soul_campaign | [april 28th // video]

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[april 28th // video]

[kaworu seems happy today -- more so than normal, and a great distance from his melancholy the last time he'd posted to the network.]

What sort of sweets does everyone here like? Or types of cookies? I have a friend who is teaching me how to cook, but I do not have much experience with what others enjoy most...

[he mostly wants yako and mello's answers, but being that specific would ruin the surprise so it's simpler to leave things vague for now.]

[filtered to takuto]

You can come over whenever you want now, if you would still like.

[filtered to shinji]

[his tone and expression soften and he gives the little mirror a gentle smile, somehow different from the sort he shows everyone else. as much as he loved all his friends here, he hadn't really considered the difference until he could once more see shinji.]

Are you ready?

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Mm. [he answers somewhat absentmindedly, distracted. had shinji gotten help to change or just fallen down the stairs or something? now probably wasn't the time to pursue that though, not while he was having an actual conversation with someone other than him.]

We should sit. [it strikes him a little belatedly that it's probably rude to leave a guest standing around -- two guests, technically, but shinji didn't really feel like a guest in his home.]

[Takuto nods at Kaworu's suggestion, starting to make his way over to the couch.]

Sometimes it feels like a very long time, but sometimes it feels like I've just arrived or maybe more like I have to start all over. [He shrugs as he sits, and then takes a sip of tea.]

[Following suit, Shinji takes a seat on the couch.]

That makes sense... [He was no stranger to feelings like that, after all.]

[he takes the seat right next to shinji, perhaps a little closer than what politeness dictates but he could hardly bring himself to care about that sort of thing right now.]

Why would you feel like you have to begin again?

[He notices that Kaworu is practically sitting on top of Shinji, and then gives his friend a sharp look at the question. He hadn't expected Kaworu to be asking a question like that, but then again, given Kaworu's history of question-asking, he probably should have.

But he was feeling unusually stubborn and less than inclined to be helpful to Kaworu if he was going to crawl all over Shinji like that.]

Things happen.

[Another sip of tea. He shifts his gaze to Shinji, all smiles.]

So, Shinji, are you from Japan?

[It's almost entirely due to the fact that there's another person in their company that Shinji takes note of just how close Kaworu's gotten, but he's hesitant to even call him out on it. If it's Kaworu, he really doesn't mind, though it does cause him to blush a bit.]

Ah, yes. I was last in Tokyo-3. [He was a little hesitant to give the name of the city - he wasn't sure if Takuto would even be familiar with it, given the possibilities of what kind of world the other could be from.]

[he noticed that brush off, takuto, and he frowns in confusion. but he's not about to ruin a decent conversation for shinji.]

Tokyo-3 does not exist in this world. [he did do some research towards the beginning of his time here.] As the original city was never destroyed, replacements were not necessary. But the location corresponds with a pair of towns that existed before Second Impact, within Hakone in the Kanagawa prefecture.

Well, I guess you're from a world used to war, then. [So maybe adjusting to Death City isn't so difficult.]

I'm from the south, in Japan. Kyushu, actually, is where I grew up, but I was at a school off the mainland right before I came here.

[It's hard to ignore Shinji's light blush and the whole experience of sitting and calmly drinking tea and making smalltalk is starting to get to him. He's going to be staring at his tea instead of at the two of them.]

Y-yeah... [More used to it than he'd like to be, really. He can't say he isn't a little jealous at the idea of living in a world that hadn't experienced any Impacts.]

I've never been that far South, before. [He was more than happy to latch on to a topic that didn't involve any sort of war, but the fact that Takuto seemed to be... a little uneasy, isn't lost on Shinji. He's just not sure if he should really be bringing it up, considering how unfamiliar he still is with the other.]

[aaaaand now you're both acting all uncomfortable. the mention of war, maybe? but he can't really do much about that beyond continue the conversation and subtly lay a hand on shinji's shoulder -- he'd do the same for takuto, but he can't read that far and there's a cup of tea in his other hand anyway.]

I have never visited anywhere in Japan outside of Tokyo-3. But I suppose it would be hotter, further down south like that?

