Deceptive Cadence (Cecil/Rui)

Rui had pulled up his map. His physical map of the city, taken from the school library. The fancy "GPS" system on his actually quite-advanced phone seemed too complicated, so he had opted for this instead. According to the map, the BackLight was a major shopping district in Endymion filled with whatever young minds could covet. Rui had enough cash to presumably buy anything targeted to be affordable to teenagers, but he wasn't sure if any of it would be interesting. However, shopping was something students were supposed to do on a weekend?

Rui wasn't sure, but he was here anyways. He didn't have any clothes besides multiple school uniforms (which he was awkwardly wearing), so maybe that was the first thing he should do. He thought that, but as he waltzed across the shopping center, he found himself inexplicably stuck in a music store where he had expected the clothing store to be.

How strange. He had turned around the map to make sure he wasn't holding it upside down. He shrugged as it was apparent that he hadn't made that mistake a second time. "Well, I may as well see what the store offers...?" Little did Rui know that the map was outdated enough to only be an accurate map back when normal teenagers used paper maps. And that the clothing store had long been replaced by the music store in front of Rui.

Rui walked into the store, before immediately being baffled by strange words and sounds that he had no comprehension of and that he could simply not identify as actual music. He grimaced in confusion, before gliding off to a corner of the store and seeing if the computer machine had any songs he would be interested in. However, once again, the touch-screen machine seemed to be confounding him. Oh, did he hate touch-screens.

"Well...okay, I just touch this. Wait, do I have to touch it again? Is it frozen? Let me - wait why did it skip three screens? Wait where am I? How do I go back? Oh, this sou-wait, did I just completely reset it??? WHY NOT JUST HAVE A NICE PAPER BINDER CATALOG!?!?!"

"Uwuu...."

...Cecil wasn't sure what was stranger. The fact that person that had caught his attention was in a school uniform when it wasn't even school day, or the strange noises they were making as they...completely...failed...to operate the interface...several times...
Cecil cringes. Harshly.
It wasn't as if the thing was that bad! Clearly labelled, intuitively designed...it should be operable by *anyone capable of reading text.*
And yet...here he was. Stood, watching the most disastrous attempt at operating a computer he'd ever born witness to - or perhaps, would ever bear witness to. It...it was like a train wreck. Horrifying, and yet you still couldn't look away. All because he decided to do some browsing.

...no, there was no way in hell he could stand to let this continue. It would plague him for weeks.
Cecil approaches the source of the terrifying ineptitude, a concerned look on his face.
"Uhh...do you need any help with that...?"
Dear god, it was even worse up close. He shouldn't be able to do anything too bad, and yet he got the feeling that this was a person who might somehow be able to make the thing literally explode, torturing the device until he managed to create suicidal desire in an object incapable of thought.

Rui wasn't losing his temper. No, not at all. He didn't like losing his temper. But this...machine, a clearly inferior form of machine, seemed to really have it in for Rui. Was it jealousy!?! It was at that moment that he seemed to be interrupted by a confident voice from behind asking if he needed help. Rui turned around. It seemed to be a taller and older young man who looked very tech-savvy, with his headphones and all. "Oh, thanks so much! Um...I'm starting to think I actually d-

For some bizarre reason, the tablet touchscreen interrupted Rui. With a voice. Telling Rui in the strange robotic text-to-voice sound designed for the sight-impaired (that Rui had accidentally turned on somehow) that "warning", he didn't have the "system permissions to alter the music catalog app." Apparently trying to "swipe" (still seemed confusingly non-intuitive to him) to a new screen, he unknowingly dragged some sort of icon on top of some other icon that was some sort of trash can. He muttered, "Hm. That's strange. Why is it talking about appetizers?"

The touchscreen wanted the correct system permissions, but also unbeknownst to Rui, his own system apparently had already interfaced with the tablet and acquired those extremely rudimentary permissions, as the computer bleated about how access had been granted. The music catalog app thus immediately started uninstalling itself from the system. Something told Rui that he might want to start using the next tablet over instead...

Rui looked a little confused and turned towards the nearby young man, "Ooh...um...it's not supposed to do that...right?"

Rui turns to see that Cecil's jaw has decoupled itself from his face, detaching on one side and proceeding to swing from side to side with the sound of a squeaking hinge, before coming to a stand still and dropping off suddenly to hit the floor with a meaty thud.
Or, in terms not quite so overly long, his jaw has dropped so hard it's a wonder it didn't take half his face with it.

