InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Reverse the polarity!"

Shiori Wakanata (shiori_wakanata) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2009-07-01 00:20:00

Entry tags:

shiori, toshimi

Who: Toshi and Shiori
What: Toshi practicing + Shiori drawing = them talking. somehow.
Where: Practice field
When: After school
Why: Shiori likes to watch.

Being versatile never hurt anyone, and Shiori figured that while still lifes were great and everything being able to draw someone in action would only benefit her in the end. She didn't want to be a one-note artist, after all, and though she got great pictures from her time spent with the group in the other world Shiori felt that she should apply the practice-makes-perfect philosophy to her own life. And so she practiced drawing various people from various sports clubs; her victims for today happening to be the baseball team.

Narrowing it down, her one victim was Nawanaka Toshimi. Might as well get used to drawing her, after all; if they went to that other world more often, Shiori had a hunch she'd be doing that a lot. It was fun drawing her partners. No, that wasn't the right word... neither was teammates. Ah, well. She had never been really good with words.

Sitting against a tree with her legs drawn up and sketchbook placed against them, Shiori alternated her gaze from her sketchbook to the events on the field. Doing action pictures certainly was a lot harder than still lifes, that was for sure.

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-08 04:25 am UTC (link)

"Hmmmm..." Toshimi wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to take a camera there. There'd be no guarantee that there would be enough light to take pictures, and how would she even manage a camera and two swords? "Maybe your cell phone camera would work," she said thoughtfully. Toshimi herself had no intention of remembering any of the disturbing visuals, especially those creepy puppets they'd seen in the hospital. She found herself shaking her head. It was hard for her to understand why Shiori would even want to think about the visuals of that place, let alone focus on them for a work of art.

"Oh, that's a long time," Toshimi said, "No wonder you make it look so easy." Toshimi really wasn't good at anything artistic. "Oh, no, hardly anyone can go pro," she said with a smile. "Besides, I think I've already had my career decided for me..." she trailed off, thinking. It had never been stated outright before, but it was clear to her what she was supposed to do as a career already. "Do you want to draw professionally?" she asked, again reciprocating a question she'd been asked.

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shiori_wakanata
2009-07-09 04:46 am UTC (link)

At the suggestion, Shiori immediately reached for her cell inside of her pocket and flipped it open, examining it to see if it even had a camera. She had really only gotten it to let her parents know where she was when she wandered off to draw and hadn't cared about the special features. After pressing a couple buttons, a look of utter concentration on her face, Shiori finally shut her phone with a sigh. If there was a camera, it was hidden from her. Not that she was exactly a technological expert to begin with.

"'Decided for you'?" Shiori echoed. "Is it something you'd enjoy, at least? And... even if it isn't professional, don't some companies for sports teams for fun? You could still keep playing baseball that way!"

Nodding firmly at the next question, Shiori curled her fingers around the edge of her sketchbook. "I plan on being the best there is," Shiori said seriously. "As soon as I'm out of high school, I'm going to go to college in Tokyo and live there. I don't plan on coming back to Iburi."

Realizing it may have sounded too serious, she quickly added, "Well, maybe for the high school reunions. It'd be fun to see what everyone was up to!"

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-10 03:37 am UTC (link)

Toshimi watched Shiori curiously. Almost all phones came with cameras now--even hers had one, and Shiori's phone looked a lot nicer than hers. She didn't seem to find it, though. If there was a phone, it must have been cleverly hidden.

"Oh, well..." she realized that she'd gone beyond polite conventional topics there. "It's not going to be a problem," she said with a nod. She gulped down the last of her water bottle, thinking about the idea of NakaCo with a corporate baseball team. "It's true, a lot of companies have them nowadays...that's an interesting idea, Wakanata-san." She'd never really thought before about whether or not she would still play baseball in her spare time once she had a career, and wondered if she'd be too busy to play in the future.

"Ah," Toshi nodded, "That's so good. That you have such a nice dream, that is." Toshimi wasn't much for ambition. "I don't know what city I'm going to college or anything. Statistically, Tokyo is probable because of the number of universities there, but I might stay in Iburi." She wondered why Shiori was so intent on leaving, but didn't press the issue. For all Toshimi knew, there could have been a huge art scene in Tokyo that she didn't know about.

"Does Nanakamado hold reunions?" she asked. "I think that would be interesting..." Of course, a Nanakamado reunion would be fairly different from any other high school.

The captain looked like he was in the middle of an intense discussion, so Toshimi figured that there was still some time left on the water break. "So, uh..." She still had to make some conversation. "What's your favorite kind of art, then, Wakanata-san?"

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shiori_wakanata
2009-07-10 09:40 pm UTC (link)

Nice? Shiori's parents would hardly have considered her dream "nice" - compared to Ayumu-niisan, her dream seemed quite pathetic. He was planning on running his own business once he got out of college, and Shiori was just going to rely on her talent as much as luck in an area where what was "in" could just as quickly become "out." It was exciting for her, but to her parents it seemed like a waste. Even an art teacher, they had said, would be a better profession for her.

Wondering why Nawanaka would want to stay in Iburi when Shiori herself was so determined on getting out, Shiori instead held the question back. Nawanaka had her reasons, and Shiori wasn't about to demand answers. They weren't close enough for that.

"I.. I don't know, actually," Shiori admitted with a laugh. "But it's fun to think about, isn't it? I wonder what everyone'll be doing in ten years..."

Would everyone have achieved their dreams, she wondered. Would Satou-senpai be working for his father? And Keiichi, would he become a renowned chef? Would Aoi-san become a famous fashion designer? And the others, would they accomplish their goals too? It was almost scary to think about. Still, she hoped for the best. Everyone deserved it.

