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un: younghuman ✦ text ✦ voice ✦ video

What?

[Her voice isn't in the hall, he realizes, pivoting on his heel to stare in continued bewilderment at his coat. Paul delves into his pocket and slips the Omni out, colouring lightly when he realizes the device is active.]

I apologize - this is Paul. It seems as though our Omnis connected, and I didn't realize...

[He runs his fingers through his hair, caught on his back foot in a way he strives not to be.]

That was a nice song. The one you were singing.

[And as Ochako hurries down her own home's hallway towards the front door, she blinks when opening the door and no one is there. What the heck? Hearing a voice behind her suddenly, though somewhat distant, Ochako whirls around and furrows her brows as she suddenly gets a little guarded. Thankfully, as she prowls back to the kitchen, her tension leaves her when she hears Paul's voice and beelines for her Omni. Lord, that scared her for a bit there...]

Ah, Paul-kun!! Ehehe, you startled me a little bit, but it's fine, these sorts of accidents happen sometimes with tech like this. I've accidentally called people on my phone back home when I sat on my phone or something... [Butt-dialing. It can happen anywhere, any time.]

Eh, song? Oh!! Oh, that one...aah...you heard? [Ochako's cheeks get a little pinker from embarrassment.] It's really special to me--or, um...our class. One of our friends wrote it, and we all performed a song and dance number for the cultural festival back home.

[She's being gracious about it, which should make things better, but only seems to make them worse. The tinge of pink has spread to the tips of his ears, thankfully hidden by his hair, as he shuts and locks the front door before returning to the kitchen with Omni in hand.]

It's still difficult to adjust to things that can turn themselves on.

[He's overcome most of his prejudice about machine thinking, and an Omni is no machine to boot, but this is even more deeply ingrained. He props the device up on the kitchen counter against a bread box he pulls forth for that purpose and gives the pan he's frying in a quick stir, which is an excellent excuse to avoid eye contact.]

It sounded like it might be...once I realized it was you - [and sang along to the refrain -] - it does sound like - a song someone from your school might write.

[An image comes to him, unbidden: Midoriya and Bakugou, dressed up in glittering stage uniforms, performing - ?]

...all of you performed?

[Likewise, her face is rather pink from the embarrassment of the Omni's error, but more so at being caught singing. It's not like she thinks she's a bad singer or anything, but Ochako didn't anticipate an audience this time around, so she's a bit flustered. Who else could have heard her?!]

U-Unfortunately it doesn't get any easier, but...um, I-I don't think they're really supposed to turn on by themselves, unless your Omen does it? I think?? I'm pretty sure I heard that somewhere.

[Ochako doesn't remember, mostly because her own Omen is relatively an "as needed" sort of creature. The large bear appeared once after Ochako was finally able to summon it, then hasn't appeared more than once or twice since. She's probably hibernating, honestly, considering the weather... And likewise, Ochako is continuing her own cooking, too, still flitting about the kitchen and just raising her voice to be heard.]

Mm, in a way, yeah. The whole class participated, since that's what the assignment is...if you can really call it that, but some people were on the dance team, like myself, Deku for a short while, Mina and Tsuyu... Then there was the people playing instruments like Bakugou on the drums, Momo on the electric keyboard, Tokoyami and Kaminari-kun on the backup guitars...and Jirou was the lead vocalist and guitar player!!

The others also set up the, well...set! Aoyama-kun helped with the lighting and was the, ehehe...disco-ball...Shoji and Deku helped with lifting and other stage design stuff after a while... [She's listing them all off on her fingers before slurping up a bit of her cream stew she's making. Hm...needs some more pepper.]

[Small mercies: no one else is in the apartment yet, Paul waiting for Kaworu to fetch Midoriya over to join them for a meal. It usually takes some time, even though it's only across the street - Paul encourages them to spend time as a pair without him periodically. He thinks it's good for all of them.

And he's once again been proven right, because there's no one here to catch him picturing Deku participating in a dance team. Bakugou on the drums makes sense, though, based on what Paul knows about 21st century Earth bands.]

