[OPEN] We're young hearts, look at us go

[animated]

WHO: The residents of Nonah’s Ark (aka, Nonah 005) and YOU!
WHERE: Mostly around Nonah 005, but can be used for interaction with the Nonah’s Ark crew just about anywhere if you really wanted!
WHEN: The month of August.
WHAT: A general interaction log for the month of August, including the aftermath of the August Swear-in.
WARNINGS: Obligatory Iron Bull warning here. Also a warning for Kaneda’s dumb teenager hormones and Tetsuo's general crazy.

Starters will be appearing in the comments. If you want something specific from any one person (Charlie, Ken, Iron Bull, Kaneda, or Tetsuo), feel free to drop them a line and ask! Otherwise, feel free to add your own starters for the whole household or individual residents as you like.

Comments

[amadaman]

I'm not that selfless a person.

[He's well aware that people go on to live out the rest of their lives, however long or short they are, after leaving here. For some of them, it might end up being nothing because they're dead. For some people, like him, it's apparently survival, though he doesn't know what lies ahead of him. All he can think is that it's nothing he wants over the time he has here. Like this, sitting here with someone's warmth around him for the first time in years.]

Either way, you don't get to see them again. So it's the same thing from my point of view. Sometimes you just... want to see them again, even if it's a hallucination.

[stealwithit]

[ Even if it's a hallucination. That certainly hadn't been the case for Kasumi that night; maybe she would have wanted to see him, sure, but the way she saw him that night was just a cruel, cruel reminder of how she'd seen him the very last time she ever saw him in person: dying and begging her to leave, little bird, please, you have to live. So to Ken, she only offers a half-hearted response. ]

Yeah... I guess you're right.

[ Half-hearted because no, Ken's not wrong. Kasumi had wanted to see Keiji so many times since he died, and for a while that desire was granted by her greybox. She's not sure when that stopped being enough, or when it started bringing more pain than anything else, when she started feeling like she couldn't keep on going on like this, but she knows that it wasn't too long ago. (And she knows that being here and being with people had a part in it.)

But, perhaps more important than her own feelings right now are Ken's. ]

... Was it good to see your mother again, even if it wasn't real?

[ Her lips draw into a thin line. She feels like she already knows the answer--she pushed him away, after all, even though she hadn't known what was happening. ]

[amadaman]

... I was able to see her clearly.

[That's no true yes or no answer yet, but Ken murmurs his answer, dropping words one by one like pebbles into still water. They barely create ripples in the stillness of the room.]

I don't have anything of her left, really. No photos, no videos. It's been years. I was worried if I remembered her at all. Maybe I don't... remember her correctly, but I was still able to see her face.

[stealwithit]

[ Another long and slow exhale part Kasumi's lips, trying to navigate the conversation carefully in the same way that Ken's words come out.

...Maybe Ken doesn't remember that he was pushed away. And maybe she shouldn't tell him the truth. It wouldn't be difficult for her; lying is a tool of her trade, after all. ]

I'm glad you got to see her. I... Your mother must have been a great person.

[amadaman]

[He nods at that, his expression softening into a smile. No matter how troubled he is, memories of his mother, now, are able to evoke that sort f emotion. It's easier, being able to remember her as she was alive than in her death.]

She was a wonderful person. She raised me all by herself, and she protected me until the very end. Even though it would have been easier for her if she didn't have me... even if she might've survived if it weren't for me.

[He finally looks up, leaning back in his seat and also against Kasumi. There's an undeniably sad look on his face, but even then, he's... still able to smile.]

I'd been afraid of her hating me for what I did, before I came here. After trying to waste my life when she gave hers saving me. So when I saw her at the swear-in, that's what I must've seen.

[stealwithit]

[ She turns her head, casting a deeply sympathetic, affected expression down at Ken's bittersweet smile before she moves to rest her cheek against the top of his head affectionately. ]

She couldn't have hated you, Ken. You've done so well after everything you've been through.

[ And really, that's more than she can say for herself, relatively speaking. ]

When you saw her at the Swear-In--maybe you're right, maybe you saw what you thought she might be like--but I don't think for one second that your mother would have really pushed you away, Ken. She loved you so much.

[amadaman]

[Ken hasn't pieced together that it was Kasumi he saw at the swear-in, but he does know, consciously, that her gestures remind him of his mother. The weight of her cheek against his head reminds him of her, too, although he keeps it to himself. Kasumi cares for him despite all her efforts to keep her solitude, and such a confession would only discomfort both of them. But he accepts it, even leans into it.]

I know... I know. I'm sad that I lost her, but I was really, really lucky to have her. I was really happy when I was with her.