raptornest | [PSL] meet your new neighbor

[PSL] meet your new neighbor

He’s been told his name is Yoki Hisakawa. He’s ten years old, he’s suffering from “severe retrograde amnesia”, and, as of a few days before he was found, he is an orphan.

According to the hospital, he’s “okay, but should be careful”. His ankle and head are almost healed, but his left eye had to be removed. He’s not supposed to be running any marathons or climbing any trees, but he’s been declared healthy enough to be released from the hospital.

In a way, he misses it already. Or… maybe he just misses when he first got there. Before they tracked down his mother’s body, buried in rain-loosened mud and stone a couple miles from where he was found, nobody could be quite sure who he was. One of the nurses was Japanese - like his mother, he’s been told, though he was born here in England - and, looking at his white hair and pale blue-green eye, took to affectionately calling him “Ginko”.

He misses that. Each time someone calls him “Yoki”, it takes him a few moments to remember who that is. Looking at pictures doesn’t help; if he looks at a picture, then a mirror, he can’t deny they look similar, but-- how can he be someone he doesn’t remember being?

The people he’s being sent to live call him Yoki, too, but he guesses they seem nice enough. He’s been told they’ll be taking him shopping tomorrow, so he’ll have more than just the one change of clothes he was given as he left the hospital, and to make himself at home, and that dinner will be ready in a few hours.

He’s not totally sure how to go about ‘making himself at home’, so, in the meantime, he’s substituted wandering into the backyard, lying down in the grass, and staring up at the summer sky above him.

Close enough.

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Asking for permission sounds super fake. And... well, Ginko remembers he was told not to "exert himself". But climbing a fence doesn't sound too hard.

He shakes his head, but tightens his hold on Joker's hand slightly while he stands up. "Dunno. But I can try."

"There we go~." Joker heaves him up with a wide grin, satisfied. The backyard on his end is in pretty good shape, he figures. He can leave it for a little while. Instead, he starts to lead Ginko to the back of the yard.

"I'll go up firs', and help ya up afer ta make sure. Yeah?"

Ginko nods, and follows close by Joker. Even as he walks, he's silently gauging the condition of his ankle. It seems like it should be alright for climbing to him, not that he's... any kind of a medical professional. Or, you know, anything other than a ten-year-old with amnesia.

"Okay." He'll stand and wait by the fence while Joker climbs, balling up his hands in the fabric of his t-shirt as he watches.

At least Joker is used to climbing, going up very much the same way as he'd done the other fence. This time, he balances himself on it, and braces the foot opposite of his arm against the fence. It'll help him with balancing even when he hauls Ginko up, he figures.

"Alright, c'mon then." Leaning down as much as he can, with all things considered, he offers his palm again.

That is... simultaneously impressive and sort of terrifying to watch from where Ginko is standing. His hands tighten and twist in his shirt as he stares at Joker, half-expecting him to go toppling off the fence at any second. He had only vaguely noticed that he only had one arm before, but-- now he's wondering if this might not be a good idea after all.

But he reaches up to take Joker's hand, and braces his uninjured foot against the fence in preparation to climb.

Oof- Joker digs his heel in a little more, jaw tightening. He's heavier than Peter or Wendy, and Doll too, he thinks, but... Maybe about near where Peter weighs? And Joker has managed just fine then, at least so he tells himself.

"Ready, then?"

"Mm-hm."

When Joker pulls him up, he grabs onto the top of the fence as soon as he can to lift more of his own weight, hooking his arm over it to hold himself up. For a moment, he braces himself for the dizziness that kept hitting him in the days after he first woke up - but it doesn't come. So far, so good.

As soon as Ginko is up onto the fence, Joker is snapping his hand out to grab onto the fence himself to make up for the upset of his balance. "Whoo-!" Straightening up, he grins down at Ginko. "There ya go. Na' so bad, yeah?"

"I... guess so, yeah. Are you okay?" It doesn't look like he's toppling off the fence, but Ginko looks him over anyway while he hauls himself up more comfortably. Up close, and with his hair ruffled a bit from scrambling up here, it's probably easier to see the white string of the medical eye patch hidden under his bangs.

"Yeah, I'm fine." With only one hand, he can't exactly wave dismissively, but he can at least carelessly shrug. "I do fis sor'a stuff all the time. Usually, I got my ofer arm, but s'always breakin'-" Or, to be more accurate, he's always breaking it, but he pauses before he goes anywhere else with that.

"Oi, are ya alright? Did ya hurt yerself?"

It takes Ginko a moment to process that; honestly, all he can really imagine at first is just... an actual fleshy human arm that Joker... somehow doesn't have at the moment? Which makes the "breaking" part a little disturbing.

Then he finally remembers something from the hospital. "A... prosthetic?" The reply is a little stilted, with sort of an implied "is that right" built into it that he doesn't think to vocalize.

Ginko blinks at Joker, seemingly uncomprehending, and gives a small, hesitant shake of his head. He looks down at his self, as if to make sure he didn't manage to scrape himself up on the fence. His head and ankle still feel alright, so it can't be that. "I... don't think so. Why?"

