[AQ] isn't billiards and pool the same [takeo/admin]

[Takeo]

[LOW LEVEL]
Pool, Pool, Po--Wait, Other Pool.
Description: The Second year’s arcade lounge has plenty of games--and the students running it are in part expected to play with guests to entertain! Be it other attending students, adults, or even… hunters.
+ Play a perfectly respectful host, regardless of who you’re in front of: +1 Guardians, +2 Faberge, -1 Roost
+ Try to fish for information from your guest: -1 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +2 Roost
+ Your nerves are a bit frizzed. Passive-aggression is coming out: +1 Guardians, -1 Faberge, +1 Roost
+ Attend as a guest!: +2 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +1 Roost
Requirements: At least 1 Second year participant, tag for Admin mod if hunter attendance.

Since the official disbandment of the Kendo club, Takeo had been thinking of ways to mend his ways and fix things up for those whom he let down. He was no longer the “prince” of Seiyo academy, the admirable captain so many looked up to: he made many mistakes, and outed himself as the emotional and vulnerable person he really was— it was a process to get over that feeling of inadequacy, but he was working on it. Takeo wanted to accept himself how he was, to be able to help others achieve their heart wishes.

Thus, he created the counseling club, made with the goal of curing heart eggs and healing others with the power of words, something he had witnessed a few times, but which accuracy was proven by Ohno Gou’s ability to cure him without an egg. Takeo firmly believed in the power of empathy and compassion, and while he no longer could pursue the character who wanted to protect everyone like a knight in shining armor; he could still have desires of his own: to protect heart eggs.

Takeo was ordered to be a host for the second year's arcade room, and he had all the will to be a good one. Most importantly, he wanted to have a chat with some people, if he could: rumors went around about students from west otonoki visiting Seiyo, and if egg hunters were among that group, that could only mean trouble. But nonetheless, he wasn't willing to fight, no matter how bad the burn after Ousuke’s loss still stung.

He decided to help around the pool table, something that his mother enjoyed a lot back home. He wasn't an amazing player, but he could put up an enjoyable game. Now, if anyone would come by...

Juon

[Juon]

A girl had wandered in, after paying at the door to get in, to where she meandered over to a pool table with a rather absent demeanor. She was fair, with short, bobbed hair in a pale color, and clad over her was the token black-and-green seifuku of West Oto's high school. It was hard to tell what year she was, but from her height and more subtle features, she might've been a third year.

"Are you playing?"

Her voice rang out to Takeo quietly but assuredly, though her dull tone made it difficult to tell if she was asking him if he was already busy, or if she was challenging him to play with her. Her expression seemed to read a bit of interest, though, but nothing particularly obvious about her was present except for her status as a West Oto student.

Without waiting for an answer from him, she stepped around the table and picked up one of the pool cues, carefully removing it from the rack and looking it up and down (as if comparing heights with herself, or maybe feeling it out), letting a hand run across its smooth surface, before turning back to Takeo at the table expectantly.

[Takeo]

He could swear that somebody just talked to him, or at least, in his general direction. At first, he did what he always used to do: ignore the words-- why would a stranger talk to him? Then, he took a couple of seconds to register what was happening: he was working at the class's arcade, duh, of course strangers would come by and ask about the games.

Takeo remembered that he had to act his part, and turned his head around to look at the girl, noticing, first, that she was pretty-- probably a third year. On second stance, he noticed the uniform belonged to West Otonoki's high school, so she was the so called 'enemy'.

"Uh, yes." A pause. He watched how the girl made her way towards the pool cues without expecting a response from him first. "Yes I am, welcome to the second year's arcade." His voice faltered him for a bit, but he recovered his senses, to focus on the now. Takeo lined up the balls in triangular position, fixing the white ball only a little away from them. His hand motioned to the girl to go first, giving some kind of advantage to the guest.

[Juon]

Even as he accepted the offer and invited her over to the table, she was slow to respond, with a long delay sitting in the air before she actually moved toward him at the end of the table. In a patient, languid motion did she begin to raise her pool cue to look carefully down the table, at the glistening white cue ball that stood in front of the unbroken set.

She was silent as she lowered herself to aim, stare slimming to a squint as a hand settled on the table to get the cue stick between her fingers, her hand comfortably behind her as she slid the cue back and forth a few times, getting the best feel before she drew back formally, and took her hit to break the table, watching the balls scatter and bounce across it. Only one of the balls pocketed.

As she moved around to take her proceeding hit, she looked up at Takeo for, finally, the first time. "Having fun today?" was all she offered, her tone dry and with some kind of intentions sitting behind it. She aimed toward the 1 ball and bounced it off the side; didn't quite go in. It was practically an open shot for him.

