Reiko has been in the hospital since she woke up still, because the doctors want to make sure she's alright. Afterall, coma's are not a joking matter! Even though she's fine and sometimes whines about it, she'll be here a few extra days still.
Roy is perched on the bedframe, the red cardinal doting and being worried despite having nothing more to worry about.
Reiko Touyama herself seems to be in a least 'good spirits' since she woke up. She's still kind of figuring some things out in her head based on what Roy and Biv and Gigi have told her, and about the adventure they had to replace her Chroma Prism.
She's boredly watching something on her smart phone. Wait, no it's Angry Birds. The birds look suspiciously like Roy.
Roy is not impressed as he peeks over Reiko's shoulder.
Reiko is also wearing a necklace with some orange-colored and yellow golored gems, with pearls that looks fairly expensive. She'd never worn that before!
It's just after school, and there's a knock on the doorframe of the hospital room, quiet enough not to wake sleeping people. Naru peeks in and smiles brightly as she spots Reiko awake and playing phone games before coming in more fully.
Still in her school uniform with her school bag over her shoulder, Naru also has a bouquet of pretty flowers with her. Because one can't come to visit someone in hospital empty handed, of course! The flowers are mostly orange, because of course they are, with some white and yellow ones mixed in for good measure.
"Hi!" Naru steps further into the room. "Up for a visitor?"
Jiaying Maki is quickly hurrying through the hospital, never being a fan of these kind of places since she's convinced bad things will happen. Not because the people are bad, but because she's not quite normal! Then again, they didn't bat an eye at Reiko being grey did they. She's heard that Reiko's actually awake now. Peeking her head around the corner, she waves to Reiko and Naru and says, "Ni hao ma!" and steps into the room to set a little jack-o-lantern filled with candies and a few flowers.
What, she figured everyone else would be bringing flowers and she wasn't sure if she could bring food because hospital food's bad right? She totally considered orange chicken. Chicken's awesome. "Reiko! How are you feeling?" She says this from behind Naru, leaning to the side, jack-o-lantern held up for display.
Reiko Touyama looks up from her phone game as Not!AngryRoy smashes into some piggies and she gets a two star rating. Darn.
She offers a weak smile. "Um, sure! I'd like a visitor!" she says softly as she then peeks past Naru. She blinks. "Jiaying? Oh. um. Hello... it's uh..."
"Still a month. To Halloween." she says meekly. "But I think I get it..."
"...Man. Halloween would had sucked without orange, huh." she says tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Not that I'd had been awake to experince it." she says sheepishly.
She pats the spot next to the hospital bed, a small stand there, with a drawer, on which rests some get well cards. "You can place the flowers n' stuff there." she says softly. "If that's okay." she says.
"I'm sorry.. if I worried any of you." she says softly. "Was just. Caught off guard. That day." she says.
"I can assure you that more than just halloween sucked without orange." Naru comments with a gentle little smile as she sets the vase of flowers on the small table and moves in to offer a quick hug, if Reiko is willing.
"You've nothing to apologize for, and I'm the last person in the world to get upset with anyone for worrying their friends. I am sad that we couldnt keep her from doing that, though." Naru comments sympathetically.
Jiaying Maki looks at the candy container and says, "It was orange and had candy. I think it's cute. What's halloween?" she scowls and tries to remember if she's ever even heard of that thing. Pulling her phone out, she shifts from foot to foot clearly curious now. "Is it like the Hungry Ghost festival? I didn't have an English teacher back home." Well, her google's good at least.
She considers for a moment, then thinks maybe a joke might work. She starts to say, "Orange was mi-" then stops. She knows and it's not as funny making a joke like that. "Sorry." She sets the candy down and says more confidently, "Glad you're awake Reiko."
Reiko Touyama looks to Jiaying. "It's some tradition in various countries. That sounds a lot like what Halloween might be, about spooky ghosts and monsters and stuff." she says. She looks over to Naru and frowns. "I just..." she says. "...I wanted to try to tell her that... she did her best, and I really liked her drawing. Hiroko-chan used to be a friend. A long time ago." she says quietly. "But.. she saw my koi. I should had known something was wrong that moment but. I don't know." she says.
She head tilts. "Heh. I forgot I won." she says. "Eilam-kun had to remind me when he visited." she says softly. "I guess that wasn't the first thing on my mind..." she says softly, tapping her bottom lip as she looks to the flowers. "Thank you for the flowers and candy then." she smiles.
