[ She was about to keep walking but his reaction gets her to stop. ]
Hm? Oh.
[ She lowers her board and cranes her head up to look. She’s lived here so long now that she sorta… didn’t forget necessarily but didn’t realize it’d catch his attention right away. ]
It’s daikanransha— or the “giant sky wheel”. It’s a Ferris wheel, they’re like… an attraction you ride on at amusement parks and stuff.
[ She points at it and starts circling her hand to imitate the way it moves. ]
All those little things hanging off it are gondolas that carry people as it goes around. The view inside is incredible - you can see all of Tokyo from the top and sometimes even Mount Fuji if the weather’s nice enough.
Mmm, well… it’s not the way I was originally going to go but um… it is uh… it’s really popular with couples especially so uh… if you want w-we can…
[ She starts fidgeting nervously and ends up putting the board back up.
Yeah.
She clearly wants to go on it too. ]
However… it’s even nicer at night… this one lights all up in a rainbow and the bridge to the mainland is also lit that way too. And all the other city lights… they say it’s really romantic, so um…
W-We could go now or l-later on our way home… i-it’s up to you…
[ She lowers the board just below her eyes, looking down at his hand in hers before adjusting her hand as well. She nods, lowering the board the rest of the way to reveal a slightly bigger than usual smile. Damn you REALLY made her happy with that, V. ]
[Look...after what he'd done to Rina? After what he put her through? He's in the business of making her happy. In as many ways as is possible...he'll do it.
It helps that the things that make her happy make him happy, too.]
Yeah! I'll follow you cause I uh...have nooo idea where I'm going.
[ Still holding his hand she takes a turn right and starts heading away from both the station and the sky wheel, heading down a path through a section of park area. ]
Though… if that’s the way you react to the sky wheel, then I’m really excited to see what you think of our “detour”.
[He follows her gaze as she looks, sticking close by but also giving himself a chance to actually observe the scenery without coming unglued like he had with the skywheel.]
Well...it's nothing like Corona, first off. But that isn't a bad thing.
[He toes at a pebble as he passed by it, watching it bounce away into a culvert.]
Japan is so...big. Everything about it is big, and there's so much to see and do...I feel like I could spend several lifetimes here and never actually do it all.
But that's what I like about it. The possibilites are truly endless.
Really? I’d never thought of us that way before… we’re actually a lot smaller compared to other countries. But I suppose in comparison to a place like Corona we would be pretty big…
[ She looks away from the bay and back down at their hands entwined. ]
Hopefully in the future we can experience even more of it together. There’s a lot of places outside of the city I’ve never been but always wanted to go see myself.
Well, you're in luck! Since uhh...Rapunzel and the others went on a little detour without me, they've been all over Corona to places I haven't had a chance to see yet. So I think it'll be about time for us to get to go see them, too.
[He's not sure Rina would WANT to see it, but...he does want to ask his dad and Edmund about the dark kingdom. Maybe there's not much left there to see, but...he feels like it's an important part of his heritage nonetheless.]
And unlike Japan, we do, in fact, have dragons. Real ones.
[ She nods and was about to say something else when she realizes they’re close enough to their destination now that their little “detour” is starting to be visible over some of the trees. ]
Oh! We’re almost there! Come on!
[ And at that she starts to speed up, pulling him along…
Towards something that looks like a giant robot. ]
[Varian watches with rapt attention as the gundam changes in front of them, the armor shifting and opening up, showing off the lights it's been outfitted with. Varian can't help but join along with the crowd as they gasp in awe when it happens, though he does wish he could get closer than they are right now. What all can that robot do, he wonders? It's several sizes larger than any of the automatons that Varian built, and that alone has him feeling giddy just looking at it.]
[ Aaaaaaaand this was what she meant by not wanting him to get the wrong idea. ]
It’s um… not quite a fully functional robot, unfortunately. Remember back at the school where the Wizard had that mechanical head and I said it was likely an animatronic? This is one of those technically - though all it can do is the transformation sequence every few hours. The rest of the time it’s just a statue.
[ It’s finished now and the crowd is dispersing but there’s still tourists and fans marvelling at it, taking plenty of pictures. ]
It’s a life size replica of one from a popular anime series though - it’s called Mobile Suit Gundam and it’s about giant mecha being piloted by human characters in space to fight other mecha. This one’s Unicorn Gundam.
[Technically. While he does sound a little disappointed by that, it's still not enough to completely squash his enthusiasm. If anything, it just gives him more ideas...more to think and talk about, for sure.
He tugs on Rina's hand just a little so they can get a bit closer, but not so close that they're in the way of people trying to take pictures.]
So what was it built for, then? Just as an attraction?
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