天道 あかね (asanequal) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-06-24 22:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, akane tendo, ashley magnus |
Who: Akane, Ashley plus NPC!Nabiki
What: Ashley goes to see Akane and gets more than she bargained for.
When: May 28th
Where: Martial arts studio
Warnings: Extortion
Status: Complete upon posting
Helen had more or less kicked Ashley out of the house for a while. Ashley had been staying with her mom ever since she came home from the hospital a few days earlier. While Ashley was grateful that her mom was alive, she was still very worried about her. Though they’d at least finally talked about what had happened a few weeks earlier between them. So at least Ashley felt better about that. She hadn’t quite forgiven her mother yet, but she wasn’t anywhere near as angry as she had been.
After leaving the house, Ashley decided to go see Akane and spend some time there. Maybe even go workout somewhere as well. After all the stress she’d been under since her mom had gone into the hospital, Ashley really needed an outlet to relax.
Arriving at the martial arts studio, Ashley walked inside and glanced around. She did note the damage that had been done. And, well, she didn’t feel bad about not having been at work since, well, work wasn’t exactly open currently. She then looked around.
“Akane?” She asked. Chances were someone was here. If it wasn’t Akane, they could at least tell her where Akane was.
Nabiki had been in the back when she heard movement out front. Peculiar. Moving to the doorframe between back and studio, the middle Tendo sister just leaned against the frame, arms crossed. Right. Ashley.
“She’s picking something from the coffee shop. Classes aren’t starting up again until Monday, though.”
A basic gesture was made towards the floor boards which still needed to be replaced. Honestly, whatever had attacked her sister and Ranma had been… well, it put a damper on business, but they were getting new flooring the next day, so they’d be fine.
Seeing the damage first-hand made her suddenly all the more appreciative that she’d been otherwise occupied with her mom at the hospital as well as at home. While she would have loved getting involved in fighting whatever was running around hurting people like Akane, Helen didn’t need the added stress of worrying about Ashley potentially being injured.
And then she looked up at hearing a voice. It was one of Akane’s sisters, Nabiki to be precise.
“Ah, well I can wait. I wanted to talk to her. Though that’s good to hear about the classes starting up again.” Ashley could certainly use the outlet. And come Monday, she’d be needing to get out and do something other than worry over her mother. Not to mention being potentially driven crazy by her mother as tended to happen when they were together for extended periods of time.
“Suit yourself.” It wasn’t like there was much to do at the moment. Though, Nabiki did notice the look Ashley gave to the damage. “I have video footage, if you’re interested. Sound will cost you though.”
What? Nabiki liked to make a profit and well, it would certainly pass the time. Not to mention it was definitely something rarely seen between her sister and Ranma. And given she knew Ashley was friends with Akane, she was helping. Just taking a charge along with it.
“And believe me, you’ll want to hear what’s said.” Nabiki would just.. leave out the fact that it was in Japanese.
At the mention of the video footage, Ashley’s interest was piqued. She was curious as to what had happened to Akane. And also curious as to just what kind of crazy she’d missed while she’d been at her mother’s side in the hospital. Though she did not miss the offer of sound costing her. Ashley recognized extortion when it happened, but she was curious about what was said, exactly.
Not to mention Nabiki seemed to hint as though something monumental happened on the footage aside from Akane being hurt. So alright, Ashley would bite. And just not exactly let on that she spoke Japanese. That was something she hadn’t mentioned yet, though Nabiki would obviously figure it out once Ashley understood what was being said on the footage.
“Alright, how much will it cost me?” She asked.
“Hmm, well you do work at a family dojo so you I’ll give you a discount. Twenty dollars.” Which for Nabiki? Was generous. A girl had to make a living somehow. With that she held out her hand for the money. She would deliver, of course she would, but first, she wanted to be paid.
“Alright, you got a deal,” Ashley said. Frankly, she’d expected a bit of a steeper cost, but she wasn’t going to complain. She fished out twenty dollars and handed it to Nabiki. She was hoping it would be worth the money, but she had a feeling it would be worth more than she paid.
Excellent. Not even having to argue. She loved it when it worked out this way. Pulling out her laptop (because of course Nabiki would have the evidence on her laptop), she pulled up the footage from the attack on the dojo, enabling the audio so that Ashley could hear what had happened as well as watch.
When there was clearly something she should see, Ashley didn’t exactly argue the point. So she moved closer and watched the footage. Those two creatures were definitely up to no good, and she was suddenly glad she’d missed out on having to deal with those things. Still, she did catch what was said and her eyes narrowed slightly. Now that was interesting. Ranma and Akane, huh? She then smirked a bit.
