14 September 2009
Gekkoukan High School, Classroom 1-B
Lunch
"Please give me your autograph!" A boy a year older than Midori bowed deeply as he held out a picture of her. Looking up from her lunchbox, she slurped up the last of the noodles hanging from her mouth before putting on her Dolly mask.
She held out her hand, a huge grin on her face and he filled it with a thousand-yen bill before she scribbled her name on the offered picture and kissed it for good measure. The admirer backed out of the room, bowing once again before closing the door.
"That disturbs me, how quickly you can shift from Midori to Dolly and back." Chihiro said as she looked down at the food she no longer felt like eating. "I mean, I've seen actors on TV and on stage. It's just a skill that I've never seen up close like that before."
Midori leaned back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling of their classroom. "Think of it like this." She held the newly acquired bill in her hands over her head. "You have a person's real face, their real 'me'." She pulled the money down over her face, hiding her eyes behind the paper. "Then you simply pull down the mask that people want to see and let them see it. Understand?"
Chihiro tried. She honestly did. She got the concept of the mask, anyone who had seen proper theatre did. What she couldn't get was how Midori was presenting it. It wasn't like she was putting on a role, but rather changing who she was when confronted by different people.
Then she remembered where she had come from, and the regular appointments Midori still had. It was time to change the subject before it became even more uncomfortable for her to think about. "So, decided on clubs yet?"
Midori groaned and sank down in her chair, burying her face in her hands. "Please, don't remind me. Mitsuru-senpai was hounding me all morning. I was doing other stuff and it sort of slipped my mind."
She knew she wasn't the smartest person ever, but over the past week she had been looking into the people of SEES. Or at least the ones who went to school here. It was easy enough to get information about Mitsuru and Akihiko. They had fanclubs, Akihiko especially. She learned far more about those two than she ever wanted to know. Shinjiro wasn't talked about. Aigis was supposedly like her, a Tokyo transfer, and thus, due to her 'exotic nature' even more popular than she was.
Dolly refused to be jealous.
Junpei, Yukari and Minato all did more in the sports side of things (Baseball, Archery and Kendo respectively), and she was in the process of worming her way into the right social circles. She supposed it made sense. The physical activity of the sports clubs complimented the physical activities of the Dark Hour well.
"Fine! Tennis!" She said loudly as she fumbled at her glasses while standing up. "Oh wait." She sat back down again. "I also need a Culture Club."
"Tennis? You mean the one run by Rio? Um, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, she's... kinda a bitch. She's driven away most of the club membership already and it's almost to the point where the President or Vice President will have to step in."
Midori ran this through her head. "So...?"
"I just don't think it's a good idea for you to go into that club."
"I'm no stranger to working hard. And I've had to deal with annoying people before. If it turns out you're right, I'll apologize then." She shrugged. "Still need a Culture Club."
There, Chihiro had constructive input. "What about the Fashion Club?"
"The what now?"
"I'd thought you know. It's the one Arisato-san is in, as well as that Foreign Exchange student, Bebe I think his name is. They make clothes and the like."
"WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS?"
Outside the Teacher's Lounge
After School
Midori and Aigis bowed as they left the lounge, the necessary paperwork to join the clubs filled in. At some point after lunch, she had been tagged by Yukari to help Aigis with her own selections. Given the robot-girl's nature, it seemed to Midori that she had been given a job that Mitsuru had given to Yukari.
She had quickly tracked down the Student Council President with Aigis in tow and had a quick conference for the three of them. The risks in revealing Aigis' true nature were too great, so Mitsuru had pulled strings to give her a pass on joining a sports club. The reasoning given was that Aigis was still recovering from long-term effects of some of the gasses and other agents spread around by the Shomankai Cult during their attacks on the populace.
As the only person in the room to have actually been there for the 'Terror Attacks', Midori kept her mouth shut as the two of them built up their own lies on top of other lies. Even without her promise to Igor, she wouldn't have tried to correct the two of them about the real nature of the Attacks.
Anyways, it seemed like Aigis simply didn't get the idea of Culture Clubs, so Midori threw out a suggestion in haste. "Why doesn't she join the Student Council in some fashion? Like Minato, but more formally?"
Mitsuru jumped on the idea immediately. She felt she had many uses for Aigis, in addition to the help Minato gave. This only gave Midori more ammunition for her developing opinion that the Bufu user was an unrelenting control freak. It was a developing feeling that just kept irking her more and more.
