[ no! she's absolutely right! ace comes strolling into the lobby around that same time, hands shoved deep in his pockets and Corruption lingering like uncanny cold around him ]
[Konoha could be quite an observant woman, when it came down to it... and one of the things she was always quick to notice was when those around her and those she cared for weren't feeling well. Normally, Ace might be greeted happily only to soon have her asking if he was eating properly, confirming she had definitely been right to try and text him about his health...
Except he says that, and her initial perking up at his arrival turns instead to a blip of confusion that soon becomes a bashful wave of her hands, a bit of a ruddy blush warming her honey brown cheeks.]
Wh- What are you talking about, Ace, no I'm not- !
[ Hands deep in the pockets of his slouchy, sagging coveralls - the emblem of the Steel Wing office on the left breast pocket. He looks plenty wan, clothes baggy around his chest and shoulders as though he's lost weight.
No matter the changes coming over Konoha, too, she's still way cuter than Ace's corruption process. He just looks like he's dying. :/ ]
What's new and interesting with you? Did you go stomping around in the Asphodel Fields last month? I was finding bog in my boots for weeks!
You're just being nice, I didn't gussy up today at all...
[Konoha certainly didn't think that she was unfortunate looking, but she felt like she had a very realistic handle on things! Men liked pretty, willowy girls, usually, right? And she wasn't a slim-legged field jinba, but a stockier mountain breed, plus she was so dark and skin in coat, not a pretty palomino or a dapple roan... sure, if she did her hair and clothing nice for a festival or something she felt very cute, thank you, and her parents always said she was, but that was her parents, it only half counted, and-
Hang-ups based on the human beauty standards of her world aside, Konoha can only fluster so long before she begins to notice something. Her own body seems to have hardly changed since they first met, but that's only because the feathers that had started growing in to her undercoat are shades of brown, and to cover them even more she has started wearing a blanket draped over her equine back. Nervermind the temperature outside.]
I did a little, my hooves were so hard to pick out after, aha...
[She already sounds distracted, though, and with her hooves shuffling she turns a bit more towards Ace, the blush fading in favor of furrow in her brow, her hands coming together to wring her fingers slightly.]
Have you been eating well... ? The food here is kind of strange, but it's not as bad as I was afraid of the first day...
What's that have to do with it? [ Gussying up. ] It's your smile that I always see first.
[ She's talking to a guy who lived as a child among two other stinky, feral children in the woods / a Literal Garbage Heap, there is absolutely NO bias he has regarding what makes someone cute. It's just about who they are, as a living person. As she draws closer, his eyes do wander down her body — in a very curious way, looking for signs of her own Corruption. And maybe, because her own changes are so subtle to look upon, the brief expression of anguish that flickers across his face is understandable. He knows how he looks.
Keeping his hands in his pockets because his fingertips have gone grey and keep getting darker, like black poison is spreading down into his veins from that origin. He looks sick, like he's being stretched thinner and thinner as the days pass, but his strength remains and his power hasn't really waned. A few strands of stark white flow throughout the curls and waves of his dark hair, easily hidden for now. And the worst of it ( the scar, on his torso and what's happening to it ), he keeps hidden. Definitely hidden. ]
I've been trying to, honest. I usually eat enough for four guys, but lately it's been a struggle getting a meal for two down. I can't tell if I'm getting full faster, or just not thrilled by what's on offer. What about you? You find anything that reminds you of home?
[... Oh. Konoha feels an embarrassed, somewhat self-conscious but flattered smile instinctively begin to blossom back on her expression for such a direct, sweet (to her) comment. Just as immediately, she moves to cover it, because now wasn't the right time to smile, look at the state of him... but- but if he liked her smile, maybe she shouldn't? Her hand moves up and down a bit helplessly as she stands torn over whether to let it show or not, but finally, for just a brief moment before the concern overtakes her again...
She smiles gratefully.
The closer she shuffles, the more a keen observer would be able to pick up the changes that have started to come over her body... but they would have to be looking, because like Ace (though perhaps for a different reason than Ace) she has put a great deal of thought and care into hiding them. The downy brown feathers in her undercoat become more clear; curiously, they seem most numerous on her back legs. Because she can't reach her back legs well, and she's been plucking the feathers out every night no matter how painful it is to do that. The horse blanket she has thrown over her withers hides that her withers have grown sharp with some weight loss, unable to eat enough in the current shortage to feed both the natural needs of a half ton body and a greedy extra soul she never asked for. Her eyes, which had been a brownish amber when they first met, are tinged with a subtle hint of gold that hadn't been there before.
And those eyes look over him for signs of sickness, but... she can't tell. What might be sick and what might be what the people here called "corruption".]
