[Yanai Yoko]

She understood it, but also kind of didn't. So the balloon was like, coating his face? ''No solids at all? Or are they just a pain in the neck?'' If he couldn't have any at all then she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. ''Usually I offer people gum if they can't have cigarettes.'' She muttered, she would have to rethink her strategy with Michael if she wanted to have something ready to offer him. ''I agree, Michael is better.'' She considered commenting on him calling her big sis, but she vastly preferred it to him trying to be overly polite and calling her by her surname which she hated.

As he talked she remained silent and listened, finishing her cigarette and putting it out in a tiny, portable ashtray, neglecting to throw the cigarette bud away and instead carrying it with her, because littering was some real villain shit. ''It's that sorta situation, huh. Old, strict families. It sounds like a pain.'' And if any of them gave him any grievances or bothered him, just like those people calling him airhead, she would not hesitate to body an Ojakaze family member or two for Michael's sake. What's the worst they could do, give the delinquent more detention? Throw her in jail? Knowing her good for nothing hero dad, he would probably have her bailed out within days anyway.

''That's for the best, don't go worrying about all that shit, just focus on moving forward.'' Advice she could confidently give him and neglect to follow herself. ''Have you thought of a hero name, then?'' Usually the hero students that were overly eager to help others and get into heroism spouting altruistic things, usually she found them revolting. However, Michael wasn't that annoying, in fact, he was funny. She might even have laughed a few times during their conversation if she was more expressive. Did that bother him? That she always looked like she was ready to flip someone off? ''Hero names are a big deal to students or whatever, but I haven't thought of one. Maybe I'll just go with something stupid or offensive.'' She said absentmindedly, occasionally looking up at the sky like she was trying to locate a star that had stopped shining long ago.

Samaritan

[Samaritan]

Michael Faraday

Stretching Out a Dialogue

Michael grimaced, not that she could see. He was fine with explaining especially since she seem genuinely curious... but he knew how repulsive it was to see. "I can stretch open the pores, but its not exactly something I show off... for one, its kind of uncomfortable but more importantly it's not very pleasant to see. So I tend to just stick with foods and drink that can pass through easily enough. Anything thicker than pudding usually involves some stretching." Michael decided it was maybe easiest to just show.

Michael check to make sure there wasn't anyone else around to freak out with his "trick". He slowly but deeply inhaled making his head seem to shrink. Though rather than deflating it was clear it was more like the air was being vacuumed out of his head. The latex rested against his skull within, clinging tightly, giving him a featureless but human like head just with bright red latex skin. His sturdy jaw and strong chin began to stretch down as he opened his mouth beneath the balloon. Small holes began to stretch out with his jaw as he manipulated the latex enough to open and reveal his mouth under the latex. He kept the holes small enough so to not show too much of the muscles and bones that most people had head skin to cover.

After that haunting display finished, he let the holes seal back shut over his mouth and in a gesture like in a cartoon, he pressed his thumb against where his lips would be and pretended to blow into his thumb tip to reinflate his head. "Hence why I tend to stick with soups and sodas." He chuckled trying to bring some levity back.

Michael appreciated the offers even if he couldn't indulge in either. "While I could more easily smoke than chew gum, neither appeal to me. But thank you." He would continue to explain and show what he could about his quirk.

After talking about his quirk while they walked and he let the conversation about his family fade, they ended up at the coast of the bay. Michael audibly groaned when the subject shifted to hero names. "No... I mean, I have some ideas, but none of them feel right right now. Deep Float and Zeppelin sound too dark and the local kids have started calling me Balloon Head. I know Michael doesn't really work for a hero name but its the only one that feels genuine... The best I've come up with is Mr. Inflatable and still it feels..." Michael was about to say it was like getting a piece of clothing you were too small for. "Like it doesn't fit yet... It's hard to come up with something that's meant to inspire hope in citizens and deter villains from crime when you look like the mascot for children's cereal." Michael sighed in frustration, showing how much this had been weighing on his mind. He picked up a rock off the ground and tried to skip it on the water's surface, though he failed immediately.

