to spring into action. Before she’s even aware of it, she is already racing forward, palms splayed out in front of her so that they can make instant contact with the other girl’s back as soon as the android gets close enough. It won’t take much strength at all, not with the steady momentum that she is picking up as she draws nearer and nearer. A peal of laughter escapes past her lips at the mental image she’s conjured of what this other girl’s expression will look like once they belly-flop into the cold lake below.

This carefree feeling makes the android nostalgic and it almost feels as if she is back at home; safe and surrounded by the people who love her. But just as she comes within arms’ length of her target the stranger unexpectedly steps to the side and directly out of harms way. The blonde attempts to come to a stop but it proves to be impossible and suddenly she is the one that goes toppling into the water in a shrieking blur of flailing limbs.

She really shouldn’t have done this.

She can sense that something isn’t right the moment her consciousness stirs, eyelids fluttering and nose wrinkling at the onslaught upon all of her senses before she even has time to fully awaken. The first red flag that sends alarm signals going off within her head is the sensation of dirt beneath her twitching fingertips, grimy and rough and such a startling contrast from that of the soft mattress she had dozed off upon the night before. And unlike the comforting lull of her own voice from one of her albums that she has set to play on repeat throughout the night drifting from the bluetooth speakers set up in her bedroom, the only noise that now greets her is the faint buzz of voices that don’t belong to the blonde. It sounds like panic and mayhem. She grits her teeth. She’s well aware of where she is, doesn’t need to open her eyes to know it. If she had a heart she knows that it would be pounding relentlessly within her chest and her lips quiver all the same, eyes burning behind closed eyelids but she grits her teeth because she won’t let this city have that effect on her. 

I won’t cry.

She is stubborn and it goes without saying as she contemplates remaining motionless on the ground but a sinking feeling of dread sits in the pit of her stomach, heavy like stones. Something is wrong. She blinks and squints, sits up and then gapes at the scenery. This city is... Significantly worse than it had been before her sudden and inexplicable departure. She doesn’t have proper time to dwell on the loss of her brother and her family back home nor time to allow herself to clutch onto the hope that the loved ones she formed bonds with within this place still remain trapped within. Are still safe even in spite of whatever event is taking place. 

Her street smarts kick in, eyes narrowed as she rushes to her feet and doesn’t even bother to dust herself off, just allows her legs to carry her with a sense of urgency that only grows with every step as her body gravitates on pure muscle-memory to the penthouse she had lived in before. To the person who had kept her safe before. 

It’s a miracle that she manages to make it there relatively unscathed save for the mud that clings to her clothes and skin but Rin holds zero regard for it as she pounds desperately on the door with her clenched fist, the sentence please still be here, please still be here playing on loop in her head.

“Hello!? Is anyone there!?”

             ❛   You ever just wanna… Rip your sleeves off ??   ❜

“Oh, yeah! Totally.”

“I’ve not heard of such a thing….. what is ‘snu’?”

“That’s because it’s a joke! Duh!”

            “  fine, i’ll humour you— what the heck is a ‘ snu ’?  ” the better question here was why did she even care?

Her face is already red by the time the stranger takes the bait, laughter barely being held back as she places a hand on their shoulder in mock-support.

“Nothin’ much!”