Third Floor Common Room, Tuesday Evening

[handystand]

Okuyasu had chucked pumpkins in class, which had made today honestly quite fun. But then when he'd gotten a mysterious package in the mail, he was extra curious. What possibly could anyone be sending him? Was it secret orders from Jotaro? A care package from Tonio?

He brought the package into the common room and set it on a counter, where he opened it to reveal... a smaller, wrapped package. But there was a note!

Hey Okuyasu,
Just because you went off to some weird American school doesn't mean I'm going to forget your birthday! This is from me and Koichi and I guess my old man too since I used his stolen money for this. Enjoy it, and write back more!

-Josuke

"...Oh right it was my birthday," Okuyasu said, realizing he was seventeen now. "It completely slipped my mind and... well nobody here knew I guess."

He opened up the package and got just a little weepy eyed at what was inside. While the gift itself was just two new gold badges for his uniform (now with studded gemstones!), it was wrapped in newspaper from Morioh and there were even some lottery tickets inside. And then, at the bottom, a picture of Josuke, Koichi, Okuyasu's dad, Tonio, and even Ronan (who did not look like he wanted to be there). That was real nice.

[ooc: Very open post! Save me, I am stuck at our call center for 2 and a half hours.]

Comments

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto was feeling that weird sort of restlessness where he couldn't even really focus on his video games right now, so he thought, at the very least, he could maybe swing around to the common room, poke around the fridge for a little bit to see if there was anything good to eat, even though he knew he'd probably talk himself out of eating much of anything, but he could have a soda or something? He didn't know. He just knew he wanted to get up and do something, he just didn't know what, and was glad to see there was at least someone else in the common room so he might not need to just go downstairs and bug Nina or something.

"Oh, hey," he said, cocking a chin and a little peace-sign of a wave at Okuyasu as he bounced in, "how's it going?"

[handystand]

"Gyeh, oh, everything's good," Okuyasu said wiping his eyes away like he oh so totally hadn't been crying a little. "Just got a present from my friends back home in Morioh. I think they're a pretty nice step up."

He held up the gem studded gold cifrao next to the one already on the school uniform jacket he was wearing. "Josuke really thought it through."

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto himself was sporting some sweet new bling in the form of a Vivienne Westwood belt buckle right now, but it wasn't as if he was expecting anyone to notice that considering, well...it'd be a bit awkward if they did. So he was more than willing to brush aside any tearfulness that might have been going on with Okuyasu to scope out the gift with a grin. "Shiny!" he said appreciatively. "I like it! What's the occasion?"

[handystand]

"Oh, I turned seventeen a couple weeks ago," Okuyasu explained. "It just took a bit for this package to get here from Japan. And, well, 20 years in the past. So really, it either took really long or really fast, depending on how you think about it."

Okuyasu made a face. He didn't like thinking about it. That hurt his brain.

[hashtag_chocobro]

That was totally fair, dude.

"Oh, no kidding?" Prompto asked. "I just had my birthday a few days ago, too! Happy birthday, dude! I guess we're kind of like birthday bros!"

Give or take a few weeks, but, hey, Okuyasu was already dealing with decades, apparently, what was a few weeks?

[handystand]

Okuyasu smiled at that. "I guess we are," he said. "How old are you now?"

He held back the 'twelve' that was in the back of his head because he didn't want to tease too hard with someone he wasn't too friendly with. A big change from his days when his brother was still around.

[hashtag_chocobro]

At least it would have gotten a mostly good-natured chuckle out of Prompto if he had said something like that, a little feigned injury to his heart that would likely develop into a major complex about three hours later. Especially considering...

"Eighteen," he said, with a little snort and a shake of his head like he could hardly believe it himself. "The big one. Which is just weird, because it's not like it really feels any different, y'know?"

The whole adultness of it wouldn't really start hitting him until after graduation, and even then...

[handystand]

"What's so special about eighteen?" Okuyasu said, looking a little confused.

In his defense, age of adulthood was twenty in Japan.

He scrutinized Prompto for a moment. He must be one of the kids who just look super young, like Koichi.

[hashtag_chocobro]

It was obviously that sweet clone genetics mixed in with a very, very cushioned childhood, probably.

"Official adulthood where I'm from," he offered, with a bit of sheepishness mixed in with his proud grin. "Soon as I graduate from here, anyway, and I'll finally be made a full-fledged Kingsglaive. That's, uh, kind of like the army where I'm from. Defenders of the Crown, all that good stuff. And I'm actually going to be Crownsguard, that's the king's own personal bodyguards, but, I mean, that's obviously not the case until Noctis is actually king..."

A small pause. "That's our prince, Noctis. Kiiiiiind of my best friend?"

