Sunday, Week 4 - Lenka

[killtheanimals]

[He's... around. After the trial and scare of the day prior, Mitsuru is spending his time doing the usual Mitsuru things, which mainly consists of drawing or curling up in the rec room and playing video games for want of something to keep occupied with.

He's especially distracted today, however. Even as he plays Splatoon, his gaze is unfocused, and the computer starts winning handily. And yet, he doesn't even seem to particularly care.

By the time the match ends, he's just sitting there, staring moodily at the screen.]

Comments

[killtheanimals]

By turning it on one of them, you mean? We'd need to make sure it's someone with the information we actually need.

[There is no hesitation there.]

[soylentprotag]

And watch when and how we use it.

[I am going to assume they really lowered their voices at some point during this conversation. Super low. Lenka gives Mitsuru a brief side-glance, just for the way he dived right into that, but it's not exactly surprising, either. That's just the way he's operated up until now, taken up to slightly new heights.]

If anyone related to the camp finds out we have this...

[Well, it probably wouldn't end with just an RV incident and a funny home video, that's for sure.]

[killtheanimals]

It could be bad for us. [Understatement.] Be careful. Red has warned me when we spoke that if our conversations continued on certain topics, neither of us would leave the room alive.

[Which is probably why he's so certain they're being watched pretty much completely and constantly.]

[soylentprotag]

Then we'll talk some other time, when there's more information. We still haven't been able to use the Third Eye.

[Which will hopefully be possible now that Ren has his powers back, despite the circumstances under which they returned and assuming Metaverse Crew doesn't manage to mcfuckin' die, I guess. And they'll have to go over some of the forbidden topics at some point, now that Red's ollied out.

But hey, guess what. Now that the business version of this meeting is over... it's time for everything else in the week. Lenka's going to be quiet for a little bit, lowering his head to rest his chin on his hands. After a while:]

... This week. Your powers -- what was it like before you had them?

[killtheanimals]

[He nods at the first part, because that's reasonable enough. Best not to scuttle their possible advantage now.

He actually turns back to the screen, manipulating the controls slowly, not even really playing but rather fiddling with the options.]

Hm? What do you mean?

[soylentprotag]

[He's watching the fiddling with the options, which given it's Splatoon is just as oddly colorful and confusing to watch as the real thing. A moment of thought, then:]

You use them pretty naturally. But they were given to you in Vision, weren't they?

[killtheanimals]

Yes, that's correct. There's some I had an instinctual knowledge on how to use, but most of it's what I was able to learn from libraries along the way.

[soylentprotag]

So, before Vision...

[Before Vision, he'd been an ordinary child in perhaps an ordinary Japan.

Someplace with grass and leaves and many of the ordinary amenities of life on Earth, enough that he seems relatively at home with this camp despite his magical abilities. Things Mitsuru might regret: letting Lenka see just how much of his confidence is tied up in his magic. Though, in a way, that's the both of them: Lenka is a little better at not showing it, perhaps.

For the moment, he goes on pursuing the not-quite-tangent.]

Your life was different.

[killtheanimals]

Much different.

[...And that's all the elaboration he gets. We have once again returned to nonanswers.]

[soylentprotag]

[Hmm, that's a familiar pattern, isn't it? Lenka's quiet for a few moments after that, letting Mitsuru mess around with the Wii (U, because timelines are hard). He's never been all that good at prying, and doesn't usually resort to it even back home -- but there are various little things Mitsuru has said about back home that have bothered him. But especially certain things about his goddess.

Monday...]

There's a reason you went to Vision, isn't there?

[The mental state of team members is a captain's responsibility, but of course he isn't a captain here. He's just worried.]

[killtheanimals]

To get my wish, yes.

[No elaboration there, either.]

[soylentprotag]

... Does your wish have something to do with your home, Mitsuru?

[killtheanimals]

...

Did you come here to get information, or interrogate me?

[He's stopped messing with the game by now, the look of annoyance clear on his face.]

[soylentprotag]

[That doesn't sound like a denial, does it? Lenka meets his gaze head on, now that he's looked away from the screen, calm and steady.]

To give information. [a mild reminder] And to understand you better, since we're in this together.

[Working, and living, and fighting together if need be. It's a little clumsily expressed, but there's no way to make it clearer without potentially offending Mitsuru, or making his hackles rise even higher than they are already.]

[killtheanimals]

And what more needs understanding? I want aware we had to give you all the little details of our lives to work together.

[It's pointless, really. There's no real reason to get into it, other than to serve to satisfy the others' plain curiosity, and he's not about to explain himself for such a pathetic reason.]

[soylentprotag]

It's important to know, Mitsuru. What we're all living for.

[When everything here is a matter of life and death in various layers as deep as the coral they've become the soil for -- are they plants now, or are they dancer something else? -- then it becomes even more important to know and understand these things. To keep everyone going, and make sure everyone is beside you.

This is a place where you can't help but leave people behind; but just like Mitsuru is clinging to the 10-person minimum, Lenka wants to leave as little as possible. Lives, regrets. All kinds of things.]

[killtheanimals]

I live to get my wish granted. I don't see how that's any of your business, given it doesn't affect you.

[Lenka was right; it does not concern this world.]

[soylentprotag]

I'm here to make sure we all get out of here. To help us all get home.

[That's how he's lived up to this point; because his life was spared, and he's somehow expected to live on. He has. He's also slowly accepting the encroaching death advancing on them, even if he doesn't say it in so many words. Death awaits each of them here, watching them through the eyes of those still walking but no longer here.

(It watches them through the walls, sometimes, from the wood and the water and reaches out fingers from the air to close over their hearts. Slowly, slowly.)

But he's not really pushing; he's offering. It'll still be on the table after they both leave the room, and on down the road until it's not needed anymore.]

[killtheanimals]

It's not necessary for you to know just to get us back.

[He's tired. He already has plenty enough on his plate without Lenka fussing over him, too. With that in mind, he stands to leave, doing nothing to turn off the Wii U. The peppy music probably isn't the most fitting for the situation, but it's not stopping anytime soon.]

I'll leave this for you to play. Try not to break it.

[And, fetching up his staff, he'll retreat for now.]