Neither club she signed on for had meetings today, so she was free this afternoon. While there were many things she wanted to do with her time, she instead turned around from the Teacher's lounge and headed for the Library across the hall. Aigis had her own things to do, so they parted amicably. So many mythological figures to research, so little time.
Minatodai Dormitory, 1st Floor Lounge
Evening
"Fuuka-chan!" Midori leaned over the edge of the couch that her target was sitting on. "I need to borrow you for a bit."
Fuuka paused what she was doing and looked up in confusion at the smiling and extroverted newbie. "What for?"
"ooh... I need your help with something. You see, my camcorder is on the fritz. I'm getting this weird red/green splice along the left and right edges of the video, and the centre is a bit off by the yellow. I think maybe the camera got damaged in the move? Well, I need it working for my next update, and a second opinion would be nice."
"Did you check the RGB cable?"
Midori rolled her eyes. "Second thing I did. Look, come on up to my room, please?"
Curious as to the exact uses Midori would have for such a thing, and not really trusting her distracted junior to be able to diagnose simple electronics, Fuuka had to agree to help. "I'll be up in a minute. I just have to finish something here first." She pointed at her own computer.
"Alright!" Midori bounced back, then towards the staircase. "I'll leave the door open!"
Fuuka turned her attention back to her online chat.
Fuu-cha: Sorry, dorm-mate asked for help with something.
At-low: No worries. You were saying?
Fuu-cha: I had a look at the code you provided me. There's a lot of stuff here I don't get.
At-low: Not surprising. When you have time, could you see what you can scrap from the stuff you don't get?
At-low: The problem is I know what everything is used for, so I'm having problems separating out the stuff I want to keep from everything else.
Fuu-cha: I know the problem.
Fuu-cha: I'll look at things later, but this seems to be designed for COMP architechture.
Fuu-cha: That dorm-mate I told you about? She has a COMP that's bricked.
At-low: It was. Is.
Fuu-cha: I may be able to wipe her firmware and test this on that.
At-low: WAIT.
At-low: WAIT
At-low: WAIT
Fuu-cha: ?
At-low: A Bricked COMP? Were they in Tokyo?
Fuu-cha: Yes
At-low: DON'T TOUCH IT
At-low: SERIOUS
Fuu-cha: ?
At-low: I wish I could explain.
Fuu-cha: ...
Fuu-cha: I'll trust you.
Fuu-cha: Komaki will be disappointed. I promised to have a look at it.
At-low: Komaki
At-low: Komaki Midori? Dolly?
Fuu-cha: You know of her?
At-low: I know she moved away, but into your dorm?
At-low: wow
*At-low bows formally. "I apologize for her behaviour."
Fuu-cha: ?
At-low: I met her in Tokyo during that week.
At-low: So I felt I had to apologize on her behalf for the things
At-low: she's done.
Fuu-cha: She's not that bad.
At-low: You didn't have her hanging around every day for days on end.
Fuu-cha: Um...
At-low: Look, you have other things to do. So do I/
At-low: Talk to you later.
*At-low has disconnected
Fuuka closed her laptop, confused. Midori knew a high class cracker like At-low? How? He mentioned Tokyo... Perhaps she had gotten him to help her out?
3rd Floor, Midori's Room
Fuuka knocked politely at the door that was across from hers. "Midori-san?"
"Come in!"
Fuuka pushed open the door and instantly found resistance. "Um...!"
"Oh! Sorry!" She could hear the sounds of stuff being shoved around and pushed aside. "There! Come on in!'
The door slowly opening, Fuuka took her first look inside Midori's room. The first thought she had was that she had walked into a war zone, such was the state of the mess. It was hard for her to inventory everything as she slowly entered. She did see that the table was cluttered, but the large computer tower had enough space around it to slide a keyboard in beside it.
The dresser was over full, cloth and clothes hanging out from the drawers and piled up beside it. Thankfully, the dirty clothes were all in their proper hamper. In the same vein, the foot of the bed was covered in fractions of clothes in states of partial make or unmake.
A purple dress hung from a mannequin, and upon closer inspection, she could see that it was damaged. Not in the wear-and-tear sense of damage, but in the measure that there was burn marks on it, as well as slashes and other holes in it.
