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]

[ Bree blinks quickly, realizing what she missed out on doing on the ship. Her father was still in stasis, then. The father she knew, the father she missed. But still, she clears her throat. ]

I'm sorry. That you...I mean, you seem okay. With, you know, all of that.

[hedonistic]

Don't be. [He shrugs.] This life is way better.

[givingback]

Being here and alive beats being dead, I guess. How long have you been here?

[hedonistic]

About nine months. But even if I wasn't dead, I wouldn't want to go back.

[He misses his friends, but they're in stasis. He'll probably get to see them again, someday.]

[givingback]

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

[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.

[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.

[hedonistic]

[appreciated tbh]

Yup, sure am. Tokyo, Japan, 2112. You?

[It's not that he minds saying where he's from, really. It's more the specific circumstances related to being from Japan in 2112 that only other Japanese people from 2112 would understand. Luckily, aside from one he knows personally, he hasn't met any of those yet.]

I'm pretty hype about the whole multiple universes thing, honestly. It's like something outta a movie.

[givingback]

Holy shit, you're from....144 years in my future. It's 1968 where I'm from.

[ It's not that she hasn't met people from what she's sure is far beyond 1968, but no one's actually put a year to their futuristic timelines. ]

Oh, and uh, I'm from the US. Boston. All of this is crazy and feels impossible, but obviously, it isn't? It's incredible but as someone who only just witnessed a man go to the moon and never thought it'd go beyond that, it's a lot.

[ Not necessarily in a bad way, though. ]

[hedonistic]

[Kagari has ... basically 0 reference point for where Boston is, beyond Somewhere Across The Ocean. Also, uh, no real reference point for when 1968 was, either, because Japan doesn't teach history anymore ha ha ha.]

For what it's worth, we didn't exactly get much further. Astronauts aren't even a thing anymore.

[which is a damn shame tbqh.]

It's pretty damn crazy and impossible, but it's also the best thing to ever happen to me, so I'm enjoying the ride.

[So why is he sitting on a dock getting drunk as the sunlight fades? That's a good gosh darn question, innit. Perhaps he'll be more open a little farther down the bottle, though.]

[givingback]

[ If you were dead before coming here, that makes sense she guesses. ]

All that work just to get to space, and now, the space program doesn't even exist in your future? That's...wow. I wonder what happened?

[ Bree shakes her head, then smiles a little. ]

I guess I'm still trying to figure out how to enjoy it. The ride, I mean. So far, I've been getting by with a little alcohol.

[hedonistic]

[Sybil happened. But explaining Sybil means explaining said long depressing story from earlier, so he sidesteps.]

Basically? It was considered too stressful.

[The pursuit of knowledge itself is discouraged, under Sybil. The university system was dismantled long ago, with the only exception being Osou Academy, a finishing school for girls who were to become old-fashioned housewives. To go into space, when leaving the country was no longer permitted? Unthinkable.]

Alcohol is pretty great, though. [says the man who is drunk like...right now...]

Hey, that's a suggestion--get drunk and do something you haven't before! Like a bucket list, but without the dying part.

[givingback]

Fair enough.

[ She can't explain most things about the space program, it's not like she'll expect anyone else to be able to either. ]

I'm still trying to figure out what there is to do. Not a bad plan though, if I don't die doing it because I am drunk.

[ Bree smiles though; it's an idea at least, to go see what there is to see and do once they all get where they're going. ]

[hedonistic]

Normally, this is the part where I'd rec checking out the dragons in Wyver, but given recent dragon-related circumstances that's no good, soooooo. You check out the shop with the robopets you can play with yet?

[For someone like Kagari, there's so much to do, even being someone who's easily bored. But then, he's lived a life where even sitting down to eat at a cafe is a luxury beyond comparison, so his perspective is admittedly a little skewed.]

[givingback]

Dragons sounds like a terrible idea right now.

[ She does quirk just a little bit of a smile; if she'd arrived at a different time, it would have been a solid idea. But now he says something about robots and her eyebrows go up. ]

Pets that are robots, just so we're clear.

[ It's not really a question since the name explains itself, but. ]</small My experience with robots is in movies, and usually, they eventually try to kill all humans.

[hedonistic]

Man, one little apocalypse and suddenly dragons get a bad name, huh? Tragic.

[He could try to sound more fakely put-upon but he's also way too drunk for that right now.]

Yup, robots shaped like pets with AI to act like pets. [He laughs a little at the thought of the cutesy little things going on an omnicidal rampage.] Pretty sure these are more R2-D2 than Terminator, though.

[he watches .... ancient movies ...... shhhhhhh.]

[givingback]

[ Bree didn't see any of the dragon's wrath at all, so she can't say she's really afraid or ready to denounce them, but she's absolutely positive her mother would lose her mind if Bree found dragons to hang around. ]

I hate to ruin what sounds like a great reference but I have no idea what those last two things...are. Robots to me, mean something along the lines of...well, Daleks, from Doctor Who. They weren't friendly.

[hedonistic]

Huuuh, I guess those movies were after your time. They're super old in my era but still awesome, especially Star Wars.

[you literally only ever saw the clone wars, boi.]

Anyway, that's the one with the time-traveling phone booth, right? R2-D2's more like a companion type. Cute little beep-boops and all. Meanwhile...well, I mean, the name "Terminator" kinda speaks for itself.

[givingback]

Time traveling guy, yes. I've watched it once or twice.

[ With Roger; she never would have watched it on her own. ]

Terminator sounds terrible, so I'm glad we're more in the beep-boop genre of robot animals.

[ She smiles, teasing a little. ]

[hedonistic]

They're definitely cuter, that's for sure. Terminator was great for explosions, though. Nothing quite like a good kaboom, y'know?

[Actually true and canon Kagari facts: he thinks Michael Bay is the best director in history because of all the explosions in his movies. u_u]

[givingback]

Is there a way to check out these movies here, somehow? Now I'm curious about this 'Terminator' movie. And everything else you mentioned.

[ It sounds like good stuff to get mindlessly lost in, anyway. Or make her more paranoid about the AI that seems to be everywhere here. Either way. ]

[hedonistic]

Uhhh, I dunno. Maybe the Station has 'em? You could ask the Natha once we're done in Nadril, I guess.

[givingback]

Oh, so we do get to go back up there eventually? To the station, I mean.

[ She's been wondering but has been unsure. If her father is there, in stasis even though he's dead at home, she wants to see him. To accomplish what, she doesn't know, but she wants to see her father again. ]

[hedonistic]

Huh? Yeah. I mean, probably. That's the only place besides here that's not screwed up right now, after all.

[He shrugs, a little surprised by the question. The Natha are clearly still busy dealing with Ysverai, but before all that went down, he went to visit the stasis units all the time.]

Did you just wake up when all the mess started?

[givingback]

Yeah, I woke up, and maybe a day later we were all kicked off the ship, so I have no idea how any of this really works. Thanks for the explanation, though. It was never super clear.