alligator sky.

She hadn’t expected him to literally pop out of nowhere. With a sense of urgency, the time lady yanked off her octopus, pointing it at the poor lad as she stumbled back. 

Upon realizing his harmlessness, she straightened up and raised her eyebrow, circling him. “Such an interesting being!” 

“If you don’t mind…may I have a look at your translator?” She could fix it… “I’m the investigator. However, you may call me Angel.” It was a name she had procured over the years. She held up the egg timer towards him. “Something that goes…” Ding. “Ding.” 

     Clay blinked cluelessly at the sight. What was that she was pointing at him...? Curiosity overtook any semblance of fear he may have had, and he half walks, half floats closer to her to inspect whatever item she was holding.

     “Eh-?” He hadn’t quite expected her to bounce back so quickly. It causes him to jump back slightly himself, but he only watches her as she circles him, still hovering lightly. 

     “I was gonna look at it later myself, but if ya wanna...? Just be careful!” That was awfully trusting of him to say, but he doesn’t seem to realize that as he still proceeds to take off his hat, dust off the small device, and hold it out to her delicately. “Angel, right? It’s nice to meet’cha!”

His ruby eyes widen behind his shades, but the look of surprise was still visible, though the glasses did their best to hide it. That was a rather interesting profession.

❝ Doug-Dimma-Dang! That’s a hella rad job you got there. I just want to make mad bank. And help people out in the porn community. Some actors are treated really shit, and they don’t get paid enough or are discriminated against. ❞

     “Thanks! I always dreamed about it, and now I’m here, hehe.” The raven stuck his tongue out slightly, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He paused to blink a few times as Sean continued, and his eyes grew wider all the while.

     “Really? That sounds real tough. Is that what you do for a livin’, then?”

          “ i——if you’re sure? ”  well, this dude was definitely pretty informal… but, if that was what the other was most comfortable with, naegi wouldn’t say no.

          “ haha, okay! ” he definitely didn’t doubt that the other would know what he was talking about, that was for sure. i mean… if there was any question, he wouldn’t be enrolled at kibougamine academy, obviously!  “ so what kind of stuff do shsl astronauts-in-training do? ”

     “Of course! ‘M not really cut out for formalities anyways. I mix up formal and informal Japanese all the time. It’s wild. And sometimes annoyin’.”

     Clay was speaking in informal Japanese ( with a noticeable accent ) even then. Maybe he hadn’t noticed that himself. 

     “Yeah! ... Oh, uh! Actually, that’s the one of the interesting parts, apparently. The school lets me spend a lot of time in training instead of actually in class. Gets kind lonely sometimes, but... hey, I’m pursuin’ my dream! It’s pretty cool!”

     He grinned even more widely at his new friend, bouncing lightly on his feet as he spoke. 

“You know, ice cream would help us, I think.” 

She pulled hair hair into a messy bun, bar her bangs. She was dying of heat still. 

“It feels like it. I’m too scared to look at the temp.”

     “Ooooooh, y’know... Maybe I have some cash on me...”

     Clay preoccupies himself with patting around his body at his various pockets, probably looking for his wallet. He should probably consider wearing something other than his jumpsuit in a hundred degree weather.

“Oh~ What’s the fun in not scaring you? You might have an adorable scared face!” She purred. She was tempted to tease him more.

“Who knows. A lot of those prosecutors are slimeballs. More twisted than a pretzel. More sinister than milk left a month after it’s expiration date. Though….Perhaps one day, I’ll trust them again. At least I’m working on trusting a certain red prosecutor. Slowly, mind you.” She wasn’t sure if she’d ever fully trust them.

     “Wah! Pleeeeeasssee, I’ll do anything!” Playing along, Clay gasps exaggeratedly, jumping lightly in surprise. Teasing him would get more even more animated reactions, given his personality.

     “... Oh? That’s a lotta food comparisons.” If Angel listened closely, she would be able to hear him mutter something about being hungry now, before he continued. “I’m so glad to hear that though! Uh, does this red prosecutor happen t’be that guy Mister Wright knows? What’s his name... Edgy?”

Ding! Of course it would go ding. This place was a space center. She climbed out of her van. Or rather her van-shaped-tardis. It was the best disguise for the damned thing. She tapped the egg timer with a groan. Fine Fine. I’ll follow. She carefully tapped her sonic octopus pendant, causing the van to chip as if it was locked.  “I have GOT to get you to stop with the chirping. Seriously, you’ll draw attention to me.” She followed the soft ding of the egg timer straight to the source of the abnormality. 

“Oh…Well, this is rather interesting…” 

     “Ah!”      Clay popped virtually out of nowhere, bouncing in immediately after he had sensed Angel’s presence. It was entirely possible that he had been cloaking his presence from view entirely until now, as he was using virtually the same technique to appear in a human form at the moment, but that much was unclear right now. The more urgent matter was how excited he seemed to go greet the woman, for whatever reason.

          “ yeah, that’s fine! it’s nice to meet you, aoi-san! that’s a really cool talent! ”  well, he’d argue with you on that. it wasn’t as if he had control over his luck; besides, all his classmates were really good at stuff! even if some of it was… kinda weird.

          “ haha! nice to know i’m off to a good start! and—— ”  he had to stop himself from triple-checking that the other was sure. most of his friends wouldn’t share if he asked.  “ ——okay! ”

     “Great! But, please, nobody calls me Aoi... Calling me Daichi’s fine! And thank you very much!”

     ‘Luck’ as a talent was commonly disputed about on campus, as Daichi had been overhearing. That’s probably why Kibougamine was researching in that area in the first place.