futurology | VIDEO. UN: LOKI

VIDEO. UN: LOKI

[ the sound of the wind storm hollows dully against the cave walls. Loki's squidge, Bacon, can half be seen crawling in the confines of his tacky green jacket and over his knee from where he sits, sometimes ducking and squeaking when a particularly large gust hits. to keep it from screaming, Loki offers his fingers absently, which the little squidge pulls on with its pudgy arms before ducking low again. ]

Hello there, it seems like we'll be waiting this out for some time considering the weather-type circumstances. While we're all rotting away, etcetera etcetera, I thought we could amuse ourselves with a game. A little bit of team bonding funtimes, so to say. [ he twists a dark nailed hand in the air, gesturing. ]

Soo—oo ... it's called Two Truths and a Lie. How do you play? Glad you asked, it's simple! Give two true statements about yourself and add a lie to the mix, shake it up then toss it out there and see if your team members know you well enough to spot the lie.

Usually this is done with copious amounts of alcohol, but we're lacking at the moment. [ pause. ] But—ah—you could always enjoy the satisfaction of being right. It's not like we're doing much else.

NOTE | Feel free to threadjack if that's your thing!! :****

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[Haise???]

You give him candy for it? Hey, isn't that positive reinforcement or something? Of course that'll only encourage somebody to do it more... [Frowning intensifies slightly!!] That's not a sort of thing you're supposed to get used to.

There's no harm in it. It's...sort of like a tradition, I guess? He doesn't go around taking things from people routinely or anything.

[Not that Haise knows of, anyway.

If only he knew the money he'd been given the one time was actually stolen from him when he was Kaneki... At least it was returned, right?]

Ah, really...? [Indeed, does it truly count as stealing if the stolen object is also returned.....these are the real questions. Questions that, alas, Shizuo wouldn't be able to answer if he were even aware of them. In the meantime, he's still making a bit of a face at all this, but the expression is less offended on Haise's behalf and more generally bemused now. Improvement?? Probably.] That's a pretty weird tradition. ...But I guess friends tend to do weird things like that, so that's fair.

[As if he could talk about weird friends anyway. Shinra has been begging him for blood samples and medical examinations since elementary school, all in the name of friendship--so, really, Shizuo has no room to be judging rituals like intentionally planting candy in your pockets for a sticky-fingered associate......]

Uh, but if that's actually true, then... [Squints??] Is it the first one, maybe?

[They do address each other by given-name, except during formal meetings, and they've gotten along well since they first started working together... So Haise supposes friends may not be wrong. He hasn't presumed before, but it's a warming thought, that one of his associates back home could be his friend.

Something he doesn't answer beyond giving a soft smile, however.

And after this digression, they're back to the game]

Bingo. I'm flattered my associates have so much faith in me, but I've never been romantically involved.

[Not as Haise, anyway. Even if he remembered Kaneki though...the statement would still be true. Not one kiss in all his days]

What, seriously? Ah, that's surprising too, then. You seem like a nice enough guy.

[Shizuo squints a little less now, but the surprise still colors his features a little too. It's true, he just seems like a sort of person to have plenty of faith about in the relationship department--there doesn't seem to be any reason he wouldn't have anybody, at least in the past??

Well, though it could be a preference thing too, Shizuo supposes...]

I mean, unless you're not just not interested in that sort of thing. Guess I'm assuming a lot of things now, actually... [He sits back with a thoughtful huff.] Sorry about that. So the cat one's the lie, then...never would have guessed, that was really specific.

In my situation, I guess you could say it wouldn't be a very realistic option. To say the least, my profession can be pretty dangerous.

[It's not why Haise doesn't have any romantic pursuits, of course. For him it's more complicated than this, a matter of being limited in his freedoms and doubtless disallowed. Even if he were to look, where would he?

A human partner would see him as a monster, and he hunted ghouls. He's simply accepted the reality that such things don't exist for him]

I wouldn't mind having a cat though, and that's something I could probably get away with.

--Right, that makes sense. Wouldn't want them to get hurt, right?

[This is suddenly and surprisingly very relatable, once Haise actually points it out. After all, isn't that the same reason Shizuo's never tried reaching out to anybody either? Well, that and the fact that he's convinced nobody would want to anyway...

But that's a very depressing and personal topic, and he sort of gets the feeling it might be the same way for Haise, so. As opposed to pushing much harder on that particular issue--]

Cats seem alright though, yeah. My brother has one, he can keep up with it pretty well even with how busy he tends to get. You'd really name it 'K' if you did have one, though?

[Although he sees Shizuo giving him the opportunity to move on from the topic without much struggle... Haise does think that it's something to answer, if only because he gets the impression they may have similar concerns. He'd sooner answer than leave his associate alone with such a thought]

I wouldn't want to be irresponsible, when it affects someone else.

[The words are quiet, and they boil his concerns down to the simplest of terms. But ultimately, as he's once told Sieglinde, his concern is for how he'd impact others. It's a complicated matter, where he himself isn't human and can't imagine such a level of acceptance to begin with, but...

