video post † 005 † 10-14-10

[slantedcross]

[Youji's a little careless right now. He only meant to check the contacts list for the tenth time, but his motor skills have been compromised by a few drinks. Video opens on a profile shot and tilted a bit to the side; he's thrown his arm across the top of the couch with the device still in his hand.

[The repeated checking was necessary because Youji's eyes have deceived him before. And often. Not that he really expects to have been deceived, because he followed up his initial discovery with a very thorough walk around Somni and Espoir. The Dreamberry can't be tricked, and he doesn't think she would have tried, but the habits of a lifetime can be difficult to break, and his include paranoia, suspicion, and the inability to believe in things without proof.

[Youji sighs a bit, looking tired. Not sleepy, but like he's really had enough of this. You would think it'd get easier, this losing people thing, especially when it comes to girlfriends and/or potential candidates for the same. Names just never stop getting added to the list--Asuka, Maki, Tiffone, Kimika, Schell--and it's well beyond his ability to get to know a woman without getting attached, without loving her at least a tiny bit. Part of him even still has a soft spot for Mayumi Tsujii, much as he hates himself for it. Schell was right; he never was cut out for Weiss.

[Even so, he can find it in himself to be grateful, even thankful, that this is the way it happened. A quiet disappearance. A return home, to where she rightfully belongs, and not an early death. There was no gunshot, no drug overdose, no explosion; no last look, no final kiss, no dying declaration of love.

[He has nothing but fond memories, and no betrayal, no failure to taint that. She was kind, she was pleasant, she cared and had been willing to put up with him. When his worst regret is that he hadn't quite managed to actually get her on an actual date, Youji's willing to count that as a positive experience.

[All the same. He turns to look across at the Dreamberry.]

...when did Good morning, I suppose.

[Not really. It's traditional to make an announcement, isn't it, even when you're fairly certain that everyone who would have looked already has... Ran did so for Omi, and Aya-chan for Sena.]

Best I can tell, Iris isn't in Somarium any longer.

[It never gets any easier.]

I suppose if someone feels like commiserating, this is the venue.

[He can't think of a good closing line for that, so the video simply snaps off.]

[note: Replies will probably be later tonight when I get off work.]

Comments

[white-polaris.livejournal.com]

Oh Youji...

ffft, you're fast so I'm gonna go ahead and say I lied.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

Am I that obvious, really?

\o/

[white-polaris.livejournal.com]

I know that face well.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

Well, you say.

From the mirror or from someone else?

[white-polaris.livejournal.com]

A long combination of the two. Will you be alright, Youji? Would you like some company?

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

[Alcohol means he's thinking a bit more slowly than normal--usual impulse is to say yes, yes, he would, but the intelligent half of his brain realizes that he simply isn't up to performance standard, between the inebriation and the stirring of Issues. So he says:]

That'd be lovely.

[The intelligent half of his brain has never had much sway. He doesn't answer the other question because it's been a good long while since he was all right, but that really has nothing to do with Iris. He laughs a bit, quietly.]

Doesn't ever--people aren't meant to get used to this, are they? But things keep trying to force them to.

[white-polaris.livejournal.com]

Mnn, no, I imagine we aren't. But we cannot be saddened Youji. Simply because they have left does not mean they are gone. She may one day return to the dream and if she does not, she is not gone from you heart. How deeply it affects you should tell you how greatly she has been engraved upon your memories.

[madcuriosity.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry Yo-gee.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

[he will force himself to be cheerful for Alice if it kills him.]

Now what could you have done worth apologizing for?

[madcuriosity.livejournal.com]

Just... you seem so sad about Miss Iris being gone.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

That you'd bother to check up on me makes me feel better, though.

Really, it ought to be that I thank you, not that you apologize.

[madcuriosity.livejournal.com]

Of course I would see if you were alright.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

And just the very act helps bring that closer.

[Sort of.]

[scientize.livejournal.com]

I assume she was a close friend of yours, right?

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

Something of that nature.

[scientize.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that. It's never easy, is it?

If there's anything I can do, please let me know. I'll save a bottle of wine with your name on it.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

Not really.

[Conclusion jump: she's not unfamiliar with this, either. Possibly from before Somarium, and this softens him up.]

