My Cabbages!! (Lizzy)

[Deleted]

Nao was very much enjoying his time here so far at the Hammel Institute. He'd met so many kind people over the months he'd been here, some so much more generous than he'd ever expected. His roommate, Koty, had offered to share his Japanese meals with Nao when he made more than one could eat. His teammate, Mathis, had cooked for him at least once and even tried teaching the slow boy how to prepare meals of his own. Every so often, Naozumi also liked to roam the halls around suppertime to see what other people were making. He knew of a couple in the co-ed dorms who always made a surplus of food and delighted in sharing their goods with others. So sometimes Naozumi didn't even have to go to the lunchroom to procure a meal. Sometimes there was enough meal from a culmination of all these leftovers and offerings that he could compile himself a small, yet filling bento box.

He decided to eat his lunch in the student lounge, a place he very much enjoyed the atmosphere of. It was reasonably quiet, much more so than that of the large, overcrowded cafeteria. It had a pool table, ping-pong, a television, and several very comfortable couches and chairs for the students to lounge in. Naozumi preferred to sit at one of the empty study tables, where he could lay out his books and studying materials and nibble at his lunch as well. He had his station all set up for a good lunch hour of studying when, out of nowhere, his phone rang. Confusing...

Nao looked at the caller ID and widened his eyes at the name. His mother? Why would she be calling, now of all times? Naozumi flipped open his phone and started to head for the door of the lounge, looking back towards his study station to ensure it was going to be all right in the few moments that this might take, then continued out the door, pressing the answer button on the phone as he left. "Moshi moshi? Okaa-san? Kono jikan ni okaa-san wa naze denwa wo kaketeimasu ka? Gakko ni imasu yo." His slightly concerned voice faded behind the door as it closed behind him.

[Lizzie Lovental]

ooc: omg the reference!!!

Lizzie was not new to this place, although seeing her face here made some students curious. The girl was always so quiet and distant and she barely made any noise so even if she walked by, barely anyone noticed her. Perhaps it was her ability as well: she blended in, but then again if she would do so, that would have an effect on her appearance as well.

She looked around, clenching on her sandwich and biting it carefully as she observed the other students. They were studying, obviously and as expected, no one noticed her. She herself did not care much of the others too, their evaluation was simply a habit of hers since she had nothing better to do at the moment.

Lizzie started when she heard a noise suddenly not so far away from herself and she lifted her chin, looking towards the asian boy who had just left the room, speaking Japanese. Although she had seen so many students in Hammel, she was still not certain who belonged to which race. She had hard time seeing the difference between Asians, Koreans or Chinese, but they looked adorable.

Her eyes were not on the door for long, though. Her glance was captured by a box which the boy had left behind and, tilting her head, she examined it curiously. A box. A simple black box. And yet it mesmerized her and Lizzie felt the same old and familiar urge that she hated, but what sated her once she had committed the crime. For quite some time she tried to avoid it, but her hands grew sweaty and she felt as if her nerves twitched every minute that passed. It was hard to suffer like this, and it was even harder to ignore this desire to take this thing for herself.

Finally she stood up and collected her things: the sandwich and her small bag. Then, she walked quietly towards the box, eyes locked only on it as if she had never seen anything better than this in her life and, as she reached out her hands it was clear that the item itself was as if called upon by her. As she finally had the box in her hands, Lizzie put it into her bag and retreated into the distance and sat in one corner. There she opened the bag once more and just stared at the box, not taking it our or opening it.

[Deleted]

The phone call had been short, but was obviously long enough to make a difference. The call itself had left him…a bit disturbed. It had been about the summer trip he and his family normally had over the summer. A problematic time frame, actually, though for whatever reason he didn’t notice until now. The trip usually lasted from the beginning of June to the first week of August. But Hammel summers only lasted for the month of July. Apparently they were going to try to make special arrangements, but if not then his family was going to have to go to Okinawa without him and he would come later. That was both…relieving and disappointing. Relieving because he would be able to spend more time with the people he’d come to know and enjoy being around here. Disappointing because it meant less time for Nao to spend with his extended family. He only got to see them once a year.

Oh well. He was sure they’d figure something out before long. Nao hung up the phone and stepped back into the student lounge, never thinking for a moment that he was gone long enough for anything significant to happen.

But something did happen.

Something terrible!

As soon as his eyes laid upon his studying niche, the little Japanese boy froze. His lunch box. His bento box. Was gone. And as a consequence of face, so was his lunch. Unable to take his eyes away from the bare, empty space where his bento box once stood, Naozumi simply continued to stare, not sure what the cause of his suffering may be.