At the end of the day, he's most afraid of hurting someone, even if the kind of hurt he thinks of and what Shizuo worries over may differ]

Do you think K is a bad name? I've never had a pet before, but I don't think it sounds bad.

[It's true, that had been a window he'd quickly opened up on purpose--if not rather abruptly and bluntly, as usual, since he's not the best at maneuvering conversations to start with. And he wouldn't have thought twice about Haise taking it, which makes the fact that he still chooses to respond...sort of startling? Shizuo's visibly a bit startled at this, at any rate. Though, after a bit of a pause, he frowns and nods, a slight sort of gesture.]

...Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? Since you already know it's risky, it doesn't feel very responsible to try having somebody else that close at all. So it's probably for the better, and all that.

[Definitely relatable. Though Shizuo still doesn't try to bring any parallels to direct attention, mostly for the fact that it would feel incredibly presumptuous. Sure, the understanding's probably plain enough already, but it's the principle of the thing...

And cats are a lot easier to talk about. (Though he does file this bit away--since it's a little novel anyway. Running into somebody with the same sort of issue about this...)]

A bad name? Oh, no, that's just a pretty unique one, so it's a bit surprising...but now that you mention it, I don't really have a lot of room to say that anyway. My brother named his cat Yuigadokusonmaru-- [enunciated deliberately and dryly--try saying this one three times fast, honestly] --which, if you ask me, is a pretty heavy-ass name for a cat that small? But at least your cat'll have an easier time carrying around that one, so it's probably fine.

[They seem to be of similar mind with regards to relationships... Though in a way, Haise finds that sad. Shizuo appears to be human, simply with capabilities that go beyond those of the average man. In his own case, so many other factors are at play, but to have such a simple thing become a barrier must be difficult to bear with, if not a rather isolating thought.

If it were only one thing which stood between himself and others, it would be far different. As it stands, there seems so much...

But it would be prying to ask if it's Shizuo's strength that concerns him, or if he feels other barriers exist. Perhaps one day, but they've only just become acquainted now. So it's simplest to focus on the rest of the conversation, and let that matter rest, for the moment]

That's...quite a mouthful, I'll admit. Does he call him Yui for short, or use the full name?

[He can't imagine calling a cat by that name on a regular basis...]

[Having a single obstacle like this, one that everybody else doesn't even need to worry about, a problem that normal people never have...yes, it's certainly something of a burden on one's self-esteem, and Shizuo's hardly an exception. It's difficult and isolating and--at least prior to arriving here--Shizuo has always figured it's an issue with circumstances entirely unique to himself. So, getting a sort of hint that maybe he isn't as alone as he always thought is...

Well, he's not sure what to think of it. And they probably really ought to talk about it, one of these days--but for now, the both of them are mutually content to drop it. Maybe once the casual acquaintance stage of things is graduated...

In the meantime, awkward cat names are most certainly at a comfortable casual acquaintance level.]

Yeah, it really is a mouthful--gotta be a pain in a hurry, I bet. But no, he actually just uses Dokusonmaru for short, usually. Even though it's not really that much shorter? I don't know why, I haven't really gotten around to asking him about it...

But you can't get much easier than K, on the other hand. Seems like you're more of a practical sort of person with names.

I just enjoy reading, so I thought an homage to a story I knew would be fitting.

[Haise has never had anyone ever call him practical, as sentimental as he is. But it's nice to think that he could come up with a good name for a cat, particularly since speaking with Evan encouraged the idea of getting one. Who knows, it might even be good for the Q's if they did have a pet to take care of together.

That, or all hell might break loose.

Though on the matter of why such names are chosen, that leaves him curious about what motivations Shizuo's brother may have had. Especially with a name that was a labor to speak even when shortened, there must be some interesting reasons]

What inspired your brother's choice of name?

Probably, it's a sort of joke...his sense of humor is kind of like that. [Kasuka rarely explains the decisions he makes in life with much detail, but Shizuo's gotten pretty good at extrapolating anyway. The remark is worded in an exasperated sort of way, but at the same time there's a brief hint of fondness creeping into his tone anyhow.] Since the name sort of matches up to those old idiom things..."only I am holy" and all that, you know?

[He waves a hand in an absent gesture to emphasize the idiom in question, before dropping it with a scoff that's more like a laugh.]

And like I said, it's a tiny cat. But I guess in that sort of way it's almost fitting too. I don't think I'd be able to put that much thought into a pet's name though, personally...

Edited (html nooo) 2016-08-24 03:36 (UTC)

[An idiom... Haise supposes that would make sense of such a very long name. Ironic to have it attributed to such a little cat, but maybe irony was part of the point too. It's interesting to think on; names and reasons behind them are as diverse as the individual]

He must have an interesting way of thinking.

[It makes him wonder what the members of his squad would want to name a cat, and whether they'd be able to agree on anything. Perhaps one day he might find out]

Sometimes, I think names are intuitive. Some things feel right, and others might not.

[Says the man who was told to pick kanji he liked for his own given name...]

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