An Autograph Goes A Long Way (Sigga/Kogami)

Sigga was one of the few that chose to remain in the classroom during free period. As someone who had a habit of completing her homework the morning it was due, it seemed a little uncharacteristic of the girl to be diligently working on it now. At least it would be to someone who may have only had a cursory understanding of her motives.

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This very morning she had found herself dealing with a bit of a conundrum regarding her mathematics homework. She had left it unfinished until the day it was due like usual, but when there was almost no time left to put it off the procrastinator opened up her notebook to finally carry out her task. Only, there was a bit of a problem. The page number of her assigned work had been smeared when someone had dropped a taco on her work in the B-1 kitchen the day before. Sigga knew it was either page three or five that was assigned, but she didn’t want to risk completing the wrong one. Seeing as most of her classmates were still asleep this early in the morning her only option had been to ask about it on the student-chat channel.

It was a bit of a Hail Mary, though a solution did eventually present itself. While the only students awake were either unwilling or unable to inform her which page was for homework, one astute observer suggested she simply complete both pages. It had been a rather clever fix to her dilemma. The homework itself was easy enough and she had finished both pages and turned in the correct one for grading when she arrived in class. The girl made a mental note that if she found herself lurking in the student-chat channel again, she should thank Shadowkat for his suggestion.

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The student finished solving the final problem of her new mathematics homework and closed the notebook. It was strangely liberating having completed it so soon after it had been assigned. Maybe procrastinating wasn’t the way to go after all. “Hmm…” The bald girl turned to gaze out the window in contemplation.

Her musings were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice. Head and eyes rotated in the direction of her classmate. She recognized the ghostly-looking figure, though didn’t know his name. “Hrm?” A petition? “What’s it ‘bout?” The boy replied, stating his interest in becoming the student council president. Sigga always found it strange that there were those that voluntarily gravitated towards leadership roles like that. She would have considered it too much of a hassle herself. Instead of asking what kind of support he was looking for, likely a signature or perhaps simply a verbal acknowledgement, the girl asked, “Why do you want to be the council president?”

Curious, amber eyes lock with the boy’s as the girl presented her query. Her elbow propped up on her desk, hand cradling her head as she listened to what his response would be.

The fleshy pterygiophores that made up Sigga’s eyebrows seemed to fluctuate like small skeletal caterpillars doing a little dance, altering the girl’s expression between dubious and attentive as the boy spoke to her. Kogami’s introductory speech was rather thorough. His motive seemed more focused on a specific goal than the broad range of ambitions she would have expected him to voice. But just because he didn’t specifically state alternate objectives didn’t mean he did not have them. Every candidate needed a platform to stand on. And for all she really knew, student council was just a testing ground for global domination. Though… probably not.

Still, offering whatever support he was asking for sounded like something she could theoretically gain from. If he wasn’t a sociopath she might be able to exploit the social rule of reciprocation and one day ask him for a favor. It didn’t hurt to know people in high places… not that student council could be considered particularly influential in the grand scheme of things.

“Sigrid. Sigrid Tendo.” The finned girl replied, extending a hand in greeting. The pink mittens she was wearing were the only deviation from her default school uniform.

It was difficult for her to keep the corners of her mouth from curving into a slight grin as she continued. “Y’know, you sort of talk like a politician.”

She found it a little intriguing that he already wanted to jump into a leadership role in the academy like that, despite being a new student. He must have enrolled around the same time she had, maybe shortly after, and didn’t know that the girl was just as unfamiliar to UA as he was. But that was unimportant.

“What I mean is-” Sigga began, attempting to explain her remark, “-it sounds like you’re playing it safe with your words, like, they’re calculated; rehearsed.” He seemed to find the comment of being compared to a politician diverting. She waved a hand dismissively. “Nothing wrong with that, though.” Relaxing in her chair, she continued. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to accidentally offend a portion of your constituency, would you? Next thing you know you’d lose the election and the remainder of your academically political career involves being the student council treasurer… or worse, you’d simply be one of the masses.” Perhaps she was teasing him a bit too much. Maybe she was just jealous of his ambition, even if running for student council president wasn’t something she’d ever consider of doing herself. Sigga had none of that. Ambition, that is. All she wanted was to get through school without any significant hiccups. She’d graduate and then the rest of her life was hers.

She listened rather attentively as Kogami tried to clarify some of the meaning in his words and then ask her what her experience at UA had been like. Sigga chose to overlook the rather strange back-peddling in his speech, simply answering his questions honestly.

