New Peaks Academy: Paradigm Shift (IC)

[Iwazuma]

Junkiro had spent plenty of time shooting little leprechauns with Miranda. She was a crack shot, he found out; she managed to win Ms. Jacobson's game three times before she kicked them out, saying she had won enough stuffed four-leaf clovers. He had only won once, but that was fine for him, as long as Miranda was happy. His phone had buzzed sometime during the shooting, but he had ignored it to this point. Now that they were simply relaxing on a picnic bench, he pulled it out. The text was...from Cyst? That was the last person he'd have expected to say hello, considering the burning rivalry going on.

Miranda was looking at her phone too. [color=#"B0C4DE"]"Hey, isn't this Vince's girl? Why is she suddenly being all friendly and shit?"[/color] Miranda seemed confused, though Junkiro put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from escalating the situation.

"I got a text, too. I'm a little confused though. I don't know why she'd be so friendly. I'm gonna see if I can chat with her, though...maybe she might have an idea how to make this stupid fight end." He put an arm around his girlfriend, squeezing her tight for a moment before texting Cyst back.

'A little surprised u would send me anything...u know ur boyfriend hates me rite?' Junkiro enjoyed textspeak to a degree. Didn't think it had any reason to exist, but it was nice to be able to not mash his thumbs for ten minutes to send a message. "I'm gonna go see if I can find her. You go grab me a snack and meet me back here in a little bit, okay?" Junkiro smiled softly.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Do what you gotta do, Junebug. See ya in a while." Miranda knew Junkiro was quite the friendly type, but she also knew he was loyal to a fault. She was a jealous girl, but Junkiro was always so reassuring that she didn't HAVE to be jealous. It was sweet, really, and let her walk to the snack truck with ease, searching for something that would totally make his stomach curl.

Cyst, as was natural for a cripple with nothing to do, hadn't moved. She had simply sat in the small area behind the food trucks where, in most carnivals, delinquents would go to sell drugs and have sex. With her, it was food. She had eaten most of what she had bought and was having second thoughts about what she had left. After all, once she ate all of this, how was she gonna work it off when she couldn't even run? She had sent the text a while ago now and had assumed nobody had responded for good reason. At least, until Junkiro did.

She was confused at first. Were he and Vince having troubles? She tended to space out on matters not directly related to her, which included his friends, most of the time. She was thriving without them so found them not really worth notice. She was likely wrong. She didn't care. She sent him her location in relation to the Ferris Wheel, the largest recognizable landmark. Depending on how good Junkiro was at landmark based directions, he'd either find her in no time or take all day. She wasn't really considering a middle ground. From what little she knew, Junkiro was a man of extremes.

The Ferris Wheel was easy enough to locate, but Cyst's directions really weren't. Junkiro was on the opposite end, so 'north' was 'south' and he got completely mixed up. It took half an hour of wandering around for him to figure out what Cyst was talking about, which of course was the food truck area. Why couldn't she have just said that? He knew where those were. Still. She was seated at a picnic table, which Junkiro sat down at and wiped his brow from the sweat that had accumulated. Wandering around on a hot day was, after all, tiring.

"Hey." Junkiro felt weird talking to Cyst. They hadn't really had many moments of interaction in freshman year, and they had started dating right around the time Vincento began hating him for the dumbest reasons ever. Maybe that's where he needed to start; Vincento was their point of connection. "So...what exactly is going on with him? Why is he suddenly a bastard of arrogance to me? We were best friends just a year ago...and now he won't even give me the time of day." It couldn't have been because of the stage dive. That had been months ago now, and he still wouldn't let him live it down, despite his rather impressive fight record since then. "What has happened to him to cause this?"

Cyst shrugged, leaning back in her wheelchair. "No clue. Don't really care." She finished off her lemonade and sighed, scratching her chest with a frown. "I didnt know he hated you until you told me. Not that he REALLY hated you, at least. I thought it was just for show right after the tournament. You're better off asking him." She shrugged again before fishing around in her shirt for her phone, eventually bringing it out and checking it. Nothing from anyone else. Oh, well.

She put the phone back into her shirt and frowned. "So... What is there to do, around here? I mean, I heard about this thing called.... Uh..." She frowned, unsure of the English word that fit what she was thinking of. She was sure it didnt have handicap access, whatever it was, but she still wanted to figure out what it was she was thinking of... "The.... тройка (Troika)? It spins a lot. Looked fun. Do they have one here?"

