recolle | i'm too impatient for the event so play something small with me maybe

Entry tags:

i'm too impatient for the event so play something small with me maybe

WHO: Minato/ota
WHERE: Wiffle-Waffle
WHEN: Friday, 8/3, all day
WHAT: a """stake-out""" aka eating waffles and talking because nothing will happen on the 3rd like it usually does. some info-sharing to get people up to date (or alternatively, non-productive wheel spinning with Minato because he knows NOTHING haha)
WARNINGS: none

i.
[ Shit goes down on the 3rd every month --> we don't know what's going to happen aside from something being wrong with Retrospec --> the waffle house used to be where the Retrospec building is and its mailbox is outside --> stake out the waffle house just in case something happens

That's basically the thought process that went into this, but word might not have gotten around that it's happening. If anything, what draws people's attention, if not by word of mouth, is that whoever's on the way to the waffle house early Friday morning may see Minato on his way there too, struggling to push a wheelbarrow up the street.

It's a covered wheelbarrow. There is definitely a blade or three poking through the cover where he'd tried to tie the fabric down so it wouldn't blow off. But don't mind that; help him push. ]

ii.
[ The Wiffle-Waffle is a respectable business which wouldn't appreciate loitering, so head on inside and let's have a waffle party. You're also paying for your own waffles, because Minato isn't made of money. He tries to keep his head down, mostly, finding a far away corner booth to sit at and waving people down with a credit card in one hand, the other hand held by the side of his face as if it does anything to obscure his identity from the workers there who shoot uneasy looks his direction from time to time. ]

Four waffles. Plain. If you can order that for me...

iii. (chronologically after prompt i.... I so clearly edited this in after the fact without reading)
[ He's just stuffing a mini-armory of axes and swords into the mailbox, don't mind him. ]

iv.
[ Time trudges on with nothing happening— a good thing, really. But Minato fiddles with his phone a lot during the time, pulling up a message he'd sent to Zee, checking and rechecking Wednesday's post from Joanne in hopes that it'd corrected himself.

With people here, it's a good a time as any for some info sharing. If anything, it'd be good for people to catch up on what happened last August that'd gotten so many "veterans" riled up, and Minato's one of those who wasn't there and is interested in learning more about it all. ]

So... Summer in Recollé sucks, huh. [ yeah ] ...I was talking to Zee a little, and he mentioned something about old maps, if you know anything about those. I guess it's of the city? Or Retrospec itself. I'm still a bit lost on it all, actually.

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[ If Clover were still human, she'd likely get premature grey hairs because of Minato. She sighs, but it gives way to a smile eventually. What they end up doing may not be objectively fun, but time together is still time together. ]

If you put it that way, I can try to smother you more.

[ She holds up a ticket. It reads "Claws." ]

You can spy on me, I suppose, but I'd rather not stand around like I'm loitering.

[ Claws...

Minato stands up a little straighter, arms spread out to either side of him like he's going in for a bear hug, but it's nothing that cute. ]

Here. I'll block you so nobody can see you loiter.

[ Everybody's attention will be drawn to him instead, maybe. ]

[ Clover looks at Minato for a second, and she covers a small giggle with her hand. It's not cute, but she appreciates the gesture. She looks around to make sure no one's looking before she leans up to press a kiss to his cheek. ]

You'll be blocking me so no one can see I'm as dangerous as you.

[ Clover already has an idea what her ticket means, and when she goes to the mailbox to retrieve her item, she comes out with Four's Claws. Nothing quite as dangerous or as bloody as every weapon Minato has, but Clover's the one with super strength. ]

[ He'd let his guard down and almost pulls away in surprise, but instead he ducks his head so his bangs can fall over his face and hide his smile, using the excuse of leaning over to see the claws Clover had pulled out of the mailbox. The smile doesn't disappear when he sees it, though it turns a little curious. ]

Cool.

[ Murder weapons are cool. ]

Will you try it on?

[ Like they're clothes shopping and he wants to see. ]

[ This is why Minato is worrying: he's totally into the weapon she can bash heads in with.

At his request, she puts it on, and it fits like a glove. She splays her fingers and rotates her hand to get a better look at the combat bracer. ]

I don't know how I feel about this fitting so well. [ It's still conflicting even though she's more well-adjusted. ] All her sisters specialized in a weapon of some sort. Not quite as multi-purpose as you.

[ The claw fitting doesn't surprise Minato as much, as he gets all his equipment from a reputable source— which is, incidentally, the police station— and has them suited to each of his team members, light boxing gloves for Akihiko-senpai, thin and light spears for Ken per the boy's request, but the clothes and shoes he buys are all tailored to fit. There'd be no using them, otherwise.

