[FIN] What's Behind That Mask

[Suudonym]

"Eh," he waved a hand dismissively. "It's a dump. Falling apart at the seems. Half the place is a ghost town these days. Zero outta ten, would not recommend for a weekend holiday. It's cheap living, though." Really cheap, but he didn't feel the need to explain that he still bummed a room out of his parents' house.

He raised his brow slightly at the comparison drawn between himself and Sera, giving an acquiescing nod, "I dunno, I guess so. She's a bro." Might have had something to do with the reason he was generally more interested in her company than her pants, but it wasn't really something he cared to devote much thought to. He just did what he felt like doing, and it was working out okay.

A smirk spread through Nate's features at Akira's suggestion, the expression growing as he offered his response, "Well, if you wanna take it that far," he leaned forward, whispering at his company's ear, "there this trick you can do with a bra, some water balloons, some instant pudding… You see where I'm going with this?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Sounds better than having to share an apartment with my no-good roommate for rent," he commented. "Maybe I'll check out the rates there. Once I find a train that goes there or learn how to drive, that is."

"She's a - a what?" Akira asked, unfamiliar with the term. "A 'bro'? Doesn't that refer to guys?" He thought he might have understood the jist of what Nate was saying, though. In his experience, those who were of like minds generally got along well enough, but not enough to balance each other out like a couple. It surprised him. "I thought you liked her. She certainly seems to like you." Unless he was reading the wrong signs and looking too much into things. It wouldn't have been the first time.

At the whispered suggestions, this time it wasn't just Akira's face that changed color. He nearly fell over in his haste to step away from the other male, rubbing his ear where Nate's breath had tickled it. "You really don't have any shame in talking like that, do you?"

Not that he'd known exactly what Nate had had in mind, even jokingly, but he'd heard enough to realize the nature of what was being implied. And yet...it was extremely difficult not to start laughing again. "No, no I don't, and I'm not sure I want to. What do you eat? For dinner I mean. And don't go getting any lewd ideas."  

[Suudonym]

He frowned excessively in disgust, "I repeat: Would not recommend. It's cheap because it's a wreck. We don't even have a decent hospital; you want more than an aspirin, you're on your way to Camph."

The unfamiliarity and incredulity that he received in reply were returned with a dismissive shrug, "Eh, it's pretty gender neutral these days, I think." Or it was as far as its employment in his own vocabulary was concerned. The suggestion that followed, was crazy enough to elicit a laugh, "Yeah right. Nah, if I'm reading it right, she ain't especially interested. But hey, what do I know. Couldn't blame her if she wanted me, right? I'm sexy as hell." He lifted his chin slightly, broadening his grin in demonstration of his point. "But naw, she's a bro."

The laugh that answered Akira's reaction was fuller and more enduring, and he shrugged deeply, wearing a melodramatically innocent expression. The food offer seemed to be a genuine one, and he waved his hand, "No, really, I'm not a prostitute. Also, you don't generally buy a prostitute dinner before doing the do. In fact, doing the do is usually the actual thing you are buying."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Akira chuckled at the frown, which he was not accustomed to seeing on the self-satisfied man's face. "Sounds like a good place to stop behind a sheltered, spoiled little brat. What doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger, right? And maybe I'll start learning to properly appreciate what I have, because from my viewpoint at the moment, it's all just plain boring."

"Well if you're right, then you must be more perceptive in reading females than I. Which sucks, because I grew up with three sisters and that just goes to show how little I know." He held out his arms in defeat. "Who really knows with women. I doubt they even know half the time what they want." He nudged Nate in the ribs with an elbow. "Stop that. 'Sexy as hell'...psh."

"...TOO MUCH INFO!" Akira declared. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but as I've never really met a prostitute - erm, so far as I know - I'm not an expert on the matter. Do you want something or not?"  

[Suudonym]

Another shrug, "I mean if that's really what you wanna do then go for it, man, live the dream. I would highly recommend checking it out before you sign the lease, though." The thing about that phrase, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' was that it assumed the speaker in fact lived through the ordeals.

"Eh, I'm no expert, but you pick up on a few things, I guess. Sisters and actual pursuable females are very different." And that was something he knew as a fact. "And what do you mean 'psh?' Are you implying that I am not, in fact, sexy as hell? 'Cause let me explain you a thing, I don't know what you're into, but I know that I can't count on one hand the number o' times you've gone red since I got here."

He released a short, loud laugh in reply, maintaining his smirk. "Well hell, sweetheart, I ain't never been a man to turn down free food. If you're offering, I guess I'm following." He shrugged widely, assuming that the condition that he wouldn't be compensating said free food with sexual favors went without saying.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Really?" Akira's brow furrowed at the talk of sisters versus 'persuable females'. "What's different? You care about both, you try to protect them..." He scratched his head, unable to think of what the man meant. "Speaking strictly about female mentality, I don't know what could be different."

"Oookay, first of all, don't flatter yourself," the older male warned wryly. He could already feel his face heating up yet again. "There's no proof whatsoever that my reaction to your frank behavior has any correlation to what I think of your - your physical appearance, which I assume is what you're referring to as 'sexy'. Second," he continued pointedly, "if I'm 'into' anything, it's personality, and I have yet to learn about yours, because I sure as hell am not buying this - this act."