The girl’s first reply was an apathetic shrug. Though she normally shied away from interviews like this one, it didn’t feel particularly intrusive as it wasn’t interrupting her and she felt pretty at ease in her classroom at the moment. “Not much, honestly. I mean, I’m actually new to the academy too. Got here from Hokkaido recently. The people here are… I donno…” Sigga waved one of her mitted hands uncertainly. “People are the same everywhere. Or, well, not really…” She started to backtrack her statement. “They’re different,” she amended, “But they’re different everywhere. You kind of have to be on your toes. Especially in a country that has something like the Freedom Quirk Act.”

Sigga wasn’t sure if she was answering one of his asked questions anymore, or if her mind had taken the conversation out on a tangent somewhere.

Instead of allowing for a pause in their discussion, the teenage girl shifted the talk back to being about the human ghost. “So.” She leaned back forward in her seat. “You just want to run for student council so you’d have some sway in what kind of events, and field trips, thatkindofstuff, UA hosts?”

He really did talk like a politician, or at least he used more words than Sigga thought necessary to illustrate a point. The girl wasn’t particularly politically savvy when it came to running for student council president, so there very well could be some hidden tactic in the way Kogami spoke that she simply didn’t see the advantage of. Maybe she’d ask him about that later.

She wasn’t entirely certain what he had in mind when he compared getting accepted to the academy with the lottery, but to Sigga getting into UA really was a monumental win. And that wasn’t understating it in the slightest. Juvie in America was not exactly the hell hole that TV series’ portrayed it to be. It was worse. Managing to get herself out of that situation and into Japan had been some sort of obfuscated miracle, regardless of how much credit she gave herself for accomplishing it. A lot of people in the school seemed to behave like they had some skeletons in their own closets, some she knew of for a fact. This one happened to be hers.

As her amber eyes studied the talking anemic she wondered if he had any skeletons in his closet. Sure his pale complexion might be nothing more than a side effect of a quirk, but it also could have far more sinister undertones. Of course Sigga wasn’t about to ask about his quirk. Everyone else on the planet seemed eager to pry into each other’s business as if a person’s quirk was some sort of metric by which they needed to be measured, but the girl actually had a modicum of sense about her and didn’t commit that particular faux pas whenever she happened to meet someone new. She wasn’t in grade school anymore.

Kogami’s reply to her question made Sigga wonder just what kind of events the UA happened to have hosted in the past for him to be so eager to try and get a say in them. “Hmm…” She pondered, then added when the boy finally finished speaking. “I suppose.”

“Who are you running against anyway?” Up to this point the fish girl hadn’t bothered paying any attention to school politics, but now that the topic had been brought to her… in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

Sigga was a little surprised Kogami didn’t know who he’d be running against. Maybe he had only decided that he’d run for student council president minutes ago and had targeted her as a way to rehearse the pitch he’d float by individual students before looking up anyone else that would be vying for the position. There were other possibilities of course but it didn’t really matter in the end, at least not to this girl.

She stretched out her legs under her desk, her arms mimicking the gesture above. The girl froze in that pose for a few seconds upon hearing the boy’s follow-up question. Her interested in school politics? Sigga’s throat made a curious hissing sound, likely her body’s version of a reflexive snort at hearing something amusing. “Me?” The expression on her face appeared dubious, as her arms and legs relaxed. “Nuh-uh.” The girl stood up from her desk, then stretched her arms again, this time upwards. Sitting at the desk for so long wasn’t something her body seemed to enjoy very much.

“The whole thing sounds to me like a bunch of busy work with the only real payoff being you get to add another two lines on your resume once you graduate.” Clearly she had given it at least a bit of thought, though focusing mostly at the end-game of what a student’s position on the student council would mean. Sigga sat back down, briefly rummaging through her things before finding the few coins she was looking for. The water bottle that stood at the foot of her desk had been long since emptied and she felt like a sugary beverage would be warranted in this situation. She had finished her homework quite expeditiously. She deserved a treat.

“As far as to whatever bit of influence you could get from being on the student council…” The girl shrugged her shoulders, walking towards the classroom door. It was presumed Kogami would follow the student on her little excursion if he intended to continue their conversation. “I don’t actually know about what kind of power you’d get from being on it, but I find it difficult to imagine it being worth the responsibility that comes along with it.” She spun briefly on her heel and gestured with both mitted hands openly, adding, “No judgement though.”

