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text | un: iwouldprefernotto

they pay us to go to school here
THEY pay US

and theres no entrance exams or anything just walk in and get paid for school

so uh anyone wanna split an apartment with me and my lion
and anyone here play volleyball jw

[Kunimi misses his old school and team more than he'd like to admit, but he's absolutely in favour of the education system here. Being in a hotel full of other newcomers already has him feeling crowded and overwhelmed, and the fact that attending classes will cover rent with a roommate is... way too appealing not to try out, honestly.

He probably should've asked over video so that potential roommates would know who's asking, huh...]

oh yeah im kunimi
just got here im almost 16 yo im a guy and i like quiet ppl

[There we go. That should be enough, right?]

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they pay us??? really?? what do they teach?

i play volleyball sort of
but where i'm from we call it kuai ball. i was told the only difference is in volleyball you can't kick the ball. isn't it too cold now though??

oh and im 16 too and i also like quiet people..

k youre on my potential roommate list

[It's hard to tell because Kunimi is how he is, but that's actually a high compliment. Zuko just came in here and earned so many points in one message that Kunimi was practically shocked into saying it.]

uh youre not supposed to kick the ball but you can
ive seen guys headbutt it and knee it and bounce it off their chest
its indoor tho so temp isnt rly a thing

and the schools got classes on different kinds of magic
history and culture
seems kinda interesting for school

wait what im just responding to your post!!
i already live with my sister

[ Most people's logic may have it that Zuko probably should look for another roommate than his vicious sister, but logic isn't his modus operandi in any universe. ]

oh thats cool it can be played inside..
it sounds pretty much like the same sport though
the aim is just to hit the ball on the ground on the other team's side ten times to win, right?

they help with elemental magic??
ive never been to school. could be interesting.

oh...............
thats crappy for me but i get it
p cool your sisters here

[Kunimi's older sister is awesome, if annoyingly social and prone to drawing attention everywhere she goes, so he doesn't fully understand the dread that siblings can strike into each other's hearts.]

well kinda but it sounds like the point system is different
match point is 25 unless youre only one point ahead then whoever gets two points ahead first wins
and theres three sets in a full match

yeah and theres other kinds too like potions and spells

wait really? no school at all?

dont worry youll find someone youll like
my last roommates were nuts and id probably never hang out with them if we werent roommates but now we're friends. one of them and i almost fought the first time we met actually and now he's one of my closest friends ever. youll find who youre meant to be with...

[ Zuko would make as bad a real estate agent as he would a therapist, his final answer to comfort any problem is just...: "~*~DeSTiNy~*~" ]

that sounds more complicated but im still in

no.. i was home schooled...

[ ...in a palace all by himself with a private staff of royal tutors. Ahem. Totally counts as home-schooling. ]

do you think youll go to the school here?

Edited 2021-02-11 16:29 (UTC)

heheh you make it sound like im looking to get married

oh ok well schools alright just kinda boring sometimes
and long
i end up falling asleep in class a lot
and then stressful when exams come and you have to study all the time

but its better than a job so yeah probably
you?

??? important people always come into our lives for reasons
marriage isn't as important as friendship anyway

why is it better than a job if it's boring and stressful
at least a job is boring and easy

[ Bitch you've only ever had two part-time jobs, what. Zuko's worked as a busboy in his uncle's teashop and then again as a busboy in a teppanyaki restaurant — where his boss fed him for free every day. Shut your royal ass up about blue-collar strife, kid. ]

i want to learn fire magic as soon as possible
if they'll pay me to learn it i'll go study

and if i don't like it i just wont go back

idk smth about "meant to be with"
maybe its a cultural thing but that sounded romantic

ok schools not ALL boring and stressful
youll see theres good and bad and overall its mostly worth it ig

[And this next part is something Kunimi literally never does, never ever, but he's had one (1) close friend since he started junior high, one that's always been in his class and played volleyball with him, and now he's not here and Kunimi's feeling the solitude.]

come w me tmrw i can show you around

its not romantic. destiny creates all kinds of relationships.

