[Moriko]

✚ Seeking Freedom ✚

It was almost insufferable to sit in the classroom now that Moriko had found a pair of legs that she could always be with. Luckily she had a different distraction now that she had a fully functional mindscape between herelf and Sumire. A massive canvas of blue sky that shifted into a crimson sun setting on the far side eternally placed on the horizon. A ball in her hands being bounced as she prepared to shift along with the groove of the wind that blew around the two. A single bounce and she would dash forward at an insane speed, for an academy student, a cloak billowing from her shoulders - herself made material - as she tried to slip forward and leap to dunk the ball into the ring up in the air.

It would even the score if she managed to make the goal and she was oh so confidant. A smile growing over her mostly Tanuki-like face. A giggle carrying over the entirety of the land somewhat impossibly, "Best distraction from class ever! Right Sumimi? Imagine if a place like this is real out there! I wanna find it!"

Her enthusiasm for the idea alone of getting out and exploring was clear. It wasn't the first time that Moriko had complained about the state of affairs they were in, as they barely even got to explore their own city let alone the world. She wanted to go running not sit in a lecture.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

That impatience and lack of care for the classroom environment was something that Sumire had always maintained—she’d never given a whit for textbook learning, spending most of her days daydreaming in the corner about bank heists and the efficacy of international drug cartels. Whereas before she had to rely solely on her own imagination to draw her through hours of tedium, she now had a constant companion and space to play in. She could remain seated at her desk carefully scratching at schoolwork, but all the while running around the mindscape she shared with Momo, talking about nothing and everything for hours and hours on end. Sumire leapt up, trying to smack the ball from Momo’s hands, but the tanuki girl was too quick and her fingertips only grazed the side of it before it swished through the net. As soon as it hit the ground Sumire grabbed it, twisting in place with deft movements to circle around Momo and try to get her own shot in. "It’s just so tedious,” she said, panting with exertion—a strange feeling to be having in her mind, but not in her physical body. In the classroom, she took notes on the rope escape technique and its applicable uses. "What are we learning here that we couldn’t learn faster and better out there? I wish we could do missions or something already. Get out and do something of value to anyone.”

Moriko -- 243

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ Shackle Snapper ✚

It was almost as insufferable for Moriko as it was for Sumire to be stuck in this position. Well no, it was maybe worse? Moriko cared about freedom in all regards, and learning was a kind of freedom too! That didn't mean that Moriko benefitted from being here, and she certainly didn't want to stay here any longer then she needed to. That wasn't something she could control by herself though, her partner in all needed to be the one to conclude that it was time to move, and as the two continued their game inside the mindscape - their shared soul, Moriko stopped to cock her head at the statement.

"Then Momo thinks we just go no? More adventure outside, I bet Sumi knows a way to get to it too. We just gotta run for it for now don't we?" Moriko would ask as she went back to bounce the ball after it landed through the hoop up on their court. The location shifting a large almost map like image appeared inside of the mindscape, their feet hovering well above as if water-walking over a a clear glass area. The areas of Iwagakure that they explored being clear from a street top down view, the other sections blurry at best like an imagined image rather then the real deal.

"Momo can point out the path out if you need me to Sumi!" The tanuki girl would state with a happy smile before pointing to their current location at the school with a mixed half and half of blue and red, their eye colors, sifting there on the 'map'.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

Sumire had little in the way of moral inhibition—there was an odd distance that she felt from most people, a distinct disconnect from the standard human experience that she had never been able to bridge. What kept her in check was pragmatism: the idea that her actions had consequences, and those consequences would be frustrating and inconvenient for her in everyday life should she be caught doing the things she wanted to do. Momo said what she was thinking, but louder and more assertively. Sumire wanted to just go—Momo said just go, just run for it, so clearly and so plainly that Sumire was forced to wonder why she had ever hesitated at all. The game paused as the ground shimmered beneath her feet, transforming into a top-down view of Iwagakure as if looking through the bottom of a glass boat into the water below. They were in the academy, which Sumire could clearly see: paths were mapped out to and from the academy, Sumire’s apartment, and the Ha clan compound. The library, the grocery store, the training fields; the gates of Iwagakure that Sumire had sprinted through in an addled haze the day that she and Momo had cemented their bond. In the classroom, Sumire quietly raised her hand and excused herself to the restroom, then slipped out the academy’s back door and began wandering the streets, utterly uncaring that yet another disciplinary slip would be mailed to her brother for the umpteenth time. Sumire practiced what she’d been practicing as she walked, her mind split between her shared mindscape with Momo and the movements of her muscles: the utter precision required by the Step Method, refining her movement to increase her speed on a fundamental level. "Show me,” Sumire said, ready to follow whatever directions Momo laid out for her without question.

Moriko -- 308

LAIKA OF THQ

[Moriko]

✚ Following the Leader ✚

With a chuckle Moriko would wrap herself around Sumire's mental self, enveloping her in a warm sense of togetherness that the two shared when actively relying on one another. Moriko didn't quite understand her connection with Sumire, but the two shared an unmistakable bond that let them function as one. The two would sink onto the street below and as it the vision was overlaid a bit they would have vision of the world in front of them. A phantom feeling of motion directing Sumire down the streets of the village. Towards what destination? Momo had no clue, they hadn't set one. A market was a good start though... no?

"Momo isn't sure where we are going specifically, so we go to the unexplored parts! Market time for Sumi and Momo!" Moriko would mentally cheer before hoppping to it, the phantom feeling of motion clearly trying to lead Sumire to the northwest of their current direction. In the mindscape Moriko was more shifting the map around to get where the two wanted to go, it was not anything crazy in truth. Like showing someone where to move, but given their unique situation it was a bit different. The lack of a physical body to run alongside Sumire being the largest of these.

---

TAG ✚ Hex: #f0a461 ✚ Notes?

tempbyai

[kagayaku sumire]

It was all very metaphysical—there was no real Sumire in the mindscape, no physical sensation for her brain to understand and correctly process—but when Momo wrapped herself around Sumire she felt, very acutely, like she was being hugged, the kind of full-body hug that warmed you up from head to toe. Sumire’s mental focus was now split three ways: the mindscape, the precision of her movements to bring her to greater speed, and the perception of the mindscape overlaid on the world in front of her, navigating the map mentally at the same time she navigated the world physically. If she thought too hard about it she was wont to give herself a headache, so she embraced the insanity of it instead—though she opted to scale up to go over rooftops instead. With less foot traffic to elbow her way through, Sumire could pick up speed, allowing the careful movements of her musculature to allow her to run faster, scale higher, pivot more acutely. "To the market,” Sumire echoed. She roughly knew the way, so she let her feet and Momo’s influence carry her there over rooftops, picking up speed minute by minute as she got used to the mental strain of her exacting movements. Northwest was their direction, so northwest Sumire ran, completely giving herself over to Momo’s impulses: where Momo wanted to go, Sumire would run, pushing as hard as she could to get them there as fast as possible.

Moriko -- 244

LAIKA OF THQ