Apartment Log [OPEN TO ALL]

[stringmods]

Who: EVERYONE
Where: APARTMENTS CAN'T YOU READ THE TITLE PIECES AND LIBRA
Summary: Massive Open Apartment Log (October 3rd - 9th)
Warnings: Rooms and stuff!

[OOC - Open Apartment Log! Talk to your neighbors, make new CR, get hit on get hit on.

You can find the master list of apartments [RIGHT HERE!]

Starting this week, the apartments also now have TELEPORTERS! These allow you to go from one apartment facility to the other.

They can be found in LEVEL 4 and are big enough to accommodate everyone (but maximum 5 at a time). However, due to the fact that they are still in the testing phase, you may find yourself appearing in the wrong part of the 4th level in the other building -- and that does include above the swimming pool. Hope you like water! (Thankfully this doesn't happen most of the time...most of the time.)

Start your thread with your character's name and their room number. You can always add what they might be doing, or just leave it open for other people to come in. Others then reply to them with the date that they come in and let the CR begin. Fun times are had by all!]

LIBRA
Kanji Tatsumi | 5-01 ◆ Elizabeth Middleford | 5-02 ◆ Kanaya Maryam | 5-03 ◆ Guybrush | 5-04 ◆ Daichi Shijima | 5-05 ◆ Atsuro Kihara | 5-07 ◆ Misery | 5-09 ◆ Yu Narukami | 5-10

Kohta | 6-01 ◆ Ludwig Beilschmidt | 6-03 ◆ Theodore | 6-05 ◆ Barnaby Brooks Jr. | 6-07 ◆ Ruri Hoshino - 6-09

Yamato Hotsuin | 7-02 ◆ Minako Arisato | 7-04 ◆ Simon | 7-05 ◆ Shinjiro Aragaki | 7-06

8-06 | Santa ◆ Latooni Suvota | 8-07 ◆ Sogiita Gunha | 8-08 ◆ Virgil Klima | 8-09 ◆ Miki Sanada | 8-10

Pit | 9-01 ◆ Neku Sakuraba | 9-02 ◆ Nessiah | 9-04 ◆ Minato Arisato [AU2] | 9-06

PISCES
Sasha Fyer | 5-01 ◆ Clive Dove | 5-02 ◆ Link (of Skyloft) | 5-07 ◆ Link (OoT) | 5-08

Ahri | 6-02 ◆ Minato Arisato | 6-04 ◆Elizabeth | 6-06 ◆ Torahime | 6-09

Eikichi Mishina | 7-02 ◆ Naoya (DeSu) | 7-05 ◆ Garviel Loken, 7-07 ◆ Nicholas Reeve | 7-08

Asem Asuno | 8-01 ◆ Kaito | 8-02 ◆ Arturia Pendragon | 8-06 ◆ Duo Maxwell | 8-08 ◆ Alice Margatroid | 8-09 ◆ Aigis | 8-10

Kazuya Minegishi | 9-02 ◆ Hito "Kiku Hisao" Shura | 9-03 ◆ Sasuke Sagami | 9-04 ◆ Meetra Surik | 9-06

OTHER
Al Saiduq | Everywhere since he has no room

Comments

[greatseal]

[Unfortunately for him, he's going to have company anyway.

After throwing a few things into a bag, Minako opens the door to her balcony and steps outside. It's a small space, with a sturdy railing. Off to the left and right are the jutting balconies of other tenants. The right of which is his. She steps up to the rail and looks down.

It's high. They're seven stories up, and a fall from this height would definitely kill her. The gap between balconies, however, is only a few feet. It's a bit far to jump comfortably, but she could probably make it... Except fortunately she has a slightly safer plan. Or so she thinks.

Taking a step back, she closes her eyes and points her hand to her temple as though firing a gun. There's the click of shattering glass, and (slower than a real Evoker would do, but still quick enough) a being bursts into life.

The next step is tricky because she's not from Trinity Soul. She hasn't tried something this delicate very often, but she's confident enough in her command of her Persona to attempt it. Looping her hands around the snake-god's scaly middle and then the tail around her own waist, she takes off.

It's a short glide. She doubts that this technique would work if she wanted to go from here to the ground, but for the distance, Quetzalcoatl's wings support her well enough. A moment later she alights on the neighboring balcony and dismisses the god.

Then she knocks on the balcony door.]

[themortalhalf]

[When he hears the knock, his head jerks to the side, following where the sound came from. There's few seconds of indecision—because why would someone be....—when the reality dawns on him, and he surmises just what Minako might have done. And when that thought occurs to him, he reacts. Moves like he was five seconds away from dying. He clears the kitchen, sliding open the door into his bedroom, eyes locking on the balcony door, through the curtains that are only half-drawn closed, only to see her there—

And stops abruptly.

He feels relieved, in a way, though it's accompanied shortly after by another far harsher emotion, which flares up like it was a living part of him, though simmers down after the split-second spike. His mouth thins.