He...he just did that. He actually just fucking did that.
...HOW THE HELL DID HE DO THAT?!

"N...N-No...it's...it's not supposed to do that." His voice holds the same tone as one completely and utterly shell-shocked. Which was rather appropriate in this instance. "Let's...let's get away from this thing...no, no, all of the computers in the area before you do something impossible again." Without any of his usual reservation, he walks about, places a hand on each of Rui's shoulders, and proceeds to push him away from the tablet at a steady pace. And the entire time, an expression of disbelief is fixed onto his face. "Don't know how you did that, don't want to know how you did that, but you did it so let's go over there away from anything you can break where you can tell me what on earth you were even trying to do."

How was this real life? How was this real life?!

It was actually pretty comforting being essentially steered by someone so much larger than him, who was presumably also taking him away from a foul den of evil.

"Eer, um, okay. I don't think it liked me very much."

Rui had no idea where the man was pushing him, but it was presumably to safety. Unfortunately, Rui was not facing towards the man anymore, so he didn't actually see the man's look of horror and existential despair.

"Uh...well, I was just in the area. Actually looking to buy clothes. But I seem to have found myself waylaid by ending up in a music store instead."

Rui continued, being actually kind of a chatter-box when people gave him an opening like that,

"So you know, I figured, 'Hey, might as well see if they have anything I like♡' So I started trying to take a look. But they didn't have any normal catalogs, so I had to try an alternative. Which is when I was interrupted by uh, how do you say it, this thing, that hath a code and not a core. Very unfortunate, one might think!"

His voice became all too chipper, almost ironic, as he described how unfortunate the situation was.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

After making sure that they were nowhere near anything this affront to the modern world could destroy, he turns the boy around, and stares at him with the bewildered intensity of someone who had just been told by their best friend that they needed help getting away from the gas station they'd just blown up. "Yes. Yes, very unfortunate. After all you just so happen to be the only person that could have done that. Seriously?! How?! They're going to need to undo that, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was footage of you doing it too!" He starts shaking Rui by the shoulders. "And how the HELL do you end up in a music store WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR CLOTHES?! This isn't a clothes store! This looks nothing LIKE a clothes store!"

The shaking gets more vigorous. "ALL! YOU! HAD! TO! DO! WAS! LOOK! BE! FORE! YOU! WALKED! IN!"

By the time Cecil releases Rui, the shouting has drawn the attention of just about everyone around the pair - though this completely escapes Cecil's notice as he tries to calm down and shut off this utter mental breakdown. "Look...why don't...why don't we just walk out, and I'll take you to where you meant to be going? Does that sound good? Great." He doesn't actually wait for a reply before he starts pushing Rui around again. "You're going to get clothes, you're never going to touch an electronic device ever again, and everyone will live haaaaappily ever after."

It's clear his breakdown is going to continue on like this until something is done. Several people start to postulate about getting security to deal with Cecil's behaviour. A couple of them seem like they might actually follow through.

"Uh...well, the map said there was a clothing store here, but it was music-based...anyways...

Rui thought to himself that this person seemed very strange. He seemed obviously helpful and concerned, but he also seemed very aggressive and pushy. Rui didn't mind that at all - he clearly meant well and thus Rui didn't resist at all as the man started to push him away. In a way, paternalistic control was quite comforting.

Rui also suspected at this point that he probably broke the tablet computer. But was that such a serious problem? Nothing an apology to the clerk couldn't fix! Who was apparently walking towards the two. Do first! Apologize later! That's how life and business works!

However, a darker thought flashed across Rui's mind just as he started being pushed through the store. What did overly aggressive, strange, and friendly-seeming people who want to take him to other places sometimes end up as? They sometimes end up as bad news!

He thought about it. It was probably all fine. The man was probably just a helpful, nice local student. He seemed the right age. Probably even a classmate who recognized Rui (and not the other way around.) But there was that small possibility. He remembered as a child the last time an helpful, strange, and aggressive stranger wanted to take him somewhere else. "A kidnapping! For ransom! But there's no reason why he would expect me to fetch a good ransom...unless...corporate espionage! Someone could want the technology in my body systems...?"

