She sighed softly, rolling her eyes. “I’ll tell you what, Casanova. Get my family to like you, and you’ve got yourself a date.” She said, ignoring the chiming of her phone. She didn’t wait for a response, turning as her name was called for the order, and headed over to the counter to grab it.
I don’t know what I’m doing but I wanna use this character (OxO| Closed)
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He leaned back and grinned. “Easy. Maki already likes me.” He winked. “Now how many are there left?” He asked, only to have her walk away when their order was called. He sighed softly, looking back at the older man and shrugging.
“She’s something new. She says she doesn’t care about my looks. I’m hoping that means I can win her other in another way.”
“It might be a bit difficult, but I’m sure you’ll manage. Just keep in mind, that woman’s been to hell and back.” Mr. Yamamoto patted Tali’s shoulder sympathetically, watching Osora chat with the burly man handing over their food. “You’ve got three more, technically. Her grandmother, her mother, and her sister. Her sister is off at college though, so that would ideally make things easier for you. But keep that Nakamura girl in mind too. Family as far as they’re concerned.” And that wasn’t even counting the rest of Osora’s friends that she considered family. But that would come in time, and she knew that.
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Tali nodded, folding his arms tightly across his chest. “I know she has…” he sighed gently,biting at the inside of his cheek as he watched her. “I’m glad I at least got on her good side. Usually I have to do a lot more For people like her.” He murmured gently.
He listened to the family names and nodded. “Mm that’s not too bad at all. I can do it. I’m good at charming.” He admitted to himself, touching his face.
“You may be on her good side now, but keep the tricks to a mininum.” Mr. Yamamoto warmed, looking at at Tali and clicking his tongue. “And remember the clocks. Now, if you’ll excuse me young man, my curry awaits, and gets colder by the minute. Tell her to let Ren know he still has a few plants at my place, would you?” And then he was making his way back to his table, using the cane in a way that suggested he didn’t really need it.
“Tali, mind helping me with this food?” Osora called, tilting her head to the side with a bit more emphasis than she usually did. More emotion.
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“I plan on that. She doesn’t need any tricks.” He said, turning to look at the older man with careful eyes. “The clocks?” He asked gently, reminded of Toki’s phone chime. He tilted his head as the old man left, bowing his head respectfully.
When Toki asked for help he nodded, pulling his suitcase close as he hurried to take the food from her. “Let me carry it now.”
“I asked for help. I can carry some of the food.” Osora said, stepping back and out of the way as divided the bags of takeout, giving herself definitely more to carry. “Here. What was Mr. Yama over there gossiping with you about?” She asked, motioning for him to follow as she started towards the door. “Hopefully nothing to do with my teen years. Those were a mess.”
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He stuck his tongue out and tried to pull more food into his arms. “Hey, let me carry some more you have more.” He complained, looking up at her when she spoke. “Oh. Nothing really. He just told me to tell you something about Ren leaving a bunch of stuff at his place or something like that. He also said not to trick you, which i have no intention of doing. Oh. And then he mentioned clocks?”
“I’ll carry as many bags as I want. I had to skip my morning workout anyway, so this counts as making up for it.” Osora stated, pushing the door open with her foot and holding it for him again. “Ren knows about the plants. He left them there for Mr. Yama, when he moved out. They both pretend he’s meaning to come pick them back up.” She shook her head, before almost seeming to perk up at the mention of the clocks. “What about clocks?”
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“But I want to carry more.” He frowned as he looked over her, tilting his head when she still refused him. He sighed gently and nodded. “That does make sense then. They just both like to joke about it?” He asked gently, following her out as he dragged his stuff behind him. His eyes fell to the ring on his finger.
“He said ‘remember the clocks…’” Tali’s eyes suddenly narrowed as he looked over her. “What sort of cult are you dragging me into?” He joked, smirking.
