video; un: 1000

[gekijou]

Name: Yuki
Date: 2/27
Format: Video
Warnings: Mentions of death, recent event

[Yuki's wearing a plain, off-white shirt that leaves his neck exposed, where the spots of color shift gradually throughout the video, like a tell of his moods. He tries a faint, idol-like smile at first, before he settles into playing the guitar he holds. The tune he plays is soft on solo guitar, but with a hopeful central rhythm that it keeps coming back to. He sings along with it, familiar words for some, but for others they'll likely be new.

When he finishes, he puts the guitar down and folds his hands between his knees.]

Greetings, everyone. This is Re:vale's Yuki.

It seems like a lot of things have happened lately, and a lot of them weren't... good. I hope everyone involved is recovering well, and that no one has been seriously hurt. Mm... Even if that's too much to hope, I want to say it anyway. [He flashes the smile again.] I had some small trouble of my own.

Because of that, I'm actually looking for some advice. Since I know there are some garden shops and horticulturalists around, does anyone have recommendations for easy-to-grow native plants that thrive indoors? I'm thinking about getting something new.

[There's a bit of shifting, and he takes a breath before launching into the second part.]

Not to alarm anyone, but my second request is a little sensitive. If you're easily upset, please end the video here. [A pause.] Can anyone tell me about people who have left? About their last days here. Was anything unusual? Was it sudden? I'm not... I'm sorry, before anyone asks, I'm not going to pretend to have answers and I won't figure anything useful for anyone else out from this. It's just... something I need to hear right now.

[He loathes being vulnerable, so just ignore the deep blue color on his spots and the way he avoids looking toward the camera.]

Certain reasons.

Ah, anyway. Thank you to anyone who made it this far. This is Yuki, signing off for now.

Comments

un: leslie / video

[foundfamilies]

What a pretty song....

[Ah, but there had been a greeting in his video and she feels obliged to return it.]

Greetings, Mr. Revales Yuki. This is Leslie. [Since she knows Momo, she probably should know “Re:vale’s” is not a part of his name, but she doesn’t realize it.] I don’t think I would have much advice to give about indoor plants. I learned a little about gardening before, but I’ve only tried to grow one kind of plant indoors before. But about people who have left....

[Her voice falters for a moment — probably “small child” was not one of the people he wanted to read past the warning for upsetting topics — but she pulls herself together quickly to continue.]

It’s always sudden. Or, at least, that’s what I’ve seen or heard. Maybe at first, someone might think there was some kind of sign that they missed, but that’s only because I — they feel guilty for not treasuring their time together more.

[gekijou]

Hi, Leslie. I'm glad you liked it. I thought it might make things easier on people if they could hear something nice... And that song always makes me feel better.

[Yikes indeed, though he did earnestly warn. Still, he nods in acceptance of the information, not missing the hesitation.]

That makes me wonder how many people want people to stay, or how many people want people they care about to leave. It's different for everyone, being from different places. Maybe for some people this place is a good thing, right?

[foundfamilies]

I think you’re right. At least, it made me happy to listen to it.

[In all but the most dire of circumstances, Leslie wears her heart on her sleeve, so it’s obvious from her expression and slightly furrowed brow that she gives his contemplations and question a lot of thought before she answers.]

There might be people who came from a place, or at least a time in that place, to where they don’t want to return. For people who care about someone like that, it would be an easy answer. But if their life outside of this city was good, I don’t know if anyone really feels all one way or another. I know it’s for the best that people like that return home, but I also know that I won’t ever see them again when they do go.

[gekijou]

I'm glad. I wrote it for my partner, honestly. Usually Momo and I sing it together. I hope he won't be mad that I went solo for five minutes.

[A smile. Yuki is emotionally stunted in the worst ways, or at least extremely unwilling to show his inner thoughts and emotions unless he absolutely must. But this whole incident has left him confused and vulnerable. In his own terrible-at-emotions way, he's trying to make everything make sense.]

It's probably a mix of feelings, you're right. Like... you are happy for them being home safe, but sad that you can't see them. Is that selfish? Though I think you can be sad for yourself and still happy for them, without it being too much one way or the other. It's complicated, right?

[foundfamilies]

[Leslie blinks a little before recollection dawns.]

Oh! So you’re Mr. Momo’s partner with whom he acts lovey-dovey professionally. [why was this what you remembered from momo mentioning him] I don’t think he will be mad. He’s a very nice person.