He waved a dismissive hand. "You can drop it because I'm not gonna fall for this nonsense. I had an ex like you, so I already know how to read that cryptic language your book is written in." Akira cringed. "And you can start by ceasing with those silly pet names. I don't know if you recall, but my name is Akira. Akira, okay?" He started walking toward the nearest burger joint.  

[Suudonym]

"Not about what you think," he said, raising a finger, "it's about what they think. See, if your sister's prancing around in her underwear, she probably just got out of the shower or something. But if any other female is strutting around dressed like that, it's probably with the intent to be undressed in the nearish future."

Nate listened with his smirk unchanging, though his eyebrows raised lightly at the accusation that the personality he demonstrated was insincere. "Interesting you say that," he commented, his tone airy. "How can you be so sure it's an act if you freely admit that you don't know anything about me? And let me be really, really real here for a minute: There ain't nothing cryptic about a guy liking free food." The idea that Nate's behaviors were some kind of coded enigma was simultaneously amusing and bemusing, the former because the thought that he could be analyzed and interpreted for some deep meaning was asinine and the latter because his friends were on him about that all the goddamn time.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Underwear...?" He slapped a palm to his face and tugged on his bangs. "I should have known the signs you read would be visual...why did I even bother asking? You probably don't even have any sisters."

"Because you're obviously flustering me on purpose, and it's not because you have an interest in me since I'm not of the fairer sex," Akira answered matter-of-factly. "True, I don't know much about you, and yes, I could be wrong. But I'd like to think after years of living...how I've lived that I would know a thing or two about reading people. And I find it's helpful to start with what they are not. A b*****d, for instance."

What kind of real jerk called themselves out on being one? The way Akira saw it, people were 'bastards' when they didn't realize they were behaving as such; not when they knew what they were doing. That suggested they were doing it on purpose and for a reason.

He nodded. "Yes, free food is good. Wanting to eat is part of the fundamentals of living, as is enjoying the ease with which those fundamentals may come. But I'm talking about the joking and flirting. No one is like that all the time; not in their natural state. Just like no one is openly accepting and willing to reveal all their secrets like an open book. Some people like to pretend they're fine sharing anything with anyone and yet others like to claim they're too shallow to have anything to hide, but that's just not human nature."

"...And I'm sure you're enjoying this enlightening discussion just as much as I enjoy hearing you discuss women, underwear, and breasts, so how about you pick something to eat?" He walked up to the door and held it open, gesturing inside.  

[Suudonym]

"Nah man think about it, all behavior comes out of a mentality," he tapped a finger against temple. "A sister walks around half naked because she doesn't think of you as a member of the male gender and she's comfortable exposing herself because you ********' bathed together when you were kids so who cares. And if you're not getting that then I'm thinking you're the one who doesn't have any sisters."

A shrug, "I dunno where you come from, but there are plenty of people like me in the world. The internet calls my kind 'trolls,' where about half of anything I do is motivated by me wanting to see how you react to it." He pocketed his hands, his smirk half-lidded. "I'm a simple kind of guy, my friend. I don't think much. I do what I feel like doing, and most of the time that involves a lot of joking and flirting. S'fun."

Nate passed through the held door with passing wink, still far from tired of teasing, and ordered at the counter. This guy was worse than Ashton, Will, and Cory combined. What the hell was it with people insisting he wasn't what he came off as? Was it really so unbelievable that someone could intentionally be a jerk who doesn't take anything seriously, because it was baffling how frequently his lifestyle was questioned.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Not a member of the - well, what if she's just more comfortable around you? Or doesn't know any better? In either case, I know I certainly don't see my sisters without some decent clothes on," he proclaimed defensively. "Y-you're not making any sense! Let's just leave my sisters out of this, okay? Sheesh!"

"I'm from Sinnoh, so you can stop saying that. Not an alien planet." The 'trolls' concept was new, though. "Why would anyone waste their time doing something like that? How bored can you get?" His forehead creased in exasperation and bewilderment. "Aren't there better, more productive ways of 'having fun'? That's the most absurd method I've ever heard of. What's fun about getting someone angry with you? That's not a real lifestyle." Arceus, did commoners really live like this? And he'd thought wealthy people had stupid ways of spending too much time on their hands.

Akira scoffed in response to the comment about Nate not thinking much. "Clearly." He was determined not to let this young man get to him any more than he already had, especially now that he had an idea of his claimed motivations. Stepping up to the counter, he ordered a cheap burger, fries, and water.  

[Suudonym]

Nate laughed good-naturedly. "You know what? I'll give you this one. My sister's kind of a weirdo anyway. Probably not the best standard by which to evaluate the female kind as a whole."

He spread his arms in overdramatized bravado, "Sinnoh! Never been. May as well be Mars for all I know." A skewed smirk. "Now I don't wanna say I'm some kind of super villain, but a lot of the thrill of trolling comes from that feeling of power, having someone so wrapped around your finger that the slightest twitch could send them flailing. It's interesting. The right words and you can totally command someone else's feelings without them having any idea." He paused and frowned contemplatively. "Sounds kind of malicious when you spell it out, huh? Eh." A shrug dismissed the sentiment, erasing all indications of troubled thoughts from his expression.

