diffidentive | [ic] Inbox

[Noooooooooo thank you!]

[But Kokichi has kind of brought back the awkward again, his latest comment causing the detective to nod with one of his little stuttered noises of affirmation before looking back down at the ground again, cheeks bright pink.]

[You're welcome? He guesses? Though it seems odd to actually say you're welcome for something like worry...because concern isn't something you should have to be thankful for...]

[And yet he is, since a lot of the time people aren't concerned about him. But he's not going to elaborate on that at all, and instead launches into another conversation topic. This one is about all of the neat points of interest New New Aspen has that Kokichi discovered in his adventures. A little less worrisome, and something that maybe Shuichi would find interesting. He leaves out the fact that there's a cute book shop, since that's part of his plans for the evening though...but the rest is a good way to fill up the time on their way to the restaurant.

And it's a really quaint little restaurant that they enter. He wasn't kidding about less crowded, the cute hole in the wall diner having a cozy atmosphere and not too many people there. They're greeted as they enter and led to a booth seat, handed menus and a cup of water each before being left to decide on their dinner. Shuichi will notice, as he reads through the menu, that there are a lot of vegetarian options here. Most of the menu comprises of dishes made of mainly or only fruits and veggies, with pastas and the like as well. There's a decent selection of tea on the menu and both decadent looking as well as less sweet dessert options.

Kokichi gets himself a soup and an entirely too sweet dessert, plus some tea, and pays for both of their meals. He chats with him more during dinner too, about the food and the town and how much he misses Panta...he does his absolute best to make it a pleasant experience. Even if, predictably, there's some teasing and lying and playing with his food that definitely happens too. But it's lower key than normal. No food fights, no crocodile tears, no grand theatrics that attracts the attention of everyone present...just a reasonable amount of playfulness.

And he holds the door open for Shuichi as they leave, a satisfied grin on his face.]

Man, I kind of hope we stay grounded. The food here's pretty good!

Edited 2019-12-23 01:17 (UTC)

[Of course Shuichi finds information like that interesting, that's just the kind of person he is. So he listens to everything Kokichi has to share without interruption, becoming less tense the longer the conversation goes on.]

[Odd though, that Kokichi would pick a place like this...as far as he's aware, the leader is perhaps one of the very last people to pick a place with a mostly vegetarian menu. Mostly because he seems to very strongly dislike them and would exist solely upon junk food if left to his own devices. Which can only mean that he picked it because he somehow figured out that that's the kind of food Shuichi prefers. Because he's fairly certain he never actually told the other boy what kind of foods he likes. And that's...really very touching, honestly. Not wanting to put too much of a dent in Kokichi's wallet (since he presumably refuses to let Shuichi pay for his own meal when the detective suggests it), he orders a salad and skips on dessert, simply enjoying a fresh cup of hot tea while Kokichi indulges his sweet teeth.]

Mmm...I don't know if I hope we stay grounded but...I guess I wouldn't mind it too much. I haven't...really spent any time in the town before now but...it seems like a nice place.

[He did, indeed, figure that out, having paid close attention to Shuichi whenever they ate together just for cases such as this. And he did, indeed, refuse to let Shuichi pay. He encouraged him not to worry about price, but didn't push it when Shuichi ordered the salad and tea either. Whatever he wanted to do was fine by him.]

It's a pretty nice town. I mean I guess we don't have a whole lot to compare it to just yet, but the food is good at least. Better than some of the stuff Bender-chan serves anyway. [Dumb Panta ruining robot.] But there's a lot to do, too.

[Once they're on their way again, he once more takes the detective's hand. This time with a lot more confidence than before.]

There's a little bookshop nearby, even! Wanna go check it out? I found a couple of good mystery novels and romance books there, and they have these really nice journals and notebooks too. And they have actual quill pens! The kind you dip in ink! It's pretty cool.

[Shuichi laughs softly.]