She pauses. "Is it true Riven-baka tried to make another clone of me while I was passed out? I dreamed something like that. For a moment." she says. "Ugh. Lots of bad dreams really. In that." she says.
Naru leans against the small cabinet that holds the flowers, gesturing absently towards the chair if Jiaying wishes to have it. "Is Hiroko actually Griselda, or is she possessed by? Those are very different things." Because of course, Naru would know.
There's a smile at the mention of winning and Naru nods. "Congratulations on winning, by the way. You have been a little distracted since then, we all have been."
At the question of Riventon and clones, Naru looks to Jiaying to continue that explination.
Jiaying Maki won't be sitting down at the moment, though she does set the candy down nearby. She listens to Reiko's explanation of the event the day of, but she wasn't there so most of it just sounds odd to her. "A lot of us can see the koi, that doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong." She looks to Naru and asks, "Right?" maybe putting her on the spot just a touch. There's an impish grin there.
Back to Reiko at the question about Riven-Baka she says, "Crazy guy? He did. It bled black when I had my ghosts claw at it." Beat, "I knew it was fake." Beat again, "I also helped blow up evil orange. The fake you poofed after."
Reiko Touyama looks to Naru and sort of looks guilty. "When... Hiroko. Was our friend. She was part of. The game and story, we used to play? When we were smaller." she says. "She was 'Prism Keeper Silver'." she says softly. "One day... things changed. She started to become distant. And stopped coming to the park after school when we'd play. Then one day she showed up and... well. Things went downhill, between her and Mei-chan. And it broke up the group." she says quietly.
"When.. myself and Mei... went to continue our story in a writing and comic form..." she says. "Mei-chan sort of, well. One of the first things we did was write an arc where.. 'Prism Keeper Silver' became corrupted and became the 'big bad', Griselda, Princess of the Grey Kingdom." she says gently. "I guess we did this. Sort of out of spite or.. because it mirroed what happened. I guess." she guesses a lot.
"I don't know if 'she's Griselda' or 'Something possessing Hiroko'." she says.
She looks between the two. "I just through Hiroko was just... a bully." she says softly. "But she saw my koi. That meant. Well. 'Magical'." she says. "Only 'magical people' or... 'touched' or whatever you wanna call it..." she says. "Can see them." she says quietly.
"But they also out me because. Well. Who the heck else around here uses orange floaty koi." she says with a smirk.
She looks to Naru. "H--hey! You did a good job, too. I think it was a close match between the three of us!" she says softly.
"Mmm." Naru considers the information about the creation of the stories and the people within them and keeps much of her thoughts upon it to herself. At least for the moment.
"Yes, not everyone can see your koi, and no.. not just magical. I could before too." Naru comments with a little nod and then she smiles easily. "Thank you, but there was no shame in losing to either of you."
Jiaying Maki listens curiously, shifting from foot to foot, a touch skittish in the hospital really. "Silver? Are you still writing the comic?" Hey, this is something she does too! But it sounds like the stories might come true sometimes. "Maybe you can write saving her and see if it happens again?" Though she scowls after, "Or did you already try that?"
Looking back to Naru, she says, "You could see them before too? I thought it was something else, like you had to hav-..." She snrks, "Oh. That makes more sense then doesn't it?"
Reiko Touyama shakes her head. "It doesn't work like that." she says softly. "Trust me, if it worked like that, I coulda solved a lot of problems really easy. Not just mine!" she says. "I mean. The characters? Seem to exist. But the story... doesn't. There's no 'Spectra' or 'Aura' or 'Nox' in the Prism Keeper Story. There is a Grey Kingdom, but... apparently there was a Grey Kingdom before we wrote our story." she says quietly.
"I'm starting to think it isn't a coincedence that, the place where we used to play is some sort of magical point to those two places." she says. "Considering that." she says.
"Maybe it influenced us in some way? I don't know."
She looks over to Naru. "Oh. Right. Um. Thanks for... helping my friends.. and me. With. That." she says quietly. "I mean. With. Making the Chroma Prisms 'Stronger'." she says. "And replacing mine." she says.
She looks to Jiaying. "I think it depends. Normal people can't see them. Normal people who've been exposed to magic long enough to.. 'get it' can see them. Straight up 'magical' can see them." she says...
"...Now I'm wondering which my Grandfather is..." she says quietly.
"What does?" Naru asks of Jiaying with a quirk of her head and then nods to Reiko's explination. "I was aware of magic, and quirks of it before I had any of my own. One of those 'normal' people who can see things and remember it. Unusual, but not unheard of by any stretch."