He honestly didn't know how to drop that bit of info without it sounding like he was bragging. Which he kind of was. But also he didn't want to be? It was complicated. And so much easier with people who actually knew Noct and how he wasn't, like, a Prince prince...more of a, you know...prince.

[bookbeltof_love]

Prompto, be prepared to be hugged!

The horror! The pain!

"Promptoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Man, Nina was good at that little sister whine already. "Fix the mirrors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Look, she'd had to do her hair like this instead of her usual curls.

FIX IT.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Nina had that little sister whine perfected way before she was an actual little sister.

And Prompto was taking that hug like a champ, and giving her a little pat on the head. "Just wait it out, Nina," he assured her. "It'll all probably be back to normal tomorrow."

He sure as hell hoped so, anyway. Nothing like looking straight into the mirror and being confronted with your terrifying daemon self that still haunted your nightmares on occasion to make you steadfastly avoid even thinking about reflective surfaces all day.

Between today and yesterday's darkness, he was seriously proud of how he was low-key keeping it all together, but he was a little worried about what tomorrow might have in store for them.

[bookbeltof_love]

She... she could not deny that.

With a great and tragic sigh, Nina moped. Still clinging to him.

"But it was terrible," she complained, "and everyone on the island is lucky I didn't scream......................"

No, that'd be--well, spoilers.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Especially considering how early you get up," Prompto snorted a bit. "That's be quite the wake-up call."

And he was pretty sure he'd be making a mad scramble downstairs to make sure everything was okay.

[bookbeltof_love]

See, that was why she loved him.

"Rude," she protested, but then laughed, pulling away to smack lightly at his arm. "People would be delighted to be woken up by my dulcet voice!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, like, I got sidetracked because every time I checked my mirror my reflection was different............"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto was about to point out that screams of shock and possibly terror were rarely ever dulcet, but his head tilted a little at the rest of it. "Different?" he asked. "Really? I...gotta admit, one look and I pretty much noped out for good."

He really was okay with not looking at his face on a normal day, anyway.

[bookbeltof_love]

It was a good face, dammit.

"It was weird," Nina said, distracted firmly from her whining now. "Like, one time it was the endless void as my eyes???????????? Then next time it was like I had spider webs for skin and in one my eyes were bleeding and---------------------------"

And Nina had maybe gotten sidetracked a lot this morning by her fascinated horror.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Niiiinaaaaaaa!" Apparently, Prompto was more than happy to pick up where her whining had left off, especially when whining made it easier to ignore how creepy that all was. He even slumped a little dramatically, playing it up to cover the dread. "Spare me the sordid details, I just ate!"

SPIDER WEBS FOR SKIN??

Noooooooo thank you.

[bookbeltof_love]

"The world is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeending," Nina proclaimed as she wandered in, dramatically, and just as dramatically collapsed on the couch. "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, Okuyasu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Because, like, sure. She could be cheerful while also proclaiming the world was ending.

[handystand]

Okuyasu glanced over at Nina on the couch and blinked a few times.

"It is?" he asked, entirely unsure of what was actually happening.

[bookbeltof_love]

To be fair, that was frequently a response Nina elicited...

"It is," she said tragically. "The mirrors are broken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It had been really, really hard getting ready for school today, Okuyasu. So hard.

[handystand]

"Oh right!" Okuyasu said, remembering that he'd had to do his pompadour entirely by feel that morning. "Stupid weird stuff getting in the way of getting dressed. The blood coffee was one thing, but this is a whole other pile of just... gyeh."

His usual guttural utterance of... well many emotions, really. "...did my hair end up okay?"

It had, amazingly, turned out decent. But it didn't have the sharp definition he normally teased into it. The only person Okuyasu knew who spent more time on their hair was Josuke.

[bookbeltof_love]

There was a reason Nina's usually elaborate curls were not present today and, instead, she had simple braids.

Yes.

That was what she considered simple.

Nina sat up, smoothing her skirt primly as she gave him a considering look.

"Not too bad," she decreed. "It's not, like, as defined as usual...........??????????"

[handystand]

Okuyasu nodded and shrugged. "Well, it's never as good as Josuke's anyway," he said. "Your hair looks nice like this, though. And that's really neat for doing that under all this no mirror stuff. I just sort of let my hands do what they normally do but I couldn't see it, you know?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Thanks," she said, smiling and pleased at the compliment. "It's not my usual but, like, that wasn't happening today............ you did a pretty good job, though, for not being able to see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And that was when Nina noticed the box.

"Oooooooh!!!!!!!!!! What did you get delivered????????????????"

[handystand]

"Oh, just a birthday present," Okuyasu said, being totally casual about it. "From my friends back home. And some nice stuff to remember Morioh by." He got just a little bit choked up there at the end of the sentence. "Though that's just the packing material, mainly. I don't think they planned that."