“You’ve got a bag, too. I’m fine.” She started down the street, falling into step beside Tali once he was walking. “But yeah, they tend to joke about that, sort of.” When he accused her of dragging him into a cult, she shook her head, huffing a breath of air somewhat like a laugh. “It’s a running joke with my friends and family. I’ve had a…love for clocks since I was eleven or so, and I picked up an old and broken clock at a thrift store. I fixed it up, and something about making a broken thing work again…I was hooked.”
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He sighed deeply,shaking his head. “I may never understand your family.” He joked, smiling playfully at his feet. When she explained her fascinations with clocks he nodded gently. “I get that. Making broken things work is satisfying.”
He fell silent for a long time before looking at her. “My fascination is black onyx.” He told her, not really expecting her to ask so he would just tell her. “I like the way it gleams, the way it reflects light and is said to have properties that absorb bad spirits.” He grinned. “And it’s pretty… so pretty… it can be sharpened to kill… blood and onyx is pretty too.” He laughed softly, shaking his head. “I shouldn’t be saying these things i apologize.”
I fix broken things because it’s easier than fixing myself. Loving onyx seems fairly normal. She watched him as he talked about the stone, the harsh emotionless ness on her face softening as she listened. “No, don’t apologize. It’s nice, learning about things other people love. Hobbies and fascinations are like fragments of a person’s soul. Things they don’t just say.” She said, looking forward again as though trying to hide the ‘look’ on her face.
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He bit his lip. “Yeah but… I think I’m a little messed up up in my head.” He murmured gently, tapping his head. “Onyx and blood is my favorite aesthetic. It’s just… pleasing to my soul.” He murmured, shrugging. “Onyx was assigned my spiritual stone, meaning anyone who came to, or did, worship me as a deity accepted that onyx meant Tali.” He murmured. “Onyx is my talisman.”
“Like I said, fragment of your soul. It’s important to you.” She adjusted the bags of takeout on her arms, trying to keep them off of her burn scars and not having a whole lot of luck. “There’s nothing wrong with being messed up in the head, anyway. I’ve met, and know, plenty of people who are.” She looked up at him, her eyes flickering over his face for a moment. “Blood is plenty aesthetic, anyway. I’ve got plenty of experience with it.”
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He nodded a little too curtly, biting his lip as he watched her struggle with the bags. “Let me carry those please… I don’t want you hurting yourself or reopening that cut.” He murmured, placing a gentle hand on her arm after shifting the bags onto his forearms. “Mm I’m glad you think I’m ok and normal and like blood as an aesthetic too, but right now I care more about you hurting yourself. You can drag my suitcase behind you if you want to help with something just please let me take the bags.”
She sighed, holding out her hand for the suitcase. “Fine. But only because the scars are being finicky today.” She said, as though there would be other times, times where she wouldn’t let him take the bags. “I’m not going to hurt myself, though. I have to have a high pain tolerance.” If she didn’t, removing her own bones, cutting into her own skin constantly, would be something she wouldn’t be able to do. She’d be willing to bet that if she were to break her finger right there, she would barely, if at all, flinch.
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Tali breathed a sigh of relief and placed the handle of the suitcase in her hand. It was incredibly light for something someone was living off of. He took the food bags from her and smiled triumphantly. “Ah finally! Thank you. You were worrying me. Yes you need a high pain tolerance but you don’t have to go out of your way to hurt yourself all the time.”
“It’s not even painful.” Osora said, shaking her head at his dramatics. “More just…odd, slightly uncomfortable.” She wrapped her and around the handle, resuming walking and making sure Tali was keeping up. “Sensitive skin there. That’s all.”
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“Painful or uncomfortable, either way it’s not good for you.” He replied simply. “Speaking from personal experience, it’s no fun.” He shuddered and sighed deeply. “I’ve met my fair share of strange people. People like us with weird abilities. People not human. And quite a few did not like me. Granted I was an asshole when I was younger but still. Put me in many uncomfortable situations.”
