Twyla’s grandmother had kept true to her word. The very day after their reunion she had called the school and badgered them with so many questions Twyla had thought they were going to hang up on her. Luckily they didn’t and whoever was on the line with Grandma B had helped her sort out tuition and anything else that had come up. After the phone call that seemed to take forever Blanch Kleinsmith had taken her granddaughter shopping because Twyla’s clothes were ‘a disgrace to her grandmother’s genes’ and because she’d need bedding and the like for her room at her new school.

It felt strange, towing the suitcase on wheels instead of lugging her duffel around. She still had the green Nike duffel but it was strapped to the top of her black suitcase (bought on the shopping excursion). She had packed everything they had deemed that she would need in her grey backpack, the duffel, and the large suitcase. Twyla’s grandmother had also left her with some extra money in case the need arose. Her grandmother had a plane booked back to Wisconsin early the next morning so she didn’t accompany Twyla to the school and the teen stood alone outside the huge gates of a brick mansion

She knew that everything was taken care of but she was still worried that something had gone wrong or that she was at the wrong place. Her napkin from the café and the plaque near the gate both proved those fears to be irrational but they didn’t make them go away. Twyla bit her lip and searched for an intercom button. She quickly found it and taking a deep breath she pressed the button. “Uh, hi. I’m Twyla ...Twyla Ashby. My grandmother called here yesterday. Her name’s Blanch Kleinsmith. She said I’d be arriving in the morning and um, it’s ten o’clock.” Twyla glanced at her watch to make sure she had the right time. She stepped back from the intercom and waited awkwardly for some kind of response. You wanted a plan, now you've got one. She reminded herself.

Greeting duties continued as usual at the mansion, even after the brawl. People still applied for classes, new mutants appeared, and even with a cast, Shin was busy as was humanly possible on a handheld phone. Good thing he wasn’t human. Shin shifted the receiver up to his cheek again and pinned it with a grimace. His right arm hung uncertainly in a blue sling. “Yes, that’s correct… No… I’m sorry. Thank you.” The phone call ended with a curt click. Shin was appreciative. Even with a cast, he still had a job to do. Thank goodness this call was briefer than the one the day before. That had nearly broken his arm again... and his ear.

An endless stream of good questions, specifications, and a headache of paperwork, all from one person? Blanch Kleinsmith truly was a dangerous woman… from the sounds of it, her granddaughter was even more-so. Not dangerous, per-se... Blanch had been nice enough to constantly point out what a good granddaughter she had. The poor thing was just the type to run away from home rather than deal with revealing to her parents her particular 'gift'. Shin hadn't said anything about that. Frankly, he'd heard the story before. Some people had it so much harder than others. He was lucky he... wait. Had he even told him parents he was a mutant yet? Shin paused a moment to consider this valiant and important thought.

"Mom... dad... I've got something important to tell you." He mused. A smile broke his lips. It'd probably go over easier than when his sister had announced to the whole family she was working in a bar. Or when he'd stumbled onto her book case one summer morning when he was eleven. Why had she even left that comic around...? The sound of the intercom crackling to life shattered that thought.

>> “Uh, hi. I’m Twyla ...Twyla Ashby. My grandmother called here yesterday. Her name’s Blanch Kleinsmith. She said I’d be arriving in the morning and um, it’s ten o’clock.”

Shin spun to attention in his seat, nearly disturbing a cup of coffee with his sling. "Er, ah! Okay!!" He fumbled with the intercom, phone receiver, and the mug. For a brief second, he managed to juggle everything, then the phone came clattering down. The mug came next. "..." He stared at the puddle of coffee running off the table into his lap with a sigh. "Be right there..." the curse of Blanch Kleinsmith was at work again.

He took a moment to dab fretfully at his shirt. What was... it didn't even come out? He tugged at the material and scrubbed harder. Maybe a bit of cold water...? He rushed to the bathroom to test the theory. Eleven minutes later, he stepped up to the main gates of the mansion wearing his stained white shirt. No such luck. He reached up with his coffee-stained cast arm to poke the button for the gates, then stopped. He shifted his attention to his left. Ugh... The gates swung open with a clang.

