Soft-Spoken Tigress

Independent OC RP blog for Sun Qīměi (凄美), daughter of the fourth emperor Sun Hao, Princess of Eastern Wu.

[anunwaveringdevotion]

[anunwaveringdevotion]

[anunwaveringdevotion]

"Dear Father,"

Dearest Father,

I hope you will forgive this selfish interruption. I know you are very busy lately, but I had hoped that a lighthearted note would help to ease your burdens just a little, though I may be overconfident in my under-practiced letters. I will resolve to work harder at lessons, if only to provide you with correspondence worth reading. 

I was told recently that your birthday had come and passed! I wish I had known beforehand, in order to give you my best wishes. Everyone is able to celebrate together at the New Year, but there’s something special about hearing good things on a day just for you, don’t you think? Perhaps that’s overconfident again, hmm… In any case, I suppose I pray for good things for you all year, but I will remember to do something next year, with certainty!

You seem to be working harder than ever these last few months, although it may be that I am only just noticing that spring is a busy time for everyone. Everybody is doing their best, and I think it’s to get the season off to a good start for the year to come. The bright sunshine is just the thing to lift your spirits after winter, and the gardens are just coming into bloom; perhaps we can spend a day outside soon, I know being cooped up inside is good for productivity, but not for the heart.

                                                     Please take care of your health,

                                                                         - Qimei

[aceofglasshearts]

An Interrupted Outing || { with anunwaveringdevotion }

[aceofglasshearts]

-

    Remorse over the results of his clumsiness continued to eat away at Asahi as he watched her, a subtle addition of sympathy joining guilt-wracked features.  His gaze dropped to his feet, ears listening intently to what the younger teen had to say.

    “Oh, no, it’s all right,” he replied quietly, understanding painting his tone of voice.  Though he was a little curious as to what conclusions the stranger had drawn about him, the high schooler silently decided that it was probably best if he didn’t know.  Besides, even if he asked, now wasn’t exactly the time for it.  ”I get that a lot.”

    Brown eyes glanced up, furrowed brows smoothing out and demeanour brightening upon hearing her request.  A hand raised before him in quiet protest to her bow, the significantly-taller youth feeling that the action was unwarranted.  Even if her mind had created some misconceptions about him, the girl hadn’t been rude or anything.  His hand dropped back to his side and tucked itself within his jacket pocket, large frame shifting slightly where he stood.  With a nod, he responded, “I have plenty of time.  I was just out for a walk, and anyway, showing you there is the least I could do.  Sorry—”

    The volleyball player’s apology was interrupted by the sudden question.  Asahi’s spine straightened and eyes widened in blatant curiosity as his memory replayed the middle schooler’s words, the rest of his attentions taking in her flustered introduction.  His divided concentration proved to work against him as he failed to catch the exact pronunciation of the foreign name.  ”Sūn Qǐ….mèi?”  Muted scarlet rose upon his cheeks as he attempted to sound out her name, desperately hoping that he wasn’t saying it completely incorrectly.  Chinese had never been the third-year’s strong suit.  Taking his hand out of his pocket, the ace straightened his arms at his sides, shoulders squared.  ”Azumane Asahi.  I’m a third-year high school student at Karasuno High.”

    Relaxing his frame slightly and dropping the tone of his voice in an almost conspiratorial manner, Azumane’s curiosity got the better of him.  ”I know what you mean, though.  About hitting balls over a net until you can’t anymore.  I play volleyball, actually, so…”  Sienna hues slid to the side as his self-consciousness kicked in.  ”So I get it.”  Did she also play, he wondered?  Maybe Sun Qimei played another sport entirely, but even if so, he could strongly relate to her musings.

[anunwaveringdevotion]

Was.. he blushing? Something about seeing that expression made her want to reach out... but she had more self-control than that, surely! "Ah, you're close; the Sūn is right, but it's Qīměi. Although, I know that the tones are hard for some, so you can think of it like..." Turning her back to him, she slowly traced out a few katakana in the air, " 'Chi-me-i', at least, that's how my classmates do it." Get it together, she mentally scolded herself, turning back around, he's not a puppy that you can just pet whenever you feel like it. He's an adu--

"...a third-year high school student at Karasuno High.”

Metallic hues widened slightly and her smile froze as the younger teen struggled to comprehend the brunet's words. He's... a high school student?! Her brain ran a mile a minute, translating his words both into English, and then into Mandarin, just to be sure that he'd said he was a high school student. Everything pointed that direction, and he'd definitely said Karasuno High-- And I called him ojisan!! I bet he's really mad about that; how could I have been so rude?!

