Scratching the Surface

[Malkavia]

For an evening in Tokyo in the late spring, the night was pleasantly cool. The plaza outside the LAW arenas was lively, in spite of the hour, and one of the restaurants adjacent to the plaza had an outdoor seating area where live music was being performed. The acoustics were not designed with the sidewalk audience in mind, and the crooning of the band's slow electric guitar was muddled but still pleasant as it competed with the cicadas.

Not that the band was the night's only musical entertaintment. The commercial district with LAW's Tokyo arenas at its center attracted heavy traffic, and where there was traffic, street performers were sure to congregate, like flies landing on fruit. At one street corner, a living statue painted silver danced like a robot. At the arena steps, much more creatively in Charlotte's estimation, a woman wearing fishnet leggings and a top hat balanced her weight on a small pink barrel while she played an accordion and sang songs in a language Charlotte did not understand. Russian, maybe? There were no street magicians though—an unclaimed niche, perhaps, if the Feychild ever wanted to return to her roots.

In short, it was a beautiful night in Tokyo, and Charlotte would have liked to take her time. She would have enjoyed getting to know the performers, maybe even — in spite of her very visibly bruised face — try to persuade one of them to get a late dinner with her at one of Tokyo's many eateries. It wouldn't have been the first time she used interesting company and expensive food to take the hard edges off of a loss.

Instead, she walked briskly until she reached Kanda River, at which point she turned west and continued until she found an entrance to the underground Suidobashi Station, which she entered. It was a fool's errand she was on, perhaps; her match with Yuki Kazikura had been over for half an hour. If Yuki had been on board any of the several local trains in her route back to Yokohana, then Charlotte would spend the rest of the night searching, for reasons she only half-understood, for a woman in a completely different prefecture.

Taking the steps down to the Yamanote line put the night life of the arena district well and behind, and in the more closed, urban space, Shimmerlace's outfit was more out of place. Normally she would have enjoyed the eyes cast in her direction, but tonight she would just as soon have avoided the weight of disapproving commuters' eyes. Still, there were principles. The Feychild never dressed in "street" clothes; sometimes she wore costumes and elaborate dresses in place of ring attire. But it had to be something. Something that smelled of flowers. Even the fresh attire she had changed into after showering, however, was a husk barely hanging onto the girl as she made her way to the train tracks and rested her back against a concrete pillar.

Spoiler

Charlotte looked left, then right, scanning over the light bustle of Japanese men and women for a Skybeast in hiding.

[CaptainL]

The match had ended. It should've been over. She'd won, hadn't she? That was all she had come for. After a string of losses that had eaten away at her confidence, and left her desperate for something to come along and turn it all around, at last Yuki had won. That was all she'd wanted to do to put her name back on the map, and to prove that she still had it in her to achieve the success she'd been chasing after for so long. That was that - she shouldn't have to think about it any more. And yet, Yuki knew that when she thought those things, she was only kidding herself. Things were far from normal. And things were far from over.

Shimmerlace Snuggleblossom hadn't just been any opponent. The Young Lioness had approached Yuki because of her previous match with Angelina Tarrant, and the Marauder was an enemy they had in common. It was no accident their paths had crossed; Shimmerlace had wanted to test herself against Yuki, knowing that if she couldn't measure herself against the woman who had stood up to Angelina for so long, she couldn't hope to fare any better herself. And what happened in the match itself was far from normal. Angelina had been quick to assert that her presence was closer than either Yuki or Shimmerlace thought, even when she weighed heavy on both their minds - she had been waiting in the wings, watching for when the moment was right. And then, when the lights cut, she had jumped the ring and given Shimmerlace a nasty cut, one that no doubt spelled her doom.