"Twyla Ashby?" Shin asked. He took a few bold steps towards the girl past the gate. "I'm Tetsuya Shinbo. I talked with Blanch? It's nice meeting you." He gracelessly extended his left hand. "Sorry about the wait."

Had she mentioned her power? Something about blending in with people... places... things? Because right now, every force in the world was hard at work making her stand out.

(( ^_^ ))

“Be right there...” A voice from the intercom had replied to Twyla a few moments after she had pressed the button. That had been about ten minutes ago but Twyla wasn’t bothered. It gave her time to calm her nerves and organize her thoughts. Grandma Kleinsmith refused to tell Twyla’s parents of the situation. She had called the police chief in their county to let him know that Twyla was found but other than that she had left it up to Twyla to fess up to her parents why she had left. That was Blanch’s ultimatum– Twyla would call her parents within the next forty eight hours or Blanch would report her to the police again. She hadn’t argued with her grandmother. They were her parents after all and they couldn’t kick her out if she was halfway across the country living off the generosity of Grandma B.

Twyla was still worried about their reaction though. Even Blanch had admitted that she doubted her daughter was ready to deal with Twyla’s mutation but she assured Twyla that she’d come around to the idea. They both knew her father would side with her mother in whatever she thought of the situation. I bet Mom’ll cry. She’ll think I’m a freak, just like Mark’s mother. Mark was a boy in Twyla's graduating class and they had been friends since kindergarten. When Mark was 14 he showed signs of a mutation, he suddenly burst out in scales one day in class, and his parents sent him to a 'rehabilitation center'. His mother acted like he was dead and no one had heard from him since. It had been almost 3 years. Twyla had been in Mark's class when it happened, the memory had stayed with her. She was terrified of going through the same thing Mark and his family went through, which is why she left home in the first place.

She pushed the disconcerting thoughts of her parents’ reaction out of her head as she noticed movement inside the gates. Someone with a white and brown (spotted?) shirt and a strangely bulky arm was walking towards the gates. Oh, a cast. Duh. Twyla realized. And a stain. She noted as the someone, obviously a male someone opened the gates. “Twyla Ashby?” He asked. She nodded and he started walking towards her. “I'm Tetsuya Shinbo. I talked with Blanch? It's nice meeting you.” When he extended his left hand for a shake she started reaching forward with her right and then awkwardly switched to her left.

“It’s nice meeting you too.” He’s the one who had to talk to Grandma B? Poor guy. Her cheeks flushed at the memory of the long and slightly embarrassing phone conversation they had had the day before. “I’m sorry–that you had to talk with her, I mean. She means well. She’s just...” Twyla bit her lip as she tried to find a word to describe her mother’s mother who had been labeled an ‘eccentric’ by her father’s family and the rest of the county. “She’s Grandma B.” She finished lamely with a shrug when her attempts to search her mental thesaurus for anything that remotely was a synonym to Blanch Kleinsmith failed. She’s an enigma I guess. Twyla decided.

He apologized to her for the wait. “No worries.” She replied with a shrug. It hadn’t bothered her in the least. She had been getting nervous about the whole situation and any delay was fine in her book. It was something the prospect of meeting strangers that always put her on edge. Twyla was surprised that her powers had been behaving despite her nerves. No promises though. With me you never know. She thought wryly.

(( ))

Shin shook her hand, rolling the ‘no worries’ dice himself. Despite the call being long, the lady’d been nice enough. It didn’t reflect poorly on the girl at all. A friendly smile popped on his face. “No worries, indeed. And it wasn’t that bad.” He defended the old lady with a wry smirk. “She asked all the right questions, and set everything up professionally. Less work for us right now, I’d think. Not that it didn’t nearly break my arm, or gnaw my ear off, of course. Doesn't matter." His voice dropped on the last part, but he kept up the smirk. "All that’s left to do here now is get you a room, give you the tour, and get you settled in.” Shin shifted the sling for comfort as he turned towards the gates. He gestured like a tour guide with his left hand. It towered up over them, red brick and creeping vines. Lights shined in a few windows on the second level. One student had her window open. The red head gazed out at the front lawn, resting her arms on the window sill. She raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn.

