Don't Flash the Camera (CLOSED; MELODY)

Yuri really could not have asked to attend a better school.

Back home, amidst the deafening hustle-and-bustle of the city she grew up in, there were few opportunities for her to really enjoy herself in school. She held no express interest in any subjects or clubs, save for the occasional stealthy sit-ins she so carefully performed at the girl's volleyball team practice. That was back before she started getting herself into all the trouble that had her sent here in the first place; a time when she still considered herself a "good girl," unlike these days.

The frustrating monotony of school life faded away when she was transferred to Fukui Academy. At first, she equated it to her time in juvi; it wasn't until she started getting to know people around campus that she realized that, despite how boring most of them could be, they were at least genuinely alright people. Oh, and who could ever find themselves bored in a place full of so many adorable young ladies, ripe for the stalking?

... Ahem. That was supposed to be a secret.

At the moment, Yuri was participating in one of her many escapades of alleged "practice." Photography was her cover, as facilitated by the camera she held in her hands, aimed toward the pool she hid not far from. Her target today was a tall, slender figure that she'd had her eye on for some time now. Truly an opportunity she could not pass up; with the device in her hands aimed steadily at the girl she had in her sights, she had hidden herself just around the corner of the door leading into the nearby girl's locker room and was snapping pictures at regular intervals.

Her mistake, which she failed to realize, was being too distracted with her ogling to realize that she'd left the flash on.

The pool was pretty nice, Melody had to admit. Her old school had had one as well, but she'd never been allowed to swim in it during off hours. They were way too paranoid about people getting hurt; plus, there had been both guys and girls there, and even though Melody found herself attracted to women, for most people that wasn't true as far as she knew, and the school didn't like to let boys and girls intermix. Guys were perverts anyway. Melody hadn't really cared that they weren't allowed to swim at the time. Now she'd just appreciated the ability to relax in the pool and be left alone.

Actually, she was competely alone as far as she could tell. It was weird, yet welcome. She'd spent her first week tripping over and running into or spilling food on every single girl in the school. Most of them she was friendly with at this point, but the actual bumping had been unpleasant, and right now she was just glad to actually have the pool to herself. She paddled around, sloshing and moving wherever she felt like. It was only spring, but it was pretty warm outside. At least this physical activity didn't lead to her sweating.

And what was more fun was that she had a wonderful two piece swimsuit she'd brought with her - one she'd have loved to see on any other girl. It wasn't allowed during class with the regulations the school had, but right now she was free to wear whatever she wanted.

Well, she'd thought so, but then she saw a flash come from the corner of her vision. "What the?" Melody blinked in confusion, looking at the door. Was someone taking a picture of her? The sixteen year old crawled out of the pool and carefully walked towards where she'd seen the flash come from. "Who's there?!" she asked loudly enough that she would definitely be heard.

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki

The only reason Yuri ever paused between pictures was to admire the ones she'd taken already. These were going to be an excellent addition to her collection; some of her best work yet, she thought, of one of the best subjects she'd ever stalked practiced with. Honestly, if she didn't know any better, she would have mistaken this academy for some kind of modeling school. So many cuties just waiting to be photographed, so little storage space on her memory card...

... Wait, something was wrong.

Who's... there? Was that what her target said?

No, there was no way this girl had caught on to Yuri's location. Yuri had moved quietly, she was breathing silently, her camera produced no sound when it snapped a pic... She made sure she wasn't being watched when she positioned herself there... Was someone else nearby? Did this chick have ESP or something? A guardian spirit? Was she a schitzophrenic and just reacted coincidentally to the voices in her head?

A little blinking icon on the screen of her camera answered the question for her. Now struck the realization that she had made the rookiest of rookie mistakes, and somehow managed to turn the camera flash on before she started taking pictures. Damn, how stupid was she? Could she be any clumsier than that? No matter, she wasn't about to let herself get caught in the act. Not after all the work she'd put into her reputation.

