Scene #2067: It t'was a dark and spidery night. Also stormy. Mostly stormy. Also midafternoon.

Owner	Pose
Ahmya Karashima	It t'was a dark and stormy... mid...afternoon. Not long after school, there were people out and about in ... some numbers, and among those people was one Ahmya Karashima, humming absently as she spun a white-and-black parasol with bones and pawprints on it, while wearing a cozy outfit that involved an oversized sweater and striped leggings that had a similar bone-and-paw look that was... probably barely her usual style since it was easily seen as being more just dog themed but it was something warm that she'd thrown on for the cooler weather. The soft tak~tak~tak~tak~ of her geta can be heard as she walks along, that quickly gets faster as the weather suddenly kicks up from a relatively calm rain to a much heavier rain suddenly, the crack of thunder ringing through the sky as the running girl takes shelter under the entrance to the Four Clover Mall, leaning over slightly and breathing heavily, her breath puffing out in little clouds of steam as she stops to catch her breath, one hand lifted to wipe the water away from her eye-wrap to keep it from getting too soaked.
Emi Hoshino	It's the kind of weather that Emi absolutely loves. The rush of wind in your ears, the tapping of rain on car roofs, and then the wet slap of soled shows on pavement. It is the kind of weather that draws her out from her dorm room to spend time in it, and it's why she's camped out at the mall entrance for the moment, a parasol over her own head, elaborately decorated with interweaving and interlocked, stitched spider-web designs. Sitting on one of the many benches that exist outside such a place, her parasol has assured her of a dry space to sit and protection from rain, alongside the stoop of the building. Water runs down to the end of the gutter nearby alongside the rushing sounds of the nearby storm drains. Ahmya may recognize her, or not. In class, she's never dressed up like this. Her elaborate gothic dress must have taken some time to put on, but here she already is ahead of Ahmya anyway. She must have it down to a science at this point. Even her makeup is on gothic-point, granting her that powdered pallor that goth is so known for. She absently twirls her parasol in her hand, seeming at perfect, insouciant ease.
Ahmya Karashima	As Ahmya gathers her breath and thoughts again, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, something that normally might be a bit concerning, because, well... normally someone sitting so out of place in the rain means that they might be the cause, or a danger, or something. But Hachi wasn't warning her of anything at the moment, the Eye-spider hanging from the side of a nearby pillar as it kept its ever-watchful gaze on the area around them, hidden from nonmagical eyes by basic concealment magic. Hm. Something about that person seems... familiar? But also not at the same time? There was a moment as Ahmya looked at her with her one-eyed gaze that might seem like she was staring ~too~ long. But also she wasn't exactly known for her shyness, considering. The soft ~tak~ of her footsteps drawing closer to the girl sitting on the bench, moving over to brush off a section of it and take a seat on it herself. "Hm hm hm~. I see another denizen of the darkness rests underneath the eaves of capitalism." Ahmya comments cheerfully, aimed vaguely at Emi but not directly looking at her as she looks out at the heavily-falling rain. "Truly, the perfect calm of thine countenance bespeaks an aura of mystery, my name is Ahmya Karashima, might I know yours, mysterious stranger?" ...Yeah she's turning the Chuuni on hard.
Emi Hoshino	Were this an anime, you would hear the 'plink. plink.' sound effect of Emi's eyes blinking at Ahmya. "...another one," she muses, out loud. She just met someone else she definitely thought was leaning into the Chuuni but this one is more adamantly out there right out the gate than the last one. "Mmn, mn. Yeah. That's me. A serene and precious jewel, a confident and self-assured woman beyond her years." Oh, wow. Her gaze goes up towards the fact that she even has one eye -- and then she heaves her shoulders and sighs. Her own gaze is mismatched, one blue eye and one green, and it's clear that this is just making her self conscious at the moment. "I think I've seen you in school," she adds, glancing down the way in the direction of the Academy. No need to specify more than that in this area.
Ahmya Karashima	Another one? Ah it seems that she wasn't the first that Emi had met! ... ... ... Huh. "Who also seems to enjoy the rain. It is rather peaceful, for sure." Oh god now she's talking about the weather even. On the upside, it's not like, a super over-the-top eyepatch or anything. It's just a relatively simple wrap instead of an eyepatch or something, so it's very possible she's actually got some sort of injury or something that she was covering up. "Oooh, wow, you even have mismatched eyes. Do you have actual heterochromia or is one of them a contact lens?" Ahmya asks, the chuuni guise actually dropping in a little bit of excitement as she looks towards Emi. The comment that she's been seen at school gets a tilt of Ahmya's head. "Hmm... that would explain why you seemed kind of familiar. I take it you go to the Radiant Heart Academy then. Did you, too, get a mysterious invitation after something happened to you?" One might think she's playing it up but actually that just is how things went for her really. Stuff Happened and then she got invited.