“So this is the mansion. Dormitory rooms are on the second floor, the library is on both. Around back, there's a garden and a pool. Classrooms are on the first floor, as are the kitchens. Don't ask about the danger room."

He turned to face her with a semi-shocked look on his face. Oh dear. It had just slipped out. Now she'd ask about it, wouldn't she? "So, anyways…" A gust of cold air blew past them, making his bangs dance in the wind. “I already checked what rooms we have available while you were waiting. Here,” He held a key out in front of her with an air of professionalism he wasn’t often known for. It dangled on the end of a hard green plastic card fob that showed the number. A lanyard braid connected the two. “Second floor, second door on the right in the main hallway. Room 2. Want me to show you around?”

“No worries, indeed. And it wasn’t that bad.” Twyla almost snorted at this comment. She thought about it and then decided that she might be a bit biased considering she was the mortified third party that was forced to watch her grandmother praise her while simultaneously asking what seemed like an endless barrage of questions. Maybe things seem worse from the outside? She thought but didn’t pursue the tangent and brought her focus back on the man that was talking to her. He motioned towards the school with his uninjured arm and for the first time she took in the scope of the building. It’s very pretty. It reminds me of one of the colleges we visited when Miranda was looking at schools. Twyla’s eldest sister Miranda had toured many private colleges until she found the one that had the best medical program.

“So this is the mansion.” He said, to which Twyla nodded. “Dormitory rooms are on the second floor, the library is on both.” Another nod and a smile for the prospect of a library. “Around back, there's a garden and a pool. Classrooms are on the first floor, as are the kitchens.” Another nod. “Don't ask about the danger room."Half a nod before she registered what he has just said. The say-what-room? Obviously not something usually discussed on the tour. Twyla noted when Tetsuya Shinbo turned to her with an expression on his face that reminded her of someone who had just stepped in fresh cow pie. She almost started laughing at the cow pie thought, having much experience in the area, but controlled herself.

The question of the day is whether or not I’m going to be difficult. He said NOT to ask about the danger room thinger BUT now I want to know. Before she could make up her mind he held a key out in front of her. “Second floor, second door on the right in the main hallway. Room 2. Want me to show you around?” She took the key and put it in her pocket and then replied: “Thanks, that’ll be easy to remember. Uh, sure. If you have the time I mean–otherwise I’m sure I can manage.” Twyla shrugged. You and your non-committal answers. I could’ve always said ‘Oh sure, show me that danger room first and then I’d like to drop off my bags, please.’ but I guess I’ll be nice about it. I wonder what it is. It sounds like a weird name for something at a school. Twyla’s imagination ran off with her as she pondered on the possibilities the title ‘danger room’
brought to mind.

"Yeah, I've got the time." Shin smiled, taking a step towards her. He brushed a hair from his eyes, as if to emphasize a point. "It's my job helping kids, after all. Hey, do you need help with those bags?” He pointed with a bent finger. “They seem kinda heavy. I'd hate for you to fall going up the steps to your room." The image of a wobbling farm girl clashed against the stairwell's railing as he imagined how that'd go down. Shin shook the painful thought out of his head, and waited for her reaction politely for one whole second. Honestly, though? It was his job, wasn't it? He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer! So bending down, he scooped the duffel bag up from the suitcase and swung the strap over his left shoulder.

He glanced back at her with a confident grin. “And just so you know, that thing I said about the danger room? Don’t worry about it. It’s not like it’s some big secret or anything. It’s just a room students can go with permission to train their mutant abilities. So, if you ever need practice doing… whatever it is you do… just ask. I can help you out. Anyways, let’s get these bags up to your room so we aren’t weighed down during the tour.”