Do you even know how to use an actual quill pen, Oma-kun? Isn't it a little more difficult than a regular pen? Oh, but...yes, I'd like to see the bookshop.

[Of course he would. Books are his favorite thing.]

I have no idea, but I'm willing to try anything once. Let's go give it a shot Saihara-chan!

[Once again he tugs him along by his hand, but gently and at a pace that he can keep up with. Not that it'd be too hard for the detective since he does have much longer legs, but he's mindful of it all the same. And it really is nearby, not taking the two of them too long to reach it at all. He lets go of Shuichi's hand so he can open the door for him again, the lovely smell of books wafting out as soon as it is.]

After you!

[It's a smaller shop, no shelves upon shelves of literature, but it still seems like it has a decent selection. Near the front is the stationery, including those quills that Kokichi mentioned on display and some very nice looking journals. There's a small area to sit and read in as well, though that's currently taken over by a group of kids who are enraptured by whatever story is being told to them by a kind, older looking woman.]

I don't think they'll just let you try it there in the store...

[But he allows himself to be tugged along anyway, and nods his head with a soft word of thanks when they finally reach the store and enter. He looks around, smiling fondly at the little reading circle going on over there. Cute. Very cute. Though he waits for Kokichi to enter too before actually going to look at anything. It would be kind of rude to just rush off and look at the books on his own...]

[It would be, but Kokichi wouldn't mind it. He doesn't mind that the detective waits for him either, however, and joins him quickly enough. And he can't help but smile at the reading circle himself, either. Kids...his one weakness!! They're so cute.]

So where do you wanna start first? The shop's pretty small so I bet we can check most of it out before moving on to our next activity!

[Really? His ONLY weakness? What about Panta? Sugar in general? The tall, dark-haired boy standing right next to him?]

Um... [He glances around the shelves once again before taking a step towards a shelf full of what appears to be fiction novels.] Over here?

[...okay, one of his many weaknesses. Kokichi takes a step after him with a nod.]

Mm, sure! Sounds good!

[He enjoys fiction as much as the next person, so he easily moves to join Shuichi at the shelf to look the available books over. He knows most of them, seeing as this is where he'd picked up one of his gifts inside that gift bag and spent...quite a bit of time finding just the right book. But browsing for himself doesn't hurt, of course.]

[Since Shuichi has never been in here before, he is completely unfamiliar with the books on the shelves, and so he spends a decent amount of time looking them over. He picks up a few of the mystery novels and flips through them, though never more than just the first few pages. He even takes an uncertain glance at a few romance novels, though he doesn't pick them up. It's more like he's making a note of them, wondering if maybe he should come back later and examine them more closely.]

[But surely that doesn't mean anything.]

[Gradually, he works his way through the shelves and around the store. Hopefully Kokichi wasn't expecting a conversation while they browse...apparently this is one of those "companionable silence" moments that Shuichi is so prone to.]

[But hey, at least he seems to be enjoying himself? So good choice on coming here, Kokichi.]

[Kokichi's plenty happy with the companionable silence as long as it seems like Shuichi is as well. He browses the books right beside him, glancing at what his date is checking out every so often as he goes. Like the detective, he'll pick up books - romance and mystery both on his end - and flip through the first few pages to get a feel for them, but never reads further than that.

After a while, he leans over Shuichi's shoulder curiously, trying to read whatever he currently has open.]

How's your browsing going, Saihara-chan?

Oh, um...g-good! [He closes the book he'd been looking at and puts it back on the shelf. Probably a good thing Kokichi distracted him from it, because it's a copy of the book currently still resting in the gift bag back on his bed.] There are some really interesting looking ones...I feel like I'm going to have to come back later on my own so I have more time to just browse and decide which ones I want to buy...

[Since Kokichi DOES have plans for this date and he doesn't want to mess them up by staying in the bookstore too long...]

