| test drive |

[attribution]

Welcome to The Lottery’s test drive meme! Before we get to the prompts, here are a few things to note:

Though you may only have ONE active character per round, you are free to play as many characters you wish on the TDM. Later, you will have the opportunity to bench characters if you want to try another, but only after you’ve been accepted.

Please be sure to thoroughly look through our FAQ so that you have a good understanding of the game’s mechanics. Also be sure to browse the information provided on both The Attribution Study and Shiroiwa for a better idea of the setting.

The date for the next round of Reserves is: February 29th
The number of currently available character slots is: 25

Important Note: A thread of 9 comments in the TDM (with at least 5 comments from your character) will count towards both sample requirements in the application. Consider this a special bonus for getting your feet wet in our community!

If your thread does not reach the required amount of comments, it may still be used as the In-World Sample in your application.

Flashback/Background threads in the TDM may be reposted to Shiroiwa Academy’s Community if both players were accepted into the game.

Provided below are some sample scenarios, but please feel free to plot and play whatever you’d like!

Sample Scenarios:

Sample 1:

You’ve just transferred to one of the three grade levels in Shiroiwa Academy and have yet to make any friends. Sure, people showed you around, but nothing has quite stuck yet. So as the lunch bell goes off, you pull out your bento and prepare to eat alone when another student saddles up beside you. Perhaps they’re being friendly or perhaps they simply want to mooch off of your food. Whatever the reasoning, you’re now stuck in some form of communication whether you like it or not.

Sample 2:

Everyone just loves partner projects, don’t they? Your teacher has randomly assigned you a partner, and now you both must come up with a presentation to show the class. Are you the type who does all the work? Do you push for fair exchange? Or perhaps you have no plans to do any work at all. Whichever it is, your partner is now moving their stuff to sit at the desk next to you. Better gather your might and prepare to weather the oncoming storm…

Sample 3:

It’s March 14, 20XX. You have been kidnapped and taken to the island, given your randomized duffle bag, and are now either desperately seeking shelter or methodically preparing to hunt down your weaker classmates. Whatever it is, you stumble upon another student - whether you know them well or not doesn’t matter. The rules have already been made clear to both of you - only one person gets to win. You need to either escape, kill, or attempt to make a truce with this classmate. What will you do?

Sample 4:

Your weapon broke. Perhaps it snapped as you embedded it into the skull of one of your classmates, or perhaps it was simply a stroke of bad luck. You return to the hideout you created for yourself, seeking a weapon you’d taken from a fallen student. But as you near the space, you realize something is off. There is some telltale sign that another has been here… Are they still around? Will you investigate? What if your stockpile has been pilfered by another student?

Comments

Takasugi Shinsuke | Gintama

[toukai]

[1]

[It's his first day in class and Takasugi has no desire to make any friends. Everyone gave off a boring atmosphere on first inspection, and he didn't care to make a second one. Loitering around a group of kids content to let their impulses rise in the form of gossip or doodling on a test and nothing more exhausted him.

So the super edgy loner junior would be taking his lunch to the roof, fully anticipating eating alone.

Ah, but there's already someone else up there (it's you). He stops as soon as he opens the door, giving the student glazed over consideration.

But there's nothing to consider - Takasugi knows what he needs to do. And that is acting like he doesn't give a shit who is on the roof. So he crosses to a ledge and sits down, pulling out his 'bento': a Yakult and a pack of cigarettes. If this wasn't enough, he'd just cut afternoon classes to get some noodles.

Do you want to give this loner some company? Maybe you're really offended that someone is smoking on school property? Maybe you want to bum a cigarette off of him? Or maybe you're just blasted that he stared at you for so long, the atmosphere building, only to just walk away?

No matter what it is, don't let him get away with this 'cool kid' act, he'll start to think other people take him as seriously as he takes himself!]