It was a blow against both of them. For Shimmerlace, Angelina saw fit to deprive her of the victory. For Yuki, Angelina was making sure that the victory wasn't one she could be proud of. And indeed, even after Angelina had left, there was something different about the match. Shimmerlace had grown desperate - she'd been blinded by aggression, trying to put Yuki down just to prove she stood a chance. That could only hold her back, and in the end, it had been all she needed to put herself into the path of the Kazikura Destroyer. Yuki had taught her her lesson. If she was out to prove herself against Angelina, then there was no way she could ever succeed if she let herself get so carried away by her feelings and her emotions, when every second of attention counted and any wrong move was something Angelina could turn into a weapon. That was what had cost Yuki her match, after all. But then...if Shimmer was making the same mistakes Yuki had, what did that say about Yuki's future?

From the moment the bell rang, those thoughts had implanted themselves in Yuki's head, and they hadn't gone anywhere now. Even as she left the ring, she thought about it. As she changed out of her ring gear, took a shower, and headed for the train station, she thought about it, carrying her bag over her shoulder all the while. As she waited for the train to Yokohama, she couldn't get it all out of her head. She and Shimmerlace weren't so different. They shared a common enemy. They both had common goals. And even the pitfalls they'd run into along the way mirrored each other step for step. It was almost like it was meant to be...but that was impossible, wasn't it?

When Yuki looked over and saw Shimmerlace on the train platform, dressed as eccentrically as always, she thought for a moment that she was getting too tense, and her mind was starting to play tricks on her. But she blinked again, and she was still there. There was no question - it was her. But if they'd run into each other again, was there perhaps something deeper at play than what either of them imagined?

Shimmerlace would've stuck out like a sore thumb anywhere she went. Yuki was more subtle - with her slim build and unassuming looks, she could blend into just about any crowd in Japan. She was an ordinary, everyday girl just like any other, and it was that very quality that had made her come to see herself as a champion of the people. Shimmer could've easily lost her in the crowd, if Yuki so wanted. She could've gotten on the train and be done with it, and she'd never have to think of this again. But if she and Shimmerlace kept running into each other, in spite of the odds, in spite of the differences...maybe there was something else Yuki needed to do to truly put everything to rest.

She stopped in her tracks, looking back toward the self-proclaimed Feychild. Everyone around her moved like fish swimming in an ocean, but Yuki's eyes locked onto Shimmerlace's. And when she spoke, it might not have been more than a single word, but it was one she was sure would get her attention. "Hey."

Spoiler

[Malkavia]

For the past half hour, Charlotte had played out half a dozen different versions of this encounter. There had even been one or two times, in the shower and the more private backstage areas, where she'd caught herself rehearsing lines outloud. So what you gotta see, Yooks...Mmm, don't say Yooks. Fuck. Fuck. Some of her imagined encounters were wildly dissimilar in tone, ranging from the furious and angry, to the desperate and mewling. It made for awkward looks from what janitorial staff she encountered, but she was fairly sure none of them spoke English anyway. Such was the hope.

So there went all that time and thought and heat and rehearsal, and even then, once she got out into the cool night air and soaked in the city and started to calm down a peg or three, still. Still she wasn't sure exactly what she wanted or how she intended to set about getting it, and then—there she was. It took Shimmerlace a beat. The discomfort of this woman staring straight into the back of her skulls hit before the recognition, but nope, no doubt at all, it was our Yuki, popping up out of the crowd like one bloom in a meadow of blanket-flower. And of course from there it was all instinct for our bruised Feychild.

"Well—Yuki in the flesh, then. I was just on the lookout for you. Pixie-sticks on a thick shroom, though, you really, eh—you just kinda slid outta the concrete there, didn't ya? Fuckin' ghostly." Shimmerlace grinned lopsidedly. She was talking too loudly and knew it. The commuters expected it from a presumed tourist like this strange bubblegum-haired woman, but that didn't make a raised voice in a crowded train terminal any less rude. Well. Fuck 'em.

"Anyway, yeah. So. Yeah, greetings and salutations, and all. How's the night find you this eh..." She shifted her eyes left, the right, then checked her watch. "Thirty-second minute of today's twenty-first hour, then?"

