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 Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:44 am
Caught up in the whirlwind of returning to school after Christmas break, and becoming a Sailor Soldier, life for Melody had gone by fast and left little room for many other thoughts. But there was one thought that never strayed, made it hard to sleep sometimes. And that was worry for her best friend in the whole world.
Ignacio had been missing for sometime, or so it seemed because his parents didn't know where he was. His mom was going insane, not knowing where her son was, and she'd lost count how often she had gone to visit the house after school to keep Raina company. It was hard on them all, not knowing where he was, and she was about ready to just go searching all of Destiny City to find him.
On her way back to the dorms from visiting Raina again, who was having a hard time letting Melody leave for fear she'd disappear like her brother, the blonde Vietnamese girl let out a sigh and toyed with one of her pigtails as she walked. This was getting ridiculous! She was starting to lose sleep over it and it really just had to stop.
"But it won't stop," she grumbled to herself. "It won't until I find him."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:54 pm
When Grayson died, part of Ignacio seemed to die with him.
The boy was beginning to become focused on something. He wanted to keep himself strong and his relationships even stronger, causing Ignacio to almost zone in on social interactions in a way that he never had before. It was nothing but beneficial to the seventeen-year-old, and its benefits just kept rising until that car crash.
On the outside, Ignacio seemed quieter and more distracted, but perhaps not all that different. Still, he quickly packed up his bags and what he gathered from not spending his lunch money and found himself back out on the streets. He put a small down payment on a dumpy little apartment in downtown Destiny City and told Meadowview his new address as of his eighteenth birthday. He never needed to go home, now. He was independent by the rule of the law.
Before he abandoned them entirely, he did leave a message on his mother's answering machine saying he was alright and well, but hadn't contacted them since. It had been almost three months since then, and Ignacio was still living in his dumpy apartment. Somehow, Ignacio was managing to hold down a job, albeit poor-paying, at one of the local fast-food joints. The only reason why he could keep his mind on anything was because he didn't want to end up living around Meadowview again... especially since school was out for the semester and he was graduating in December. Ignacio needed a better solution.
Plus, fast-food restaurants didn't really have high standards anyway. He could sometimes type an order in correctly, and that was what counted.
Ignacio's focus was waning, though. Those at work thought he was a little out of his mind with the way he bounced from idea to idea and sometimes randomly asked the manager for a reassignment to cleaning duty, or burger duty (not often given, of course), but being a bunch of adolescents just looking for some extra money themselves, no one really raised a brow at it. No one really raised a brow at how he just wandered the streets, entering stores at random and leaving nonchalantly, wandering to random streets and forgetting where he was, and even deciding that napping on a bench was a good idea.
Distracted might have been putting it lightly.
The man rubbed his eyes with a small groan, bringing himself to a sitting position. "How did I end up here?" Then, he shrugged it off and bounced to his feet. "Ah well! Home I go. Or maybe to the store, need to pick up more ramen..."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:05 pm
It was when Ignacio bounced up that Melody had become aware of the fact she wasn't paying attention. And this was only brought about because he had managed to bounce into her, she really should have been paying attention. Stumbling to the side a bit, the blonde quickly murmured an apology for not watching where she was going then moved to step out of his way.
Only then, as a sudden urge to peek at who she had bumped into hit, did she realized all her patrolling for the last three months had some what been of little use. Because here was Ignacio, alive, seemingly well and not dead in a ditch. But so overwhelmed to see him alive, the Vietnamese girl stopped and simply stared as the world went quite with the realization that she could tell him mom she had found him.
Then noise came rushing back as she found herself turning quickly to cling to him. "Ignacio, you're okay!"
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:23 pm
Somehow, Ignacio didn't bloody notice he smacked into anyone. It would be seemingly obvious, but he was too busy looking over his shoulder and putting his finger to his lips. "Alright, looks like I'm near Main, so the Quarter General can't be too far from here... Or maybe I should go to the ice cream shop."
How he got from shopping to ramen to going for ice cream would probably be beyond most people. Heck, with the way he pursed his lips after that, he might have actually managed to confuse himself. Still, after a few moments, he shrugged off and started to head in the left direction, notably the opposite way of any ice cream shop and not towards the street he needed to walk down to get to any 'Quarter Generals'...
That was, until he was stopped by someone clinging to his arm. Ignacio's eyes widened and he struggled to get away from the human contact, but soon he found himself calming and turning around to get a look at his captor instead. With a tilt of his head, Ignacio almost didn't seem to recognize her at first. The way he looked upwards at the clouds and attempted to observe an answer almost seemed to confirm that, until he opened his mouth to talk.
"That cloud reminds me of your hair."
Instead of sharing in Melody's joy, Ignacio shot his finger up into the sky to point out a cloud that looked like a horseshoe with the way it was curved. Perhaps he could see two pigtails forming out of the sight of that, somehow, but it still left little explanation as to what had been going on with him since back in the winter-time when he had first up and left the McLaughlin-Araya household.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:48 pm
"That cloud reminds me of your hair."