[Leslie is here for your “surprisingly emotionally well-adjusted 90% of the time considering her past” needs, Yuki. Let’s poke that stunt into being slightly taller.]

It might be selfish. I don’t think it is, though. [Whatever her standards for herself are.] It isn’t as though we could stop them from leaving even if we wanted to do that, so it isn’t hurting them to be sad for ourselves. ...No matter how sad I got, I would make everyone who wanted to leave return to their worlds if I could. It’s only...yes, it’s complicated. I think that’s the best way to put it.

[gekijou]

We act "lovey-dovey" most of the time, to be honest. Did he tell you it was just for show?

[Good on Momo for keeping up the idol image! Even though it's amusing Yuki more than he's been amused in days.]

Yeah. That's how I feel, too. To be honest, I don't know that many people here. I stay home a lot and tend to my plants and write songs... But even the people I don't know, if they wanted to leave, I'd make it happen if I could. No matter what.

video; un: alice

[adventageous]

[As Alice's memory continues to recover, she has started keeping up with the network again. She doesn't know the man--honestly doesn't know, not a lapse in recollection--but she finds herself drawn in by the song and the following message. There's something comforting in this stranger's well-wishes and acknowledgement that nearly everyone has suffered as a result of the Circle's actions earlier in the month.

The first request more or less blows past her (she knows nothing about horticulture), but the second hits her square in the chest. Yuri's departure and the way it affected her is a memory she recalls clearly. She considers turning the network off and pushing the thought out of her mind, but something about Yuki's expression after he asks compels her to stay online and answer.]

The song was beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.

...I had someone important to me leave not long ago. He was my bonded. The days leading up to it were the same as they had been, and then suddenly he was gone. He left in the middle of the night.

[Alice struggles to look at the camera, also unwilling to be so vulnerable. She stares at her hands instead.]

[foundfamilies]

[She tilts her head.] So people can be lovey-dovey without being engaged — um, without dating each other? Friends can be lovey-dovey, too?

[Momo chose to go with “friends” in his idol image talk rather than talking about underlying feelings with (at the time) a 12-year-old.]

...It’s still lonely when they leave, though. Even when I’m happy for them, too. Sometimes...sometimes it feels more lonely than happy.

[She admits this somewhat reluctantly, but she doesn’t want someone else to think it’s wrong to feel that way like she did at first.]

[gekijou]

Mmm... [Don't laugh, Yuki. This is a child.] Yeah. We just like each other a lot. He's my best friend, and he's cool and handsome, too. What's not to love?

[He's smiling faintly now.]

It's hard to think about. And... At first I didn't want to make any friends because I didn't want to deal with any of this. I was scared. Now I'm scared to leave, for reasons.

[foundfamilies]

I can’t think of anything. Mr. Momo is a great person. [She may not have picked up that it’s a rhetorical question.] ...Do you mind if I ask you a question?

Reasons...? [The word slips out quietly. She is curious, but she doesn’t want to actually pry into it.] I don’t know if everyone would feel this way, but when friends leave, I don’t regret having been their friend. I only regret not becoming friends sooner, or treasuring the friendship more. Though...I understand being scared, too.

[gekijou]

...Thanks for listening.

[Somehow it still feels good when his songs are acknowledged, when people connect to them on more than a superficial level. He swears he can tell.]

In the middle of the night, suddenly. [Empathy, Yuki. What would he do if Momo disappeared suddenly? If he woke up alone?] I'm sorry to you had to go through that. You sound sad, but I don't blame you. If my bonded left and I was still here, I'd lose it.

[gekijou]

Go for it. Ask away.

[For once, a conversation here is thawing him out and making him feel human. Not just like some misplaced monster. It's... awfully weird, but he doesn't hate it.]

...You've got a really nice heart, thinking about people that way. Wanting to have done more is pretty normal, if you're kind like that. I think.

[Yuki doesn't compliment people easily, but she doesn't know that, probably.]

Maybe I should try harder to get along with people. To tell you the truth, I'm bad at it back home, too.

[foundfamilies]

[Thawing out cold people is Leslie's modus operandi, though she doesn't do it on purpose.]

If you can be lovey-dovey with friends, and you can go on dates someone without intending to form a family with them, why is there a difference between friends and, um, people you are courting? La -- someone I knew here, before she returned to her own world, bonded with two people from her world. They were both very important to her, but only one of them courted her, even though some people here have been courted by more than one person.

[She didn't look in the least embarrassed to ask about love, asking in the same tone she might ask why someone is a vegetarian. But it's when she responds to his compliment that she looks a little bashful, turning a little pink.]