[CaptainL]

Yuki had been the one to approach Shimmerlace. She was sure that with all the emotions that had been raging in the match, with how much she had on her mind and how much she was sure Shimmer had to have on her mind too, there had to be some things left unsaid that couldn't be answered in their match; questions that still needed to be resolved, and answers both were sitting on. But even still, when Shimmerlace opened her mouth...Yuki wasn't prepared for what would greet her.

How loud she was being was one thing. But the flippant, casual attitude she had taken - as though she hadn't just been in a match that meant everything to her; a match that she saw as her chance to prove she had what it took to put her fiercest and most pitched rivalry behind her - was what really threw Yuki for a loop. She raised an eyebrow toward Shimmer with confusion, and her mouth hung open, prepared to say something only to find she had no idea what words could possibly do her feelings justice. She knew Shimmerlace was eccentric, yes. She had to be, in order to be out in public still dressed like that. But surely after a loss like the one she'd just had, with Angelina's interference being so sudden, so violent, and so crushing, Shimmerlace would be taking this a little more seriously.

"...Uh..." she began, at a loss for words. She hadn't intended to make a big scene of this. But then again, Shimmerlace being Shimmerlace, it was hard not to. Shrugging her shoulders and clearing her throat, Yuki started to walk away from where the crowds were clustered, though she kept looking back over her shoulder at Shimmer all the while, encouraging her to follow. If only so that they'd have a little more privacy for what they'd discuss.

"...I'm...alright, I guess. As alright as I can be." She came over to a bench and sat down before she looked back at the Feychild. "I should ask about you, though. Are you...okay? After...all that, I mean..?" Thinking about what Angelina had done, Yuki couldn't help but wince. She was skirting around the issue, not wanting to push any buttons or make Shimmer feel uncomfortable. Then again...with how she was acting, she didn't know if she'd even need to.

[Malkavia]

"Nope!" Well that slipped out without much thought, and without even interrupting her grin. Fuck, if she was flowing, she might as well flow. She declined to sit with Yuki, instead standing beside the bench with her back to the wall. Now that the reality of finding Yuki was starting to creep in, cold and complicated and permanent compared to rehearsal,she was noticing a lot of aches that had been a bit more buried in her imaginings.

That slit over her left eye, for example, itched. It itched like a motherfucker, pulsing, distracting. The laceration from Nutcracka was deep enough to warrant stitches, but she'd slipped away because there hadn't been time. The ref had patted the cut down with Vaseline and whatever stinging medicinal cream they always slobbed on those kinds of cuts, and she'd applied butterfly closures she kept stowed away in her locker. It wasn't bleeding anymore, mostly. So what if itched? So what if she had to dab at it periodically when a jolt set it leaking, just slightly? Small fuckin' potatoes. The biggest problem they offered was the white strips of medical tape on her face interfered with the aesthetic.

"Anyway." Yuki had been sideswiped by Shimmer's...enthusiasm. That much was pretty clear on her face. Well she is local, right? And a polite type to boot. Alright, so control your fuckin' breathing and bring it down a few notches. She breathed in through her mouth. "Anyway." She was on a short chain here. Any second, Yuki could decide this was too weird for her blood and blow off to Yokohana. But that thinking just made settling on any particular conversational stream that much harder. She bit her tongue and brushed her hair behind her ears. Fuck but that cut itched.

"...So. I wanted to chat, but eh, this is...This is crowded." She shifted her eyes left, the right, then gave a shrug. She let her smile droop. Stretching her face stung, and she was trying to pull back on the gas. "I'm sure you've got things to tend to and all, but eh. Look. Whaddya say I make it worth your time? We can find somewhere nice. Grab a bite, enjoy the night. Enjoy the night life, yeah? A local commuter type like you, I bet you don't get to play tourist often. I'll pay, you eat. Maybe we'll talk a for a tic. How's...that sound?"

There was no doubt about it, this was Shimmerlace talking, bells and tinsel and all, but there was something tense to the lightness. Stretch marks in the wings and stains in the fey gossamer. The fairy was normally a glove that fit so snugly most didn't think to imagine there was a girl underneath, but tonight the act was taking effort. Visible effort.