E-eh? Brown blunk in confusion and immediately she tilted her head up to look at him. Maybe she was wrong about him being okay, because surely it seemed he had several screws loose. He seemed so lucid and... drunk? Maybe drugged..
Either way she should have known something was wrong when he hadn't responded back with a hug or some sort and now, listening to him, she was sure something was wrong. Blonde eyebrows furrowed and she took a step back to get a better look at him.
"'N-Nacio..? Are you okay?" Don't panic, don't panic. Sailor Senshi didn't panic, even in civilian form. "You don't seem like yourself.."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:41 pm
Drunk? No, that wasn't really the term for his current state. He didn't smell at all like alcohol, nor did he smell like any other number of drugs someone could have placed into his drink. No, the only smell that was emitting from him was the smell of a fast-food joint. Greasy, grimmy, and perhaps with a touch of salt. It honestly smelled like Ignacio had just rolled through a grease vat. If she took a closer look, though, he was clearly still in a stained work polo with some black jeans that probably needed a bit of a wash too.
Ignacio watched as Melody suddenly let go of him to step back. Was she leaving already? Too bad, he had just seen the clouds! Ignacio glanced to the side to take a look at the street signs again, ready to get himself back onto the path towards the pet store. Wait, he didn't have any pets. Maybe he had intended to buy a parakeet. Oh, right, that was what he wanted to do! Go to Quarter General and buy some crackers for his new parakeet...
That he didn't have.
"Huh?" Melody was speaking, and Ignacio probably should have been listening. When she stuttered out a question, he only laughed. It was his old, jolly laugh. Admittedly, with the way he grinned, everything seemed alright except for the fact that his teeth looked a little yellower than they had before. Of course, that could be explanable with the job at a grease factory... "Oh, I'm fine! Jus' great. See, have you seen where my parakeet flew off to?"
Perhaps Ignacio only thought he was fine. Perhaps only he thought he was doing great. Or perhaps he was aware of this, somewhere, but had just stopped trying.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:48 pm
A burger joint... For him to smell so strongly of a place she couldn't eat at meant he had to be working there. And if he was working there then he at least had a place to live, because why else would he need a job but to survive?
She was glad he had someplace to go, really she was, but worry overrode that sense of relief because he was off his rocker. He wasn't himself and something bad could happen when he wasn't paying attention like he was! And that frightened her.
"Ignacio, you don't have a parakeet." She couldn't stop her hands from balling up, confusion adding to her fear of not knowing what was wrong with him. "You've never had a parakeet."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:26 pm
No parakeet? Oh right, he was going to get a parakeet. He didn't own one yet. Melody couldn't've possibly known where it might have been. Silly Ignacio. He shook his head at himself before rubbing his neck awkwardly, actually seemingly aware of how silly he sounded for just a couple moments.
"Ah, sorry. Meant to go get a parakeet. Distracted. Gray... skies." Ignacio swatted at the sky vaguely, whatever that was supposed to mean. The skies weren't particularly grey, actually. Sure, it was mostly cloudy out, but the clouds were fluffy and white and not any particularly threatening thunderclouds. The sky that broke out between the clouds was pure and blue like a wonderful summer day even though the summer months were waning.
He shook his head again, before shrugging whatever was bothering him off. Instead, he ended up bouncing on his toes, biting his lip lightly and looking around again as if he was antsy to get moving. Soon enough, he swirled around to get moving, but then stopped again to turn around to Melody. Maybe he shouldn't just leave her there. Maybe she wanted to go out to eat? "Want to go to a seafood restaurant?" Where did that come from? And if he was making a fast-food salary, how could he possibly afford a seafood restaurant.
Still, if he was asking her to come along, it meant he acknowledged her and perhaps, even, wanted to talk. Though his talking seemed very disjointed and distracted at the moment, maybe she could get something out of him before he threw himself into some kind of fantasy land again.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:35 pm
Distracted was the understatement of the day, and when he said Gray skies she looked up out of instinct. Then shook her head and puffed her cheeks, as if falling for a joke. Something about that line, however, tugged at the back of her mind.
"Seafood? Nah, I'm not much in the mood for fish." A pause as she moved closer, breathing a bit easier since he had asked her to go somewhere with him. He was doing okay, but she wasn't going to simply let him walk off. "But, maybe we can go for a desert? My treat."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:56 pm
Well damn. No seafood. He was actually looking forward to having some lobster. Maybe some shrimp. Shrimp and lobster! That would be especially delicious. He would have to get some cocktail sauce too. Maybe he could put some of the cocktail sauce on his dessert. Cocktail sauce and ice cream. Cocktail sauce flavoured ice cream? Nah, didn't sound particularly good. Milk and cocktail sauce was not really a prime combination, though cocktail sauce certainly worked well with seafood. Did they have seafood ice cream?
It was about a minute before the spacey Ignacio actually acknowledged her again and gave her a response. "Dessert? Alright. I wanted some ice cream when I got up anyway. Maybe they have shrimp ice cream, or some chocolate chip cookie ice cream." Ignacio suddenly swirled around again and began to walk in the direction where he thought the desserts were: across the street. But suddenly, he stopped mid-street and swirled around to look at Melody again, before crossing to meet up with her.