“That was entirely enlightening,” she said, once the footage came to an end. And it was clear that Ashley understood the Japanese simply because she had a look on her face that read she’d so be poking Akane about it.
As a shrewd business woman, Nabiki watched Ashley’s reaction, and it was definitely a good one. She hadn’t expected her to know Japanese, most people in the area took Spanish as a second language given their proximity to the border, but that worked out.
“I thought so.” Obviously Nabiki already knew, she and Kasumi had been the ones to suggest Akane as the fiance given age and interest, only Kasumi had made Nabiki promise not to get on Akane’s case too much and Kasumi was the only one who could get Nabiki to promise, but she never said anything about getting others in on it. But ah, speaking of Akane.
“Hey, sis, got my coffee?” Packing up her laptop, Nabiki headed to the door and grabbed her coffee from Akane as she no longer had to babysit the dojo. “Great conversation, Ashley, see you around.”
That… was never a good thing. Akane just watched as Nabiki left, wondering exactly what she and Ashley had discussed. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her sister.. okay so that was exactly it. But could you blame her? Nabiki had sold pictures of her back in Japan, was part of the reason the families had to pack up and move across the globe to escape people she had swindled… Not that it really mattered at the moment.
“I didn’t know you’d be in today, I would have gotten you something.”
Smiling, Akane headed inside. She still had to wear a bandage on her neck from the attack, but it was a necessary evil and a mock turtle neck top at least covered part of it that day. Either way, for now, she was going to play it safe. And then apologise for Nabiki if she did anything, since, well, Nabiki. But given the fact Ashley seemed in good spirits, her mother was undoubtedly doing better now which was the important thing.
“See ya,” Ashley called after Nabiki, obviously recognizing the fact that she’d shown her that footage for a reason. Which clearly was to see how Akane and Ranma had feelings for each other. Well then. This was most certainly going to be something she’d keep in mind.
“Oh hey don’t worry about it,” Ashley said to Akane, waving her hand dismissively. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Kasumi told me you were attacked.” She did notice the bandage that poked over the top of the turtleneck Akane was wearing, but Ashley didn’t call attention to it. If only because Ashley didn’t quite like attention getting drawn to the times she had to wear bandages. But Akane seemed to be doing well. She was up and doing things, at least, so that was certainly a good sign.
“Are you doing alright?” Because it obviously had been an experience. Ashley just wasn’t yet ready to divulge that she’d seen the footage. Much less give away the fact she spoke Japanese. Hey, if Ashley could keep her Japanese skill a secret in order to eavesdrop on Ranma and Akane’s conversations? She’d definitely do so. For as long as she could. Yes, she could certainly be a brat when she wanted to be.
Akane would scoff at the notion that Ranma had feelings for her. Sometimes it was like they weren’t even friends anymore, which was what was even more upsetting. It was all pushback against their fathers, and there were times when they were friends again, and Akane never really stopped considering them that at the very least. Anything else, feelings, those she didn’t even consider. It was stupid and no one was making her decisions for her.
“Oh… Yeah, I’m fine now.” A bit shaken up, still dreamed about it when it wasn’t mixed up with complicated dreams of Nerima and the life she apparently lived there. But fine. Completely fine. “I’m guessing your mom is doing okay? That’s good.”
Yes, Akane pretty much answered her own question, but it was easy enough to make sense of given that Ashley was there and seemed to be in a good mood. Or good enough. She wasn’t coming to tell them that she needed more time off, she was smiling. It was an easy enough assumption to make.
This was precisely why Ashley was more than happy to now observe at a distance and see how they interacted over time. Ashley was more than a little stupid when it came to emotions, unless she knew someone well enough to know their tells. Which, well, her mother was the only person she could currently claim that with, but that was besides the point. If Ashley could poke at it a bit, perhaps help them both along, then she would. Just not before she watched them now.
“I’m glad to hear it. Also kind of glad I missed that whole thing.” That was literally the only upside to her mother nearly dying. Though at the question, she nodded a bit. “Yeah, I mean she’s still on the recovery track, but she’s home now. Her dreams gave her the cure at the last second, so thankfully she’ll be fine now.”
Or so she hoped. Ashley knew how dangerous their dream world was. But she was hoping Helen wouldn’t have any further near-death experiences like that. Ashley didn’t have enough lives to survive another round of that.