He gives himself a moment to calm down—though it's like holding back a bullet fired—and stares at the door for a few moments longer, almost, almost tempted to turn right the hell around and leave her there, because she's a goddamn idiot—and if she thinks she can just get what she wants by pulling stupid, asinine little stunts like this—

She could have hurt herself. Could have died. Doesn't matter how the hell she got across, though he can imagine. It also doesn't matter how confident and safe she felt doing something like that. He knows just how high up they are. And you don't take risks like that over nothing. It's childish, is what it is. And reckless.

And thank god she's all right but she's going to make his heart stop beating one of these days.

Damned idiot.

He takes another long moment to breathe before he strides forward, finishes crossing the room and slides open the glass door, because, in the end, he can't leave her there. He doesn't want her going back the way she came, now that she knows she can. ]

[greatseal]

[She's smiling like she doesn't know exactly how close to a heart attack she brought him.

Which... she does know. But in her opinion it was worth the risk. Better to weather his glare and lectures than let him brood alone today, or disappear to some place in Sagittarius where she can't follow and look out for him. Some place that reminds him of that night, when he should be trying to make better memories. It hadn't even really been a year.]

Afternoon, Senpai.

[themortalhalf]

[And glare down at her he does. All five feet ten inches of him. He feels his nails bite into the flesh of his palms. Is that all she has to say? May as well wish him good fucking morning and good evening too, because he's about had it with today.]

Don't you ever do that again.

[greatseal]

[She glares right back up, wearing the same face she always had on during difficult missions or particularly tricky runs of Tartarus. The face that says very clearly "I know what I'm doing here."]

I used my Persona. It wasn't dangerous.

[she's just mature enough not to blame him for not opening the door. That was the stimulus but not the cause.]

[themortalhalf]

[And his expression doesn't budge an inch. Personas are a tool, but not one he trusts.]

Think it matters to me how you got over? I don't care if you suddenly have a pair of goddamn wings on you. Don't do it again.

[greatseal]

If you promise not to pretend you're not home.

[She's at least nice enough not to force him to open the door whenever she asks. He does deserve his privacy.

Just not today.]

[themortalhalf]

Fine.

[It still doesn't mean he has to answer the damn door.]

Hope you're satisfied.

[greatseal]

[Oh, but it will make it incredibly more difficult to not answer.]

I am.

[and... she waltzes into the bedroom, glancing around. It's just as bare as his old one.]

[themortalhalf]

[He'll manage somehow.]

Good for you.

[Of course she was. Wasn't even getting a single word of apology. She wasn't sorry in the least. He'll follow her, sliding the door shut. His weapons are in the closet—along with that damn butler uniform or whatever it was she made him wear that one night in Tartarus. His school uniform he rarely wore back home is also there, just as neglected as it always was. Some other clothes—shirts that tend to stay in the black-grey spectrum. Not a lot. More than enough to live on. He's never needed much.

She'll have to forgive him for not even trying to be a conversationalist.]

[greatseal]

[She turns back to him and her expression is something close to apologetic, but not quite. Because he's right. She's not sorry. It's more like the expression you'd give in sympathy to a friend who just had a bad day at work.

She's sorry you're grumpy. She's not sorry she helped cause it.]

You shouldn't have to be alone today, Senpai.

['have to' because he knows very well the isolation is self-imposed. It's one thing to feel remorse over a horrible accident and then the events that followed and another... well, to be Shinji.]

[themortalhalf]

I don't need a babysitter.

[There had been a moment not long after he arrived here when he had wondered how much she knew. He never had told her about what the fourth meant to him or what he had done, and would never have brought it up even here if she hadn't know about it, but he also knew that it would also be stupid to go on believing that Mitsuru or Akihiko hadn't told her everything afterwards. Amada had been there that night. So had everyone else. Questions would have been asked and answers given. So he had long ago shoved that thought into impossibility.]

[greatseal]

Good... because that's not what I want to be.

[she walks over and drops her bag on the bed, where it makes a somewhat sizeable plop, like something rectangular and hard is inside. Then she turns back to him.]

You're not the only one who can tell when someone is being an idiot.

[themortalhalf]

[He has no idea what Minako brought with her, but he almost doesn't want to know.]

Don't try and compare—

[He cuts himself off. He sighs, voice something of a growl. Tch.]

Today isn't something you need to be concerned with. Just leave it be.

[greatseal]

[When has she ever been good at leaving him be?]

There's no way I can 'understand' how you're feeling now, senpai... I can't even imagine. But Ken-kun forgave you, you know. He's working hard for you and his mother. So even if you can't forgive yourself, at least remember that. You've already done more than what's possible to make things right.

[...and she takes two steps forward and hugs him, tightly.] You don't need to keep carrying it all by yourself.

[themortalhalf]

[Never. The moron had just conquered the distance between the two balconies like it was a level on a platformer. Obstacles mean little to her.]

It doesn't ma—

[And then his posture goes completely and abruptly rigid, every muscle in him suddenly taut and strained with sudden stress. The reaction seems almost defensive, like someone far bigger and stronger than he is has jerked him forward, disturbing whatever equilibrium he possessed, and he's now struggling to find solid ground again in a world made completely of air. His eyes flicker sharply down at her, eyes dilated. He's barely aware of her hugging him at all.]

