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

[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.]