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[whatsupcroc]

I don't really like doing that announcement thing, but since I'm her roommate... Snow White's gone home! Which is good, that means she's finally back with James, who's her total love at first sight wonderful husband and she has a daughter that maybe she'll get to see now so I'm happy for her. Right, and Al left too, but that was last month. Uh... a few others, but I don't really know the full list.

It makes me curious about something else, though. What do you guys do to show you remember and care about people who you'll probably never see again in this lifetime?

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

Kung Fu is pretty awesome! Skiing's better.

( Ha. )

What's a girl-not-girl look like?

[inthejunk]

You like skiing? Man, you think it ever snows around he-

Wait.

[Stand by for dubious glance, here. Forget about Chie and her war on his goods, this is a new and strange admission coming from a girl with mobility issues.]

Uh. Do they make like-

[What's the gesture that means wheel chair skis? Geez, this girl is creating all sorts of new communication problems. He gives up trying to imply it, and just says it.]

Skis you can use without standing up?

[whatsupcroc]

Do you mean to ask if they make paraplegic skis? 'Cause they do. They look kind of like bullet rockets!

[inthejunk]

I didn't actually know that word before, but yeah. Alright then. If nuclear winter ever turns into real winter we'll strap some bullet skis to you and a snowboard to me and kick up some powder dust, alright?

[whatsupcroc]

What's the word in Japanese?

( She's actually gotten that hollow promise from folks before, so she shrugs and flashes a smile. )

Sure deal!

[inthejunk]

[It's definitely nothing he can deliver on, which is too bad. He's not great at snowboarding, but he'd have plenty of time to practice if there was some snow around here to practice with.

The question though, he can answer that. Even if he ducks his head a bit to do so, embarrassed. It's good that she doesn't know Japanese, really. The word isn't particularly nice.]

Shimo hanshinfuzui.

[whatsupcroc]

( She doesn't know the word, and when it's not actively translating, all it is comes down to sounds. Yosuke's posturing does more to tell her what connotations it carries than the word itself ever would, outside of tonal delivery. )

Doesn't sound like it's a particularly nice thing to say.

[inthejunk]

[For once he actually looks a bit guilty.]

It depends. The literal translation is something like "one side paralyzed" and "bottom half."

[Though he sighs, and gives a shrug afterwards, shoulders a bit stiff.]

But they could've used a different combination of words.

[whatsupcroc]

She reads the stiffness in his shoulders. He may or may not agree with the wording, personally, but he was uncomfortable with it either way. Collette didn't know enough about Japanese to wonder if the proposal of different words would change the impact of meaning or not; English didn't operate on the same set of principles, but even there, she had no way to really know.

"What combination would you have used?" She wondered if there was that liberty to choose. She wondered why it was of some interest to her, to press him on this non-point.

[inthejunk]

"Hottou-iru." Yosuke replies, this time more relaxed. In fact, he throws in a characteristic wink.

[whatsupcroc]

In response, she smiled. "What's that kind of translate directly into?"

[inthejunk]

"Ah...don't hit me okay? They're these little toy racecars. I used to have a whole set when I was a kid. They can do flips and jumps and stuff."

[whatsupcroc]

She paused, looking at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. "No way! You're calling me Hotwheels?"

Culture gaps being what they are, it was the first, and closest, example she jumped to. She simply found it an amusing, and pleasing, word, versus the other.

[inthejunk]

Yosuke grinned back, and shrugged playfully. Yeah, that's what he's just called her alright.

"It seems like a good fit to me."

[whatsupcroc]

"You bet it is!" She winked. "THanks for calling me hot, Yosuke. You're a pal."

[inthejunk]

"Sometime you'll have to return the favor where some other girls can hear you."

[whatsupcroc]

"Well I know this great old folks hang-out if you're really after some positive female attention..."

[inthejunk]

"I'll keep it mind for when I'm 80." He sighs, sending up a silent prayer to not still be a virgin by then.

[whatsupcroc]

He'd still be a virgin.

But at least he'd get movie rights for his story.

"Always glad to help a friend! Geriatric or otherwise."

[inthejunk]

"Whatever, you'll be old by then, too. We can have slow motion races."

[whatsupcroc]

"As if! I'll be high speed until the day I die!"

A promise she can already deliver on.

"With the home team advantage. Wheels? Oh, all over how to use those. You'll be eating my dust, just you see!"

[inthejunk]

He takes a moment to actually contemplate that, and seems to agree. The debate ends with a good natured shrug this time. "You probably could beat me already. I'm pretty fast, but no one's ever called me Hot Wheels before."

[whatsupcroc]

"Gotta admire a man who can admit his own defeat!" Collette grins, winking at Yosuke. She's fairly pleased, all things said and done.

[inthejunk]

He might be a bit less gracious of a loser on a day where the goal wasn't to get her smiling, but today that was exactly the goal. And it seemed to be working. He could choke down a little pride for that. "Yeah, yeah. We both know I'm better at tree climbing, though."

[whatsupcroc]

"I think you've got a certain natural advantage there right now!" She didn't have anything that particularly excelled as a climber right now, though thinking about it, perhaps she should. It settles as a thoughtful contemplation in the back of her mind, unworried, speculative, and potentially exciting.

She's been well distracted, much as she'd hoped when she'd posted at all tonight. "Thanks for coming by," she adds after a silence hitting just past continued conversational back and forth.