Round Robin Special [Julia/Yumeko]

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see "Please meet me in the library after classes. I will be located on the 3rd floor, South Wing, rightmost table in the farthest row. Thank you." That was the short and simple text message that Yumeko had sent a few minutes ago, to one Akamaru Julia. She was already seated down at the table, her tablet and keyboard already out and set up and wireless connected to her earpiece. There were no papers around, but there was a stylus magnetically attached to the side of the tablet. Silently, the writer was gritting her teeth lightly in worry. In a way, Yumeko was vaguely aware of what to expect. In an idle chat with the two cousins who were also at Fukui, the writer let slip that she had a joint project, where upon dropping Julia's name, Misha noted that she had met her before while visiting the public hot springs with another friend of hers. While rather succint, the eldest of the girls filled Yumeko in on the redhead's quirks that she had encountered during that trip. Plus, being a classmate, she was able to pick up just a tiny bit of chatter while they were in class. That said, Yumeko wasn't necessarily put off by what she had heard, but it did not assure her for the work that was to come. For the most part, Yumeko worked on her own even when there was an option to work in a group. Her workflow was highly tailored for her needs, and her experience in groups left a bad taste in her mouth. Putting aside the obvious issues with teammates poking at her lack of sight, the last few teammates she felt were...not competent enough. Through the novelist's lips curled down at their memory, it wasn't really their fault - Yuemko had (and she was somewhat aware of it) rather high expectations. Yumeko took a deep breath, closing her eyes reflexively as she tried to push away the bad memories. Her eyes opened again, her pale and clouded orbs looking far away into the distance. While she knew the sound of Julia's voice, she didn't know well enough the sound of Julia's footsteps, and that was something Misha couldn't really tell her. Still, she listened intently for the sound of approaching footsteps, a task made easy by the quiet the library was. Every foot step that got remotely close caused Yumeko to turn her head slightly, trying to home in on the sound until the footsteeps turned away. Julia Akamaru | 427 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

The text she had received was rather to the point.  No fluff to it, at all.  Just a simple set of directions to what would be her partner's location in the library.  Julia gave it another look over as she entered the library upon the close of the school day.  Another class, another project.  This time, the teacher had only paired off the students so it would be a bit more simple.  In their brief meeting before that particular class had ended, the two had exchanged numbers.

Nakano Yumeko was an interesting person.  Julia didn't know her all that well, in spite of being in the same class.  She knew that the girl was blind, but had a very high standard when it came to writing.  Some of her past partners had a few complaints, but Julia wasn't about to pay them too much mind.  What she did want to know more about, was her relation to one particular blonde.  Specifically one of the girls she had met in the hot spring.

Julia had heard that the two were related, to some degree.  Cousins, if her memory served her right.  Beyond that, Julia wasn't all that sure about what to expect from Yumeko.  That was rather exciting.  She was also curious to see how the girl worked.  While blindness wasn't necessarily a detriment to their chosen field of study, it certainly held some challenges.  And Julia was very interested in seeing how she had adapted to them.

She made her way around the aisles of shelves and books and found herself approaching the table where her partner already had taken a seat.  Electronic devices were arranged around her and she had an earpiece in.  As she approached, she couldn't help but notice a few expressions of concern cross her face.

"Ah, Nakano-san." she greeted, "I hope wasn't keeping you waiting for too long."  She took a seat opposite of Yumeko and began taking a few things out of her bag.  Her trusty notepad was out, of course, but she also had a laptop and a slightly large notebook.

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see Another pair of footsteps approached, and as usual, Yumeko's head turned slightly to listen to it. Closer and closer, the sound of feet and breathing approached, but the blind author made no assumptions until she could her a voice. And soon she could hear a voice, one that was familiar enough to confirm it. "No, no, Akamaru-san, please, do not worry. I have recently arrived myself," Yumeko replied, shaking her head towards the sound of Julia's voice. Her politeness was more or less reflexive and in reality she had been seated for quite some time. She listened as Julia took a seat, hearing the sound of plastic against wood and the shuffle of papers, looking right at the source of the sound before trying to angle her head upwards to where she guess Julia's eyes were, her own clouded grey eyes open. Once she had stopped hearing Julia move around, Yumeko spoke up again. "Thank you, Akarmaru-san, for taking time out of your schedule to meet with me, especially now since the teachers have decided running two group projects at the same time was a stellar idea," Yumeko said. Her voice was serious and truely grateful, but a twinge of sarcasm crept in at the end. "Have you given any thoughts on what book to analyze for this assignment?" Yumeko asked. "Well, since we are given free reign to pick, I suggest playing to our strengths, and looking into genres we are more familiar with, what do you think?" Julia Akamaru | 251 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

According to the other girl, she had not been waiting for very long.  Without a proper baseline, it was very difficult to tell if this was the truth or not.  Of course she had no real reason to distrust Yumeko, either.  For the time being she would take her at her word.  She chuckled a bit at the teacher's sudden fondness for group projects.  "There does seem to be a lot of those, lately." she said with a nod.

