asgardmeridiem | JUNE INTRO MINGLE

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JUNE INTRO MINGLE

Who: Newbies and anyone who wishes to greet them!
What: Getting used to the city
When: Days 274 and forward
Where: Anywhere in town!
Rating: PG-13 tops! If it gets worse, move to a private log please.

[Please include your location and the IC day (ex. Day 275) in your top-level comment or your subject line when starting a thread! It can be any welcome hall, major attraction, or just out an about in any district. For newbies making a top-level thread, you may include your character's name/canon/house in your subject line if you'd like, to make housemates easy to find! :) If a God is needed or wanted, please ping the mods and depending on availability we might be able to throw them in where asked.

Also, keep an eye on the event schedule for June! If you're ICly introing during an event, make sure you take that into account. Thank you!

Have fun!]

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[More blinking from Shinji. This time, it was to double-take at the generous amount that seemed like that was in the sack.

'Well, she must've really liked you a lot to give you the whole shelf...' He knew better than to say it outloud.

Yes, Shinji probably felt like he was throwing logic out the window going with someone who knows who you are and you don't know them. But... He probably should try to if he's going to get used to being in Asgard. And Allen did promise and offer to try to answer any questions, after all. ~~And Shinji could always bolt if it gets weird!~~

So he carefully nods.]

[ Ehe. Allen's also just good at being incredibly charming and selectively shameless when he wants to be. It's all in good faith though. He's just very good at doing well as a hobo.

But good! He turns then and smiles a little more gently, shifting the bag to his other arm and indicating to go this way now and starting to walk (it's okay, you can follow him, really. he's perfectly harmless. mostly). He was almost home, after all. Well. The new one by himself. It's not home; it's a place to stay. But it does seem better than sitting and talking in the middle of the street.

Probably some of the things Allen knows he should say are better not in public either. ]

...It's because people come and go here sometimes. Except they don't always remember they were here before.

[ A pause, and then he smiles a little more gently again. Apologetically, maybe. ]

That's why I know your name. [ it's not because he's a weird stalker or anything creepy like that ]

[ And he does, indeed, follow Allen after a slight pause. It was getting too much to talk among the street.

Shinji seems a little relieved at the explanation. Not by alot, but just a tad. At least he wasn't hanging around a mind reader or anything like that. But luckily ~~(to us)~~ for Shinji, there would be plenty more people with "character" to meet for as long as he's here.

Sadly, it did dishearten him, a little, knowing that the gods really do... have a need for people and then just send them home when they're no longer needed? They really were fickle. At least in his logic.

So if Allen knew of his name, then...]

Someone I know was here, before? [ Like Asuka or Ayanami mentioning him in passing? Yeah... He's not going to believe he was here, before, that easily. Nope... ]

[ Good, because it's not going to be long until he's heading into a nearby building, to fiddle for a key and work at unlocking his door. It's just one of the flats in Loki and he was probably just down the street collecting handouts for the day's cobbled together dinner, one that probably still looks mostly unlived in beyond a slight disarray. The smallest and cheapest place he could find ~~because he's a scrooge and used to living plainly~~.

But Allen pauses a little at that and looks over his shoulder with a blink. And the golem on his shoulder twitches his wings a little then, too.

Ah... ]

... yeah.

[ It's not what he meant, Shinji, but... that is kinda true. He knew about you before from Kaworu first as well, so...

Again, the gentle (apologetic?) sort of smile. ]

I heard about you from someone you know.

[ Ah...!

What if that someone was back home now and Shinji's missed his chance at finding someone familiar? He makes a face. ]

Gods have a different sense of humor than we're used to, it seems. To bring people here and back and make some forget...

[ There was some bite to that statement and he might or might not have meant to keep that in his head. ]

It's better not to really think of them as gods, I've found. [ It's gentle and a little ~~artificially?~~ cheery though, standing back and opening the door for Shinji to step in.

Although Allen does pause a little. Ah, should he...? ]

[ ... ]

But they're still here, you know. The person you know.

['Then what do we think of them as?'

Another case of biting his tongue. Maybe someday, Shinji will give the gods a break; sadly, that is not now.

The brunet warily looks at the inside before slowly stepping in. He looks around. Nothing dangerous here...]

[ ...?!

He perks a little at the mention of this. The most perking he'll ever do, in a while, sadly. ]

[a pause and some blinking.] You've seen Asuka or Ayanami?

[Who else could it be? Misato...? Kaji...?]

[ As fundamentally human.

