Photos: All grown up

Photos: Bedtime

Profile: Yehsung

Name: Yehsung
Name meaning:
Type: Luts MNF NS My Choice #7
Age: 23
Race: Human
Nationality: Korean
Sexuality: Mostly straight, but makes exceptions.
Eyes: Brown, but wears green-gray contacts most of the time.
Hair: Possibly red/black
Distinguishing features: Always wears a cross earring in his right ear. Tattoo on his lower stomach.
Clothing style: Casual, but kinda rock/punkish. Lots of black, white and silver.
Occupation: Singer/radio show host.
Lives in: The Plains, in an apartment with Youngsaeng
Likes: Youngsaeng, singing, listening to music, sports, reading, watching movies, his radio show, travelling.
Dislikes: Complicated dance routines, his friends being hurt, being forced into things.
Personality: Quiet, but far from shy. Stubborn to a fault. Appears to be serious for the most part, but has his insane moments. Pouts a lot.
Relationships: Friend-ish with Min. Best friend and relationship of sorts with Youngsaeng. Works with Suvi at times.

History:

Artsy shot: Not so angelic

Make-over: Mirabella

From Mirabella, a relatively shy English/Italian girl with long white hair and a penchant for dressing in classic, simple clothes -



To Mira, a boyish girl (or girlish boy), with blonde/green hair, beauty spots and a penchant for dressing in very colorful clothes -



I'm definitely liking the change. MIra feels so much more alive to me now, for some reason.

Fiction: Yellow Flowers and a Bag of Bones

Chapter four: The trail of roses

The street outside the apartment window was noisy, and because of it, Rei was almost hanging out of the window to be able to watch the party going on in the street. Neither of us was allowed to join in, though contrary to the boy, I didn’t really want to join in either.

“Look at them, Kai, they’re all so pretty,” he exclaimed, smiling as he watched the girls dance and the boys sing.

I walked over to him and pulled him back into the apartment properly, because I didn’t want to risk that he fell out all of a sudden. He was likely to do something like that. “Yeah, they’re pretty,” I agreed, because there was no denying that the people dancing and singing were among the most attractive I had ever seen.

Apparently this was a monthly celebration in Ixero, one which you had to have done something special to be allowed in on, and so far, I hadn’t done anything remarkable. I was taking care of Rei, sure, but he was such low maintenance that it was more like dusting off a shelf every now and then than actually taking care of someone.

It only took me a couple of days to find out that although Rei both ate and slept, he didn’t really need to do either. His explanation was that he simply felt no hunger and no tiredness, something which was difficult for me to comprehend, but I decided to just accept it. It was one of the many odd things about the boy, one of the many things that made him interesting to have around.

I had to admit it, I had grown fond of the boy, and far more quickly than I could have ever imagined.

He wasn’t a part of my plans; he had never been a part of my plans, and during the first week, I was determined to get rid of him again. We went to the Town Hall to talk to the clerk, but got nowhere. We went to the Library, read through every piece of literature in there, but once again came up empty. It was like Rei had never even existed, seeing as we found no evidence of anyone matching his description, nor did we find anyone with the initials R.G.

I even put in a request to see The Four Sisters, but not surprisingly the request was rejected. I figured that it was because I was still new enough to be considered a newcomer, and didn’t think more of it, after assuring Rei that we would try again, once I had been here longer and had some points for being an active participant in the community.

Granted, none of these things were a part of my original plan for coming here, and quite frankly, I wasn’t all that happy about attracting this much attention to myself so early on, but with someone like Rei living with me, I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t have a large sense of decency and obligation, but I simply couldn’t kick the kid back out onto the street, especially when it was obvious that no one were missing him and that he had no one else to turn to.

“Come on, Rei, let’s go outside. We’re not allowed to join the celebration, but we can at least take a walk,” I told him, and had to smile over how the boy’s face lit up as he smiled. For the most part, Rei was a very serious boy, who seemed mature far beyond his years. I still didn’t know how old he was, seeing as he didn’t know it himself, but I guessed that he was between ten and thirteen, though sometimes, he seemed more like he was thirty and then some. But at times like these, it was easy to see that he really was just a boy, no matter how different he was from all other boys I had met in my life.

When I opened the front door, it was Rei who discovered the rose placed right in front of my door. He bent down and picked it up, looking at it in confusion before handing it to me. I was equally confused, but took the rose, examining it. “Strange. I don’t know anyone yet, who would be giving me flowers?” I asked, even if I knew that Rei didn’t have any answers.

“Maybe it’s a present to everyone in the building,” he suggested.

I looked down the hallway, but so no other roses in front of any other doors. It wasn’t a conclusive test, seeing as it was already fairly late in the day, but it seemed unlikely that someone would randomly put roses in front of everyone’s door. “Maybe,” I said, and went inside to put the rose in a glass.