One could have argued that the best way to uphold that reputation would have been to not engage in such questionable activities, but, well... Screw those people, she enjoyed it.

As her target approached, Yuri ducked back into the locker room, quickly darting around to look for a potential hiding spot. Trash bin? No, too gross... Under the seats? No, too obvious... In the lockers? No, too... Wait, actually, that worked with the larger ones. Whatever, she didn't have time to be picky. The red-head shuffled quickly toward the nearest one, opened it up, and closed herself right in without a second thought.

Then came her second and third mistake. Her ponytail had gotten caught in the door, leaving her hair clearly visible from the outside; quiet sounds of uncomfortable fidgeting echoed throughout the locker room because of it... and, if that weren't enough, she didn't consider for a moment that these lockers couldn't be opened from the inside.

Today was just full of screw-ups.

Melody walked into the locker room, her arms crossed so that she felt more covered as she entered. The frown on her face practically screamed "I'm going to murder someone!" Not that she was screaming that. She wanted to, but she'd never been much of a physical sort of person, even in her bullying days. "Where'd you go? There's only one way in here, you know." Melody's voice was a mix of overly calm and completely unamused.

She closed the locker room door, then walked forward while shivering a bit now that she was out of the water. What sort of creeper took secret pics of a girl in a bikini? Had some guy found his way onto the campus and decided to play perv at the pool? If so, coming in here was the worst sort of idea.

Melody walked past the rows of lockers; once again it was empty, just like the pool. At first, she thought maybe she'd imagined seeing someone, but no, she'd definitely heard footsteps once she'd called out. Brown eyes shifted back and forth, until they rested on something odd - a ponytail stuck in a locker.

Melody grinned an almost sinister grin. It was a girl, and she'd trapped herself. She reached out and unlocked the locker, pulling it open. "Ahah! Caught you, perv!" she declared as the door swung free. What would she do now?

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki | I have you now! Right where the plot wants you!

Okay, don't panic... Yuri thought. Worst thing you can do right now is panic...

That self-advice... kind of worked. She didn't "panic," really, and couldn't if she wanted to. Her hair caught in the locker door prevented her from fidgeting too much, and with both of her hands occupied trying to pull it out carefully, she had already dropped her camera. Whatever, her hair was more important. It took years to grow this stuff to its all-natural perfection, a camera could be replaced with money, which she had plenty of.

That was her thought, at least, until she heard the footsteps approaching her location. Yuri's target had made her way into the locker room. Dammit, now she had to stay still and wait, hope that she hadn't been noticed, despite the hair sticking out. Even if she weren't, though, how would she get out of here? She couldn't open it from the inside and the school day had already ended, so it was unlikely that anyone else would stop by. Either she'd be spending the night, or have to break the door o-

"Waah-!" came an irritated cry from Yuri's lips as she felt a brief tug on her hair. The light that hit her from the outside and a startled gaze toward her target sent a feeling of "oh crap" through every fiber of her being, especially considering the phrase spoken by that target. Lucky for them, they were still at school, and she'd resolved to keep up appearances no matter where she was on campus. So instead of tossing a punch or something, like she might have done elsewhere, she lifted her hands up in a sort of "I surrender" kind of way.

"Uh... This totally isn't what it looks like..!" Yuri spoke, feeling a drop of cold sweat run down the side of her head. Her back was against the locker wall, and evidently she hadn't noticed her camera fall out and onto the floor. The screen was facing up, and since she hadn't backed out of photo-view mode from the last one she took, the image that showed was a zoomed-in shot of her target's chest region.

Surely her target was as naive and gullible as everyone else... right?

"This totally isn't what it looks like...!" Melody raised an eyebrow as she opened her mouth to retaliate. How was this not...? Then her eyes noticed the camera. She'd recognize that chest anywhere... she did see it every time she looked in a mirror after all. Slowly, she bent down and picked up the camera.

Holding it in both hands, her cheeks got redder and redder. "What's this?" she asked, not even looking up. Her eyes were fixed on the camera, unblinking. What would she take pictures like this for? Actually, now that that thought had gone through her head...