He closes his fist around the ticket for his own bloody gauntlets, and knocks his knuckles lightly against Clover's shoulder in a punch with very poor form. ]

So you fought with your fists, huh...? I remember using mine when I needed to be quick, but I don't think I had enough mettle to use it as my main style.

[ She looks at his punch, and she shakes her head. That poor form... it's good that he fights with something else. ]

I did. I don't know if I'd call it mettle, so much as her insecurities fueling how she fought or why she chose to fight that way. [ She remembers some of Four's thoughts. She has some similar thoughts now, not to do with fighting but of dark worries. ]

It's hard to imagine you being quick, though.

[ Her tone is light. She's teasing. ]

Hey, I've hunted things down with my bare hands.

[ Everything else he fights with, he fights with poor, clearly made-up form. It's kind of sad. Which contributes to the unbelievability that he fights at all, with his condition and bloodthirst that is only ever a running joke. ]

It is mettle, though. Even after getting all this from Retrospec, you know why I only ever practice with the bow?

Food? You were willing to be shanked for food.

[ She can't agree with him, but she won't argue that point. It's fine if he thinks that way. Far be it for her to try to make him think less of her. ]

No. Why?

[ Her guess is the range. ]

I was willing to be shanked for money.

[ It was bounty hunting, and the smile lessens a little, faint and barely there. He hunted for money, but also for the thrill of it- his life was boring, it was stifling, he'd hated it, those were all emotions he'd gleamed in the past several months of being thrown in and out of his memories.

But still, he didn't have the mettle. ]

I used a bow, and I use my Personas, because I don't want to feel anything die.

[ Even if it's monster, he didn't like to feel something die against spiked knuckles, feel the resistance against a blade. With a bow, with magic, he could distance himself from all of that, look at a monster objectively and think of his team that he had to protect and not spare any concern for what he must kill. ]

That's your kindness. Perhaps you view it as cowardice, but it's kinder than what Four was like. You did what was necessary. She... went beyond that.

[ The day Clover accepts herself as Four is the day she dies.

Four wanted to crush everything she hated. While spouting false words of pity and regret, she kicked heads in. The Intoner's power made her nails grow at an alarming pace, eating away at her self-image, so she adapted to wearing gloves and fighting with her fists to cover for it. Every move, every action is to obscure all her insecurities, to bury her self-hatred in violence and cruelty that's thinly veiled as justice. ]

You had people to protect, didn't you?

...Yeah. I had my team. I fought, 'cause if I didn't, we might die. Fighting was a choice- an option.

[ One he didn't have to take. He could have run. He could have ignored that tower like I did before I realized I had to clear it in order to move the plot along, and then climbed 200 stories at one time. But he could have had mercy, and nothing forced him to hunt Shadows like he did in order to earn money- none of that, to him, is kindness. ]

I was a mercenary, Clover. That's how I made my living. Got one of my swords that way, and the nailbat too.

[ Clover removes the bracer from her hand. She debates putting it back into the mailbox but decides against it. There's something in fighting against her past that goes through her thoughts, but her focus is on Minato. ]

Tell me, why were you a mercenary? What were you fighting for? Was it money only? Fighting in order not to die isn't wrong. Perhaps you had other choices, but something had to guide you to this choice.

It was the money.

[ His voice is quiet, though. More than usual. The root of it is money; from what he can gather from everything he'd been shown already— brief snippets, confusing conversations he wished he could revisit, everything scrambled and out of order and too hard to recall in their entirety— nothing will erase the memories of finding money in that tower and filling his pockets with it, or killing a Shadow and taking a part back to Elizabeth as proof in exchange for a reward. "Subjugation requests." That's what they were, and he has enough of those. ]

I didn't have a family, a home, nothing. All I had was my team. I had to keep them safe no matter what. So I bought all of their weapons, their armor, with my own money. That was my responsibility. And I also... ate out a lot. With friends. We'd only hang out if there was food involved.

[ He came to that city with nothing. And he'd scraped together a team, some friends. This is what he did to keep them close. ]

Did you love them? Your team, your friends. Do you love them?

[ She can't judge him for the money. In this life, Clover lucked into a good family. She knows just as easily, if it weren't them, she'd have nothing and would have to scrounge for money. If she didn't have a home or a family, who knows what she would've done?

She would have been worse. She knows she would've been worse. Desperate, she would've justified anything. ]

Could you call your team your family?

I love them. [ There's no hesitation when he says that, but ] But they weren't family to me. We weren't that close. I don't think all of them got along very well with each other, either.

[ And yet he would do all of that for them, keep them outfitted and protect them and make sure nobody- nobody else- dies while he's in charge. He cared because he was "Leader." The official reason, the one he would bring up if asked, is because they're his responsibility.

The real reason, was it love? ]

They were all I had, though. So of course I wanted to preserve what's mine.