Good thing there were no cars coming.
"I just realized I don't know where we're going," noted Ignacio, with a firm nod. Then, he started bouncing on his toes again, glancing from left to right and eager to get moving somewhere. He was actually getting a bit hungry. Ramen would solve that, but someone paying for his food sounded better. Hopefully the place she wanted to go wasn't too far, or Ignacio would be inclined to go elsewhere entirely. Some place with subs...
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:10 pm
Shrimp ice cream? Making a face, Melody tried not to imagine what that might taste like and instead focused on her friend. Who obviously had no idea where he was going. At least he acknowledged that fact and came back to her before possibly being hit.
Not usually a religious person, she found herself thanking god there were no cars on the streets.
"So I've noticed." Smiling faintly, out of habit more then anything, she lightly grabbed his hand and began to lead him for the near by cafe she had in mind. It wasn't far away at all, thankfully, and it was one she usually went to after school for a little pick me up.
"Sill 'Nacio."
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:53 pm
Soon enough, Ignacio found his hand being grabbed as she pulled him down the street. Already antsy, he quickly caught up to her and began to walk ahead of her before he realized that he still didn't know where she was headed, and fell back so he was walking beside her. At being called silly, he just shrugged and flashed one of his old typical grins, declaring that, "I try."
Even now, Ignacio had a love of the hilarious. It's not like his love of the hilarious ever died, oh no. It was just hard for him to focus any harder than delivering simple one-liners. Still, Ignacio decided mentally that he obviously pretended to cross the street and not know where he was going just to make Melody smile, which she did, and therefore his mission was accomplished. See, he was still fine. He could make people laugh, he had his own apartment, and he had a job at a burger joint. Maybe he should get some apple pie.
Apple pie was delicious. They had apple pie back at work. The man turned around to head back to his burger joint of employment, but before that was possible he felt the tug on his arm to move forward again. Right, forward ho! So he could get some cake-flavored ice cream.
"That the place?" Ignacio pointed out a shop that was very obviously a sweets shop, before glancing around for the location of a pet shop. Maybe he could get himself a little goldfish...
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:12 pm
Ugh, he was like a little kid with the attention span of a pregnant goldfish. What were they called, twits wasn't it? Regardless of their name, he was exactly like that and it was worrisome. Sure he had his moments, but his ADD (or something similar anyway) was never this bad.
She even had to pull him along the path! Never had she had to resort to such tactics to get him to pay attention!
Thankfully the cafe was right there when he asked about it, and she nodded and pulled him inside. "That it is. I found this place on accident one day and I've come here ever since. I do a lot of my musical work here."
It was the place she had been just mere moments before she had become a Sailor Senshi in fact! Huh, suddenly she was curious as to what his reaction would be if she told him?
"They have a lovely cheesecake!"
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:29 pm
Perhaps Ignacio had ADHD. Perhaps he didn't. Perhaps it was something he never discussed, or didn't think about, or compensated for anyway in most circumstances. Still, overcompensation or not, Ignacio didn't seem capable of keeping his mind on anything at the moment. It was awful. He was out of it. Clearly out of it. Ignacio may have thought he was managing just fine with his job and his dumpy little apartment in downtown Destiny City, but really, what he needed was some time to recover.
Recover from what was something no one even knew yet. "Random findings are fun. I live on random findings. Did you know that the triple burger at my work has 700 calories? I know! That was a random finding too. And that ant on the ground, I wonder if I could randomly find the hill it came from--" Ignacio was cut off as Melody carefully yanked the rambly lost one inside of the sweets shop.
It was hard to tell if Ignacio would even quite register the full extent of her being a sailor senshi at the moment. Perhaps it didn't matter. All he seemed to be concerned with is looking at the tables and the chairs and finding a nice place to sit. "They let you play music here?" asked Ignacio, bringing up the topic almost a minute after she herself had mentioned it. After all, he had a response now.
But then he wandered off and found himself a two-seater booth, taking the side facing the door and watching the door closely as if he was waiting for someone to come in. When no one but a couple strolled in through the door, he looked back down at the table instead. No one would walk through the door that he wanted to see. Ah well, it was time to get some of that ice cream cake Melody mentioned... or was it cheesecake?
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:38 pm
Perhaps there was something he wasn't telling her, and she tried not to show the sting she felt because of that thought. Hadn't there been a time when they had told each other everything? 'People grow up and move on,' she reminded herself mentally.
They wouldn't always be as close as they used to be. And some part of her blamed Barren Pines for that.
Turning to the cashier, because it was easier then watching him wait like a lost puppy, she ordered herself a piece of Cherry Blossom Strawberry Cheesecake. And for Ignacio a cone of what she remembered to be his favourite, a mix of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mint Chocolate Chip.
Paying for them, she made her way to the table he had picked out and held the cone out to him with a smile. "Here, your favourite."
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