Growing Up - a Karen pseudo-route (12/28)

[Kyler Thatch]

I'm curious as to what happened while Hisao was still at the pool last night, but I get the feeling that detail was left intentionally hanging as a sort of extended cliffhanger.

[Mirage_GSM]

Well, seeing as he doesn't even know the girl's name it's unlikely they talked at all.
Maybe he turned tail and ran?

[Comrade]

couldn't resist

i like it so far.

[Jaspirian]

In the third installment, we discover that Hisao is delusional and has dreamed up personalities for European countries; Shizune is Germany, Hanako is Russia, and Misha could only be Slovakia.
Can the forbidden love between Hisao (master of romance) and Karen (large European landmass) ever come true? Find out next time, when we discover that Karen's disability is that she's a country supporting several million inhabitants.

[Comrade]

In the third installment, we discover that Hisao is delusional and has dreamed up personalities for European countries; Shizune is Germany, Hanako is Russia, and Misha could only be Slovakia.
Can the forbidden love between Hisao (master of romance) and Karen (large European landmass) ever come true? Find out next time, when we discover that Karen's disability is that she's a country supporting several million inhabitants.

well. too bad that's the Zoroastarian Satrapy of Merv, definitly NOT in Europe, usually gets eaten by the greens, on a rare occasion the Khazars.
conspiracy???

[Jaspirian]

The shocking twist is unveiled!

"Hisao, I'm in Europe. You have to believe me!"
[Let her be overrun]
[Perish in battle]
[Play 3 soldier cards and beat the tar out of Shizune]

[Comrade]

The shocking twist is unveiled!

"Hisao, I'm in Europe. You have to believe me!"
[Let her be overrun]
[Perish in battle]
[Play 3 soldier cards and beat the tar out of Shizune]

Also, unfortunately that's exactly where the mongols show up when they start raping 'n pillaging.
This is fun! But i fear off topic. I did have an idea of making a CK2-Ks crossover but meh

[Kyler Thatch]

"Hisao, I'm in Europe. You have to believe me!"
[Let her be overrun]
[Perish in battle]
[Play 3 soldier cards and beat the tar out of Shizune]

[>Play 3 soldier cards and beat the tar out of Shizune]

"This is for taking Australia, bitch!"

[Jaspirian]

I can’t sleep.

The moon is shining through my curtain and it’s making everything black and white. The shadows of my pill bottles look like looming gravestones.

I can’t sleep.

Sometimes my medication does this to me—forces me into long, sleepless nights—but tonight feels different. There’s a weight on my chest, right over my heart. My scar aches: someone saw. No one seemed to have heard today but I might not be as lucky tomorrow. I feel restless. From the moment I heard about it the only good thing Yamaku seemed to offer was a fresh start, but even that seems to be eluding me.

I can’t sleep, and my heart is throbbing. Maybe the Nurse was right; I need that exercise. I need to swim. I tear myself from my covers and get dressed. This time I bring a towel. Why did my parents give me a towel if I didn’t have a bathing suit? Actually, it’s not that surprising. Guys my age probably keep a bathing suit around; maybe they just assumed I had one and never bothered to look. Wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened.

No matter what I do I can’t get my mind off the girl I saw last night. It feels like we stared at each other for hours, both surprised that someone else had invaded such a peaceful scene. I couldn’t even manage to say something—hello, at least, or an apology for disturbing her—before she disappeared into the girls’ locker rooms. I don’t even know her name.

And I think I want to.

It doesn’t take me that long to reach the gymnasium this time around, and I even feel a little better having moved my legs. My chest feels less heavy, but the worry is still there at the back of my head. I need to find this girl and… and what? Talk with her, convince her not to tell? What possible leverage could I have? I’m at her mercy.

Lock, key, halls, changing room. I change into my borrowed bathing suit but don’t bother taking off my shirt; I already know what I’m going to find.

She’s underwater at first, but quietly breaks the surface after a moment of close watch. One hand extends from the deep holding a swor—no, holding nothing. Empty and wet. Then the rest of her follows and she looks in my direction. I feel frozen like I was last night. It doesn’t seem real. This girl seems otherworldly and strange to me, but somehow beautiful. She takes a deep breath and climbs from the water without breaking eye contact. She dries herself off with a towel and I just watch her. I just observe without speaking a word, and I don’t know if I could if I tried. Then she shakes her hair out slightly and pauses, facing me.

Neither she nor I say a word. There is just her, and me, and the moon, and the water.

And perhaps I understand something more about the people who believe in magic.



She is gone like she was never here and I feel like I’m catching my breath for the first time since I entered. The moon is hidden behind the clouds and the water is murky, but I don’t hesitate. My shirt comes off and then it’s straight into the pool.

It’s not until the whole of my body is submerged that I realize how much I’ve missed the water. Trips to the beach or to pools are a relic of my childhood and I’d forgotten what it was like. Slowly I begin to remember what water means.

I remember reading once that water is the purest imitation of nature, and I believe it. The first time I saw my parents truly frightened for me was when I drifted to a dangerous part of the beach and had to endure being tossed and rolled in waves before they could rescue my 10-year-old, crying self. The couple cuts I sustained were quick to heal but the impression of futility against nature never disappeared. To struggle against water whose motion I can only begin to comprehend and be both reminded of my own mortality and impotence… it’s frightening and frustrating. It’s hell.

The last time I saw my parents scared must have been at the hospital when the doctors pronounced my condition. I feel ten again, tossed and turned and powerless. It’s like being pummeled by waves again but there’s no one to rescue me, no way out of the water. When Iwanako confessed I was dragged into the ocean and I’ll never come back to shore.

I close my eyes and just let myself go. “Dead Man’s Float,” they call this in English. If only I could pick up the material so well as I can absorb silly little turns of phrase. You’re supposed to be able to float like this forever, as long as you don’t fall asleep. It’s scary to think about: if I had a heart attack right now, I’d probably drown. Same if I fell asleep. I take a deep breath and push below the surface, till even the sound of fluorescent lights from the changing room are replaced by the noises of this underwater world. I wait there, lungs silent, until all I can hear is the irregular pattern of my own heartbeat.

A boy alone with his condition. A boy dying of a broken heart.

It might be poetic if it wasn’t so stupid.

[Solistor]

Achievement Unlocked: Sniper
Catch a fanfic update as soon as it's posted.

[Jaspirian]

Sniper, no sniping!

[Solistor]

Sniper, no sniping!

[Mirage_GSM]

My scar aches: someone saw...
...
I need to find this girl and… and what? Talk with her, convince her not to tell? What possible leverage could I have? I’m at her mercy.

Uh... Don't you think you're laying it on a bit thick?
It's not like she has any reason to tell anybody about his scar. She doesn't even know his name. And even if she did it wouldn't be the end of the world.

[Jaspirian]

Uh... Don't you think you're laying it on a bit thick?

Absolutely.

Factors leading to being a complete ham:
1) Being a teenager
2) Being an only child
3) Being extremely self-centered

The motivation I'm specifically mentioning here is that he doesn't want to be a freakshow, "that guy with the heart defect." He values the opportunity to hide his disability and is afraid it will be taken away from him. You see the very same fear of revealing his heart problem in several of the arcs where it's not forced out of him.
He's young. So it goes.

[Comrade]

In the third installment, we discover that Hisao is delusional and has dreamed up personalities for European countries; Shizune is Germany, Hanako is Russia, and Misha could only be Slovakia.
Can the forbidden love between Hisao (master of romance) and Karen (large European landmass) ever come true? Find out next time, when we discover that Karen's disability is that she's a country supporting several million inhabitants.

You lied to me