That must have been fun.

[His tone is a little softer as he tilts the pan, adding a splash of vinegar to the far side.]

Your class sounds like it's very close. [They all seem to have a dozen stories like this.] Or you all work well together, at least.

Did you know I never went to a school? [Lightly, but he doubts Midoriya would have shared that, protective of other's privacy as he is.] I learned at home. I never thought I was missing anything. Now I'm wondering if I should have tried to convince my teachers to sing a song with me.

[Everything Paul could imagine is probably correct, in all honesty... Deku is both good and bad at dancing, having done well enough to partake in a portion of the dance performance before he was ~~fired~~ moved onto the stage team because his movements were just too stiff and jerky. Probably because of his outstanding stage fright, but...y'know. At least the performance was adored by pretty much everyone who saw it, and it made Eri remember how to smile after everything she'd been through with Overhaul and the Hassaikai.]

It was a ton of fun, and you're right. [Ochako clicks the burner off as the thick, creamy stew looks to be finished, setting it aside to cool a little bit. She'll probably set it to "warm" once it gets closer to when Bakugou stop back home to eat...and hopefully stay the rest of the day, too, if it's too cold to bear.] We've all been through some really, um...tough situations, and I think it brought us all closer together, too. We learned how much we could rely on and trust each other, and became friends very quickly. It also helped that we lived together after a while in a class dorm on campus, too. It almost started to feel like a second family in a way...I really love them all so much, and I miss the ones that aren't here. I keep thinking about them, and how they might be doing, too.

Eeh?! R-Really?! [She opens her mouth, leaning back toward the Omni, but when he elaborates, Ochako hums.] Ah...so you were homeschooled then. I know that's a valid way for families to teach their children, especially if they want a much more, um...private experience, but yeah. You miss the socialization of being with your peers. I-I don't think I could do it, and not just because I'm not all that smart academically, ehehe!

I just...really like being around people. When everyone is happy and smiling, I feel almost relaxed. Content. I've been that way since I was really, really little.

[Ochako has an attitude positive enough to melt away the traces of awkwardness like concentrated sunlight. He finds a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth even though she's speaking of the people she misses - she somehow makes it still sound warm and hopeful, like their memories are no more than one remembered song away.]

It wasn't that I was lonely. There were always people there, if I wanted them. [Another swish of a pan being stirred.] Only none my age. I'd see them, sometimes, when my parent had people visiting, but it wasn't like what you're talking about.

[He's relaxed enough to go into more detail, trekking down his less well trod paths of memory.]

But I know what you mean about liking being around people. I think that's why I like living in a building with apartments more than being in a house on my own. Even if I had to do more security checks before we moved in, and of course, it's more difficult to keep track of the comings and goings of the other residents -

[What does she care about his security protocols? Is he trying to bore her? This is the kind of thing he'd know better about if he was socialized with his peers.]

- what kinds of things did you all do when you were living together?

[She sure is like that, isn't she? It was the same when she met Izuku, too. Ochako just has that sincere and blunt honesty that comes out unfiltered. Most of the time it's a good thing, but she sure has unintentionally said some mean or rude things once or twice because of her lack of a filter... Or she just gets too excited. But being a simple girl living a, erm...rather modest childhood, memories and friendships mean more to her overall than something material. Of course a poor girl dreams of riches, but the sentimental value of things outweighs a lot of those material goods.

Like a loved one's smile, or laugh, or a performance and song shared with friends. Seeing a little girl remember how to smile...those are invaluable to Ochako, and she'll treasure them forever, but also share them with anyone willing to listen, because those sorts of riches ought to be handed out freely.]

Eh, well I'm glad then, that you weren't lonely, Paul-kun. [Please excuse her, she's going over to the toaster oven, to make some cheese bread to go with the cream stew. A few clicks and dials and it's heating up.] Mm, there's definitely pros and cons to living in both spaces - most of my life I lived in an apartment of some sort...that's pretty much the way most of the city living is structured in Japan.