I usually eat enough for five, but... the servings are getting kind of smaller these days... and I don't want to take more than everyone else gets...
[Her own (adopted) parents had sacrificed for her sake when food had been in short supply, knowing she required more... and she had swallowed her protests because they had been family, and she accepted their willing choice. She couldn't ask strangers in the Augmented, families, children, to watch her receiving more than them. But her hunger response was fine, the taste wasn't bad... so his problem-]
The food here's nothing like my home's, though. And people stab everything on their plate...
[... with forks. What the heck kind of a word was "fork", anyway?]
Do you think maybe your appetite would be better if the food was like you're used to? If you describe it... maybe I could try making it for you? I'm pretty good at cooking...
[And she'd much rather be doing that than... searching the dangerous wilds for killing stones.]
You shouldn't be eating anything less than what you need, though.
[ It's not about being greedy, when it comes to a girl like Konoha. She's made bigger than other people, and if she doesn't eat what's proper for her body, it'll start breaking down. While he wouldn't think of her as a burden, per se, he doesn't want to give Karterians any reason to take a look at her ( or any of them ) and see them as one. He runs a hand through his dark curls, jaw shifting to the side as he thinks; pensive, and wondering.]
— I could get you more, if you want. I used to hunt and gather as a kid — a bear might be enough to feed you for a while.
[ Hilariously, he makes the same offer she does, at the same time. Their cross-communication overlaps one another briefly: I can make you something homey, bursting through in rich sentiment. Ace can't help but color briefly, turning red around his own freckled cheeks at the idea that Konoha would look out for him like that. After all, he's been the big brother to his sibling(s) for longer than he's allowed anyone to care for him, in turn. Marco, maybe. But Marco wasn't to be resisted, only endured. ]
I'm not partial to anything, promise. My crew and I sailed to thousands of islands with thousands of different food styles — our cook, rest his soul, was great at making anything out of anything. It's more that... it doesn't taste like food anymore to me.
[She loved bear, the few times she'd had the opportunity to have it. Dark and rich, and especially tasty in the autumn... even when it was an unhealthy animal, like the holeless males that became aggressive enough for expert hunters to be called from another village, the greasiness could be cooked out well enough in a stew and...
Wait, no, that wasn't the point of all this, even though the idea of that sort of meal did make her want to salivate. They all but talk over each other in the rush to offer the other something, no, no, not me, what about you?, and then they're both blushing, cheeks warm, though only her fingers are wringing. He insists that it isn't an issue of partiality, that it won't make a difference if it's her food or someone else's, but...]
- What does it taste like?
[She just asks. The worst most people would do is just refuse to answer.]
Easily! I've been doing it since I was like, six? I was a mountain kid!
[ Six? Give or take. Definitely when he was at least ten, running around the hostile mountains and the hostile garbage slums of Grey Terminal being a hostile little brat with teeth and a steel pipe and a whole lot of hate in his heart. He's long, long since mellowed — clearly. To the point where being able to take care of someone, to provide for them and ensure they ate well, slept when they needed to, felt good and/or cute in their body? That had long since become his dream. Not to be the strongest, or the best, or to burn his existence into the hearts of men who hated him — but, to love and be loved.
Konoha's wringing her own fingers, and he hesitates before reaching out to take them into his own. He looks a horror, after all. All black digits and sickly aura, like he's poisoning the atmosphere with the promise of terror and death just by existing. It abates, though. Softly settling into a mote of familiar warmth, like an ember that will ignite a night's campfire, or a firefly winking in the distant darkness. Contact with her helps that, and makes him sheepish and slow and awkward when his smile twists a little. Disappointed? Sad?
Because his answer is not the most illustrative: ] Just "wrong". Like, food that's just gone bad. I can't even swallow it, it just goes to waste. My kid brother's cook would end me for it, too.
[... Who let this kid face off against a bear at six??? Konoha grew up in a mountain village, but she was taught to run away fast if she even caught a hint of bear activity in the woods??? Also, shouldn't any kid that went against a bear be dead, not in possession of good bear meat? She would ask, but...
There's something a bit more important.
Like Ace holding her hands. Her thoughts come to a stop as she just looks down at them, and how different they look. Normally... well, normally, only her parents ever held her hands. Gonta had, just once, when he had gently handled her arm to treat a wolf bite and bandage her. Ace's were nothing like any of them. When they had first met, they seemed strong and rugged, but now he looked almost like a leper. Sickly, his fingers darkening as if rotting even though they still felt like flesh against her own...
She can't help but examine him, concerned, her bottom lip pinched between between her teeth. It's soft, and gentle, despite how physically strong she was, the many little scars and nicks on her slightly rough, calloused skin. She's warm though, just a bit more than a human was. Warmer, when she curls her fingers back between his.]
