ryuji | reverie inbox

hey philosophical question
if you combined a roomba and a cat would you get a simba
also less philosophical question
without gettin into specifics for reasons i explained earlier
what decade are you in back home

It's a lovely day we're having, isn't it?

[Switch your communicator off now, or perish.]

[Akira is already there when Ryuji opens the door to the unclaimed room.

He's sitting on the arm of the couch, his legs stretched out long and straight in front of him, crossed at the ankles. He's shoving the last bite of what appeared to be an anpan into his mouth, though he wouldn't really call it that; he'd tried to get the food synthesizer to generate a few of the treats, feeling homesick, but they weren't quite right. The consistency of the bun had been a little off and the filling had been the wrong color and didn't taste quite right. But oh well, you take what you get.]

So, [he says through a mouthful of food, pushing himself up off of the arm of the couch and brushing his hands together to clear away the crumbs. He swallows, looking up to set Ryuji in a wide, toothy grin, his hands shoved into his pockets, nonchalant.] How d'you want to get your ass kicked? Your pick.

[He's so generous.]

Ryuji-kun, I need to have a private conversation with you. About important matters.

[One day, this pool was going to be the ultimate hangout spot. It just needed some... tender love and care to get it up to standards before it could be used to soothe the weary space traveler's soul (and, thanks, teen hormones, to show off the goods in a space bathing suit). He's tried to scoop the film off the top whenever he comes, little by little, but it seems like whatever progress was made came back with vengeance.

And for whatever reason, on this particular solar cycle, Dave and Ryuji are near the fitness center- the blond (of the punk variety) talking about how nice this place would look if it were fixed up a little bit. He'll pull some facts out of his ass about muscle mass that it'll make it look like he knew what he was talking about all along and not having heard it or asked about it from someone more seasoned to deal with space travel.

Ryuji's laughing at something, scratching the back of his head in his usually somewhat awkward way, when the glint of something catches his eye, floating in the water. Whatever he's saying, or whatever he's doing to try and impress Dave with his excessive amount of pure, unadulterated Ryuji-isms, comes to a complete halt.

That's... that's his mask?

Holy shit, that's his mask!]

No... freakin' way.

[He approaches the edge of the pool. He's jumped in before with Akira (at least, he'll say he jumped in and not pulled in, so there's no reason to think that he shouldn't, and it's almost like now that his attention is pulled in that direction, he's not letting go of it for a second.]

You see that right?

[Zip, the top quarter of his jumpsuit starts to come undone. He didn't really manage to get the discoloration from the last time that he went in there off, so he's a little more cautious.]

That's mine, from home. I'm goin' in.

[God

No

Why]

Edited 2018-05-23 18:32 (UTC)

Sakamoto?

I said something last week about starting a conversation off on the right foot.
So to be certain it does so, I am going to be absolutely, incontestably, crystal clear.
I am not interested in a fight, or an argument, or a heart-to-heart.
I only want to ascertain an answer to a question I have:

Are you alive.

Sakamoto-san.
You're the type who plays video games, right?

[ Never mind that this text comes in at 04:00. Just answer him before he changes his mind. ]

Edited 2018-06-04 19:50 (UTC)

[It's late o'clock on the station -- even later than Hajime meant to, honestly, because he spent a while just staring down at his communicator, waffling as to whether or not he should even bother anyone.

Eventually, though, a text comes through to Ryuji's communicator.]

hey. you awake?

[And he regrets it as soon as he sends it. He doesn't want to wake Ryuji up if he's asleep? That's a dick move. Just because HE can't sleep doesn't mean he wants anyone else to suffer.]

hey

did you see that post from that AI earlier

Please tell me you're the one who tied me up with the caution tape

Edited 2018-06-16 07:19 (UTC)

[yeah he doesn't even bother texting first, because shitty space spirit Santa stopped by and dropped off two things Dave can actually make use of.]

[the first is the getup he immediately changed into, because thank god, he's not stuck in the jumpsuit 24/7 anymore. it is minus the iShades, though, because he clearly doesn't deserve anything too useful.]

[the other thing he'll get to later. for now, he's just gonna be knocking on the door. you home, Ryuji?]

[picture from the VR room of Lisa half-lying on and licking Wanyamon.