Nate received the small collection of food items as it was presented, moving to take to one of the tables. "Granted, I'm sure you don't think that's all I do in my free time or something. I don't know about productive, but s**t like hitting a club or playing video games is way more fun."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

He frowned at Nate at the mention of the other boy's sister. In truth, Akira was growing uncomfortable with the topic because he feared the fellow was correct. It was very likely his sisters didn't see him as a member of the male gender. It would have explained why they had always cast him as the lead female role in their plays and insisted on calling him 'onee-chan' instead of 'onii-chan', though he'd always assumed it was just their teasing. Suddenly his parents claims of his sisters emasculating him by spending time with them started to make sense. He hated to think they might have been right, but he supposed it didn't matter now.

"So you only have one sister, then?" he asked, calming himself. "What's her name?" But of course Nate couldn't just be normal. "Very funny," he grumbled, rolling his eyes at the reference to Mars.

When the taller young man went into describing what the art of trolling was like, Akira became very quiet. He seemed to withdraw a little into himself, his features contorted into an expression of faint pain, as if recalling some horribly bitter memory. So sucked into these thoughts was he that it took him a minute to realize that Nate had moved on in their discussion.

He shook his head, forcing himself to rid his mind of the past. "Mmm...fun..." Looking off into space, he sat at a table before looking back to the white-haired guy before him. "Nate, do you have any friends?"  

[Suudonym]

Any discomfort Akira might have experienced on the subject of sisters fell outside of Nate's recognition, though the inquiry about his own sister caused his eyes to wander, his expression sobering uncharacteristically. "Yeah," he confirmed. "Older sister. Ellia."

And then there was an example of when trolling summarily failed: when the target seemed to take said trolling to heart and was stirred by something painful instead of acting disapproving or disgusted or generally indignant. Nate frowned lightly. Well jeez, if he got that kind of response, he was a fair bit worse than a jerk or a b*****d…

Nate took a place on the opposite side of the table, unwrapping his burger with plain nonchalance - until he heard Akira's question, at which point he returned his attention to his company with an expression of incredulity, "Wow. Um. Yeah?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"...And she's your only sibling, isn't she?" Akira remarked, noting the change in Nate. He didn't bother asking in the traditional manner because he doubted he would get a straight answer, but he was fairly certain his assumption was correct. "Ellia... She must be precious to you."

He dared not inquire more about this Ellia just then lest he be told once more that it was none of his business. The way Nate talked about her, though...having called her a 'weirdo' and not a good standard for females as a whole...she must have definitely had a large impact on the guy as his sister. It seemed he thought highly of her. How curious.

"This...'trolling'," the brunet continued in all seriousness, evidently not having meant his prior question as an insult (and seemingly impervious to how it could have been taken as one), "Doubtless you practice it on these friends of yours, do you not? If they're real friends of yours, though, that means they trust you. To have someone wrapped around your finger, they have to care about you or your opinion; they have to have some emotional investment in you in order to react to your behavior and words. You agree?"

He set down his burger, staring at it without having taken a bite. "...If that's so, then how could you take that concern and trust they have in you and turn it around to stab them in the back? How heartless do you have to be to enjoy something like that? How can you honestly, truly have any real friends with a hobby such as this trolling? How?!"

Every line of Akira's body was tense with agitation, his face once more dark with color, but this time for a different reason that previously. "Does your sister know what it is you do? Or do you do it to her, too?" His brows slanted upward in a sudden expression of injury and disbelief. "Just what kind of person are you?"  

[Suudonym]

A vague nod to indicate the affirmative to Akira's question, and a shrug to respond to his assumption, "Pff, well don't tell her that. It'll go straight to her head." Though he maintained a disposition of general nonchalance, it was always difficult to avoid being a bit tense whenever speaking about Ellia.

Nate's expression firmly remained one of skepticism and confusion. At the question of his character, he raised his hand, palm out in a gesture that requested pause. "Okay, hold it up there, pal, I obviously didn't explain this all too well. I mean there's trolling like that on the internet, but it's mostly between strangers. What you're talking about is downright cruelty, and I guess in retrospect the way I said it might have made it come off that way. But trolling between friends is more like… It's harmless, you know? Like, this one time my buddy Will was being a d**k, so I was like 'oh man, how about I snap your favorite game in half.' And he was like," he put on a fake voice to indicate the change in speaker, "'Ermahgerd nooo, you're an a*****e.' And this trust thing you're talking about, that's how he knew I wouldn't actually snap his favorite game in half, and so we both had a good laugh about it."

He raised and briefly shook a finger, "Now don't even start on Ellia because she was trolling me from the day I was born. I couldn't get one over her if I wanted to." And oh had he often wanted to. He spared a moment to shove a french fry into his mouth, adopting a demeanor that was somewhat aloof. "But come on, man, I know I said I was a jerk, but I'm not such a cold-blooded son of a b***h that I would actually hurt my friends."