If you love them, that's reason enough. I won't pretend to spin a moral compass for you. I'm selfish, at the core. [ That's something she is comfortable enough to say in front of Minato. It's her trust in how much he'll accept her even if she's not the model version of herself she wants to be. ]

I'd like to do things because it's to make the world a better place, but if I'm being truly honest, if it comes about to be a side effect, that's fine. I want to be a nurse because I love my mother and she inspires me, and it works out that following in my mother's footsteps means I can help people, too. I want to preserve that special feeling most of all, the feeling that I can make my family proud, so I can't say what you're doing is wrong. I don't want to call it wrong.

[ Clover is possessive. Clover is clingy. Clover is self-aware enough to know how hypocritical that'd be even if it were almost anyone else, she'd protest that she isn't. ]

Fight to keep what is yours. Fight to keep what you love. Fight to keep what you consider important close. It's what I'd do.

[ It's what she'd do now with Eren as one of her strongest influences. ]

[ ...what a human conversation, Minato ends up thinking to himself, that selfishness isn't inherently a bad thing. It'd always been that he owned very little and loved even less, but if he broadens the criteria a little... These are his friends. This is his city. This is his world. And so he will protect all of that. ]

Mm. That's why I'm here today. The next time something threatens what's mine, I'll be ready to fight. I won't lose anything else.

[ He reaches forward and pats Clover on the top of the head. ]

I won't lose you. I won't lose Minako. I won't lose anybody that I've met here.

[ In that, they are similar. The number of people Clover claims to love and the amount of people Clover truly loves are not the same. She's more honest now, her self-image issues less crippling, but some core things cannot change. There are a select few who have entered her heart, and the whole world could still go up in flames if it meant those few could still stay with her.

Her eyes glance up to look at where he pats her. Her eyebrows arch, and her expression is one of those carefully thoughtful ones. Either she's pensive or Minato is in danger. ]

Am I your pet? [ Is she joking? Who knows? ] But that's why I said I'd check up on you here. If you fight like that for us, you won't lose us. You won't lose me.

[ Because when he shows his determination like this, she can't help but be attracted to him, almost like a moth to a flame. ]

[ The determination will come when it comes. Without anything to fight, though, he's relaxed, guard down, and continues to pat Cover's head absentmindedly without heed to danger. ]

This is how human beings show affection to those they consider family.

[ so, like. pets. but he also remembers getting his hair ruffled by his dad when he was little. Nobody dares to, now. ]

[ There's a beat of silence. A beat where her mind says, But Clover, you're no longer a human being. She closes her eyes, and that's why she lets Minato continue. To be human... for something so human to happen... ]

If I didn't find public indecency distasteful, I'd say there were different ways to show affection.

[ The words feel foreign on her own tongue, and it's much more flirty that she usually allows herself to be. Four would never say that. Four would never do what she's about to do next.

Head pats and hair ruffles she reserves for children 10 years old and younger, but she reaches up and runs her perfectly manicured fingers through Minato's hair and stops there. That's as indecent as she can get in front of the mailbox. ]

—I'm sorry. I made that weird. You could hold my hand instead.

[ Her voice is measured, as if she's trying to keep herself in control. ]

[ It's unexpected, but not weird; his threshold for weird was always very high, and it gets pushed every time he hangs out with Souji, so for something like this? He takes her hand- the one that'd combed through his hair, and holds it to go through the same motion, pushing his bangs back and then stopping so that they're held there and he can look at her with both eyes. ]

It's alright. Affection's letting the other person do whatever they want without worry about it being weird. I sort of already do that.

[ Taking advantage of kindness and doing whatever the hell he wants... The spoiled youngest son. ]

[ Her eyes lock on their hands together and then they lock onto both his eyes. Pink rises to her cheeks and dusts the top of her ears. She bites her lip.

She clears her throat. ]

I don't... I don't think you quite understand. What I want to do right now... I wouldn't want to do in public.

Edited 2018-08-14 00:08 (UTC)

[ Why would you trust Minato Arisato to take a hint?

Still holding onto Clover's hand, he holds her close to his chest, his other arm held out to the side like they're in the middle of a dance routine. ]

Don't worry, I'll hide you.

[ So go ahead and do it! He'll support you!! aren't you glad ]

[ i don't trust minato but i TRUSTED YOU is this what betrayal is like

Her breath hitches in her throat, and she shifts her weight from foot to foot like she wants to dance like he's positioning them to but is nervous about it. Her eyelashes flutter, and her gaze lowers to his lips. ]

N-No.... I mean, you could hide it for a little while, but... it's... um, a little difficult to hide what I want to. Do. To you.

[ She hardly ever stutters, but even as she stumbles over the words, her free hand cups the side of his face, then slides down to nape of his neck. ]

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