He started leading her towards the front doors of the mansion, walking just slow enough so that she could keep up. As they reached the main doors, he spun around to face her with a wry look on his face.“Now, I must warn you. The main hall is pretty fabulous. Pay close attention to the chandelier, the photographs of the mansion’s founding fathers, and the carpet. Especially the carpet.” He added the last past with a serious tone as he turned and walked carelessly through the door. “Sometimes, they trip over the carpet.”

He had the time so she now had a tour guide. When he asked her if she wanted help with her bags her eyes glanced at his sling. “It’s okay, I can-” She started to say before he grabbed her duffel from it’s perch on top of her suitcase. Twyla had the irrational urge to snatch it away from him. Oh yeah, my entire life isn’t in there anymore. She remembered right before she was going to say something. I betcha you look like a freak right now. Twyla could feel that her brown eyes were wide open and she had to remind herself to close her mouth. Instead of her initial freak out reaction she said “Thanks.” in a quiet voice.

Her fantastical imaginings were thrown out of her head when the man turned around and gave her an explanation about the danger room. Ooooh. That’s kinda cool. “Oh, interesting. Sounds like a plan.” She replied. As an afterthought she added: “I camouflage myself, that’s my power.” She wasn’t really good at explaining her power. This was probably due to the fact that she’d only shared it with a few people. It was easier to make sense of through a demonstration anyway and since he didn’t press her for information Twyla left it at that.

She followed him up the front walk going towards the large brick building. She almost ran into him because he stopped while she was admiring the architecture of the school. “Now, I must warn you. The main hall is pretty fabulous. Pay close attention to the chandelier, the photographs of the mansion’s founding fathers, and the carpet. Especially the carpet.” He told her. The carpet? She wondered. “Sometimes, they trip over the carpet.” He finished, clearing up her confusion. “Oh.” Was all she said before instantly looking down to make sure that she didn’t trip over the dangerous floor covering. With the warning and some luck she managed to make it inside the doorway without tripping and to get her suitcase in after her without any mishap. When it was safe to do so she looked up and surveyed the entryway. Swank was the only word that came to her mind. Why is it that I could never find mutant-only places to crash like this everywhere but New York City? Welcome to Swank High. Twyla could feel the edges of her mouth tugging up into a small smile as she caught her first glimpse of where she would be finishing her education.

She actually checked? Shin did his best not to smirk as he paused in the center of the room, and let her take it all in. The old paintings and the smiling face of Charles Xavier, the massive red carpet that stretched out from near the door all the way to the main halls, the two stair cases, curling up towards the second floor, and the dangling glass chandelier that cast tiny diamond-shaped reflections whenever the light hit it just right. Shin had often admired that chandelier. It was so shiny, it was almost inspirational. Reflective prisms hanging from a hexagonal shape? Yes, please. Like the jewel-crusted chunk of honeycomb, ripped from the wall and hung, or a column of cooled basalt. The beauty of geometry as a modernized wall fixture. The sudden thought struck Shin to toss in a little surprise. While her eyes trailed across the swankiest swank school to ever swank, the Asian lifted his left hand and closed his own.

The milky brown of his right cheek twinged as he reeled in his concentration, lips drawn tightly into a thin line. Shin focused on an image deep within his mind. A diamond floated against the darkness. A streak of light! Rays from some elaborate sun lit the closed plane. On his palm, triangles flew around like a storm, arranging themselves in acute angles to take up the shape in his mind: The shape of the image on the cover of the record of Pink Floyd’s album ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.

Doubled. A diamond. He opened his eyes with a smirk and got her attention. “Hey. Before we get too far into this tour, there's something I'd like to share. You told me what you could do. This is my power." He lifted the left hand another inch as the silver diamond hung above the palm of his hand, like a bobber in water. It spun out towards her, around her, and back, then bobbed down into Shin's open palm. He snapped his hand shut. The shard diamond vanished. Shifting the bag, Shin pointed index and thumb towards the stairs. "So, shall we?"

