[ well used to his senpai invading his space, kei just takes it in stride. at least he's not as difficult as bokuto, who'd be making him bow over the table right now with his weight draped all over his back.
he shifts pieces of his salad over his bowl, removing the things he'd rather not eat along with his lunch. this means that his plate is almost empty except for lettuce and carrots, but when the alternative is a sopping bowl of curry (which remains untouched on his tray), he really doesn't have much of a choice.
he thinks about what kuroo had said over text. he .... he's happy about it. he doesn't know if it's enough to get them through against shiratorizawa and potentially defeat nekoma when the time comes - and that seems more of a possibility now - but kei knows that there's room to improve where blocking is concerned and that's always better than recognizing defeat without even trying. he knows that now.
so he's happy that kuroo recognized his efforts. it's just a bit difficult to acknowledge it right now, given that a month ago so many things were trying to kill them and he felt absolutely helpless with the rest of them trying to take care of people without knowing or understanding why these things were happening to them.
where does he even begin? ]
I'll tell you what I know of things in this school. [ he hesitates, and then adds, ] I don't really .... understand a lot of things about this place. To say it's frustrating is just the beginning, but .... I'm not the only one working to get out of here. So it's not as bad as it can be - most days.
[ and so he'll start quietly telling him how his experiences were in this school, from when he'd arrived to the point now. how the classes made absolutely no sense, but he attended them anyway because it's one of the few, more normal things that you can do here that doesn't cost him anything. how the classes were normal - except those times when you feel like you're not yourself.
from the classes he moves on to the ever-shifting hallways, the things you hear in the night, something large and animal-like with claws and a horrid smell staking you where you go, doors that open and close without any discernable patters, doors that don't open at all. the way they sleep in the storage room, cramped. how he asked oikawa to keep an eye on all of them, and whichever volleyball players from miyagi or elsewhere come to inugami. he can't keep an eye on everyone, he recognizes this much. oikawa agreed. iwaizumi helped. they set up a system where they all check on each other and keep an eye on yachi who was always on the verge of falling apart even when she's not.
he talked about the incident in the courtyard - how he attempted to interrogate the gardener with a student, and got poisoning in return. stupid, reckless move; he won't do that again. he told him that the gardener was unable to give any information about the school, whether its location, or when it ends, only that the students have to worry about their finals. (he didn't tell him how severe the poisoning had been.) and then -
he talked about the murders. his hands shake a bit as he recounts the story: two students in this cafeteria were taken to the kitchen. dead. the students in the hallways - the native ones - being more violent than ever, the .... inhuman way they seem to go after each other, stabbing and gouging their eyes out and then shrugging off the injuries as if it were nothing. how the staff did nothing about the murders. how after that, more and more students were taken. oikawa in particular. they had been on their way back to the gym, walking in a group, when something - he can't really say what - took him. and iwaizumi, in an attempt to save him, lost his fingers in return.
after that, he came back.
he didn't know what to make of it. so many other students came back, too, each of them unsure as to what just happened; each of them just slightly disturbed by their disappearances. or deaths, who knows what he should even call it. the way oikawa's fangirls suddenly turned vicious. the way one of his friends, mitsuba, started hearing voices, most of whom were of her friends', viciously attacking her insecurities. the way kurt's appearance seem to be emulated by certain boys and girls when they had never taken an interest in that kind of thing before.
and now, of course, the appearance of a new batch of students. none of it made sense.
he leaves out the part where an acquaintance has offered to tutor him in self-defense. that one he's .... still working out. the idea of hurting someone sickens him. but ... he keeps remembering how iwaizumi had howled when oikawa had been taken, how there was so much blood, he still can't wash it off his clothes, and .... ]
It's been a difficult month.
[ understatement of the year, and they've just begun. to his credit, he's a lot more composed than he looks, but that's because he'd taken it to himself to make sure he's the reliable, calm one. yachi had been crying so often and kageyama was so quiet nowadays. he can't allow himself to be reckless. people are depending on him; he knows this now. oikawa and iwaizumi are dependable, but they rely on each other, and that has its own weaknesses too.
kuroo is the one he's least worried about. he remembers kuroo to be a good mentor and a good captain. he didn't have the awkward neediness of oikawa; or at least, if he did, he's never shown it to him, and that's something he appreciates. he's found out a lot more about oikawa and iwaizumi than he'd like, and one of the most important thing that he's learned from them is to hope that yamaguchi never make it here.
and then of course, he remembers that - kuroo had been nice to him, so he repays it in kind: ] I .... thanks, by the way. [ it meant a lot to hear it from someone, after all that shit that just happened and wow this salad is really interesting. ]
I can tell you more about .... what's happened back home, or at least what I remember of it. [ a slight laugh. ] It'll be a lot easier for me to talk about that.