More to the matter at hand, they did have some actual work that needed to be done.  In addition to the larger project, today was all about a literary analysis.  Yumeko's idea certainly seemed to be very sound.  Pick something that would play more towards their strengths and work from there.  "That's not a bad idea." she said, "Depending on our where our interests lie, of course.  But, I'm sure we can find a nice little compromise should we diverge a little too much."

Julia found the other girl to be quite interesting.  She was very practical in her approach to things.  Her little joke, however, hinted at something else behind her calm demeanor.  That seemed worth investigating, but Julia had to remember to not get too far ahead of herself.

"I've always been fond of a good mystery.  A little detective fiction could make for a fun analysis." she said, "What do ya say, doll?"

The brief switch to English was accompanied by a playful smirk.  She knew her interests were a bit niche, but it was certainly worth a shot to see if there was a fellow mystery lover.

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see Doll. That was a rather stinging ephithet which immediately ruined any excitement Yumeko had over the realization that the both of them were entrenched in the mystery genre, though Yumeko was less of a detective type and more of a thriller. The blind girl was more than well aware of her short stature and small features that made her look, well, rather doll-like. Thankfully, Yumeko managed to limit her physical reaction to a light grinding of the teeth and a soft exhalation, the rest of her body remaining still. "For the record, Akamaru-san, I would much prefer not be called a doll, if that is at all possible with you," Yumeko said, sticking to Japanese version of 'doll'. Her voice emulated more a high-class girl's tone: In control but with the slightest of edge. Then, she sighed, reverting back to a more welcoming version of her polite manner of speech. "Moving on, I agree with focusing on the mystery genre, seeing as that is it both within our interests. That said, there is quite a diapason within that genre, not to mention works that straddle genres." Yumeko's phone buzzed, vibrating against the table for only a moment before being smartly snatched up and silenced. "Apologies, that was family. They are...lively." Yumeko chuckled, and the entire time her clouded grey eyes seemed to be transfixed on Julia, or rather, some distance behind her. Yumeko tapped the phone and the messages started to stream into her earpiece as the dark-haired girl started to talk again. "Anyways, as I was saying, would you have any specific book you would like to use? I think, or would like to think, I am rather flexible." Julia Akamaru | 287 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

Yumeko's response was rather swift and had a little bit of a bite to it.  Even if the tone was disguising it, it seemed that the use of the term "doll" had struck some sort of nerve.  The demand to refrain from using it in the future wasn't too high of a task.  But, Julia was intrigued nonetheless.  She didn't move much, only looked back into the milky grey eyes of her partner as an eyebrow lifted up in curiosity.  "Well, I can assure you that no offense was intended Nakano-san." she said, "But, it shouldn't happen again."

It was at least nice that the both of them carried a love for the mystery genre.  Even if their reference points diverged somewhat, there was enough common ground that the pair would be able to work cohesively enough to complete the assignment.  Before they could continue much further, a buzzing sound interrupted their conversation.  A family phone call, it would seem.  Nothing that warranted too much of the blind girl's attention, although she did listen to the message.  Before long, they were back to business.

"Of course.  Flexibility is always a useful trait to have." she answered, "We could always try for a true classic.  Have you ever read Murder on the Orient Express?  If you had something else in mind, that would be fine as well.  I do try to exercise a bit of flexibility of my own."

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see With a more stable source of sound, Yumeko was able to better focus on Julia, still doing her best to feign eye contact. A pang of guilt ran through her as Julia apologized. Misha did warn her about Julia's...outgoing nature, but she really did seem to not be the gadfly type. Perhaps the rebuke, even though it was in it's own passive-aggressive way, was an overreaction. But there was no more time to dwell on that faux pas as Julia jumped right into the next stage of the assignment. "Agatha Christie. Indeed a classic." Yumeko echoed with a smile and a soft noblewoman's chuckle. She put her hands to the keyboard and started to type furiously as she continued to speak. "Well, it looks like there will be no need for any flexibility from either of us this time around. I am more than happy to use that as the work for analysis. Truthfully, I was a tad worried you would suggest something more obscure." Still facing Julia, one of Yumeko's hand started to trace across the screen of her tablet. "Ah, and it does seem that I have an audiobook copy on me as well, so that does make things easy on my end." Yumeko's hands continued to type, and if Julia listened closely, she could hear Yumeko's earpeice dictate what was on the screen of her tablet. This time, Yumeko had started to open up the documents related to their assignment. "Ah, yes...do you have a copy of the book then?" Yumeko asked, her eyes' focus seemingly drifting. "If not, I would guess a library as large as this has a copy." Julia Akamaru | 294 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