((OOC: You can take us up to the room to drop off the bags.))

Taking in all the, to use the word again, swank furnishings, paintings and the very pretty chandelier made Twyla feel slightly uncomfortable. She looked down at her grungy chucks and for a moment felt guilty that they were touching the ruby carpet. Shin pulled her out of her sudden awkwardness by speaking. “Hey. Before we get too far into this tour, there's something I'd like to share. You told me what you could do. This is my power." Twyla was suddenly not worried about the sorry state of her sneakers as he held up his palm and she caught a glimpse of the silver object that was floating in the air above it. Before she could speak the object, she soon realized it was shaped like a diamond, flew towards her. Her brown eyes followed the diamond’s movement around the space between them. They remained bright with fascination until the diamond disappeared in his grasp.

Her voice held the most emotion she’d used in their conversation when she spoke. It was still quiet but it held more intensity than before when she said: “That was really cool. A cliche phrase, I know, but I’ve never seen anything like that before.” She complimented and it was the truth. Since she’d left home she’d seen many different types of mutants. Most that had power’s similar to his manipulated things that already existed outside of themselves. Her guide seemed to have created the diamond himself and then manipulated it. Active power’s like this fascinated Twyla, she often wished that her mutant abilities were more useful in the self-defense department. I wish–my powers fit my personality and that’s what matters.

She resisted the urge to show him her power. Her control wasn’t perfect yet but she had practiced some tricks on the road. No one likes a show off. You can’t do anything nearly that cool AND if he was curious he’d ask. "So, shall we?" He asked her while he pointed to one of the staircases. Instead of her original instinct, which was to say ‘Yes, we shall.’ in a very uppity accent, Twyla closed her open mouth and nodded. She was starting to relax and that made her worried. Her friends back home knew that she was strange even though she was quiet and her random bursts, comments, and other tendencies were expected and accepted. Not wanting to make a bad first impression she decided to work harder on suppressing that side of herself.

They made it to the second floor without much speaking or any mishaps and Twyla looked at her key again to make sure she knew which room she would be claiming. Second floor, second door. Here we are. She bent down to unlock the door and pushed it open a moment later. Taking a quick peek inside before wheeling her suitcase in the doorframe ahead of her Twyla noted the basic furnishings. She took off her gray Jan Sport backpack and placed it gingerly as she could on the bare mattress. It still made a large thud when it hit the covering due to the amount of stuff she had shoved into it. The dirt stained bag looked at odds next to the clean black of the suitcase that followed it onto the mattress. Turning around so she could get her duffel back she asked her guide: “So will I be allowed to rearrange things in here, or is that not allowed? I was just wondering.”

"It's allowed," Shin replied, as he handed her the duffel. "So long as you don't do anything extreme like remodel the house. Moving the bed and setting up all your things should be fine." He really didn't think she'd try and break down walls or add a skylight, but it was worth mentioning. Stranger things had indeed happened. Like the time the gargoyle mutant crashed through a window on his very first day, or the time that one mutant with explosive marbles decimated a wall. One mutant had even spilled orange juice and pancakes on him when he tried to give her breakfast. Boy, that was a mess.

Shin shifted his attention to the bare bed with a held chin. "Hmm, yes. That's right. I forgot we didn't leave these with the bedding set up. I'll have to get you some sheets and pillows in a bit. What's your favorite color?" He turned to meet her eyes with his own. Full attention was a given. "Although, from the way your aunt described your power, maybe a camouflage print would be acceptable?" Was it okay to joke about that? He kept smiling though. It was just a bit of good-natured teasing to get her to open up. It had been bothering him for a while now, how she was being so shy. With short, non-committal answers, she'd barely said a word.

