I don't often stop to question random people… unless I'm bored, so I actually do that a few times a week? But that's not important, what is important (to momentarily entertaining me) is discovering why this purple child is shuffling papers and mumbling to themselves on the side of the road! "What are those?"
The child lets out a high pitched scream and whirls around, letting the papers fall to the ground. Of course, he doesn't see anyone since I'm flying a few feet above him. I have a good chuckle at him spinning in place trying to catch sight of me, not realizing where I actually am. Then, while he's busy questioning who's there, I let myself drop to the ground and pick up the papers, the sound of which has him whirling back around to face me. Not that he says anything, he just freezes and stares with his mouth hanging open for whatever reason.
Anyways, since the lack of anything resembling an objection is clearly him tacitly agreeing to let me look at the papers, I do so! That doesn't mean that they make sense when I do, though. Instead they just have me tilting my head in confusion while peering at them. "Character sheets?" I question the boy curiously, because that's definitely what these are. I remember back when I was young and got into online role playing games for a while, so I'm more familiar with these than most people would expect. Not that these are exactly the same…
These seem more like… personalities, rather than actual characters. Before I can do more than skim through a few of the names the boy lets out a yell and jumps up to swipe the papers out of my hand. "Give those back!"
I raise an unimpressed eyebrow and give the boy an appraising look. Like I already noted, he's short enough to be a child, about the same height as Eri, actually. Then again, she's started to get a bit of a growth spurt recently, so the boy is probably going to end up shorter than her very soon. The only thing that shows that he's not actually a child is the fact that he's wearing a middle school uniform. Apart from that the only thing that stands out about him is that his hair is made up of four purple balls going from the top of his head to the back, along with some peach fuzz.
The short person stares at me suspiciously, his eyes darting down for a moment before coming back up to keep eye contact. Neither of us say anything for a moment, the boy tense and me mildly amused at his reaction. But someone has to break the silence, and I do have something to say to him. "You're way too short to pull off being a suave gentleman."
He opens his mouth and raises a finger, likely to object, before slumping over and letting out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I know." He grumbles quietly. "But I need something to make me memorable as a hero!"
I tilt my head to the side as he feeds my curiosity. "Oh, are you trying to think of a hero persona?"
He nods letting out another sigh before pulling out one of the papers from the pile and crumbling it into a ball that he stuffs in his pocket. "Yeah, I am." His head whips back up so he can glare at me. "Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't be a hero dammit! I don't need to be hearing that from a nudist!"
I tilt my head to the other side while my eyes glance down at my scale covered body. I chose to have them cover me in what I'm calling a 'sleeveless dress style', covering my torso and the upper parts of my legs while leaving the rest free. Well, he's not wrong. Clothes suck. "I didn't say it did?"
My response forces him to pause what I'm guessing would have been a lengthy rant about short people and heroes, or something like that. Instead he's left blinking at me in surprise. "…You don't think I won't be popular enough to become a hero due to my size?"
What's with this guy's fixation on his height? "No? Being a hero means you're supposed to help people. Being popular is meant to be a side benefit of the job." I pause to recall what I read before about what people are calling 'the Hero Purge', and how most of the people who didn't actually act like heroes were either fired or arrested, aside from a number of them who chose to go into hiding rather than suffer the 'indignity' of having their careers publicly stripped from them. Not that they weren't fired or had arrest warrants assigned to them, but maybe they decided that since they weren't around to accept the consequences they don't count? Humans can be stupid like that.
The boy just continues to blink at me for a moment before giving me a thankful smile. "Well, thanks for that." Then he sighs again and glances down at the papers in his hand. "But heroes still need to stand out. There's still the ranking system, ya' know."
I nod in agreement. "You're not wrong." I nod my head at the papers. "So that's what those are for? Making your hero persona stand out?"
He nods. "Yeah. My original plan sort of went down the drain after the Hero Purge."
"Oh? You were planning to be one of those trashy asshole heroes then?"
He shrugs. "More like a massive pervert, but more or less." At my judgemental look he just raises his hands in surrender. "Yeah, I wouldn't have had a nice reputation, but people would have remembered me! Plus a lot of guys would have supported me from the shadows for 'acting like they wish they could'. That's one good thing about people constantly forgetting you're there." He mutters the last part to himself, but I have superior hearing to humans so I pick up on it easily.
"Wait, were you planning to fully commit to whatever persona you were going to use?" I ask at the complaint. Because deciding that he would be a massive pervert both in and out of hero work is kind of… sad and pathetic.
He just shrugs dismissively before stating simply, "Method acting."
…Eh, whatever. It's not my problem. Still, I'm not in any hurry, so I might as well help him. Eri is probably busy giggling to herself anyways, so I hold out my hand and gesture for the papers. At his confused look I roll my eyes and let out a puff of smoke. "The papers, I'm going to tell you what I can see working for you."
He hesitates for a moment before reluctantly handing them over, and I start quickly flipping through them without more than a glance at what he labeled them. "Class clown; maybe. Ominous loner; not a chance unless you change your whole look, and even then I doubt it. Nerd," I pause on that one. "Are you smart enough for that?"
