Reiko Touyama wanted to go to the gardens. Soon, the koi would retreat to the deep part of the pond and winter would come. She frowns a bit and purses her lips at this thought as she has packed a picnic lunch of sorts. Sandwhiches. Some sort of snacks. Drinks.
Then she invited Eilam out and over, if he felt up to it, because Reiko knew Eilam probably wanted to talk. And she wanted to talk. And things were just super confusing with the recent issues.
Still. She watched the koi near the water as she smiles a bit to herself. Not super bright and wide, but she was pleasent enough.
While a lot of days, Eilam was dressed to look nice, other days... he just wanted to be comfortable. Tonight was one of those nights. One of his (many) pairs of black slacks, a pair of nice sneakers admittedly, an untucked somewhat saggy/loose t-shirt sporting the cover of a Monkey Majik album and his hair loosely pulled back and out of the way. He didn't have his stave with him today, instead he just had his hands in his pockets, walking along slowly towards where Reiko had asked to meet him.
The gardens at the park. How... her. She loved her fish. Well, to each their own. But he did have something else with him. What was it? A giant Magikarp plushie. Totally dumb, but silly enough, in his eyes, to get a smile out of her. As he got close, Eilam squeezed a small tag that was hanging on the plush, with a little sound box built into the tag, which made a rather silly sound. One she might know if she was indeed a fan of such a thing.
Reiko Touyama's Pokemon GO! collection is at least 80 percent magikarp. She knows the best places to get them in Tokyo! So yes. She knows what a magikarp is. She loves them.
There's a particularly fast koi in the water. It's speeding along!---it... has a race car driver's helmet. And a scarf.
Yeah, it's one of Reiko's.
It seems to be enjoying itself though. She giggles at this silliness before she looks up and, oh! It's Eilam! She waves her over! "Hey, Eilam-kun!" she smiles wide.
She head tilts at the giant plush with a series of blinks, a bit confused. Why did Eilam have such a thing? It was cute. At least.
Reiko was raised to not think people carrying things were carrying them to give to her, out of habit.
"Who's your friend?" she asks perhaps....koily.
"Him? Well... I was playing Pokemon the other day and I happened across a particularly kingly koi. Thought he could use an equally koiute(Koiwaii? Kowaii?) queen?" A smile came to Eilam's face as he walked close only to lift it up so the particularly fishy mouth came towards Reiko, "I hear he likes kisses. I wouldn't know, never kissed him myself, but maybe you'll find out later? Thought you could take care of this kingly carp better than I could."
The puns were strong. With that said, though, Eilam moved to sit next to where Reiko was with a bit of a grunt escaping him as he tried to ease himself down and wound up plopping a bit more than he'd intended. "Ah, a bit... wobbly still, my... curse or whatever it is has been working overtime the past several days, much to my chagrin, so I'm a bit more wobbly than usual."
Reiko Touyama head tilts. Oh! It's a gift! She blushes a bit and reaches out and takes it. "Well perhaps I'll find out later. A queen never kisses and tells." she says with a tease as she smiles some. She places the fish next to her and offers a sammich. They seem to be a simple ham and cheese. The ham seems to be some sort of spiced ham. Not too spicy, but it has a kick.
"Well, are you okay?" she asks. "Does... overusing... tax you?" she asks curiously. She frowns. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you as fast as I wanted the other day." she says with a frown. "But... Hiroko..." she nrgs. "She's not in school anymore. And. Everytime me or someone else tries to actually go to her house they get--- intensely ill to the point of unconciousness. But. It seems to only work if it's your intended place. Like. I walked past it without thinking about it on the way here. And I'm fine but when I looked back and went.... 'oh yeah...' I started feeling queasy." she says with a frown.
"Ah... thank you." Eilam takes the sandwich, but doesn't immediately start to eat it. Instead he just kind of stares off into the water before looking towards her as she spoke. "It does little for my energy or strength. My illness itself is trapped along with me, so if I'm particularly... weak or whatever happens, it eats at me a bit more than normal." At the remark of eating he shivered. "Plus I am a bit... bothered at the thought of eating things right now as it is. Not that I am not, but... there was a monster? Demon, not sure. Some kind of thing that was running loose through the streets the other day. I do not know specifics, but it saw me and decided to do just that." The memory was not the most pleasant thing now that he brought it up. "And then the next day or so... I happened to see Hiroko and the color draining when I was out doing other things. She needs help. Whatever is doing that to her, it isn't her. There is no way a girl her age, your age, should ever come to believe such a horrible thing without outside influences. I have seen places that have no color. That are only white, black and gray. Heard stories from others. To hear someone say they want that? I... I had to try. And I will not stop trying until I can get her wanting color about herself again. Even if that does put me in danger, it hardly matters, not like I am going anywhere. Even if I wanted to."
Reiko Touyama frowns. "I'm sorry, if I knew, I'd had offered something different besides food! Food just seemed like a fun idle activity." she says bashfully. She huffs, she stinks at choosing things to do.
She frowns. "Hiroko... it's clear that something is making her 'be Griselda' now, that much is true. But that something doesn't want her to be anything else now... I..."
"I screwed up. I forgot about Slate. Stupid... Blackbird." she mutters. "I don't even remember anything about him, that's... how much he used or showed up in our games or stories. He was definitly the kind of... bailout button though." she sighs. "The person who shows up to whisk the badguy off before they can be caught/saved-- that kind of.. thing." she says.
"Mei and I thought we were being clever then, this way we could have moments where we /almost/ win but then... that." she mutters.
"The... Prism Princess. Forms. That's something from the story too. So. I'm glad that like. 'Good Things' are showing up from our game and story, too, now."