“I don’t blame you. I would have liked not going through it.” Which was an understatement. Being up against something that strong? Knowing it was more luck than anything that she had survived? Yeah. That was more than slightly scary. There were a lot of what ifs, ones her father had cried over when she and Ranma had finally gone back to the house to deal with that.
“That’s good. Losing a parent is hard.” She had been so young when her mother died, and yet that loss was always a part of the family. It would linger in their minds and hearts. Akane didn’t want anyone to go through that. Life didn’t work out that way, but she knew how it was. “So it was something from the dreams?”
Katou had mentioned dying in his dreams, so she knew it was possible for such things to happen. It was still strange to hear about though.
“Well hey, maybe you’ll get to miss a future weird thing?” Ashley suggested hopefully. Besides, given the way dreams went, as well as normal life, chances were one of those could clash with some weird happening in Orange County so Akane would either be oblivious or simply be able to avoid the larger crazy.
Ashley nodded. “Yeah, it is.” Not that Ashley knew what losing a parent to death was like. Except for that whole having convinced herself her father had died fourteen years ago because that was easier than believing he didn’t care about her anymore. But that was definitely the kind of loss that stayed with someone and never truly went away.
“It was, yeah. Some type of radiation poisoning, I think. Luckily my mom dreamed while she was in the hospital and the cure showed up. She’s not instantly better, recovering from multiple organ failures is not easy, but she is moving around under her own power now at least.” Ashley spoke of it in a light-hearted way, but it was by no means a light-hearted topic. It was just the way she was trying to cope with the emotional overhaul the last couple weeks had been.
And that was factoring in the argument she and her mom had had before she’d fallen so gravely ill.
“That would be nice.” From what Akane had seen of her dream world, things seemed exaggerated, but nothing insane. But she also doubted she would be exempt from future weirdness. Because normal life or not in the Dreams? There was the fact she had a stalker who tried to speak Shakespearean, and had convinced all the males in the school to fight her every morning just to date her. Yeah, that was fun. Especially as Upperclassman Kuno had always been annoying in this life as well.
Loss of a parent was just one of those things that Akane didn’t talk about. They had the shrine to her mother, it had its own room even here. Sometimes Akane would just sit in there when she was alone, as if she could feel closer to the woman. As if she would get answers, or understand what was happening. So far, no answers came but it was still calming.
“Well, that’s certainly good.” Akane wasn’t one to talk about proper ways of handling stress. Mostly because her method involved punching things or training. But it was another sign that things could cross over from the Dreams. Just like Katou dying. The fact that it was the Dreams that saved Ashley’s mom though was interesting. So clearly they weren’t all bad? In theory? Or Akane just wanted to believe in something good after what had happened with the attack. Who knew.
“Here’s to hope, anyway.” If Ashley could skip out on something crazy happening, clearly it meant Akane could too. Besides, there could be times in the future where Akane left Orange County for a trip or to go to a martial arts competition somewhere else and miss something. Speaking of which, Ashley was thinking of competing in a tournament again later on in the year. It would, at least, give her something to focus on and strive towards.
Of course, Ashley also did her fair share of punching things to relieve stress, which was what she was going to do after talking with Akane here. Though she might also stop by her apartment to pick up her gun and head to a shooting range. She was starting to inherit her dream self’s love of guns.
“Definitely grateful to the dreams for that.” Given how she’d reacted here to what had happened, Ashley could only imagine what her dream self would be acting like when she got to that point of the dreams. Considering her mom was further ahead in her dreams of their world, it only stood to reason that Ashley would dream of it in the future.
“How are you doing aside from the attack and all?”
True, there was the fact that she might not be in the area for things. That would be nice. Though who knew if and when that might happen. Still despite it all, Akane liked to have hope and to believe in people. It would probably bite her in the foot because she tried to see the best in people no matter what they did (there were some exceptions to that, but as a rule) so trying to hope she could escape the next round of crazy? It was a nice though.
“Here’s to hope.”
Then Ashley was talking about being thankful for the dreams given they had brought the cure for her mom and Akane nodded. “It seems that for as much bad as they bring, they also bring some good, or at least ways to get through it.”
It wouldn’t make sense to just..kill someone via the dreams and not have a way to bring them back. Still, it wasn’t easy having to live through it initially. In theory. Akane hadn’t had any strange incidents like that, nor had Ranma. Just typical everyday life things from what she had picked up. The only difference being he and his father had never come to Tokyo, so who knew if he would show up in her dreams or not. Not like she cared or anything.
“Besides the attack? I’m okay. Besides the dojo, getting ready for graduation as well as helping someone study for their finals. Anything coming up in your future?”