He stayed exactly like that for a few moments before stepping forward again and pulling his backpack onto the chair. Maybe it had crawled back inside? Then he looked under the table and the chair. Maybe it had fallen down there? Then he swiveled his head about the room to see if maybe he accidentally set it down somewhere else and had simply forgotten. It wouldn’t have been the first time. When that yielded no results, he went back to staring at the spot where his lunch was supposed to have been. And his face fell, the boy’s eyes sinking to the lowest point they could possibly go as a woeful glimmer began to form within them.

[Lizzie Lovental]

Lizzie did not notice the return of the asian boy, but she felt the change of aura in the whole room. Lifting her chin, the girl looked up towards the boy who stood there, confused and searching for his box. Her blue eyes went down at the item again which she had taken and she observed it once again.
The design was beautiful and the surface was nice, almost silken when she ran her fingers across it. What was inside? Some items? Maybe his pens and papers? She cared very little for such tiny items, the box was what she was interested in.

She looked back at the boy, tilting her head slightly. Now that he had looked around, searching from under the table and chairs, what was he going to do now? Lizzie had never experienced the feeling of being a victim, not when it came to stealing items. She had nothing that she held close to herself, nothing of importance nor were her things expensive or some thing to brag about.

Regardless, this time she felt something that she had never experienced before. Upon looking closely, she noticed a small glimmer in his eyes. Strange. Would he cry? She tilted her head to the other side, examining the asian boy as if he was some sort of an experiment. He certainly was upset, but why? It was just a simple box. And yet his emotions effected her as well.
Lizzie sighed and looked at the lunch box. But it was so beautiful... Fighting herself, the inner desire to keep it, the pink haired girl stood up and quietly approached the boy. Opening her bag and taking out the box, she offered him his box as if it was christmas.

"This is yours," muttered Lizzie quietly, voice filled with disappointment and utter hatred towards herself.

[Deleted]

Naozumi got that box from his mother for Christmas, so it did have some amount of sentimental value. He didn’t know how much it cost but from the looks of it, the box probably cost quite a bit. But Naozumi wasn’t concerned much about that as much as he was of the fact that his food had gone missing! He couldn’t think of any reason why someone might take it, therefore concluded that it must have simply grown legs and ran away. Nao would have giggled at that image, amusing as it was, but he was too distraught over the fact that he would not be able to enjoy his lunch and was now suffering with the inconvenience of having to dip into his saved meal tickets for an unplanned trip to the cafeteria. The food there was good, and he was fortunate that the school provided their students with allotments, but they didn’t quite keep up with the young boy’s appetite. Which was why Nao spend a great deal of time seeking it out whenever he could get it.

He knew he probably shouldn’t have been so upset about it. It really was such a childish reason to cry. But he honestly couldn’t help himself, especially since he hadn’t been subjected to something like this in….well, a long time.

It would just take a couple of moments for Naozumi to collect himself enough to gather his things and dejectedly wander over to the lunchroom. However amidst his wallowing, a girl wandered over to him and produced the small, decorated bento box like a gift.

Nao’s eyes went as bright as the sun upon laying eyes on his precious missing item. He took it carefully from her hands and set it upon the table opening up the top third to reveal an assortment of meat and rice topped off with a dash of furikake seasoning. Satisfied, Nao once again looked up at the girl who brought it to him. “Thank you!” he said with a genuine glee. “Where did you find it?” She was so nice to have brought it back to him!

[Lizzie Lovental]

ooc: sorry for the delay, was a "bit" busy

Lizzie's face remained calm or rather stoic as she watched how the japanese boy's face mirrored his relief and happiness as he accepted his bento box.
On the other hand, she was not happy although she knew that the thing she did was, by the dictated laws of "nature", good and for the best. She did not even know what she wanted to achieve when she took his box. Would it benefit her anyhow? Doubtful. It would be a part of her collection, hidden far away from the others to find or let their eyes rest on it.

She looked curiously at what was hidden inside of his box and was surprised to see a simple lunch which the boy had cherished so much that he was on the edge of crying. Was it worth it? Maybe so, but then again she was a wrong person to judge; Lizzie never really liked rice anyway.

His question struck her like a lightning, however. Where did she find it? Her eyes wandered back to the table and she opened her mouth for a brief moment to close it again. She was not a liar, but she did not know how to tell him the truth; honestly she was not even aware how someone as sensitive as him would take the news of her actually Taking the box and wishing to keep it as her own instead of returning. She nippled on her lower lip and looked down, averting her gaze, still seeking for an answer to give him.