“And where’d you say you came from again? Wisconsin? How is that? I’ve always wondered about living on a farm. Growing up overseas, yknow, I’ve hardly seen a cow, let alone a chicken. The closest I’ve come to that was the rice paddies in my grandparents’ fields.” Or learning to knit on a lap, learning to bend pieces of paper into cranes. What’d they even do in Wisconsin for fun? Milk cows? Tip chickens? Rush across ravines, holding onto cuckoos as they flew over to crush a heart piece from the box?

All this and more, he wondered as he looked at her earnestly, resting one arm in the crook of his cast.

The duffel made it’s way to sit by it’s fellow luggage, adding a hint of color (through it’s greenness and the dirt it had accumulated with it’s friend the Jan Sport) to the crowded mattress. His reply to her question made her happy with the prospect of making this new room more hers. “I’m not too handy, so you don’t have to worry about me going all ‘HGTV’ on the room or anything.” She said this in her quiet way but a hint of a laugh crept into her voice.

The conversation turned to bedding and Twyla’s mind went to the bulging suitcase. She and her grandmother had boughten her a new comforter and a pillow and managed to shove them into the bag through the use of two iron wills and Twyla’s curvy frame that acted as extra gravity while Blanch zipped it up. “I already have a pillow and comforter, by the way. My grandma wanted to go shopping. But the sheets would be totally appreciated.” Twyla paused in her reply to shrug and then continued. “My favorite color is green. Well, olive green. As far as camo goes--” She lifted up her right leg so he could see her camouflage high-tops. “Me and camouflage go way back.. That’s what my comforter is. My pillow not so much but me and the Green Bay Packers are pretty tight too.” She laughed a little again but wondered if she’d said something weird or given too much away. It felt weird to say so much. Looking people in the face made her nervous and her eye contact with Shin had made her keep talking past what she had originally planned on sharing. Way NOT to tone it down.


“And where’d you say you came from again? Wisconsin? How is that? I’ve always wondered about living on a farm. Growing up overseas, yknow, I’ve hardly seen a cow, let alone a chicken. The closest I’ve come to that was the rice paddies in my grandparents’ fields.” Grandma B must have told him where we were from because most people can’t place a Wisconsin accent. She wondered where overseas he came from. When she had met him she had assumed he was probably Asian but she didn’t want to assume anything about his heritage. She knew that she was too unworldly and sheltered to make educated guesses about that type of thing. “Yep. I’m a Wisconsin girl.” Another shrug by way of reply. “It’s home--was home.” A confused look shadowed her face and she suppressed the urge to get homesick. “What you need to know about farm life is that it’s crazy work and that cows are adorable and calves are more adorable.” The confused look was gone as she remembered the way that the calves always watched for her around feeding time. She could still picture their pinky-gray tongues reaching for her hands through the wire in front of the calf hutches. Her smile was genuine and it brightened up her features even if it was fleeting.

He looked like he was making an earnest effort to talk with her so Twyla let herself relax a bit. “So where overseas did you grow up?” She blinked as she processed what she had just asked. That sounded weird. “Let me try that again. I meant to say something along the lines of ‘So you said you grew up overseas. May I ask where you grew up?’. Which would have made more sense.” A small sigh escaped her lips. Talking in circles again. I need to get a better brain filter.

Did he detect a hint of a laugh in that comment on HGTV? Why yes. Yes, he did. She was opening up finally, it seemed. He was glad. And then he turned the conversation to colors, and he was surprised by her answer: a lifted leg? So she really did like camouflage? Nice.

“My favorite color is green as well,” he assented during a break in the conversation. “The color of tree frogs and Kermits.” And forests, and tea. The image of his grandmother drifted through his mind as he listened to her comment on the Green Bay Packers. Shin always had been a sporty kid. He remembered when he came home one Summer, ripe from his days of school, and how he’d wanted to teach her his favorite new sport: Basketball. Not quite American football, no. They’d brought out one of her emptied knitting baskets and used that for the net. She never had gotten the game down, he noted.

A warm smile worked its way onto his face when she mused about farm life. It looked like it really meant a lot to her. For a moment, her face fell a little. Shin detected a hint of homesickness on the winds… it vanished a second later, replaced by a bright smile and animals. “Happy cows and happier calves”, he chuckled. “Sounds amazing.” She seemed more relaxed now. Relaxed enough to ask him about his own home.