Once we got onto the street walked past the Town Hall, I forgot all about the rose, and where it might have come from. Just as we passed the building, a red rabbit came out the door and hopped right in front of me, sitting still and looking up at me. I could tell it was a female by how her fur was longer than the blue rabbit’s, and by how her tail and ears were longer as well. She did not look pleased.

“Yes?” I asked, fearing the worst. I knew what talking to the red rabbit meant.

She cocked her head, gave Rei a sour glance, and then looked back to me. “Kaiemi Katayama. You have broken the rules,” she said. I thought she was stating the obvious – if I hadn’t done anything wrong, she wouldn’t be talking to me right now.

I wasn’t willing to admit to any wrong-doing, though. “I wasn’t aware of that,” I said calmly, trying my best to stay polite. I really didn’t want any more trouble, so accepting the warning and moving on would probably be the best bet.

“Rule number two: Do not bother The Four Sisters with inane questions. Your request to see them falls in under this rule, and we know for a fact what you said about The Four Sisters when your request was dismissed. Consider this an official warning, your first,” the rabbit huffed, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. These people really were uptight when it came to The Four Sisters.

“I understand,” I replied, nodding as if I agreed one hundred per cent with all of these rules. All these endless rules. I had read over the ones in the Library; three long pages of every single little thing that was forbidden, five pages over what was discouraged – but not technically forbidden, six and a half pages over things that were encouraged – but not mandatory, and four pages over things that were required. You could keel over dead from less. But, seeing as I wanted to be a part of this place, I had to follow the rules – at least until I knew how to break them without getting caught.

The red rabbit still didn’t look very pleased – you’d think I had actually killed someone, instead of merely asking a question and not being too happy about not having it answered. “I don’t like your attitude,” she said, crossing her paws in front of her chest. It was such a human thing to do that I nearly laughed.

“My attitude? I don’t have any attitude in particular,” I said to defend myself. “I acknowledge the rules, and I acknowledge that I broke them. I will not do it again. There’s not a particular attitude in that, is there?”

She huffed. Again. “You may be acknowledging that you have broken a rule, but I can tell that you are not sorry about it in the least bit. In fact, it seems more like you are annoyed at the rules, and that you think you shouldn’t have to follow them. I know your kind, and you better watch it.”

I just smiled at her, really trying to be pleasant even if I knew that she was right. I hated the stupid rules and didn’t really want to follow them, but telling her that would be a remarkably stupid thing to do. So I denied it, lying through my teeth. “That is not true. I’m still a newcomer; you have to forgive me for making mistakes in the beginning. Besides, I was trying to do what’s right, finding out where Rei here belongs, seeing as he doesn’t really belong with me.”

The rabbit gave Rei a second look, a longer one this time, looking him up and down. Rei had moved until he was standing half behind me, as if seeking protection, but apart from that, he merely stayed still and didn’t say a word. Brave kid, really.

“I see,” she said, the tone of her voice still icy. “I can understand that, as well as understanding that you are still new. This is why we implement these warnings instead of kicking you out. You might have a red mark by your name for a while, but you know that said mark will disappear unless you break the rules again. And you also know what will happen if you insist on not listening to me.”

I nodded. I had read that part of the rules, after all, and I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what would happen to me if I wasn’t careful, if I didn’t keep my head down and avoided attracting too much attention. “Trust me, I have no intentions of seeing you again, and I certainly have no intention of seeing the black rabbit. This was a simple mistake that anyone could have made. I’m sure you understand,” I said with a calmness and a certainty that I actually did feel. I had many plans for my life here, and seeing the black rabbit definitely wasn’t one of them.

“Good,” she replied, and finally she didn’t sound quite as grumpy anymore. I knew I wasn’t the biggest flirt around, but I also knew that I had a certain way with people – or rabbits, as it were. I had been in trouble before, in other places before this one, and for the most part I always managed to talk my way out of any problems. It was a gift, really, and one that I was particularly glad I had in a place such as this, seeing as it had the greatest possibility for breaking rules and gaining the wrath of the officials.

The rabbit sighed, and gave Rei another glance. “I’m sorry I can’t help you with your problem. But I know that if The Four Sisters denied your request, then they had a good reason for it. Maybe they simply wish for you to take care of the boy,” she offered, and I nodded.

“I have thought of that possibility as well,” I replied, glancing back to Rei with a small smile. Even if he wasn’t a part of my plans, I had still grown fond of him, and well, maybe I would be able to use him as well in the future. “I don’t really mind having him live with me, and as long as he’s happy with that arrangement, It’s okay by me. Though I still think that something should be done to help him figure out who he is and where he really belongs.”