[Takeo]

There was a dead horse over the pol table, stating that there was something off with the girl from West Otonoki. Takeo didn't have to put two and two together-- or maybe, he did, he had to think about it for a couple of minutes; to come with the realization that this girl no longer had a heart egg of her own. She behaved in a similar fashion as the guy who broke Ousuke: dull eyes, slow movements, a lack of care for the world going on around her.

He was tickled wrong with the lack of enthusiasm coming from her hit, but he should have expected as much. Pity was one of the emotions surfacing on his eyes, and he was feeling bad already, for expressing such emotions on her.

But she wouldn't even care, right? That was the point behind broken eggs. They lacked a damn about anything.
Or did they have the slightest hope? He wanted to find out.

"Hmm? Yes, it's been a good day." Takeo bent his torso over onto the pool table, positioning the cue stick between the fingers of his right hand-- he was a lefty!!-- He aimed for the ball 9 at the cue ball, intending it to hit an edge and push ball number 9 into the nearest hole. With a fast slide of the stick between his fingers, the clack motioned the white ball at the direction he planned, thus landing his stripped ball into a hole. "...How about you? You don't seem to excited to be here. But we can change that." He, too, had his own intentions showing in the insinuations of his voice. Could they have a talk? "Anything you're looking forward to see at our festival?"

[Juon]

Watching the 9 ball pocket, she stood back and waited for him to take another move. Her eyes seemed careful, and almost calculated, but ultimately somewhat unfocused, as if she were feeling as if she should watch, but ultimately didn't really want to, or simply didn't have enough focus within her to keep true attention fixated on the game.

"Excitement, huh?" she echoed dryly. Leaning over the table, she let her elbows rest along the edge, clasping her hands together as she set her cue stick to lean against the table. "..." The pause was somewhat thoughtful, a delicate consideration of the surroundings. "Just looking around." A beat. "Seeing what's happening. Who's happening."

Staring with intent at the cue ball, she let her empty stare trail over to the butt of Takeo's cue stick, waiting for them to make another connection. "Surprising you're even here," she then offered, her tone unchanged but with implication sitting just behind it. "Or is it just safe?" She didn't look up at him at any point, or even at the room around them as it buzzed with other activity; it was like she wasn't even in the same room as anything else, in the same space.

[Takeo]

It was the turn for the seventh stripped ball to find its way down the table's holes, but Takeo was paying more attention to the girl with the lost eyes than to the game in front of them. She didn't seem to be there; living the same moment as him, in the same space. Takeo stopped feeling pity and was engulfed by a wave of curiosity, and sympathy, for her cause. Not that it was his business to solve a broken dream's problems, but, as usual, he couldn’t help his feelings.

“Huh...” Lately, that had become his tag. “...I guess games are happening.” Which could be interpreted in any way. Games in the arcade room, games amongst the Seiyos against the West Otonoki base, and mind games of power-- but Takeo wasn’t the witty kind, as to be a pro at those. His only weapons were his concern and interest towards egg hunters.

Takeo positioned himself in the opposite side of the table, pointing his cue stick at the white ball. From that perspective, ball one should bounce against one of the walls, and then hit ball seven, therefore making it land into a hole. Then, again, he could be wrong and slip the cue too slowly and too weakly. The girl’s words managed to make him lose concentration, and Takeo’s strategy failed. The ball did not fall.

“Why is that surprising?” His inquire came forward without aggressive intonation. He stepped away from the table as to allow her to make her move; he had the suspicion that she was not going to make a major effort to pocket balls into the holes. “It depends on what your concept of safe is. I mean... I have to take care of the game’s room, anyway.” Takeo made his way around the pool table, and found a comfortable spot behind the West Otonoki student; giving her space to lean over and play. “Would you rather have me at your school? I heard there’s egg hunters there.” Thus, he fired his first shot.

[Juon]

"Plenty of games, it looks like," she agreed, though the context of her own words also seemed shrouded in as many layers and implications as Takeo's original statement had been, too. "I wonder how many of them are going well."

She seemed to spark a twinge of interest as the ball had failed to pocket, and she grabbed at her pool cue again, stepping carefully around the table to aim with intent at the seven was angled carefully toward the pocket, the cue pushing its way to knock into it as the ball rolled gently into the hole, dropping with a satisfying clunk as it made its way to roll down back to the return.

Her aim turned toward the 10 then, following it as she leaned over to get a better vertical angle on it, but she answered him first, quietly. "I would've thought you'd want revenge. Don't you think someone else will try to come and take your other, leaving yourself open like this?"

