[ He looks like, at the very least, that he is considering. He might even look like he's going to tell her know for just a few moments? He turns away, but he's really considering what he's going to say to her. Only because he really wants to make new memories with her. It's weird to want something like this. Maybe it'll help him fill in the blanks.
Maybe it'll make things worse.
He doesn't know. And it's not like he knows the future, either.
He sighs, deeply. As if it took a lot of consideration to answer her (it didn't, of course). ]
Well, this place has to be good for something. It might as well be this.
[ This, though, comes easily. ]
Ah, a critic. Well, I guess I was bound to find one here, huh. That's alright, I can take it.
[He turns away, and for a second she thinks, that was too much. Maybe it was too much. Maybe she pushed too much, demanded too much. He's not a little kid anymore. He's older than her, even. It leaves her wondering how this would go, if they were any two other people, instead of themselves. How would this go, if he were just a guy, and she were just a girl, and she hadn't pushed him out of a window on a warm August night and then died at the hand of a killer's knife and waited around fifteen years to see him brought to justice?
(He doesn't remember any of it, and for as much as it hurts, there's one second when she thinks to herself that it's better that he doesn't, because her mind fills in the blanks with something that might have been — if he'd asked his parents after, where's Reimi, why doesn't she want to play with me anymore, and four years old is far too young to have to be confronted with a truth like that.)
But then he sighs, and the sound jostles her out of her preoccupying thoughts, and it turns out it wasn't too much, after all.
She adopts a carefree tone, lighter than she really feels, but determined to make this easier on him, when she's already asked so much already.]
Hmm, maybe you'll just have to think of it as research. I think I'd make a pretty good manga protagonist, don't you? The thrilling adventures of a ghost girl in outer space! I bet there's tons of stuff you could do with that.
[ He considers her answer. And he grins. It's the sort of smile she's used to, a little smug. But it's clear that he's doing the best he can with what he's been given. For now, the only way he knows how to deal with it is to get on with his life and pretend it's totally normal.
Like it's normal for your babysitter to die saving you when you're four years old and meet her later as a ghost. After you've forgotten her.
It sounds like something out of a work of fiction. Something he would imagine being on the bookshelves next to his own work. And yet, here it was - it was real life. So, getting to make new memories appealed to him. No guilt about trying to figure out what had happened before. He taps a finger against his chin. ]
That sounds pretty unrealistic, I think.
[ Ah, yes. But most of what happened to him since going back to Morioh was pretty fantastical. ]
But you would be a pretty interesting character. I think my fans would like you.
[It's rare, but every so often Rohan does manage to fluster her in one way or another. Sometimes it's a scathing critique of her personality courtesy of her nail polish color. Sometimes it's putting on a big show of indifference about seeing her again but then still sitting down to help her learn to blow glass.
And sometimes it's this. I think my fans would like you.
Someday she'll pick out the recurring theme in her interests and desires lately, how one way or another they all have their roots in being seen, being noticed, being acknowledged. Right now, the most she's picked up on is that it feels good to be heard and known and listened to, and the fact that it's Rohan just makes it all the better.]
H-Huh? You really think so?
[Rapidly, her attention goes back to the scattered pretzels, and briskly she's building towers again.]
Well, okay then, tell me. What would I be like in your manga, if I'm not the ghost girl protagonist?
[ He considers her question. He props one hand under his chin, reaching over to take one of the pretzels and eating it while he thinks about it. He hadn't really thought about including her before. After all, as far as he knew before - she was a girl who was murdered. But now, from what he knows of her, she's a lot more than that.
She's not a damsel or anyone in need of saving, in his opinion. She had done the saving then, and she helped to save them all now.
He's sure without some of her guidance, he and others certainly would have died.
This helps to form his response. ]
In stories like mine, there's also several characters needed to help solve a puzzle. To put the pieces together in order to, well, win. I feel like you would be the time who would help them click those final pieces together. Who would make sense of the pieces that they have. You'd be a problem solver.
While you're not a main character, it's important to have you. No problems would be solved without you there.
[ His words say a lot about what he thinks she did, without saying it directly, which is how he prefers. He doesn't want to admit to how much he - and everyone - owe her. ]
[It's easy to read between the lines, really. He says make sense of the pieces and in her mind's eye she remembers photographs scattered across the sidewalk, and the lead to Kosaku Kawajiri she'd found in them.