The boy obviously was set on running in the election and she had nothing against that. Everyone had their own motives. She wondered just what kind of hefty bribe would be required if someone were to hypothetically want to get her to run for student council president. Maybe a new laptop. No. Strike that. That wouldn’t be enough. “Hrm…”

Sigga’s face seemed to scrunch up as she listened to the boy’s proposition. It looked like the girl had just gotten a whiff of some unpleasant smell, which would have been impossible seeing as she didn’t have a nose. A perplexed sideways glance was shot at Kogami, their footsteps echoing through the empty hall. It sounded a lot like he was suggesting she get involved in the very thing she had just finished explaining she had no interest in. But the girl wasn’t hasty. She’d let him finish his exposition before offering a reply.

Aside from her intention in graduating from UA, the teenager hadn’t given much thought to what exactly she would do down the line. The addition of some modest bragging rights to a resume sounded a lot like speculative gain. Whether or not it would be of actual benefit for her in the future would depend on what she ended up doing with her future. Of course, Kogami didn’t know that. It made sense that anyone attending UA was planning on working in the field of heroics. An easy mistake to make. Though if you were planning on getting hired by an agency to become a Hero, getting yourself onto the student council probably would be a benefit. However, Sigga had no such plans, not that she’d share that fact openly.

As the two of them reached the vending machines, Kogami dove into the subject of internships. She had forgotten about that bit. Internships sounded like the same kind of busy work that she’d rather avoid. Well… unless they were paid internships. Her grandfather was awesome enough to give her a monthly stipend; an allowance, but more income would be nice. What year did internships start in anyway? The girl didn’t voice the question out loud. It was something she could look up later. Maybe she should consider getting a part-time job while attending UA. Was that allowed? Another unvoiced question, and not at all relevant to the topic she was meant to be giving her undivided attention to.

“I donno…” The girl clearly sounded unconvinced. Her amber eyes were now staring intently at the options the mechanical beverage dispenser had on tap. Her remark was in the reply to Kogami’s dialog, not to her uncertainty on what drink she should buy, although that was an uncertainty as well…

The bald student’s pink mitten fiddled with her coins as she contemplated the two conundrums. “That’s…” She hesitated, not particularly wanting to disappoint. “-probably going to be a no.” At least he didn’t have to wait for her answer. “That said,” she began again, turning away from the vending machine to look back at the pale figure, “what exactly did you have in mind?”

It wasn’t the work itself that she was curious about, despite that being the subject of her question, but rather why he was considering someone he didn’t know anything about as a potential lackey for his campaign.

The idea of potentially becoming someone’s secretary was… unappealing. No offense to secretaries, but that kind of work seemed horrifyingly mundane to the youthful girl. Maybe at a large firm, where duties involving detailed coordination of company logistics were part of the daily routine, such an offer could be enticing, but a secretary to a student council president? No way Jose. Treasurer, on the other hand? Sigga was pretty good with numbers. She was pretty good with most things she had spent years studying in school. That said, if she ended up being responsible for someone else’s cash and some of it happened to go missing through no fault of her own, of course, well… one could see how such a situation involving a teenager who already had a legal rap sheet could spiral out of the girl’s control.

She raised an eyebrow when the boy mentioned her grades. He was right about them not being too shabby. Though the former thief may not have looked it, she was exceptionally capable of keeping her grades near perfect for the most part. All her classes so far had been very easy for her. Sigga figured she’d simply maintain high marks until something of interest ended up occupying most of her time. With her grades starting off at such a crescendo she could later afford to let them drop and still end up passing all of her classes.

Kogami mentioned realizing something about her that had initially prompted him to ask, though she was uncertain if he was alluding to something he hadn’t spoken about yet or if he was referring to her outstanding grades. She was about to inquire him about it when the teenage boy put some change into the vending machine she had been eyeballing and offered up one of the cans ejected from it.

Surprised at being suddenly offered a drink, Sigga accepted the can. “Uh, thanks.” It wasn’t her favorite, but that’s because her favorite was actually tap water. A strange favorite but then Sigga always had an air of peculiarity around her. Still, she hadn’t walked all the way here in order to spend money on something she could have gotten from a fountain. Adding a bit of variety to the beverages she consumed had its own appeal, and a Dr. Poppor was an adequate choice. She certainly wouldn’t be throwing it out. If she really hadn’t liked it she’d, at the very least, try to auction the can off to the highest bidder.

TssSSS kr-POP

“Not really necessary, but consider the peace offering appeasing.” She raised the aluminum container in a mock toast, and then took a sip. It was cool, sweet, and refreshing. And her pink mittens allowed her to hold it without the drink numbing her fingers.