She paused and shifted her weight slightly, before she shook her head. “I’m really sorry,” she repeated, almost sounding nervous. “That isn’t really my domain. I’m in charge of issuing warnings, that’s all. I can’t help with any other issue; it’s not me you have to ask. You could talk to the green rabbit, but he’s not really happy if I send people his way.”

I frowned, I hadn’t heard about the green rabbit before. I knew of the blue rabbit, the red rabbit, the purple rabbit and the black rabbit, but nobody had mentioned the green one before now. I opened my mouth to ask her what and who she meant, but she shook her head again, muttering a hasty goodbye before she hopped back into the Town Hall.

“Weird,” I said, half to Rei and half to myself, pondering her words for a little while before I turned to the boy. “Have you ever heard about the green rabbit?”

Rei shook his head, looking apologetic. Naturally. I hadn’t really expected any other answer, considering that the boy hardly knew anything whatsoever. Granted, he knew his way around Ixero’s streets far better than I did, and he had read every book, magazine and document in the Library, but apart from that he was pretty useless when it came to actually providing good input. I was still grateful to have him with me – he was someone I could bounce ideas off of, and he had been an excellent guide until I learned to get to know the city better myself.

I sighed and added this to the list of things I should find out more about in the future. That was, in addition to finding out where Rei belonged and who he really was, and finding out just where Dakota had disappeared off to, on my first day here. And my so-called grand scheme in of course. The plan I hadn’t had any time to even think about so far. Oh well.

“Come on, let’s keep going,” I told Rei, and he nodded, walking beside me in silence until we went back to the apartment.

A new rose was placed on my doormat, identical to the first one. Big, freshly cut, and bright, bright yellow – a shade I had rarely seen on roses. Not that I was an expert on flowers. I knew that yellow roses existed, but none of the ones I had seen before had this particular, intense shade of yellow. It was beautiful. And mysterious. I looked at Rei, but he merely shrugged and picked it up, placing it in the vase with the first one.

The next day there was a new rose, in exactly the same spot. I asked the landlord if she knew anything about it, but she shook her head before going back to work, dismissing me as if the very question was annoying her. I tried to let it go, to see it as just a harmless joke, but when there was another rose there on the third day in a row, I started getting frustrated.

I wished I knew what it meant. Yellow roses didn’t have much significance to me. All I knew what that they stood for friendship, but as far as I knew, Rei was my only friend in Ixero, and this certainly wasn’t his doing. The only other thing I could think of was the yellow flowers that Dakota had picked and tied into a headband, and which was the only sign of her left when she disappeared.

Almost curiously, I took the headband out of the cupboard I kept it, examining it as if I expected it to miraculously give me all the answers I was searching for. The flowers were still slightly crushed and crumpled, but they retained their yellowness; the same intense yellow shade of the roses, even if the type of flowers were completely different.

I wondered if it was a sign, if the roses had anything to do with Dakota, but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out what they might mean.

And ironically enough, after I gave up on trying figuring out what they meant and instead went out to check the job listings in the Library, I found another yellow rose. But not on my doormat. No, this time it was pinned to the board in the Library, down in the bottom right corner, and it was apparent that it was the same kind as had been placed in front of the door.

“This is insane,” I muttered by myself, but took the flower down, placing it in my coat pocket carefully, all thoughts about looking for a job forgotten. I had to figure out what this meant before I went insane. I had more than enough to think about already, I didn’t particularly need more to think about.

I went to a florist a few streets down from the Library – I had been there a couple of times before to buy plants for my apartment, and the florist seemed like someone who actually knew what he was doing, not someone who sold flower just because it was an easy job that smelled nice.

“Come for more plants? You’re going to overwhelm your apartment,” he said when I walked into the store, looking up from arranging a bouquet of flowers in various shades of white and pink.

I smiled and hopped up to sit on the counter seeing as there was nobody else in the store. “Not quite, William,” I replied, retrieving the rose from my pocket. “I was hoping you could tell me something about roses, yellow ones. Specifically this one. Do you sell them?”

William carefully placed the two last flowers in the bouquet before he stood up and walked over to me, taking the rose from me to take a closer look at it, frowning slightly. “No, this isn’t anything like the yellow roses I’m selling,” he replied, and I could practically feel my mood sink. I was so sure that he would be able to clear this whole damn mystery up in five seconds flat.

“Are you sure?”

“Very sure. Here, I’ll show you,” William said, and led me behind the counter to the large and chilly back room, filled to the point of bursting with vases and vases of flowers. He pointed to the vase with yellow roses, and even before I walked closer I could see that they were different than the one I had. These were far smaller, and not anywhere near as intensely yellow. Great.

I sighed and walked back into the store, leaning against the counter. “So you have no idea where this came from?”

