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

[givingback]

Where are you from? I mean, what makes it so bad that you'd rather be here?

[hedonistic]

Oh. Well, that's fair.

[He loves being free, here, but he does miss his friends. The fact that they're in stasis gives him hope, though--foreign as that feeling might be to him.]

[poolhall_killer]

I will agree that dying does "suck", as you say.

But if it does make you feel better, I can bake some muffins.

[hedonistic]

[She's definitely stubborn. And also...way more sincere than he's prepared to handle. The more he tries to brush her words off as absurd, the more she takes him seriously. He doesn't really know what her deal is, honestly. Why is she so invested in this, in him? He doesn't even remember meeting anyone named Ammy; shouldn't she be offended by that?]

mankind huh
so whatre you
a robot or smething
programed to love evrything no matter jow shity it is

[illuminating]

i'm not a robot.
i'm a wolf, and a god. [ just like that. she did say she's honest, and it's to a fault. not only does she see no reason to hide herself, she's unable to do it. sometimes her honesty can come across as tactless, but why should she change her tune merely because he's asked what she is? ]
neither more or less than the other.

i am sorry you're hurting so much.

[hedonistic]

i said im fine

[He's not fine. Kagari Shuusei hasn't been fine in seventeen years.]

i thoght gods were suposed to be all powerful

[Implied, of course, is the question. How did the Storm destroy her world if she was a god? He thought the natha were the only gods here.]

[hedonistic]

Huh. You wouldn't be able to do that where you're from?

[hedonistic]

pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft

[whoops, definitely held that key too long there]

your funny
whats youre name

[hedonistic]

Meh. That's a long, depressing story, lady.

[He doesn't want to tell it in a context like this, where it's too easy to pity him.]

Let's just say my life was wrecked a long time before I actually died.

[illuminating]

[ for once, she feels the cut of his words. she was still in the process of restoring nature and running an evil incomprehensible to mankind out of the world. then, the storm. she wonders if he can imagine such gravity, to have given a whole universe its very life, only to have it snatched away from her. to be too weak to do anything.

regardless, she remains steady, and other than the typical, slow pace in responding she's had from the beginning since this is an arduous task for her, she doesn't miss a beat. ]

this is misinformation spread by mankind, when some of them bore witness to things a god could to do that they could not.
humans dislike the idea of a god who cannot save them all, and they'll reject the concept of gods when not every prayer is answered. but this is the way of things.
they're powerful, but not all powerful.
many things can weaken a god. a god can drain its own resources.
as for me, i'm not whole. and as things are, it's unlikely i'll be restored to my true state.
even then, i awoke here to find i was weakened more than i had already been.
however, i do not know if this is because the natha took away certain elements to my being, concerned for how i might change things if they did not, or if i was too much for the stasis pod to pull me together to what remained of me in completion. as in, it could give me back consciousness, but not other things.

[poolhall_killer]

My name is Venom. What's your name?

[always the polite one, even in text form]

[dancerefresher]

Oh no, I could!

I-I'd just-there's some other things I need to do first...like save a lot of money.

...I still do in fact.

But I can do that here too!

[braidedwonder]

If it unfucks I'm back in less than a second, man. Rest assured on that one.

We'll see. Right now i'm just trying not to freeze to death in this shit pit.

Worse than sleepin' on a park bench on a colony.

audio

[morbide]

I liked my life just fine. There were all kinds of fun battles to join, bad guys to nail, hexes to cast... The war was super fun! [Given that it's all over, though... Henry gives a moment's pause before concluding.] Buuut I think I'm all right being here.

What about you? Thinking heavily on it, huh?

[conqueredhearts]

It is said to have beautiful golden shores of warm sand. The crystal water flows onto it and all is peaceful there. To witness it is a great honor.

[thedarkbond]

Oh, definitely. So don't keep talking about it, or I'll be very upset with you.

[...Ok, yeah, Ren on anon was definitely going to get to some kind of trolling at some point here.]

[inaurare]

I don't give with the expectation of being given back to.

[and surely it is mean, to give expecting recompense or at least a favour owed in kind. He doesn't like that - or the kind of giving that demands a favour down the road. It feels like giving in bad faith.

He never retreated, when perhaps that seemed like the normal thing to do; he never really closed off his heart. Linneus can understand why people would... but that was never him]

No, I don't owe anyone anything. Nor do I wish them to owe me. But I think kindness is important. Maybe it is idealistic of me, but if I can help someone, I think I should.


((ohhh dear, autocorrect, the fails continue XD "week take" -> were tame...!))

text | un: U.F.

[almaredemptoris]

[He takes note of the young man's inebriated state, but he would perhaps address this later. He contemplates the question for a long moment. Here he supposes that, although he is never truly free of his past, its grip has loosened: France in her entirety is no more, and those who would know his crime are tentatively suspended in slumber. But here too are dangers of a different sort.]

I was content with my life. But were my daughter to awaken, I should find it difficult to say whether I would prefer to be there or here.

[maipokerface]

I'm starting to wonder how lucky anything like that would be for either of us.

[hedonistic]

whoa foreal
?
thats a kickas name
im kagari

[hedonistic]

Huh, so it's just like, a beach? I mean, I've only ever been to one and it was pretty awesome and all, but I'm not seeing what's so mythical about it.

[hedonistic]

Huh? What d'you mean?

[stuns]

[ yeah it's his pit, and he's gonna clean it up. or maybe ramses will and he can at least have helped in some way that feels better than before, futile and just spreading the mess around because there's too much of it to just up and stop on your own.

just the idea that kagari proposes makes juno laugh. it's sharp, half gunshot, half rueful. ]

Somehow, I really doubt that. You ever see anyone actually get to leave here?

[givingback]

[ She's curious, but not enough to pry, and her forehead creases a little. ]

Are you from a version of Earth? I've met people who aren't, and you don't have to say where exactly, but knowing all of these different places exist has been a little mind-blowing.

[colorature]

Mhmm. And besides, here people accept me for who I am. They treat me well.

I wouldn't want to go back to a place that doesn't.