text.

[theguideless]

[forward this to about 3-4 in the morning.]

Hello
Is anyone awake?

Comments

[theguideless]

[oh. that would...would make sense. bright pink cats and seals...that'd be strange, even for this place, right? Martin's mouth quirks a little, a breathy kind of laugh in his exhale.]

That's almost a shame...they look kind of friendly, like this.

[revelation]

They would be so, so cute and this place is usually so gray, so a little bright color here and there would be pretty great.

Oh! Speaking of colors, ( just turning away and grabbing a few things here and there before setting the contents on her bed. papers, a few colored pencils in various shapes and colors and some books because gotta bear down on something! ) Ta-da!

[theguideless]

Huh–! [he startles a little, blinking. it takes a second for him to recognize what she's unearthed.

oh!

he smiles.]

These are for drawing the letters, right?

[revelation]

Mm, you can use anything you want.

( Madoka reaches out to take a sheet of paper for herself but stops short of taking anything else, simply folding the piece of paper once and then twice into a square shape. )

You know, I just got an idea of what we could do with our letters since we send them.

[theguideless]

What's that? [it's a little absently, asking, but his attention does turn toward her well after he's got his eyes pried off the paper she's lifted to her hands and begun to fold.

he blinks.]

[revelation]

Well, you see... back home in Japan we have this legend that says if you fold a thousand paper cranes that a crane will come and grant you a single wish.

So we could write our letters, fold them into cranes and maybe we could reach a thousand one day.

[theguideless]

[he looks impressed, if not still a little bewildered. paper...cranes? crane? he doesn't know what it means, but it has to be something interesting – at least nice. it is Madoka, after all.]

A thousand... [man. that sounds like a lot! but.

but it sounds exciting.

grinning:] We'll try, right? Can you show me how?

[revelation]

Really? ( oops, it is really hard for her to contain her excitement. the thought had been a passing one, not something Madoka was sure the other would agree with... let alone anything they could possible do.

but there was no point in not trying, right? and the more she thinks on it, the more she wants to try and see it through. )

Yes, of course. ( she turns away again, this time to grab a pair of scissors from her drawn and get to cutting the paper into squares- keeping one and holding the other out to Martin. ) Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.

[theguideless]

[boy, he hopes so. he's having quite a time trying to...to find things he can do. that he's good at. that can make himself and other people happy.

he sits down on the floor next to the bed, shifting to keep out of her way as he pulls his ankles in to sit cross-legged.]

...What is a crane, anyway?

[revelation]

They're these really big birds with long legs and a long neck.

( following, she sits down and begins to sketch out a rather cartoonish looking version of the bird on her square of paper.

but it gets the point across of how they look, she thinks as she shows him. )

They're symbols of good fortune and longevity back home, and the legends goes that they can live for a thousand years.

[theguideless]

[he blinks, leaning and tilting his head at the little critter sketch. wow...]

Is that really true? Or is it just...legends?

[revelation]

I like to think so. After all... anything is possible, right?

( she smiles softly before flipping the page over and writing a greeting to her family down, but without the tablets auto-translating everything it simply appears as Japanese and stays as such. )

Hmm, so much has happened it's hard to know just where to start.

[theguideless]

[himself, he was rifling through a pocket to pull out the crumpled, folded-too-many-times-over bit of scrap paper he'd brought with him.

flattened out and smoothed on the floor best he can, it shows his work: alphabets over and over, scrawled first in Bariyan's hand, traced thickly over in Martin's. fairly gradeschool, but then...Martin never learned to write, and this is a new body. double new?

speaking of double, he does a double-take when he sees her writing. a little startled:]

Wait– what's that? Those aren't...[he leans forward, squinting at them.] What letters are those?

[revelation]

Hmm? ( she pauses in her writing, glancing over first to him and then the paper on the floor. shifting in place, Madoka lifts her paper a little to show. ) They're part of the Japanese alphabet, it's the language I speak back home.

( glancing back to his paper, she tilts her head a little. ) Are you learning English?

[theguideless]

Huh–?

No, I'm...it's letters. [he frowns a little, not understanding.] Like the words on the machines, but...

[revelation]

Huh? Oh, well... um! Those letters belong to a certain language's alphabet, just like the letters I'm writing are part of the Japanese alphabet.

The letters you wrote, sort of remind me of the letter in the English alphabet. ( a pause. ) Though, I could be wrong... most likely! I was really bad at English.

[theguideless]

[English? Japanese? what does that mean?

his face scrunches up, trying to understand.]

So are...you drawing different words? How come you don't use the same ones? Like the ones on the machine...

[revelation]

Well, you see... I can't use the same ones when I'm not using the tablet because I, uh, don't know how to use them... mostly. The tablet automatically translates everything into the same language, err letters! That way we all understand one another. When I'm not using it though, I use these letters. The words are the same, they just look different.

And... and...

( oh goodness. )

I'm sorry! I'm probably just making things more confusing.

[theguideless]

[he startles a little at her sudden apology, shaken out of the slow track of thought he was veering on.

blinkblink.]

N-no, wait, wait...You're saying... [he taps each paper in turn:] These are the same...as these? The, uhh...The meaning.

[revelation]

Mm, well... more or less. The letters are pronounced differently, and we have a lot more letters in Japanese. But we can create the same words with the same meanings.

( breathing out a small, needed and calming breath she takes another piece of paper and slowly writes out a few simple characters on one line and then her name beside it.

she repeats underneath with another set of characters and then his name. )

See, our names both ways.

[theguideless]

[he has to scoot, turning to sit facing the same way as she is, intent on watching the process, seeing it upright – as though that'd make the new letters clear.

not really, but the confused crinkle's evaporated from his expression, leaving behind an awed fascination. it doesn't really make a lot of sense, them being the same, but she says so, and he has no reason to doubt her. that makes it practically magic in quality.]

Wow... [huh. his name looks like a lot more that way.]

[revelation]

It's pretty confusing, I know. But If you want, I'll show you more words sometime.

Maybe we can learn a little something from one another. I think it's pretty incredible that you're learning those letters, since I never really got the hang of it.

[theguideless]

[smiling:] Well, you're already helping me. It's a fair trade, right?

[revelation]

( she blinks at first, but smiles just as quickly with a nod. ) Mm, and I always will. It's what friends are for, after all.

[theguideless]

[grinning at that without thinking, he nods, ducking his head. it still tickles him, hearing friend, being associated with it...one of those things that is still as exciting a thing now as it was with his first, new breath here. i have friends.]

Well...Well, I'll...read what I write, and you can read yours. And we'll be able to learn a little, right? [his face flushes a bit, a laugh in his voice:] But I can't spell really good, so–