Forty-Eighth Shower - [Voice/Action]

[meteorical]

[Action]

[Today if anyone's wandering into Seventh Heaven, they'll find Kairi sitting at a table by herself. Thanks to Sanji, she's agreed to pick up a few shifts at the restaurant as a part-time waitress. She's just finished her shift for the day and she's got her Luceti-provided journal open in front of her, along with a sheet of what looks like purple paper. She had leafed through the pages of the Luceti journal, checking on the village, but now she's occasionally writing lines on the purple page. If anyone were to get close enough to look, they'd see:

Thinking of you, wherever you are. It's been a little over two months since you left...almost three, actually, but I still think about you every day. I think we all do.

[She pauses in her writing then upon realizing two things. A.) This is very much like a letter she wrote to Sora about fifteen months ago and B.) It's been almost three months since the brunette left. It felt weird the longer she thought about it, thinking about how close she had become to some people and how distant she was starting to feel from the boy who was...no, is her best friend.

It disturbs her, in a way. Enough to cause her to push the letter aside, turning her attention back to her Luceti-journal to address the public. Her voice is pretty casual, but anyone who knows her well enough may notice there's a slight hesitance.]

[Voice]

What would you consider a good balance between making a life here in Luceti and keeping your life in your own world in focus? I mean in the sense of...well...let's talk about jobs for instance. Do you think it's important to make yourself useful here, or would you rather wait until you go home since it may not matter once we leave anyway?

Or friends, even. Do you only call people from your world your best friends, or have you made new best friends here?

[She pauses, trying to think of how to wrap this up. Keep it casual, keep it light.] It's not really a big deal, I'm just kind of curious what everyone thinks.

[Filtered to Riku]

...can I talk to you about something? Just when you have some time.

Comments

[Voice]

[wise_maiden]

[She's not even sure why she finds herself answering, quietly.]

You don't stop living while you're here.

Keeping home in mind is always important, but life still continues. You grow, you change... and eventually, you may get back there, with or without these differences.

... but life continues.

[Voice]

[meteorical]

[Oh hello Raine. She listens quietly, taking her words into account and finding that she fully agrees.]

What about for the people who keep coming and going from this place? Does life continue for them, or do you think it's a huge loop?

[Voice]

[fleurdesel]

That depends on many variables. It is better to be of use, but not so much that your leaving would leave a hole in the community. It is better to find and build connections with villagers here, but not to the extent where they would be devastated by your absence. That would be the ideal balance.

...I can say that, for the latter at least, I have failed.

[Voice]

[meteorical]

What makes you think that you've failed? [That sounds like a hard thing to balance, but still.]

[voice]

[floralogy]

I think it doesn't matter whether you're here or back in your own world. [A sappy smile accompanied by a soft voice.] Living your life is living your life.

[voice]

[meteorical]

[Oh hi, Ino, she's been meaning to officially meet you...but she won't say anything yet. No need to tell her she did a bit of snooping after talking to Riku a while back about her.]

That's a good philosophy. So what would you consider to be the best way to live your life?

[Voice]

[de_bel_survivor]

...Well, for whoever's your best friends, it depends on how close you are to them. And how you feel about them.

[No one in Luceti really reach "best friend" status for Kouki. Atsuro will always have that role, in his opinion. Some people came close, but...time and life in Luceti happened.]

I just live life here as I like. I keep myself busy and make friends with anyone that don't mind me.

[Voice]

[meteorical]

I know everyone's different, but some people make friends faster than others, right? I guess that's what I'm really wondering.

You make it sound like you're hard to be friends with. [She's teasing, but really, Kouki, when you end a sentence like that...]

filtered

[stilldontgotit]

Hey, I've got time. What's up, Kairi?

filtered

[meteorical]

[...she's just going to come right out and say it.]

Would you consider Sora to be your best friend still even now that he's been gone a while?

[allseeingdeath]

I think it all matters to what you want. We're not going anywhere, and we don't know how to leave. Might as well do something with yourself here.

And friends are friends no matter where you are.

[meteorical]

Well, I am doing something, but I know there are others here who don't quite know what to do with themselves.

Do you believe in a difference between friends and best friends?

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

I don't see why you should have to stop doing the things you want to do just because you aren't in your own world right now.

[Voice]

[meteorical]

Well, there are some things that are impossible to do here that we can do at home. [She's mostly saying that to lighten the mood, but Emil makes a good point.]

