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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

[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.

[inthejunk]

"It's true, trees are difficult to roll up in to. But there was a man in my old neighborhood who halfway managed with his car one night..."

Yosuke agrees, winking again. He's a bit surprised to be thanked for stopping by, but pleased too. For just a moment, his tone is shy and sincere. "It's no trouble." And then, back to teasing. "As long as you don't interrupt me when I'm trying to watch paint dry, I'm always around."

[whatsupcroc]

"Cut in on a guys paint drying episodes? Do I look that heartless?" She holds a hand up to her chest, a look of mock outrage on her face for all of the five seconds it stuck around. Collette had heard the tone change.

Yosuke might be some kind of lonely of his own, she decides. Especially if he has friends from home who come and leave, like most everyone does.

"Hey, Yosuke? Do you have a lot of friends around here? Not just the kind you know, but the kind you like, really trust and stuff?"

[inthejunk]

The question gets a reaction alright, but only for a fraction of a second. There's surprise, and nerves, and perhaps a hint of fear. But it's gone in the same breath, replaced with a smile.

"Why, are you looking? Because I don't carry around fruit buns every day, you know. I'm not the breakfast fairy."

[whatsupcroc]

She snorts, watching him carefully. He's got more of her attention than she usually spends on one person without a clear desire out of them, because of her own need for concentrated distraction today. "You couldn't be, you don't even have wings!"

But this isn't what she wants to know, so she asks again, quietly. "I mean anyone from home, you know? It's nice when you have that kind of connection."

[inthejunk]

He opens his mouth to retort back at that comment, but she catches him again with the follow up. It's like a sucker punch that he was half expecting, but at least this time he manages to glance away before it shows on his face.

There's more than one way to answer that, actually. But only one answer rings true. And why not? She just lost someone too. Maybe today, Collette can understand.

"My best friend was."