[There are, of course, suburban areas where houses are, obviously, but the closer to major cities one gets, the most compact the spaces become.]

Oh!! Well, mostly we just did our daily routines and stuff, a little different depending on the person. We had a kitchenette area, so people who knew to cook and bake could use it - mostly Sadou-kun and Bakugou, and Momo-chan for her teas... And we'd study in the common area or our rooms together sometimes, watch movies in the common area or play video games on days off cuz Sero and Kaminari-kun brought over their systems from home...

A lot of it was just us studying, though, since we were still in school and taking lessons, y'know?

[Paul can picture the things Ochako describes in lightly shaded sketches, the faces of her classmates filled in with composites of other teenagers Paul has met in Trench, none of them distinct besides those he's met. It could be a haunted image, but it's more like the blurring of clouds in a vaulted blue sky, and like clouds, he finds it easy to project on them.

Not new faces, this time, but new activities: the hum and bustle of the halls being prepared for visiting dignities, the pounding stomp of military drills being carried out, the raucous hubbub from the barracks on days of celebration.]

Sometimes you all sound more like apprentices in a guild hall than students in a school, the way you talk about it. Not that it's a bad thing - the opposite, in my opinion.

There's more discipline to it than schools seem to have in the shows. Although - and this isn't a bad thing either - I think a lot of your Earth entertainment isn't very preoccupied with realism.

[It's nice to talk to someone while doing a chore. There isn't always time for someone to be around when Paul does, but it reminds him of when he was first learning. (Warm hands, scuffed nails, a towel handed to him to wrap a pan's hot handle -)]

I suppose some people think the little things, the day to day, aren't as exciting as dramatics. I might have been imagining...I don't know, if you'd ever had to put on that school festival to raise money to keep your school open, or found out a fellow students was a long lost prince. Things like that.

[Ochako blinks and then starts to laugh, coughing a little bit because she was taking a small nibble of her stew to make sure it was properly cooked and seasoned. Now that's a first, being called something like an apprentice, though...not too far from the truth when they do their Internships and Work Studies with actual Pros in the field. And considering the UA teachers are all Professional Heroes as well, being called in whenever needed...yeah. It does sort of sound like that in a way, huh?]

I never really thought of it like that, but you're kind of right, ehehe!! We're all learning from experienced professionals who are teaching us skills they've honed for years, as well as the basic rules, regulations, and laws we have to follow as well. It does sort of sound like an apprenticeship, huh? [She giggles softly, thinking about the other courses UA has to offer, too.] But UA doesn't just teach Heroics... there's the Business Course, Support Course, and General Studies, of course.

And even though UA is a Hero Academy mostly, it is still just a high school at its core...we still do things in most school cirriculums, though with a slight twist, ehehe... [Going camping, having their cultural festival, the sports festival as well...those are all things normal, Japanese schools do - UA just makes it all the more extra.] And education is very important where I'm from, especially for the Hero Course. If we don't get good marks, or really learn what we need to...it doesn't effect just us. We could be putting someone's life in danger, or ourselves and our comrades...and puts extra burden on the people who are responsible for us. Teachers and other Pro Heroes we may be working with.

TV tends to, eehh....embellish a lot. To make it more fantastical and entertaining...or dramatic. American shows do this all the time...

[Ochako could...never. EVER be a part of an American High School, she thinks. It seems horrible and everyone seems to just be miserable and aggressive as heck, too. Surely that's also an embellishment? ~~It's not.~~]

Hahaha, well it did come as a very big surprise to know just how rich Yaomomo-chan was!! The ones that went to her huge manor house...uwaah, I'm a little jealous~! I bet they were treated like royalty cuz Momo-chan is so sweet. Oh, and Todoroki-kun could technically be considered a prince, maybe? He's so reserved and cool...and he's the son of the now Number One Hero in Japan, a-after All Might had to retire...

Ehehe, I guess what I'm trying to say is... [She pops into the video feed with a wink.] We're all a little quirky in our own ways~!