[Takuto carefully ignores the physical contact between the other two. He should be happy for Kaworu (and for Shinji), but it's harder than usual for him to feel that kind of empathy. It's an effort. He really should be happy for Kaworu, at least, to have a friend from home.]

It's more tropical, yeah. I've never been to Tokyo before, though, so I can't really compare.

[Kaworu's touch is enough to pull him out of some of his more distressing thoughts of home, and bring him fully back to the conversation at hand for the time being.]

That sounds really nice. ... I'm not sure how similar Tokyo-3 would be to the Tokyo from your world, though. [That much was probably for the better.]

Ours is actually most likely hotter, now that I think about it. At least overall. The world had seasons before Second Impact, but you have only ever experienced Japan in its endless summer, whereas this and assumedly other worlds' version of it go through colder periods.

[and he can remember watching over the world when it was in that state, even if he didn't yet have a body to experience it directly with.]

[Takuto frowned.] Endless summer? Sounds like your world definitely had its pros and cons.

There isn't a huge different in seasons in the south, though, except for when it's the rainy season. I never got to see any snow until I came here.

Yes, but it wasn't so much of a tropical climate as it was just... hot. [He had grown up with it, and as such was used to it that it didn't really strike him as much of a pro or a con, simply a fact. Though he would be pretty hard pressed to come up with anything particularly good about his world, not that he's inclined to say as much.]

I've... never actually gotten to see snow, either. [He couldn't deny that the thought of possibly getting the chance to was intriguing, even if he'd have to wait quite a while to do so at this point.]

Neither have I. The weather was always mild in Germany and I never was able to travel far.

[it's a decent point in common though, so he attempts a smile, giving shinji's shoulder a slight squeeze.]

I do not know if Shibusen would allow use of their travel mirrors for anything but missions, but if the chance ever arose, we could go somewhere together.

Well, even though this is a desert, it still snowed a bit last winter. If BREW keeps you around for eight or nine more months, then you'll definitely get the chance.

[He's not sure if that 'together' of Kaworu's includes him. And he's certainly not going to ask. He's getting the idea that he wouldn't even want to go play in the snow with the two of them, even though it also sounds stupidly tempting, too.]

But your best bet is probably just going on a mission. There's usually at least one or two missions in mountainous areas where you're likely to run into some snow.

[A mild look of surprise crosses Shinji's expression when Kaworu mentions Germany. He hadn't known that Kaworu had been living there previously, but reminded himself that there was still an awful lot about his friend that he didn't know. He doesn't comment on it now, but reminds himself to mention it later.

The 'travel mirrors', however...]

Shibusen send people on missions through... mirrors?

[of course that includes you takuto. you're an idiot.]

Mm. I do not understand it very well, but I suppose it is magic of some sort. The mirrors more or less act as a teleportation device -- like the smaller communicator mirrors. But instead of transmitting images and information, the larger ones work with actual mass.

[Takuto nods. He's almost forgotten that traveling through mirrors seems strange to people who aren't used to Death City.]

It makes getting around pretty convenient.

[He sort of wants to know more about how exactly that works, but he has the feeling that the mechanics of it aren't exactly common knowledge.]

That does sound really handy. [And probably a little strange to use.]

[he nods almost absentmindedly, then suddenly frowns.]

Ah... Actually, I have seen snow, that that I think about it. One of the missions to destroy the madness emitters was on a snowy mountain. I went with Yako.

[it's a little unsettling to think he had forgotten, even if just for a minute or so. the human mind is unreliable to an unnerving degree. and at the thought of yako, after the conversation they'd just had while he was waiting for these two, his frown only deepens.]

[So apparently not only does Kaworu fawn over Shinji, but he also has to bring up Yako, and bring up the fact that he's not only successfully resonated with her, but took her on a mission. Where is the fairness in all of this???]

With Yako, huh.

[If her sounds a little less than enthusiastic on his lips, it's probably because things are still kind of awkward between them. Since, you know, that serial killer was in her bed and then he fake-but-kind-of-actually-kidnapped Takuto.]

[The downward shift in the mood between the two of them isn't lost on Shinji, and he finds himself at something of a loss for what to say for a moment or two.]

She's the one who cooked for you when you were sick, right?

[oh shinji, you know just what to say when takuto is already getting jealous.]

Mm. She and Takuto are dating.

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