"There are influences everywhere, and ways in which we all intertwine that makes no story a stand alone experience." Naru comments to Reiko and then she smiles warmly again. "It was my pleasure to be able to help. I'm glad I could be of use. There's not often a lot of call for random artists."
Jiaying Maki rolls her eyes and says, "Sure sure, I guess it just bleeds off and you can absorb it right?" A quick shake of her head towards Naru, then she focuses back on Reiko, tilting her head to the side, "So it has influence, but doesn't. That makes enough sense." SHe shrugs, it doesn't, but most magic doesn't. It's better to just roll with it.
"We should compare comics sometime by the way. I have one hidden away that I was working on with friends." She runs her fingers through her hair nd glances back to Naru, "You two never did tell me about the art contest by the way!"
Reiko Touyama hehs. "I dunno why the birds asked you. Maybe it's because you're really the only other good artist I know who isn't. Well. Hiroko." she says quietly. She gently sighs and settles down into the hospital bed a little mopeily.
She looks to Jiaying. "Well. I mean. We stopped. Working on the comic, really When. This stuff 'became real'?" she asks. "Because it seemed irresponsible to make more stuff until we figured out what was up or not." she says quietly. "Besides. The originals were 'eaten' when it became real. All that we have is the stuff on the old website and I have a backup of that." she says. "Ugh. I don't even know if the URL works, it was like. Some freebie webhosting thing and some silly template. I'm an artist not a coder." she huffs.
She looks to Jiaying and shrugs. "Sorry?" she asks. "I didn't know you'd be intrested." she trails off guiltly a little.
Then she pauses a moment. "Can I ask.. a weird question?" she asks. "I mean. Unrelated to this."
"Let's say um. There's this boy. And he's nice. N' stuff. And he likes you. And you like him. But. Stuff is complicated." she says. "-and he sort of gave you this kind of expensive gift." she says.
"Is it wrong to.. accept something like that? When you're not sure? Even if you both understand the postion?" she asks quietly.
"I dont know why the birds chose me either." Naru shakes her head a little. "I'm flattered that they did, and honoured, but I'm hardly the only artist out there. I was glad to be able to stretch my skills, however."
"Weird questions have become a bit of a speciality of mine." Naru nods at the request and then gets quiet as she listens. A slow little smile comes at the mention of 'boy' and 'likes' and she nods a little. "Complicated is a constant in our life." Naru reminds and then mmms softly before shaking her head. "No. I don't think it's wrong. A gift freely given is a treasure, and if you badgered him into buying you expensive things, that's a whole different story."
Jiaying Maki sticks her tongue out at Reiko and says teasingly, "Even after we talked about the sketchbook I had and some of the stuff we were doing! I see how it is, can't have any competition~" She pauses, was it obvious enough she's teasing? She shrugs it off before saying, "Well, I'll have to look at it because it would be funny. No worse than mine at least."
The weird question gets a curious look that slowly turns into a scowl. Looking back at Naru, she says surprisingly flatly, "She's got the right of it Reiko, how much do you know about him?" She's not sure if he's as chatty with Reiko or not.
Reiko Touyama looks to Jiaying. "Enough that I know secrets I can't repeat." she says a little as she bites her lower lip a moment. She looks to Naru and nods a bit. "I'm just... worried. I guess. About stuff. Like that. Considering my luck with boys and all." she says softly.
"Ugh, it's like I wasn't even comatose for two weeks. Just right back to normal. That's so strange." she says.
She looks over to Jiaying and is kind of glad she hasn't asked 'who' because oh god, she can already picture Ayana asking why she's dating live /five/ people now. She isn't even daying /one/ right now let alone five!
She blinks at Jiaying. "Why are you looking so annoyed about it though...?" she asks. "I just." she shrugs. "I dunno." she huffs.
She looks over to Naru again. "Also I'm super jealous everyone got to go to this other magical world and like I've been waiting forever to go to another world and ugh! I was in a coma for two weeks and if I wasn't there wouldn't had been a reason to go!" she huffs.
"I mean. Jealous. But not Upset."
"You get that, right?"
"Worried is pretty normal." Naru assures and then there's a little laugh as she shakes her head. "A lot normal, if you ask me, actually. Is he aware of all of the extras in your life?" Naru asks, a gesture encompassing the room, even if it implies the magical nature of it all. "That's a special sort of worried if he doesn't. You say that you like him, and he likes you.. which says that you two are talking at least."