[Deleted]

Nao understood collections…to a point. He understood that people had them. What he didn’t understand was the compulsion that people had behind them. What was it about these things that made people want to compulsively collect them by any means necessary. Lizzie’s stealing and desire to own somebody else’s things and hide it away as a trophy was no different than Miles and his desire to collect various kinds of buttons, organize them, and put them away with neatness and perfection. Nao had…he supposed that his martial arts and his desire to perfect his forms and techniques.

But it was still so different. That’s why he couldn’t understand why someone would want something as simple as a lunch box, even a fancy looking one.

To Nao, the food inside was more valuable to him than the box itself.

Nao tilted his head while the girl failed to answer. She looked like she was having trouble with something, but Nao, being the unperceptive person he was, couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Are you okay?” he asked.

[Lizzie Lovental]

Honestly she did not understand why she wanted that box of his. All Lizzie knew was that once she stole a thing or two, they would come in handy one day or another. She did not call it luck, nor was she certain if it was fate or something as magical as this. This was a pure accident.

Him, urging her to respond, was more painful than she had expected. Not physically, but mentally. But she did not feel any guilt for the theft, however. She had taken the box and then returned it to its rightful owner.

"Yes," her voice was firm as she looked up, sudden change of her own attitude surprising her. She was fine, she was okay and there was no reason why a boy, a mere victim, should be concerned about her.
"On your table," the pinkette said, looking the boy directly in the eye. "I took it."

[Deleted]

Nao was not expecting the answer he got from the girl. And the question he asked himself was ‘why would anyone want to take his lunchbox?’ His face was showed that he was terribly confused as he looked into the box and then curiously back to the girl.

Maybe she was hungry? Yeah, that made sense. She was hungry and so took his lunchbox so she could eat it later.

Maybe she was poor like him and had trouble finding a satisfying meal?

Naozumi nodded to himself, convinced that this must be the reason behind her actions.

The boy removed one of the tiers to his lunchbox, revealing a helping of some more mystery left-overs, and offered it to her. “It tastes better with soy sauce,” he suggested.

[Lizzie Lovental]

And there it came: the assumption that Lizzie was hungry and she had no money or other ways to get food.
She rolled her eyes at the young asian boy, trynig not to laugh at his reasoning. Lizzie shook her head when he offered his leftovers, although this was a nice gesture.

"I did not take your box because I was hungry," the girl expressed with a sigh. She sat down on one of the chairs and looked back up at him. "It's my... issue. I steal things. Not that I want to steal them, but I just can't hold myself back.

Usually I don't bring items back, I like to collect them, but when I saw how upset you were, it broke my heart. I apologize for that, but I can not change nor decline my urges. I am a kleptomanic."

[Deleted]

It was a perfectly logical explanation. Why else would a person steal a lunchbox? There was nothing else particularly special about it. So when she rolled her eyes, Nao only responded with a look of confusion.

A look which only grew more confused as she continued with her explanation. None of which made sense to him. Why would someone steal something if they didn't want to? "A kleptomaniac..." he repeated softly. He knew the word. That is, he knew the definition. But he knew nothing about the psychology behind it. "Why can't you stop?" he asked, genuinely interested in hearing her reasons.

[Lizzie Lovental]

She nodded patiently. Yes, a kleptomanic. Not many were familiar with the term and she considered those people relatively lucky. Lizzie did not want to steal, it just happened without her actually being perfectly aware of it. Like now.
His question was something many had asked her but she did not know an answer to it. Usually, when asked such questions, Lizzie turned nervous, but right now she remained calm and silent. Perhaps it was because he did not judge her? She lifted her hand and pulled a strand of her pink hair. Why? She had asked the same question herself over and over again, the doctors had done the same when they injected her with new venoms (medicine), but it just seemed that the poor girl was born with it and there was no way of changing the disorder.

Lizzie shrugged her shoulders; right now she felt as if she had disappointed to poor boy by not giving him an answer. Oh well. "I don't know. I just can't. It happens and when I see something, it feels like someone else is taking control over my mind and body. I can't stop stealing."

[Deleted]

Like someone was taking over her mind and body? Nao didn’t understand at all. That sounded like possession of some sort and Nao…he’d never been possessed before(and he hoped he never would!). But just the idea of it…

“That sounds scary. That you’re not able to control your own body to keep it from doing something.” Nao couldn’t imagine what it must be like to not be able to control your body. To some extent, that’s what he had to deal with with learning how to control his power, especially the finer movements, but…he felt like that wasn’t the same. For that, Nao was still the one deciding to do a certain thing. For this, it sounded like someone or something else was making you do something you didn’t want to do. “I’m sorry that happens to you.” Nao wondered if there was anything he or anyone else could do to help?