[2]

[The list of important things for a delinquent is no shorter than the list of important things for anyone else - its contents are simply radically different. Instead of meals with the family or homework completed on time it's finding the right back alley to stand in with your gang or how many files you can get the police to complete on you without getting yourself arrested.

But one thing was universally important: recycling.

So this young terror on society is currently cutting his last class to loiter out back behind the main school building, smoking a cigarette and towering as much as a 5'7'' teen can over a toppled trash can. He's looking down at the contents like they've personally affronted him. Soon he'll be bending down and sifting through it. But not for a broken bottle to shiv someone with. Instead he's picking up the glass and...

putting it where it belongs. In the proper receptacle.

That's right, one of the baddest asses on campus is sorting the trash. Why? He makes no indication - really he's going about it in sort of a shifty manner. Like he's somehow committing a crime! In fact, from a distance, it may look like he's doing just that.

It's no small task, so Takasugi will still be at it when class ends and students are milling about on their way home.]

[3]

[A sharp chef's knife wasn't the worst weapon he could have pulled out of the bag. A bit short, but he'd made his point with less in the past, so it'd do. As his fingers wrapped around the handle, he could feel the adrenaline building in his joints.

It ached.

Just like his face. Takasugi had spent the whole time the message played smirking. Not out of any sort of eagerness - he enjoyed a fight, but on his own terms. Nor out of a desire to mask his true feelings. He'd have to know what those were to conceal them properly. If anything, it was a challenge forced into his hands.

He wouldn't be letting it get the better of him.

So when he heard another's footfalls crack a twig behind him Takasugi turned, throwing the knife directly at their face. It would miss - due to his own inaccuracy? or intentionally? He wasn't not about to let on.]

What are you doing? [His rampant display of arrogant confidence that began in abandoning his weapon continued as he shifted his stance towards the other with his hips swung forward and his head cocked to the side. Give him an answer worth his time.]

[4]

[Kicking ass is great and all - something at which Takasugi is relatively skilled. He tenses hands covered in dry blood, one wrapped white-knuckled around the remnants of his weapon. The handle of his knife broken and gone, the blade and small extension of metal is all that remains. His clothes are disheveled and his shoes are caked in dirt and mud. His hair clings to his neck - he's the portrait of a boy whose been hard at work out there, butchering his classmates.

Except for one fatal flaw.

He's panting, lips cracked and dry, slouched against a tree in one of the more sparsely populated areas of the forest. His map had long since been destroyed, and even someone with a decent sense of direction would get lost being chased around in a place like this.

He would go on. Just after his stomach settled, sick from dehydration to the point of wracking his entire body and making his vision swim. Passing out meant death. That wasn't an option.

Just regain your senses, and you can move on. Water was nearby. It had to be.

Except, for all the mental stubbornness on his part, the teen is slipping down the tree gradually, leaving trails of bark and moss on his shirt as he sinks lower and lower to the ground without noticing.]

4

[egaode]

[Kicking ass is great. This study is great, in fact, but the administrators really could have stood to give them more supplies to start out. It was no fun if the given opponents (most of them already woefully incapable) weakened themselves by exhausting food or water too quickly.

But there were a certain few Kamui hoped would make it to the end with him, who he hoped could give him a good final fight or three, and either he'd walk away the winner or die satisfied.

Shinsuke Takasugi was one of them.

Shinsuke Takasugi looked, at present, to be on his last leg, and that leg wasn't even his own, it was the goddamn tree he was leaning on.

Can't have that.

So, as Takasugi slides down the tree, Kamui reaches into his bag - and smears blood all over the opening to said bag, ah well, perils of not bothering to clean off after every kill - to fish out a half-empty bottle of water, clearly stolen from the dying hands of another student, but... supplies were supplies...

And he'll toss the bottle of water right at Takasugi's feet. No sense getting close enough to hand it to him, that's inviting a strike from that mangled knife. No sense in taking him out now, with a quick swing from his already bent, dented, and blood-splattered bat to leave him a smear of brains and gore on the tree when he wanted to save this one to the end.