[ especially since kuroo doesn't have the same quandaries about it like the seijou people do. ]
> action
he shifts pieces of his salad over his bowl, removing the things he'd rather not eat along with his lunch. this means that his plate is almost empty except for lettuce and carrots, but when the alternative is a sopping bowl of curry (which remains untouched on his tray), he really doesn't have much of a choice.
he thinks about what kuroo had said over text. he .... he's happy about it. he doesn't know if it's enough to get them through against shiratorizawa and potentially defeat nekoma when the time comes - and that seems more of a possibility now - but kei knows that there's room to improve where blocking is concerned and that's always better than recognizing defeat without even trying. he knows that now.
so he's happy that kuroo recognized his efforts. it's just a bit difficult to acknowledge it right now, given that a month ago so many things were trying to kill them and he felt absolutely helpless with the rest of them trying to take care of people without knowing or understanding why these things were happening to them.
where does he even begin? ]
I'll tell you what I know of things in this school. [ he hesitates, and then adds, ] I don't really .... understand a lot of things about this place. To say it's frustrating is just the beginning, but .... I'm not the only one working to get out of here. So it's not as bad as it can be - most days.
[ and so he'll start quietly telling him how his experiences were in this school, from when he'd arrived to the point now. how the classes made absolutely no sense, but he attended them anyway because it's one of the few, more normal things that you can do here that doesn't cost him anything. how the classes were normal - except those times when you feel like you're not yourself.
from the classes he moves on to the ever-shifting hallways, the things you hear in the night, something large and animal-like with claws and a horrid smell staking you where you go, doors that open and close without any discernable patters, doors that don't open at all. the way they sleep in the storage room, cramped. how he asked oikawa to keep an eye on all of them, and whichever volleyball players from miyagi or elsewhere come to inugami. he can't keep an eye on everyone, he recognizes this much. oikawa agreed. iwaizumi helped. they set up a system where they all check on each other and keep an eye on yachi who was always on the verge of falling apart even when she's not.
he talked about the incident in the courtyard - how he attempted to interrogate the gardener with a student, and got poisoning in return. stupid, reckless move; he won't do that again. he told him that the gardener was unable to give any information about the school, whether its location, or when it ends, only that the students have to worry about their finals. (he didn't tell him how severe the poisoning had been.) and then -
he talked about the murders. his hands shake a bit as he recounts the story: two students in this cafeteria were taken to the kitchen. dead. the students in the hallways - the native ones - being more violent than ever, the .... inhuman way they seem to go after each other, stabbing and gouging their eyes out and then shrugging off the injuries as if it were nothing. how the staff did nothing about the murders. how after that, more and more students were taken. oikawa in particular. they had been on their way back to the gym, walking in a group, when something - he can't really say what - took him. and iwaizumi, in an attempt to save him, lost his fingers in return.
after that, he came back.
he didn't know what to make of it. so many other students came back, too, each of them unsure as to what just happened; each of them just slightly disturbed by their disappearances. or deaths, who knows what he should even call it. the way oikawa's fangirls suddenly turned vicious. the way one of his friends, mitsuba, started hearing voices, most of whom were of her friends', viciously attacking her insecurities. the way kurt's appearance seem to be emulated by certain boys and girls when they had never taken an interest in that kind of thing before.
and now, of course, the appearance of a new batch of students. none of it made sense.
he leaves out the part where an acquaintance has offered to tutor him in self-defense. that one he's .... still working out. the idea of hurting someone sickens him. but ... he keeps remembering how iwaizumi had howled when oikawa had been taken, how there was so much blood, he still can't wash it off his clothes, and .... ]
It's been a difficult month.
[ understatement of the year, and they've just begun. to his credit, he's a lot more composed than he looks, but that's because he'd taken it to himself to make sure he's the reliable, calm one. yachi had been crying so often and kageyama was so quiet nowadays. he can't allow himself to be reckless. people are depending on him; he knows this now. oikawa and iwaizumi are dependable, but they rely on each other, and that has its own weaknesses too.
kuroo is the one he's least worried about. he remembers kuroo to be a good mentor and a good captain. he didn't have the awkward neediness of oikawa; or at least, if he did, he's never shown it to him, and that's something he appreciates. he's found out a lot more about oikawa and iwaizumi than he'd like, and one of the most important thing that he's learned from them is to hope that yamaguchi never make it here.
and then of course, he remembers that - kuroo had been nice to him, so he repays it in kind: ] I .... thanks, by the way. [ it meant a lot to hear it from someone, after all that shit that just happened and wow this salad is really interesting. ]
I can tell you more about .... what's happened back home, or at least what I remember of it. [ a slight laugh. ] It'll be a lot easier for me to talk about that.
[ especially since kuroo doesn't have the same quandaries about it like the seijou people do. ]