The very model of a modern more-than-a-salaryman. All dressed up (badly) and no place to go. Company mixers and online dating were no good to him. He followed the herd, on the train to work, on the train to home. Until he made a stop he didn't intend. Something in him just wanted to stop a minute. Live there in the moment. His hooves moved down the way, to a little nowhere niche. Basue. Outskirts. That they were. A name and a door and nothing more. He had no reason to go in. But he did. And he found a reason for... for pretty much anything and everything.
O. T. M.
Having money mattered all of a sudden. Support. Appreciation. A sign he believed in them. He showed through his wallet and his strained, painful cries of love and devotion. Painfully shy was an understatement. But he did it. All for them. Her. Center. Manaka.
He held on. He went there even if it freaked him out. He had to. He felt alive and vital, like there was something to him, something more than what he did. Personality. Like two other devoted and vocal fans he became part of the organization. He had business skills, he knew numbers. Retsuko wouldn't be there forever. They needed someone who lived in the paperwork, who had numbers running through his veins. He had a lot to offer the band.
He had a lot to offer to Manaka.
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Manaka believed in fairy tales longer than anyone had a right to. She believed in Santa Claus and four leaf clovers long after it was acceptable, but did it out of real belief and focused spite. They were dreams. She could dream them if she wanted. She didn't think about it often, but that's probably what grew her cynical armor, contempt for those that didn't want you to keep being soft.
She had layered her personality in some sense. A put-on exterior of pitch-perfect idol sweetness and light; a shell of sarcasm and attitude grown to rebuff anyone that tried to take away what she thought; and the soft, sweet center that was real. The put-on and the reality were mostly the same, but she still needed to keep that inner part protected. People could question the outer layer, but she wanted no one to touch what was within. That was what dreamed. That was what sought four leaf clovers and thought a jolly man would bring presents. That was what kept her stupid, impossible dream alive. Idoldom.
She was a Christmas Cake and she knew it. She was fine with it. She worked in a convenience store and no one knew her name. Then that strange man happened. Hyodo. Not quite a fairy godmother but there was some kind of magic. He found other girls. He found a venue. He somehow found a crowd. The core stayed while the fringes changed. She was living out what she had always hoped. But of course, she wasn't stupid. A dream or two could come true. But she had said it directly to Retsuko, she was 26. It was supposed to be over for her. She could be an idol. She could hope to make a little something out of it. She could hope for fame. But one of the first things her cynic shell had cut out from her was the hope she would ever see a prince charming. She could think clovers were lucky and Santa was real but being swept off her paws to a kingdom in the clouds, that wasn't real for Christmas Cake.
It really wasn't.
Tanaka talked to her while he was doing their books, in a tiny voice. He was so timid but so sweet. He had no objection to her age. He listened to her too, listened a lot. Heard all her problems, bundling off her laundry to the building's laundry room, all her techniques for heating and cooling. No sweeping, timid offering. No carriage, a cab. Not a castle on a cloud but taking an elevator to hallway to the door to an apartment that she saw clearly had AC and a heater. And a stacked washer and dryer. Actual machines in the apartment. He had picked her up after a shift at the convenience store and she almost ripped her uniform off, watching with gleeful fascination as she instantly had the smell of greasy food washed away without a stack of coins.
Machines and a hallway beat the biggest fantasy castle because they were real. He was real. Her middle manager charming.
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Second of the OTM commissions. Manaka and Tanaka making the middle sign while Tanaka shows off surprising strength for a timid suit. Motivation gives him strength.
Manaka and Tanaka (c) Sanrio
Art by
\n\t\t\t\t\t4pcssetAgain, my backstory for these folks