“None whatsoever. I’d like to know, though. A bouquet of roses like this would earn me a lot of money,” William said with a small smile, handing me the rose back. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”

I shrugged, but then thought of another angle. “It’s okay, maybe you can help anyway. Can you tell me something about what yellow roses are supposed to mean? I’ve been finding them in front of my door for a few days now, and I’m thinking that they’re some kind of sign.”

William nodded, though I had a feeling that he thought I was insane. “Well, I’m sure you know that yellow roses are the symbol of deep, platonic friendship, and also the symbol of joy. That’s the most common meaning, and the one most think about. But in German-speaking countries a yellow rose is seen as a symbol of jealousy, a lack of trust or of infidelity. You haven’t cheated on a girlfriend lately, have you?”

I laughed and shook my head – even if the other meaning of the yellow rose was a revelation to me, it didn’t make me any wiser, seeing as I couldn’t imagine anyone being jealous of me or not trusting me. “I don’t even have a girlfriend. Maybe someone is jealous of my apartment, I don’t know. Thanks, though. Maybe it’ll make more sense to me later one,” I said with a small sigh, and then dug up a Polaroid photo from my other coat pocket, showing it to William; it was a snapshot of the headband of flowers that Dakota had left behind. “What about these flowers?”

“They look like marigold flowers to me, a few of them grow in the fields outside Ixero, I’m sure you saw them when you were coming in,” William replied, not needing more than a short glimpse at the picture to tell what kind they were. He really was good at this.

“Do marigolds symbolize anything in particular?”

“It’s funny, really, that they grow in the fields that the newcomers go through when they come in. They are said to symbolize pain and grief, and they’re often used in Día de los Muertos,” William answered, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Día de los what?” I asked, confused.

William looked at me, his face suddenly very serious. “The Day of the Dead.”


~tbc~

Photos: Artist

Profile: Ya-chan

Name: Yasei (Ya-chan)
Name meaning: Wild.
Type: Luts BW MNF Sleeping Shiwoo
Age: 12.
Race: Demon-ish, son of one Immortal and one human.
Nationality: Japanese.
Sexuality: Straight, bordering on asexual.
Eyes: -- (light purple)
Hair: Black, semi-long.
Distinguishing features: Large tattoo covering his back.
Clothing style: Simple, often traditional.
Occupation: Student now, though he's not often seen in school.
Lives in: The Plains/Shima, mostly spends his time in nature.
Likes: Silence, solitude, nature, water, swimming, sleeping outside.
Dislikes: People in general. Pretty much all music, all movies, all art and books and culture. Noise. The entire world in general, really.
Personality: Scared and aggressive, like a wild bird. Hardly ever looks at people and speaks to them even more rarely, but is more than happy to cuddle with someone he really trusts.

Relationships: Arai's younger half-brother. Knows who Haruhiko and Aviva is.
History: Ya-chan was left to fend for himself pretty much at birth, because alliances between Immortals and humans aren't looked at lightly in Saitama. It's unknown to him just who he is, but it is more than likely that his father is Aric, who is also Arai's father.

Photos: City lights

Photos: White dress

Photos: Not amused

Artsy shot: Bellybutton

Fiction: Three (part one, chapter three)

Chapter three: Starstruck

It didn’t seem like anything was going to get resolved soon. Heath kept him updated, but there was no sign of the Redmon portfolio, and Arai didn’t get anywhere with his enquiries. It was as if someone was standing behind a curtain, directing what was happening, but neither of them could understand who that person could possibly be.

It didn’t particularly help that Jun had called from school, unhappy about getting bad grades on several tests and papers, even though he had been absolutely certain that he would get top marks like he always did. He had even checked his answers against the textbooks and found that he had answered everything correctly, but the teachers still wouldn’t budge. There was definitely something going on right now.

Maybe it’s just because our lives have been too easy for the past ten years, Kenji thought as he browsed the aisles of his favorite bookstore. However, that didn’t quite seem right either. They had had their struggles; there was no doubt about it. He had fought for his job, Arai had fought in general, Jun had fought to get into the prestigious Yamada School on Shima, and the tuition they paid was a struggle in itself. No, their lives hadn’t been all that easy, even if it seemed like it to an outsider.

Kenji was so lost in thought that he somehow managed to bump right into someone on his way and apologized instantly, bending down to pick up the books that he had knocked over.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I didn’t see where I was going either,” a soft voice said, and Kenji looked up, only to stare into the most entrancing eyes he had ever seen, apart from Arai’s. They were a strange mix of blue and brown, and he found himself not really caring whether they were real or contacts. A little belatedly he took a look at the rest of the young woman’s face as well, and couldn’t stop the slight sigh over finding that she was utterly beautiful. It made him blush faintly and for a few moments he couldn’t think of one single intelligent thing to say, something which apparently amused her, seeing as she laughed.

