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Who: Niou and Oshitari
When: ... 22nd? Somewhere in that block of days lol
Where: Science offices
What: Niou is so dodgy and tries to recruit Yuushi into his stupidity
Right. Next round of 3D printing was set up and running, tests were being run… and Niou had a few minutes break to go and see Oshitari Yuushi about his stupid lie with Hiyoshi and having a twin brother.
He picked up the envelope that he’d stashed stealthily in his desk drawer and made his way out from the engineering offices to the science offices. Blue hair, kinda dodgy looking, Niou knocked on the door frame and headed over. “Oshitari Yuushi. We need to talk. I have a business proposition for you.”
Yuushi looked up from his lab reports in some surprise. He had not expected the man he only knew as 'chicken wrangler' (possibly he had another purpose on the base) to pay him a visit. Unless the garden fowl had indeed mutated and were now in Yuushi's field of expertise…
"A business proposition?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the somewhat… unorthodox…looking man.
“Yes, a business proposition.” Niou dragged a chair over and sat down in front of Yuushi. “I have here, ten photos of Sanada Genichirou, working.” He pulled out the first one - a rather nice one, if Niou said so himself, of Sanada frowning over some plans in the office. And then a second one, with the outer top half of his coveralls pulled down to his waist and the tank top on instead. And then a third… with Sanada lifting heavy spare tyres, tank top definitely gone.
Niou put the photos down. “Are you interested in my proposition?”
Yuushi looked from the pictures to Niou, and to the pictures again. His roommate was certainly a fine specimen of the human race, and someone Yuushi very much enjoyed looking at in a very respectful manner, however…
There was really no better way to ask it. “Are you attempting to… pimp out my roommate?”
Okay, maybe when it was said like that it was a bit dodgy for him to be showing those photos to Yuushi. “No. If you want that, that’s definitely something you have to deal with on your own.”
He looked closely at Yuushi, lingering on the lack of distortion from the glasses, to his tidy hair… “I’m just willing to give you these photos as payment for a favour.”
Yuushi narrowed his eyes at Niou. “I have just two questions. One,” he began, “What is the favour? And second…” Well, if Yuushi were to be honest with himself, the pictures were very nice and surprisingly well photographed. But he wasn’t about to agree to a favour from a relative stranger until he knew what the terms were… And besides, “Does Sanada know these pictures exist?”
“Second… I didn’t exactly hide that I was taking the photos? So he might know?” It wasn’t like he explicitly asked if he could take them, but Sanada hadn’t exactly stopped him. Niou was also fairly sure Sanada hadn’t actually noticed, they were quite busy.
“And the favour… okay, so I really stuffed up and told Hiyoshi that I was my own twin brother. And I think he actually believes me, and I need you to just… play along when we’re out on the expedition together so he doesn’t find out.”
Yuushi considered. It was an ambivalence. Sanada may or may not be aware that there are pictures of him in various pin-up poses being offered as a - bribe? He nodded. “Let’s accept that he might be aware in his subconscious, much like that feeling one gets when being watched by an animal or insect from afar… Not to say you are either of those things, naturally.”
It took him a moment to process the favour in its entirety. Niou told Hiyoshi - who was, if Yuushi remembered correctly, his roommate, that he was his own twin broth… Oh good lord, he was ‘Uion’. Genius level intellect, and Oshitari Yuushi hadn’t realised that ‘Uion’ was ‘Niou’ backwards. They should revoke his doctorate. The scheme itself was hilarious, though. “How did Hiyoshi even believe this?”
“I know I’m actually a rat, it’s fine,” Niou said dismissively. But he nodded, quite pleased that Yuushi seemed to be actually accepting of the payment.
He watched Yuushi’s facial expressions so carefully, to try and figure out his thoughts but they were quite difficult to read. “I don’t know,” Niou admitted, grimacing. When he’d first said it, he’d thought he’d be called out on the obvious lie within seconds. But it hadn’t happened. And then… they kept talking over the next few days, and Hiyoshi actually seemed to be fully believing the lie. “I mean… I just changed my personality a bit and insulted him a bit less, and he seemed to think that was enough?”