"I bet when you figure out a name it will be really cool. Like Suijin, or Susanoo, or Blue Skies- okay maybe that one doesn't seem very grandiose, but you get what I mean." Michael glanced over to her. "You can tell me to shut up if its too personal, but... what does your quirk do? Making rain is really neat and I know you were starting to change back there, but what is your quirk?" They were friends and she was already learning a lot about his quirk and how it affected him physically, so he wanted to know the same for her.

Notes & Tags: Yanai Yoko


TLDR: Michael gets into more details about his head, he can eat anything up to the consistency of pudding before it becomes difficult and unpleasant to see. Michael hasn't found a hero name and the only one that feels usable feels like it doesn't fit him, like its too big for him. Michael asks about Yoko's quirk.

[/quote]
[/quote]

[Yanai Yoko]

She stopped and watched the horrid display as Michael used his quirk in a way she hadn't expected. How could she have? His willingness to show her this told her one thing, he was honest to a fault. If she had ended up with his quirk she doesn't even know where she would be today. Definitely not walking the streets of Tokyo, and definitely not seeking the limelight as a hero. On a worse day he might have scared her with his quirk display, but out of respect to him, or perhaps because she felt bad for calling him a monster or a freak earlier, she did her best not to react negatively. After all, she sort of understood him. They were both monsters.

''I see, that sucks... Thank you for showing me.'' She made a mental note of buying him a soda sometime the next time they were going to hang out, but she couldn't shake the feeling... This was his life every day? Maybe it was her inherent bias showing, but his balloon head was beginning to look more like a sickness than a superpower, and he couldn't ignore it the way she ignored her own powers. ''Did you have it ever since you were a kid?''

As they stood by the water she was kind of relieved that he was struggling with finding a hero name for himself too. She was very amused about how he thought names like Zeppelin and Deep Float sounded too dark, and throughout their conversation this was probably where she looked the happiest, the faintest hint of a smirk on her face as they skipped stones. ''I guess heroes have origin stories, or something like that, right?'' She threw a rock herself, failing to skip it. ''We just haven't found our moment. I doubt your destiny is to be a children's cereal mascot.''

She couldn't help but be a little flustered when he chimed in with name suggestions for her, but she did her best not to show it. ''S-Susanoo? As a hero name that sounds so extra.'' Coming up with a hero name that fit the person was next to impossible, at least if you had a balloon or a troll quirk. She looked at him for a long moment, remaining silent as she stared him down, almost as if she was gauging whether she should tell him or not. Then she squatted down to pick up another rock. ''Ever heard of trolls? I'm not talking about internet trolls, or pranksters.'' She decided it was fine to tell him, especially since he had been honest and vulnerable with her too. ''In Norse Mythology, trolls appear in many different forms, but they are almost always unanimously villains.'' She looked down at the rock in her hand and as she channeled her anger, within seconds Yoko beefed up again, muscles expanding dramatically, her skin turning blue, small tusks growing out of some of her teeth and it was subtle, but she even grew a long, thin tail that rested at her feet. ''It's a troll quirk.'' Her voice was much deeper again, distorted from the 'real' Yoko he had been talking to. She looked up at him for the first time since transforming. ''I'm some variation of an ocean troll. My quirk is controlled through my anger...'' She paused as she winded up her next stone throw, hurling it much, much, much further than the first one she had thrown before transforming. Still, it didn't skip across the water. ''...The cloud is just an annoying shithead. It reacts to all my emotions, not just anger, but I don't know the pattern. It doesn't always show up when I'm sad, or angry, or happy. It just exists to annoy the shit out of me I guess.'' She had never told anyone this much about her quirk before, no one that wasn't family. Wait, she had been talking for a while, was he actually listening? Or had her ramble completely derailed the conversation? For fear of looking like a complete dork and loser she waited for him to speak so she could see his reaction.