[ Maybe even this one? Zuko's not fast to hang out with strangers, feels blessed to have as many friends as he does... both at home and in a parallel universe, and the ones he's found from home now in a parallel universe. But something feels compelling about this guy — at least someone to play ~~kuai~~ volleyball with. He had a friend elsewhere who taught him about baseball, but... they're not friends here... He's got his own complicated solitude issues going on. He's not made a new friend here yet, though. Maybe it's time to. ]

sure. meet at that teashop by the castle in the center of town at noon? you can show me where the school is and tell me more about it.

[Quiet, slightly awkward, near to his own age, familiar with volleyball, and seemingly a bit cautious about new things. Kunimi may have to admit that Zuko seems right on this one - they do seem fated to meet in this strange place, at the very least, and Kunimi can't imagine much that'd keep them from becoming friends.

And again, that's saying something for him.

He waits outside the teashop in his Seijoh school uniform from home, not yet having bothered to grab more than the essentials when it comes to new clothes. It's mostly covered by the enormous coat he got on his journey here, anyway. The crunch of nearby footsteps causes him to straighten up from where he's leaned one shoulder blade against the wall, and his eyebrows briefly shoot up at the scarring on Zuko's face but he manages not to react too obviously otherwise. There are many, many benefits to perfecting a poker face like his.

In any case, this certainly looks like he could be the right guy.]

Zuko?

[ Zuko's only met up with someone random from the Internet once before in a bit of an emotional emergency, and it was after a long, intimate talk, had gotten lots of good advice, seemed like a nice guy, and still Zuko felt fucking weird about it from start to finish, stomach in knots the whole time, all but kicked himself on the way out the door and even said aloud "what am I doing" right before they'd met; it went fine, he guesses, but he still feels like he was crazy for doing that just the one time looking back on it, albeit different context. But now there's this Kunimi guy he'd talked to for a handful of messages and somehow he has little qualm meeting up out of the blue right away; that'd never happened so fast for him. Maybe it was the sink-or-swim plunge he took into the deep end of the social pool in the past several months actually showing some progress, or maybe, indeed, something just clicked naturally, kismet? Either way, he found himself strangely looking forward to the meeting. First new person he's met in this place. He'd had all his old friends here already; he figured he didn't need any more, right? There's like a max, right? What is a sufficient amount of friendship in life? How much friendship is too much...? These are new questions he'd never imagined asking himself.

Kunimi is lucky to meet a better-adjusted Zuko than anyone else, one with a well-kept and well-styled short haircut and modern-day clothes and the chutzpah to be waiting here to meet him in the first place. Zuko's got a black denim jacket over his maroon hoodie, with fresh patches sewn on both its elbows and lots of small tears speckling it; the jacket had at least clearly been in a recent fight, with or without Zuko in it. Zuko's not got much money; he's sticking with what he showed up in, whether he looks worse for the wear for it or not. The rest of him looks fine, just grey trousers and black boots, normal looking kid but for the beat-up jacket and wild scar, just... a lil rough around the edges. He looks tired, a little pallid, but mostly just grumpy, brooding over a steaming cup of tea he'd gotten to-go from their meeting spot. He looks unhappy even when he hears his name and realizes that must be the guy, but in fact he's relieved to see him. He can't tell much from first impressions, but nothing's shocking, at least. Although— Why are all the guys his age he knows from other worlds all giants?! Another friend half a foot taller than him, great... He's starting to wonder if he's just short and no one ever told him cuz he was a prince and he never noticed cuz he had no friends. And when he did make friends... they were a bunch of shorter girls, someone his same height, and a 12-year-old bald monk, not great points of reference. It's strange meeting up with someone when you've never met and don't even know who you're looking for, it's kind of like a blind date. Not that he's been on one of those, either, really. But Kunimi looks... fine? Normal? Not that "normal"-looking matters much. Not that Zuko's a particularly good judge of character, anyway, either. ]

Yeah. Hey. Kunimi, right?

