002. [Video/Action for Goldenrod City]

[preybeforemeals]

[Well, it seems that Tsukiyama has finally left whatever hellhole he's buried himself in for the last couple of weeks; he hasn't been out nearly as much as he'd normally like – really, he hasn't been out at all unless it's been absolutely necessary – but it seems that today he's decided that if he's going to bury himself in several layers of escapist fantasy, he might as well do it outside rather than behind the locked doors of a hotel room.

...That, and he's run out of reading material.

The feed from Tsukiyama's device today opens with a slow pan over some of what he's managed to find in his attempt to stave off boredom; after a moment, his voice can be heard over the video.]

I'm finding myself a bit at a loss, really – if nothing else, I'm unsure whether I should be impressed or offended.

[To his credit, he sounds more amused than anything; after a moment he turns the camera around to actually get him in the shot. He seems well enough, if a bit exasperated.]

They seem to have things such as The Metamorphosis and Battle Royale as well, things that don't seem to have changed much just judging by the title, but I'm sure there's some sort of completely hideous difference in there that will make itself known eventually. For now I think I'm just grateful that I haven't found anything like The Black Gogoat's Egg...I'm sure it would be by someone like Takatsuki Sentret, while we're at it.

[Because this place is a travesty like that.]

From what I've seen, the film selection isn't much better... Tell me if you've found anything particularly interesting during your time here, will you? I don't particularly mind if it's a pun-entrenched mess; if anything, I'm a little curious about how badly they've managed to butcher things.

[Granted, he's not entirely sure how this is going to go, given that there's apparently a market for things like Sharpedonado around here and as such he is effectively asking for recommendations from people who find things like that to be high art, but you know what, live a little.]


[ACTION]

[It's a little overcast today but it's not too cold, and as such he can be found sitting in one of the squares near the department store; there's a café nearby that he's come to like, even if it's not Anteiku (because nothing is quite like Anteiku, even if he'd never really frequented the place as much as some it had its charms, he can't deny that), and he's claimed one of the outdoor tables with a book laid nearby and a cup of something that steams in front of him. As usual, he's a little hard to miss – which is really just a polite way of saying that he's still something of an eyesore, but at least it looks like there was an attempt today and the entire ensemble is blessedly argyle-free.

He's not reading the book he's got laid out, though once in a while he looks at it in a way that implies he's tempted to at least see how much of a shitshow it's surely going to be; for now, his time seems to be given to actually taking the time to savor the joy that is pumpkin-spice everything while it lasts (as long as we all take the word "joy" to mean "experience that involves drinking that coffee once in a while like he's not sure if it's poison, only to set it down and look at it funny and be clearly unsure in its general direction...but for some reason he can't stop drinking it once in a while anyway") and...once in a while swatting away a really persistent Klefki that is hovering near his head.

She doesn't seem to mind the swatting; if anything, she's seeming to find it to be a game of some sort, and she keeps coming back and...unlatching, for lack of a better word, for the sake of waving one of the keys she's found in his general direction with the happiest damn noise because NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

SHE FOUND A PRETTY ONE AREN'T YOU PROUD OF HER.

...After a while the implications of that will sink in, however, and...]

...Mirabella...

[Surely she hasn't.]

Mirabella, amore – exactly where have you been getting those...?

[If he has gotten some sort of kleptomaniac keyring he swears to god - ]

Comments

[occultigen]

Well — I know how to make a pretty cap with bits of ribbon and needlework, but what good is something like that if no one bothers with a cap anymore? I can embroider a handkerchief in four or five patterns I learned by heart but what's the use when it's only "throwaway" handkerchiefs now?

I can read and make music quite deftly and everyone gets their music from their little devices or the open air now, and I can dance and waltz and no one dances anymore.

So really, how is it that one doesn't feel useless when I know so many things but a hundred years later they're all for nothing?

[preybeforemeals]

[...You know, now is when Kaneki would be really, really useful, because Kaneki always seems to know exactly what to say to things like this whereas Tsukiyama is consistently rolling something like a -12 to Diplomacy.

...The woman also just openly complained about the existence of Kleenex and there's really no way to not find that amusing, albeit in a bit of an "ohhhhh sweet jesus" sort of way.

But! Even if the Reassure Useless-Feeling Victorian Girl check is something you'd want a corpse making before Tsukiyama, there are no corpses in the area and as such he's going to have to make do with a lot of OKAY HOW...WOULD KANEKI HANDLE THIS...]

...It's just a matter of finding those whose tastes align with your talents, then, isn't it? Some would actually argue that the rarity of the skill makes it more valuable, particularly in this time and age - many are disenchanted with mass-produced things, they find them to be sterile and highly impersonal, whereas the sorts of things you're talking about...those talents are well sought-after. As for music in particular, it's hardly a dying art; it's something I've studied extensively myself, actually.

...I'm not saying I can't see where you're coming from, amore, just that it's a bit less hopeless than you think it is.

[WHERE IS PROTAG-KUN WHEN HE NEEDS HIM.]

[occultigen]

[In every adventure there is always That One Guy with That One Check that nobody wants him to make, and naturally he is inevitably the guy who ends up getting called on to make it because of course he is.]

I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to sound as though I were complaining.

[...She was totally complaining.]