Samaritan

[Samaritan]

Michael Faraday

A Story of Red and Blue Friends

Michael's head returned to its round balloony shape, once again returning him to his soft smooth appearance. There was still a good deal more to it. Sure he had bones, muscles, veins, but they could be manipulated just like the rest of his body. Inflated, deflated, twisted... it took a great deal of competency with his quirk to apply so he wasn't just manipulating air to fill his skin, otherwise he'd just be a walking air sack at best. His youngest memories was learning to keep shape and control it. Now a lot of it was second nature, but that was mostly to just be more average. He trained so hard to fill, empty and move the gases within him to make it all seem easy. "Yeah. I was born this way. My quirk is a mutant class quirk, so this is just how I am. Though I do inflate my head because its less off-putting than a featureless red skull, hence the balloon shape." He said brightly, as if he didn't just admit to subconsciously keeping his head inflated at all times like it was no big deal.

Michael smiled warmly beneath his balloon face to be recognized by Yoko as more than some kind of mascot. It was his dream to be a hero, to help and protect as many people as he could. He wasn't going to let his appearance hinder that dream, he wanted to use it to make that dream come true. Many of his peers had underestimated him and invalidated his ambitions, but just like how he trained his body to function and appear how he wanted, he would train himself to be the hero he wanted to be.

"Yeah, I mean, naming yourself after a deity might be a little extra but at least it's very memorable." Michael chuckled a little but went quiet as she began to speak about her quirk. He was silent through her whole description, hearing all the negativity that she felt towards it, all the stigma she had clearly internalized from such a transformative quirk. He let her express her contempt of her transformation and subsequently her reactive cloud.

When Yoko finished, Michael sat down next to her and began to speak. "Have you ever heard of story of The Red Oni that Cried?" At first it sounded almost like he was changing the subject as he began to tell the old folk tale. "Once there were two oni; one red, one blue. These oni were strong monstrous trolls that lived in the mountains outside a village of humans. The red oni looked upon the village every day longing to befriend the humans, but no matter what he did, the villagers were scared of the supposed monster. The blue oni, wanting to make his friend happy came up with a plan.

The next day, the blue oni went down to the village causing trouble and frightening the people. The red oni swiftly rushed in and stopped his friend. Now seen as a hero to the village, everyone loved and welcomed the red oni. After a day of celebrating and playing with the humans, the red oni returned home to tell his friend that his dream had come true only to find a letter.

The letter said:

'My Dear Red Oni,
if people find out that you are a friend of the Bad Blue Oni, they will not welcome you any more. So, I'm leaving. Please live happily with the humans.
Goodbye, Blue Oni.'

The red oni began to cry and cry from the sacrifice that his friend had made for him to achieve his dream. The red oni lived in peace with the people of the village but he never saw his friend again."

Michael told the sad story, but even as it concluded, his words kept a hopeful tone. "People don't always notice the good when all they want to see is the bad. They oni weren't monsters but they were treated that way out of ignorance and fear. Sometimes, we may only be accepted by others if we show tangible value, but that doesn't mean we don't have value without their validation. I want to be a hero because its what I want. I want to help people because I want everyone to be safe and happy. If it makes others see me as more than I am, then so be it, but it doesn't change who I am. I see you for who you are; I can see the pain and fear in you, but I can see all the love and kindness you can share with the world too. You can be a hero; sure, you can show the world that you are not a monster, but more importantly, you can show yourself that you're not a monster." Michael reached over and held her hand confidently. "And I'll be with you every step of the way."

Notes & Tags: Yanai Yoko


TLDR: Michael shares more about his quirk and how long he's been managing it. When hearing about Yoko's quirk and her feelings towards it, Michael sat beside her and told her an old folk story about the sacrifices of acceptance from others and how one's true self will always be valuable even without validation. Michael vowed to be there for his friend and help her to not see a monster in the mirror but who she truly is.

[Yanai Yoko]

Wait, was he putting in effort to have a balloon head? Because that made him less scary to look at or something? That thought bothered her, so much so that she just blurted out the next words without thinking. ''You don't have to inflate it around me if you don't want to. I don't care. Only posers put in too much effort.'' And she truly didn't. Not because she was doing him a favor or anything, she just wasn't squeamish or easily spooked.