“I’m Yukiko. Lover of books, but not the best at seeing where she’s going,” she said, smiling to him. Kenji risked a smile in return, and helped her up with the books. Only now did he notice the white furry ears sticking out of her just as white hair, and he understood what kind she was. However, she was dressed in a very elegant and by the looks of it expensive dress, so he decided not to care about it too much. For now, anyway.

“I’m Kenji, and apparently I’m even worse at seeing where I’m going. I’m sorry for bumping into you like that,” he apologized, putting the books back into place before starting to move down the aisle. Yukiko walked with him, and he was far from objecting.

“Tell you what; if you’ll have lunch with me I’ll call it even.” There was a definite note of amusement in her voice this time, but where Kenji would usually become cold and stiff, he found himself smiling back and nodding to her. It felt as if they were already old friends, or like he had met her before. Maybe he had, because there was something awfully familiar about her, about the way she moved, but Kenji couldn’t for the life of him remember having ever talked to her before – and he was fairly sure that it would have been something he wouldn’t have forgotten all that easily.

“Call it a date.” He smiled at her, and opened the door to the bookstore, playing the chivalry card, though it wasn’t as much playing as who he was. His father had been the same way towards Kenji’s mother, and it had stuck with him ever since. “I know about a nice café not far from here, they have a wonderful lunch menu. Does that sound okay with you?”

Yukiko merely nodded and let Kenji lead the way, and he found that he had no problems talking with her whatsoever. Usually he’d say all the wrong things when he was with girls, or he wouldn’t manage to think of anything to say at all, and then everything went wrong. But then again, usually the girls he went on dates with were girls that someone at work had set him up with, or someone who clients had set him up with, and more often than not those girls were far, far away from his ideal woman. Yukiko, on the other hand, struck him as perfection, no matter if she was what she was. It didn’t take him more than a few minutes to get used to the ears and the tail swishing behind her – it even became attractive on her.

He could safely say afterwards that even if it wasn’t technically a date, it was one of the most wonderful times he had had with a girl, and when he came home – without the groceries he had been supposed to buy – he was smiling in a way that apparently made Arai highly suspicious.

“What have you been doing? You look like an old and lazy cat that has caught a particularly fat rat,” he remarked dryly, but for once Kenji couldn’t be bothered to snap back at him like he normally would, and instead he just showed Arai the little note with Yukiko’s name and number that he had gotten at the end of the lunch. He had given his to Yukiko as well, and promised to call her soon.

For a moment Arai merely stared at the note, as if unable to comprehend that Kenji of all people had met a girl all on his own, and then he started grinning, almost too widely. “Not bad, big brother, not bad at all. Yukiko, huh? Daughter of snow, that’s what her name means, did you know that? Did she have skin as white as snow, with rosy cheeks and the sweetest smile in the whole world?”

“Yes,” Kenji replied almost instantly, making Arai laugh and pat his shoulder. It didn’t bother him, not today, though what did bother him was that Arai for some reason insisted that they go to a club he knew and loved. When Kenji heard the name he frowned, because he had been there a few times when he was younger, and it wasn’t a place he had any wish to go now. So he declined, no matter how much Arai nagged him about it.

Even if he had a feeling that it might be considered a tad bit desperate, he called Yukiko the next day, asking her out. It was the first time he had actually met someone on his own and liked her enough to ask her out, and he felt like an idiot, but somehow he managed to get through the conversation without making too many stupid mistakes. Two nights later they met up for an early dinner, seeing as Yukiko told him that she worked in the evenings – Kenji had forgotten to ask what she worked with because she had laughed and apologized for dragging him out at an unusual hour for food.

When they met in front of the restaurant that night, Kenji found her to be even more beautiful than the day they had met at the bookstore – maybe because this time she had been prepared. For a few seconds all he could do was stare at her and the way her elegant dress seemed to make her look almost flawless, until Yukiko laughed and told him that he had stars in his eyes.

“You might be right about that,” he replied with a shy laughter, and led her inside. It seemed to him that Yukiko was the perfect woman, and the more he talked to her, the more he wanted to know about her. They talked about literature and music, about theatre and movies, about the city and their friends, what they enjoyed and what they disliked – and Kenji found that they had just enough in common. There were things were they wildly disagreed, and they spent nearly an hour discussing before they came to a truce, grinning to each other as they knew they would keep on discussing the matter at a later date. Kenji couldn’t wait; even now he was looking forward to the next time they were together.

After the meal they wandered around the lit streets before they parted, reluctantly, at the big fountain in the heart of The Plains. Yukiko was heading one way, Kenji the other. He wanted to kiss her, he really did, but a part of him wanted to wait as well – he wanted to know her better, to like her better. To wait just that little longer to make it even more special when it did happen – because he was absolutely certain that he would kiss her, and more.