Wanyamon looks overwhelmed by mixed feelings]

hey

how are you feeling? did the bees finally leave you alone?

[Not the actual question he's texting to ask about, but probably the more important/polite one.]

[ Improvements 1) sleep, 2) nonavoidance, 3) ??? ]

Feel like I've got nerve endings to the tips of my hair. It's freaking weird.

I'm organizing a Persona meeting are you interested?

hey remember that two hundred yen you were supposed to charge me

well i bought mochi with it instead

do you like sakuramochi?

[ Not answering, huh?

He's not mad he's getting the silent treatment - couldn't be after his initial method of handling No Sleep Till Brooklyn.

There's still a few moments of silence over the line, air moving over the comm's tiny receiver like someone's thought better of something they were going to say and then released the breath. Then again, maybe short and sweet is the best a speedboi could ask for. ]

Come home.

Edited (redundant sentence needs proofreading before postage) 2018-08-11 20:42 (UTC)

[he'd promised he'd wait — so, that's what he's been doing.]

[as hard as it's actually been to do that, standing around in silence and unseen, watching the rest of the (still visible) people of the space station suffer through the pain of waiting, too, running the time loops he'd planned out in his head over and over again, wondering which door he'd try to break down first to get some goddamn answers — maybe confirm if the virus had taken the crew before them, too.]

[and there's a moment where he can't take it anymore, promises or not, because Dave isn't the sort of person who can stand around and not do something if he has some path forward. and there's a moment where he's about to do something that, on board this space station, has no outcome but a terrible one — but then, suddenly, it happens. he can see his hands again. his body comes back in patches, seemingly running down major arteries to the tips of his fingers then back again through the veins.]

[he finds the strength to wait a little while longer, to see if he really is recovering. he waits to see if the people in his immediate vicinity are, too. and then he's moving, checking Ryuji's usual haunts to see if he can find him. where the hell are you, bro?]

[because, he'd promised he'd wait. and it's sort of looking like he no longer has to.]

[ Ren never wanted to to know what end world ending "not with a bang, but with a whimper" would be to him. His memory is damnably sharp, and with what little senses he had left he watched the stars in the observation deck, a pattern that would be stuck behind his eyes for a long time, and felt the cold shift in the air when it seemed like his best friend was going to be snuffed out like a guttering candle.

The mask disappeared in a small flurry of blue flames. If Ryuji was aware, if Ryuji was alive there wouldn't be evidence that Ren was there without it; he'd talked until his voice dried up, just anything that crossed his mind. Inane observations, things he'd wanted to do when he got home, landmarks he'd planned on visiting on a return vacation to the U.S. to see Los Angeles, the nation's capital. His friends would be so jelly when he posted a selfie in front of Mount Rushmore, okay. Mount Rushmore was there... right...

Ren's voice broke and was silenced as his throat slowly disintegrated. It let him hear Ryuji's labored breathing and the deadly quiet that it dwindled to, and before it could hiss into nothing Ren obeyed an unspoken agreement not to be there.

That didn't mean that Ryuji was alone. The mask disappeared but rather than return to the depths of his cognition Chi You stood by Ryuji's side, a silent sentinel in the dark.

And Ren? Couldn't bear it but couldn't be rid of it either. Tears wouldn't come, a sort of dry-heaving moan all that he could manage when he finally returned to their room and waited for it to be over, crushed one last time by the wheel of fate before his recollection of that time simply... stops.

It's there that Ren startles back to himself. Alone? Something's pushing on his chest - and hey, that's one thing he has again. A chest. Lungs that expand inside it, air to fill it, and a baleful white cat to push it back out. Mrrrowp. "Where do you think you've been, peasant? I'm starving."

Yeah. Yeah, he'd like to know that too. Cuz he's back and he hasn't got the first clue as to why, how, when. He can do where: he'd apparently climbed up to the top bunk in blind despair. The view is familiar but off, never having done much up here except excitedly hash out their theoretical animanga and the millions it'd make if they ever got to go back and publish it cuz light novels are over, man. Dunzo.

Yeah this is - was Ryuji's. All his stuff's still here, so it isn't like he's gone like 2B. Was there reason to be hopeful about that? The devil's in the details.

He doesn't want to think of that. God. He just wants to be alive right now, turning on his side and closing his eyes to just breathe and feel life pulse in his veins again. ]