I'd hate to put you through the trouble.

[scientize.livejournal.com]

[It's a simple enough conclusion to make.]

It's never any trouble when it comes to handsome men.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

That sounds like something I'd say to you.

Genders reversed, of course.

Action!

[insorrow.livejournal.com]

[Well.

[This, Youji, is what we call bad timing. The worst. Ken has no idea what time of day it is, has no idea how long he's been out for this time. He just knows there are voices in the living room and he is absolutely starving, and that the only way he can deal with the latter is by working out what the Hell is going on with the former. Okay, so he could just walk on through and raid the fridge, but he knows damn well that's Youji's voice and he knows damn well he's unhappy and... and okay, so he's just plain curious. Is that a crime?

[So here he is. Large as life and no more than half-awake, dressed in pajamas and rubbing at one eye, clutching at the Dreamberry like it was the young-adult version of a one-eyed, much-repaired teddy bear and who knows, maybe it is. If he only managed to find one of his slippers on his way out the bedroom that's just too bad and he'll cope.]

Huh? Youji? What's going on?

CUT.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

[A very heavy head lifts up to focus on Ken, and--black coffee. Wonderful idea. Because he's too out of sorts to deal with a Ken who has questions and lacks a clue.

[He does make room on the couch, albeit sluggishly. Waking up from a sleep coma is such a pain in the neck--to say nothing of the rest of the body.]

Nothing out of the ordinary. Go back to sleep.

[Because a) that's not a lie, disappearances are ordinary here. And b) it will annoy and distract.]

Whatever you say, Kudou. Now budge over.

[insorrow.livejournal.com]

[Nothing out the ordinary? Well, that covers a lot of sins - a Hell of an awful lot. He's still in Somarium, right? Right, this is his apartment in Somni and this thing in his hand is a Dreamberry and that's Youji and his weird haircut and somewhere out there he thinks he's got a girlfriend--

[Probably shouldn't mention that last bit. He probably owes Aya a phone call.]

That ain't exactly reassuring.

[Well, Youji, Ken would be the first person to agree with you there. He really doesn't want to be awake right now, but he's had enough sleep to last him for weeks.

[He wanders over to the couch, kicking off the slipper on the way because seriously just what is the point of that, and collapses down onto it, slumping back against the cushions. Seriously, he is starving. When the Hell did he last eat? He has a horrible feeling he was in a damn sleep coma, again - he hasn't checked the date yet, but the sluggisnness and the cramps, the strange lightheaded feeling and the desire to eat half the contents of the refrigerator are dead giveaways even without checking the calendar. Great, how long has he lost this time?]

I'll pass, thanks. What day is it anyway?

He says stop making fun of his haircut in your head, Ken. :O

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

[Youji raises a glass to the first statement. Welcome to real life, Ken, this is how it tends to go.

For the second, he snags his Dreamberry again and checks.]

Thursday or thereabouts. I haven't been up twenty-four hours, myself.

Is that a little more reassuring for you?

Only if Youji stops making fun of everything else. Out loud. So, no.

[insorrow.livejournal.com]

[Thanks, he knows that. Or thinks he does.

[Ken sighs, letting his head drop back against the couch cushions, hair falling from his eyes and gaze fixed, for a moment, on an unremarkable bit of the ceiling. What sucks the most about sleep comas is the bit where, once you've finally surfaced, all you really want to do is go back to sleep. What the Hell, body?]

You too, huh?

[Have a frown, Youji, even if he's frowning at the ceiling as much as he is at you. Ken's not exasperated so much as he is just plain bewildered. All he's really trying to do is understand and maybe there's nothing to understand - correlation is not causation after all, though Ken wouldn't necessarily have phrased it quite as neatly as all that - but he's trying all the same. He's only human, he sees patterns where perhaps there aren't any and who cares that nobody ever told him reality had to make sense?]

What the Hell's the deal here? Every time you go, I go...

[He lifts his head again, looks right at Youji.]

Thursday the what?

It'd be OOC for Youji to stop ;_; I can't do thaaaat.

[slantedcross.livejournal.com]

[Checks again. Memory retention not strong at present.]

Fourteenth. Something like.

[And he laughs, quietly. Not really happily, but he's trying to be himself.]

You know how dull life is without me, clearly.