Edited 2021-02-12 21:51 (UTC)

[Zuko's actually pretty handsome at close range, but he is - definitely short. Like Hinata Shoyo-tier short. It probably says something about Kunimi's nature, and probably nothing good, that he only bats an eyelash at Zuko's scarring but his mouth twitches with amusement when Zuko barely clears his shoulder.

There is something in his carriage that keeps him from appearing small, however, and it inspires Kunimi to stifle an actual snicker before it can escape. After all, that sour expression is something Kunimi can relate to even if he's nowhere near as expressive himself.]

Uh-huh. Let's go. [No need for pleasantries, right? The fact that he invited Zuko on this trip is evidence enough that Kunimi enjoyed talking to him.] So what do you know about school? Start there so I don't tell you anything unnecessary.

[ No need for pleasantries indeed, and Zuko's quite relieved for it. He follows by Kunimi's side as they start out, but mostly keeps his eyes elsewhere, his tea, the ground, straight ahead... It's still strange to be meeting a stranger even if it's an inexplicably chill one. He gives it a moment of thought, sipping his tea before he speaks. ]

Well... My sister went to school, but not me. She went to the most prestigious school in our nation, elite. She studied history, survival training, weaponry, combat, military strategy... Among other things. It required a lot of diligence and I guess the headmistress was very strict. I imagine all schools teach different things but require just as much dedication. My ex-roommates went to another prestigious school in their world, and theirs had different after school clubs. That's how they made their first friends ever — and my sister made her only two friends at school, too... So there must be a lot of socializing. Oh, and I know it's important that all schools teach the children to love their nation and know its history and respect its ruler. Schools are the cradles of patriotism. I guess that's about it. I honestly don't know anything about public schools...

[ Wait... What the fuck kind of wealthy, violent, nationalist world is this guy coming from? If you thought you made a normal friend, Kunimi, think again. ]

[Kunimi already gets the feeling that Zuko's world has been rather... small up until now, or at least recently. Homeschooling, mostly referencing his sister when he speaks outside of his own experience, and almost always reaching beyond said personal experience for worldly knowledge - he's not surprised to find out that Zuko comes from money. Swap out the military and combat training with brutally exacting academic and physical standards, and the school Zuko describes could just as easily be Shiratorizawa.

But yeah, that sure sounds like an imperialist nation caught up in some sort of war. Weird that they're training their daughters and sheltering their sons, but also, Kunimi has to admit, kinda cool.]

Yeah, I go to private school too. [Just a statement of fact, with no hint of bragging or apology in his tone.] Not an academy or anything though, it doesn't have dorms and all that. Just high fees and higher entrance exam requirements.

[Hmm... Kunimi's not accustomed to making long speeches about anything, so he takes his time to chew over the information Zuko's given him once more before adding to it.]

Most schools are pretty - all-in-one, I guess? Like you learn the same stuff no matter where you go, but with higher standards put on you and maybe more class selection. You'll get languages, math, sciences, social studies, and then add on from there with whatever you're into. You don't really focus in on career stuff until after high school, when you're an adult... that's where you'd have a military academy like you were talking about. [Another pause.] The, uh - patriotism stuff depends what country you're from.

[ Ah, another private school student. So this guy's family must have money, too, then, it sounds like. All his friends he's made from other worlds come from money just by coincidence. How's he find them all? Money magnetizes? ]

Right... So is this school like that, then? Except with magic? And what do you mean, "add on from there with whatever you're into?" Like what?

[ Zuko doesn't really want to learn math and sciences... Why should he? All of it'd be beyond him, anyway, even just technologically. Social studies, he'll need in life. Languages — well, he's still wrapping his head around that one. His world is literally small, even if his own personal world were wider; there's only one global language. Being introduced to foreign languages from Earth from a multilingual friend was mind-blowing. Their planet is huge. So many countries. He can't fathom how there's not a century-old war there, too, with so many players in the mix. ]

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text | un: iwouldprefernotto

text; un: fireprince

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want to fast forward and switch to action for my next tag?

action!! (and we can assume they exchanged names and such)

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