Yumeko continued to be a rather interesting subject.  As they talked, she seemed to more or less get Julia in her "line-of-sight" for lack of a better phrase.  Of course, beyond that, there was her reaction to the apology.  She continued to speak in the more proper tone of voice and hadn't gone back into that rather sharp snap.  Not that it was overtly aggressive, but it was an interesting way of asserting herself to the pink haired girl.

It seemed that the phrase had just accidentally touched on a nerve.  It was reasonable to assume that Yumeko didn't have much appreciation for pet nicknames.  Especially if they came from a relative stranger.  That would be something she would have to keep in mind for later.  Much later, if they hoped to make the most of their time together at the library.  Work still had to be done.

"Choosing something obscure would be nice, but...perhaps it would be showing off a little too much." she chuckled, "Good to see we both have some understanding of the material."

As they spoke, Yumeko searched on her device for a few relevant documents.  Eventually finding an audio version of the novel and listening to the dictation of some document on her screen.  The instructions, if she caught a few of the words correctly.  It was hard to really make out what it was saying.

"That I do." she answered with a nod of her head, "It was a rather enjoyable read.  And good to see that it's still popular enough to warrant a wide variety publications."

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see Yumeko had to chuckle alongside Julia over her response. The blind girl had her pride and wasn't above flexing her intellectual muscle, but Julia was right about being excessive. Still, the sudden outburst of English, combined with an English given name, and according to Misha's description, red hair, caused Yumeko to wonder if her project partner was of mixed ancestry. But the novelist decided, for the sake of keeping the conversation going, to push those thoughts away. "Well, I too am glad that we both on the same page," Yumeko said, starting to relax and smile a little more. She continued to multitask, filling in the boilerplate parts of the assignment on her tablet. "To be quite frank, with the sudden spate of projects, I think picking something we're both familiar with and have easy access to should reign in the difficulty to a more reasonable level. Though, I am guess you do not actually have the book on your person now?" Suddenly, the thoughts that Yumeko had pushed away returned, and the continuous typing slowed to a contemplative tap, her fingers resting on the keys as she tried to figure out what she wanted. "Actually, speaking of warranting a wide variety of publications, if you could permit me this one tangent of curiosity..." To prevent herself from typing further and focus more on Julia, Yumeko pulled her tablet down onto her keyboard. She took another moment to formulate her question, her clouded eyes drifting elsewhere before trying to focus back on Julia again. "From your previous remarks, you seem to be quite fluent in English, is that right?. Would it be too far for one to guess that you have then read Murder on the Orient Express in its original English?" Julia Akamaru | 295 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

Their conversation continued along in a rather productive matter.  Julia was quite pleased to have things running so smoothly.  Things did take a turn for the more interesting when Yumeko's demeanor took a bit of a change.  First her typing slowed down and then she seemed to look off.  Soon, though, she did return to the pink haired girl.  Or at least she got as close to looking at her as her situation would allow.  Needless to say Julia was very interested with what thought had just passed through her mind.

"Ah, a rather interesting assumption." she said, a bit coyly as she smiled a bit and leaned forward, "But a rather accurate one.  I have gotten rather fluid in English and, as it just so happens, I have read the book in it's original language."

As it just so happened, Murder on the Orient Express was one of the first books she had read in English.  She did own a few copies of English-language books and quite liked how they looked on a bookshelf.  She had made sure to bring a few of those along with her as she attended school at Fukui, as well.

"For our purposes here, this afternoon, I will have to rely on the copy the library has available." she added, "Now, I am rather curious...why do you ask?"

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see A wave of relief washed over Yumeko as Julia confirmed the novelist's suspicions. "Well, I suppose there were two reasons for it." Yumeko replied, smiling slightly. "I think I'll get the most obvious and more embarrassing part out of the way first. I've met quite a diapason of students here. And I must admit: with a Western given name and a such firm grasp of English, if it was not for Misha-nee telling me beforehand you were fully Japanese I would have guessed differently. To my chagrin, I've been fooled before by a German-speaking girl, not that she was aiming to deceive." Yumeko sighed and chuckled softly as she recalled that incident and wondered for a moment if that girl was still okay. "Moving on. There is something special about being able to read a work in it's original language. Some important things are eventually lost in translation. I had figured that since you are such a fan of Murder on the Orient Express, you would have gone and read the original." Slipping her fingers between the keyboard and the tablet, Yumeko propped her tablet and started to type again, but still kept her pale eyes towards Julia. "Speaking of which, I think our familiarity with the book so far means we can at least answer some of the boilerplate questions on our assignment, correct? That's right, would it be better to use a cloud document service, lest we step on each other's toes?" Julia Akamaru | 252 | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

