Against the Grain [Kansuke]

The full swell of life around the Concert Hall always drew Kansuke's attention. Passing by, he could not help but stop to watch the throngs clamour and crave for even a sliver of their chosen idol's attention. When a cheer broke through the buzz of his headphones or a roar startled him from his daze, his lips never failed to curl in a smirk.

So it had been - and so it was today, watching the crowds file in and murmur excitedly about the new hotness about to set fire to the cultivated stage. He watched, amused and more than a little bit curious, his fingers coiling and curling, dreaming of the can in his hand. He dreamed of a messy landscape, a thousand crawling shadows reaching up to the beacon on high... and his mind began to itch. Where could he display it? Was there somewhere on the Hall itself, perhaps...?

Rui was out doing research. Excellent research. He had to supply some sort of musical background for some kind of make-up ad that he had entered a contest to supply music for.

The ad was to feature a local idol, so he realized the best idea was to observe the local fauna at an idol concert. He sat back and just people-watched for a while. The average idol fan did not seem particularly attractive. This of course, was very good. He had participated in the private equity turn-around of a makeup company once. One of the new advertising angles they adopted was to batter the already poor self-esteem of young people.

After a while however, Rui seemed to notice that another young man seemed to be observing the crowd. He seemed remarkably messy, and in the messy way, not the glamorous way that Rui shot for. This could only mean one thing - he must be some sort of creative artist!

He seemed to have headphones on however, so Rui decided not to bother him and return to observing the crowd, with a weirdly predatory look. And often glancing at the messy boy.

The back of his neck tickled, in the way one's neck tickled to anticipate the closing of jaws, or sensing the sharpened eye of someone far too interested in what someone is doing. Kansuke unhooked a single earbud, trampled-grass eyes flickering across to the cultured, cultivated man stepping forth from whatever the latest magazines decided was 'hot'.
He repressed the desire to scoff, lest it tangle with the bile rising in his throat. Curiosity replaced his immediate reaction - how could he not be curious? A stranger looking into a crowd, into the concert hall. Looking as battered as he did, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that he simply pined for a ticket himself.

Right?

Apparently not. Their eyes met, and Kansuke stared. Unblinking. Daring.

He did not expect the messy boy to take a reciprocal interest in Rui. Rui further did not expect the boy to start staring intently into Rui's eyes. If Rui had any hairs at the back of his neck, they'd be standing up.

Rui think he understood what was going on. This was a battle of artists. Over territory. This was already the messy man's territory and he was attempting to establish primal dominance over the concert hall. The stare was a fight for dominance!

Rui returned the boy's stare with a blank stare of his own as he was thinking about dominance. Then he actually decided that this was stupid. Rui wasn't a real artist. And there was only way to break off the engagement. He looked straight into the boy's eyes. And then blew a kiss at him.

Rui paused for just a bit before speaking in a chirpy voice, "So you're like, totally an artist, right???"

Kansuke blinked. He nearly missed it - the blown kiss - but he made sure to dodge, jamming hands in pockets and slouching forward, dipping from gaze and gesture long enough to make his approach.

His question set him off guard. He leaned back, drawing up to full height, confronting the question with a confused grunt. He flicked the tail of his coat back, exposing his hoodie. Eyes kept locked on Rui's, waiting for the youth to blink, to break, to turn and flee - and yet he didn't. Another grunt. "I'm a what?"

Rui also blinked. Was he wrong? The guy clearly gave off the impression of an artist. However, he had the dodging skill of a martial Article. Then again, martial artist had the word artist in it. Did that just make them a different type of artist? A sensitive martial artist painting on the face of a villain with punches. "You are already cubist. NANIIIII?", Rui thought.

"Like you know, an artist. Not like a martial artist, you know? Like an artist-artist. A guy who arts. Like this!"

Rui pantomimed painting a canvas except he decided to do a quadriplegic pirouette from ballet in order to mimic an artist painting a canvas on every side, like an entire room.

Rui used to be able to do a quadruple pirouette, which was once very impressive. However, in his new body, weight seemed to be distributed very differently. So just after starting his fourth turn, he actually lost balance and collapsed with a high-pitched yelp.

A guy who arts. Well, he certainly wasn't wrong. Kansuke watched the display with increasing confusion, culminating in a burst of snorted laughter when Rui collapsed in a heap about himself. A picture of grace he might look, but that was certainly all he was - a picture. "You alright down there?"

He crouched, joining the strange boy at his level. He rested his arms on his knees, casting a quick glance about to see who in the crowd noticed them. No-one yet, the gathered fortunately fixated on the performance coming soon. "You're a weird one, aren't you?"

Rui's eye were shut until they fluttered open all at a sudden. He had...very long eyelashes. Rui's body had the ability to slightly alter its appearance to match well, what normal humans look like. But it actually required a decent knowledge of cosmetics to properly operate. Knowledge that Rui luckily had.

Unfortunately, the most "natural" look he could pull off was "natural person wearing a decent amount of make-up". His handler thought it was a little creepy that he looked a little bit like a doll. But it was better than uncanny valley. Rui for his part, just decided to adopt the shtick and run with it, even making his normally robotic-looking joints look like doll joints.

"Oh! Yes! A bit embarrassed! But I'm a-okay! I'm sturdier than I look!"