She let the ball connect, pocketing it in a ricochet off of the 3, and then moving promptly to send the 3 into a side pocket. There weren't any other good setups after that, leaving her to pop another ball at random to get it closer to a hole, but not in. Takeo was up again.

[Takeo]

"...And how's this going for you?" He could be refering to the game itself they were playing, or the situation in general in the fields of Seiyo Academy. There was tension, indeed, but on that side of the city, there hadn't been any confrontations or broken eggs. "I won't let you do that. My egg won't be broken. Sorry." Did he mean her, or others to come? Not that he had heard of, yet. Little id Takeo know that soon, he would be forced to leave for the other side of Otonoki to rescue a friend in need. For now, he navigated across the jabs and provocations from the egg hunters.

Takeo kept his distance from the table, as to watch the girl, all of a sudden, improve her aim and dexterity with the stick, pocketing two billiard balls and, as there was no other nove left, spared him the chance to hav a go at the game. "Revenge isn't... quiiite the word I'm looking for."

Taking his turn to hit a ball, Takeo chose to send ball four into one of the table's pockets. The stick hit the white ball, wich made a random ball bounce off to a side, and, with the leftover energy from the shot, pushed his selected number into a hole. "I want accountability for their acts-- but for that, they need for fel any sort of remorse..." His voice made a stop, as to turn to the oposite side of the table, aiming at the position where ball two had landed on the green fabric field. The white ball was pushed with a loud clacking sound, directing the second ball into a pocket; almost falling into the same hole. Almost. Takeo continued, looking for any other strategy he could put his eyes on. "...But first, you have to feel anything at all." Sadly, there was nothing left he could try out, thus he aimed at a random ball, before raising his head, and directing his sight towards the girl.

"I want to find a way for you to feel strong emotions again. Wouldn't you want that?"

[Juon]

"Who said that was why I was here?" she was quick to retort, shooting the words back without even so much as a flinch. It was true, it wasn't exactly clear as to why she'd come; especially to one of the areas where peace was somewhat required to be kept, simply due to the social structure of the world around them. The idea that she'd merely come to talk was maybe a strange one--not strange if a Seiyo did the same thing, but Hunters weren't usually chatty--and her own brief responses seemed to be proving this rather easily.

Watching him pocket the four in a clever ricochet with another ball, her calculating stare was fixated on the very tip of his cue stick as it made cautious connections, before pulling back while the other balls began to bounce about the table. "Some feel remorse," she offered, then. "Some."

Trotting over on slow feet to position herself near the ball he'd gone after at random, she had intentions of following him in going after it. Her cue connected, but the ball didn't go far enough to pocket the hole. Obviously, she hadn't played much billiards in her life; but she at least held the stick correctly, which had to count for something.

"It's not like we're devoid of feeling, Seiyo," she mentioned afterward with a touch of bitterness, straightening back up and letting the back of her cue rest on the floor; when standing, the stick was almost as long as she was tall; this didn't seem to bother her much, though, if she even noticed. "There's just no motivation to feel. No care about anything to cause an emotional response." A squint, as she seemed to remember an unspoken point, and she paused, before adding on a disclaimer of, "... Not often, anyway."

[Takeo]

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, but Takeo didn't know that. Blinded by ignorance, he thought that people whose eggs had been broken couldn't feel many emotions, if any at all. The girl server a good dosis to reality back at him, and he was left breathless for a second, standing in front of her, unable to articulate a smart response.

“I... I... Uh...” Between stammers and mumbling, Takeo tried to organize his thoughts to, first, offer a sincere apology.

His eyes averted the girl's figure, while timid hands held a tight grip on the stick. A held sigh came out tiredly, and he finally gathered courage to look up to her. “I'm sorry... I... Ah... I didn't.... Know.” Suddenly, he didn't feel like playing anymore, not that he bothered to check how many balls were still left on the table. He didn't care about the arcade, or Seiyo, or the mind games he was supposed to play. “... But when I said that about my egg, I didn't mean that you were gonna break it.”

A hand scratched behind his head, then rubbed onto his earlobe, plating with his tunnel. He felt stupid for not realizing this sooner. “... If some feel remorse...” He wandered in, “... They should be given a chance. To be out of this mess, you know.” His shoulders fell as he released another sigh; he perked up his head soon after. “... That was an emotional response just now, wasn't it? You got, uh, angry.”

Takeo put down his stick, and checked for his wallet on the back pocket of his pants. “Would you like to leave this game and get something to eat, with me?” It was a wild question, but he wouldn't lose anything by giving it a try. “I want to understand you better, if you're up for a talk.” And as if it mattered in the first place; he added at last. “I'll pay.”