The question that was on the tip of Yuushi’s tongue was, of course, why Niou felt the need to have an alternate personality and go through such lengths to hide it. However, he didn’t think Niou - who was here bribing him to keep a pretense - was about to tell him the reason.
Maybe it was just a very elaborate prank. And Hiyoshi was clearly not the smartest person on base for believing it, which did not bode well for their mission together. “Hiyoshi seems very trusting,” he said, choosing a kinder way to phrase it. “So… what’s the backstory? Why are you twins who are never seen together? If I am to lie for you, I shouldn’t be the reason you’re found out.”
Niou was about to agree with the assessment of Hiyoshi but then hesitated. “You know, I don’t think he actually is very trusting.” Which kind of made the whole thing worse. “Gullible about some things, maybe.”
Right. Right, Yuushi needed to know all the details and Niou frankly needed to get them straight in his head. “Okay. So I told Tachibana that Niou cut off contact with his brother.” In a completely cast-away comment that he’d realised later actually kind of worked for the whole thing. “So I think Niou and Uion were separated, Uion went and set up his shop around the various places over the years.” He paused and tried to think through all the other interactions he’d had with Hiyoshi. “And clearly Niou was kept with the family, because he’s still in contact with the great-aunt, right? But Uion isn’t.”
“Hmm, gullible,” Yuushi repeated thoughtfully. He’d keep that in mind for when they were out on the mission. He listened to the way Niou had separated his identity from Uion, wondering how much of it was based on the man’s actual experience. He did not put it past the UEA to hire a roving mechanic to work on a base, for instance.
“All right. So Uion is the black sheep of the family, choosing to find his own path…” He chose not to think too hard about how people were actually believing the great aunt story and asked, “And what does Uion feel about the chickens?”
Maybe coming to see Yuushi was actually a good idea, if only for getting the story actually half straight in his head. “Uion… doesn’t really have an opinion on the chickens. He helped Hiyoshi clear the room of them, and has offered to help out again, but that’s it. And Niou… kept distracting him with them, because they came over to Izanagi together.”
Niou tapped his fingers on the envelope of pictures as he thought. Half truths and omitted facts made very convincing lies, he knew that. “I’m thinking they probably reunited on the trip over? Because Uion ran the shop by himself and moved around a lot.”
Yuushi hoped it was only his flair for the dramatic that was putting together a somewhat… troubling past for his companion. “Uion is certainly impressive,” he said thoughtfully. He began to ask whether he really wanted to keep his identity hidden so badly when another more pressing question came to mind. “What is Hiyoshi’s view on Uion, or Uion’s on Hiyoshi? Are they friends? I gather he is somewhat fond of Niou, what with the begrudging acceptance of chickens and all.”
“Mmm, I told Hiyoshi that Uion set up his shop front for a bit in Japan, but rent got too expensive so he had to move.” At a certain point in that conversation, he’d just been rapidly firing out responses, as well as having his own Niou conversation on the side with Hiyoshi, so it was a bit difficult to keep them in the two categories.
Niou frowned and… no he had to disagree with Yuushi’s assessment of that. “I think… Hiyoshi hates Niou. Or finds him really, really annoying. And I think he’s coming to like Uion a bit more every day. Like, willingly wants to train together. And come down during night shifts to hang out, levels of liking. But not friends yet.”
“And ultimately, Uion ended up with the UEA? Are they both on the crew roster?” Had no one noticed that Niou wasn’t, Yuushi wondered, because that was quite a lapse in that case.
“That’s interesting. Perhaps Hiyoshi isn’t a fan of the chickens,” he surmised. “Or he’s unsure of how Niou views him… If Uion was the one who shared the backstory of the two brothers, Hiyoshi might find him more of a confidant than he thinks Niou is. Or, as I said, it might be the presence of chickens rather than a roommate in his quarters.”