What finally drew her attention was the stage. It was a cloth backdrop with a pair of professional lights pointed back at it, and a camera on a tripod with wires running back to the computer.
"Hey, sorry about the mess." Midori said from her clear stage area. "Come on over. I checked the cables again, and nothing seems to be the problem there."
Fuuka sat at the table, looking at the computer in front of her. "What video card are you using?"
"Hey! It's DOLLY!
I'm sooooooooooooo sooooooooooory this took so long! My poor camera got hurt and I had to get a nice friend to help me! Everyone, say 'HI!' to Fuuka-chan! And say 'Hello' Fuuka!"
"Midori! I don't want to be on camera!"
"Toooo...late! You have fans now!"
"Turn it off!"
"Sorry, it seems like Fuuka is too shy. You should all thank her for her help!
Anyways, do you guys like my school uniform? Isn't it cool and cute? I think it is! Gekkoukan High sure knows how to treat their students right!
But I promised to show off my dorm, so let's get this show on the road!"
4th Floor, Control Room
Evening
"AND NO ONE THOUGHT TO STOP HER?" Yukari yelled, causing Fuuka to wince and Shinjiro to shake his head sadly.
Mitsuru missed the point. "It is an accurate primer as to the layout of the dormitory, and it does not enter any sensitive areas like this room or Aigis' room." On the screen, Midori's video showed her talking to Junpei. The young man now had his head buried in his hands, muttering that he was doomed. "I don't see the problem."
"THE!" Yukari tripped over herself. What Midori had done was wrong, she knew this. But she just couldn't put it into words properly. "Oh! Never mind. I'll talk to her myself!"
"It's hard to resist her when she gets going like that." Fuuka shamefully admitted as Yukari stormed out of the office. I mean, she knows her stuff, both from a technical and production stance. Her equipment is excellent, and she has an eye for the details."
"So... what then?" Shinji sighed. "I got better things to do than to mediate between two girls who seem to have a difference of opinion about something or other. I'm outta here."
"Before you leave," Mitsuru called out, "do you have any leads on the medication Chidori needs?"
"I'm working on it." The older man grumbled, not caring one whit what the crazy girl did as long as she didn't bother him. He had better things to do with his time, like practice cooking.
16 September 2009
Minatodai Dorm, 3rd Floor, Midori's Room
Early Morning
Yukari knocked on the door, then waited for her junior to rouse herself. True to form, Midori opened her door while dressed in her blue-with-white mascot pyjamas and sans glasses. "mrgle?" Her brain was still in 'wakeup' mode, and it was this frame of mind that Yukari hoped to exploit.
"Hey. Um, you see, the culture fair is coming up and my class decided to do this Maid Cafe thing. Well, I got my costume, but it kinda doesn't fit right. I was hoping you could help..."
Midori slammed the door shut in Yukari's face, stunning the brunette. Before she had a chance to process this and recover enough to raise her objections to this treatment, Midori ripped open the door again, this time with her glasses on, and a sewing kit in her hands. "It's in your room, right?"
"Well yes, but..!" Yukari was forcibly twisted around by Midori and marched back to her room. "I didn't mean right now!"
"You woke me up! This is your magical punishment!"
"Magical..! Midori!" Yukari led her into her room where she had laid out the dress on the bed. "There it is."
"Let me guess, you bought it from a store, right?"
"Yes..."
"Then they obviously got it wrong. When you send in measurements, they don't make exact sizes, but send you the one that is closest to your size they've got mass produced." Midori sighed, slumping her shoulders. "I hate that. Now strip."
"WHAT?"
"I need your measurements." Midori spun around on her heel to face Yukari. "Now you can keep your bra and panties on, but the rest has to come off." She pulled a measuring tape from her kit. "Now, how soon does this need to be done?"
"I thought you knew, the Culture Fair is on the 20th."
"I got a pass from my class. They're doing that food thing, and so I'm just helping out in the background." She took Yukari's clothes, laying them down on the bed. "This will just take a minute for the initial measurements."
Yukari's morning got worse.
1st Floor, Lounge
Afternoon
"The Typhoon is expected to reach shores sometime..." Shinjiro clicked off the news, causing Koromaru to look up at him in confusion.