[voice]

[ratpack]

I think it just becomes depressing if you don't try to keep living while you're here? Remembering home and the people you love is good, but it's going to be painful because you can't go back.

[voice]

[meteorical]

[Oh hey, it's the normal boy.]

That seems to be the general vote. So what have you been doing to keep living?

[Action]

[concasse]

[Sanji hears her announcement, though not through the journals. It's mostly quiet in the restaurant, and to keep himself preoccupied - keep his mind off the ill-reminder of death and Kotetsu's progress - he bears up arms (or in this case a rag) and begins wiping down the tables now that Kairi is off her shift.

And once he's close enough to her table, he lingers, and answers one of her questions with his stare directed elsewhere] Aa. I've got a lot of close friends here. [A pause] Most of them I probably won't see again, whenever we go back home.

[Action]

[meteorical]

[She doesn't even have to really look up to figure out who's behind her.]

...people like Xion, you mean. [She does look up then, watching him even if he's looking elsewhere.] Sanji, remind me again just how long you've been here?

[rashness]

Hey, new gir-- uh. Kai...ri. Yeah Kairi.

[Rin isn't quite off shift, but he's breaking his time in the kitchen (chef) to get a conversation going with one of the new-er hot waitresses here. In fact, he's going to pull up and sit at her table, ticking his tail out of the way as he does]

[meteorical]

[And she looks up, blinking a bit when she's addressed.]

Rin, right? Hi. Keeping busy?

[voice]

[herd_effect]

[Hmm, that's an interesting question.]

I think, wherever you are, it's important to be a contributing member of the community. Even in Luceti, where so much is provided, there's still things that need to be done. People that need to be helped.

Just because you're bound to leave and forget this place doesn't mean that what you do here won't matter. If you can just make things a little better, make people a little happier for a while, that's important. You should think about the past and the future, but you shouldn't make the mistake of forgetting the present.

I'd say I've made a best friend, here. And it's depressing to think that I'll never see her again after Luceti, but all I can do is enjoy the time we have.

[voice]

[meteorical]

That's probably one of the most clear answers I've received since asking, thank you. [She pauses briefly to think over everything, digest it a little.]

I guess that's ultimately why I started working. I've been here for years, and I just felt like I wasn't doing enough. [She had the boys as a safety net, and she was supportive of all of her friends, sure, but what had she been doing for the good of the village? She wasn't like Sora who could protect everyone.]

What about you? What have you been doing to provide for the community?

[Action]

[bondsprofoundly]

[Castiel will be able to see what she's written, because he's going to stand over her table and read it without even trying to be discreet.]

[Action]

[meteorical]

[Oh hello...

...

...] Can I help you with something? [She's not making a move to hide anything, but really, Castiel?]

[voice/failfilter]

[personafalsify]

[ He's not entirely sure why he feels the need to throw up a filter, but he does. ]

Do you think... everyone should want to go back to their own world?

[voice/failfilter]

[meteorical]

No. [And the answer is so fast and so immediate she leaves little room to argue. But she's curious.]

Has someone been telling you otherwise, Kohan?

[voice]

[nothisbrother]

Speaking as a person who, quite literally, has nothing to return to, I believe it's best to make the best of the time you have here. Even if you have something to go home to, why just sit around doing nothing?

Who knows, you could wind up better than your future self here.

[Feels weird being the one who sounds kinda sentimental. But he's just saying what he feels]

[voice]

[meteorical]

When you say that, do you mean you don't have a world to return to, or...[You know...you're dead.]

[voice]

[fierybluebird]

I don't see anything wrong with making best friends here as well, eh?

[voice]

[meteorical]

Definitely nothing wrong with it, no. I'm just curious how people feel about these best friends compared to the best friends back home.

[Voice]

[rutagraveolens]

I think it's important to be useful or at least do something around here. Even if it doesn't matter when you go back home, you're still here. It seems silly not doing anything here.

[Voice]

[meteorical]

Of course it's silly not to, but then it becomes a case of what people should and are doing.

...Rue, right? How are you settling in?

[voice]

[withnofear]

Before I arrived here I hadn't been home in about five months. While I was away part of me was always still back home, though. Here it's sort of the same. Of course everything here still matters, and you can always make an impact, whether it's on the planet or in peoples' lives. As long as you don't lose yourself and don't forget the people who are waiting for you, maybe it will balance out.

[voice]

[meteorical]

[She considers this for a moment.] So who's waiting for you?