No, no, she needed to keep calm; she couldn't show weakness in front of her senpai! "V-volleyball? Oh, I see! I played back in sixth grade, but my father didn't like all the bruising I came home with." There wasn't anyone on that team who could say she wasn't a dedicated player, it was one area where Qimei's stubbornness actually proved to be useful. Well, useful in the sense of keeping the ball in play, but so few of the other girls really seemed to have any interest in the sport. Oftentimes, the balls she managed to save just landed right back on the floor when her teammates decided it was impossible to play.

"It was a lot of fun," she chirped, pushing the frustrating parts away from the front of her memory, "but I switched to tennis so that he wouldn't worry so much. I still really like to watch it, though! I try to catch all of the Olympics matches, and I don't live very far from a gym in Sendai, so I go to watch if I have time." Maybe he knew of it? As a matter of fact, hadn't there been flyers up for a tournament of some kind? Adjusting her things, the eighth grader tried to appear ready to go, in case he was trying to be polite and wait. "Can I ask what position you play, Azumane-senpai?"

[pureandinfernal]

-

Awwww, that wasn’t much fun.  Giga Pudding was probably the highest on his list of desired puddings, but the alternative sounded even better than the ideas he’d thrown out there.

"All of them.  I want all of them."

[anunwaveringdevotion]

Ugh, her and her big mouth. Well, at least she could always rely on guaranteeing his silence with sweets. "Make me a schedule so I know how much of stuff to buy, okay? It'll be your fault if you eat it too fast, so don't come crying to me for more if you run out before the week is over."

Better buy something big for an extra, just in case.

Actually... maybe now would be a good time to get his opinion? "Okay, I'm going to ask you something, so don't laugh; try and be a good big brother for me. ...Do you think there's a good way to, I don't know, kind of casually get dad used to the idea that boys kind of exist? At least so he doesn't think about killing this one?"

[pureandinfernal]

-

"Vanilla.  Chocolate.  Caramel.  Rice.  Tapioca.  Giga."  This was turning out incredibly favourably.  It took way too much effort to get pudding around here (after he swiftly ate all of his rightful share, of course), so an offer like this was enough to keep him from butting his nose into his little sister’s business.

[anunwaveringdevotion]

Okay, that was all reasonable.  So six flavors of pudding, with two a day was twelve, so two of each flavor, and then she'd just get two more of his fav--

GIGA???

"Ge, I'm not getting you Giga pudding, I'd have to make that myself!" What if she messed it up, would she have to buy another pudding set? Did it have to come out perfect? "What about a nice raspberry mousse instead, or a key lime tart or something?"

[pureandinfernal]

-

"HEEEEYYYY, MISTER OLD JAPANESE DUDE!  MY SISTER—"

Wait.  Pudding?

She definitely just mentioned pudding.

"Is that a promise~?"

[anunwaveringdevotion]

"Of course, of course! You can trust me!" This was goddamn extortion, but what could she do? With him yelling like that, more than just her crush was going to hear it; she definitely didn't need their father asking questions.

"What kind do you want? I can go buy some right now, but you have to swear that you won't bring it up in front of bába ever, okay?"

[pureandinfernal]

-

“Ahem…”

[anunwaveringdevotion]

"Fan, don't! Look, I'll treat you to pudding for a week if you just stay out of it! Two a day, even!"

[anunwaveringdevotion]

[pureandinfernal]

"I’m gonna do it."

[anunwaveringdevotion]

"Don't you dare, I swear I'll never forgive you!"

[anunwaveringdevotion]

[0140140142-deactivated20131109]

when you like someone more than they like you

[anunwaveringdevotion]

aceofglasshearts liked your photo

[not-dumbufo-deactivated20140819]

[aceofglasshearts]

An Interrupted Outing || { with anunwaveringdevotion }

[aceofglasshearts]

-

    The crunch of glass and the scrape of metal interrupted their conversation suddenly, the high school student finding himself at a loss for words as the distraught girl looked down upon the wreckage that was her cell phone.  His face paled slightly, dark brown hues struggling at first to break away from the mess and eventually meeting orbs of distressed golden topaz.

    “Th-there…  Uhm…”  He began, an attempted reassuring smile of sub-par quality forcing up the corners of his mouth.  This poor girl was being met with so many problems in such a short amount of time…  First, being knocked into by Asahi himself, supposedly dealing with the trouble of a dying phone battery in a town she obviously wasn’t familiar with, and then the breaking of her phone entirely.  Thinking on this, he noticed — nearly for the first time — that she was wearing her school uniform on a day without classes.  It looked to be of really high quality and style, too…  Perhaps a private school somewhere?  Not only that, but given that and her location, did this young stranger maybe get unexpectedly stranded nearby the previous night and was on her way home?  He figured that he might be overthinking her choice in clothing, but if it were something like that, then she was having more than enough trouble without him adding to it.  And while he wouldn’t go so far as to assume as much, she looked really foreign, and her accent was a bit strange, so she might not even be from Japan at all.  If Asahi found himself in a situation where all of these things happened, he imagined that he might just combust from the stress of it all.