Blinking at the question, Shiori tapped her finger on her chin as she thought. She liked all kinds, really, but...

"I like them all, but I guess I definitely like photorealism and hyperrealism more than abstract," Shiori said. "Abstract is pretty to look at, but I always feel like I'm missing the message."

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-12 08:07 am UTC (link)

"I guess so," said Toshimi with a shrug. She didn't really take a lot of pleasure in thinking about what everybody else would end up being like in advance. It was easier to think of them as they were now, while there were choices to make. She thought it would be interesting to see them then, but if she had the chance to glance into the future right now...she shook her head. Putting her normal smile back on her face, she said, "But that's ages away, right?"

She listened considerately to the answer Shiori gave. She knew what the words meant, but Toshimi was far from an art expert. Was there more than one type of realism? Well, apparently there was. "I never really get abstract art, either," she said. "All I know about is what's in front of me, so if I saw a red box in the middle of a black page, I'd just say 'it's a red box', or something. You know?"

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shiori_wakanata
2009-07-12 08:03 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I guess," Shiori said, sighing. She wished the future would come faster. Right now - and next year especially, when she was a third year - she was feeling apprehensive about the future. Would she make it to art college? To Tokyo? Would she become successful? It all seemed too much to grasp, and it was much easier for her to just imagine herself and everyone else successful.

Fortunately, Nawanaka lightened the mood by bringing up art again, and Shiori laughed.

"Totally!" Shiori agreed. "I don't think I'll ever be able to understand the hidden meanings with abstract. That's why I like realism so much more - what you see is all there is to it. There's no secret messages or anything.

"So, um... aside from baseball, what else do you like Nawanaka-san?" Shiori asked. She didn't want the whole conversation to lean towards things only Shiori knew a lot about.

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-16 10:03 am UTC (link)

Toshimi thought for a moment. "Hmmm...other than baseball?" She spent a vast majority of her spare time either at practice, doing homework, or on the computer. "Computers, I guess..." she said thoughtfully. "And...math?" She put her hand behind her head in embarrassment; now she looked like she was something of a one-track mind. "There's an obstacle show on television that I like watching..." She'd had plenty of hobbies in her old town, but she'd dropped a fair portion of them when she moved to Iburi. "I like the ocean," she said feebly, thinking back.

"I usually don't talk about myself much, though..."

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shiori_wakanata
2009-07-17 01:17 am UTC (link)

How different they were, Shiori wondered in amazement. All the things Shiori was useless at Nawanaka enjoyed. Even her liking the ocean contrasted with Shiori, who had only seen rice fields and ponds. She wondered what it would be like to see the ocean in real life and not in a picture.

"You're really smart," Shiori sighed. "I suck at anything related to computers and math! Is it because of your uncle that you like computers? You introduced Matsuri, right?"

Thinking back, Shiori remembered that Nawanaka hadn't always been from Iburi. Did she used to live by the ocean? Or had she seen it on a trip or something? And her not talking about herself - was it because she didn't like to or because no one asked?

"Where did you move from?" Shiori asked, figuring that was probably the better question to ask.

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-20 05:54 am UTC (link)

"Oh, well..." Toshimi wasn't used to Iburi people thinking highly of her intellect. Pretty much everyone at Nanakamado was smart, after all. "Everybody's different," she said. There were plenty of things she was horrible at, after all.

She paused. Did she only like computers because of her uncle? It wasn't until he'd made peace with her father that they'd even had a computer in their house. But if it hadn't been for him and she'd had a computer anyway...she supposed that she would still like them. Toshimi settled for, "Uh...in a way..."

"That's right. Oji-sama wanted students to test it out, so he asked me to invite people from this school. Of course I was happy to help any way I could. Feedback from Nanakamado has been very helpful to the developers," she added.

"My town?" Toshimi repeated. "Yutagoro. It's about four hours from here by train...and I think there are buildings in Iburi with more people living there than the whole town." She finished with, "There's not really a reason for anyone to have heard of it..."

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shiori_wakanata
2009-07-21 01:39 am UTC (link)

Grinning, Shiori silently agreed. Everyone certainly was different - and not just at what they were good at, either. Obviously their personalities were different, and though some didn't get along with others the whole group was united by those they did get along. Or so Shiori liked to think; it was better than thinking that everyone was united by a shared hatred of one another. How depressing would that be?

"Ah, that's good! Are we going to get to test more things out? It's kind of cool to say I was a beta tester, even if I don't really play," Shiori admitted with an embarrassed laugh. "I mean, it's a great game! I just don't really play games."

She was usually too busy drawing, as if that wasn't obvious.

"Four hours away?" Shiori echoed, eyes widening in surprise. "That's so far away! And if it was a small town, coming to Iburi must have been a big culture shock! You've adjusted though, right? If you need help with anything, let me know!"

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thrown_to_winds
2009-07-23 07:51 am UTC (link)

Toshimi nodded, "Yes, the game's not nearly ready for full release yet, so there will be plenty of new features to test out." With a smile she added, "Yes, I kind of like saying that I work with the development team, myself...but the most I really do is tell them what people are saying about any new features. It's been pretty good so far, actually."

"I don't really play video games that aren't on the computer, myself," Toshimi mused. "I had a really old console back home, but other than that, I hardly know anything about the gaming world. The more I play, the more I find myself enjoying it, though." She smiled.

"Oh...it's not too far. It would only be an hour and a half or so on an airplane. Of course," Toshimi noted, "there's no airport, so I'm just speaking theoretically. And yeah, it's...different." At first she'd found the city to be a little claustrophobic--even being outside was sort of like being inside. "I'm used to it now, though."

The team captain was signaling for everyone to go back to the field. "Looks like the break's over," said Toshimi, standing back up and stretching her arms. "Nice talking to you, Wakanata-san."

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