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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"...Mm'kay. Leaf works." Yeah, he really just has no idea how to name things. Any name seems like a good name!

With that, though, he finally remembers to actually make a move for that second tadpole. He scoops it up in a quick motion and dumps it into the bucket, the movement a lot smoother now that he's got one scoop's worth of experience doing this. "--And that one might be a tree."

"A tree, huh?" With both of their tadpoles now successfully captured, Joker hums a little bit as he watches the two of them swim in their new home. Well, it's a temporary home, really. Still. They look like they're happy, so much as he can tell with tadpoles. They don't wag their tails like dogs do, or anything...

"Lotta trees. Guess we got a lot of choices." Straightening up, he curls his fingers around the bucket's handle and looks up around them. "Do ya know any of the names for the trees around here?"

"Um..." He looks around, frowning, and... honestly he could not even guess what most of these are? They all look the same.

...Mostly.

He points at an evergreen tree. "That's a pine tree."

"Pine it is!" That's what Ginko was doing, right? Making an active conscious decision? A name choice? That's definitely what he was doing and not just pointing out one of the only trees he knows about. Heaving the bucket up with his good and only hand, Joker beams.

"I'll bring 'em ta my house. Get 'em all happy, and ya can come and visit. We're right next door, ain't we?"

Oh. Oh, he guesses that's what's happening now.

It's not like he's going to complain, though - he doesn't exactly have a better name idea. Instead, he just nods and stands upright, shaking water off the net.

"Mm-hm." He's got no idea when he should visit, but he guesses he'll just leave that to when Joker tells him. He steps out of the water and holds out the net for Joker to take.

That's his advice, Ginko: just make a decision right away. Even if it's a dumb one. Maybe especially if it's a dumb one, depending on the situation.

Either way, Joker troops up back onto dry land again and puts the bucket down so that he can get the net. If there weren't little baby tadpoles in the bucket, he'd put it in there like when he'd brought it out, but as it is... He kind of has to fiddle a little bit until he can tuck it in his armpit and then pick the bucket up again. "So do ya plan on just goin' right back home?"

Ginko pulls his shoes back on, wondering not for the first time if he should try to help Joker. If he can watch him around someone else, maybe he'll be able to figure it out.

"Mm-hm. I wasn't supposed to leave." Y'know, that whole detail. "So I should get back soon."

Yeah, well, rules are made to be broken, or something. Joker doesn't seem worried about that too much, just nods his head. "Then I'll bring ya back, and ya can always come over since we're next door. I'll show ya how the tadpoles are comin' along." Making sure he has his shoes on too, Joker begins to guide him back through the forest.

"No wanderin' off inta trees this time, alright?"

"Okay." He seems to consider that sufficient answer to... all of it, and follows Joker through the forest and back toward their respective houses without further comment. At least he does stay close by, now that he's not being left alone.

So all it takes is a little bit of supervision, huh? Joker stores that away inside his head out of habit, not even thinking twice about it. They're not related, only newly made neighbors, but it is what it is. When they finally get to their fences, Joker puts down everything in his hand and helps Ginko get over safely just like he did before when they first met. Once Ginko is in his backyard again, Joker peers over the top and grins at him.

"Wanna see each other tomorrow?"

It's harder to get distracted and wander off when there's someone right by him that he knows he's supposed to stay by. Something to focus on.

Clambering back over the fence is a little easier this time, now that they've done this once. He stares up at Joker from the ground, silent for a moment before he nods.

"That sounds okay."

"Great!" He beams. "Then I'll see ya 'morrow, around the same time, yeah? Don't forget!" It feels like, if he doesn't remind him, Ginko will very easily forget. In fact, he might forget even with Joker telling him not to. Oh well.

That just means, throughout the afternoon of the next day, Joker is constantly peeking over the fence dividing the two yards. Might as well take all the responsibility onto himself, right?

The fact that he does remember might be made a little less impressive by the fact that everything else that happens is... incredibly boring. The rest of that day, as it turns out, is taken up with dinner and then meeting the girl who he guesses is supposed to be his sister now, who at least seems nice. The next morning involves going over what's expected of him (which he retains about two-thirds of him), and... just a few minutes of talking to Tanyuu before he's told that she can't spend too much energy on that.

So. Not like there's much else to do except wander into the backyard - and, immediately, start pulling himself into the tree that he's not supposed to climb. It's fine, he did a bunch of stuff he wasn't supposed to yesterday and it was okay.

When he hears motion from the other side of the fence, he pulls himself onto a branch and twists around to look. "...Hi."

"'Ey!" Sure enough, there's that bright shock of red hair, and Joker grins up at Ginko from where he's crouched down in some flowers. Weeding, and all that. Good thing he's wearing casual clothes he won't miss. "So ya finally came out!"

And there are a lot of flowers. It's a fairly fancy place for a two-story building, with various native flowers arranged carefully and even a small pond settled right in the middle of it all. For all the kids that live in the place, it's not a particularly... kid attractive back yard. More work is needed to maintain it than the play they get out of it.

Joker isn't the only one in the backyard, either. A pair of smaller children, a boy and a girl, are constantly peeking underneath a bush as they clean out the pond. Both of them look up when Joker calls up, and immediately abandon their task to come over. "Aren't you brain damaged?" the boy asks, eyeing Ginko.

Joker sighs. "Peter, please play nice with 'im." He gestures to the pair with his hand. "These are my siblings, Peter and Wendy. Two out of a whole bunch."

Ginko sits back on the branch so he can lean against the trunk, holding onto the branches for support while he peers down at Joker and his siblings.

He doesn't actually seem too insulted by the question, just-- maybe kind of concerned? Because, yeah, he guesses that's a thing, and has to do with why he's not supposed to be... doing stuff like what he's doing right now. So he basically disregards Joker's attempt at intervention. "I guess so."

Then he goes quiet for another moment, fumbling with how to deal with... you know. Being introduced to someone. "Hey."

"Don't just 'hey' us, when you're the idiot who's going to get more brain damage when you fall out of a tree." Peter rolls his head to the side, aggravation rolling off of him as he looks at Joker. "Oi, you're the one who encouraged this, aren't you?"

Joker laughs a little bit, although he manages to be a good bit sheepish as well. "Ta my credit, I didn' know he had a problem like tha' at first."

"So you just kept doing it!?"

Wendy breaks in with a sigh. "Yes, yes, our brother and his new friend are both stupid. Well, we've established that." She points up at Ginko. "You stay right there, understand? No matter what he-" Her finger swivels to Joker. "-says about anything. Come on, Peter." The pair take off, heading towards the side of the house that's on the other side of the garden. Joker watches them for a moment before he looks up to Ginko with a grin.

"They're nice, really. But you lemme know if anythin' is too much, alright?"

Ginko stays completely silent through the whole exchange, watching the three bicker like an oversized owl. He's guessing Wendy probably means he should stay in the yard, not the tree. But, for the moment, he's staying in the tree anyway.

He watches them until they're out of sight before looking back to Joker. "They're probably right, anyway."

"I mean, people can be right abou' a lotta things and still be asses about it," Joker says, before pausing. His house is full of a bunch of foul mouthed little shits, himself included, and it has only now occurred to him that this is likely no the case for Ginko.

"...Don't repeat that one ta yer parents. Or any other immediate family. Might get ya in trouble."

He blinks, going over the conversation in his head.

"Don't repeat that I'm stupid? Or that people are asses?"

Which part did Joker mean, there was a lot!!

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[PSL] meet your new neighbor

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