For a girlfriend, she was shockingly uninterested in Vincento's personal life. It was almost jarring how little she actually knew about him, and it took Junkiro a moment of blank staring to respond. "I, uh...I've already tried asking him. It ultimately resulted in me bashing his head into a locker about three times and getting fined pretty harshly." How was she this unaware? It probably was best not to wonder, as any answer he came up with probably wouldn't even be remotely enough.

Three times into a locker? Cyst gave a low whistle, or the best she could before coughing. "That's pretty good. Vince wouldn't let me catch him like that. Did he strike first?" She sat back into her chair, suddenly looking much, much more serious than before. She was actively trying to mimic Marlin Brando in the opening scene of the Godfather, but only in demeanor. She watched that movie a lot, when she was trying to learn Italian.

Junkiro folded his arms. "You did see what he did at the tournament, right?" Junkiro closed his eyes, remembering it with absolute hatred. "He decided to mock me and the way I fight, then walked off like it was nothing. I attacked him. He didn't deserve to walk away from the fight without getting the lumps he earned from his stupid behavior." Junkiro sighed. "His ego has gotten so large I don't think he can sustain it much longer. All I want is to beat him...show him that he's not invincible and that I'm just as good as I always was. I don't get what his deal is...I challenge Alexia and lose after being rusty, and suddenly he just won't talk to me anymore."

She shrugged. There was no real need to go too far into it. She was so far removed from Vince's friends and problems that she had no reason to be involved. As long as they were together and he wasn't with someone else she didn't really care who he associated with. Grudges were common, where she grew up. They were also swiftly resolved and usually poorly for one or both sides, now that the thought ran through her head. "Ok, so he hates you for looking stupid and giving him a headache. In Russia people disappeared for that, but this isn't Russia. I'll coordinate something, get you two in the same room with arms and legs bound so you dont kill each other. How's that sound?"

Junkiro folded his arms. It sounded like an easy enough plan on paper, but he knew it probably wouldn't be half as simple as Cyst was making it sound. Vincento wouldn't be one to just talk so easily...even if his girlfriend were directly involved. "Something tells me he won't give his ego up unless I punch it out of him." Junkiro sighed. "I might have to fight him...and win. Otherwise I'll always be the 'idiot wrestling dork' or something like that." He mused quietly. "I can't ask you to trick him into a fight, since I doubt he'd accept on his own. Otherwise we would have ended this at the holiday tournament." There had to be another way around this he wasn't thinking of...

She groaned, falling back into her chair so hard it almost fell over, not that she seemed to mind. "This is NOT what I brought you here for. I wanted to have fun, not get all depressed. Vince may hate you, but I don't care. Now, do you know any rides that are... uh..." She struggled to find the proper words, as they were long and not seen as often in Russia as one finds them in New Peaks. She just couldn't put a finger on what they were...

She was right. She hadn't called him there to talk about Vince, she had called him here to hang out with a friend. Junkiro scratched the back of his head. "Sorry for getting my problems mixed up with you." Junkiro hated to be so problematic. If she didn't understand the problem, then getting her tied up with it was not something he really ought to do, especially if it messed with their relationship.

She had mentioned a ride that spins...he doubted it was the Ferris Wheel. "Umm...Tilt-A-Whirl? Merry go round?" He believed he had seen a merry go round somewhere over by the popcorn stand. It was really a dinky kiddy ride, but there didn't seem to be much else she could ride at the moment, given her condition. "I think I saw the second one around by the food...did you want to go on it?" Where WAS Vincento, anyways? Why was he leaving his handicapped girlfriend behind to hang out with his worst enemy? To each his own, he supposed. Junkiro was more of a supportive, caring type than the kind to leave her on her own, though Cyst definitely was trying to be as independent as she could.

She didn't mean either of those things, but she didnt feel like pressing the point. She nodded. "Da, the horse thing. Hopefully it'll make me throw up and I can eat some more. Can you help me get there? Ill pay for the tickets to get on. Wait... Do you need tickets?" She was confused all over again, but still let go of the wheel brake so Jun could push her to the Merry go Round.