He what? [There's no relief there. Not yet. Only surprise and distressed disbelief, like everything he's hearing is a lie or some kind of auditory illusion, and he knows it, even though he wants it to so badly to be true, but knows it can't be. Because why would someone who had his mother taken away want to forgive someone like him? Amada had hated him, wanted him dead, and rightly so. That at least had made sense. This doesn't. Forgiveness was something he knew better than to ask anyone for.

He steps back, almost slides down onto the bed, but remembering that Minako's still there, he doesn't move any further. Keeps his legs resolutely locked.]

Why would he—

[greatseal]

[It's not quite the reaction she was aiming for, but it's a start. She pulls back and looks up at him again.]

Because he listened to what you told him.

[themortalhalf]

[Now that Minako's not completely attached to him, he carefully takes another few steps backwards and sits at the very end of the bed near her bag. He shakes his head.]

Stupid kid.

[He had never believed words would or could change anything—at least when it came to this. Couldn't change what happened. Saying he was sorry didn't mean much in comparison to what had happened. Hard to balance the scales when there was a dead body weighing one side down. From then on, the scales were always a skewed to one side, and that side had always been heavy. When he had thought he was dying, he had hoped his own corpse would be able to almost set things to rights.

Something in his voice is a little bit broken again, a single loose cog in the gears, though otherwise it runs as it usually does.]

...I never asked him to.

[greatseal]

Of course not.

[She sits down next to him, for once not trying to lean against him or touch him at all. She'll wait for him to be ready for affection again.]

You saved him so he could make his own decisions.

[themortalhalf]

He's a stronger person than I am then.

[Though Shinjiro's always known that. The kid's had to deal with living the sort of life he should have never had to. Ken's had to exist in a world that he saw his mother get murdered in, surrounded by adults who never once believed him, all the while wondering if maybe he was better off dead. He hopes Ken's mother is proud of him, wherever she's watching him from.

Shinjiro's still not strong enough to forgive himself, but it helps a little to know that someone else can. Makes the pain a little bit duller.]

He's a good kid.

[greatseal]

[She's not even going to comment on the first part, because she thinks Shinjiro is plenty strong, in his own way. He just won't let himself admit to it.]

That he is.

[Now she turns to look sideways at him. Maybe it's her imagination, but he looks a little less gruff after that conversation.]

...So. If you really want me to leave, I'll go, but I'd still rather stay with you.

[themortalhalf]

[Part of him wants nothing more than to see her walk out his apartment door. Part of him wants nothing more than to have her spend her day with someone else, because, in the end, he never wanted to expose her to his problems. He has plenty. It's a lot of baggage, even if he were to ever allow the burden to be split into two, which is something he will probably never do. The problems he has are his. They're made up of mistakes he's made and things he's done that are his and his alone to take responsibility for. They shouldn't be anyone else's—let alone hers—to bear for even half a second. He never wanted that.

He likes it best when she laughs. When he knows she's she's out there somewhere, living the kind of life she earned for herself a long time ago. It's the kind of life she deserves, and it's supposed to be a happy one. She should be out there now with her brother, not doing stupid, childish things. She shouldn't be negotiating her way across two balconies because he refused to let her in the door. She should be out there in the sun somewhere, not in this tiny, enclosed space. He can see the city just outside his window. That's where she should be right now.

He can handle the self-imposed isolation, because that's what he's always done. It comes almost automatic now, to push rather than pull. He's dealt with this day before. It shouldn't be her concern or problem. So maybe she should leave so it doesn't have to be.

But another part of him wants her to stay right here. It's confusing. It's half of why he hadn't let her through the door. He didn't want her here, yet he did. And he knows as soon as she leaves, he'll miss her. It's a damn strange feeling when taking into account everything else. To want to be alone—because today the demons that he sees are his to endure—but not at all, because at the end of the day, he never really wanted to be alone—it was just better for everyone else that way, so he might as well learn to be lonely. But now he might as well just accept his fate as Schrodinger's cat at this rate: to be both but either but neither, all at the same time. See how that goes.

The only solution, then, was to not put himself into a situation where this would become a problem. And he walked right into it. Or she did, rather. And stupidly, he might add (and will always add). All he can do now is look over at her, smile a smile devoid of any emotion really, and be honest.]

I want you to go. But I want you to stay. So stay, if you want.

[greatseal]

[She sighs at that, but smiles back. Unlike in his there's genuine fondness there. He always makes things so complicated. ...But that's why she keeps chasing him. If he ever became fully normal and easy to deal with he wouldn't be Shinji anymore.]

I brought something, if you feel like it.

[That seems to be her answer on staying or going. She reaches behind him to open her bag and pulls out a DVD case. Also visible in the bag now is her laptop. She'd figured he wouldn't have a television.]

[themortalhalf]

[A movie?

He scrutinizes the cover, and shrugs, face impassive.

Not that he doesn't see that there are animals on that cover.]

If that's what you want to watch, it's fine.

[He guesses they can set the up the laptop on bed. Or move the desk over.]

[greatseal]

[She just gives him a look. Still pretending this is 'her' type of movie even now?]

It was this or cooking shows, and I didn't think those would be very cathartic.