"The hell are you taking pictures of my boobs for?!" she blirted out, her eyes moving from staring at the camera to looking unblinkingly into Yuri's eyes... and possibly her soul. It was kind of hard to tell from the stare's intensity. "What are you, some kind of perv?!" She wasn't sure why she immediately assumed the girl was the perv rather than, perhaps, taking the pictures for someone else. It didn't matter who she was taking them for. Someone was going to die if this had happened to her before. Her eyes and head darted down again as she started going through the pictures. She still hadn't moved to let the girl out of the locker.

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki

Shoot!

The damn camera, how could she forget about it? That was what got Yuri into this mess in the first place. It was exactly what she was trying not to have discovered, the reason she even followed this girl. She just had to let her hair distract her from what was important... Well, at least she didn't lose any of it. Thank heavens, she thought, that she hadn't weakened it over the years with girlish hair products that everyone else her age seemed to be obsessed with.

Dammit, that wasn't the point here. Back on track.

"H-Hey wait, don't..!" Yuri said, reaching awkwardly toward the camera. She froze in place, though, once her target spotted the first picture, and with a nervous twitch of her eye, held out a single hand as if expecting it to be handed back to her. Each little beep of picture scrolling that followed sent chills down her spine as it revealed more and more shots, not just of Melody, but several other girls--perhaps even some that Melody knew. They were all similar in nature and rather incriminating.

C'mon, think... Yuri told herself. No way she could snatch the camera and just run from this position, she couldn't even get out of the locker with the taller girl in her way. She'd have to try and reason her way out. Somehow.

So, rubbing awkwardly at the back of her head as another drop of sweat trickled down the side of her face, she forced a quiet laugh that definitely sounded forced. Maybe she could just play it off. "I'm, uh... practicing for future photoshoots..!" A poor excuse, but it was better than nothing. "... Can I have my camera back? Ahaha..."

"Practicing for photoshoots, huh?" Melody seemed unconvinced, her scowl deepening as each picture was flipped through. How could someone do something like this? And... well she supposed the other girls were pretty attractive... Dangit now she was getting distracted by the pictures. She held the camera purposefully away from the girl as she finally stepped back from the locker.

"So how many pictures have you taken, hm? You don't have others of me somewhere do you?" She hoped not. Her cheeks were still crimson from the one on the camera; she couldn't imagine someone actually having pictures like this of her to creep over.

"And why should I give you your camera back? So you can take another picture of me to go be creepy with somewhere? There's this thing called talking to a girl that works pretty well, or so I hear." She continued to hold onto the camera protectively, ready for any attempt to grab it from her. She sighed in a frustrated tone as she turned slightly to start looking through the pictures again. Just how many were there?! She was quickly distracted a little though, as her slightly more pervy side recognized a few of the girls she found attractive.

Her eyes scanned the pictures, no longer looking so much surprised as interested. She also wasn't guarding the camera as much as she had. Still, there were certain things she just had to object to, and she finally spoke up again after a moment. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you know. Doing stuff like this is just... just..."


TAG Yuri Tokisaki

Yeah, she didn't think that would work. Yuri wasn't used to being caught of guard like this, in an environment where the last thing she wanted was for people to know what she was really like. If they were outside of campus she'd have solved this problem easily with a quick jab to her target's gut, but doing that stuff on school grounds was much too risky. At least with her camera she could erase the evidence by either destroying it or deleting the data from her memory card. Well, not anymore, since it was now in her latest target's hands.

The following barrage of questions received no straight answers. Most of them didn't, anyways; at least, not beyond uncomfortable shrugs, her eyes pointing in different directions to avoid contact, and careful fidgeting as she moved to step out of the locker and stand right in front of it. One question did get a direct answer though. The most important one, she thought.