Like you or me or anyone.

...Just very powerful ones, too.

But Ayanami...? Oh, there's a flicker of recognition at that -- Kaworu told him about an Ayanami Rei, right -- but he shakes his head slightly after blinking for a moment. ]

Ah, no... [ He takes a second to get the door, for a moment to hesitate, but... ]

[ ...chin up.

Spine straight, posture easy. Delicate but wrought, quiet and gentle but firm.

And a glance that's a little apologetic, maybe. ]

Kaworu Nagisa.

Edited 2013-06-13 16:22 (UTC)

[ And that's when Shinji felt like his heart jumped to his throat and he almost forgot how to breathe.

How long was it since he heard that name?

How long has it been since that day?

The color to Shinji's face was paling and he looked ready to bolt, again. ~~...And the door was right there.~~

First, this guy knew his name, but that was finally sorted out to some extent, and then he knows his name. Asgard was really making no sense to Shinji. Nothing was, anymore. Or was probably full of liars. ]

[ Right now, Shinji looked even more frightened than when Allen knew his name, really. His back was against the wall, and with good reason; without it there to support him, he would have fallen to the floor none too gracefully from shock.

He won't even look up to the exorcist, his own gaze looking down at the floor/his feet.

Not possible. Not possible, not possible, not possible, NOT POSSIBLE, NOT POSSIBLE, NOT POSSIBLE, NOT POSSIBLE.

After a moment of silence, Shinji finds his voice again. His nails are digging into his palms when he clenches his fists and his teeth grit together before he finally speaks, still not looking at the other boy. ]

That's...!

...not possible.

Kaworu Nagisa is dead. [ He would know. (or so he thinks) He killed him, himself; with his ~~Eva's~~ own hands.]

[ Ah...

Death and grief --

... Allen knows it rather well. He's an Exorcist still, after all. But his expression flickers a little sadly at that, sympathetic, because how can he not be? From how he understands the situation, at least. And he sets the sack of baked things aside on a table, though he doesn't move from by the door yet. ]

I know.

[ He knew for a long time, actually. And that it was Shinji that killed him, even if he doesn't know all the gory details precisely.

Enough to know it's a very complicated thing he doesn't really have any place in, except Shinji's here now and Kaworu isn't. And complicated enough to understand he can't be mad at Shinji for it. Even if he knows enough from Kaworu to hate the entire situation, that it would ever come to something like that. ]

But he isn't dead here.

[ More gently, after a moment: ] It's okay. Things are different here. [ Right...?

It's Allen's own ironic case as well. Though he's also the one living away from his friends; his comrades. ]

Nobody has to be a danger to anybody else.

[He isn't dead here

It's ok

Shinji tries to ignore the stinging sensation in his eyes that is coming on, now. As reassuring as that may be to anyone else, he isn't sure if things being different here is a good thing... Then again, he was the type to think the worst of things, so early on.

He shakes his head. Sadly, someone as stubborn as Shinji wasn't going to accept something like this that easily. ]

No. You don't know. [Yes, Allen does know; But Shinji thinks and feels like he shouldn't.]

You've got to be lying. [No, Allen is not, but Shinji wants to think he is.]

I'm not. [ But it's still gentle, his expression flickering. (Denial and Allen are very, very good and old friends.) But even if gentle, but he needs to insist that, too. He knows it's hard, so really, incredibly hard, but still, Shinji --

Allen hesitates for a moment like he might take a step forward, except he just shifts a little then and doesn't. Just lets his hand rest still on the doorknob where it is. ]

He's been here almost as long as I have.

Time spent here or not probably makes no difference to someone who has been dead.

[ Shinji might or might not have meant to have such a bite in his tone of his voice. He was thinking of the possibility of Kaworu, indeed, being here.

For almost a year.

With little option except being here unless he returned to being... well. dead.

'Because of me...'

All the more reason why Shinji wasn't swallowing this that easily and is keeping their distance, still. But the shuddering he made probably implied he was trying to take it in. Him being here. Denial and guilt really were doing a number to Shinji's being, at the moment. ]

[ ?! ]

It makes all the difference. [ Allen has a gentle, soft-spoken way about him, but it's quick and certain. Because it's not just for Kaworu either -- in fact he wasn't even the first one to make that impression on Allen. Nakama did; she's the one who made him see how much this could become home and everything to someone who had nothing else left for them.

It's not the same with Kaworu, no. But that -- ]

Being dead somewhere else doesn't mean you're any less alive here.