You need to eat, though, Ace...
[... Doesn't he? Everyone is supposed to need to eat. To live. No matter what might have happened, or how things were in their own worlds, they were all living here in this place now, weren't they?]
Even if it tastes bad... No, I bet we could find something that still tastes good. If we try hard enough...
[- But even as she says it, hopeful and determined and desperate to believe what she was saying was true... What were you supposed to do, if just trying harder wouldn't fix it?]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
🏨⬇️ now?
🏨⬇️ 15!
[She hopes this communication is going well… Otherwise she's going to look silly standing alone in the hotel lobby in 15 minutes.]
no subject
Hey, Konoha! You're looking cute as ever!
no subject
Except he says that, and her initial perking up at his arrival turns instead to a blip of confusion that soon becomes a bashful wave of her hands, a bit of a ruddy blush warming her honey brown cheeks.]
Wh- What are you talking about, Ace, no I'm not- !
no subject
[ Hands deep in the pockets of his slouchy, sagging coveralls - the emblem of the Steel Wing office on the left breast pocket. He looks plenty wan, clothes baggy around his chest and shoulders as though he's lost weight.
No matter the changes coming over Konoha, too, she's still way cuter than Ace's corruption process. He just looks like he's dying. :/ ]
What's new and interesting with you? Did you go stomping around in the Asphodel Fields last month? I was finding bog in my boots for weeks!
no subject
[Konoha certainly didn't think that she was unfortunate looking, but she felt like she had a very realistic handle on things! Men liked pretty, willowy girls, usually, right? And she wasn't a slim-legged field jinba, but a stockier mountain breed, plus she was so dark and skin in coat, not a pretty palomino or a dapple roan... sure, if she did her hair and clothing nice for a festival or something she felt very cute, thank you, and her parents always said she was, but that was her parents, it only half counted, and-
Hang-ups based on the human beauty standards of her world aside, Konoha can only fluster so long before she begins to notice something. Her own body seems to have hardly changed since they first met, but that's only because the feathers that had started growing in to her undercoat are shades of brown, and to cover them even more she has started wearing a blanket draped over her equine back. Nervermind the temperature outside.]
I did a little, my hooves were so hard to pick out after, aha...
[She already sounds distracted, though, and with her hooves shuffling she turns a bit more towards Ace, the blush fading in favor of furrow in her brow, her hands coming together to wring her fingers slightly.]
Have you been eating well... ? The food here is kind of strange, but it's not as bad as I was afraid of the first day...
no subject
[ She's talking to a guy who lived as a child among two other stinky, feral children in the woods / a Literal Garbage Heap, there is absolutely NO bias he has regarding what makes someone cute. It's just about who they are, as a living person. As she draws closer, his eyes do wander down her body — in a very curious way, looking for signs of her own Corruption. And maybe, because her own changes are so subtle to look upon, the brief expression of anguish that flickers across his face is understandable. He knows how he looks.
Keeping his hands in his pockets because his fingertips have gone grey and keep getting darker, like black poison is spreading down into his veins from that origin. He looks sick, like he's being stretched thinner and thinner as the days pass, but his strength remains and his power hasn't really waned. A few strands of stark white flow throughout the curls and waves of his dark hair, easily hidden for now. And the worst of it ( the scar, on his torso and what's happening to it ), he keeps hidden. Definitely hidden. ]
I've been trying to, honest. I usually eat enough for four guys, but lately it's been a struggle getting a meal for two down. I can't tell if I'm getting full faster, or just not thrilled by what's on offer. What about you? You find anything that reminds you of home?
no subject
She smiles gratefully.
The closer she shuffles, the more a keen observer would be able to pick up the changes that have started to come over her body... but they would have to be looking, because like Ace (though perhaps for a different reason than Ace) she has put a great deal of thought and care into hiding them. The downy brown feathers in her undercoat become more clear; curiously, they seem most numerous on her back legs. Because she can't reach her back legs well, and she's been plucking the feathers out every night no matter how painful it is to do that. The horse blanket she has thrown over her withers hides that her withers have grown sharp with some weight loss, unable to eat enough in the current shortage to feed both the natural needs of a half ton body and a greedy extra soul she never asked for. Her eyes, which had been a brownish amber when they first met, are tinged with a subtle hint of gold that hadn't been there before.
And those eyes look over him for signs of sickness, but... she can't tell. What might be sick and what might be what the people here called "corruption".]
I usually eat enough for five, but... the servings are getting kind of smaller these days... and I don't want to take more than everyone else gets...