He probably doesn't even realize how reassuring that is, in a moment like this. Up until now it's been all about the memories of her that he doesn't have. But that one — that's one that he does.]
So what you're saying is, I'd steal the show if I was in the spotlight, so I'd better give other characters a fair chance, too.
[That's not what he said at all, but she's smiling at her own joke.]
Well, I guess that's all right. So long as I have some pretty great other characters around to help me make it happen.
[ Well, she's not wrong. She's interesting - the life she's led, what she's done, what she's helped do and who she's helped stop. It was her that motivated him to join the fight, after all. Sure, he's sure he would have, but she gave a piece that they were all needing in order to actually solve the problem. ]
I'm saying it'd be too easy if you were there through the whole thing. One of the best parts of the story is the struggle.
[ Still, even if he understands that she is teasing, he still lets her know. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Maybe it'll make things worse.
He doesn't know. And it's not like he knows the future, either.
He sighs, deeply. As if it took a lot of consideration to answer her (it didn't, of course). ]
Well, this place has to be good for something. It might as well be this.
[ This, though, comes easily. ]
Ah, a critic. Well, I guess I was bound to find one here, huh. That's alright, I can take it.
no subject
(He doesn't remember any of it, and for as much as it hurts, there's one second when she thinks to herself that it's better that he doesn't, because her mind fills in the blanks with something that might have been — if he'd asked his parents after, where's Reimi, why doesn't she want to play with me anymore, and four years old is far too young to have to be confronted with a truth like that.)
But then he sighs, and the sound jostles her out of her preoccupying thoughts, and it turns out it wasn't too much, after all.
She adopts a carefree tone, lighter than she really feels, but determined to make this easier on him, when she's already asked so much already.]
Hmm, maybe you'll just have to think of it as research. I think I'd make a pretty good manga protagonist, don't you? The thrilling adventures of a ghost girl in outer space! I bet there's tons of stuff you could do with that.
no subject
Like it's normal for your babysitter to die saving you when you're four years old and meet her later as a ghost. After you've forgotten her.
It sounds like something out of a work of fiction. Something he would imagine being on the bookshelves next to his own work. And yet, here it was - it was real life. So, getting to make new memories appealed to him. No guilt about trying to figure out what had happened before. He taps a finger against his chin. ]
That sounds pretty unrealistic, I think.
[ Ah, yes. But most of what happened to him since going back to Morioh was pretty fantastical. ]
But you would be a pretty interesting character. I think my fans would like you.
[ Yeah. They would, he was sure of it. ]
no subject
And sometimes it's this. I think my fans would like you.
Someday she'll pick out the recurring theme in her interests and desires lately, how one way or another they all have their roots in being seen, being noticed, being acknowledged. Right now, the most she's picked up on is that it feels good to be heard and known and listened to, and the fact that it's Rohan just makes it all the better.]
H-Huh? You really think so?
[Rapidly, her attention goes back to the scattered pretzels, and briskly she's building towers again.]
Well, okay then, tell me. What would I be like in your manga, if I'm not the ghost girl protagonist?
no subject
She's not a damsel or anyone in need of saving, in his opinion. She had done the saving then, and she helped to save them all now.
He's sure without some of her guidance, he and others certainly would have died.
This helps to form his response. ]
In stories like mine, there's also several characters needed to help solve a puzzle. To put the pieces together in order to, well, win. I feel like you would be the time who would help them click those final pieces together. Who would make sense of the pieces that they have. You'd be a problem solver.
While you're not a main character, it's important to have you. No problems would be solved without you there.
[ His words say a lot about what he thinks she did, without saying it directly, which is how he prefers. He doesn't want to admit to how much he - and everyone - owe her. ]
no subject
He probably doesn't even realize how reassuring that is, in a moment like this. Up until now it's been all about the memories of her that he doesn't have. But that one — that's one that he does.]
So what you're saying is, I'd steal the show if I was in the spotlight, so I'd better give other characters a fair chance, too.
[That's not what he said at all, but she's smiling at her own joke.]
Well, I guess that's all right. So long as I have some pretty great other characters around to help me make it happen.
no subject
I'm saying it'd be too easy if you were there through the whole thing. One of the best parts of the story is the struggle.
[ Still, even if he understands that she is teasing, he still lets her know. ]
You do. I do create some great characters.
[ Oh yes, there's that bit of confidence. ]