"We didn't send you to that school to make friends. We sent you there for one reason. To corrupt eggs and to draw out the Embryo. We certainly don't want you getting close to those Guardians. They are dangerous." The man spoke abrasively to the young girl. "Now get out there and draw it out. I NEED THAT EMBRYO!"
A Few Days Later...
Airi Nakahara is over a barrel. She hated this. She didn't want to corrupt people's dreams. She just wanted her own. The only way she can have her dream is to corrupt others. And now she is really in trouble. She's got Easter breathing down her neck and they want her to do her job. So. Here she is. Sitting out in the cold with Vidya floating over her shoulder.
"What about that one! He looks like he's got a really strong dream!" The little Chara states, using her headset as a pair of binoculars.
Airi shakes her head, "No. I don't think they are a good one." She frowns and just looks around a little more. "There has gotta be someone whose a good mark for this."
Amu Hinamori was out with... well, her charas. Shopping! she had a small bag filled with a bunch of little ingredients. She was planning to make soup. For a certain king who she was totally in love with and wanted to make sure had something really good and nice now that he was feeling under the weather, too. If anyone deserved spoiling, he did.
She stopped outside a small stand, looking over the fresh produce and eying it, before picking out an onion and handing over some coins.
Naru should be studying. In fact, Naru will be studying again shortly. There is one tiny hiccough in the studying plan, however. The book she needs is at the Penguin Public Library. Which is generally fine. It's even generally good, convenient and all.
One has to go through the park to get to it.
Naru has a challenging relationship with King Penguin Park, and one that usually results in more nightmare fodder. As such, it's a slightly skittish and anxious Naru who is holding up a running commentary with herself about how she's being /silly/ and everything is /fine/, and just get to the library and all will be well as she steps into the park. Fine. It's FINE.
Reiko Touyama was standing in front of an Easel setup in the cold, drawing a scene on the frozen pond in the park. People were skating. She was drawing that, to take home and paint over later. Paints would just freeze in the cold.
There were two koi sort of darting in and out of the snow nearby, both wearing Earmuffs and both throwing tiny snowballs at one another. Paff! Piff! Paff!
One of the koi points behind her and she peeks.
"Oh! Hi Naru!" she says. A pause. "I thought you stopped coming here...?" she asks questioningly.
Jiaying Maki is in the park because she's given up on studying for the time being. She's about to go crazy if she didn't take a break! The fox-girl is instead wandering around with her sketchbook, a small camera and a pair of headphones hanging around her neck, turned up loud so she can hear it. Anyone that knows her probably can guess why she wouldn't actually wear them.
She does see a few familiar faces on her walk-through and she gives them a wave while making her way towards Reiko, calling out, "Hey, how are you?" another face she hasn't seen in a while!
Airi continues observing people at the park. Her eyes fall on a girl who seems on edge. That gets her attention. After all, what does she do when she's on edge? Play video games. Maybe this girl would do that to? Quietly she stands up and slowly starts moving towards Naru.
Her heart is pounding. This is her first time doing this. Its like drums in her ears. And then things get fouled up. There is a girl with fish floating around her. And then there is another person going up to her mark. She stops in her tracks and just turns the other way. "Hide." She whispers to Vidya.
The little chara just nods and goes into her bag and then into her egg for the time being.
"I hate the park." Naru confirms ruefully to Reiko as the other girl asks her about the park. "And I did.. still do, really.. although I will come with other people sometimes. But .. well.." She gestures over towards the library. "I need a book from that library for a report, and it was faster to just come here than request it." She gives a little shudder and leans in a little to look at the drawing on Reiko's easel. "Nice. That's going well. Hey there, Jiaying."
If she's noticed Airi approaching, Naru gives no indication.
Amu Hinamori bought a few carrots next, before her eyes leveled on... Airi! A grin formed on her lips and she made her way over, bag slung over her shoulder. Airi would probably notice a few girls pointing and staring behind her and, when she turned... Amu!
"Hey Airi-chan. What brings you out here today?" she'd ask. Right hand bag over her shoulder, left hand on her hip, cocked to the side slightly. Cool and spicy Amu, reporting for duty! With her little charas hovering over her right shoulder. "Where's Vidya?"
Reiko Touyama ahs. "Yeah. Gotta get those last reports and tests in before the term ends." she says. She smiles a bit. She head tilts down at her koi. "Hehehehe, they're having a snowball fight and I don't even know why." she says.
She looks back up and. "Oh! Hi Jiaying-chan. How are you?" she asks softly. "I'm well. Mostly." she says softly. She smiles at Naru.
"I'm working on my own last project for Art Class. Gonna wow the teacher." she insists.
Crap. Airi turns and smiles a little to Amu. "Hey hows it going! I was just doing a little people watching. Its sort of a hobby. ITs kinda fun to watch people. Their expressions. The way they handle themselves. Its really cool. It helps with my ideas for games." She smiles brightly, Dang was that a good cover story!
She smiles a little, "Oh you look really good today. Oh Vidya is in my bag again. I think she was taking a snooze in her egg. Give me a moment.
She opens the bag, being careful not to show anything that may be in there. "Vidya, wanna come out and stuff? Or are you good snoozing." A moment later the little Chara is out and hovering over her own shoulder as she takes a seat on a bench.
Jiaying Maki rolls her shoulders and says, "I'm doing alright, what's the mostly though?" while looking up at the soap-fish. "They don't taste better yet right?" She looks to Naru and asks, "Hey what's going on?" while fiddling with her controls to turn her headphones off. Running her fingers through her hair she adds quickly, "No chance you've heard anything by now right?"
The other girl isn't noticed quite yet. She's kind of started tuning the weird things out! Somewhat!
