defendure | Noctium Inbox

[ Izuku is here to have the worst luck repeatedly. It's his job as the protagonist: good luck sometimes, but usually bad trouble-magnet luck that Izuku just sort of happens to have all the time. If there is a way to get in trouble and get injured, he's going to find it. Aizawa's headache clearly wasn't big enough.

Despite the blatant injuries, Izuku smiles automatically - and despite it being reflexive, it's genuine. Shinsou seems confused, but Izuku's just relieved to know at least someone else is all right. He hadn't been sure if anyone was going to be, as he was starting to sort of...uh, pass the fuck out. One hand come up to rub the back of his head, an apologetic gesture that signals he's not a threat in the way a lot of his body language does despite that not being the truth any longer. A lot of the time Izuku Midoriya comes off as being apologetic for taking up other people's time in the way someone born with his sort of Quirk probably wouldn't have. ]

I - that'd be great, if you're sure? I can pay you back, um, later. Since they don't seem to take yen here...

[ Which is all he has, in his wallet. Which is mostly empty anyway because he spent an amount on some All Might collectible before arrival...and before the battle, and then he'd never, you know, had time to replenish his funds. ]

( from shinsou's outside perspective (as a minor character), it's clear to everyone in the school that class 1-A has some serious bad luck when it comes to run-ins with villains and everything else. he wouldn't really be able to nail down izuku as a lightning-rod for that, per se, but after what he had seen during the joint training... he definitely knows there's something weird up with him and his quirk, and it's not something he either can or will share with the students or the teachers.

it's not like he isn't curious, but shinsou isn't going to pry, especially when it comes to something like one's quirk.

shinsou is a person who is always mindful of another's body language — though things have been different at UA, he had felt an impetus to feel just as wary of other students as they had been of him (perhaps because he could so often pick up on their mistrust). anad in return, the disarming gestures, expressions, words; these are things that he would recognize almost immediately because he'd had to learn how to use them a long time ago, endeavoring almost every day to prove false assumptions people painted him with just by the nature of his quirk. due to this, he wouldn't guess the nature of izuku's quirk on his own — to him, it looks similar to the mechanisms he'd picked up, though based on the pure physical power of his own quirk rather than the potentially insidious nature of shinsou's. )

Yeah. Don't sweat it. Did you stop by the Embassy yet? They explained the whole money situation to me there. ( and how... weird it is. shinsou isn't exactly loaded, just due to how that whole thing works, but he can definitely afford to float a meal here and there for a friend. )

This way. ( he picks his way through the crowds toward le messe. it isn't too far away, though he makes sure to measure his pace, keeping an eye on izuku, since he'd looked like a stiff wind might do him in.

after a thoughtful pause, he ventures, ) ...How much do you know about how things work here? ( since he doesn't seem familiar with how money works, it's got him curious... shinsou feels like, if their situations were reversed, he'd prefer getting the run-down from another student rather than... their teachers. )

I did, so I know...the basics. It's just, uh, I haven't had time to acquire much?

[ He hasn't held hands or anything further, since Izuku doesn't actually know anyone here (or hadn't) and isn't exactly the sort of person to go out to find someone himself. Unless they looked like they needed help. He's nervous enough around his actual friends, not counting strangers into the mix - his confidence always comes from needing to save rather than just...existing.

But he falls into step with Shinsou easily enough, shoulders relaxing with the knowledge he's with someone he can trust. (Granted, he should maybe be concerned about illusions or body swaps, but...look) ]

I'm not really clear on what powers these Gems all confer? It seems like there's a lot that comes with it.

Yeah... You have to kind of, uh, ( he pauses, and there's something in his expression that lends itself to regretting even having started along on this train of thought, ) - plan around it, I guess.