''On brand too, plenty of pros do it.'' Then again, pro hero names could be anything from Stone Man to Zeus. There were probably some rules and regulations to what heroes could feasibly call themselves, but it seemed to her like the rules were pretty lax. When she talked about how much she hated her quirk she felt weak, maybe even lesser to him. He arguably had it worse, being born with mutations. She could oppress her features and use her quirk as little as possible, but his followed him everywhere, and yet she was the one being so affected by her quirk, so busy wallowing in her own misery.

When he sat down next to her she shook her head at his question, but decided to take a seat as well. It was purely a coincidence, but the sound of the ocean waves really helped her calm down. Usually whenever school became too hard she would run away to a location like this, a place where she could just stand by the water and listen to the sea. As he told her the story her features gradually disappeared, mostly because she had nothing to be angry about and no real reason to stay transformed. She preferred her human form anyways, although she couldn't help but notice the irony in how the story was about a red and a blue monster, and they coincidentally happened to match the color patterns, Michael's being red and hers being blue. ''The villagers of that story are much worse than the oni.'' She frowned, opening her umbrella just moments before the cloud appeared over her head and rained a light drizzle on her.

She couldn't help but wonder where it was that their paths had diverged. Did Michael grow up with lots of friends? His family didn't exactly sound like they were all supportive of him, so where was this hopeful confidence coming from? When he took her hand she froze up for a moment, like a startled cat, but when she looked at him there was nothing to be scared of. Still, she didn't know how to process genuine emotions, much less how to respond to them so she fell back on her frustrations. To make matters worse, it felt like he had seen right through her facade. Yeah, she was pretty mean most of the time, but she didn't actively want to push people away. It was just her defensive way of living her life. ''You say that like it's easy, like realizing what you want to change is all it takes to change it.'' She grumbled, but then squeezed his hand back gently. ''I don't have any dreams of my own, so I'll help you achieve yours.'' It was a lie, she did have hopes and dreams, but she hadn't realized what they were yet. Still, as crazy as it sounded, especially considering that she had met Michael just today, she had a feeling that if she stuck around him, if they became friends, maybe she would find her answer.

Samaritan

[Samaritan]

Michael Faraday

You Lift Me Up

Michael chuckled warmly at her support. "Its okay. I like it like this myself. At this point it feels weird to not have it inflated. I imagine its kind of like blinking. Like you can force yourself to blink but sometimes people seem to just do it without thinking. Keeping my head inflated is kind of like that. Not doing it is kind of like forcing your eyes to stay open."

Michael was relieved that she seemed so receptive to his rather familiar gesture of holding her hand. He nearly scolded himself because not everyone liked to be touched, even something as benign as holding their hand. He should have asked first, so when she squeezed his hand back he was happy he hadn't made her uncomfortable. "It's not easy. And that's the point. It's easy to give into hate and fear or to do nothing. It's easy to be like the villagers. But to do good in the world, to be good, it's hard. But it's who I am and its all I want to be. So I'm glad you're willing to help me. I can definitely use all the help I can get. And I want to help you with your dreams too, even if you haven't found them yet."

Maybe it was the bond slowly forming between these two, but despite not having any facial expressions, it was becoming easier for Yoko to read Michael. And subtle as it was, Michael felt like he could understand Yoko better too. In a way to lighten the mood Michael released Yoko's hand to gesture with his words. "Okay, hear me out, what about this for a hero name for you: Oniki." He knew it was silly, combining the nickname he gave her (aneki) and the oni from the story, but he was trying to get a smile or a laugh out of her after all that heavy talk.

Notes & Tags: Yanai Yoko


TLDR: Michael and Yoko seem to be becoming fast and strong friends. Michael wants to help Yoko discover and achieve her dreams too.

[Yanai Yoko]

She blinked her eyes at his answer. ''If you say so, but don't just do it for me, or anyone else. Do whatever you want, Michael.'' For someone who was outwardly mean, she took boundaries and personal comfort very seriously. Same thing as Jun being uncomfortable with touch and her refusing to hit her during a sparring match. She knew what it was like to have boundaries and to be her own person, and since she refused to compromise on who she was, it was only fair that others did the same.

