iStones, april 6

[catpiper]

[You know those pressing, intense questions that keep you up in the middle of the night? Well, this is one such moment and anyone unfortunate enough to be awake, or awakened, during these early morning hours will be hit with an extremely important q from a confused girl.]

What's a joke?

[And, a few seconds later-]

How do you 'prank' someone? Is that a treasure? 

Comments

[catpiper]

Yes.

[NO?????

But she can work with this, maybe. There's another extremely long pause on her end, the sound of a happily mewling cat, and then-]

Why did the wizard eat?

[reflash]

[Is that a cat? Yukio isn't exactly a cat person, but he's used to having a cat around.]

Because he was hungry?

[catpiper]

Yes! That's why!

[Did she tell A JOKE???? Please, Yukio. Please. Tell her!!!]

[reflash]

Good try. [He's not laughing, but his tone is gently encouraging.]

Next time, to make it funnier, you should come up with an unexpected answer. For example, an alternate ending to the joke could be something like "what else would he do with all these coconuts?" That's funny because it's entirely unexpected, and sort of absurd.

[catpiper]

[She's gonna try again!! Yukio, she will tell a joke by morning's first light so HELP HER. So she repeats the one-liner, ready to dazzle him with joke science.]

Why did the wizard eat?

[reflash]

... because he was hungry? [Yukio has the sinking feeling he's about to hear "what else would he do with all these coconuts?"]

[catpiper]

What else would he do with all those pizza rolls?

[BE. PROUD.

IT'S. DIFFERENT.]

[reflash]

[That actually does get a laugh from Yukio. Not much of one, just a little startled breath of sound, but it's genuine.]

That's good. [He says, after a moment to like, process the fact that he laughed at something.]

I wasn't expecting that.

[catpiper]

[Hell yes she is living right now. That tiny laugh is her biggest victory of the night-probably the month, actually, and-

She's gonna repeat it to every person in camp, if they ever wake up!!! God. Where's Kravitz when she needs him???]

I want to make you laugh again. Do you like jokes about wizards?

[reflash]

[... nobody has ever said anything like that to him before, and there's a moment where he doesn't know how to respond.

She must just be that kind of person. She probably wouldn't keep trying if she knew him.]

I don't laugh very often. [He explains. Don't get your hopes up, Ren.]

I like jokes that surprise me, or practical jokes. [Which... he's going to have to explain.]

A practical joke is where you do something funny or unexpected to make people laugh. Pranks are funny too, sometimes. That's when you do something to someone to surprise them. Like moving everything out of their room and putting it somewhere else.

[catpiper]

[Yukio.

Yukio, you absolute madlad. The prank explanation is going to be a curse on her household that'll one day come back to haunt him when her prank reach extends, but for now-

Her eyes are fixated on every part of the tent and what's inside. Who's inside.

She's gotta move it.]

It's okay. I'll keep trying until you laugh and smile a lot. I'll learn how to do 'practical jokes' and do that kind of thing.

[reflash]

[People care, whether you want them to or not. It's the sort of thing Yukio knows, the kind of thing that makes him kind of want to scream. He hates it. But he smiles, shoving down the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.]

Just be careful not to hurt anyone or break anything. That wouldn't make people laugh.

[catpiper]

I won't. That's not something I like to do.

[She's just crawling towards the pillows so she can start moving them all, damn.]

[reflash]

Let me know how it goes. [Is he going to hear back later? Is she just going to narrate whatever prank she instantly launches into?]

[catpiper]

[The only reason she doesn't immediately catapult back into the tent to rearrange everything is because there's shifty noises going on. Someone's about to wake up and probably ruin her plan.

But she will, 100%, seek him out to tell him the outcome.]

What's your name?

[reflash]

Okumura. [He says, because... well... it's a little less likely to result in strangers just instantly latching onto his given name. But.... ugh. She seems nice enough to talk to a little less formally.]

Yukio.

What's your name?

[catpiper]

Okumura Yukio.

[Which is how she's going to refer to him from here on, since he said both names. As usual, it's long, but she's gonna commit it to memory.]

I'm Ren.

[reflash]

[Oh, this is risky. But she... probably won't get as overly-familiar as Shiemi did, or she might just not use honorifics and go with just his name.]

Yukio is fine, Ren-san. Do you... understand how names with more than one part work?

[catpiper]

When it's more than one, that's because it's very long or a last name or a nickname. That's how it works.

[She's GOT this.]

[reflash]

Okumura is my family name, so it isn't... very important for you to use unless there's another Yukio here and you have to distinguish between us.

[catpiper]

I don't know if there's another Yukio. I haven't met them, so you get to keep that name since you were first.

[reflash]

... That's not quite how it works, Ren-san. People can keep their names, even if there's more than one person with that name. If there was someone else named Yukio, you would have to ask them what they want to be called. They might not like it if you told them that you didn't want to use their name.

[catpiper]

[But then they could have a dank name like Renothy and that's the greatest gift of all.]

That's how it is?

[Yall make names so, so hard.]

Okay, I'll ask them first, but they can ask Tim for a new name too. He's good at stuff like that.

[reflash]

What would you do if they didn't want a new name?

[catpiper]

[Wonder why they don't see the beauty of Yukiothy, for one.]

I would do what you said and ask them what they want to do.

[YUKIOTHY]