( it had taken him some time to figure out that his quirk was wrapped up in all of this as well. just like the abilities they had been given via the gems embedded in their bodies, so too did his quirk consume manna when he used it. part of that felt invasive in a way he couldn't really put into words. the rest was just annoying. regardless, if one intended to train with their magic or their quirk, as shinsou certainly does, it meant you had to have a contingency plan: people who would be willing to synch with you so you didn't end up in a dangerous spot.

kind of embarrassing, but... it is what it is.

it makes sense that midoriya would want to chart all of this out. give him a few days, and he'll fill up a whole notebook full of thoughts and theories on all of this. the thought has shinsou smiling freely as he replies, ) You just missed out on our field trip to the camp in the mountains where you can train with them. From what I've been able to tell, each color gem gives a few abilities. Mine — amethyst... The ones I've mostly been working with are flight and speed. I think there's something to do with wind too, but I haven't really tried to do much with it.

( it would probably be useful, though. sometimes the wind battled against him when he was in the air. being able to shape it would only give him a further advantage when airborne. )

The red ones have something to do with fire... The green ones, ( his roommate has an emerald, but he can't recall him doing anything with his magic. he remembers what konoha had said about hers, though, ) Someone told me something about moving rocks and being able to grow plants more quickly? As for the blue ones, I don't know much about them at all.

Oh! Amethyst matches you - well, uh, color wise. [ Izuku hooks a finger into the top of his collar - hero suit, so he snags the zipper to drag it down just to the top of his sternum. Emerald. ] I've got Emerald.

[ He's fairly certain the locations don't seem to really be matching up on everyone. ]

I've never tried growing plants before? That could be, uh, interesting? [ Well, Izuku finds all Quirks interesting so he means that quite genuinely, sounding already curious...he'll have to experiment a bunch. ] I did get invited to live with some people, so at least that's...settled...

[ He's living with school idols. It's probably fine. ]

( he snickers. ) Yeah. That's what people tell me. ( not that he can really blame them, considering the fact that he's basically color-coded, hair, eyes, and gem together. he leans over to peer at the gem, a crooked smile tugging at one corner of his mouth as he does so. )

Could say the same for you, though.

( mr. broccoli-head, himself...

but shinsou tugs his own collar down, revealing the small amethyst embedded in the indentation between the delineations of his clavicles. technically a little above the sternum, but close. ) Similar spot, though.

( shinsou, much like how midoriya might, tends to think of his new abilities in relation to how they might help his hero work. so something like growing plants... it might be less useful. but getting a working idea of what one can do with these new powers would always be a good idea, in his book. ) If you test it out, let me know. It'll be useful to know just what everyone is capable of doing, at a glance.

( it's good he's already figured out a place to stay, though. ) Yeah? With who?

( shinsou's living with... he's pretty sure he's some sort of delinquent. but he's been really helpful to him thus far, so he's not going to judge. )

[ They're both color coded for everyone else's convenience, it's fine. Izuku's lips quirk up easily, though, eyes warm with an easy smile. He may come from a time when things are not Fine, but he hasn't woken up yet to just how not fine they are...so he's still willing to smile at a friend like that. ]

Oh, um, Nanase Riku is the one who invited me...they're, er, idols? Apparently? [ He's never heard of them, although they're from Japan...just, like. Pre-Quirk, from what Izuku can tell. ] And on the other topic - I'd love to test things out sometime with company. Maybe we could even combine our new powers?

[ He's always enthused to discuss hero work and this counts... ]

Idols, huh...?

( that's funny. the name doesn't even sound familiar to him, and he's actually met more than one idol here already. he wonders why. does whatever entity brought them here in the first have a fondness for them? he supposes that wouldn't be too odd, considering it was pretty much their job to make people fond of them. )

Sounds like it should be pretty interesting. ( his own roommate is about as polar of an opposite as you can get from an idol. it's... a journey, every day.

he regards midoriya with a smirk and a single laugh. he's not surprised — and here shinsou thought he was obsessive about heroes, but this guy really takes it to the nth level. ) Sure, I'm down. If we have time, we can always head back into the mountains. There was this camp up there they sent us to, to train with our abilities. Though... I don't really remember there being much discussion about combining them...