Thank you. I'm not really any good at getting along with people, either, but all of the Mirrorbound have been very kind to me anyway. I'm sure that they would be just as kind to someone as nice as you are.

[She has already decided that you are A Nice Person, Yuki, and there's no escaping this label now. And despite what she says, she's not even a little bad at getting along with people, but she's attributed her successes to how good the people she gets along with are rather than any quality of hers.]

[gekijou]

[That's a heck of a question, and totally out of nowhere, so Yuki hides a little laugh behind one gently curled hand.

He treats it almost like he's being interviewed for a magazine, taking a long moment to consider the response. He's bad with emotions, but he's loved two very different people in his life, and he's been friends with many others, all of whom have different lives, different priorities.]

I actually think it's different for everybody. Some people draw a hard line between people they love as friends or family, and people they want to be romantic with, and treat them totally differently. Some people don't. Why? Well, maybe for some people, there's a lot more to lose if they think of someone as a romantic partner instead of just someone they care about. And there's some people who don't care about romantic love at all. There's a lot of different people out there. Some people don't need to make the differences as big, but some people really need a friend and someone they want to be with to be like night and day. Some people are also really clueless, and don't know how to treat people in the first place, so they mess all that up and confuse the people they love. It takes all kinds of people to make up the world, at the end of the day.

[His spots fade to a reddish brown, and he makes the absolute softest expression he has in him.]

So if we're both bad at getting along with people, let's get along with each other.

Text, un: Alex

[sing_for_me]

I can’t say I noticed anything different with those who left. They just were suddenly gone. I don’t know if that makes it better or not.

I might be overstepping but, are you alright?

[gekijou]

It's not better or worse. It's just how it is. I guess I was curious more than anything. Like if maybe I could see it coming.

Way to call me out when I was trying to make this about other people. I'm doing better now. Had a few bad days, though.

video; un: steak.

[battlebound]

There was nothing unusual about mine.

( have an answer from someone who really did leave, Yuki. )

[gekijou]

[Yuki's eyes widen slightly, then resolve to normal again. Still, the shifting color of his spots indicates he's surprised by the answer... Not embarrassed by asking, though. Empathy hard.]

First-hand experience... But you came back?

text; un: reddeer

[rightfoot]

Both of my bonds disappeared at the same time. Just one day they were here, another they were gone.

There was nothing weird going on before that, though.

I guess the weird thing is that they vanished at the same time, though.

[adventageous]

[Alice makes a small, self-deprecating noise akin to a laugh and looks back up at the camera.]

I did lose it. Spent much of the following days in tears, and recklessly cast magic to the point where I hurt myself with the backfire. The only reason I'm doing as well as I am now is that I'm blessed enough to have such good friends here to help me through.

[Karin especially--Alice shudders to think what shape she'd be in without the other woman's support.]

I know several Mirrorbound have been leaving lately. Is that why you're asking?

[video]

[lamination]

I would imagine people leave the same way they arrive - suddenly and unpredictably.

[A tilt of his head, face blank as a mask.]

I am sorry if you’ve lost someone.

[He could probably stand to have more emotion?!]

action

[yesdoubt]

[While Momo isn't at home when the post is made - he's at work, trying to get back to some degree of normalcy - it doesn't take him long to see it. It stands out all the more considering he knows how much Yuki hates showing vulnerability, and while he's not surprised he'd be driven to something like this after what happened, it still hurts to see.

So he makes some stops on the way home - thankfully it's not a late shift he has today, but one that ends in the afternoon instead, near to dinner. He comes through the door with a box in his hands that looks like it might've come from a bakery or something similar, and a much smaller box and a little bag sitting on top. As he closes the door behind and slips his shoes off, he calls into the house.]

Yuki, are you home? I brought some stuff for us. [Technically it's mostly for Yuki, but the bakery stuff includes enough dinner food for both of them.]

[gekijou]

I'd call that weird, yeah. Were they close?

[gekijou]

[Yuki flashes a fragment of a smile, a nervous grimace really, then tips his head to the side before answering.]

That's part of it, yeah. Maybe it's kind of like when we think too much about the fact that everybody's going to die someday. It's just been in my head for a while.

[gekijou]

[Oh thank god someone who's probably not going to call him on being bad at emotions.]

I... I haven't, not really. Just thinking about things that happen around here. We all just come here and leave without a trace. My partner and I figured out he wasn't even gone back home when he came here.