So he'll be saving him now.

Rare kindnesses, or something like that.]

You look like shit.

[toukai]

[See you at the end. He'd uttered those words to his fellow delinquent when they'd seen each other in passing on the first day. So what the hell was the guy doing here now?

It wasn't the end yet. Go away. Go weeding or something - surely there were a few worthless cases hiding away somewhere.

Takasugi frowned, Kamui's voice and the sight of water a conflict of distaste and immediate relief. He fell to the ground, open palm sliding across the bottle of water and knocking him off balance to dig an elbow into the dirt.

It didn't phase him. Not because of his 'too cool' posturing, but because he was busy scrambling for the water and gulping it down.

Only after a few cold rushes of liquid pouring down his throat chilled his chest did he pull the bottle away. Much more, and he'd throw it all up and waste the resource.] You've been fairing well, then. [Not a question.

He pulled himself up to hands and knees, keening his head to look at Kamui as he sat back and finally let his back thud against the tree, settled in a crouched position.] How many? [He'd been keeping score himself - habits were hard to break.]

[egaode]

['See you at the end,' and a few more choice, edgy, tryhard phrases. Something about hell, too, which made it all the more fitting that he showed up now, when his fellow troublemaker looked like he'd been through it.

Without him. How dare he.

But the pathetic display of Takasugi falling all over himself for the water was enough to keep the offense at bay for now. He clearly hadn't been so lucky with his victims. Or hadn't stuck around after killing them to scrounge for their equipment, but he liked to think better of the idiot on the ground.

So he'll squat down to eye level with him, still out of range of both their weapons-at-hand. Safe as they could be with each other in this little game.]

You haven't. [Also not a question.

But he'll count on his fingers how many, because... he didn't have any such habits of keeping track, and they'd begun to blend together. Cornered baby animals could only put up so much of a fight, after all.]

Seven? I think. Yes. Seven.

[toukai]

[Oh yes, something about hell. Always something about hell - can't forget that, or their status as bad boys could be called into question.

Though, really, there was no blazing trial that left Takasugi in this situation. Calculated kill after calculated kill - he wasn't impatient. The boy never rushed into a fight on impulse, though perhaps he should have, given the state of his resources.

It was the error of assuming that all students he left bleeding on the ground would have some form of supply on them. But the last bastard didn't even have a map, much less food or water.

Heh.

Well, he didn't have a map or any of that either, so he supposed he shouldn't be too judgemental. You're alright, whatever-kun laying bloody on the beach.

Takasugi tilted his head from side to side, a slight action of consideration towards Kamui's assertion. And then he raised an eyebrow - almost impressed with the other's number.] Seven - you've been busy.

[He had five himself, a lower number that should have been bolstered by his being in better condition but-

He'd just have to make up for it when they met again.

Another drink taken, slower this time, and he's pressing back against the tree to stand.] Going to make it eight? [He was well aware of his vulnerability, but he was even more aware of the fact that if Kamui wanted him gone - he'd be gone. So the question was delivered as nothing more than a wry joke.]

[egaode]

[And they were the baddest of bad boys, after all. So of course they had to keep up the bad boy cred.

But where Takasugi had been calculating and patient, not impulsive... Kamui had done just the opposite, fighting anyone who crossed his path and scalping their corpse for supplies. And a good thing, too, or else he might be as bad off as Takasugi was, now, and then neither of them would claw their way to the end, would they?

And, well, the assumption that others would try to store supplies and stealing them when he found them (or, better yet, waiting for them to come back for them) had served him just as well.

He even had about five extra maps, if Takasugi cared to ask for one.]

Well, I was hoping that we could fight before either of us got too exhausted. You know. Maybe finish off everyone else early on. But...

[There you were, being lame.