( it's food for thought. there's some abilities his gem gives him that shinsou hasn't even really messed around with yet.

they arrive at le messe, and shinsou wastes no time in finding a small, vacant table in the outside seating and indicating one of the chairs. ) Sit. ( he is now shifting into the mode of a stern caregiver. midoriya looks like he probably shouldn't be moving around freely three days from now, let alone right now. shinsou wanders off and returns a moment later with two menus. he slides one to the other boy and then sits to peruse it himself. he's not super hungry, but... it's just an excuse to sit down for a while and talk without him constantly worrying the other guy will keel over.

the food is mostly... american-style, he would suppose. he's considering french fries and a shake. as he does so, he asks, as cautiously as he can, ) Midoriya... It's a weird question, I know, but - what month was it for you, back home?

( he's already picked up in the indiscretion between dates when talking with his teachers. he figures it will explain a lot about... gesturing at izuku's everything... what's going on here. )

...Well, March. [ It is a weird question, and it's why Izuku focuses in on that rather than anything else that was said. Because it's a weird question, and Shinsou isn't the sort of person who asks weird questions without a good reason. And the only reason to ask that question would be... ]

...What month was it for you? [ He's smart, so he understands the implications. He can't say he understands the science precisely, but then, they've been pulled in from a variety of worlds to this one. Space-time not behaving like you'd expect is actually probably what one SHOULD expect. ]

( his response to the answer is at first a slow blink; aizawa-sensei had already mentioned that all might was from a time earlier than them, so he knew it was a possibility, but... it's still a little shocking, when faced with it first-hand. )

...I was studying for second semester final exams, right before I came here. So, late December. A few weeks after the joint training exercise.

( he lays the menu down on the table, not really able to think about something like that right now. he rests his elbows on the surface, left fist in his right hand. he's like that for a moment; his expression is deeply worried. )

Midoriya... What's going to happen in three months?

Um.

[ That's it, for a moment. That intelligent, haphazard "um". He's not trying to put Shinsou off - although he'll have to leave out the parts about One For All for now (...because he hasn't yet made the decision to tell everyone, since he hasn't seen the fallout of everything happening) - but it's more that so much has happened in three months. There's just a lot to go through, okay?

So he's trying to figure out how to summarize. ]

So, there was this thing called the Meta Liberation Army which was...villains who wanted free Quirk use. They kind of combined with the League of Villains and they're now the Paranormal Liberation Front. And a lot of U.A. students were assigned to evacuate civilians out of the line of destruction. Is what...I was just doing.

[ THAT'S THE BEST HE CAN SUMMARIZE, while leaving out a lot but this way Shinsou can sort of get the shape of it and ask questions or not as he pleases. ]

( he gives him the, "um," and he gives him time to think. shinsou is patient. he can tell that, whatever it is, it's a lot to try to coherently wrap up for someone who is completely uninitiated. shinsou gets the feeling that he might end up regretting asking — how many cautionary tales are there of people foolishly seeking knowledge of the future, only to have it ruin them in the present?

but seeing midoriya as he is now... it feels almost impossible not to ask.

he listens raptly. there's a lot here that doesn't really mean anything to him, and it wouldn't without some time to process. he's heard of the league of villains, after everything that happened in kamino, but — meta liberation army? paranormal liberation front? a world of free quirk use... it's a philosophical can of worms he's not really willing to crack open when sitting out in front of a diner.

after a moment, he breathes out a long, slow sigh. he nods. if the hero course students were mobilized for this — he doubts he would've been involved. his transfer wasn't finalized, after all.

he puts his forearms on the table and leans forward, brows knit together. another moment passes, and he asks, tone low, ) Are you okay? ( there's a beat. ) ...I'm not talking about the bandages.