He still didn't think the young man meant anything wrong, but he just wanted to make sure. He spun around, with his hands/arms covering his chest in an oddly defensive manner, before looking at the young man in front of him.

"W-wait. Thanks, but uh, you haven't been doing everything all just for my body, right!?!"

In a normal circumstance, no one else would have noticed that query. Unfortunately, the attention of the music store shoppers had already been affixed on the two of them and the previous shoulder-steering. Some of the teenage girls only became much much more affixed on the interaction. One mother started covering the eyes of her daughter and pulling her away. A clerk that had been walking towards the two to check out the previously noisy situation immediately made a "NOPE" facial expression, made a 180-turn, and started walking back to his desk to mind his own business.

Something snaps in Cecil's mind, at that moment. He stops still, his arms fall, and all is wiped from his face, leaving only a haunting thousand mile stare. He seems to recover slightly, raising a finger while starting to say something with a blank expression, but the finger falls and his mouth closes.
Eventually, he gathers himself enough to settle on one thing.
"No. Not now, and probably not ever."
Cecil sighs, and shakes his head clear. He's...he's still reeling...but the mania has passed. "I don't understand what kind of world you live in, I really don't. You mistake a music store for a clothes store, you were come to think of it entirely too calm up until now, and then there's...there's this." He gestures on with one hand toward Rui, with the universal signal for something that you're failing to comprehend the current existence of. "Please stop that, by the way. I..." He looks around. "I think one of those girls is actually drooling. And I don't think either of us want to end up in a stranger's erotic fantasies. So...let's just keep moving, and get this done." He walks around and past Rui, pointedly not getting anywhere within arms reach. He waves with one hand as he does, signalling for the boy to follow.

This is a mess. This is a complete and utter mess. The news is going to spread all too quickly, and there's going to be a text in 3 minutes from Dad to either ask me what I'm doing or make jokes about discovering my sexuality.
...fuck it. Whatever it takes to keep this guy from wrecking something else.

The other boy seemed seriously offended by the question. Ugh, it must have been Rui's fault for being so paranoid. Of course he meant no harm.

Rui immediately bowed in apology, "Oh, I'm so sorry about that. I shouldn't have doubted your intentions." Of course he was just a normal high school or college (Rui couldn't really tell) student! Of course! He had no interest in the technology in Rui's body. He was just a student.

"Sorry, I'm just a little paranoid about these things because of bad past experiences..."

He looked back up at the young man. That was a strange comment that Rui just heard. "Wait, erotic fantasies. Why would they be engagi-" He quickly rewinded the previous interaction through his mind as he only just then realized the double-entendre of his previous query to the young man. He read enough shoujo manga to know where this was going.

He immediately gave off an awkward blush despite being only modestly embarrassed. This new form was actually too realistic! He didn't actually ever blush before the operation! "....oh. I see. Whoops. That was my mistake," Rui replied in a slightly embarassed, monotone, and soft voice.

The girls in the background didn't hear what Rui had said, but they did notice the blush. Strange sounds started emerging from them in response to the new stimuli.

"Um...yes. Yeah. You're probably right about that."

Rui nodded and prepared to follow the young man out. To somewhere else.

Cecil's expression briefly warps into one of concern as Rui talks about bad experiences in the past. "...I'm sorry I reminded you of-"
He stops dead as the boy continues talking, and then realises he was thinking entirely of something else.
He didn't even realise what he sounded like just then.
...wait a minute, that just raised further questions!

If this wasn't about anything like that, then what could...nope. Had to stop there. There was no way he was going to be able to guess, let alone that the guy would - alright, he wouldn't be surprised if he would tell him, but it definitely didn't some like something appropriate to ask a stranger even without the usual insinuations attached.
Right now, he had to focus on other things. Like making sure he didn't do anything in the clothing store.

Cecil keeps a wary eye on Rui as they walk through the Backlight district. He starts maintaining a more normal distance once they're away from the store, instead of the wide berth of before, but as much as he's giving Rui questioning looks he's still keeping an eye out for any of the girls who were at the store. "So...what's your name, then?"
Looking at him, the uniform was from Seven Stars...so he was a student then? Probably one of the lower years.
...that reminded him.
"While I'm at it, just why are you in a uniform right now? Don't...you..." That sinking feeling came back in full force. In a uniform when there was no school today, looking for a clothes store, completely out of touch with the world...
"You...you don't have any other clothes, do you?" They were words spoken with the sincerest hope he was wrong, and the full expectation that he wasn't.