Absentmindedly, Joker nods his head. That's the word, but he hates saying it. It feels too clunky on his tongue; there's always that feeling that he's saying it wrong. With his level of education, he knows what people will think if he messes up even that much. Best to keep what he does know to himself, and just keep playing as he does.

But that's not what he's focused on right now. "Yer eye. Fere's a eyepatch on it, yeah?"

It hasn't yet occurred to Ginko that mispronouncing things might make people think less of him - which might have to do with just having come out of a hospital where he was recovering from a severe head injury. So far, most adults acted relieved that he was talking at all.

They seemed to want him to do it a little more than he was sure he could, though.

He lifts a hand to the patch, as if he just remembered it. "--Oh. That's from before. Th' doctor said it was infected, so they took it out."

Y'know. No big deal, probably.

"Ah." With the way Joker nods, simple as you please, it really doesn't seem to be a big deal at all. It's a little like what happened with their Doll, then... Although not exactly the same, probably.

Still, he would have been a lot more careful if he'd known that. Well, all he can do is continue onwards. "You'll say if ya s'art feelin' dizzy or havin' a headache, right?" A pause, and he looks back towards the house. "Do ya need medicine or have ya taken it already for the day?" If he's sitting out in the grass, just relaxing, Joker would say the latter... but you never know.

Best to be careful with these kinds of things.

"...Mm-hm. I already took it." That had been made sure of before he so much as left the hospital. He tilts his head slightly, studying Joker again. "D'you know a lot about that?"

"Good." Satisfied, he gives a nod of his head. "Well, my family has, ha, we're a bit of a patchwork lot. So I know a lot about fings like that." He's the big brother, after all. With them so often having to take care of themselves, well, what else can he do?

Slipping off of the fence to the other side, he lands well enough and positions himself beneath Ginko. "C'mon, I'll help ya down. When yer missin' an eye, everyfin' goes wonky, s'what I heard."

Ginko nods, accepting that explanation easily enough. Then he stares down at the ground on the other side of the fence, considering how to get down - until Joker drops to the ground himself. Well, that should work.

He doesn't actually say anything in reply; he just nods again, then slides off the fence after Joker, trying to sort of reach down and catch hold of his shoulder to steady himself.

It's a bit of a stumbly landing, considering Joker has to take a couple of steps back lest he be bowled over, not having another hand to steady Ginko himself, but then it's done, and he grins at the boy. "See, nuffin' ta it!" Especially when there's a second party to catch you.

Taking a step back, he glances around the small alleyway that goes inbetween the backs of the houses. "So, what sorta things do ya like? I can start there and show ya around the place."

What... does he like. Right. That strikes him as a question that would be easier to answer if it weren't for his... situation. Most of the time in that he was actually awake in the hospital, there were some kind of tests going on, and if not... well. He had a few books and magazines to pick from, and, if the sun wasn't too bright, they would open the blinds on the window. So...

"Um... plants are pretty cool. 'N bugs." He has no idea if that's any help at all.

Good news, he's in England, and that does help. Sliding his hand down to Ginko's hand, Joker smiles at him. "Yer in luck, fere's a creek not far from here. Sometimes when yer really lucky, I've even seen deer and such around there." They're not too deep into the city limits, after all, which means there's a lot of nature to get familiar with. As the elder sibling to a whole host of younger ones, forays into what little wilderness is about are common.

After a moment of confused hesitation, Ginko curls his fingers around Joker's - but only barely. It's not really a matter of taking hold of his hand, so much as it is kind of a weak mirroring of Joker's actions. But it's something.

"...It sounds nice."

As long as he's alright with it, Joker figures that's the most he can ask for. It wouldn't do to go chasing off this new friend of his and, by extension, his family. So he leads him along, going through various little side streets and towards where the trees grow tall.

"Yeah, it's pre'y nice. bes' in the summer, when ya don' have ta worry abou' freezin' things off."

"How cold does it get in winter?" Very, he's guessing, but he's still curious. While he follows along with Joker, he lets himself look around a little more, taking in the layout of the neighborhood.

All told, it's really a rather nice neighborhood. Plenty of greener, although those closer to the buildings tend to be more maintained. In the direction Joker takes him, they're a bit more wild, branches brushing against branches and grass growing tall.

"Ah, cold enough for snow," Joker says, laughing. "Although s'nah half bad when you've somewhere warm ta go." Pausing, he looks over his shoulder at Ginko. "Yer hair is similar ta it, actually, but yer eye stands out."

Snow. He knows what it looks like, but he can't be sure if that's from seeing it in person or just looking at pictures. After a moment of trying to figure that out, he gives up. Trying for too long just makes his head hurt.

He nods absently, and the mention of his appearance seems to bring on an almost automatic reply, memorized and prepared to repeat if it's brought up. "'S albinism. I don't have enough pigment, so I look like this and I have to wear sunscreen 'n stuff."

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