Edited 2019-12-23 12:54 (UTC)

It's a pretty nice store, right?

[Yeah, it is good. You just leave that on the shelf, Shuichi, he already got it for you! But it's good that he seemed interested in it...very good.]

Maybe we can come back together just to hang out then! I want to make sure to stock up before we inevitably end up back in space.

Mmm!

[He nods.]

Well, even if we wind up in space, it's not like we can't come back here... But it'd be nice to come back and hang out here some time. Um...did you want to look at the quills, then?

True! Saihara-chan's very wise, pointing that out.

[It's said with a more playful tone of voice, lacking any possibly teasing or mean edge to it, and it's followed by an excited nod.]

Yeah! Let's go try them all out! We can write spoilers in all of the books, nishishi!

[He turns to go check out the quills and stationery, taking Shuichi's hand and gently pulling him with.]

[He allows himself to be tugged over to the display.]

O-Oma-kun, I still d-don't think they're going to let you use them without buying them first!

[He's not sure quills are something people give you an in-store trial of??? Presumably, if you're buying them, you know how to use them...]

Edited 2019-12-23 13:31 (UTC)

No way, they totally do! They're like cars. You have to be able to test drive them before you take them home!

[Despite suggesting this nonsense idea, he doesn't ask to try any of them out once they reach the display and he starts looking them over. He lets go of the detective once more so he can peruse whatever he'd like in the area and so that he can have two hands to pick up and touch all the feathers.]

These are pretty cool...they'll totally enhance my drawings, don't you think?

[He is almost certain that is not how it works!!!]

Um... [He looks a little dubious. Honestly? No, he's pretty sure they wouldn't enhance Kokichi's drawings, since he has no idea how to USE a quill properly.] M-Maybe?

[There's something a little more pressing than whether or not quills would make Kokichi's art better, however.]

I didn't know you liked to draw, Oma-kun...

[No, it totally help. Especially since he doesn't know how to use it properly. That can only mean his art would become masterpieces. Have you seen the dumb art people hang up in museums????]

Well surprise then! I love drawing. It's pretty fun! Did you know Fantasy Costco has crayons? I was kind of expecting weird old tech magic fantasy land not to have anything like that. Like maybe I'd have to get berries and flowers and make my own paint or something.

[Which he was sort of prepared to do, if need be.]

Ah, but I'm not very good. [A surprisingly honest answer from him?? No lying about how he painted the Mona Lisa or something...]

Um...n-no, I didn't. [Not an artist himself, Shuichi never looked for crayons on any of his visits to Fantasy Costco.] I'm kind of surprised you didn't try something like that anyway...

[Making his own paint, he means. It just sounds like the kind of weird thing Kokichi would do anyway.]

Well I could, I do know how you know. I'm sure it'd be easy enough to get fruit and vegetable equivalents for some of the colors. But...other colors need like. You know...bug. Stuff.

[And he's sure he doesn't need to explain to Shuichi why he wouldn't be making those specific colors.]

You have to ground and mash them up and make a powder, and it's always from the creepiest, crawliest ones with the grossest legs and the nastiest antenna and the worst smell.....

A-ah...

[Bugs. Terrible. Awful.]

Are you sure there's not...plants you can use even for those colors? I mean...there's plants here that don't exist back home...

[Surely you can get the full array of color with plants. Who needs bugs?]

Maybe. I'd have to look into it. To be honest, I was more worried about the idea of having to use even worse bugs. You know bugs in fantasy magic places are always extra gross...extra creepy. Sometimes extra big, or they goosh more when you squish them, or they have longer bodies and more legs...

[He's getting paler by the minute, thinking about all the awful bugs there could be in Faerun...]

[Shuichi pales considerably as well.]

I...I see. Um...can we maybe talk about s-something else?

[Literally anything else. Why did you have to go into such detail about how much grosser Faerun bugs might be, Kokichi? Why? Don't you want him to enjoy this date??]

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