you've been acting awful tough lately

[reassures]

Date & Time: The 8th, from 12pm - 3pm
Location: Outside town
Characters: Nill and YOU
Summary: Nill promised to meet an anonymous person on the network, and has decided to send smoke signals with cigarettes to find them. Also action spam.
Warnings: None! Will be updated if needed.

[It's a strange day that finds Nill smoking during daylight hours, but one way or another she's found herself doing exactly that. Small promises made and easy modes of identification, she supposes - she'll end up going through half a pack by the end of this, but it's worth it if she can actually manage to help the person she promised to help.

Even so, it's not difficult to tell that it's a strange sight, a blond girl bundled up, sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree beside one of the better-known ways to town, just... smoking. She doesn't appear to be going anywhere, apparently comfortable where she is, though she smiles at anyone that spares her a glance while they're on their way. She'll be there for most of the early afternoon, from noon to about three, and will welcome anyone that feels like sitting with her.

Hopefully it won't decide to snow while she's sitting there. It's cold enough out as it is, and a new layer isn't going to make her stay terribly pleasant.]

((ooc: Telepathy permissions!))

Comments

[lazyinlove]

I'm 16. But I'll be 17 in ten days.

[That's a second chance, by the way, Nill. Take it.]

[juneshero]

Right? Eheh. [he looks really happy at that. Because YEAH IT SOUNDS COOL the part of him that never got past being manga fan is super stoked]

Though I guess we're all supposed to be a team here. Working together and everything... I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.

[reassures]

[She seems confused for a fraction of a second, but it passes quickly. Her expression immediately brightens, and she stands, quickly typing again.]

That's great! I could try to make you something, if you'd like.

I'm 20 now, but my birthday isn't until August.

[lazyinlove]

That's what you said before.

[Nill's inability to keep her lies straight notwithstanding, there's something important to be considered here.]

...Something like what? A cake? Or a sandwich?

[Or food of any sort really.]

[reassures]

[It is, isn't it. Sometimes you just get a little flustered and repeat stuff, which is.... rarer when you're typing out all your responses, but these things happen.]

I could make you a cake and a sandwich if you want. Is there anything you really like?

[lazyinlove]

Both?

[His mouth is watering just thinking about it. Oh, man. What he wouldn't give for a pizza or a sandwich or anything that he used to take for granted. Even a bowl of cereal to fall asleep in in the morning would be amazing. It's tough to even think of what his favorites used to be, but he'll have to try. Is spaghetti something you can put on a sandwich? Maybe he'd better keep it simple.]

Chocolate. I-what is there? Do they have elk burgers or something? Roast something or other? Just no rabbit, right?

[reassures]

[Yosuke's enthusiasm for silly things like this is nothing new to Nill. She just keeps smiling, because compared to the news she got from Seras months ago when she arrived, this is... great. Wonderful. Amazing. It's the first time she's ever known that someone she loves could exist somewhere in some form and maybe have a happy future.]

Teams are a little harder to make here, but it's not impossible.

Do you have many friends here?

[reassures]

[It might be hard. She doesn't have everything she needs, but at the very least, she could find a bakery in town for the cake. And she could definitely manage a sandwich. ...Finding something other than rabbit might be a little difficult, but probably not impossible.]

I'll see what I can do, but I think I can avoid rabbit. And I'll remember chocolate. Your birthday is on the 18th?

[lazyinlove]

[That's more than good enough for him. Stan is about to answer when he hears a familiar sound. The farmer's enormous feet, no doubt about to catch him slacking off instead of earning his hay. So he quickly hugs Nill, dreaming happily of birthday dinner, and dives around the corner of the next building over.

Yep, it's the 18th. But he doesn't care what day she delivers on anyway.]

[juneshero]

[he kind of flutters about at the friends thing because on the one hand, he's never been particularly good at making them but on the other...]

I've got a couple. It probably looks really stupid to some other people but... [he looks a little sheepish] I think I'm getting better at it. And the people here are pretty cool once you get talking. [Kamen Riders omg]

What about you?

[reassures]

[Oh. She certainly wasn't expecting that. The hug catches her so off guard that she doesn't have the time to do more than just wave at him as he leaves.

But Nill will definitely remember the date.]

[reassures]

[She kind of knows, which is why she asked. Any substantial relationships seem to be hard for a kid like Yosuke, so even if she doesn't talk to him much again after this... she wants to make sure he's okay. Nill would sleep a lot better a t night knowing he had people to rely on.]

It's not stupid at all.

I don't have many friends. The ones that I do have are very good people though, even if they don't think so. I'm very glad to have met them.

[duplicitoussight]

[If he thinks about the idea of world-traveling for too long, it becomes something uncomfortable. It's not the concept of it--more impossible things have happened. Rather, it's the method of it that unsettles him so.]

That long? [A beat.] That's a lonely way to move forward.

[reassures]

It's very lonely at times.

[A soft smile spreads across her face, but it's a little sad, too. She takes one more, small drag from her cigarette, and then lets it drop to the ground, where she pushes it into the snow with her boot. She exhales and waves the smoke away again, before lacing her fingers together on her lap.]

...When it first began, I didn't know I was in a world that wasn't my own. They did something to our heads-- A chip, I think. We forgot everything that wasn't there. But for awhile I was happy. I lived with three boys, and it was wonderful.

[She looks up at Kano, and the smile is still in place, but it feels... off. This whole thing feels strange.]

That world fell apart, and we escaped. We remembered our lives.

After a little while longer, they all died-- and none of them came back.