    “There’s a cell phone dealer not far from here, if you’d prefer that over buying one at a non-specialty store….  Karasuno’s shopping district isn’t very big compared to a lot of other places, and this is the middle of town, so…”  Azumane’s sentence trailed off in a somewhat subdued manner, guilt for his accidental carelessness eating away at him.  How could he make it up to her?  Should he draw a map?  Just give her verbal directions?  Escort her there himself?  Of course, he wouldn’t want to make the middle schooler uncomfortable with his presence, so he supposed the only thing he could do at this point was present her with options and await her decision.  Settling on that and reassuring himself that no matter what she chose, he’d probably be helping somehow, Asahi’s nervous smile gradually melted into a more genuine and hopeful expression.  ”I could give you directions, if you’d like?  Or I could walk you there?  Whatever you’re most comfortable with…”  His words dropped in volume uncertainly, a worried frown overtaking his features.  He probably sounded like a creep to such a young girl.  Even fellow high school students had nasty rumours about him floating around, even surrounding the most benign situations.

[anunwaveringdevotion]

I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry, Qimei repeated in her head, quietly sniffling as she reached for her bag to fish out a handkerchief. It wasn't like her makeup was going to stay in place after all of this anyway. Retrieving the soft square of cloth, the girl dabbed gently at her eyes, careful not to push any of her eyeliner into them. After a moment quietly listening to the older male, she started to feel a little guilty jumping to conclusions about him. He was actually pretty nice. At the very least, he seemed to be taking this whole thing really hard, and it sounded like he was honestly trying to help.

Taking a deep breath, she placed the pale fabric back into her purse, and picked up the shell of her shattered phone. "Sorry," the student apologized quietly, trying to brighten up her tone, "I think I misjudged you a little bit." Popping open the side, she removed the SIM card, battery, and microSD, slipping them into the small pocket of her uniform blazer for safe keeping and standing to discard the rest into a nearby recycling bin.

"You've been really nice," she continued, offering a small bow to match her apology, "and I was way off base with my first impression. If you've got the time to walk me there, I'd really appreciate it, but I completely understand if I've taken up too much of your time already." Straightening up, she left the serious expression in place as the little princess looked off to the side a bit, trying to ensure her composure as her mood started to swing from upset to embarrassed. "Have you ever had such a rough time that you just... I don't know, want to slam a million balls across a net? So many that you can't even swing your arm anymore?"

Her face reddened further as she realized that she'd spoken out loud, instead of carrying on the imaginary conversation in her head, and her small pigtails swung as she turned her attention back to her companion, already stuttering an apology. "I-I'm sorry! That must have sounded really weird, huh?" What the heck was she supposed to do now? The atmosphere was all kinds of tense; ugh, it was making her shiver. "M-my name is Qimei," she suddenly introduced, too caught up in the moment to be able to think of what else to do. "Sun Qimei! I'm a second year international student, studying abroad at Mihama Middle School in Sendai." Gods, could today get any worse?

[aceofglasshearts]

An Interrupted Outing || { with anunwaveringdevotion }

[aceofglasshearts]

-

    The victim of the collision was revealed to be a young girl, not even out of middle school, judging from her uniform and overall appearance.  She was obviously frazzled, and the high school third-year found himself stricken with a significant pang of guilt for running into such a small girl.  She seemed to bounce back energetically enough, but he still worried that he may have sustained a cut or scrape.

        A-ah… ‘Ojisan’…  Even to a child, I can’t look that old, right??

“Are you sure you’re okay?" He practically wibbled, distress showing through every aspect of his body language.  If Daichi had been present for this, there was little doubt in the volleyball player’s mind that he would have gotten hell for it on a multitude of levels.  Not that it was a very pressing thought; there were bigger (or rather, smaller) things to worry about.  "Th-there’s a clinic nearby if you need it, and a convenience store just down the next street to get band-aids or something!"

[anunwaveringdevotion]

He sure was a worrywart, wasn't he? The international student pulled herself to her full 157 cm, still as determined as ever to reassure the older male. "I'm totally fine," she insisted, small pigtails bouncing with energy. "My big brothers are a lot tougher on me than this!" Qimei politely neglected to mention that her brothers were probably half the size of the guy before her, but-- wait, this wasn't one of those perverts who mess with girls to get a look up their skirts or anything, right? The urge to tug the hem of her uniform skirt down was difficult to suppress, but the small girl decided that keeping her metallic hues on her... attacker? Stalker? Well, whoever he was, she had her eyes on him; that was for sure!