[CaptainL]

Shimmerlace had answered, and yet, Yuki didn't feel like her questions were any closer to being resolved than they were when this all started. She sat there on the bench, looking out of the corner of her eye at Shimmer, and she blinked once, then twice, thinking over what she'd heard. Shimmer was hurt. She could see it now, in fact - the red trails over her face, right where Angelina had cut into her skin. The rest of her getup did a good enough job of grabbing one's attention that a passing glance wouldn't even catch sight of her wounds, like a magician's art of misdirection, but when Yuki looked closer, they were definitely there. Even by her own admission, Shimmer was still hurting. But the cheery tone in her voice and the smile on her face was unchanged. Like this didn't even cross her mind. Yuki thought she had come to understand how Shimmerlace thought over the course of their match, but now she seemed like an enigma.

Still, the conversation continued. Yuki nodded her head at the mention of how crowded the station was, and she nodded all the more when Shimmerlace brought up how she had places to be. "Eh, you could say that..." She'd really just intended to head home and crash on her bed, letting the night pass so that she could get it over with and move on to the next one, just as she always had. When her life seemed so hectic, and her head was just as cluttered, it was the routine she'd grown used to. But...it didn't have to be that way.

Yuki turned to face Shimmerlace, turning over the options in her head. Shimmerlace knew how busy she was - the reminder was enough to make her glance off into the distance with a sigh. But she wanted to extend the offer to get out, to do something different. To live a little. At the thought, Yuki's mouth opened. She wanted to bring up how she couldn't; that she wouldn't have the time, and that she needed to study - but that excuse died before she could get any words out when she remembered she wasn't in school any more and she didn't need to juggle those things. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it. The only one holding her back and keeping her locked up like this...was herself.

She'd gotten so stuck in her old habits that the mere thought of breaking with them, of actually enjoying herself, seemed inconceivable. But she already knew it didn't have to be this way. Satsuki had shown her as much. Maybe getting out would be good for her. At the least, it might help her understand Shimmerlace Snuggleblossom a little bit better...assuming such a thing was even possible.

At last, turning to Shimmer with a smile, Yuki rose from her seat and dusted off her lap. "...Alright. I think I can spare the time. And it sounds...fun," she said. She didn't know what to expect from Shimmerlace's idea of what fun was, but she was at least willing to give it a try. "You know a good place?" As soon as she'd said that, she bit the inside of her cheek, and a faint blush rose to her face. Just how sheltered she'd made herself was surely showing through when she was this unfamiliar with the local scene. But if Satsuki wasn't going to judge, surely Shimmer wouldn't either.

[Malkavia]

For a hot half second, Shimmerlace felt like a dog that had caught the mailtruck. Truth be told, there had not been a single imagined iteration of this chat where Yuki had just said yes, sans any cajoling or bargaining or―

"I might have a place. You, eh, fancy owls any?"

Regardless of Yuki's answer, Shimmer would start moving towards the stairs. Even if your Kazikura prodigy had a deathly allergy to feathers and would keel over blue and choking if she stepped within a square mile of a beaked beastie, Shimmerlace wanted to have that conversation in the open air.

As they made their way topside, the Feychild explained that concept behind The Moonlit Perch. She started simple, summarizing the key background Yuki likely already knew. She'd know about animal cafes, for instance ― a tourist trap par excellence. Everyone visiting Japan is curious about these odd spots where you can sit down, get served a solid lunch or dinner, all while different kinds of critters come to eat their meals along side you. Cats, rabbits, ravens ― you name it, somewhere had it. Most places, though, closed around 7pm or earlier, on account of the bun-buns and kitties needing their beauty sleep.