There were two interesting things of note in what Yumeko had to say.  Naturally, there was everything that was important about their project, but buried in some of those details were something else that caught her attention.  The two other girls that she had mentioned.  Misha and Himeko.  Sure, one had been mentioned by name, but the mention of a German speaking girl sounded suspiciously like another acquaintance.  And the odds of another German speaking girl being somewhere on campus were not very high.

"Ah, you've also met Miss Wittelsbach, then?" she said, with a slight smirk.  She had rather enjoyed her conversation with the girl.  Himeko was a rather charming sort.  Not to mention she had a rather adorable looking teddy bear.

"But, you are right." she added, "Keeping a shared document should prevent any unnecessary duplication of work and keep things up to date and coherent."

Yumeko was a very well organized sort.  It was very interesting to see how she was taking the lead on the project and what she had planned for the project.  At least in this early stage of the game.  The pair were working together rather well and Julia was looking forward to continue this little collaboration.

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see The sound of a German name caused Yumeko to raise a few eyebrows in amusement. So, Himeko was also an acquaintance of Julia as well. What a small world that this school seemed to be, especially since Himeko was not part of the Literature department. "Indeed, I met Frau Wittlesbach at lunch not too long ago, at lunch," Yumeko recalled, pronouncing Himeko's name in near-perfect German. She chuckled as her fingers furiously were typing on her tablet's keyboard. "I was reading a book written in German, and she struck up a conversation with me, speaking in German as well. Things being what they are, well, you could see how I could have been easily fooled, again, not that she wished to fool me." With a truimphant press of the key, Yumeko finished typing. "And sent. You should have a link to our document in your email now. I think I sent it to your school email. Oh...right..." Yumeko tapped her fingers at the edge of the keyboard. "Apologies for not realizing this sooner, since I haven't had to collaborate like this in a while, but...well, if you're working on the document at the same time as I am, my text-to-speech program won't pick up on that easily. And...you do need your book too, right? Do you know where it is? Do you need help getting to i- gah..." As sigh escaped Yumeko's lips as she shook her head in sudden frustration. "My apologies. I simply do not want to be dragging you down with this assignment." Julia Akamaru | #WORDS | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND

The facts seemed to all fit together and the two were indeed thinking of the same girl.  Himeko and her penchant for German had gotten around a bit.  Naturally, that sort of thing was bound to stick out in one's memory.  She chuckled a bit, bemused by the description and gave a nod of her head, "That certainly does sound like her." she smirked.

With the shared document sent, Julia picked up her phone and checked it.  Everything appeared to be in order and the blind girl proceeded to continued to guide the conversation towards the project, proper.  However, things took a bit of an odd turn when what appeared to be an inkling of self doubt crept into her mind.  Well, that seemed to be the best way to explain it.  Yumeko had paused before she apologized and explained her desire to not hold Julia back.

"Oh, no need to worry at all." she said, brushing the concern off with a wave of her hand, "It wouldn't do to walk all the way back to my room just to get the book.  I can find a copy here for reference and we can get started.  The rest, we'll sort out as it comes along."

Julia stood up from her seat and pocketed her phone, "I'll only be a moment."

Kindness is the  language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see The sound that reached Yumeko's ears was unintelligable, but Yumeko had guessed that Julia was checking to make sure that the email had properly arrived. It seemed like Julia was intent on knocking out as much of the project as they could in a single day. Yumeko could respect that, and since both of them have read the story countless times, the dark-haired girl was confident that minimal re-reading would be neccessary. Though Julia's reassurance only partially mitigated Yumeko's worry, the blind girl nodded and bowed towards Julia who sat up and made her way to the shelves, saying a soft, "Very well, I will see you soon." Now on her own for a bit, Yumeko took her tablet and set it on her lap, rotating it as if she was reading a book, though technically, she was. Even though she had read Murder on the Orient Express many times before, it has been a while since she had last read it. A few swipes across the tablet later and Yumeko's earpeice sprung to life again, rapidly dictating to the author. Yumeko continued riffle through virtual pages, sliding her fingers laterally in quick succession. She didn't need to hear every word, just enough to refresh her memory. Not keeping track of time, Yumeko continued to read, her cloudy eyes staring off into the distance. Julia Akamaru | #WORDS | NOTES:

KAI'K @ WICKED WONDERLAND