"You know... that form, as you call it? When I saw you like that, for the first time in hundreds of years I felt like there might be hope for me. Hope that... somehow I can finally change somehow. Even if just something as... wild as magically becoming older for a while. Probably sounds weird. Maybe it is. But I really just wanted to hug you and not let go, because the thought of losing track of... that terrifies me. But I have no desire to lock you away or anything drastic as that. I just have to appreciate being around you even more and hope that in time I can find a way to enjoy even a tiny bit of the magic you seem to have gotten for yourself."
Eilam was usually a bit more smooth of talking, but tonight he seemed a bit more relaxed. Or maybe it was just her he was relaxed around? After all, how many were there that he could say anything to and hopefully not have to worry about any problems. Stretching back, Eilam came to lay on the ground and stare up at the sky quietly. "But that is greedy of me. I know it. And I really hope you are not offended by one of my first thoughts after seeing you like that being self-centered."
Reiko Touyama giggles and laughs. "But if you lock me away in like. A tower? Then some other handsome guy will have to come save me. That's how those stories work, right?" she says a little jokingly.
She does head tilt. "No, I'm not worried or offeneded about that." she says softly. "But I mean. You can have me over anytime. Not like my parents are around at all to care where I am at any given hour, and Grandpa knows about the whole... magical girl thing." she says.
"He can see my fish n' all that." she says.
Hearing her giggle and laugh in such a fashion did cause him to smile. "Another handsome guy? Well, glad to know you still think of me that way. But, I would have the key, so it simply means I could come visit you at any point and cover you in kisses at my leisure until then. But I would be the nasty demon or dragon, but how would they succeed? They can hardly kill me, and banishing me? Hmph. I'm too pretty to be banished." Eilam came to look towards her as she mentioned her grandfather knowing. "Do not forget that despite your... power and responsibility, you are still fairly young. Even if you /can/ look older. He might accept that you've got the chance to help others, but I'm fairly sure he does not like knowing you are out and about. Especially with an older boy. Even one as pretty and rich as I am. I mean, what's he going to think when you come tonight with that big magikarp? That you went out to meet a boy this time of night? Let alone talking of him having you over anytime. Since when did you become such the delinquent?"
He was teasing, certainly, but some of what he said he probably meant. "Still... on more recent topics, your new form, can you... change as you like? Or only when something major happens? I mean... if I asked to see it now, could I?"
Reiko Touyama shakes her head. "I don't think Grandpa is too worried." she says softly. "Grandpa and Gramma were kind of the... may-december romance thing." she says. "Really. He thinks I just take after gramma." she giggles a bit. "But I mean. Yeah he'll ask. And he be stern about it. But. 'Being out with a boy' is kind of like the least of his worries compared to 'out late being stepped on by a Shade or this month's Super Apocalypse." she says in a teasing manner.
She head tilts. "You know I'm... not. Really sure." she says quietly.
"I know that I had to go home looking like that and I confused the hell outta grandpa." she laughs. "Because I couldn't actually drop out of it for a small bit." she says.
"Like. I had to let it burn off or something. But. I'm able to transform into you know. The 'normal' Prism Keeper 'form' too." she says.
"Ugh now I'm wondering if I should be practicing the new thing..." she mutters.
"Mm hmm." A soft sound escaped Eilam as he just barely laughed at the notion of worrying priorities. "Practicing never hurts, certainly. Like, with my sword? It took me... many, many years when I first had the design planned out to find someone who could help me work up a way of fighting with it. It is so different than even other swords. European swords are so heavy I could barely lift them, and Asian swords tend to require a lot more dexterity than I could manage. But that... I learned in time that I do not even have to use it as a sword. I just have to use it smartly. For instance, I do not have to swing it, or stab or anything like that. I keep it sharp enough to cut anything, so just leaning my weight into something, or rubbing it against things tends to work well enough, if needed. Not that I have had to... use it for quite a while."
When was the last time he truly had to use the sword against other humans, and not... since discovering magic? Probably the 70's. "So I think if you just put the effort into it, you can do anything. Though I am willing to help you, I don't know how well you would manage getting all sweaty and exhausted around a guy you like. Some girls tend to get really antsy about guys they like seeing them practicing things. Personally I think you would look adorable regardless of what you're doing, but then again that's just me thinking you're adorable all the time anyways."
Reiko Touyama laughs. "I try not to care about things like that." she says softly. "I mean. It's kinda. Hard to be bothered by stuff like that when I'm getting bothered by stuff like. well... the stuff we dealth with the other day. Being tired and mopey from practicing or training in front of some guy or whatever is like... nothing. Especially if I know them." she smirks a bit.
She head tilts a bit. "Huh." she says. She squints a bit. "Why the 70's? Was..."
"Was-- was it hippies? Grandpa talked a lot about them when he was over in America for a bit. He said they had long hair." she insists.
..."W..we're they magical dangerous hippies?" she suddenly asks.
That causes Eilam to laugh. "I did not know about Magic until I met you. And now there's magic in my heart all the time, because you're there." That was beyond cheesy, and totally meant to pick at her. Was she becoming immune? If so, he'd have to up his tease game. "As for hippies... no, they were not magical. About the only 'magic' they had was getting stoned to the point of not functioning. No... it just happened to be the last time I recall actually having to use it against someone else. I was in Russia at the time and someone decided they did not like my face as I made my way down the side street. They came to find out after beat on me for a bit that they liked my sword even less."
Reaching up with a hand, Eilam offers it towards Reiko. "Try not to idolize hippies. They were not good for much. Bathed rarely, had a habit of not shaving. Ever. Not the most... enjoyable people to be around if you had a sense of smell." His intention offering the hand was to try and just get her hand and... not much else. Holding hands was silly and harmless, and enjoyable usually for both sides. Minor as it was, it was still something.