"Don't look at me like that. Storm's coming, so we'll have to do some shopping to tide us over the weekend it looks like." With the mention of food, the dog instantly changed his opinion from disappointment to approval. He set about finding his leash while Shinjiro grabbed the Dorm's expense card that he had been given for such occasions.
At the door, he set his coat and scowl on, ready for the world. Opening the door, he startled the person who was standing there. Midori, with one hand on her key to the front door and the other carrying her sports supplies for her club.
Grunting, he stepped out of her way to let her in. "Where you going?" she asked as she kicked off her shoes and glared defiantly at the stairs she would have to drag her stuff up and down every day for the rest of the school year.
"Shopping." No sense in lying to her, lest Aki start to worry.
"Excellent! I'm coming too!" Midori promptly dropped her stuff off to one side and went for her shoes again. "I have to buy some stuff for Yukari's thing."
"Then go by yourself." Shinji moved to leave when Midori jumped past him, squeezing out the door before he did.
"What? And leave a cute innocent girl like me to wander the streets with the Lost out there?" She turned on the charm, putting her hands to her chins and pouting a little, the attempt at moe completely lost on the older man.
The desire for privacy lost out to to the practicality of not having her hound him all the way around the city. "Fine. You're carrying your own stuff."
Monorail
"We don't talk." Midori said as Shinji stood while she sat on the crowded public transport. "I mean, we say hello and all that, but of everyone else, I haven't gotten to really talk to you."
"Not much to say." Shinji turned on the anti-social body language to full, inadvertently clearing a small circle of empty space around him. Annoyingly, this only seemed to fuel her desire to pry, and she leaned into his circle of privacy.
"So, shopping? What for?"
No sense in lying if he was going to get her to carry stuff. "I thought I told you. Food."
"Oh? I knew you cooked, but you shopped as well? That's awesome! I love it when you cook!"
A pang pushed through his heart, and Shinjiro turned away from her. "Nothing special."
"Nothing special?! You're an awesome cook!"
"No, I'm not." On even Aki, that would be the end of the conversation, but Midori had no sense for such things.
"Yes!"
"Really? Then what's the worst meal you've ever had?" He wasn't sure why he asked that, but it was enough to try and buy him time to extract himself from this, carrying help be damned.
Midori answered instantly, her voice flat and devoid of inflection. "A fourth of an emergency ration pack airdropped by the government into the Yamanote Circle, with a half-cup of stale water, in the sun."
Shinji didn't know how to respond to that. He recalled that things had apparently gotten bad, with fights in the contaminated area of Tokyo, but that? "Never really had home cooking, either?"
She shook her head. "Never learned. Dad was too busy, but had enough we could get takeout, or the stuff you heat up."
Shinji reviewed this information. She wasn't about to let him go, and he wanted her to shut up. A deal had to be struck. "Alright. You keep quiet, I'll let you help me cook, teach you some of the basics. You don't pry, you don't try to wheedle anything out of me, and we'll be just fine. Fine?" He had no idea why he was offering to share his kitchen, except maybe the smallest amount of sympathy for someone who apparently never had a good home cooked meal in her life.
18 September 2009
Minatodai Dormitory, 1st Floor Lounge
Evening
Midori made no effort to conceal her opinion of the torrential downpour. The typhoon had struck hard and apparently Minato was still caught outside. Part of her wondered if he had remembered to bring his umbrella with him to school in the morning.
Well, the weather was just the cause of her complaining. She had finished fixing up Yukari's maid outfit, and she was far too proud of her skills to not try and get it on camera. Except now the weather had gone and fouled everything up, there would be no Culture Festival, and her plans to record the event for posterity went down the drain.
Oh, and it turns out she's a horrible cook. Who knew?
19 September 2009
Minatodai Dorm, 2nd Floor
Morning
Junpei emerged from his friend's room into the waiting gazes of the rest of SEES. "Fever, still asleep. Yep, he's sick alright."
Mitsuru pulled out a phone. "I'll call an ambulance."
Junpei shook his head and Akihiko took the phone from her before she could get past the first digit, handing it over to Aigis, who in turn examined the device curiously. "Let him sleep. If his fever doesn't break by tomorrow morning, we'll get a doctor. Until then, we'll check in on him every hour or so, and just wait."
"Am I the only one who was actually looking forward to going to Tartarus tomorrow night? And now we can't because of the weather?" Midori grumbled from beside Fuuka.
"Yes." It didn't really matter who said that.