"... Because if you don't give it back, you'll be stealing, obviously," Yuri replied. Maybe this chick was a goodie-two-shoes like almost everyone else in this school, it was at least worth a shot. Maybe she could use that as a bluff of some kind. In truth, the images on that camera were far more incriminating than just having the camera itself stolen, which meant that she'd need to rely on her target being kind of an idiot to fall for it. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So, with her hand still outstretched, she added on in as sweet a tone as she could, "So hand it over now, huh? Wouldn't want to have to report this or anything."

Horrible bluff, but what could it hurt?

"Yeah... you report it, I show them the pictures," Melody shrugged, not even a little bit concerned. "A girl like you probably has more than one camera anyway. Besides, I'm not stealing this so much as keeping it as insurance." The way she saw it, it was possible Yuri had more than one set of pictures like this, and some of them might even by of Melody. She didn't like that. She didn't like that at all. She kind of wished she wasn't in a bikini so she'd have somewhere to stash it.

"In fact, We should decide what to do about this. I'd hate to have to be the one to report you for taking lewd pictures." she was pointedly being nonchalant at this point. If she didn't sound concerned, it was somehow scarier to people when she threatened. It was odd, but she'd learned that in the past.

She raised the camera and clicked threw a few more pictures. She'd cycled through all of them already, but hey, the content was admittedly interesting. The blond hadn't intended to turn this into her own gain, but the other girl was trying to fight dirty, and she was doing it badly, and Melody wasn't sure if the fact that she was trying or the fact that she was doing such a bad job at it that was pissing her off more.

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki | Quick I need ideas on how to proceed from here! I wasn't expecting Melody to be the first one to blackmail!

No? No. This girl wasn't going to just let it go after all.

Yuri almost cringed at the thought of just how bad of a position she was in. She'd spent a lot of time around some pretty bad people, she knew exactly what a position of power like this could do to a person. It was precisely for that reason she couldn't show weakness here. Intimidation wouldn't work and she was too proud to beg unless absolutely necessary, so... bargaining?

"Eh... I got it!" Yuri replied, one hand resting behind her back while the other held up an index finger, in that sort of "what I'm about to say is genius" manner. Her target today seemed kind of interested in the images on the device, judging by the way she kept sweeping through them, so maybe bribery. Not free bribery, of course. "You seem like someone with good taste, eh? How 'bout I give you a discount on the images you see there? You can buy them all half price."

Never did Yuri actually sell those pictures, so "half price" was vague even to her. Honestly she wouldn't lose anything by just handing them over, either, but this was her greediness talking; a kind of subconscious desire to hold some kind of advantage over the other person, which was always needed in the "work" she did outside of school. Someone always got screwed over in a deal, and it was never the one in control of negotiations.

"... So, what do you say? That's much better than the whole 'do whatever I say from now on' thing, right? Win-win?

Shut up already, Yuri, the girl thought to herself.

Melody's eyes went wider when Yuri suggested she could buy the pictures from her for half price. Was her gawking that obvious? Duh, of course it was. It was like a train wreck you couldn't look away from... except hotter. "N-No!" she stammered out, almost dropping the camera as she reacted. "I'd never- I mean... Why would I want to buy these pictures off of you? That's just... what kind of girl do you think I am, anyway?!" she seemed almost offended at the offer, though the blush on her cheeks told a completely different story.

"You can't just go around selling pictures of other students like this!" She was so thrown off by what Yuri had said, her own secondary suggestion didn't even register; Melody wasn't like that! She didn't just buy pervy pics of girls she sort of knew! Well... maybe she could to make sure no one else would get ahold of them but... No that was a terrible idea! What was she thinking?

Melody gulped a bit as she looked down at the camera again. "W-why do you sell pictures of girls to people?" she asked. "W-wouldn't it be easier just to charge people for the pictures knowingly?" Yes. Change the subject! That was it. Just change it and stop listening to stupid pervy suggestions. She's the creeper not you!

Yuri Tokisaki

"So you don't want them?" Yuri replied, taking a half-step forward and finally closing the locker behind her.