Arai called him a lovesick puppy when Kenji got home, not without amusement in his voice. Normally, Kenji would have reacted to that hint of amusement, because when coming from Arai, it could never mean anything good.

Another thing that should probably have made Kenji suspicious was that Arai kept insisting on taking him out to a favorite club of his, nagging for days on end until Kenji finally agreed just to shut his brother up for five minutes. By that time he had met Yukiko for lunch a couple of more times, and they had talked on the phone nearly every day.

Walking beside Arai into The Slums felt strange, almost wrong. As if he was dirtying himself somehow by setting foot in that part of town. It wasn’t so much that he was a snob, it was more that to him, The Slums was a symbol of his youth, the time he had lost and could never return to. No matter if he wanted to or not. Being here felt wrong, but Arai wouldn’t let him turn back.

“No, no, no, you’re not going home to call your little baby girl, you promised you’d come with me. I told all my lovers to stay away from me tonight because I wanted to spend time with you,” Arai said, tugging insistently on Kenji’s arm, not leaving him any choice whatsoever in the matter.

Still, Kenji protested as they stopped in front of the club for a split second – just enough time for Kenji to notice that it was a strip club, and he couldn’t understand why on earth Arai would be so incredibly insistent on bringing him to this kind of place. Especially now, after Yukiko had come into his life. Not that they had anything official as of yet, but he knew that he liked her, and liked her a lot, and he was fairly certain that she liked him too. She felt like exactly what he needed right now, and he loved the fact that they had met so completely by accident.

His vague protests fell flat though, as Arai waved to the bouncer and was let in immediately. It hardly surprised Kenji, seeing as his brother seemed to have connections everywhere, from The Slums to The Hills – it was as if he knew absolutely everyone, and he didn’t discriminate one single bit. He didn’t care if the person he talked to was Japanese or some other nationality, he didn’t care about gender or race or species, he didn’t care about money and status or anything else. Hell, Arai didn’t even care about rules, about normalcy. He was the exact opposite of Kenji in so many ways, there was no denying that. It was probably why they fought so often. But possibly why they still maintained such a strong love for each other as well.

Arai dragged Kenji inside, keeping a firm hold of his hand so that Kenji wouldn’t run away. It felt slightly humiliating, to be led around like that as if he was a little child in need of guidance and help. Finally he managed to tear his hand away, but by then they were already right next to the stage at what had to be Arai’s regular table, seeing as two girls came over right away to talk to him, one leaving and coming back with two drinks – a strong and colorful one for Arai, a more traditional and less alcoholic for Kenji.

For a while he merely sat there, trying to look anywhere but on stage – not that the girls weren’t beautiful, that much he could see from his quick glances in their direction. However, it felt wrong to be here somehow, he could just tell that something wasn’t quite right, especially by the way Arai kept looking over at him, grinning in that special way of his that told Kenji that he had been up to no good. He knew that grin. He had seen it at least once a week for over twenty years. There was no way Arai was going to fool him.

Just as he opened his mouth to protest, rather loudly, and demand that they left now because this was pure idiocy, there was a shift in the music and a loud cheer went through the crowd of more or less horny men that had nothing better to do than to sit here and stare at strippers, night after night after night.

Arai’s grin got something victorious about it as Kenji kept his eyes on his brother, attempting to stare him down and not caring about what was happening on the stage. Arai waited just that extra little moment before he pointed to the stage. Purely out of reflex Kenji followed his gaze.

There, on the stage, scantily clad in clothes that didn’t leave anything to the imagination, was Yukiko.


~tbc~

Photos: Green elf

Photos: Flower in bloom

Photos: All the girls like Kyo

Photos: Unlinkely couple

Vasuman and Yuurin really shouldn't work together at all. Yuurin is earth, while Vasuman is fire, and their personalities don't mesh in the least bit. And yet...

Profile: Vintersorg

[not arrived yet, picture to come]

Name: Vintersorg
Name meaning: 'wintersorrow' in Norwegian.
Nickname: Winter, Master (just Dominic).
Type: Luts BW Sleeping El
Age: 24
Race: Human
Nationality: Norwegian.
Sexuality: Anything goes - mostly goes for guys, though.
Eyes: Pink, black or blue
Hair: Pink.
Distinguishing features: Piercings, tattoos.
Clothing style: Lots of black, lots of pink.
Occupation: Musician/student/model. Occasionally works in the same S&M shop as Dominic.
Lives in: The Plains, though he likes The Slums better.
Likes: Rock music, guitars, drums, the color pink, modelling, jewelry, dressing up, cosplay, handcuffs, whips, sexual games.
Dislikes: Quiet music in general, any kind of discrimination, loneliness, being indoors.
Personality: Quiet and wild at the same time, a bit of a sadist. Loves to shock, loves getting attention, loves his music and Dominic to the degree where it becomes frightening..
Relationships: In a band with Aaron and Dominic. Sort of relationship with Dominic. Knows Kenji. Kanata's older brother.

