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Entry tags:
The Alternate Universe Meme
The Alternate Universe Meme
1. Comment with your character.
2. Others will reply with an AU idea.
3. Thread. Profit.
AUs can be any AU of any kind, but if you need ideas, I have this masterlist and this tumblr to get you started.
no subject
This is all going way too fast. He exhales, and his thumb hovers over the end call button. ...Why would he do that? The very thought of doing it has some weight nestling itself between his ribs where it's unwanted, and it's not the same sort of weight that he experiences when he thinks about seeing her again.
Funny, how both things remind him of weight. Weight, which is burdensome in the case of hanging up, but that weight that he feels when he imagines her dark hair, her pale eyes, or even what he thinks he heard as G-101 over the speaker... That's the same weight that makes him feel like he'll never tire, isn't it?
It's been ten years, and Akira has had time to digest that feeling. He's had time to race in Tour de France, where he thought of his mother as he pedaled for his dear life and won the yellow jersey in his very first Tour at age 22. Subsequently, it's where he won the white jersey to boot – where on the final stage, the thought of seeing Hajime in the crowds overcame him and burdened him with a weight so heavy of longing, for a moment, he thought it might crush him.
But instead, he absorbed it through his sweat-slicked skin. The weight powered his pedals, and he raised his head as he crossed the finish. ...Rainbow was not his color to wear over the past few years, but since then, it's been his desire. Yellow obtained, white earned, and this year...
This year, he's going to meet Hajime again. Akira brings the phone back to his ear, and he regains the grounding he needs to proceed.]
Aren't you in a rush... No matter how fast you go, if I'm not real, you won't find me at the end. [Somehow, he gets the feeling. Even if she gives no indication of her worries, she's not alone there.] Tachikawa's not a place I go regularly, so I don't know my way around... So I couldn't tell you where. I. Ammmm.
[He's stalling her, more than anything. There's easily something he can tell her about his location, and he's staring at it right now with a grin. Akira tilts his head as he runs his free hand through his hair, pushing it back with his fingers.]
Buuuut... You could try that Lumine building. You might find me, as long as you don't keep me waiting.
no subject
Hey, are we playing Hot and Cold? We totally are, aren't we? Okay, hold on!
[ A rush of wind slams into her -- Hajime takes flight and holds onto her phone, tightly. Certainly, the prospect of meeting someone she's only been able to talk to through text messages that never made their way across the bridge between worlds before strikes a chord in her. Fear, maybe? It mingles with the excitement that's been rooted inside her since she looked at Akira and knew, without a doubt, that even if it was a fluke, even if there was so much going against this, he wasn't a mistake in her life.
She sought him out after landing on Koriko, and she's going to do it again. The fear is overpowered -- she has a lot to say, and do. Did his hands get any better? Has he won Tour de France yet? There's been a question of "would he win?" He would. It's just a question of when.
The telltale figure of G-101 crosses over the building, and it glitters like stardust but feels like an imitation of something far more magical. Hajime's voice breaks through again, excited and abrupt. ]
Hot or cold? Cold or Hot? Hoooooooooooot! Or Cold? [ She whips her head around: up, down, side to side, but she continues floating over the rooftop of Lumine. Pink pingtails that look like they shouldn't move so similarly to hair toss about, moving organically as possible. It's hard to miss the lit up suit of armor, with the bright lights, and neon colors, but Akira's a little more difficult to spot from this angle.
Still, she tries. She's always tried to see him. ]
no subject
[There it continues, that smile on his voice that brims wider and wider the closer she gets. It's terrifying, being pursued, and Akira feels himself fading into the crowds. He's taller than everybody around him, true, but it's like a voluntary thing to keep out of sight – or maybe, it's to keep Hajime out of his.
She hasn't changed. He expected that. Sure, sure: Hajime has likely changed in some ways that are more subtle, but a person like her has a core that stays true to Hajime, just as his own core is truly Akira. A nonsense game at a time like this? Sure, he'll play. He'll stand back up and stand out from the crowd again, and he'll look up at the sky – he hears rockets, so she must be upwards.
The sky is bright, but the speck of Hajime above the department store is somehow brighter. He doesn't squint, but he stares. Akira soaks in the first sight of G-101 he's had in years, knowing that it's Hajime all the same and she's there, for real... Is this real? Is it?
...A game of Hot or Cold may as well serve as the judge. That's right, he'll play. He'll play along, and let this game prove to him what's real and what's not.]
You're warmer than before, but you're not thinking about it through my eyes just yet. You're too worked up! Gross!
[He snaps his teeth together in a smile.]
I see the Lumine building... and I see you. Knowing this, where am I...? Where am I, Hajime?
no subject
That's because I'm not you, Akira!
[ Not matter how much they'd bonded, they were themselves. There was no new conglomerate of the two of them, just Hajime and Akira, a pair who had once been strangers that now bore matching scars on different parts of their bodies. It's true -- she isn't him. She doesn't know where he's parked his bike or what he looks like, even. You can't hide Akira in a crowd, she realizes: he stands out in a crowd. It isn't necessarily because he's unusual looking, though that's apart of it. Akira's height places him above many of the heads in the crowd, and Hajime decides that there's no way she'll miss him.
The fact Akira can see her means that he isn't far, but he isn't close, either. She thinks to possibly ask him to describe where it is that he's situated, but she realizes that he wouldn't make this so easy on her, either. It's a game, after all, with high stakes: he wants her to find him on her own. ]
Let's see, Akirakira can see me but I can't see him...
[ G-101 spins, floating still. A thought strikes her, and she pulls the phone away, but not before turning up the call volume, and putting him on speaker. ]
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakiraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
[ Depending on how far away he is, she should be able to hear the echo from his end, she thinks ]
no subject
She's not him, and that's just normal. What he expected her to do with that request is something smart, tactical, thoughtful, and Hajime doesn't let him down. She clicks at her phone and he wonders if she's hanging up all the way up there, but when she holds it away from her and calls out to him, it becomes clear what she's doing. What Hajime will hear is a distance just close enough for her voice to hit the speaker of his phone faintly, so she'll hear it from that end. This also means that her voice is loud enough to turn heads all around.
And faintly, from Akira's end, is the confusion of Tachikawa's citizens that surround the cyclist.]
"Gatchaman...? Did she just say Akira?"
"Look! It's Hajime!"
[The attention on Hajime, however, has Akira slinking back on reflex. He steps away from the crowd of people semi-frozen in their busy tracks, back toward the wall of a surrounding building where his bicycle is propped. And belatedly, he realizes he inadvertently isolated himself... Being mixed with the crowd was the most concealed place to be, wasn't it? The all-rounder groans, and his voice is more of a hiss than before – it seems he doesn't want the surrounding people to get the idea that he's on the phone with their beloved Gatchaman, now that he's realized they all know her and regard her fondly.
Because of course they do.]
Do you have to be so noisy?!
[...Akira thinks to point out that everybody's looking at her now, but somehow, he gets the feeling that she doesn't mind. And he, too, has grown used to audiences... But not off his bicycle and out of his element. At this rate, she'll spot him and come right down to him so that everybody sees who this Akira is – him! Guilty by association, and Akira feels all he can do is await whatever vomit-inducing scene comes next. Vomit-inducing, dizzying, heart-thudding, nerve-wracking... What is with this mess of sensations, anyway? Akira holds the phone away from his mouth so that he can catch a deep breath without it being too apparent. This doesn't scare him.
It just makes him feel. The moment is real around him, as vivid as a race taking place in a sea of sunflowers all facing the same direction, that exhilaration of the moment... That's what it is.]