Now that she had some momentum in the conversation, she was feeling a lot more comfortable moving around, enough so to start working at fixing her hair. Having it clamped in the locker door like that gave it a few knots, which would need brushing out before long. Then there were the split ends to worry about, after having had it ruffled from all of that frantic movement to duck back into the locker room, dart around looking for a hiding spot, then actually get into that hiding spot...

As one of her hands began running through the ponytail that hung behind her, the other was held out forward, in a sort of "gimme" gesture. Yuri caught her target off guard by the looks of it, and with the attempted subject change, it seemed like Melody's focus was thrown off. There were always these small, subtle tricks, these psychological discrepancies that one could take advantage of to turn things in their favor when "negotiating" with other people. Keep their conscious thought occupied enough, people could be led on by habit.

For example, when someone held their hand out to receive something, the natural reaction was to hand something over; like, say, that camera. If she could keep Melody's brain preoccupied with their words rather than their actions, maybe she could recover that valuable object literally by just having it handed back to her like it was nothing.

"You can drop the act, your face is as red as a beet. I've got more where these came from, too, no need to hold back."

"Of course I don't want them!" Melody insisted. She was half lying, but she was half telling the truth. It felt wrong to buy something like this from someone. If the girls had volunteered, maybe... But they hadn't! Not as far as she knew. Plus... she didn't want a reputation as a perv. She'd always been pretty good at keeping that side of her in check, at least when other people were around. "I just.. couldn't. I mean, what if people bought this stuff with me in it?" She squeezed her eyes shut and flailed "Noooo!"

Apparently, Yuri's tactic had worked. As embarrassing as it was about to be for Melody, her indignance and and natural embarrassment for being who she was (due to her parents, mostly) just seemed to combine into one moment of stupidity. As she flailed, she practically thrust the camera at Yuri as if to reject the temptation forcefully.

It took a few moments for her to realize what she'd done. Once she did, her eyes shot open again and her cheeks flushed crimson. "H-hey you tricked me! Give me that back you perv!" she lunged for the camera, her eyes wide with fear from her mistake. Why hadn't she deleted her own picture, at least?! Augh she knew better than to give into stupid words like that, what was wrong with her?!

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki

Really? It was that easy?

It almost wasn't fair how simple it was for Yuri to get her camera back. If she were a more honorable person, she might have handed it right back and just tried to take it back by force. But she wasn't. She was tricky, manipulative, and had no issues with using psychological tricks to make things go her way. Such qualities were necessary for one to develop when they spent so much time around the people she did outside of school.

"Good girl, Yuri replied, prepared to turn and leave. Then her target made a grab for the camera, to which she recoiled back, held it upward. Her free hand moved to place its open palm right on Melody's face, very much like those typical cartoon depictions of someone trying to attack another person and being held off by just an arm. If miss Target decided to push forward, though, Yuri likely would've had to step back to keep the camera out of reach. Her eyes narrowed, her mouth curved into somewhat of a disappointed frown, and her response to Melody's last statement was an irritated: "I'm not a perv."

Well... Not publicly, at least.

"Then give me that back! I don't want my boobs on your camera!" Melody tried again, and Yuri was easily able to avoid having the camera taken. Melody was too flustered and angry at herself to be effective at this whole 'get the camera back' thing. She really wasn't the 'physical' kind of bully back in the day. A small growl escaped her throat; the blond practically flailing at the camera after a second failed attempt.

"C'mon! I can't have something like that getting out! I- I just..." Realizing she wasn't in a position to make demands anymore, Melody's arms dropped, and she glared at the camera like her gaze alone might destroy it. After a moment though, she crossed her arms over her chest and stopped putting up any kind of real fight. What was she going to do now?! "C'mon, there's got to be some way we can fix this..." she reasoned, having switched places with Yuri completely. "There's plenty of pictures on there without me,right? What do you say?"

surely this girl wasn't a complete monster, right? Melody could reason with her! Her chest wouldn't be sold to random people if she could help it, and right now her best bet was to bargain until she could figure out another strategy that would work. "We can work this out. One girl to another, hm?"