Emi Hoshino	Emi listens. She listens and then closes both her eyes. The subtle crease of her forehead indicates that she perhaps feels a headache coming on. "... it's not a contact lens," say utters after a moment. "And yes, yes I'm a student." A little gesture with her paraosol in the direction of the academy again. She has to be careful, getting wet would ruin her make up and she can't have that! She works very deliberately to shelter her face from the rain, even to the point of sitting in a place where the rain won't throw it into her. "... eh, apparently 'bad grades and delinquency' required a change of pace." ... she isn't mentioning the assault, vandalism, smoking and other forms of delinquency that went along with it.
Ahmya Karashima	"Hm! How rare." Ahmya comments regarding the lack of contact lens. She pauses. "...I'm sure people bring attention to it all the time though, I'm sorry if it's a sore subject." The girl turns her one eye away from Emi's own eyes as she rests calmly on that bench, slowly seeming to calm after that little run she'd done to escape the rain. Her own makeup was... much simpler, in spite of also being somewhat gothic styled. Done up nicely, but not so easy to ruin, likely a decision made out of practicality over anything else. Or she just got tired of trying to keep that eye-sash clean. "Hm. It's such a strange school, so highly sought after and viewed so well, and yet so willing to take in the odd and sometimes even the dangerous." She was only kind of both of those, a bit odd but not /that/ odd really. "My eye just is from an accident that happened while I was on a trip, by the way. It /does/ make for a fun part of outfits sometimes though." She gives a lopsided little grin. "Doesn't contain some evil darkness or anything, though it might destroy the world if I uncover it nonetheless. Well, for a few moments for those weak of stomach at least, it's a bit gross." Possibly a weird way to apologize for the heterochromia question.
Emi Hoshino	"One percent of the world population," says Emi in regards to rareness. She knows the statistics, after all. She would. It's like an automatic, textbook reflex for her from having, well, lived with it her entire life. Her voice is a low one, all contralto darkness and warmth. It suits her. "Makes sense," she says after listening to her explanation, nodding along with her as she makes what seems to her to be a passing explanation of 'the Chuuni stuff'. "Not that odd. Prestigious universities always set aside some slots to show how sympathetic and kind they are to people like me -- but you know, it's not been THAT bad so far." She glances towards the Academy again in thought, eyes half-lidding for a moment. "Doesn't make me wanna go home any less, though." There is unattended business for her somewhere else, given the look that flickers across her face.
Ahmya Karashima	"Right, yeah, that! ... ... Which means that people probably always draw attention to it and that just makes things probably a bit awkward and I'm sorry again ugh I thought it might actually just be a part of the outfit." And now she's just driving her foot into her mouth. "Well, fair, I guess! ... ... I dunno it just seems more than usual but it might just be that I interact more with the odd and stuff being, well, one of the odd sorts myself." Ahmya says with an awkward laugh as she rubs the back of her head. "...Yeah? ...Well, if you ever need someplace to hang out I'm sure the occult club would love you." Ahmya offers lightly. "No pressure of course, just, you know. A place where people might be a little weird but generally accept whoever wants to join." She hesitates. "Though there is occasionally some real magic there so you know, fair warning on that one..." Though she did her best to guide it away from anything really dangerous. She was a usually kind of responsible Chuuni, after all!
Emi Hoshino	Emi Hoshino places one hand over her green eye as if suffering! It's not very serious. "Mhm," she agrees, "it can be weird sometimes. People get weird about things, but as we are so found of saying here in Japan 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered down'. Even when we can't help it -- especially then." She lowers her hand back to her side and then tucks strand of pink-dyed hair over her ear. "...occult club. Oh, huh. Okay." And then she says 'real magic' and Emi kind of scoffs a bit. "...good to know," she says, nodding solemnly. She is clearly attributing that to the Chuuni stuff and boy does it sure explain a lot.