Naru chuckles a touch and nods. "My friends go places that I can't go also, and I get the whole jealous but not upset. I'm sorry that you couldn't go, I hope any new visits are for much less worrisome reasons."
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "I can guess those secrets. As long as you know about them." She crosses her arms and taps her foot to adjust her shoes, not wanting to go into it at that point, since she does know.
Looking back to Naru, she asks, "What kind of world? Like going through to another world like that show or something else? THat might be kind of neat."
Reiko Touyama looks to Naru. "No, he knows about that. And he has his own thing going that isn't as 'spectacular', I guess, as mine." she says. "I mean you mean. The magical stuff. Of course." she says quietly.
Reiko isn't using a name probably because she already knows Jiaying's reaction. Or maybe Jiaying already has a hunch 'who'. Regardless, she head tilts at the two of them.
"Gigi talked my ear off about it all. Because Gigi is like a little kid and only started 'talking' a month or two back." she says. "Before that, all she could say is 'Gigi'! and not do the 'turn into a human' thing." she says.
She sighs a bit and shakes her head.
"Naru, what do you think of all this magical stuff, anyways?" she asks.
"There are certainly a lot of other places beyond Earth." Naru comments to Jiaying with a soft mmm. "I'm not sure what show you mean, it's a pretty common trope in various shows. Spectra was, unsurprisingly, very colourful and crystalline. I expect Roy can give you a lot more details than I can, I only visited briefly."
"Not everyone's 'thing' is spectacular." Naru gives a little shrug and then adds. "Which is alright."
"Ah." Naru pauses a moment and then whistles softly. "What do I think of all this magical stuff. That is.. a really big question." She pauses again, as if gathering her thoughts, and attempting to put them into a neater package when asked 'what do you think about magic'.
"I'm glad that I know." Naru finally decides upon with a little nod. "Unthinkable and awe inspiring and terrible and fascinating, and all of that rolled into one, I am glad that I know."
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "Just be careful Reiko, either way" as she looks towards the door as conversation shifts to, 'Not born into magic' which leaves her in a weird spot because she'd never considered it and she's never really worried about it.
Reiko Touyama nods a bit. "Yeah. I remember. Seeing my first Shade. And.. Mei. Transforming and I was just like... well it felt like my brain farted pretty hard like--- 'this does not compute. This is a dream or something.'" she says. "Then I had my Chroma Prism shoved into my hands and told to transform and that was that." she says.
"To be honest. I feel more of a burden. Since Roy told me what Color actually /is/..." she says.
She looks to Jiaying. "Right. So. Color is like the lifeblood of creativity and imagination." she says. "So without it. Things don't progress and remain boring and static. That's how I had Roy explain it to me." she says. She looks back to Naru.
"I hope that, like. You didn't feel pressured. Throughout that all." she says.
"You were a great help, you know, or so I'm told." she says.
"The first experiences I remember involved being kidnapped to the dark kingdom." Naru comments quietly, with a touch of a rueful expression. "I'm really not sure which is a more jarring introduction to it all." She looks to Jiaying. "You've always known, from what I can recall of other conversations, yes?"
"Why do you feel like a burden?" Naru asks with a frown and there's a quick shake of her head. "No.. never pressured at all. I wanted to help. I wish I could have helped more."
Jiaying Maki stops at the door and looks back at Reiko, listening for a few moments. "I think there's probably more to it than that personally, maybe where he's from, but here there's so much more. Besides, I work in black inks more often than not right?"
Arms crossed, she shrugs and says to Naru, "I grew up chewing on furniture and having a fox for a mom. It's kind of hard to say, "Oh it was so weird" when normal people are weirder to you."
Reiko Touyama huhs. "Oh! No. I mean. I feel like it's more of a burden than it was before. I mean. 'Protecting Color' is kind of important on it's own? But then you're told 'Also it's way more important than just things looking pretty'." she says quietly.
She smiles at Naru. "Heh. Part of me wants to hand you any of the Prisms and see if they react to you. But I don't think it works that way." she says. "I'm not sure. Like. There's other Keepers in the story? So it's possible more might exist?" she says. "But they were background characters and the story we wrote mostly focused on the 'Rainbow' ones, really." she says. "I mean heck, there's like. So much in the story that didn't become real. Like. There's boy characters? Like these 'royal guards' called the 'Color Guard'? Because we thought we were /really clever/ with that name." she says. "And those guys aren't real or around. Just the Keepers." she says. "They had. Like. Metallic Color names. 'Bronze' 'Gold', etc."