She took a reflexive step back, her expression hardly wavering from the smile she'd been wearing the entire time. "Oh, a convenience store? Do you know if they sell phone chargers there, ojisan? Mine's about to die, and--"

crrrruuuunnnnnch---

Oh no. No, no, no, nonononononono!! What was it with her luck today?! Tears began to form in the teenager's citrine orbs as she slowly craned her neck in disbelief to look at her shoes, the hinge of her phone snapping apart as though mocking her. "M-m-my..." she hiccuped, stepping off of the ruined device and dropping to her knees right there, in the middle of the sidewalk. If she didn't have scrapes at this point, she certainly did now, although those were really the least of her worries.

"H-hey, mister..." she breathed shakily, trying her best to keep her composure in front of this stranger, "i-is there s-s-somewhere around h-here I c-c-c-can get a new-w phone...?"

[aceofglasshearts]

An Interrupted Outing || { Open }

    Late Sunday mornings often found Asahi on the restless side.  That quiet lull between class days and club activities left him with something to be desired, though the break was always a welcome one, nevertheless.  Having a preference for finishing up any remaining homework assignments during the late afternoon or evening, the rest of the day was a matter of finding something to occupy himself with.

    Fresh air filled his lungs, large hands finding comfortable homes in his jacket pockets as he meandered into the heart of town — as much of a ‘heart’ as it was, at any rate.  The soft-hearted student was happy with the simplicity of the small community, and it wasn’t as though it was so small that everyone knew each other’s faces.  There was still comfort in relative anonymity without the hectic nature of a large city.

    The music in his earbuds played at a low volume, such as that it served more as subtle background noise while he peered through shop windows and let his gaze drift idly around the streets, rather than something loud and demanding of his attentions.  Quite a few people appeared to be out running errands that morning, and Asahi slowly began to feel a subtle self-consciousness over his relatively aimless stroll.

              Maybe I should stop to pick up something to eat…?  There’s a little café just around the corner…  Ahh, I knew I should have dressed for a run, instead.  This is a nice change, though.

   Shifting his focus of direction, the unusually tall youth’s pace picked up naturally, his thoughts beginning to wander as his thumb located the volume button on his music player and turned it up just a little more.  He neared the corner and made to turn it, darkly-coloured eyes drifting upward as his periphery caught a flash of movement.  The shiny wings of a particularly large crow gleamed in the sunlight as they carried the creature up and over a tiled rooftop, and Azumane wondered if he had interrupted the bird while it was trying to forage for food.  Those thoughts were completely interrupted by a sudden jarring thud, an earbud popping out as he stepped back to catch his balance, having felt the unmistakable sensation of running into another person.

    An apology flew out of his mouth almost as quickly as the collision itself, his eyes opening quickly after the initial shock of it wore off.  ”Sorry!!  I wasn’t watching where I was going.  Are you okay?”

[anunwaveringdevotion]

This was great. Juuuust great. Wanting to study abroad was a good thing, they'd said; you'll have fun in Japan, they said. While it was true that Qimei was enjoying her time here for the most part, her precious Sunday had just been one disaster after another. She'd decided on a visit to this small, out of the way little town, thinking it'd be nice to get out of the city for a day. She'd picked out one of her cutest dresses to wear too, but somehow, in the middle of the night, her grandfather's demon cat had gotten into her room and knocked it down to sleep on, getting thick, black cat hair all over it.

Having to rethink her outfit choice, cringing a little at only really feeling comfortable going out in her school uniform, she'd missed the express on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, and had instead ended up waiting forever for six express trains to pass hers. Six! The middle school second year had finally arrived, only to find that her phone charger must not have been plugged in all the way, because her battery was already half dead, and she'd been cringing in quiet fear that it was going to die on her before the day was even half-way over.

And then, when pulling out her wallet to pay for breakfast, she'd dropped her student train pass, and some stupid crow had flown off with it! Chasing the probably mite-infested bird, Qimei's curls had all but lost their life when she caught up with the thing, and now, here she was: train pass in hand, but knocked over by this- this house of a man! But she couldn't be rude to him, no matter what had happened; that wouldn't be right, and her mother in heaven would be so disappointed in her. Wiping away the beginnings of tears of frustration, the small tennis team member quickly got to her feet, bowing in embarrassment and apology.

"I'm sorry!" Qimei cried, nearly in unison with the huge male, brown waves bouncing as she bowed over and over. "T-there wasn't any way you could have seen me there, all hunched up on the ground at all. I'm fine though, see?" A energetic fist was formed, and a bright, only slightly forced smile spread across her lips, "I'm a lot tougher than I look, ojisan!" I am using that term correctly, aren't I? Man, Japanese is way harder than when I'm just reading it playing MMOs.

[anunwaveringdevotion]

"Mm... Fan looks lively today; I wonder if he's distracting Lord Zhu from their lessons?"