TAG: Yuri Tokisaki

"One girl to another, eh?" Yuri replied, lowering the camera and retracting her defensive arm now that the little squabble was over with. Even that was surprisingly easy, but hey, it was expected. All that arm strength built up from boxing really came in handy. She would have to thank her father some day for making her take those classes... Paranoia of a guy working for the police. Who knew it would come in handy?

Stuffing the camera into the large pouch of her bag, Yuri zipped it up, faced her target again, and briefly pondered her next response. She was in a fabulous position at this point, and she knew when someone had folded. This was one of those times. "Hmm... You don't want them sold..." the girl replied, eyes pointing upward and one hand gently stroking at her chin in thought. She looked as if she was considering it, but that was just a ploy. She only wanted Melody to think she was considering it.

"Well... If you want me to avoid making money off of them, you should compensate me for that, right?" Yuri said. While she had maintained her goodie-goodie, on-campus tone, it was quite an unnerving contrast with the subtext of the words she spoke. She still had to keep up appearances after all, in case anyone else happened to stumble upon them and see her acting intimidating. "So what could you do for me that would make up for that, I wonder..?"

"Er..." Melody had no idea what to suggest. She hadn't even had anything in mind when *she* had been in this position. The blond's posture had slowly changed from one of confidence and power to one that was far less comfortable, perhaps even afraid of what might come next. She was used to being in power, not in being the one who was powerless. She hated it. It only made her feel worse for who she'd been before, and that wasn't helping the situation.

"I'll do what- whatever you want!" Melody blurted out all of a sudden. "Anything! I can't have something like this going around! It'd be... I mean, just no!" She reverted to her protective crossed- arm stance, this time glancing off to the side at a locker, rather than the girl she currently hated with all of her being. She'd just wanted to swim! And now... now... who knew what was going to happen? That one stupid picture could ruin everything!

She'd be one of 'those' women when she finally became famous. The picture would be all over the internet, people would talk about how she was a horrible girl who took racy pictures for attention, because people would never understand... this!

TAG: Yuri Tokisaki

This scenario was just getting better and better. It kind of reminded her a little of her time in jail, actually; establishing dominance over one another was customary to decide who could boss who around, who would be left alone, who would be the person everyone picked on. She'd been the latter of the three for her first couple weeks. But then she toughened up, grew a nerve of her own, and showed them who was the boss.

... It was them. They were still the boss. But at least she stood up for herself, eh?

"Well, now that you mention it..." Yuri spoke, lowering both hands to fold in front of her to make a more authoritative stance, as opposed to Melody's defensive one. Her pondering expression shifted back toward a smile, and with her eyes soon making contact with her target's once again, she continued: "How are your grades?"

The reason for asking, of course, was because Yuri really hated doing her own work. The studying part was manageable, and she'd have to keep that up anyways so she could maintain decent scores on tests, not to mention certain essays and what-not that would still need to be done in her own handwriting and writing style, it was just the tedious act of doing different assignments every single day that vexed her to no end. If she could get someone else to handle that for her, she would have an abundance of free time to do whatever she pleased.

"My... grades?" Homework monkey? Was she really going to make Melody be her homework monkey?! Melody didn't have time for that! She needed that time to practice her guitar, or to meet girls and make friends and... whatever. Melody needed to have her free time! Her initial panic wave over, Melody was starting to get annoyed again. What sort of idiot got themselves into this situation? "My grades are fine. I'm no top ten percenter or anything..."

Melody clasped her hands together in front of her chest, looking like she was pleading. "What would it take to get you to delete the picture completely?" she asked in a curious, though still pleading voice. "I don't want to imagine who might see it... or... what some pervert might do with it..." She was beginning to prod to see what the girl would do. She was probably going to have to agree for now. Who was stupid enough to demand something then delete their only trump card? But that didn't mean she couldn't prod a bit, all the while sounding desperate just like before. "I'd do your homework! I'd do the best I could! Better than my own even!"

Yuri Tokisaki