Sometimes, Ashley wished that she hadn’t moved to Orange County. Perhaps if she hadn’t, she never would have started dreaming of this other life. Though she still would’ve had to deal with her mom nearly dying given her mom dreamt. And sometimes Ashley had a bad feeling about her dreams. With the frequency at which she woke up with wounds, Ashley was convinced her dream self had a deathwish. And she wondered how long before one of the violent Abnormals they encountered actually killed her. Or her mother.
Still, she wasn’t going to dwell on that because she had no proof of it in her dreams. But Ashley’s gut instinct was rarely wrong. And her gut was telling her something big and terrible was coming in her dreams.
“That seems to be the case from what I’ve experienced and seen others say. I haven’t had a near-death experience like my mom, but I have woken up with more than my fair share of injuries. I can’t begin to tell you how quickly I learned to get blood out of my clothes and sheets.” Ashley said it with amusement, but she knew it was a serious thing. And she well knew she could’ve woken up with far worse injuries than she actually had up to this point.
“Hey, congratulations on the upcoming graduation! Definitely a milestone. And hopefully you can help them study and get them to pass finals. I always hated finals.” Which was possibly part of the reason she was avoiding making a decision on grad school. Ashley really hated finals, and she tended to psych herself out to the extreme during finals week. “I was thinking of entering a martial arts tournament later this year if I find one I want to compete in. Aside from that, still trying to avoid deciding between going to graduate school or trying to put my business degree to some use.”
Akane could understand the wish not to have moved to Orange County. She might not have had many dreams, but given the reason the Tendo and Saotome families had moved in the first place, it wasn’t shocking she wished it hadn’t happened. All she knew about the Dreams was what she was told or read on the network, though. Beyond annoying Upperclassmen being more obnoxious and things exaggerated.. and the strange feeling because Ranma and Mr. Saotome hadn’t shown up… it was just strange.
“I get that feeling as well. The friend I tutor, he has mentioned nearly dying twice. My dreams seem dull in comparison. Though that is an important skill to have?” With how many times Akane had needed to tend to Ranma’s injuries, or when Kasumi had to tend to her own, Akane at least knew how to get rid of blood. She might not be the best cook.. or a decent one if it wasn’t the basics, but dealing with blood and injuries? That she could do.
“It is, and I think he will be fine. He has come far in the times we’ve studied.” Go figure that she could tutor people, though having to help keep Ranma on top of school probably helped. Fiance duty or something. Mostly he just annoyed her for it. But with going to college, they were able to postpone the wedding instead of having to get married now, so, no complaints there. And she knew that it would be necessary for her to have a business degree for running the dojo. “Oh? That could be fun.” Akane hadn’t done any tournaments recently, but it could definitely be fun. “That can be complicated. Yes.”
The fact that Ashley’s mom also had dreams was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that Ashley had someone to talk to about her dreams that understood the world from their own dreams. A curse in that her mother obviously knew a hell of a lot more about their world and lives than she’d ever told Ashley. Then again, Ashley didn’t really want to ask her much about the future in their dreams. It was kind of like spoiling things, wasn’t it?
“It’s totally a useful life skill,” Ashley quipped with a smile. After all, when involved in martial arts, bloody noses and so forth were the norm. It had simply been that Ashley’s mom had been the one to get the blood out of clothes when she’d been younger and she hadn’t really learned the skill until her dreams started.
“Oh it is. I was in a tournament back in March, and that was a lot of fun. If I find one that looks interesting, do you want me to pass the info onto you?” Ashley had only done a basic search for upcoming tournaments. She’d do a more in-depth one soon. Besides, tournaments were good things to have to aim towards with training. And, at least in Ashley’s case, gave her something to strive for aside from teaching.
For Akane, she didn’t know if Ranma dreamt the same world as she did. After all, it wasn’t like they had discussed the dreams all that much beyond the initial ‘this is really weird’ part. Neither had brought up the fact Ranma hadn’t come to live with the Tendos when he was six or when he and his father weren’t on a training trip. Nor did Akane actually want to put much thought to it. Though she supposed time would tell on that front.
“It really is.” Given what they did for a living, even if Akane was just about to graduate high school and then go to college. It was still an important life skill. And given what she had already seen of Orange County? It might be extra necessary here, dream injuries or not.
“I’d like that, thank you.” And she would. It would be nice to do some competitions. And she could convince her father that it would be good for business. Never let it be said that Akane didn’t pick up some things from Nabiki, she just wasn’t soulless and didn’t extort people out of their money. But really, it would just be fun.