[She lifts a hand, wiping away a tear that threatens to spill before it has the chance.]

Yosuke disappeared, but he came back like he promised he would. He remembered me in his own world, even if it was only dreams. So I need to keep my promise, too.

[retraced]

[It's strange how familiar her touch is. It's something that his soul remembers even though his body doesn't recognize it. A form of kindness that he'd once been shown by someone; someone who had cared for him maybe as just as he'd cared for them. It tightens around his heart and his eyes go wet, though he blinks away any tears lest they freeze his eyes shut first.]

How...h-how do you know that?

[The hand holding the cigarette shakes.]

[duplicitoussight]

[A life like that... he isn't sure if he can imagine it. Traveling between worlds, whether or not memories would follow--all that sort of stuff was painful to think about. He'd rather not dwell on it if he could help it while they were here, to leave it ill-defined and distant.

But what he does understand is the promise. And in that instant of understanding, his thoughts wander back to a hazy day blurred by tears.

Promise me--

Something buried deep down hurts at that. Even if it's a promise that can't be kept, abandoning it would be a cowardly thing to do.]

He's pretty lucky to have a girl like you, then! [He's partially teasing her. But, in all honesty, whoever this Yosuke was, he was fortunate to have a friend who would travel this far to meet him again. He hoped that the guy would hold tightly onto her when they met again and remember that.

(don't let him be a liar)]

Well, well... when the two of you meet again, you'll have a lot to tell him, won't you?

[juneshero]

[he smiles at her reassurance, the earlier awkwardness nearly gone]

... Eheh. That seems to be better. To have a few good friends rather than a whole bunch of, uh... acquaintances.

I know I'd say the same thing about my friends. The 'glad to have met them' bit, I mean. [he grins] It feels good, right?

[reassures]

[It's the first time that anyone who she used to know, in a different time or a different world, has shown anything like recognition towards Nill. It makes her heart ache in a way that it hasn't for awhile, like cracks splintering across the surface of stone. A soft smile spreads across her face.]

I know Oz-- and I know you. That's all.

[It almost feels like hope.]

[reassures]

[Even Nill doesn't like to dwell on it. It's not a pleasant way to live, but with her life thus far, it's the only way to live. Anything else is...

There are no words. If Nill was offered the chance to go back to her own world, she couldn't take it because it might mean forgetting everything, and the idea of what was more than she could bare.

Kano's a sweet kid, and the partial teasing makes her giggle, even if it's only a little. Despite the implications, she nods, because well... it's true, really, even if Nill couldn't define what exactly they were supposed to be. She still loved him.]

There will be so much to tell him. When I tell him I got to be an adviser to a group, he'll think I'm a comic book hero.

I'll tell him about all of you.

[That's probably the thing that hurts the most right now, honestly. The world she's trying to get back to isn't a good place, and she couldn't stand to try to bring anyone else there with her. When she got to see Yosuke again, she'd say goodbye to... everyone. Kano, Kido, Kaneis, Nico, Jesse and Lisbeth, Stan... Lily and Seras, too. It was the only thing she didn't want.]

...I've never told anyone that.

[There was only one person still alive that was fully aware of it, too.

But she doesn't feel too oddly about it, having told Kano. And Nill realizes, then, that that's part of why she likes him as much as she does.

It's because she's a liar too.]

[retraced]

[It's an honest surprise to him how deeply her words touch him. They're kind - and more than that, they're true. Just like Break had told him, wherever Oz goes, he'll find him. No matter where they end up, there will always be that thread of hope that connects them.

He wipes his eyes with the back of his wrist and takes another drag off of his cigarette, keeping his gaze back down on the ground.]

Thank you. [The first unwavering thing he's said all afternoon.]

[duplicitoussight]

[He lets out a small laugh in response.] Don't worry.

[Kano tilts his head a little, pressing a finger to his mouth.]

... I won't tell anyone else. It'll be a secret, just between the two of us.

[He hopes that they'll all remember when they go back. It's an unreasonable demand, maybe, but it's all he can cling to.]

[reassures]

It feels wonderful.

[The agreement is fast and easy, because there are few things in the world that were truer for Nill than that. Life hadn't been easy, but if she had to choose between that and never having met the people she cared about... the friends definitely win out.]

Your friends at home-- do they treat you well?

[reassures]

[She hasn't seen him do that before, but she gets the feeling it's at least a little normal for him. Something he might be used to doing, even if maybe he hasn't done it as much here.

Nill seems no less grateful for it.]

Thank you for keeping my secret.

[She means it. In a way, Kano officially knows more about her than her not-quite-boyfriend does.]

[copia]

[ Kaede is trying to get to know their new surroundings, so she is doing some exploring while staying in visible sight of buildings. Push come to shove, a shot into the sky for an aerial view will help with figuring out where to go next.

She closes up her thermos of tea as she spots smoke signals, deciding to be curious and wander over from the air. She comes lower and jumps off her ice path once she sees who it is, lifting a hand in greeting. ]

Hi!

[reassures]

You're welcome.

[For a moment Nill, very desperately, wants to ask if he knows her. If he remembers anything, because for a moment - a brief little instant - it seemed like he did, and she missed the Gilbert she had known so very much.

If he didn't though, it would just make this unpleasant, and he didn't need that right now. So instead She just takes another drag off her own cigarette, and continues to smile.

Nill was happy where she lived right now. It was loud and full of people, and she'd missed that more than she'd realized until she was around it again. But despite that, sitting here in the freezing cold, she feels more at home than she has in months.

It's enough for her.]