video; @unchained

[hedonistic]

[There video opens to a beautiful scene of a sunset at the Fishing District, sky painted in magnificent pinks and oranges that reflect against the pristine ice. A few moments later, a young man's voice accompanies it, tinged with the telltale slurring of someone who's rather drunk.]

Hey, question.

[A pause hangs in the air for a minute, almost long enough that one might wonder if he's gotten distracted or forgotten.]

Did you like your life, before the Storm? [. . .] If the Natha gave you a chance to go back, would any of you stay here?

[Kagari doesn't miss Japan. He doesn't feel homesick. He misses his friends, sure, but he's had more in the past nine months than he did in the twenty-one years before it. But he's starting to feel like the only one.]

Comments

[hedonistic]

It's not really a feelings issue. I was literally a prisoner of the government my entire life.

[hedonistic]

Oh hey, I remember you.

[He sounds oddly pleasant about it, in the way of someone who's hit that level of drunkenness where they can't be bothered to be annoyed about things that annoyed them in the past.]

Not being in a grave is pretty great, gotta say.

[Not that he would've had one, apparently, considering the pains Kasei went to to cover up his murder.]

Cheers, yeah?

[idealisme]

[The vaguely pleasant drunk tone irks him, though he couldn't say why.]

That said, if it were a choice of living here or in Paris, I pick the latter.

[hedonistic]

Even if it's a pit, it's your pit, huh?

[Kagari has to wonder what that feels like, really. He has no connection to any one place; even Wyver he's stayed in this long because of the dragons and the fact that he hadn't been super welcome in Olympia until tensions started cooling down a bit. And Japan was certainly not home.

No, his only home was in the little makeshift family of people who'd shared that office building in the MWPSB with him. All but one of them are asleep, and they all have reason to love Japan, or at least had, once. He's unwilling to admit it, but it hurts, knowing that. He can't ever mean as much to them as they do to him.]

Well, you never know. Maybe our alien overlords'll give you a chance someday.

[He sounds oddly bitter about the thought, like he doesn't want it to be possible so he doesn't have to face the idea of his friends ever picking Japan over El Nysa. But begrudging or not, the sentiment's genuine.]

[hedonistic]

What kind of dream's that?

[Funny, someone suggested this place could realize their dreams, rather than home. He's curious, if nothing else.]

[hedonistic]

Yeah, that's pretty legit.

[Kagari's not great at offering condolence or empathy about Bree having apparently lost her mother where she's from, so instead, he simply acknowledges the sentiment and goes from there.]

Considerate of the Natha to resuscitate the poor dead fuckers from the wrecked universes they visit when sticking people in their space freezers, huh? Can definitely say I appreciated it.

[conqueredhearts]

To behold the glory of Okeanos and to walk those beautiful shores with my own two feet.

[hedonistic]

[THAT'S REAL HELPFUL, OCELOT. #rude tbh.]

so in other words yiu hav no fuxking clue
.......fair enuogh i guess

[atwo]

... Really? And what could they gain from doing something like that or, what did you do to make that happen?

[thedarkbond]

How long did that take?

[Purely professional interest. Obviously.]

[inaurare]

Oh, I am well aware.

[his being aware of it has hardly made any difference.]

[illuminating]

what is trolling?

[hedonistic]

[. . .]

u kno
messing withme

[illuminating]

teasing?

[hedonistic]

sorta
or prankinh
or mocking

[he was kind of assuming its that last one.]

[illuminating]

you think you deserve to be mocked?

[hedonistic]

idk prbably

[illuminating]

someone who has animosity toward themselves probably isn't happy, even if they aren't sad. but to not be sad isn't much better if you're unable to access much emotion at all.

you're kind, so i hope one day you can feel your body is deserving of water when you're depleting it of hydration. i hope you won't think it's okay for someone to use their words cruelly on you.

[hedonistic]

[Kagari really just stares at his phone for a long, long time. Reads the message several times, like he's not sure whether or not he hallucinated it in his intoxicated state, and grows more uncomfortable each time. Why is this happening? How does he keep running into people like this? What's wrong with them?

(Where were they when he really needed them, seventeen years ago?)

He fights back the sudden urge to throw his phone into the water. takes care to type his next message correctly.]

you dont know anything about me

[He doesn't realize they've met before.]

[illuminating]

not a lot, no. but i know you were gentle with me, and smiled a lot, & shared food with me. things that speak volumes. there's still a great deal i don't know. that much is true.

damn phone ate my tag :(

[hedonistic]

wow i *smiled* at you
give me a goddamn medal

[It's all too much, really. He doesn't know how to handle any of this, so he does the only thing he knows how when he feels cornered--he lashes out.]

hah wjat am i dven doing
ure prob still trolling
left u an opning for all that "murdeerers deserve love too" cralp and now yiur running with it huh

[hedonistic]

[....huh. that wasn't the kind of answer he was expecting.]

why, then?

[The why has bothered him ever since Linneus had offered to let him dry off in his home, that one rainy day. Kagari's always assumed he was one of those guys who just couldn't see it as something that could get them hurt, just had too much faith in people in general to worry about it. But apparently not. Linneus had admitted to not being physically very strong before, so if he knows that, and he knows people could try to take advantage of his kindness, then why did he keep doing it? Kagari doesn't understand. And he hasn't quite realized how far they've strayed off-topic by now, either.]

[hedonistic]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[let go of that 'h' key any time now, kagari]

9 mnths after me
+ howver long i was sleping past the refuges bfore me

[hedonistic]

Uuuuuugh. [There's a distinct whine to his voice.] I didn't do anything, but that's a longass story and I don't feel like it. Hit me up some other time.

[inaurare]

Why be nice?

Or why risk having my kindness be taken advantage of...?