Ahmya Karashima	"Gosh, I know, right? Even when I /wasn't/ acting all chuuni I got so many looks because of the wrap." Ahmya says, poking at the covering lightly. She pulls a bit of a face. "Though I guess it's better than just being boring and uninteresting." Like she was before. "But might as well lean into it when you don't have a choice either way. It's more fun that way, too." At least for her. Then again, she asn't born with it so it's not like she had quite the same experience as Emi. "Yep! The occult club. Mostly it's just a bunch of people hanging out and reading books and sometimes doing witchy things. Some of the members REALLY like robes and make their own clothes, so if you ever need any material or whatever for your outfits they can probably give some good advice." ...She's really making it sound more like a weird cosplay-book club more than a club about dark magick, probably, but it wasn't that far off. "...Sorry, I uh. Don't see many people who also seem into goth stuff outside of the club so I might be getting too excited."
Emi Hoshino	After all, that's more or less what Emi's assuming it is. Cosplay and roleplay, really, along with being totally Chuuni. It's not a ridiculous thing to think given what's right in front of her and how the conversatio began. She twirls her spider-web parasol a second time. "It's fine," she continues, nonchalant and unperturbed, a mien that she has learned to carefully cultivate even through the little cracks that show up, like the way she squints at Ahmaya from time to time. "It's fine," she repeats, with an almost imperiously dismissive wave of her hand. "That's a good idea, though, about the outfits. Goth stuff can be expensive and it's not like I've got a lot of yen."
Ahmya Karashima	Nevermind that Ahmya was talking about actual magic, but when you're also acting Chuuni... it's the perfect accidental disguise for such a thing, and then you just casually transform in front of someone and they realize that no you just have no sense of discretion but that's beside the point. "So... do you like spiders too? Or just... you know, the web design as part of your outfit?" She asks, looking at that twirling spiderweb design. Testing the waters before she goes on about her possibly-dangerous arachnid friends. Chuuni was a bit more normal due to anime, but a lot of people still were afraid of spiders! "And yeah... gosh, anything catering to us is either super expensive or really really cheaply made it seems like... almost better just to make your own outfits as a student..." She crinkles her nose just thinking about the last properly goth-lolita outfit she bought. Luckily she'd picked up some skills more recently. Due to reasons.
Emi Hoshino	Well, it isn't exactly like Emi knows that! She's just rolling with the moment, if we're honest. As Ahmya asks her about the spider-webs, though, her eyes light up. "Oh yeah, I know a lot about spiders. I used to be really afraid of them until I decided not to be." It really was not that simple, thinks Emi, but there's no use explaining that to just anyone. "So I made them a part of me." Now that's just true. She tips her parasol towards Ahmya for her to get qa better look at the interlocking patterns that lace its top. "Oh yeah. I'm terrible with a needle, though, so I just have to buy it, you know? It's too bad that's not one of my talents because it would be kinda nice to be able to do things. Oh well," she shrugs her shoulders, not seeming too concerned about that fact.
Ahmya Karashima	"They're really neat, right?! I have a few friends that I keep around my house and make sure they're doing well and they help keep the pests away and also I try to make sure that my parents don't get rid of them or anything 'cause they're the harmless type." Mostly 'making sure they're doing well' is the making sure they're not crushed, really. Also that people just, you know, stay away from their territory. Hmm. Made them a part of her? That's one way to do it at least! ... ... Nevermind that she probably /also/ has spiders a part of her. Or a part of her was a spider now? ...Yeah that's weird to think about anyway moving on from that thought. "I'm pretty good at it, I took up weaving a little more recently and found that it's a really neat way to relax at the end of the day." She pauses, as her phone buzzes in her pocket, which she pulls out, glancing at. "...Oh gosh, that was my mom. I'd better get going, but you have a good night, oh mysterious stranger!" She says, standing up and giving a bow towards Emi, before starting to make her way away, a hand lifting as she passes by that pillar to allow Hachi, the eye-spider, to climb on and hide in her clothing as she hums softly.
Emi Hoshino	"Emi," she tells her, realizing perhaps she had not given her name earlier when she is called 'mysterious stranger'. Just went over her, really. She reclines onm the bench a little bit more, back against the wall and the rain pouring down around her but for the stoop and the parasol. She has a few things to wait for before she heads back to the dorms for the night, assuming Mister Sato doesn't call her to yell at her again. As Ahmya stops by the pole, she squints at her. What was that she was just doing? Was it ... naw. Couldn't be. She looks down at her knees, pulls out her phone (in a gothic case adorned with bats of course) and proceeds to start checking her messages on LINE.