Things really are very nice here, it's just...not home, either. And perhaps it's the better for that, but all the same, there's something to be said for home as well.

[preybeforemeals]

[HOW DID HE EVEN FUCK THAT UP

WHAT ELSE WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO OH MY GOD]

Ah, no, you have nothing to apologize for! Besides, complaint or not, sometimes it's good to discuss these things anyway, isn't it?

[occultigen]

[Maybe that tiny sliver of personality will creep back out from beneath its rock, dear god she's gonna try maybe.]

Do you miss home, Mr. Tsukiyama? Aside from the...Pokemon and such, the place you're from is rather similar to the way things are here in this city, isn't it?

[preybeforemeals]

[You can do it, he has faith!

...He also has faith that whenever it happens it's going to happen in a way that will just have him internally screaming "KANEKI DAMMIT WHERE ARE YOU" again, but you know what maybe this will be good for everyone involved.]

This city is very similar to what I'm used to, yes - the...pace, I supposed you'd say, is actually similar to it as well. There's the occasional threat, and sometimes it's dealt with and sometimes it isn't quite dealt with, but for the most part it's peaceful. But even without the culture shock of having apparently missed a hundred years or so, there are still enough differences to be noticeable, Pokémon or not. The lack of ward boundaries is disorienting, for one thing - we have very definite areas back home that we're supposed to stay out of, and even though I tell myself no such thing exists here, it's still..strange, being able to go wherever I please without having to worry about ward politics or being seen as trespassing on someone else's grounds.

But I suppose the thing that's really... [He trails off for a moment, gesturing aimlessly one-handed while he tries to find words.] ...I suppose you could say the thing that's really striking me oddly about this place is the fact that I don't really know anyone. I've always been surrounded by people - family, classmates, people I've known for years. Even if I was never very close to most of them, it's strange that they aren't...there, if that makes any sense? Likewise for the places I used to frequent, actually - whether I enjoyed them or not, they were constants, and I think that's what I miss about home in general. It's not so much the place itself as it is the familiarity of it.

[occultigen]

I...do, I think.

[And since she's probably been standing this entire time she's just going to get brave and kind of...take a chair for herself without being invited because what the hell, let's just be impulsive today, while we're crossing Victorian social boundaries with reckless abandon anyway.]

I think it's similar to the way I used to know of all sorts of families with fine titles and a great deal of standing — of course I wasn't friends with all those people, but they were...the old families and such, this marquis and that lord and the duke's son's son carrying on the name and so on. One expects that all to be there, and then it...simply isn't. It's strange in the way that I find it strange to think of the queen being...someone other than Queen Victoria, I suppose. Or of there being no queen at all.

One knows where one fits into the workings of it all, at "home". It's much more difficult to do that here.

[preybeforemeals]

Exactly. You've actually said it better than I could have with that last part, amore.

[He pauses for a moment, tapping his fingers lightly against the table before he continues.]

It's never very pleasant, is it? Having that feeling that you aren't supposed to be somewhere - that you don't belong there, regardless of being in the same general situation as everyone else. This place is nice enough, but it causes that sort of feeling almost constantly.

[occultigen]

Sometimes that happens on purpose. Then it's not so much not fitting in as...someone seeking to keep you out, rather.

[Given her expression, that one's hitting a little close to home, itself.]

I'm so very tired of being in places and positions like that.

[preybeforemeals]

[Well, that seems to strike him oddly, sending his gaze down toward that book he'd set down earlier.

"I find your cute little human pretense completely absurd. Don't you, Gourmet-kun?"
"Oh, you're here again? What do you want, Tsukiyama-san?"
"You're going to take your leave now."
"The second you become useless to me, I'll kill you."]

Oh, yes, and no matter what you're willing to do for them, it's n-

[He cuts himself off, however, shaking his head after a moment. No. No, we're not getting into that here. And besides, it's utterly untrue, isn't it ("Are you really going to be okay, Tsukiyama-san?"), sometimes it's just a matter of not having enough patience, surely eventually it'll be enough, it'll...

He laughs a bit after a moment, the sound quiet and breathless, the sort of thing that happens when you aren't entirely sure how you're doing but want to make an attempt at steadying yourself.]

You know, this sort of thing is part of the reason why I was telling you that we can observe some of your own traditions, should you choose to - all this is really just making me think it would be a good idea.

From the sound of it, we've both had enough of being kept out of others' happiness; it might be nice to try to find some of our own.

[occultigen]

...It's not enough. Manners aren't enough. Good acts aren't enough. Love isn't enough.

[She says it quietly, right along with him though still more to herself than to him, in that space of time between when he cuts himself off and when he briskly moves on from it.

She's certainly not going to fight him over moving on, though, once he does.]

I'd like that very much. It sounds awful to say that I don't know if there is a proper substitute for a happiness you're told you can't have, but...I'm certainly not opposed to trying, even so.

[preybeforemeals]

I don't think it sounds awful at all, actually.

[And just like that he's calmed down, and he's smiling as he usually is, and he plays a little bit with the corner of that book before he looks back up at her.]

I would like to hear some of your music sometime, by the way.

[occultigen]

Once I've saved up for a piano, perhaps?

[Hahahahahahahahaha women owning property. :| ]

Perhaps I'll have the chance to sometime, even so. I'd like that — and to hear yours, as well.