>>“So where overseas did you grow up?” The girl blinked to herself, and rephrased her statement. “Let me try that again. I meant to say something along the lines of ‘So you said you grew up overseas. May I ask where you grew up?’. Which would have made more sense.” A small sigh escaped her lips.

“Japan,” Shin replied with a light laugh. “And don’t worry about the way in which you say things. Half the fun of being foreign for me is mangling the English language with each turn of phrase. That’s Kyoto, Japan.” He cut in quickly, amending his prior statement to make far greater sense. “Not Tokyo, I mean, or any place that matters beyond being a place for tourists. It’s pretty, though. Especially during the festivals. They string up these bulbs with red all over them. I used to walk around and look at all the games with my big sis, Sasami. It was like Christmas. Sometimes, my grandparents would visit and my grandma'd try to teach me knitting... good times."

You both like green. That’s the kind of thing you learn when you TALK to people. You make CONNECTIONS and then acquittances and FRIENDS. The part of her brain that listened to her older brother Nate’s advice about being more social was smug. This is the perfect opportunity to start over. No one knows you here, you could be Outgoing Twyla instead of Wallflower Twyla. She stopped her inner monolog to continue the conversation. “Happy cows and happier calves”, he chuckled. “Sounds amazing.” The farm girl in her snorted on the inside and on the outside she gave a small half smile half smirk. “Happy cows take an amazing amount of work.” It was her turn to chuckle although hers was smaller. “But it does give an amazing feeling. That’s the reason we do it.” That and it’s what the family’s done ever since her family immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1850s. Small time farmers always put in more money then they’ll ever get out. Twyla’s mother was a nurse at the local clinic and her income payed the bills and supplemented the farm spending.

He told her he was from Kyoto, Japan and her mind instantly searched for where she had heard the name before. She found it in the History section along with quite a bit of information from her Modern World History class. Twyla was proud to say that she had read that entire textbook, even the parts that weren’t covered in class. ‘World History’ was a term the referred to mostly Western History with a few of Eastern tidbits thrown in. The tidbit that pertained to Kyoto was just about how Kyoto was the capital of Japan until everything was moved to present day Tokyo. Twyla remembered the specifically because she had won points for her team in the Jeopardy-like game that they played in her class to review for tests. Twyla was good at that game and it was one of the only times her classmates wanted to work with her.

“Not Tokyo, I mean, or any place that matters beyond being a place for tourists. It’s pretty, though. Especially during the festivals. They string up these bulbs with red all over them. I used to walk around and look at all the games with my big sis, Sasami. It was like Christmas. Sometimes, my grandparents would visit and my grandma'd try to teach me knitting... good times." He went on while Twyla, happy to remember her trivia fact, paid close attention. When Twyla was little she had wanted to travel with her Grandmother Blanch but as she got older she realized that there was very little chance that she would ever make it any farther into the world than Minnesota. Coincidentally she was very wrong on that point, so Japan wasn’t too far fetched anymore. “That sounds very pretty...My Grandma Twyla used to try to teach us girls how to sew when she babysat for my parents. Those weren’t very good times.” Images of her older sisters criticizing her technique filled Twyla’s head. They were older and knew what they were doing and Twyla was very young when her grandmother had given her a needle, it wasn’t her fault. She blinked to shoo out the memories. “So is Sasami your only sibling?” She decided to ask, thinking of the five siblings she had left in Wisconsin.