"So! Says some clever observer of the touristy kinda markets, what of your night-owl customer?" As Shimmerlace and Yuki climbed the steps out of the train terminal, the Feychild dug into setting the scene. She used wide gestures to emphasize her point, as dramatic as if she were setting up a story on-stage. At first, summoning the energy for this kind of story-telling had taken push, had felt like strain on her tired body, but the longer she went on, the more naturally and sparkly it poured out of her. "What of your late-shifters, your wealthy insomniacs, your vampire lords? Shall those who call the night home be forever left with their thirst for zoo-qua-diner unsated? Naaaah! Not on your life, not while their wallets sit in their pockets fat with yen, it shan't! And thus were born the latest and most innovative step in this furred and feathered market: The owl...cafe."

As they stepped into the night, a gust of wind caught the Feychild's hair. The sensation was pleasant, pushing her bangs out of her face and cooling a face still swollen at the edges. Then something clicked. Realities were remembered, and her shoulders sagged. She glanced back at Yuki.

"Anyway, so. Got one in walking distance from here. The owl's are pretty cute, and it's not liable to be much crowded. Sound like your kinda vibe?

[CaptainL]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Yuki thought to herself. If fate was going to bring her and Shimmerlace together again, she didn't see any reason why she should run away from it. She did have plenty of respect for the lengths the Young Lioness was willing to push herself in pursuit of her goals - whether or not she believed she was really there yet - and after what had just happened between her and Angelina, it only felt right to stay a while longer to make sure everything was okay. She didn't know how well it was possible to really understand Shimmerlace, but at least they might be able to come away with a better understanding of who they were if they spent some more time in each others' company.

But even if Yuki already knew Shimmerlace was far from predictable, she wouldn't have exactly seen that coming. "...owls?" Shimmerlace explained the situation as they walked, which only confirmed what Yuki had suspected. She knew plenty about animal cafes, though she had never had much of a chance to set foot inside one - it would've gotten in the way of her studies, or her training, or her wrestling. She glanced off with a sigh, thinking of the time she'd had to turn down an offer from one of her friends at school to visit a cat cafe because, no matter how much she would've liked it, she had better things to attend to. But she wouldn't have guessed they made them for owls. Then again, Shimmerlace did have a point about how there was surely a market for animal cafes among people who found themselves out late at night for one circumstance or another - Yuki thought back on all the times she'd gotten home and immediately fallen asleep, sometimes out of fatigue more than anything else; it wasn't without a bit of a wince that she realized she was one of those people - even if the way she did it was...unusual.

For a moment, Yuki stood there, blinking a few times at Shimmerlace's rather dramatic introduction. She'd known about wrestlers who had gimmicks, and put on personas in the ring, but apparently, to Shimmerlace, this was no gimmick - this was the life she lived. Straight-laced and soft-spoken as she was, Yuki...didn't really know what to say to that. "Uh." she began, thinking for a fleeting second to ask Shimmer if she was always like this, or if the cafe was paying her to do this, but she decided not to risk offending her. That...and when a moment later, Shimmer seemed to deflate back into a drab, more mundane reality, the contrast between this and how she'd acted a moment ago was stark enough to raise a question in the brunette's mind.

"Hey, are you-" she began, only to stop and clear her throat - it was better not to push the matter; Shimmerlace had been through a lot tonight already, and she could fully understand if it was still weighing on her. Standing up a little straighter, Yuki took in a breath, flashing her companion a smile. "...That sounds like fun, actually. I'd be willing to try it out."

[Malkavia]

Sometimes the audience catches the magician's comet dust like a fever, and sometimes (especially in a young stage performer's nightmares) they send a wide, blank stare. As Shimmerlace put the last bow on her owl-cafe explainer, Yuki shot Shimmer one of those.

After enough time with enough audiences, though, a purveyor of magic gets used to hiccups and tough sells. The trick is not to let it pierce the shell. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. The shell was essential, both for concealing the weaknesses of the performer and for protecting them from the whims of their audience. Nothing, internal or external, should interfere with the delivery of a good show. Still, you did want to watch the stony audience. Observe. Figure out ― What's the holdup here? In Yuki's case, the profile felt clear enough. Flavor shock. Too much, too loud, too fast for a girl of conservative tastes.