Edited 2022-12-08 15:22 (UTC)

[There's a short pause where Paul processes on his end of the conversation, sifting through layers of translation to identify the joke being made -

- and his laugh is bright and easy when it comes, pleased to be startled. His hands, visible on the camera's feed, still while he works through it. One disappears out of frame as he reaches for a seasoning shaker.

He doesn't know if Ochako realizes how much information she shares so readily. It's nothing excessive, nothing that would inconvenience or embarrass anyone, but it's vivid and detailed. Maybe that's how people are when they don't live in the shadow of perpetual distrust. It still feels like a privilege to be treated as someone she can speak to like this.]

I like that.

[It's a hammy joke, and that's the charm. Paul files it away for future use.]

So these - 'royalty' type people - they went to high school with you.

[He's learned (some of) his lesson about assumptions, and is going to ask Midoriya privately later if Todoroki is accorded privileges of rank in a codified way. It sounds more informal than that, but you never know.]

So everyone is treated the same when it comes to education, depending on what courses they take...that is different. In my universe, they'd have been tutored at home. There are some public schoolhouses on Caladan, but most people come up in the trades of their families...which it sounds like is the case for some of you, like Todoroki-kun.

I don't know if he counts as long lost, exactly. Although he does strike me as someone who might end up getting lost.

[Perhaps it's because the information is so broad and mostly already known in her world that it just...can't really be used to weaponize against her. She's giving details about people who aren't here, either, and again isn't exactly useful in most cases. Besides, Paul is her very best friend's boyfriend - if Deku trusts him, then by default Ochako does. Maybe getting some points taken off here and there for certain...scenes he's made (mostly on Johnny Lawrence's part, of because Trench is, quite literally, a FUCKING NIGHTMARE), but overall she likes talking to him. And when it's the topic of her friends and how incredible they are, well...

She can gush for hours and hours.]

Mm, that's right. UA is technically a public high school that anyone can apply to and has the ability to join, but some get in on recommendations, like Momo-chan did, and others through taking the entrance exam, like Deku, me, and Bakugou did. I-I-I'm still amazed that I...I-I placed third overall in the entrance exam's top scorers...

[Honestly, most, if not all her rescue points were because she saved Deku at the end with Zero Gravity SMACK, but everything else feels so weird. To be put that high...it's a little jarring. In a good way.]

Pffft!! [Ochako snorts, laughing into her hand and snickering as her shoulders shake. Yeah...yeah...that definitely would be the case.] Mm, doing things in my world is a little bit different. Sure people often follow the steps of their families - like someone would the family business most of the time - but not everyone. Most people just want to do good for other people. That's usually the base of what people want when thy become a Hero, after all.

A True Hero.

[Because, as she's come to learn through her own two eyes, and the experience life and tragedy and war put her through...there's people that wanted this line of work for selfish reasons. Power, fame, money to use for themselves... People are still people, at their core, no matter what title they're given.]

[It's a good thing that Ochako can't see the disbelief on Paul's face when she seems so surprised about her high placement in the entrance exam's rankings. She might take it the wrong way; knowing the self-esteem of most teenagers, he'd almost put money on it, if anyone were going to take him up on that bet. It seems only natural to him that the highest achievers would cluster together, Ochako included - but then again, he doesn't know what the competition looked like. Perhaps it didn't favour her skills, and so the result is more surprising.

(An assumption he may be forgiven for: he believes all of Midoriya's friends are, of course, exceptional.

Including those who might get exceptionally lost, a joke whose success Paul tucks away like a golden feather in his cap.)]

It sounds...freer. [He admits, turning off the heat to the stove and setting the seasoned pan on a cold burner.] Being able to choose what you want to do with yourself, the path that suits you best when it comes to doing good in the universe.

[Much like Trench, although he knows that her world comes equipped with structures that don't exist here. Trench is one of the most truly free places he's even been in, for better or for worse. But it does make him think, and almost idly, he adds:]

I think I'd be a little frightened by that. What if I chose the wrong one?

You're lucky you scored so high on your exam. At least you know you chose the right path for you already.

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