“Correct. Uion got recruited by the UEA to come to Izanagi and Niou… came along for the adventure? And apparently fell in love with the chickens on the trip over. I think only Uion actually exists on the crew roster.” At least, that was what papers he had put in when he’d first joined.
Yes, definitely a good idea to get another person’s insight into Hiyoshi’s thought processes. Niou found him quite tricky to read sometimes. “I mean, he hasn’t really spoken that much to Niou?” Besides Niou happily harassing him about things and teasing him. “But I think they’re on the road to becoming friends. He actually apologised, you know. Hiyoshi, for snapping, that is.”
Of course the UEA wouldn’t mind there being an unregistered, unknown person on a colonising mission to another planet, Yuushi thought. Of course. “And yet, Uion is the one fewer people know about. Well done on the subterfuge, I must say.”
Yuushi had only seen Hiyoshi a handful of times, so he couldn’t fully judge his character, but perhaps their expedition would provide opportunities for that. “There you go, I think he can eventually grow fond of both Niou and Uion… only, do you think there will be a point when they can tell him the truth?”
“I think Uion doesn’t like people knowing what he’s capable of,” Niou said and oops maybe that was getting too close to home and shouldn’t have slipped out.
Niou went silent at the next question and thought through a bunch of possible scenarios where he could just outright tell Hiyoshi that he’d tricked him. And they became steadily more ridiculous and hysterical as he went. “I don’t think he’ll ever like Niou. Too much damage has been done already,” he said finally. “So I think we’re in for the long haul with this deception. I’ll have to start writing down what I’ve done with both personalities and what I’ve said, to keep track of things.”
Yuushi added to the little profile of Niou/Uion he was making in his head, quashing his little spark of curiosity.
He nodded, conceding to Niou’s decision to carry on the deception for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever, and predicting that there would probably come a time when Hiyoshi was the only person on the whole base who believed they were two different people. That would be an exercise in the absurd, to be sure. “That would be wise, make sure your story is straight, in case you need to tell someone else to help cover for you.”
Niou nodded in agreement. Yes, yes in amongst all the work he had to do, he would definitely sit down and get his story straight before setting out with Hiyoshi and the others. “Oh! Uion hasn’t told Hiyoshi about the split from Niou and the family, by the way,” he said suddenly. “Just that they were on the same shuttle over here. So if you ended up talking to him about everything, just… actually, if you brought it up, it might consolidate that it’s real, if someone else knows about it…”
He held up the envelope of photos at Yuushi and shook it a little. “So, Mr Oshitari, do we have a deal here? My photos for your agreement to go along with my story?”
Yuushi hummed thoughtfully. “I could see how I could mention it in passing,” he said. “If that is information that Uion is comfortable with Hiyoshi knowing, I could certainly find a way to bring it into casual conversation…”
He looked from the envelope to Niou. He would probably have agreed to help the man without the need for the bribe, but somehow he felt as though Niou needed this to be a ‘business transaction’. “We have a deal,” he said. “Do let me know if there are further developments in the story that I need to keep track of?”
“I mean, he might’ve pieced it together anyway. Uion and him don’t really talk about Niou that much.” If at all, actually, beyond that first night. It was kind of nice to not try and think about how someone else would react to him.
Niou grinned and held out the envelope for Yuushi to take. “Of course. Hopefully nothing big in the next few days. We’re all very busy getting ready for the expedition, you know.”
“Ah, that’s fine then, there’s nothing so awkward as estranged families,” Yuushi said pleasantly. “We’ll just go with it.”
He took the envelope, and in the spirit of professionalism, slipped the photos onto his desk before turning to Niou again. “Niou and Uion must have their hands full, what with the aunt and the preparations. I think we should have everything we need to go on. And I’m on hand in case of any… emergencies,” he said with a conspiratory little grin of his own.
“I’m glad to have your cooperation,” Niou said, glancing at the photos and yeah, he really hoped that Sanada never found out about their existence.
“Yes. Very busy. I look forward to working with you on the upcoming expedition. I hope you can drive.” Niou lifted his hand in an awkward farewell gesture to Yuushi and hopped off the chair to leave.