( a wide-scale disaster which would require even students to be mobilized in order to assist with evacuation... it would have been huge. )

I'm... [ Good question? Izuku frowns, then shrugs. ] I'm in one piece. I'm more worried about everyone else, you know? I don't really know how everyone was doing. I got split off from the main group, and then the fight I was a part of was pretty confusing...I'm not even sure if everyone I was with is doing okay.

[ Back home.

Apparently Aizawa is just dandy here, he supposes? ]

If anything happened... [ How "okay" he is hinges on that. And he hasn't yet seen or heard about the aftermath that will wear him down. ]

( yeah. he would be worried too, if he had left something like that behind. it sounds like it had been chaos — something wide enough to affect the entire city. he knows that time will probably make it easier to put out of mind, and it will certainly give opportunity to process, but... it's going to be a heavy burden to carry until then.

somehow, shinsou thinks that talking through some of it might help him. maybe. even though he really doesn't know what to say. what kind of thing do you say to something like this? )

Unfortunately... ( maybe this isn't the best thing to start with... maybe he's not great at comforting people. ) There's no way to know here. Not unless - someone from further in the "future" shows up to tell you, I guess.

( since that's kind of what's happening for shinsou right now. he sighs. )

I know there's no use in saying, "don't worry about it," but... don't beat yourself up over it, at the very least.

Yeah, there's...not a lot to be done about it right now.

[ He can't exactly rip a portal open back home and go check on everyone (or if he can he doesn't have the slightest idea how to start). The best thing to do is try to work on things from this side... ]

...beyond I guess trying to get home? But you'd have said if we had a plan there.

( shinsou hums his assent, gaze downcast. he's had weeks to come to terms with his complete powerlessness in this situation. worse still, he can't imagine the gems would be actively incentivized to help in getting them back where they came from — they were needed here, for whatever reason, so he gets caught between wondering if they should try to investigate their own way back home or play along until their aid is no longer required.

though he's not even sure if a discrete endpoint like that even exists.

he hesitates in his reply; cautious with what he perceives as bad news. ) ...Kind of, but it's vague. We were apparently brought here by this - well, they call it a new god, so the thought is that it can send us back. But — ( he reaches up to rub the back of his neck, grumbling. ) — it doesn't seem like it's going to be as easy as asking. So until we get more information about all of that, we're pretty much stuck.

Ah... [ That is, in fact, bad news. But if Izuku remembers more than Shinsou... ] But since I don't remember you disappearing at home, it should be okay...?

[ Just to...reconfirm that. Because surely otherwise he'd...know? ]

Oh. Right.

( he hadn't thought about that, though now that it's brought up, he does vaguely remember aizawa-sensei bringing up something like that. he had been a month or so ahead of him, when he'd disappeared, and he hadn't remembered that either. he breathes out a sigh. )

I've been worried about how long we ended up being trapped here. A few months is - whatever, but what if it's years?

( would they even remember what happened here? would they be older when they got put back home? or not, and they just felt older? any answer has its own troubling implications. )

...I'm not sure. I get the feeling that if we think too hard about it, we'll just be stressing ourselves out, though.

[ Which, don't get me wrong, Izuku is totally going to do! But he doesn't want Shinsou to. ]

( he exhales a long, slow sigh, and then nods summarily. )

Yeah.

( basically all shinsou does is stress himself out! but, yeah. he agrees.

he pauses for a moment, looking down at where he rests his hands on the table. then at the table, and the menus, and the situation he had invited them to. oh, right. he looks back up to izuku. )

You've got to be hungry, right? Here. Just let me know what you want. I'll go get it.

( though, really, he is presently just trying to keep how much the guy moves around to a minimum, considering the state he's in... )

[ And that's what happens...Izuku probably asks for something simple like water, or maybe some sort of roll, and Shinsou is a good soul who is willing to get it...case closed? ]

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we can probably wrap this one up here i think?

we can!