[Her own (adopted) parents had sacrificed for her sake when food had been in short supply, knowing she required more... and she had swallowed her protests because they had been family, and she accepted their willing choice. She couldn't ask strangers in the Augmented, families, children, to watch her receiving more than them. But her hunger response was fine, the taste wasn't bad... so his problem-]
The food here's nothing like my home's, though. And people stab everything on their plate...
[... with forks. What the heck kind of a word was "fork", anyway?]
Do you think maybe your appetite would be better if the food was like you're used to? If you describe it... maybe I could try making it for you? I'm pretty good at cooking...
[And she'd much rather be doing that than... searching the dangerous wilds for killing stones.]
no subject
[ It's not about being greedy, when it comes to a girl like Konoha. She's made bigger than other people, and if she doesn't eat what's proper for her body, it'll start breaking down. While he wouldn't think of her as a burden, per se, he doesn't want to give Karterians any reason to take a look at her ( or any of them ) and see them as one. He runs a hand through his dark curls, jaw shifting to the side as he thinks; pensive, and wondering.]
— I could get you more, if you want. I used to hunt and gather as a kid — a bear might be enough to feed you for a while.
[ Hilariously, he makes the same offer she does, at the same time. Their cross-communication overlaps one another briefly: I can make you something homey, bursting through in rich sentiment. Ace can't help but color briefly, turning red around his own freckled cheeks at the idea that Konoha would look out for him like that. After all, he's been the big brother to his sibling(s) for longer than he's allowed anyone to care for him, in turn. Marco, maybe. But Marco wasn't to be resisted, only endured. ]
I'm not partial to anything, promise. My crew and I sailed to thousands of islands with thousands of different food styles — our cook, rest his soul, was great at making anything out of anything. It's more that... it doesn't taste like food anymore to me.
no subject
[She loved bear, the few times she'd had the opportunity to have it. Dark and rich, and especially tasty in the autumn... even when it was an unhealthy animal, like the holeless males that became aggressive enough for expert hunters to be called from another village, the greasiness could be cooked out well enough in a stew and...
Wait, no, that wasn't the point of all this, even though the idea of that sort of meal did make her want to salivate. They all but talk over each other in the rush to offer the other something, no, no, not me, what about you?, and then they're both blushing, cheeks warm, though only her fingers are wringing. He insists that it isn't an issue of partiality, that it won't make a difference if it's her food or someone else's, but...]
- What does it taste like?
[She just asks. The worst most people would do is just refuse to answer.]
no subject
[ Six? Give or take. Definitely when he was at least ten, running around the hostile mountains and the hostile garbage slums of Grey Terminal being a hostile little brat with teeth and a steel pipe and a whole lot of hate in his heart. He's long, long since mellowed — clearly. To the point where being able to take care of someone, to provide for them and ensure they ate well, slept when they needed to, felt good and/or cute in their body? That had long since become his dream. Not to be the strongest, or the best, or to burn his existence into the hearts of men who hated him — but, to love and be loved.
Konoha's wringing her own fingers, and he hesitates before reaching out to take them into his own. He looks a horror, after all. All black digits and sickly aura, like he's poisoning the atmosphere with the promise of terror and death just by existing. It abates, though. Softly settling into a mote of familiar warmth, like an ember that will ignite a night's campfire, or a firefly winking in the distant darkness. Contact with her helps that, and makes him sheepish and slow and awkward when his smile twists a little. Disappointed? Sad?
Because his answer is not the most illustrative: ] Just "wrong". Like, food that's just gone bad. I can't even swallow it, it just goes to waste. My kid brother's cook would end me for it, too.
no subject
There's something a bit more important.
Like Ace holding her hands. Her thoughts come to a stop as she just looks down at them, and how different they look. Normally... well, normally, only her parents ever held her hands. Gonta had, just once, when he had gently handled her arm to treat a wolf bite and bandage her. Ace's were nothing like any of them. When they had first met, they seemed strong and rugged, but now he looked almost like a leper. Sickly, his fingers darkening as if rotting even though they still felt like flesh against her own...
She can't help but examine him, concerned, her bottom lip pinched between between her teeth. It's soft, and gentle, despite how physically strong she was, the many little scars and nicks on her slightly rough, calloused skin. She's warm though, just a bit more than a human was. Warmer, when she curls her fingers back between his.]
You need to eat, though, Ace...
[... Doesn't he? Everyone is supposed to need to eat. To live. No matter what might have happened, or how things were in their own worlds, they were all living here in this place now, weren't they?]
Even if it tastes bad... No, I bet we could find something that still tastes good. If we try hard enough...
[- But even as she says it, hopeful and determined and desperate to believe what she was saying was true... What were you supposed to do, if just trying harder wouldn't fix it?]