When: ... 22nd? Somewhere in that block of days lol
Where: Science offices
What: Niou is so dodgy and tries to recruit Yuushi into his stupidity
Right. Next round of 3D printing was set up and running, tests were being run… and Niou had a few minutes break to go and see Oshitari Yuushi about his stupid lie with Hiyoshi and having a twin brother.
He picked up the envelope that he’d stashed stealthily in his desk drawer and made his way out from the engineering offices to the science offices. Blue hair, kinda dodgy looking, Niou knocked on the door frame and headed over. “Oshitari Yuushi. We need to talk. I have a business proposition for you.”
Yuushi looked up from his lab reports in some surprise. He had not expected the man he only knew as 'chicken wrangler' (possibly he had another purpose on the base) to pay him a visit. Unless the garden fowl had indeed mutated and were now in Yuushi's field of expertise…
"A business proposition?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the somewhat… unorthodox…looking man.
“Yes, a business proposition.” Niou dragged a chair over and sat down in front of Yuushi. “I have here, ten photos of Sanada Genichirou, working.” He pulled out the first one - a rather nice one, if Niou said so himself, of Sanada frowning over some plans in the office. And then a second one, with the outer top half of his coveralls pulled down to his waist and the tank top on instead. And then a third… with Sanada lifting heavy spare tyres, tank top definitely gone.
Niou put the photos down. “Are you interested in my proposition?”
Yuushi looked from the pictures to Niou, and to the pictures again. His roommate was certainly a fine specimen of the human race, and someone Yuushi very much enjoyed looking at in a very respectful manner, however…
There was really no better way to ask it. “Are you attempting to… pimp out my roommate?”
Okay, maybe when it was said like that it was a bit dodgy for him to be showing those photos to Yuushi. “No. If you want that, that’s definitely something you have to deal with on your own.”
He looked closely at Yuushi, lingering on the lack of distortion from the glasses, to his tidy hair… “I’m just willing to give you these photos as payment for a favour.”
Yuushi narrowed his eyes at Niou. “I have just two questions. One,” he began, “What is the favour? And second…” Well, if Yuushi were to be honest with himself, the pictures were very nice and surprisingly well photographed. But he wasn’t about to agree to a favour from a relative stranger until he knew what the terms were… And besides, “Does Sanada know these pictures exist?”
“Second… I didn’t exactly hide that I was taking the photos? So he might know?” It wasn’t like he explicitly asked if he could take them, but Sanada hadn’t exactly stopped him. Niou was also fairly sure Sanada hadn’t actually noticed, they were quite busy.
“And the favour… okay, so I really stuffed up and told Hiyoshi that I was my own twin brother. And I think he actually believes me, and I need you to just… play along when we’re out on the expedition together so he doesn’t find out.”
Yuushi considered. It was an ambivalence. Sanada may or may not be aware that there are pictures of him in various pin-up poses being offered as a - bribe? He nodded. “Let’s accept that he might be aware in his subconscious, much like that feeling one gets when being watched by an animal or insect from afar… Not to say you are either of those things, naturally.”
It took him a moment to process the favour in its entirety. Niou told Hiyoshi - who was, if Yuushi remembered correctly, his roommate, that he was his own twin broth… Oh good lord, he was ‘Uion’. Genius level intellect, and Oshitari Yuushi hadn’t realised that ‘Uion’ was ‘Niou’ backwards. They should revoke his doctorate. The scheme itself was hilarious, though. “How did Hiyoshi even believe this?”
“I know I’m actually a rat, it’s fine,” Niou said dismissively. But he nodded, quite pleased that Yuushi seemed to be actually accepting of the payment.
He watched Yuushi’s facial expressions so carefully, to try and figure out his thoughts but they were quite difficult to read. “I don’t know,” Niou admitted, grimacing. When he’d first said it, he’d thought he’d be called out on the obvious lie within seconds. But it hadn’t happened. And then… they kept talking over the next few days, and Hiyoshi actually seemed to be fully believing the lie. “I mean… I just changed my personality a bit and insulted him a bit less, and he seemed to think that was enough?”