Hm. Very strange. On the map he had more or less memorized before going to the Backlight, the clothing store was ironically located where it said a pet store would be. How very strange. He was starting to distrust the map.

Right before he formulated his distrust into a serious investigation in the age of the map, his thoughts were interrupted by a query. He had actually thought the walk over to the store was remarkably awkwardly silent, but then again, it wasn't an incredibly long walk.

"Oh, yes? Oh, I'm Rui Terui, currently a first-year student at Seven Stars Academy."

Another question was thrown at Rui.

Haha, what was this guy thinking of him? What a ridiculou-actually upon further reflection, he was exactly basically right.

It was not exactly that Rui had no clothes - it that he had no well-fitting clothes anymore! His ASSW was two inches shorter than all of his previous presentable clothing! And that seriously impacted the fit of all of them! Things like undershirts still fit, but he wasn't going to show up in public wearing an undershirt. Now, that was weird. Still probably best to cover up his backstory with something essentially technically true.

Rui waved his hand in front of his face, politely chuckling, "Oh, haha. No, no, that's not it. I just don't have any clothes that fit me well. I just went on a diet. You can lose a lot of weight if you just stop eating food." He probably did lose a lot of weight - he was told his unit was incredibly weight-efficient. And he did historically keep weight off...by not eating food very often.

Rui clapped his hands together, "Anyways, do you go to school around here?"

...just stop eating food.
Not eat less.
STOP EATING FOOD.
Yet again, he had so many questions. With any other person he'd have passed it off as a wording choice, but after what had happened earlier, he dared not assume the sane version of events over the literal one.
He...he had so many questions.

He's diverted from the train of thought by Rui's question. That was probably a good thing for his sanity. He takes a breath, and eases his expression into a more relaxed one with an easy smile. "I go to Seven Stars as well. Cecil Erinforth - a third year." He shrugs. "Going back to before though...why not just buy more clothes before this point? Even quick weight loss still isn't that fast unless you plan on trashing your health. Plenty of opportunity to pick up new clothes as you slimmed down...well, I'm saying that, but you obviously did since your uniform fits. So...I guess the question now is why you only got a uniform. I mean...you know what, forget it. I'm just going to have myself a headache."

Eventually, they come up on the major clothes store in the area. All he had to do was keep Rui from doing any damage here, and then this could be over and done with. He looks over to Rui as they walk in. "Well...we're here. I'm going to hope you can handle this better than you managed back in the last store we were in."
Taking the opportunity, Cecil checks his phone. No messages...yet. Small mercies.
He puts the phone back away and turns his attention back to Rui. "Lead the way. And...just don't touch anything electronic, for the love of god."

The young man, Cecil, seemed rather suspicious of Rui. As Cecil suggested, a lot of things weren't adding up. This was of course natural, so Rui had to respond quickly.

"Oh, well, I just transferred in. So obviously I got a uniform that fit pretty well. And you know, weight loss can go pretty quickly if you're determined."

Rui started to do the math in his head. Before the operation, Rui was overly interested in "health" and "fitness", though with a greater interest in how much abuse the human body could take before breaking down.

"Well, an average human male who physically moves around has a base metabolism of around 2000 calories. Fasting does lower your metabolic rate, but by not as much as conventional wisdom might suspect. Something like 10-15%. So let's say 1750 calories a day. And 3500 calories of energy is roughly a pound. So over the long-term, excluding things like massive gains or decreases in water weight, which by the way is what typically misleads people into thinking their fad diets actually do anything, that means one pound lost every two days."


Rui continued, without actually taking a single breath, "So over a one month period, that's an easy 15 pounds gone. And you could even eat food if you needed, since an hour of modest exercise would even balance out a salad everyday if you really need it."

It was at this point that Rui realized that he had been drowning Cecil with far too much information.

"Anyways, I also got sick and had an operation, so I couldn't really eat food for a while." Rui said in a very matter-of-fact, chipper way, while essentially telling the truth.

One thing surprised Rui and it was the fact that Cecil was staying around. Hey, this looked like a great opportunity to go shopping. Cecil's outfit uh....gave off the impression of a guy who just threw on whatever was comfortable. And why would anyone do that!?!