It didn't stop her from agreeing to come along, even going so far as to flash the Feychild a smile. Well. It was appreciated.

Even so, Shimmerlace continued to try and adjust to the room's temperature. She trot along, hands clasped at her back as she stared at the sky. There were no stars in the gray sky of a modern metropolis, of course, but there were the glittering edges of a skyscraper skyline. Neon signs, illuminated billboards, a spotlight somewhere off in the distance all danced at the edges of her vision. She breathed deep, enjoying the sense of her smallness in the middle of it all. Silence, she figured, would give Yuki space to adjust.

Before long, they had returned to LAW's facilities. All kinds of businesses had grown up around their promotion ― an entire entertainment complex's worth. There was even a small amusement park in the northwest end of the district, complete with a Ferris Wheel and single-loop roller coaster, packed in next to a five-story mall and a small, green park. Shimmer's destination was on the eastern periphery, but the walk there was no less opulent. They passed a merry-go-round, which glowed golden on its raised, round platform. Carnival music piped over the rails to the quieter street beside.

Spoiler

As luck would have it, this stretch of sidewalk was uncrowded ― a cozy little space with music and light but few people to bother. Shimmerlace glanced at her companion, then back to the merry go round. "Am I...what, by the by?" She licked her lips, continued to walk, and continued to watch the carnival ride. There was a hummingbird seat, she noticed ― she'd seen a lot, but a hummingbird seat. That was new. If Yuki hadn't been there, and if Shimmerlace hadn't just invited her to cut her, she might have hopped a ride.

[CaptainL]

As she followed along after Shimmerlace, Yuki too stopped to take in the sights, the sounds - the lights, the people going back and forth even at this hour. In a city this large and this busy, it seemed, there was always something to do. Yokohama was barely a stone's throw away in the grand scheme of things, but even still it hardly seemed to compare to the immensity that was Tokyo. And as she crossed a pedestrian bridge, Yuki needed to stop for a moment and stare out into the distance, watching those lights - those buildings lit up in every color imaginable, and the cars that whizzed by just beneath her.

She'd never taken the time to really sit here and appreciate these things, she thought to herself. It seemed like at every minute of every day, she was going somewhere - always in transit between one point and another, and never allowing herself the opportunity to stop, slow down, and smell the roses. But when she was confronted with this much - this beauty, in its own right; this slice of all the world had to offer - Yuki had no choice but to let her gaze linger. Had she really been so content to let the world fade to the background? Was this what she was missing out on?

A moment later, of course, she remembered that she and Shimmerlace were still going somewhere. Shaking herself out of her trance, the dark-haired girl cleared her throat before hurrying off after Shimmer. "Sorry! Coming!" Even when she passed through the amusement park, however, Yuki slowed her step to look back and forth at all the rides, bewildered. This was new, wasn't it? This wasn't familiar - she couldn't think of the last time she'd been through here. But something this big and this elaborate couldn't have just popped up overnight. How much of the outside world was she neglecting, Yuki asked herself? When she'd been so content to let the world be nothing but gyms, arenas, and the train stations in between...was she truly living?

Yuki's thoughts were only broken when Shimmerlace spoke up again, and at that, she stopped, thinking back to the strange aura of malaise she'd seen come over the Young Lioness earlier. "Hm..?" She glanced back in Shimmer's direction. "I mean, you just-" But she stopped herself in mid-sentence. She couldn't pry, she reminded herself. Shimmer had her own issues, and Yuki wasn't privy to them. She didn't want to look pushy. Besides, she'd already seen enough of Shimmerlace to know she could be an enigma, and who was she to try and wrap her head around that?

"Er...nothing," Yuki said with a sigh, hoping to move the incident along. "It's nothing. Just...just forget I said anything. Is the cafe close?" And yet, she looked back over her shoulder just a little as she said that, letting her gaze follow the whirling motions of the merry-go-round. Did she really want to let all this go so soon? There was a part of her that wanted to linger - a part of her that knew she should be taking her time.