"Yeah, Sami's my only. The ever-present overbearing big sis." Shin smirked. "Standing up for every man, woman and child in a five block radius the very best that she can. I used to get picked on in school... they called me 'shorty', said I was a rude squirt who should pay more attention in Kendo class. Sami'd always wander into the conversation dreamily, spin around, and bop them on the heads! Or, y'know, give them muffins and tell them to leave me alone because that's what good boys do... woulda preferred the more violent one if you ask me." He crossed his arms as he imagined it. Spin-kicking big sister claims another life. Film at 11. She'd always been there for him, though. Through the tough times, when he disagreed with the teachers and his parents had to shout. Always there to scoop him up when the training had knocked him down, toss a bag of cookies his way, brighten his day. And being too kind wasn't the worst thing, was it? "But whatever I say... it really worked. Non-violent solutions... I guess there's a teaching lesson in that somewhere," Shin pondered pointedly. Maybe something about how she'd shown him how jujitsu was the better martial art not because it was brutal and used every single part of the body to take people down... but because it was a gentle form that used an opponent's force against them while maintaining the most peaceful path one could? Naw... dropped the Thinker pose with a shrug.

"Sasami always puts care for others above care for herself... did I mention she's studying to be a nurse?" Shin added with a questing laugh. After a moment, he went silent.

He looked up at Twyla thoughtfully. "You mention 'us girls'. So you have sisters? Tell me about them."

Twyla could relate to the idea of an ‘ever-present overbearing big sis’, she had three of them, so she also smirked when Shin said that. She watched him talk intently and listened to everything that he said about school and his sister sticking up for him. Taking on the role of the listener was easy for her and as long as the story or what-have-you, like this one, was interesting she was very attentive. Listening for her was similar to the way she read; there was always something interesting to find if you listen long enough. "But whatever I say... it really worked. Non-violent solutions... I guess there's a teaching lesson in that somewhere," Twyla didn’t have an instant reply to his observation so she waited for him to go on. He seemed comfortable talking so she assumed that waiting wouldn’t make things awkward.

It didn’t. Eventually he went on with:"Sasami always puts care for others above care for herself... did I mention she's studying to be a nurse?” And then there was a laugh and then he paused for a moment before he said: "You mentioned 'us girls'. So you have sisters? Tell me about them." after looking up. She wasn’t expecting the conversation to turn to her life so soon, she was still in Listener Mode so it took her a moment to process that the comment was in fact a question and it was geared towards her. How to explain her older sisters? Each one of them was so different. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts.

Eventually Twyla replied to his question. “Well...I have three sisters. The oldest, Miranda, is...”She did the math quickly in her head. “almost 27 and she is currently a newlywed and a new Pediatrician and a new mommy, according to my grandmother. I don’t remember much about her from when I was younger, she’s almost ten years older than me, but I do know that in high school she was always on the A honor roll and she was in a lot of clubs and she played volleyball. She’s very organized and likes to keep her ducks in a row. She’s about my height but she has blonde hair, like my mom and she’s a lot more athletic looking than me.” Twyla looked down briefly at her curvy frame. Noone but her sisters could make her embarrassed to be in her own body. Before she could dwell on her awkward body she went on talking. “Liza in the next oldest and she’s...24. She’s in her last year of college. She’s going to be an engineer, I’m not sure which kind....She’s really sporty and energetic. Liza’s a math person but she’s kinda scatter-brained. I don’t remember much of her when I was litter either. She’s also blonde like my mother, but tall like my father and even more athletic than Mandy. Jeanie is the youngest of my three older sisters. She’s 22 and wants to be an Art teacher. She’s the ‘rebel’ of the three, at least that’s what my parents call her. In highschool she won awards for choir and Forensics. Last I heard she was living in Madison with her boyfriend and she had gone vegan. She’s really liberal, but she’s really nice to everyone. Her hair was blonde till she dyed it pink two years ago and she’s taller like Liza.” Her hands went subconsciously to her medium length brown hair. People never associated her with her sisters and she hated standing next to them for pictures, she was the odd girl out. Twyla realized she probably had shared too much but she couldn’t help adding: “I also have an older brother, Nate, and a younger brother named Jonathan.” She but her lip and waited for him to process what she had said, it was a bit, and that was only the tip of the iceberg. She could talk about just one of her sisters for hours but she preferred not to do that, they made her feel jealous and like she was nothing special.