The question that was on the tip of Yuushi’s tongue was, of course, why Niou felt the need to have an alternate personality and go through such lengths to hide it. However, he didn’t think Niou - who was here bribing him to keep a pretense - was about to tell him the reason.
Maybe it was just a very elaborate prank. And Hiyoshi was clearly not the smartest person on base for believing it, which did not bode well for their mission together. “Hiyoshi seems very trusting,” he said, choosing a kinder way to phrase it. “So… what’s the backstory? Why are you twins who are never seen together? If I am to lie for you, I shouldn’t be the reason you’re found out.”
Niou was about to agree with the assessment of Hiyoshi but then hesitated. “You know, I don’t think he actually is very trusting.” Which kind of made the whole thing worse. “Gullible about some things, maybe.”
Right. Right, Yuushi needed to know all the details and Niou frankly needed to get them straight in his head. “Okay. So I told Tachibana that Niou cut off contact with his brother.” In a completely cast-away comment that he’d realised later actually kind of worked for the whole thing. “So I think Niou and Uion were separated, Uion went and set up his shop around the various places over the years.” He paused and tried to think through all the other interactions he’d had with Hiyoshi. “And clearly Niou was kept with the family, because he’s still in contact with the great-aunt, right? But Uion isn’t.”
“Hmm, gullible,” Yuushi repeated thoughtfully. He’d keep that in mind for when they were out on the mission. He listened to the way Niou had separated his identity from Uion, wondering how much of it was based on the man’s actual experience. He did not put it past the UEA to hire a roving mechanic to work on a base, for instance.
“All right. So Uion is the black sheep of the family, choosing to find his own path…” He chose not to think too hard about how people were actually believing the great aunt story and asked, “And what does Uion feel about the chickens?”
Maybe coming to see Yuushi was actually a good idea, if only for getting the story actually half straight in his head. “Uion… doesn’t really have an opinion on the chickens. He helped Hiyoshi clear the room of them, and has offered to help out again, but that’s it. And Niou… kept distracting him with them, because they came over to Izanagi together.”
Niou tapped his fingers on the envelope of pictures as he thought. Half truths and omitted facts made very convincing lies, he knew that. “I’m thinking they probably reunited on the trip over? Because Uion ran the shop by himself and moved around a lot.”
Yuushi hoped it was only his flair for the dramatic that was putting together a somewhat… troubling past for his companion. “Uion is certainly impressive,” he said thoughtfully. He began to ask whether he really wanted to keep his identity hidden so badly when another more pressing question came to mind. “What is Hiyoshi’s view on Uion, or Uion’s on Hiyoshi? Are they friends? I gather he is somewhat fond of Niou, what with the begrudging acceptance of chickens and all.”
“Mmm, I told Hiyoshi that Uion set up his shop front for a bit in Japan, but rent got too expensive so he had to move.” At a certain point in that conversation, he’d just been rapidly firing out responses, as well as having his own Niou conversation on the side with Hiyoshi, so it was a bit difficult to keep them in the two categories.
Niou frowned and… no he had to disagree with Yuushi’s assessment of that. “I think… Hiyoshi hates Niou. Or finds him really, really annoying. And I think he’s coming to like Uion a bit more every day. Like, willingly wants to train together. And come down during night shifts to hang out, levels of liking. But not friends yet.”
“And ultimately, Uion ended up with the UEA? Are they both on the crew roster?” Had no one noticed that Niou wasn’t, Yuushi wondered, because that was quite a lapse in that case.
“That’s interesting. Perhaps Hiyoshi isn’t a fan of the chickens,” he surmised. “Or he’s unsure of how Niou views him… If Uion was the one who shared the backstory of the two brothers, Hiyoshi might find him more of a confidant than he thinks Niou is. Or, as I said, it might be the presence of chickens rather than a roommate in his quarters.”
