soul_campaign | ( video ) March 13th, early morning

[ It's nearly two in the morning, and Duo looks about as exhausted as he sounds. As if his sleep schedule wasn't sporadic and meager as it could be at the moment from years of sleeping when and where he could, not apparently his mind found this the appropriate time to plague him with nightmares and replays of memories he would rather forget. Dark circles are beginning to form under his eyes and rubbing at them probably doesn't make it any better, but he's doing it anyway.

Unfortunately his first attempt at talking is interrupted by a yawn, but when he does speak it's hushed and drowsy. ]

I know it's like... ungodly o'clock in the morning right now, and I'm sorry if I'm waking anyone up but.. [ Hold on, it's apparently break time to take a drag off of the cigarette in his other hand, as he sighs the smoke out through his nose a moment later. ]

Sleep is completely evading me tonight, and I'm wondering if anyone knows a particular 'trick' to getting back to sleep after nightmares? Or just.. a general way that it's better to try and fall asleep with than nicotine and a shot of whiskey? Otherwise that's my next step, because I'm seriously gonna fall out if I keep not being able to sleep..

I mean, my sleep schedule is really messed up but I've never really had the nightmare problem until I came here... Is that like, a common side effect or just me.. ?

Anyway, sorry I'm rambling but my brain is fried. I'd really appreciate any answers...

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[ It takes him a minute to get to the door, and when he opens it he pulls a tired, sort of wilting smile. ]

Hey, Haruka..

Hey.

[She returns the smile, but there's a lot more concern than cheer in her eyes. The physical signs of exhaustion were a lot more noticeable in person than they were through a screen.

-And for the first time it hits her that her battle plan is honestly little more than 'play it by ear', and that she's more or less completely out of her depth. Oh... boy. Well... jokes were good in times like these, right?]

You know, I wish the camera was as good to me as it is to you-!

[Lame, and in a weaker voice than she'd meant to deliver it in, but... not... aw...ful...]

[ He at least gives a small laugh to that, though for the most part he's hard to get more than a little chuckle out of him in his current state. ]

Oh yeah? Did it make me look like a lesser ring of hell than in person?

[Haruka doesn't get the reference, but she's sure it doesn't mean anything good.]

Um... yeah, pretty much. […wait a minute, hold on-] -How long exactly did you say this has been going on for? [because ’sleep’s evading me tonight’ doesn't necessarily mean just tonight. ]

What, the no sleeping thing? [ He stops to look at her, smiling gently out of reflex. ] Two or three days.

...I see. [her body language is less restrained. She clenches her fists in frustration at the whole situation because it isn't okay and there's so little she can do.

But her voice remains calm. ]

Okay, tonight - I stay up and you try to sleep?

Don't worry so much, I've worked on less. [ For much more legitimate reasons than a dream, he would say, but that was beside the point. ... And he didn't want to make her cry with more war stories.

Instead he just nods. ]

Yeah, if that's what you wanna try..

I'm a girl, I'm supposed to worry. [The role of a girl could be annoying like that.] Whatever works, right? And I have a book I can read.

Oh really? [ He raises a brow with a laugh, stretching his arms over his head for a moment. ] I oughtah inform Hilde of that, though I'm sure she's clock me faster than start worrying...

[ But, back to the point. ] Alright, I guess I'll head to bed, then..

Ah? Do girls... [she trails off because how does she word this...?] um... have it differently, I guess, where you're from? Oh, hey, is Hilde another gundam pilot? [because she was increasingly getting the impression that they were the people he was truly close to, and she was obviously a good friend because you didn't bring up okay-tier friends unless you were making a really specific example.

(And because her knowledge when it came to Duo was filled with gaps. Trying to build a flesh-and-blood body with just the bones was what humans were wont to do.)]

Have... a restful sleep, okay? I'll stay in the living room.

What do you mean, have it differently? [ he almost worries about her, sometimes, with the things she assigns herself as her responsibilities and traits versus what she might really want. No, Hilde wasn't anything like Haruka, as a solider and pretty much the only girl who could smack him in to place with one hit when he was misbehaving or being a little too contrary or demanding. ]

Hil a Gundam pilot? Nah. She did pilot mobile suits for OZ once upon a time though.. But now we sort of travel together, when we can. I have a junkyard on L2 with her back home.. [ As well as copious rumors about whether he was dating her or not, of course. But he just smiles, giving a little nod. ]

Okay, I'll try to. If you need anything none of the cabinets and stuff are traps or what not, so feel free to look through. [ Mischievous smile, at that. ]

Well... when you're from Johto and Kanto, it works like this: stay back, keep safe, and worry while a boy does the fighting. [There's a pause before she adds, quite bluntly:] It's annoying. And it was frustrating, but when somebody tells you something enough times, you eventually end up just... playing along with things.

[she's not the most socially graceful at 2am, so when she moves on to the next point of conversation, it's abrupt and with a clap of her hands:] Cool! I don't know anything about your civilian life, so it's not where my mind went. [she was starting to wonder whether or not he even had one, to be honest. Dryly:] And thank you for your consideration of my possible nosiness. I'm charmed.

[ Huh? Even his expression seems to scream 'does not compute' as she explains, nose wrinkling slightly at the idea of Hilde being stuck on the colony she came from 'worrying' about him or whoever the hell she managed to run in to doing knit one, curl two. ]

That's pretty much the biggest case of societal bullshit I've heard in a long time.

[ He just smiles placidly as she mentions not knowing anything about his civilian life, and inwardly he thinks that she still doesn't really know anything. But that's kind of how he prefers it. ]

I can sleep through nosiness. Plus I don't have jack here so it isn't like you'll dig up anything, you know, provocative or whatever.

[Retorting that war outside of the medieval era was the biggest case of societal bullshit she'd ever heard is an incredibly tempting thought, but probably a stupid one to act on. So she keeps her mouth shut and shrugs.]

Mm. I'm not nosy anyway, so- or at least, I think I'm not. Well, I know I'm not the kind of nosy who goes through people's stuff! And I'm reading this book I really like again, so-! So!

[ -And then she's moving past him to go sit on the sofa. Acting flustered and awkward was usually a pretty good way to derail things. She can't make herself blush but she can act like she thinks she's blushing, and that's almost as good.]

[ That might've opened a can of worms Haruka wasn't prepared to handle, so it's probably best she kept that thought to herself. ]

It's not my stuff, that's why I don't really care..! [ A slight laugh, but it soon trails off and shows that it's more... for her than the fact he was actually laughing. ]

Alright, 'm gonna go try and rest some. I guess I can still say goodnight, huh?

[It'd be hypocritical of her if she shot him a 'You don't need to do that' look, right? Better to look at the ground instead.]

Yeah. I'll stop keeping you up now, so goodnight. [For a moment, she hesitates - only to suddenly raise her head and look him directly in the eye again before blurting out earnestly-]

I truly hope you sleep well.

[...That sounded weird, darn it.]

( video ) March 13th, early morning

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