And standing. So he'll just. Peer up instead of also standing, in a display of bravery or stupidity or, as Takasugi would probably know, an invitation to just try something, punk, an uppercut from his position now would pack a bigger impact than one from standing straight.]

Going to give me a good fight if I try?

[He asks, as if he doesn't already know the answer.]

[toukai]

[The edgest of lords.

Takasugi wasn't so petty as to attribute Kamui's success to luck. Nor was he going to concern himself with dramatically changing his own strategy. There were members of their class, or groups, or weapons, that would have caused more of an issue for the impulsive party than the scheming party.

Perhaps they'd just each selected their opponents wisely.

Though, asking???? for help??? There was a point where Takasugi's wisdom ran out, and seeking aid was it. Kamui could give him one if he felt like it, but other than a possible indication that he didn't have one, there would be no prompting.

Excuse you.

Kamui's condescension was met with Takasugi taking his final gulps of water before letting the bottle roll from his fingers to the ground.

His fingers relaxed around the metal of his blade, skin aching with shallow cuts from the corners of the instrument. The subtle motion wasn't his guard dropping, it was consideration given to that invitation.]

I wouldn't want to disappoint you.

[He'd raise a foot to kick Kamui over, his own balance reinforced by the tree. The blow itself wasn't meant to deliver pain, simply knock the other off axis enough to pursue with something more dangerous.]

[egaode]

[So edgy they could kill another student on it. Ooo. Wow.

Perhaps they had. Or perhaps it was luck. Or skill. Or the idea that the other students were simply... not as well equipped to this little game as they were. Whatever it was, they had met again, now, and the tension in the air was so thick that Takasugi could probably cut it with that knife of his, even caked in blood as it was.

And maybe they weren't choosing their opponents wisely, now.

Takasugi relaxing has Kamui shifting, sinking lower into his crouch. It's more comfortable, yes, but also has more power behind it, if he needs to move. If he wants to. And he laughs, for good measure.]

Wouldn't want to disappoint you, either.

[The foot meets his shoulder, and he has a choice. He could fall back, harmless, laugh it off as Takasugi shitting with him, wait to fight until later, and count on him backing off.

Or he could recognize that he's out for more, now, and respond to the spike in adrenaline stirring in his gut.

He'll roll back with the kick, enough to plant a hand on the ground behind him, enough to use Takasugi's momentum to grab his ankle and try to jerk him off balance as he drops.]

[toukai]

[Oooo!

Inhaling the tension brought energy back into Takasugi's body. Everything still ached, but the soreness was giving way to pin-pricks of adrenaline. He kept his sense about him, strategy filtered between the feeling of wet blood on his fingertips and skin cracking as his lips spread into a smirk.

It wasn't the wisest choice, lashing out for the prize fight so soon, but a beast needed to wet their appetite before thrashing for their goal.

Instinct and reflex were soon to be all that guided him.

Kamui rolled back and Takasugi's eye twitched as his ankle was pulled. He was jerked forward, and indeed the tree no longer served to keep him upright. Instead he'd be falling, a knee aimed to dig into his foe's gut with all the momentum given by the fall, the tug and however much he could push himself off of the tree.]

[egaode]

[It had been a while since his last kill, and wet blood on hands and arms and face had long since dried, and now cracked and flaked and left in itchy, tingling sensation on his skin as he moved. Maybe he'd taste Takasugi's, now. Maybe they'd work out the tension, work out any sore stiffness that had settled in their bones and be on their separate paths for another day.

Maybe this would be the prize fight, and they'd both end here, leaving behind a sight of relief for another student and a stockpile of supplies.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybes that there was no time to so much as think about, as instinct and reflex were met with instinct and reflex. Thought could come later, if it didn't end wholesale in a moment or two.

There's a knee coming for him.

He lets go of Takasugi's ankle to plant his other hand firmly in the dirt, necessary support to kick his foot up. He could end it, with one well-placed blow between his frenemy's legs, but...

He's not completely heartless.