“Correct. Uion got recruited by the UEA to come to Izanagi and Niou… came along for the adventure? And apparently fell in love with the chickens on the trip over. I think only Uion actually exists on the crew roster.” At least, that was what papers he had put in when he’d first joined.
Yes, definitely a good idea to get another person’s insight into Hiyoshi’s thought processes. Niou found him quite tricky to read sometimes. “I mean, he hasn’t really spoken that much to Niou?” Besides Niou happily harassing him about things and teasing him. “But I think they’re on the road to becoming friends. He actually apologised, you know. Hiyoshi, for snapping, that is.”
Of course the UEA wouldn’t mind there being an unregistered, unknown person on a colonising mission to another planet, Yuushi thought. Of course. “And yet, Uion is the one fewer people know about. Well done on the subterfuge, I must say.”
Yuushi had only seen Hiyoshi a handful of times, so he couldn’t fully judge his character, but perhaps their expedition would provide opportunities for that. “There you go, I think he can eventually grow fond of both Niou and Uion… only, do you think there will be a point when they can tell him the truth?”
“I think Uion doesn’t like people knowing what he’s capable of,” Niou said and oops maybe that was getting too close to home and shouldn’t have slipped out.
Niou went silent at the next question and thought through a bunch of possible scenarios where he could just outright tell Hiyoshi that he’d tricked him. And they became steadily more ridiculous and hysterical as he went. “I don’t think he’ll ever like Niou. Too much damage has been done already,” he said finally. “So I think we’re in for the long haul with this deception. I’ll have to start writing down what I’ve done with both personalities and what I’ve said, to keep track of things.”
Yuushi added to the little profile of Niou/Uion he was making in his head, quashing his little spark of curiosity.
He nodded, conceding to Niou’s decision to carry on the deception for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever, and predicting that there would probably come a time when Hiyoshi was the only person on the whole base who believed they were two different people. That would be an exercise in the absurd, to be sure. “That would be wise, make sure your story is straight, in case you need to tell someone else to help cover for you.”
Niou nodded in agreement. Yes, yes in amongst all the work he had to do, he would definitely sit down and get his story straight before setting out with Hiyoshi and the others. “Oh! Uion hasn’t told Hiyoshi about the split from Niou and the family, by the way,” he said suddenly. “Just that they were on the same shuttle over here. So if you ended up talking to him about everything, just… actually, if you brought it up, it might consolidate that it’s real, if someone else knows about it…”
He held up the envelope of photos at Yuushi and shook it a little. “So, Mr Oshitari, do we have a deal here? My photos for your agreement to go along with my story?”
Yuushi hummed thoughtfully. “I could see how I could mention it in passing,” he said. “If that is information that Uion is comfortable with Hiyoshi knowing, I could certainly find a way to bring it into casual conversation…”
He looked from the envelope to Niou. He would probably have agreed to help the man without the need for the bribe, but somehow he felt as though Niou needed this to be a ‘business transaction’. “We have a deal,” he said. “Do let me know if there are further developments in the story that I need to keep track of?”
“I mean, he might’ve pieced it together anyway. Uion and him don’t really talk about Niou that much.” If at all, actually, beyond that first night. It was kind of nice to not try and think about how someone else would react to him.
Niou grinned and held out the envelope for Yuushi to take. “Of course. Hopefully nothing big in the next few days. We’re all very busy getting ready for the expedition, you know.”
“Ah, that’s fine then, there’s nothing so awkward as estranged families,” Yuushi said pleasantly. “We’ll just go with it.”
He took the envelope, and in the spirit of professionalism, slipped the photos onto his desk before turning to Niou again. “Niou and Uion must have their hands full, what with the aunt and the preparations. I think we should have everything we need to go on. And I’m on hand in case of any… emergencies,” he said with a conspiratory little grin of his own.
“I’m glad to have your cooperation,” Niou said, glancing at the photos and yeah, he really hoped that Sanada never found out about their existence.
“Yes. Very busy. I look forward to working with you on the upcoming expedition. I hope you can drive.” Niou lifted his hand in an awkward farewell gesture to Yuushi and hopped off the chair to leave.
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