((So I can't stop thinking about it and now I have to ask. If Tali, say, lost a limb or something for whatever hypothetical reason, would he be able to take the form of another person who wasn't missing an arm, and thus regrow his arm?))
"You would think we'd find a way to band together. Protect others like us." She said, her voice carrying an undertone of something else as she eyed the burn scars, lifting her arm slightly to do so. "Instead of hurting them. Assholes or not, it's hard enough for the rest of the world to accept it, but to have someone facing the same problems decide they hate you…"
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(Ahaha. No that part of him would be incomplete. He has to have existing muscle and bone, etc. to work off of. If he were to take the form of someone missing an arm, however, he could transfer that muscle and tissue, etc. to another less noticeable part of his body. Say, longer fingers or more hair, etc. there are pretty big flaws in that tho that I’m trying to work out. It’s magic tho so like, maybe he can just shrink the tissue or whatever so it’s not as defined or something.)
“It’s not too fun is it? There was this one girl who lived in the same shrine as me. She was venomous or something so if she bit you you were screwed. She hated me.” He pulled down on the collar of his shirt to show her a rather nasty scar. Of course he had hidden it with his skin-stealing abilities, but for now he wanted to show her. “Got bit once. Not a fun experience. Ever had your nervous system and lungs shut down slowly?”
((Lmao makes sense. The question's just legit been keeping me up at night so I figured asking would be better for my mental health))
"Not in the same context, or exact same way, no." Osora said, tapping his arm to draw him to a stop so she could get a better look at the scar. That little furrow of her brows appeared again, this time just a bit different. More like worry. "Gods, that doesn't look like it healed quite right." She muttered, reaching up to brush her fingers over the scar. After a moment, she registered what she was doing, quickly letting her hand drop.
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(Haha I feel that man. I get those all the time. And then you end up wondering all about that character for so long and it does stuff to ya man.)
He laughed softly, closing his eyes and shuddering as her fingers brushed against the skin. “Don’t worry too much about it. It didn’t heal right but it still healed.” He replied, opening an eye and ruffling her hair.
((Yes. It helps with world and character building sometimes but most of the time it's a mess))
She ducked out of the way, shaking her head as she attempted to fix her hair and took a step back. "Badly. It's healed badly, is what it is." Her fingertips tingled slightly, which she knew was entirely in her mind, but she still found herself hiding her fingers by dragging her fingers through her hair to fix it, as though that reaction was somehow visible. She resumed walking, backwards so that she could face him until he started walking.
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(Haha true that fam. It’s a fun mess either way.)
“It’s another quality of her venom. It doesn’t heal right.” He murmured. “It eats at the skin and infects the wound.” He ran his fingers over the scarred skin once more. He wouldn’t hide it now. He had shifted too many times that day. He couldn’t even hide it if he tried.
Tali watched her, laughing softly as he began to walk once more. “Again, don’t worry about it. It’s healed now.”
She continued to watch him for a moment, before holding up her own incredibly scared arm. "We match." She said, the blood red of her eyes softening noticeably. "Scars caused by other people who could do things that weren't normal."
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He reached out a finger and traced a scar, his expression softening with hers. “One day, when I’m more comfortable showing myself to you, I’ll let you see all of my scars too. I don’t have as many as you do… nor are mine as painful or as bad, but I want you to see them… to show you that we are the same.”
As his fingers ran over the sensitive skin in the middle of her burn scars, she couldn't help the small shiver. Amped up nerve endings. "I look forward to the day." She said, the corner of her mouth twitching up just a tiny bit. "And regardless of the pain behind a scar, they're still scars. They still matter."
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He nodded gently, smiling at her. Though ready to kill on an instinct, Tali was soft towards those he liked. And he happened to enjoy Toki’s company very much. “Let me just say, your scars bring out your inner beauty. Yes, your outer beauty is unmatched by anything or anyone in this world, but your inner beautiful is far more dazzling.”