"Oh hey, while you're here, why don't we get you a new outfit too?" Rui left out his thoughts, which kind of went "since you need one."

...that math didn't seem righ-wait. Waaaait.
He...he was being literal. That was literally the numbers for if you ate nothing at all.
...because he was sick.
There...there was so much wrong with this.
Cecil knew a little too, but...that was more to do with his faltering attempts at weight loss.
"...I stand by what I said. Weight loss like that is a terrible idea. Especially if you're sick. For one, it would pretty much ruin your nutrition." He shook his head. "But let's ignore that right now, shall we?" Because he probably had an excuse for that. "Even with an operation, you really shouldn't need to stop eating for a month. If I had to guess, a couple of days at most for what's absolutely necessary. I'd think you'd have a minor, building intake from there? But I'll just pretend that somehow, you'll recover just fine without any of that."
"You're also assuming you only lose fat. Losing weight that fast means losing muscle too. A month like that? You're losing a lot of muscle. Exercise limits that, but you know, only so much a person can do when they're sick and starving. A proper protein intake does wonders too, but that's also calories. Definitely enough to affect the numbers notably." He shakes his head in exasperation. "Just...there's so many problems with what you're saying. If you don't want to tell me? That's fine. Really. But...just don't use an excuse as dodgy as that. Even if I didn't have the slightest clue, just common sense tells me there's so much that's wrong with that."
The worst bit was, he way he spoke it all, it sounded like he was trying to make existing events seem plausible rather than that he was just lying to him.
So...so many questions that will never be answered.
"Just...at least pretend your clothes were ruined or something. Something that doesn't sound so...wrong."

---

Cecil, did not in fact, just throw on whatever was comfortable. When he put together his clothes, he made sure they at least went together decently. But it was also true that fashion was not his first concern, nor, in fact, anything he was concerned with at all. Style could wait in line when you had no need to dress up. Day to day wear was just that, and it seemed stupid to wear something uncomfortable and impractical all the time for the sake of looking good to strangers who weren't really going to pay attention to you anyway.
Besides, an extra pair of proper zipped pockets was invaluable. It made it easier to carry things on your person, and it kept things a lot more secure than with normal pockets. Definitely worth ditching jeans for.
Yes, Cecil had some strong feeling on the matter, and Rui was not going to shake them.

Not privy to Rui's thoughts though, he just scoffs, though there isn't any contempt to it. When he speaks, it's with a tone of dry humour. "Because I'm not the one running about in a school uniform. Besides, I can't just go buying whatever, and even if you were planning to pay for it for some reason you're still a stranger." He shakes his head, sighing with his eyes closed. "If you really want to, you can keep insisting, but if you don't want to waste time it's better to just get on this already."

Rui seemed surprised. Cecil seemed oddly concerned about the health of someone he had just met. In many ways, that was very nice of him. But it was also inconvenient. That being said, Rui figured he could address any concerns without actually saying a falsehood.

"Oh, don't worry. It was just doctor's orders. And yeah, well, you can tell I'm not exactly a bufflord~"

Rui even spun around on one foot in order to show off his whole figure, illustrating the point that he was not heavy-built in the slightest.

"Yes, we could. But it wouldn't be true though. My old clothes are still perfectly good! In fact, I'll probably donate them and collect the tax deduction for that.

One tip of business that Rui had learned was that lying was always a bad idea. And even saying something incredibly misleading was a bad idea. But something perfectly innocent that happens to mislead someone? Well, that's the point, isn't it?

---
"Anyways, fair enough, I'll start looking. Since it will probably take time."

And indeed, time it took. Rui seemed like he was trying to look through every single rack in the entire store. The entire store. While spending an inordinate amount of time on each piece of clothing, putting it over himself like he was wearing it, then putting it back on the rack. The apotheosis of the window shopper.

"Hm, this is nice..."

Rui seemed to be looking at a ridiculously ineffective (as in not heat-preserving) jacket, that nevertheless looked nice. Practicality clearly had very little input into his clothing choices.

After an excruciatingly slow process of filing through practically every rack, including some racks that were really not that relevant (women's cosplay costumes? construction work clothes?), Rui's facial expression seemed accomplished and clapped his hands together.

"Alright! Time to start trying some of these on!"