Normally she wouldn't just let any stranger touch her hand, but context mattered and she had no reason to mistrust him or see him as just another shithead hero student. In fact, now that they were sitting here it felt nice. How long had it been since she held someone's hand? Usually all she was good at was pushing people away. Rarely did she meet someone as patient as Michael. ''Yeah.'' She trailed off, thinking about what he said about doing good and wanting to be good. ''If anyone ever gets in your way, if there are any 'villagers' you just tell me and I'll handle them for you.'' That was a promise, and Yoko wasn't someone who broke her promises. Breaking a promise was some straight up villain behavior. She glossed over the part about her dreams because she didn't want to think about it too hard. For today, she was fine with just having made a friend. Heck, in her world that was an enormous step forward.

As they talked, the cloud gradually faded away into nothing, leaving a small rainbow over her head for a few seconds due to the sun that was shining down on them. When the rain stopped she put the umbrella away again in a manner that was automatic. She had done it countless of times, and sometimes hundreds of times in one day. ''Oniki?'' She sounded annoyed at first, but then couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the sheer ridiculousness of the suggestion. ''That's too obscure, no one will get that reference.'' She stood up and dusted herself off. ''It's getting cold, I'm heading back to campus. Wanna come with?'' There was a pause as she offered him a hand to stand back up. Then she smirked, coming up with her own hero name suggestion for him. ''Samaritan.'' It wasn't as funny as Oniki, but she wasn't exactly a comedian either.

Samaritan

[Samaritan]

Michael Faraday

The First Steps on a New Path

Michael chuckled along with her reaction to his suggestion for her name as she stood up. She asked if he wanted to walk back to campus with her. Michael was prepared to bounce himself up to his feet like a rubber ball, but suddenly she offered a hand down to him. He smiled brightly and took her hand, letting her assist him to his feet as she called him Samaritan.

Samaritan. Samaritan. It had a really good ring to it and embraced his ideals more than his appearance. The name also had an air of mystery and ambiguity to it, like anyone could be a good Samaritan by sharing in his desire to do good and help people. She might have thought it wasn't a strong name, but it was instantly a top contender. Especially since it came from someone was important to him as a friend.

"Samaritan? I like that!" Michael beamed jovially. He began to play around with the word, saying it in different tones and contexts to the point it was almost ridiculous. "Look in the sky! It's Samaritan! Ah Heck! You caught me Samaritan, I guess I'll need to stop my evil doings! You saved the day Samaritan! Oh, Samaritan! You and Oniki are so cool!" Michael laughed at the gentle teasing from adding her into the spoken fantasy.

They would walk back together talking, joking and giving suggestions to one another, some half-serious, others straight up ridiculous.

Notes & Tags: Yanai Yoko


TLDR: Michael loves the name idea Samaritan and plays around with how it sounds as they walk back for the campus.

[Yanai Yoko]

Oniki...

Well, if she needed a placeholder for her hero name, why not just put Oniki? Anything she could think of herself was just guaranteed to be more cringe than that anyway.

She let out another small chuckle at seeing him so excited over her name suggestion. Was it that good? A bit on the nose maybe, given his whole philosophy, but hero names were all about what meaning they had to the person and how easy they were to remember. She was laughing all the way up until he included her in his spoken fantasy, upon which she immediately grew flustered. ''O-Oi don't include me in your fantasy! I don't want people to think I'm cool!'' She protested with a hint of red on her face. After all, being cool was all about knowing you were cool, but never acknowledging it yourself, or something like that!!

Indulging in the conversation as they walked she fired back with her own silly and serious suggestions. The walk home suddenly didn't feel all that taxing and she almost wondered if they had actually walked it. So that's what it was like to have a good conversation. To hang out with a friend... She could get used to that. Hopefully Michael wanted to hang out again soon, or maybe they might get paired for training exercises during class. When she finally reached her dorms she waved casually at Michael. ''See you in class!''

Samaritan

[Jinx]

☆ MISSION SUCCESS ☆

The start of a beautiful friendship.
Great thread you two!

+ 5,000 EXP!!

Yoko: 20,250 // 25,250
Michael: 250 // 5,250

tag: Samaritan,Yanai Yoko