tornheart | OPEN

Who: Asher Gutermuth (Gladion) and YOU!
When: Any time in the week or so after the app appears
Where: Places Asher usually hangs out
What: Catch-all for AU CR stuff. Different prompt options inside.

A. Classroom, Lower Cycle Third Year

Class has just ended, and after everything that's happened recently, he's curious to check in on that bizarre chatroom. He pulls out his phone, a bit careful to set it so most other people shouldn't be able to see the screen, since he found out about that whole "really seriously private" thing after talking to the one person on the chat.

It doesn't seem to be any good, though, no matter how he holds the thing. There's too many people around and it just won't open. After a possibly weird looking few seconds of him trying different things, he gives up and drops the phone on his desk.

"Ugh, really?"

B. A School Courtyard

[At this point, he's trying to get his mind off of that weird app. Besides, whatever's going on, he still has homework to do, and since he doesn't have anything better to be doing at the moment, he may as well work on that. Time to plop himself down on a bench and pull out whatever that book is that he's supposed to be reading for his English class.]

C. Martial Arts Dojo

He shows up to his usual class, and goes about doing whatever exercises he's given as usual. And at first he seems just as laid back about it all as usual, but somewhere in the middle he remembers talking with someone on the chat about how being able to defend himself might be more relevant now than it has been. This class, he might be a little more invested in practicing that punch just a few more times.

D. His neighborhood

[Asher is out in his front yard, and so is a cat. It's not one he recognises, and he can't help wondering where it belongs. There's a bunch of strays around his neighborhood, so it could be one of them, but it seems pretty friendly for that. In any case, since the cat pretty happily came over to him, he kneels down in the yard to pet it.]

I don't have any food for you, though...

E. Wildcard

Anything else I haven't covered here, go for it.

[ooc: I wrote this with established AU CR in mind, but feel free to come at him with anyone. It's just as good for him meeting someone for the first time. I'm also good with writing in whatever format so I'll match how people respond.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"He says he is, but..." Ciro raises his eyebrows in weary but fond exasperation. "You know him." Really, he loves his older brother, but times like this make him wish that he'd take it easy more often.

He knows both of them, and that makes it hard to have any concept of just how worried he should be. He replies with a vague nod and otherwise shrugs it off. Getting up from his desk, he nod toward the door of the classroom.

"Let's go get lunch. If we stay here much longer the lines will get crazy."

The worry-wart little brother and the overly stubborn big brother... Truly Asher knows some ridiculous people, although at least they both explain each other's personalities well enough. Making his way towards the door, Ciro rolls his eyes.

"I can only imagine... Especially with the upcoming festival. The last minutes are always worse.... Are you doing anything special this year?"

"Not really." He lets Ciro go ahead through the door and follows him out to the hall. "My dad's going to be running a booth, so I might get stuck helping with that." Of course, with his father being a florist, that's no surprise.

"The Gardening Club will probably have you pretty busy, too, right?"

"We're all going to be dead by the end of the month," he says glibly, which would probably be at least a little more dramatic if he hadn't been saying it for at least a couple of years now. At least since he moved into the apartment on campus and was exposed, as a developing adolescent, to dry humor. "We have a small cafe we're working on, a butterfly exhibit, helping with the float, some topiary..."

Flicking a finger out for each thing, he pauses to think and then sighs as he remembers. "Right, and a lot of us are entering the flower contest too."

With all that said, he finally glances back to Asher with a dry smile. "Great time to join the club." It's just a joke- he knows that Asher'll have more than enough on his plate if he helps out with his father's booth.

"No thanks," he replies with a slight laugh, fully aware that Ciro had been joking to begin with. And also tossing back that dry humor, "I'd like to live more than another week."

His face falls slightly, though, as he realises that might not be quite as much of a joke as he first intended, considering the ominous countdown and theories about that app maybe being connected to the murders. To cover his expression, he makes a point of looking away toward some poster on the wall, which just happens to be advertising a couple of the things Ciro just mentioned.

"Looks like someone in your club's trying to get the word out, too."

Curious, he follows Asher's gaze to see what's suddenly got his attention- he's never been the most emotionally observant, so it's easy enough to hide things from him at times- and makes a small noise of acknowledgment. Ah, right. Those.

"I think it's someone from Lonán's fanclub..." He purses his lips a little bit at the mention of the older boy. While he doesn't usually have issues with more popular people most of the time, having one in such close proximity to him via the club makes it easy to feel outclassed. "They can get nosy sometimes, but they're definitely helpful a lot of the time."

He nods slightly. "I think that's any fanclub." He's certainly heard enough stories from his brother, good and bad. "I guess it'd be nice to have the extra hands, especially when you're crazy busy right now."

"Yeah." A shrug. "As long as they don't get into any fights over fan-stuff during club activities, then I can't really complain too much. Speaking of which, your brother's fans haven't been giving you too much grief, right?"

He shakes his head. "None of them have really bugged me about anything in a while. I'm sure they're still hovering around my brother all the time, though." Something it seemed like Ariel generally appreciated. Asher's not so sure about how he would feel if people were constantly paying that much attention to him. But then, that's why he's not the idol in the family.

"The lifestyles of famous people," he drawls, making a turn to head down the stairs through the throng of every other student either hustling to another class, a extracurricular activity, or, like them, to lunch. "Well, as long as no one tries to kidnap you and take your place as a creepy body double, sounds like things are fine."

He can't help laughing a little at that. "I think you just went from idols to aliens." Or some kind of weird horror movie, in any case. "I'm not sure why anyone would try to take my place, anyway. Not much in it for them other than school work." Even if they were more interested in Ariel, there would definitely be easier ways to talk to him, and plenty of other people who see him more regularly than Asher does at this point.

"Listen, I saw it on television once!" He laughs himself. "It could happen!" Granted, he was watching late night television once when he couldn't quite get to sleep, and only the most bizarre things were on.... But hey. You never know. "That's good, at least. We have enough things to worry about without stalkers." Out the door, and into the fresh air. A little less claustrophobic.

"I hear some of the teachers are already getting tests prepared, because of course we can't catch a break after Spring Vacation."

"That sounds about right. Surprising everyone with sudden tests as soon as they get back from a vacation." He sighs slightly, adding with a bit of a wry smile, "It's like they think if they let us actually stop studying for a week, our brains will melt."

"Am I the only one who goes over all my notes the day before vacation ends?" Ciro muses aloud, barely avoiding a loud group of friends clustered together before shifting back to be besides Asher. "I mean, there's a lot of us who only stay around due to grades, I'm not going to slip. Survival of the nerds.... Or something like that."

He shakes his head. "I do that, too. Otherwise it's too easy to screw up whatever pop quizzes the teachers throw at us the second we get back." Asher being at the school isn't too dependent on grades since his family just happens to live really close, but still. It's not like he's great at school stuff in general, so it would be pretty stupid to lose points on pure laziness like that.

"So then there's no need to jump us, we're all so paranoid by this point that we'll study without prompting." He shakes his head a little, smiling lopsidedly. "We've been conditioned- we might as well start calling the teachers Pavlov at this point."

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