Rui followed that off with a little faux-pouty look, "Uwuu~ how rude! The proper response is to blush and nose-bleed and then stammer 'Ermagerd, I can see your panties' as your SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH begins." Rui of course, was not wearing a skirt. Though someone at a distance could possibly make that mistake. Rui was wearing a buttoned-up, collared pleated red trench-coat that dropped down to just above his knees - all while wearing snug, black yoga pants. From a distance, one might mistake it for a skirt. However, if one was to stare up his coat, one would definitely not find actual panties.

He gave a brief pause, "Uh, yes. That was a joke. But don't worry - I'm absolutely one of the least W-E-I-R-D people you'll meet." He spelled out each of those letters, seemingly completely seriously.

"Sturdy, huh," either for the tangle of trash brown hair draping over his eyes, or his distraction as he kept half an eye on the crowds, Kansuke either didn't notice or didn't care about Rui's eccentric appearance. Suzie Q had its share of characters; even he was no exception. The uwuuing, pouting, shrieking man proved to be simply par for the course, and his act earned Rui a detached, distant, "Uh... huh. Right. Okay, least w-e-i-r-d weirdo. You got a name?"

He had to check. A concussion drew attention, and not in the fun way. He looked back to where he was standing, taking a moment to drag a hefty bag from his original spot to their slouch near the middle of the plaza. It rattled and jangled in awkward ways.

Rui watched the messy boy carry a large brown bag back over to Rui, by which time Rui had gotten up. Oddly, a cicada had fallen on his hair, which he brushed out with little fanfare. Hmm. Cicada hair. That gave him an idea.

Rui gave a weird pose with a peace sign, as if he were a magical girl or idol star giving off his name, "Yup! Terui Rui. Or RuiRui, at your service. First-year student at Seven Stars Academy! Unless I get expelled. And you?"

That was not entirely impossible.

Rui seemed to think about something, "Also yeah, that's an interesting point. With today's zeitgeist, not being W-E-I-R-D might make me come off as a weirdo. Especially to the W-E-I-R-D. That's part of why it's fun!"

Rui's eyes also eventually fell upon the bag, "Anyways, are those like art-arting supplies? Or martial arting supplies?"

Oh, good. Two questions - that spared him from answering the first. Kansuke shrugged the bag onto his shoulder, it again jangling as its contents jostled and clanked together. "Something like that," he answered, vaguely, "I like to be ready for when the mood strikes me. The hell were you doing, staring me down like that? Folks'll get the wrong impression."

He checked the crowds. Maybe they already had - and wait, what was the wrong impression? Kansuke shook his head, sighing. "There. Art-artist, not martial artist. Why do you care?"

Rui was actually quite forthgoing, "Oh, well, I was just people-watching the concert-people for creative purposes and you were people-watching the concert-people for creative purposes, so I decided to people-watch the people-watcher so I could people-watch while I people-watched. Anyways, you notice anything?"

Rui took a breath after saying that entire sentence with absolutely no breaks to breathe, before continuing a little coyly, "Also...who said I care...? Why'd you come to that conclusion?"

He immediately shifted to a more normal, chirpy tone, "Anyways, anyways, if you're an art-artist, that means you've made paintings?"

Rui actually wasn't sure if he cared. It was kind of just polite and normal to ask people for what they did and at least feign interest. Then again, maybe the paintings were actually good. Who knew?

He gave a quick smile, "...show me? Is it on the internet?"

In the time it took for Kansuke to gather himself and secure his things, Rui managed to unleash another torrent of curiosity upon the man. Each question caused him to slouch further and further, hunching in to bear the weight of Rui's interest as if the man himself leaned on his shoulders.

"I don't post online." Kansuke grumbled. "A view counter and comment thread? Who actually cares about them?"

He itched the side of his head, tangling his hair further, and burying the idea for his next piece deeper in his mind. Rui wasn't the only one with questions. "What do you know about this place? Is it always so busy?"

Rui smiled at Kansuke's shared disdain for technology, "Oh yes, true. Comments are mostly for being insulted online - like a gauntlet of verbal abuse. Though how else do you show off your art? Public exhibitions?"

Rui was surprised to get a question about his actual observations. Which were in all fairness, barely focused on the crowd itself. They were honestly more inspiration for how to market something to that crowd and to people completely unrelated to the crowd. That being said, the cicada that fell into Rui's hair gave him inspiration. He had to do something along that line. Cicada hair. Cicada hair. Hmm, there had to be something he could do with that.

Rui gave off a pensive look, "Hm, idol music concert hall? That's all I know. I guess it only has this many people when there's an event. I mean, what would you do in an empty concert hall? Actually wait, no, you could totally do a lot things. Like throw the best rager ever."

"What the hell are you on about?" Kansuke grunted, stifling the rest of his complaint. "Tch. Never mind. It's all clouds where your head is, isn't it?"

He jammed one hand into his pocket, using the other to support the weight of his bag. "I don't think they'd ever let a rager into that hall. All prim and proper and by-the-books. Don't want no booze on the idol's dress, now do they?"

The broadcast still played on his mind. Just how much control did these supposed Demons have? How much did it matter, really? The people smiled and bought their tickets and enjoyed themselves all the same. He looked to Rui, finally noticing the distance behind his eyes. He asked before he could stop himself. "What're you thinking about?"