History:

Photos: Brothers

Photos: Like a lion

Artsy shot: Jewel

Fiction: Yellow Flowers and a Bag of Bones

Chapter three: The city at night

I looked out the window at my apartment, staring out on the city lights below. I had to admit, I liked my apartment. It was high up enough for me to look out over the city, and high enough up to prevent anyone from looking in through the large windows. After all, I liked my privacy.

Almost reluctantly, I pushed away from my desk and actually walked over to the window, leaning my hands against the cold, hard surface. From here I could see the neon lights of the entertainment quarter as well of the ambient glows of the restaurants streets, and of course, normal apartment and house lights. I liked the night better than the day. Somehow I trusted more in the darkness and the artificial lights than I did in the daylight and the sun. I couldn’t explain it, but I had been like that most of the day.

My fridge was getting almost painfully empty, and I knew that I had to go outside to get groceries – something which was a far harder task than it in all honesty should be. The closest grocery store was on the same street as my apartment building, after all, and it wouldn’t take me more than ten minutes to run my errand.

I sighed and put my coat on, making sure that I actually had enough money to buy enough food to last me at least a week. It was the way I always did it – sometimes I even bought enough food to last me several weeks. It was just easier that way. Plus, it was the way I had always done it.

As always, I hesitated slightly before I opened the front door, stepping out into the street – at this time of day it was nearly deserted, which was exactly how I liked it. It was definitely a good thing that the grocery store was open 24/7; otherwise I would probably never be able to buy anything at all. Once I was outside, I took a moment to appreciate the clear, crisp air. The night was cold, making my fingers cold, but I didn’t mind it. Felt like a nice wake-up call.

The grocery store was empty, as I had anticipated, apart from the cute girl behind the counter. Her name was Maria, and I had a massive crush on her by now. Well, maybe not as much a crush as it was simply admiration for someone I already knew I couldn’t have. She probably wasn’t even all that cute, but from my point of view she definitely was. She had kind eyes, and she always smiled to me. That was more than enough for me.

It didn’t take me long to find the things I wanted; instant ramen, a lot of water bottles, a lot of soda, a lot of coffee. Chocolate, strawberry lollipops, and bananas. My usual diet. I knew it wasn’t particularly healthy, but it had worked fine for me for several years, so I didn’t really care about just what anyone else would say.

“It’s been a while, Kai-chan,” Maria said to me with one of her usual warm smiles, as she packed up my groceries. I watched her hands with the rainbow-colored nails, because I couldn’t bring myself to look into her eyes. They were too big and too brown, and looking into them always made me even more uncertain than I already was.

“Y-yes,” I said, and avoided saying anything else. I never said much, and she was used to it by now.

Or if she wasn’t used to it, then at least she pretend to not be bothered by it. “Your usual, huh? We’ve gotten in some new lollipop flavors, you know. Watermelon and peach. Do you want to try them? I’ll give you half price, seeing as it’s you.”

I smiled, albeit faintly, and nodded. “I’d l-like that,” I replied – not so much because I honestly wanted to try out the new flavors (I always went back to strawberry anyway), but more because I didn’t want to disappoint Maria. Besides, the fact that she had actually given me some thought when the new lollipops came in made my cheeks feel hot, and I hoped that I wasn’t blushing. I probably was, though.

“Here, that should be it,” she said, and handed me the bag. Her fingers brushed my hand, and I nearly shook; even if the impact was small, it was still the feeling of skin against skin. Not a sensation I felt very often, I had to admit. Usually, that was the way I liked it, and the way I felt comfortable. It was just that it was difficult to resist the irrational temptation of asking Maria out in moments like these.

I never did, however. And I didn’t this time either. Instead I smiled faintly, paid her, bowed slightly and left the grocery store, stopping just long enough outside the door to hear it close behind me, the small bell fastened above the door tinkling.

As I wandered back up the street, I took deep breaths of the city air; it wasn’t as polluted as it possibly should have been, and seeing as I rarely ever had the windows in my apartment open, it was a nice change. I liked the fresh air, the darkness of these nightly walks, the lack of people I met, the chance to be out in civilization without actually having to do or say much at all.

However, that didn’t mean that I necessarily wanted to stay outside for longer than I really had to. Without even noticing it, I had been tense all throughout the short trip, and it was only when I was back in my apartment that I managed to relax properly. I took deep breaths as I stowed away the groceries and cooked up a cup of instant ramen, perching on the windowsill in the kitchen to eat it while I listened to the loud music from the apartment below mine, along with the usual banter and yelling from the apartment above mine.

