<div class="floatleft">(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mortalinstruments/images/e/e5/Dominic_Sherwood.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150420222004)</div><strong>Character</strong>: Ken Tachibana<br/><strong>Who:</strong>Maple<br/><strong>Where:</strong>Photography class//Mr Chihak's room<br/><strong>When:</strong>Sophomore semester//study hall<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>As his picture<br/><hr/><br/>It's not like he doesn't understand his work isn't very good; especially with the amount of time he's put into it. If he were less stubborn or more likely if he didn't want to do his mother proud, he'd have given up this insanely frustrating effort years ago. While she is watching him he's watching her too. What he lacks on a psychic level, he tries to make up for in reading people's tells: micro expressions and tone of voice for lies, lies that spare him. Stance, posture, gait of walk speak to how at ease or uneasy she is around him. It's like he's taking as much of her in as possible to understand where she's coming from.<br/><br/>When she gets to his--let's just call them attempts at art his face and whole body seem to almost just stop. He's prepared for the worst, for Maple to tell him that it's hopeless and then give him some carrot by telling him she can see all the effort he put into things. Instead she gave him stark honesty, tempered by natural empathy and an abundance of innate kindness.<br/><br/>Ken listens carefully to her almost never breaking eye contact. He had to remember to do that, a few people told him his intensity freaked them out. There are clearly revelations in her critiques and especially her advice. He tries to keep his face impassive so as to not freak her out.<br/><br/>"The sword guy is Ukyo from the game Samurai Showdown. He's based off of Sasaki Kojirō, Musashi's greatest duel." he supplies. "And yeah, I guess they do have a resemblance to each other." he agrees not knowing that Maple liked anime. Ken didn't think he had much in common with Maple outside of photography.<br/><br/>He can't help but smile when she tells him the missions she has. "I didn't figure you for a Mission Impossible fan." he says not writing any of that down. He never wrote things down except when he handed in homework. "Yes. I accept your missions." he says then raises an eyebrow without being aware of it. "So does this mean you're going to blow up now? Because that could get messy." he goes for a small joke. He didn't really allow himself much in the way of vulnerability, too many bad encounters so far but he felt he could trust Maple to let a bit more of himself out other than the 'polite student' he'd been sticking to.<br/><br/>He looks at the horse sculptures and lets himself feel it again, that love and passion for things that move him. "Yes. The movement...the materials." he nods. "It's..powerful. They force you to look at them. you can see where they are going. These aren't the size of a bowling ball where you approach, look down..nod at it and move on. They are life size and have a presence to them." he states. "Then..there is a philosophical message here. When you look closely you can see that these are made from plastics and scrap metal that others had thrown away as useless garbage. She took that refuse..salvaged it and made something beautiful."<br/><br/>He turns away from the picture and composes himself again. "Sorry..I didn't mean to start preaching. I'm sure you have a much better appreciation for this than I do."