[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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Ginko glances over at Joker, and gives sort of a half-shrug before turning back to the riverbed.

"Don't know. Animals, maybe?" There are animals in rivers sometimes, he knows this.

"Hmmm..." Leaning over, Joker squints into the water. "Well, around this time, ya see tadpoles, sometimes. Wanna see if we could catch one?"

It's something to do, after all.

The mention of tadpoles does get him to perk up a little bit. He can't remember if he's seen one in person before, but he knows what they are, he's seen pictures, and he's fairly sure from that that he likes them.

"Okay. How do we find them?"

"Well, they're in the shallows." On his knees, now, he starts to crawl along besides the creek, looking for dips and shallows where the water isn't rushing it all away. "And we'll wan' ta get a bucket, and a net... Actually, 'ey." He grins back at Ginko. "Why don't I get those, and ya search for 'em?"

Ginko leans over to watch as Joker searches, nodding without looking up from the creek.

"Sure. I'll see if I can find any."

"Good~." Getting up to his feet, he leans down to pat Ginko on the back. It shouldn't take him that long to go get the things they need, he figures. He knows where all the things are in their house, so if he runs a little bit, and doesn't eat shit too hard hopping the fence...

And yet, in even that amount of time, just what can Ginko get up to?

In Joker's defense, it's not all that unreasonable to expect a ten-year old with specific instructions to stay in one place for a short time to do that.

Unfortunately, Ginko has the approximate attention span of a tadpole himself. Without someone around to keep him on-task, it doesn't take long before a rustle of branches from the surrounding woods, maybe a soft sound that could have come from an animal, pulls his attention away from the creek.

Ginko pushes himself back to his feet, watching the woods warily - and then sets off in the direction the sound came from.

Amazing how easy it is to misplace a child. Really, when Joker arrives back at the creek to a missing boy who shouldn't be so hard to miss when his hair is white, he wonders if maybe he should introduce Doll to him. Clearly they'll get along just fine if this is the kind of things Ginko gets up to when Joker takes his eye off of him.

Putting down the bucket with everything else set in it, Joker cups his hand around his mouth as he twists about. "Ginko! GINKO! Where are ya?"

He really hopes he didn't accidentally get a new friend eaten by a bear or something. That would be really unfortunate.

Truth be told, it probably only took that short time for Ginko to almost entirely forget that he was supposed to be staying in one place. It also only took that short time for him to wander off a ways into the surrounding woods and clamber up a tree, trying to track down the source of that rustling.

The sound of Joker calling, though, does remind him of the 'staying in one place' thing - and... also the rather important fact that he's not supposed to be climbing around right now. Man, he screwed that one right up.

He peers down at the ground, trying to determine if he should get down or just... wait here? Whoops. Either way, he makes an effort to reply, though not as loudly as he probably should under the circumstances. "'M over here."

Good news: he's pretty confident he can pinpoint roughly the direction that Ginko is in.

Bad news: he's also pretty sure that Ginko's voice is much higher than it should be.

Sighing with the kind of fond exasperation that comes from someone who's played the role of older brother and troublesome siblings all his life, Joker makes sure to head straight for Ginko's voice after making sure his stuff won't go tumbling into the water. "Alrigh', jus' stay righ' where ya are, okay? Don't move, for real now."

"...M'kay." He does, at least, stay put this time. ...Partly because he's still not totally sure of how to leave even if he wanted to? He guesses he could just drop down but that seems like it might be bad for his ankle, and Joker might get in trouble if he comes back with one of his injuries aggravated.

Well, at least he's listening now. Joker keeps his hopes kept pretty close to earth, unlike Ginko, and walks around inspecting the tree. Ginko had climbed up it, so it couldn't have been too hard to get to... "Ya jus' climb fis the regular way, yeah? no tricks or anyfin'?" He feels like it's good to ask, just in case. Ginko is very clearly full of surprises.

"Maybe I could just stand under ya, and help ya down. A lil' hard, but manageable, I say."

"Uh-huh. I just climbed." He thinks it was the 'regular way', anyway; he's not sure what would qualify as a trick in this case.

Ginko leans over some from his branch, frowning down at Joker. "...Maybe. But you might get hurt if I fell on you, right?"

"Ey now, I'm durable~!" Grinning in reassurance, he gestures down at himself. "S'how I'm kickin' even with only one arm! No need ta worry on my end. Besides, you'll be hurt more if ya try and get down on yer own."

"...Hmmm." He's not sure he believes that, Joker. Is it clear how much he's not sure he believes that.

"Maybe I wouldn't be. I got up, so..." So, theoretically, he should be able to get down. As if he hasn't been failing to do that for a bit now.

Okay, now he's not believing that, and Joker raises one eyebrow with his hand resting on his hip. He's pretty sure that shows how much he doesn't believe the words Ginko is saying right now.

"Gettin' up is easy. Fallin' down could make ya break yer head again, or bust an ankle."

Ginko's shoulders slump a little bit. "I guess."

So now he's already gone and caused Joker trouble without even thinking about it. Great.

"Now now, s'fine." Positioning himself properly beneath the tree, Joker takes a careful look before pointing to another branch that's a little lower. "Try gettin' ta that one. If ya slip, I'll be able ta reach up an' help."

"Okay." Ginko leans over to get a look at the branch, then shifts over where he's sitting and reaches out with one leg to get a food one it. It's a bit of a stretch, but he manages it, and keeps a hold of the original branch for balance while he moves more completely to the new one.

"...Okay. Got it."

At least it's good to see that he has enough skill to potentially get back down instead of being stuck up there forever. Joker stands on the tips of his toes, reaching up to pat the branch himself. Alright, good, this is what he needs.

"Okay, sit down, now, and keep a hold of the branch. I'll get yer legs, and we can lower ya down careful-like."

"Okay." He scoots forward a little, right moving his weight as far forward as he can while still staying on the branch. Maybe that'll make things easier for Joker? But he's also sort of leaning forward, a little bit, because he's impatient and doesn't make good life choices.

To be fair, this whole afternoon has been probably nothing but bad life choices, or at least mildly questionable ones. Joker doesn't let that stop him, either...

...Even though he probably should let it, considering he starts to tilt a little backwards even as he draws Ginko's legs into his one good arm. "Ah, back, back a lil-!"

"--Oh. Sorry." He scoots back again, but still sort of... leans forward. At least he's pretty solidly on the branch. "...Wouldn't that get me down faster?"

You know. By letting gravity help.

"Yeah, by takin' me down wif ya!" Despite the words, he's laughing more than scolding, and Joker tries to shift a little bit. "Hold on, lemme jus'... get the weight all settled." It takes him a minute or two, but finally he stills.

"Alright, le's try again."

Ginko nods, and, this time, he goes quiet, following Joker's direction more carefully to get safely to the ground. He guesses he should just... do that, and not try to figure things out on his own, since that doesn't seem to be working? Functioning as a person is hard.

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poor joker has no idea what a bad idea leaving this child alone is

time to make some bad life choices, huh, ginko

always time for bad life choices

maybe we should have started this in my comm after all then 8V

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