Amu Hinamori nodded, giving her a little smile before she sits down. "Really? That's pretty cool." She sits down and crosses a leg, glancing to her. "And thanks. Haven't been sick or anything for a while so I'm making sure to take good care of myself," she said with a shrug.
Her charas quickly greeted Vidya, of course.
"I'd actually love to hear more about your game ideas. Have you ever started making any? I think I heard about some kind of like... game maker, thing. You ever try something like that? It looks like it might be kind of fun."
"You are totally going to kill the project." Naru grins at Reiko on the topic of her art project. She pauses and then shakes her head at Jiaying's question. "Nothing new weird, nope. Not about wind weasels, or anything else. Unless you consider literature reports to be weird, but only because they're terminally boring." She flickers a half smile. "Koi snowball fights seems just as reasonable as anything else, if you ask me."
Don't sit down, don't sit down Darn it! She sat down. "Well thats good. I don't like getting sick myself. Things are just a little crazy ya know?" She smiles a little and watches the people near Naru.
Finally she thinks she sees an opening. "Ummm. Excuse me. My umm, caretaker is wanting me to talk to me!" She smiles and stands up and begins walking towards a car that happens to be.
"I should go too! I will be back shortly!" Vidya quickly follows along.
The moments pass As Airi and Vidya get away from Amu and her charas. As soon as she is out of sight, she doubles back around. This time getting close to Naru. She sneaks into a few bushes. A nice hiding space before speaking out.
"Hey. Umm... Miss. You look a little troubled. I was wondering if maybe you can help me out a little bit. You see, I am working on this thing. It might help you relax a little?" She says with a little shrug. Vidya just smiles a little to her.
"I really should get my book before the library closes." Naru excuses herself from the conversation at hand with Reiko and Jiaying, taking a few steps closer towards the library, and a few steps more.
"Hmm?" Naru turns towards Airi as she approaches. "I.. a thing? What sort of thing?" She quirks her head, curious. "I just need to get a book from the library." She explains.
Airi Nakahara looks at Naru. "Oh I am making this thing. Its Virtual Reality thing! Seriously! All you need to do is put on this helmet I have and you are swept away to an awesome land of mystery where you can be the greatest champion ever!" She smiles as she grabs her bag.
Quietly she pulls out a rather high tech looking VR helmet. "I've been working really hard on this. It'll only take a few minutes to test it out. I wanna get people's input about it. Wanna give it a go?" She hands over the VR helmet to her, offering it.
"Oh?" Naru reaches for the headset with a blink of surprise. "Is it for a school project?" She asks, a touch curiously. She shifts her satchel on her shoulder, looping it across her chest.
Naru is nothing if not inquisitive, and she holds the VR visor up to her eyes, looping the straps over the back of her head. "Is it a game? I've heard there's some that have art programs built in."
Airi Nakahara smiles as she slips on the headset. Immediately, Naru is swept away to a magical world. Her own fantasies begin fueling the world she is in. In Naru's case. That means art. Lots and lots of art. it is a sort of game where she can move things around and create her own with a move of her hands. The more she plays around the more difficult it gets.
Airi smiles and looks at Vidya. Vidya nods back to her. 1s and 0s begin dancing around the two of them as Vidya is brought into her egg and then pulled into Airi's heart. Her outfit changes to something far more digital looking. Finally she smirks as her own henshin fades.
Her gaze moves over Naru. "Its a really fun game. I like to call it... Virtual Vacuum!" She points at Naru and magic begins swirling about, trying to draw out her heart's egg. Nothing happens. She keeps trying but nothing. She cants her head. crap. Quickly she breaks the henshin causing Vidja to come out all dizzy.
"Errr, So ummm, What do you think?"
There's a pause. A long pause as Naru clearly watches the flickering images and scenes presented to her. Naru shifts her weight a little, reaching out with her hands to grasp at items that aren't there to those around her.
The giggle is probably not the most promising of sounds from someone who /should/ be falling into the depths of despair as their heart's egg is drawn out. "Okay, this is really kinda cool." She waves her hands around, leaning and twisting and discovering all the ways that what she can see doesn't relate to the real world, but the world in the visor.
"Who was your artist?" Naru asks as she reaches to lift the visor off, the grin isn't promising for that whole crushing despair thing either. "The name is kinda dumb, but the game's pretty cool." She offers the headset back to Airi.
Reiko Touyama sighs a bit and waves Naru off and goes right back to sketching with her pencil. Koi continue to frolic about in snow in weird cartoony fashion. They've both built tiny snow castles now somehow and appears to be having a land war with tiny tiny inanimate snowmen.
Nothing is happening except them throwing snowballs at the tiny men and knocking them down.
Reiko still thinks this is strange but amsuing as she works on drawing the poses of some people skating. She doesn't see anything happening behind her. Nope.
Airi smiles softly, "Well umm, Some friends of mine did the art for this one. I do my own sometimes." She giggles a little. "Yeah I need to work on the name more."
"Well umm. Thank you Miss. I will use the information gathered for when I can actually take this into Beta." She smiles and slips the device into her bag. She is kicking herself over this. Why didn't the egg come out. Unless there was something preventing that from happening it should have. She shakes her head. Her phone chirps and she looks.
-=We're waiting.=-
Quickly she moves on, headed to a child playing on a hand held game. "Hey There! How would you like to test out a new game?"
Amu Hinamori steps up and stretches. Then blinks. Is that... "Reiko-chan!" she calls out, waving a hand at her. She quickly walks over to her, smiling down. "I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been well?" Of course Ran ran over to a koi and proceeded to try to catch it, riding it lke a horse! Miki tried to peer over her shoulder and see what she was drawing.