Instead, it'll be defensive, he'll use his knee to guard his middle and hope Takasugi lands himself on his foot in a way where he'll be too winded to slash at him.]

[toukai]

[Maybe they'd both end up panting in the dirt, sleep tugging at their eyes but the danger of unconsciousness keeping them torn between wake and rest. A foreboding sight for any other student who would come upon them. Either they'd be killed or the classmate would be too much of a coward to come near. If they lived, one would crawl away only for the other to slink the opposite direction.

So many maybe's, some more likely than others, but none mattered now.

His blow was quickly blocked, so Takasugi took the slight adjustment necessary to clash his shin into Kamui's shoe and teeter to the side. The angle opened him to a clear trajectory for a punch, so he'd swing his fist, knife gripped within, to collide with Kamui's jaw. If it connected, the knife would nick the other's cheek.]

[three]

[boogerflinger]

[One snap of a twig and suddenly there was a knife flying in his face. Gintoki let out a shriek, jumping away reminiscent of his own anime-ass-origins. His brows are arched before he stared at Takasugi as if he had been betrayed.

He blinks a few times before snarling. He turns to grab the knife which had embedded itself in a tree before tossing it to Takasugi's feet.]

Don't be such an idiot already! You should be focusing on getting outta dodge instead of practicing to be a circus act, y'know?!

[toukai]

[Any adrenaline that had built up drained from Takasugi's body when he saw who the hapless student was.

Gintoki - the last face he wanted to see. That was typically the case, but in this situation, even the albino's skewed smile of discomfort wasn't enough to make the interaction worth while.

If he was going to be giving in to his own bloodlust, Gintoki wasn't the place to start.

So he'd exhale heavily and bend to snatch his knife from the dirt.] Is that what you're doing? Running off into the woods and...

then what? [You don't have a plan at all, do you? Needling was gone from Takasugi's tone; he wasn't trying to tease Gintoki. He was serious. Don't go out there without a plan and get yourself killed.

One of us has to get home.]

[boogerflinger]

[To see the other's nose wrinkle in disgust upon meeting his gaze - the telltale sign of preemptive annoyance for whatever was about to spew out of Gintoki's idiot mouth - that was normal. It should have been normal.

But not even Gintoki could shove away the circumstances that stifled the air between them. That made even their typical reactions stiff and strained to the slightest degree.]

And then?

[The albino's shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet as he takes in an exhale. He had no idea. The information they had been give had almost been too much to take in all at once. He wet his lips.]

Figure something out, I guess. There's got to be. something, right?

[But when he looks at Takasugi again, it's not the other's eye that catches his gaze. Instead he catches the blinking light on the collar around the other's neck. The red light that burned as a reminder to just how fragile their lives were in this mix.

Burned this reality into his retinas. He can't look at it anymore. He averts his eyes.]

And you? Don't tell me you have a plan.

[toukai]

[If being annoyed with Gintoki was the only requirement for 'normal', nothing strange would ever happen to him.

Why, then, did standing here, branches spidering crooked to confine them, feel so wrong? He didn't have the time or energy to find that answer. To grapple with an answer he already knew.

As Gintoki spoke Takasugi raised his jaw, looking down at the other with clear judgement on his face. No plan - that was what he thought. Letting the albino crash and burn was usually one of Shinsuke's favorite hobbies, but now...]

Me? [He glanced down at his knife, turning his wrist to watch the glint of the metal in the moonlight. He made sure to flick that ray of light to Gintoki's face - a reprimand for not looking at him. This could be the last they see of each other.] I wouldn't tell you, would I? [He'd let that sink in, give Gintoki a moment to realize that he absolutely intended to fight, in the very least.

And then he'd wrench the subject away.] What's your weapon?

[boogerflinger]

[The glint of metal has Gintoki jerking his head upward. He blinks a few times before his gaze locks with Takasugi's. His heart clenches, any playful air he'd retained in hopes of keeping this "normal" melted away as quickly as Takasugi's rush of adrenaline had.