I had discovered a long time ago that I was living in a rather crappy part of town, in a particularly crappy apartment building. I knew for a fact that there was a drug dealer or two living on the first floor (I knew this because I had seen them in action and because one of them tried to sell me drugs once), that the man in the apartment across the hall from me had been in prison (because he told me about it one day when he cornered me in the hall), that there had been whores living on the top floor (something which the manager of the building told me on the day I moved in), and that there had been several murders occurring in various apartment in the building (which several people had informed me of, whether or not I actually wanted to know).

I had thought about moving, many times. But every time I realized that despite the general crappiness of the building, it still felt like home to me. And well, moving again would simply be far too much work. I hated looking for apartments in the first place, and this one... It had been the first one I looked at, and considering that it had enough space for my needs and that it was relatively cheap, I took it without thinking about it any further.

Quite frankly, I didn’t like these kinds of downtimes, where I had nothing in particular to do except for sit and eat, by myself. Pausing everything and spending time by myself gave me time to think, and I wasn’t a big fan of thinking, at least not when said thinking involved myself.

I didn’t want to stop and figure out what I had done with my life so far, what I was doing with my life right now, what I was going to do with my life in the future. I had gotten enough of those kinds of lectures from my parents over the past ten years or so, I didn’t need to start the same thing by myself. I already knew all the answers anyway, they hadn’t changed since the last time I had contemplated the choices I had made throughout my life, so what would be the point in going over the same shit yet again?

Sighing, I finished off the cup of ramen and tossed it in the garbage bin before walking back into the dark living room. The only light came from a series of small, blue lights pinned to the far wall, and from the computer screen below the lights. It was more than enough light for me.

Not rushing back to my desk, I walked a small round around my living room – I knew I needed the exercise. Normally I didn’t get all that much of it, after all. Maria had told me once, a month or so ago, that I needed to take better care of myself, and so I tried to do just that, even if I wasn’t all that good at it.

All in all, I liked my cheap, run-down apartment, and in particular the living room. If it was one room in the entire that lived up to it’s name, it was my living room, because it was truly lived in. I didn’t have a bedroom, so the large, comfortable couch shoved into one corner doubled as a bed for the nights that I was too lazy to roll out the futon. Something which happened on most nights, in all honesty.

Seeing as I never used the couch for merely sitting on, it was permanently covered in a heap of multi-colored blankets, with a couple of pillows on one end. The heat in the apartment – and the rest of the building – was unreliable at best, so I had learned to keep a decent stack of blankets and warm clothes handy, otherwise I’d end up freezing to death. Not an appealing prospect.

The rest of the living room was taken up by my desk, and my bookshelves. My desk was more or less my entire life, so I had chosen a big one, pushed into the corner of the room, and it was mostly occupied by my computer, my scanner, my printer, and all my other computer-related things. I had to change my desk once already, seeing as the old one collapsed under the weight of everything I loaded onto it. The new one was holding up nicely, though.

My bookshelves were filled with all kinds of books, comic books and magazines. Nothing else. I hardly had any CDs – I wasn’t really one for music anyway, and I hardly had any movies either. I mostly spent my time either at my computer or reading, which was the way my life had always been, and it was the way that I enjoyed it. I didn’t really see a need to change it, especially seeing as there was nobody except my parents that objected to the way I lived my life.

The walls of my apartment were almost bare, apart from a couple of artsy (and cheap) posters. Considering that the lights were rarely on, I hardly even saw my walls. Which also meant that I didn’t see the floor all that much – sometimes I was shocked by the way my apartment looked in the sunlight. There were piles of books and magazines stacked along the walls (I could never buy enough bookshelves), there were heaps of clothes piled onto the chair next to the couch (I never sat on the chair anyway, and besides I had no closet for clothes, so I had nowhere else to put them). In addition, there were always a varying amount of empty ramen cups and soda bottles strewn all around, leaving only the pathways between the desk, the couch and the door to the kitchen clear.

Not exactly the nicest apartment in the world, but I figured that it was fitting for the building I was living in. And what was more important, it was very fitting for me.

I stretched and put on a thicker sweater, seeing as the heater was broken and had been broken for at least a year by now, and sat back down at the computer. I knew I should really do my job (otherwise the client would kill me for not finishing the project on time), but I had no inspiration, and besides, there were other things that were far more interesting to me at the moment.

Like what had happened to Dakota, and what the hell I should do about Rei. The cold night air had done absolutely nothing to give me new ideas for what to do, but seeing Maria had at least made me feel better. Hopeful, even. So I sighed, took a sip of the cold coffee next to me, and went back.


~tbc~

Photos: Blondie

Photos: Blue