"Iiiii've gotten completely off track." she laughs.
"Sorry, my head is just woozy still from being out of it for two weeks." she frowns.
She looks to Jiaying. "Well. We know that. When a Shade steals color, everyone sort of collapses in the area. Or feels lethargic. And they stop caring. I guess I never thought on the 'why'..." she says. "..and it explains why 'Color Energy' is pretty much anathema to anything dark and corrupt I guess, too." she says.
"I don't think 'Black' and 'Grey' are 'evil'." she says. "But they've obviously been co-opted for it." she says. "I mean. Prism Keeper Silver was practically 'Prism Keeper Grey' in a sense." she says softly.
"It always was." Naru points out and then gestures a little. "Now you simply understand more of the ramifications of it, but the burden isn't any heavier."
There's a brief laugh out of Naru and she shakes her head. "You could, but they won't react to me. I am no more a Prism Keeper than I am a Guardian or a Senshi or a Shitennou. I am simply myself. There aren't more now, but that doesn't mean that there never will be. The story you wrote still continues, even if you are not the one writing it directly."
Naru smiles just a touch. "It's rarely as simple as neat little sections where people kindly stand in the 'good' side, or the 'evil' side. Nor, to my mind, are they shackled to their section."
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and leans against the door frame, still wondering if she should leave these two to themselves for now. "It does, but it could just be another kind of force. I don't know, nothing works how you think it would, just like I can't find reliable ghost stories even though you'd think it would be easy. I figure there's some truth and lies in all of it." The note that grey and black aren't evil, but were co-opted gets a shrug, "What about white? Shouldn't that be more my domain?" She twirls a finger around, creating a brief illusion of a typical Japanese ghost that spins around and fades away with an unfelt wind.
Reiko Touyama looks at Naru. "I don't know. There is times where it's certainly black and white. I mean. Like. The way Roy tells it, this 'Nox' wants to sink the world into unending static and absoultely can't be reasoned with because he's like some dark force of nature or something." she says.
Reiko looks to Jiaying.. "White?... Well. There's the Monochrome Duo. Mister Black and Miss White, who are Griselda's flunkies, and I know they exist because I fought Mister Black once." she says.
Then something clicks inside her head. Then she begins to grow a little pale over it.
"I would think ghost stories would be easier. Hunh, that's interesting Jiaying." Naru turns towards the girl in the doorway thoughtfully.
"In the light theory of colour, white is all of them combined. In the pigment theory, it is the absence." Naru comments with her own little shrug and then looks back to Reiko. "I can't argue that some are just too far gone and its easy to think of them as entirely evil. And they probably are, but many more are not." She pauses at the mention of Mister Black and Miss White and the light bulb moment that Reiko has had. "Mmmm."
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "I meant in regards to your... what, magic? Where it represents both purity and death depending on where you are and what is happening. If we're going for coopting, where does that end?"
Looking to Naru, she shrugs blandly, "Most ghost stories are made up, imaginary, non-existant or long since exorcised. It's hard to tell when you've come after it's happened. Makes it hard to grab others to stuff into some kind of control or convince to move on."
Reiko Touyama stays abousltely silent for a long long while and for a moment it's like she just zoned out. She kind of looks between Jiaying and Naru in time to get 'Mmmm?' and she didn't really hear much else. "I'm sorry. I just..."
"No. No. I'm fine." she says as the color flushes back to her face. "I should. Lay down and rest." she says quietly.
"Um if that's okay." she says as she gently tugs the covers over her a little.
"I guess I still feel woozy." she says softly.
Whatever hit her seemed to pass, at least.
"Go to sleep." Naru assures Reiko, stepping closer to offer to tuck blankets in around her, a little big sisterly, really. "Sweet dreams." She offers before looking to Jiaying and nods. "Sometimes there's truth in stories.. often time there's not. I'm sorry that you have such a hard time of it. It's frustrating when you can't seem to get a grip on things." She bends to collect up her school bag and having a quick look at her phone while she does.
Whatever text message is waiting there makes her smile.
"I should get going, though." Naru looks back up. "I am pretty sure this semester is trying to kill me, or I need a time machine."
Jiaying Maki rubs the back of her head, waving lightly as Reiko looks rather tired. "Sleep well." To Naru, she adds, "It's not so bad, so much as it's annoying when you're trying to pull them away so that you can either recruit their help or push them to move on through... other means."