Takasugi isn't the only one with the realization that it could be the last time they saw each other. Gintoki moves to take his weapon out of the bag - pulling the neck of his shamisen out first. The instrument's bell gives a hollow thud as he hits it to the ground.]

What, you want to trade?

[Gintoki tilts his head a bit, a little annoyed that the other wouldn't give him anymore info than some edgy bullshit like "why would I tell you?"]

Cause I like this one too much. Pretty much my style, huh? So maybe I can play myself into some sort of solution to this mess, right?

[Come with me. Don't die. Let's figure something out. Don't leave. Let's get Zura. We have to go back. These thoughts continued to crop up into his head, but he couldn't force himself to spit the words out. He knew it wouldn't be like that. It couldn't be like that.

But, shit, did he want it to be like that. So there was a point in trying - right?]

[toukai]

[There, now you're paying attention. Now you're feeling the gravity of the situation weigh your shoulders down. A playful mood wasn't going to make it anymore. Even your tune would sing it's final strangled notes when you found your hands wrapping around someone's neck and eliciting the same ugly sound.

Or, maybe they wouldn't have to wait for such piercing noise.

Takasugi regarded the shamisen with almost as much foreboding in his gut as he'd felt tangle when the video played.

Gintoki could fight with anything. Gintoki was strong. Even without a real weapon, he'd make it Gintoki was terrible at any form of music. One strum on that thing, and even the more pacifist members of their class would want to kill him.

Any amusement that thought could have given him was stifled by Gintoki's implication that there was a happy solution.]

The only mess will be your fingers if you misuse those strings. [He tucked his knife away.]

We both already know the solution, don't we? No reason choke on it. [Yet here he was, hesitating to give Gintoki the opportunity to spit out the words they both knew needed said.

Stay alive.]

two!

[fivepoints]

[and masanosuke has spent nearly as long watching him curiously]

[he's not sure what drew him here or why this can't-wear-his-uniform-correctly misfit managed to catch his attention, but he's closer to the clubrooms and was about to turn the corner when he just froze where he was, the shorter shadow of a man's movements catching his eye]

[of course, he thinks it's something suspicious at first and plans to slip an anonymous note to their teacher, but the longer he watches the more he realizes what's actually happening]

[and when the clutter around the bin is almost finishes, masa's feet propel him forward to the other boy's back]

...That was very kind of you, Takasugi-Dono. [BUSTED.]

[but he says it so sincerely.]

[toukai]

[Ah-

Just when there were only a few more cans among the debris.

Takasugi isn't going to startle, though his focus is certainly jerked from his task to the student who approached him.

And had it been someone like Gintoki, that remark would have brought this day in a very different direction. But the centerpiece of that sort of interaction - a splintered piece of plastic - rolls from his hand into the recycling bin.

He almost begrudges the sincerity, but no sense in embarrassment. Something so mundane was only embarrassing for a brat who carry it out without balking.]
Heh. [Not that he'd accept the accusation of being kind.] I'm no competition for you.

[He gives a glance to the trash still scattered on the ground, all of the recyclables plucked from the mess.] You're kind enough to not inflict a sight like this on your fellow classmates...you'll clean it for me, won't you? [He chooses now to be lazy.]

[fivepoints]

[his mouth almost opens to ask him to clarify the -- compliment? is that what it is? he's heard his classmate's mouth full of derision more than a handful of times, and yet this is just an odd, misplaced statement with little inflection...]

[but before he can manage, takasugi is continuing on, making him look around at the refuse still scattered about... and the considering frown he gives in return doesn't last long before he bends over to begin cleaning]

[cigarette butts and their empty packages, styrofoam and leftover lunch -- is that a dog collar? whose is that?]

I suppose it is the least I can do. You have already done your part. [JUST... AGREES, this submissive and naive personality, man.]

