soul_campaign | thirteenth dazzle | July 29, after dark

[Takuto doesn't look sad for this appearance on the network, but he doesn't look characteristically happy, either. He just looks... tired. Maybe it's just that the only light is the glow from the communicator's screen itself, but he looks far more tired than a seventeen year old boy obsessed with singing out his youth and being a source of metaphorical radiance has a right to look.

He sighs, turning the video feed away from himself, into what appears to be total blackness.]

...Some of them are missing. [The darkness of the image focuses in and out of a blurry gray before slowly resolving into tiny pinpricks of light. Stars. There's the sound of a heavy sigh once again.]

I know it's not a thing that's particular to this city or this world or the situation we're all in. People can leave for reasons much worse than a magical device's whim. But all this leaving is exhausting me. People coming and going and coming and going.

[He pauses, recollecting his thoughts as the images blurs, refocuses. The stars twinkle, distantly, silently.]

I think life is a string of people coming and going no matter who or where you are, but… but here, this… I’m getting tired of it.

BREW sent Yuugi away.

[text | private to Yako]

I'm on my roof and I would like some company.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I thought so.

How old are you?

[For once, Sai is the one being suspicious of someone else. He finds Takuto actually asking him a question that isn't "why are you still here?" really unsettling and it shows in his expression and in his voice.]

Why does it matter?

Edited 2013-12-22 06:00 (UTC)

Because you said people's lives are short. I want to know what you're comparing it to.

Weren't you listening to Katsuragi Yako? I'm a murderer. I don't need to compare it. I know that people die easily and they can be replaced just as easily.

[He was sure that this was true for everyone he met. It was all a matter of time, that's all.]

And if you really wanted to know so badly, this body is seventeen.

Then we're the same age. [Which is strange, and a little disturbing.]

People die easily, but they aren't replaceable. If you think they are, then you're just not paying attention.

So what if we are? [He definitely sounds more than a little annoyed at this point.]

Maybe you're just not looking hard enough.

Edited 2013-12-24 05:18 (UTC)

I'm certain you can't see the things I see.

[And there is actual, honest pity in his voice. It's not condescending in any way, it's simply disappointed for your sake.]

Hmph. Like I'd want to see something like that.

[It doesn't have to be condescending. If it was condescending, maybe it wouldn't bother him as much. Honest feelings were difficult for him. He'd never been good at dealing with them because they caught him off guard and not in a way that he could even enjoy.

More and more, he's starting to think that maybe this conversation had been a mistake on his part to begin with.]

You wouldn't know if you would want to or not.

[The stars are actually pretty bright tonight. It's nice. For Takuto, at least.]

I do so.

[He glares at the communicator, not caring that Takuto probably isn't even looking.]

[Takuto is so not even looking. He is quietly hoping that everyone else finds the stars as soothing as he does.]

Then what are you looking at?

[What do you see?]

A shot of the sky.

[Takuto is silent for a moment. And then there's a noise that sounds surprisingly like a quiet laugh.]

And that's all?

If you were actually pointing your communicator at something interesting, then I'd be able to see more.

[That laugh is making Sai want to sulk and to be intentionally difficult. More than usual, anyway.]

Here. [He adjusts the communicator very slightly, and actually, the view seems to be even worse. The stars are fainter and fuzzier and the bluish gray of the sky is much darker.]

Is that better? [There's something like teasing in his voice, but it's not the usual kind Takuto plays with. Much like the view from the communicator, there's something darker about his tone.]

Or do you find that blackness isn't as interesting as you thought?

[Sai's tone, in contrast, regains some of that cheerfulness. But it isn't sunny or cutesy in any way. It's bright, but in the way that light hitting a sharp edge is.]

Or maybe, you're just a terrible cameraman.

I might be.

[The view shifts again, back to bright stars... though the communicator really isn't equipped for videoing the stars and they appear as fuzzy dots that grow large and then dim as the camera tries to focus.]

Or maybe I'm not, and you just have poor vision.

Then maybe I need something better? Ah, doesn't Yako have pretty good vision?

[He laughs then, a short, mocking sort of sound because it felt like this conversation was spiraling out of his control and he hated it.]

Hey, would you still love her as much if she were blind? Whaddya think? Want to try it and see?

Of course I would still love her. [Wow, he's not even fazed by this?] She can see better than I can even when her eyes are closed.

Which is what makes her such an eyesore.

You can have your opinions. I think she's lovely just as she is.

Well, it takes all kinds, doesn't it? It must be nice for her to finally find someone that treats her like a person.

[Which Sai knows is probably pushing it a bit far......and also not true. For one, he's sure that even though Neuro always treated her like a thing, he never saw her as anything but a person.]

I don't get why you say things that make it obvious you don't know what you're talking about.

[He knows Sai is probably referring to Neuro, and also that Neuro had a huge influence on Yako... but it's not like Neuro is the only person Yako knew. She had her mother, and some friends, and people all over the country admired her. This much he knows.

Takuto sighs, watching the stars. Sai's probably just trying to get a last reaction out of him, but he's much too tired to play those games.]

Like you know a lot. You're just someone she met here. When she leaves and you leave, you probably won't even remember each other.

You say that like coming from the same world automatically means you understand her.

[Though it does hit a sour note with him. BREW could just send him home tomorrow, and he'd never remember even meeting her. Or she could be sent home just like most of his other friends....]

thirteenth dazzle | July 29, after dark | video

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