Doesn't it mean something, being able to actually spend time with someone you never thought you'd see again? [ Being able to see the actual person again, not being tricked into... ... well... Allen has reasons to be skeptical and pretty harsh when it comes to wishing the dead back to life. In that that's the worst sort of abomination there is in his world.

But this is different. There isn't the same penalty.

And being able to make amends.

Because even if you killed him, Shinji, and Allen can't begin to figure out your feelings between what he knew before and what Kaworu's told him (honestly he's good at figuring people out but he hasn't got a clue about what makes you tick yet)... you still cared, right?

It's impossible not to, killing someone you wanted to spend time with. Not with a human heart. ]

[A sigh is heard from the younger of the two. Shinji will soon know of Allen's ~~intrusive~~ ways.

Don't get him wrong, Allen. He does. More than just "cares". This was someone who showed Shinji kindness when no one else did, after all; and to show Shinji is capable of loving another being.

It's just.

What do you say to someone after that?

Is it ok to look at them?

"Hi, how's not being dead?"?

But he will at least ask this, though,]

...

Is he... all right? [Shinji had a hunch that the angel would be bound to be fine, if he had almost a year, but nonetheless. ]

[ Ah --

Allen relaxes a little at that. Visibly, tension bleeding from shoulders. ]

Yeah.

[ It's quietly glad, and he smiles gently. And moves finally then, a little closer and to indicate a place to sit at a small table. (It's furnished only in the most bare and basic sort of way, the room.) Not moving to touch, he's too polite and a little reserved (generally) for that, but kindly.

It's alright. ]

He's been doing really well.

[ As reassuring as the answer would be, it does not lessen Shinji's own tension.

'That's great, but... But...'

He finally stops looking at the floor and looks up when he hears Allen move.

~~Shinji, the table is NOT booby-trapped. Now come over here.~~ Before warily staring, he makes careful steps forward to join Allen.

As much as Kaworu was someone Shinji enjoyed spending time with despite the amount of time they had, as much as that this was someone that Shinji thought he was never going to see again (he STILL feels like he shouldn't be seeing him again, honestly), it is no promise that he will go out and look for him. It feels... easier to stay put, right now. Running away doesn't seem so bad in that situation.

That is why he does not ask or will bother asking Allen of his whereabouts. But he does have another question in mind. ]

What is he to you? A friend... or...? [Or an enemy? A slight concern crossed Shinji's mind. He doubts that an enemy would be offering you sweets like this, but you never know...]

[ A blink. Or?

... ah. ]

[ There's a slightly confused pause for a moment, before he fumbles then for something in the breast pocket of his vest. Five photographs there, after all, carried on his person since he, well -- he is a bit of a hobo now. He carries all his important possessions with him. (Which means there really aren't very many.) But there's just one picture he takes out and sets in front of Shinji. They're the memory photographs that appeared in boxes around the city, after all. The magical ones that imprinted an important memory like a photograph on a piece of paper. Five of them, and the last one --

-- Allen, but with Kaworu too. Playing the piano. (The day he got Allen to play again for the first time. Christmas, even if they didn't know it was Christmas at the time.)

It's probably hard to believe Allen since he's a stranger to you, Shinji. Maybe that will help? (He can hope.) ]

He's my friend. [ Family. But it's soft, immediate, and certain. Almost blunt, like the most plainly simple sort of obvious thing. And he sits too, folding his arms over on the table and getting a thoughtful lift to his chin. ]

A lot of people consider him their friend, I think.

He's very kind.

[ A pause. ] ...It's okay, you know.

I think he'd be happy to see you.

[ His eyes widen and when he looks at the photo.

Seeing a ghost doesn't quite describe what Shinji is feeling right now. More like he was seeing someone he probably shouldn't be. ...These gods really were the worst.

Looks like there was nothing left to deny, now. Kaworu was here. Allen is no liar. A peculiar sort of character, for Shinji's liking, but not a liar. (Though Shinji must be just as peculiar to Allen, so he has no room to talk.)

In a mixture of surprise and still trying to cling to denial, Shinji hurriedly sweeps the photo away from himself and closer to Allen, a reaction as quick as reacting to something that just burned you.

'I think he'd be happy to see you.'

Happy to see Shinji?

Happy to see Shinji?!

And that's when the younger boy makes fists, shaking as they clenched tightly, ignoring how his naisl are digging into his skin. ]

If you know him so well why do you think he would?! [he didn't mean to raise his voice.]

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