1

[typhonic]

[Fuu is absolutely taking that cool kid act seriously. When the other kid sits down, he just stares for a good long while. Smoking on school property is truly the epitome of being a nonchalant cool guy rebel. He probably doesn't take orders from anyone. So cool...!

Fuu ends up being too shy to say anything to him, though. He spends his lunch in silence, occasionally stealing a glance at the mysterious cool kid across the roof. Eventually, lunch period ends and he stands up to leave.

... but the other guy doesn't move an inch.

Did he not notice the bell? Or... or is he so cool, he doesn't care?? Fuu stops halfway to the door, timidly glancing between the exit and Takasugi before finally working up the nerve to say something.]

... Hey. You're, uh, Takasugi-san, right? In 1-G?

[toukai]

[Fuu is a dirty enabler, then. This isn't middle school any more, the loner eating his lunch on the rooftop thing isn't cool.

Though all that other stuff is still pretty rebellious, so if that's what you want to be, look no further. In fact, keep looking at him like that - he's noticed, though he'll make no indication and take care to not make eye contact.

Indeed, he was so cool that he didn't care to go to class the rest of the day. So he'd loiter around here until he was bored of that and went to find somewhere else to posture hang out.

When addressed, Takasugi slowly turns his head, tearing his focus from the campus trees flicking their leaves in the wind to the timid boy who had kept him company. A knowing smirk greets the boy - he'll make no pretense of having not noticed you earlier now.]

And you're Fuu. [That's right. He knows your name. Almost like you're special! Or almost like he's paid an ounce of attention during roll a few times.] Are you going back to stare blankly at the teacher for the afternoon?

one!

[twohares]

[ That was a tense and awkward moment of eye contact. Genis stood there, bento box in hand with no real idea what to do other than stare back.

It's a wonder if Genis even knows Takasugi's name, and an even bigger wonder why he's not still in class during lunch like he usually is. Maybe he wanted fresh air, or didn't want to deal with Gintoki stealing his lunch, or got curious about what the roof was like (it's probably that last one, honestly).

Though this awkward meeting is just about enough to make Genis turn back and leave, right when he's about to, Takasugi is the one to walk away first, leaving Genis to just stand there again.

...is he really just going to smoke and drink milk?

Cautiously, Genis walks closer to the ledge and kneels down beside him. ]

That's not all you're having, is it?

[ It's hard to be cool when it looks like you're hiding away because you forgot your lunch. ]

[toukai]

[Tense? Only for Genis - Takasugi hadn't bothered to feel any way about the boy. He looked somewhat familiar, but the teen couldn't and didn't care to place him. 'Hangs around with Gintoki' described a lot of the school, when one considered how much of a mooch Gintoki could be. And being that bastard's friend or pudding-supplier wasn't exactly a good mark in Takasugi's book, anyway.

He's really just going to smoke and drink, yes. He'll keep doing just that as Genis approaches, blowing an aloof billow of smoke from his mouth right as the boy kneels.

Only once spoken to will he turn his head, and not with any haste. But he won't answer verbally. Instead, he'll just pull out...a second yakult! Not that he's offering it to you, he's just showing you that he's well prepared for lunch.

Challenge accepted!]

[twohares]

[ "What's with the silent treatment?" That's the first thing Genis thinks before he goes and plants himself next to him. Without words, Genis has never really been that good at reading into people, and he's not optimistic enough to think the yakult is being offered to him. Honestly, he has no idea what Takasugi is getting at.

...but he has a two-tier lunch box so he...just pops off one half, divider lid still attached, and holds it between them. Is it the rice half or the everything else half? It's a mystery. ]

Two Yakults? You need to have more than that. Lunch is important. It keeps you going the rest of the day.

[ ...In hindsight, if Takasugi is going to keep smoking, Genis should probably scoot away. It'll be his luck if he gets called out for going back to class smelling like smoke. But lunch is more important at the moment. ]