He honestly looks offended at my question, which is answer enough for me. "Put that under another maybe. Excitable socialite; you would probably come off more creepy than anything." I flip through and dismiss a few other ones, with the boy looking more and more offended at the repeat rejections before I stop on one that seems promising. "Casual mascot?" I ask giving him an appraising look. "This one could probably work well for you…"
He looks surprised at that. "Really? I wrote that out because I thought of it, but I figured it wouldn't really work for me since people wouldn't find me cute enough for it."
I wag a finger at him while shaking my head. "No no no, you're thinking more along the lines of a mascot for something geared towards kids. You wrote casual mascot, not child mascot. So, instead of being all peppy and lovable, you'd be more friendly and supportive." I rub my chin thoughtfully. "Which could also tie in well with both your hero persona and your day-to-day life. You could be a hero who works to support other heroes, and a friend who's always willing to lend a helping hand."
His nose scrunches up in distaste. "But that sounds like a pain in the ass," he complains, which I nod along with.
"Oh, definitely. But that just means you should dial yourself back on how much you're willing to help people, at least in your everyday life. It's kind of non-negotiable during hero work."
He nods thoughtfully. "Of course I know that. But as long as I don't have to go out of my way for people too much…"
"It's a balancing act to not be a pushover, but you seem like the kind of person who could be one of those 'yeah, I'm here' people who isn't a core member of a friend group, but can insert themselves into any of them without too much trouble."
His brows furrow as he thinks on that. "Thanks… I think?"
I give him a nod before giving him back his papers. "You're welcome. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go find my thing."
He shakes himself out of his thoughts to give me a curious look. "Your thing?"
"Yep," I answer easily. "I dropped my unicorn after she gave me a wet willy while we were flying, then she decided to turn it into a game of extreme hide and seek."
He blinks silently at me for a moment before taking a slow step backwards. "Right… Well, thanks for the help… I think?, and good luck finding your… unicorn…"
I give him a grin that causes him to shiver for some reason before flapping my wings in preparation of taking off. "No problem!" Just before I fly off though, I watch him pull off one of the balls on his head and start squeezing it, which causes me to pause. "Huh, are those like stress balls or something?"
He pauses before glancing down at the ball in his hand. "To me they are, but to anyone else they're really sticky."
"Huh." I think about that for a moment. "Like gum?"
"…I guess?" He says hesitantly, which is good enough for me!
I reach out while ignoring his complaints and pluck one of the balls off his head, giving it an experimental squeeze and noting the interesting feeling. It's sort of like a water balloon, but it doesn't feel like it can be popped. It's actually pretty fun to squeeze, and I continue to do so while I take off and ignore whatever the boy is saying to me. After I'm away from him and back to looking for Eri, I bring the ball to my mouth and take a bite out of it. My face screws up at the interesting flavor, which is sort of like grape but also not, it's not bad, but not something that I'd be interested in trying again. Sure, the slight hint of people in it makes it better, but not by much. Now for the real test!
After chewing it thoroughly - which actually takes a bit of force from my jaw! - I take a deep breath in through my nose before letting it out of my mouth, and I successfully manage to blow a purple bubble! I grin around it before pushing more air into it and watching as it continues to grow. And grow.
…And grows.
By the time it reaches the same size as my body, I finally realize that the bubble isn't going to pop no matter how big I blow it, which makes me briefly consider going back to find the boy and grabbing a few of these for me to blow with Eri after I find her. But I'm not sure if Eri is strong enough to actually chew them…
I shrug, deciding that it isn't interesting enough to bother with. Instead I continue my role as the seeker in our game of hide and seek!
`~`
It was a normal day at the farmer's market, until something crashes to the ground in a cloud of dust. Some people cry villain, some people cry for someone to call an ambulance, and one person yells something about how everything changed when the fire nation attacked. But that does nothing for the figure who walks out of the dust cloud and confidently walks towards a certain stall. The foreign bearded man shivers in fright at the tall woman approaching him, one hand going up to clutch the green wrap around his head. Then he blinks in surprise when she reaches into his wagon of produce and pulls out a little girl with a pair of horns and a silver arm from within.
The two females look at each other in silence for the moment before the larger one smirks and declares, "I win!" The smaller one pouts and crosses her arms.
"I didn't think you'd look in the plants!"
The larger one laughs and taps the smaller one's nose. "These things aren't enough to mask your scent, Unicorn." This just makes the smaller one pout more and prompts the larger one to laugh again before their wings flare out to the side. "We'll have some chicken nuggets for dinner, ok?"
The little one's pout instantly turns into a smile as they yell their agreement, and the larger one gives a powerful flap of their wings to take off, quickly becoming nothing more than a memory for those at the market. Well, a bit more than a memory for the man whose produce the girl was hiding in. He looks at his cart that was sent flying from the force of the woman's departure and can only scream out two words in horror at the sight of his scattered produce.
"MY CABBAGES!"