niteo_nix | [text] and then [accidental video]

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[text] and then [accidental video]

l5jgv-'

[ One might easily identify this as a sign of a new user -- and new arrival -- given the extended period of slow, confused exploration of the PDA's miniature keypad conducted in almost pitch darkness. But if one were to guess who, in the midst of a baffled adjustment to one's unfamiliar surroundings, would have time to sit down and play with a weird piece of technology, those who know the white-haired arrival might not have guessed Allen Walker.

But really, messing with this peculiar thing and indulging his passing curiosity is all that's standing between him and panic. It's a fine distraction, really.

One that loses its sparkle when what amounts to a very fancy, miniaturized typewriter offers absolutely no answers.

In his frustration, Allen vents his opinion where he thinks it won't matter. ]

clever, but it's still rubbish

[ And presses something that he'll later learn is called 'enter' in a unique method revealed by a brief clip of unintentional video recording; by way of the toe of his boot connecting with the device as a white-haired young man kicks it in a fit of pique.

He can't have kicked it too hard, nor has it landed against anything too unforgiving, as it's still running a few moments before the video cuts out. ]

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[But it's Allen.

Grinning as he finally clicks the feed on to respond, whether or not the sprout remembered this place or things they had done or said... It was Allen.

And that's all Lavi could bring himself to care about at the moment.]

Get lost on your way here, Allen?

[ Allen's pride, once sufficiently roused, was a difficult beast to master; he's swift to blurt out a defensive: ]

I'm not lost!

[ Yes, he is. That ferris wheel he was supposed to walk towards? Nowhere in sight. In fact, the excuse (Only turned about a bit) dies on his tongue for the simple reason of-- ]

[ --double-taking at the miniature screen of the device because there's a face he hasn't seen in what feels like ages and among the last he had expected to stumble upon at all.

(Incidentally, he marks the second ginger on that list.) ]

L--

[ Throttling down his surprise is the unpleasant understanding that his friends in the Order might well be out to accomplish the Order's objectives. Overwhelming that sentiment is one far sharper, and Allen might have called it nostalgia if it hadn't been so warm.

Friendship's a generous gift that he's not so sure he deserves. It had abruptly barged in on him with Lenalee, too. ]

That's--

[ He jokes, because it's Lavi, and because it seems only right to give as good as he gets. ]

That's a fine thing to hear, coming from the one who's supposed to be in China.

Edited 2012-03-26 22:21 (UTC)

You sure? It's taken you a while.

[Not going to break the bubble of "you're not the first you that's been here".

Not yet. And probably not Lavi himself that'll break it.]

[Lavi's grin drops for a few seconds at the mention of China and he looks down, away from the camera for a moment.

You just had to mention China.

Give him a moment before a smile comes back on his face but it's dimmer than before.]

I'm afraid I'm closer to China than you are to Jordan.

A while?

[ That strikes him as a peculiar thing to say, a while like he'd been waiting up here for something or someone, but it could mean anything--and especially a sly jab at Allen's record-breaking attempt to get lost in the shortest amount of time possible.

It's Lavi. Either was possible. But there's something about his smile that unsettles.

Something's wrong.

Allen opens his mouth to speak and that's when his eyes clear with realization.

And hope. ] Is that all you heard? Jordan?

Yeah, you know: a tick, a spell, a period of time.

[He's been waiting (like Kanda) for another familiar face from home to pop up. Klaud was nice - sort of, because who really wanted another general here? - but she wasn't the face both of them wanted to see so badly.

And you do sort of get lost rather quickly, Allen. It's sort of amusing and frustrating at the same time.

Lavi sees that hope and for a moment he doesn't want to crush it. Yet he knows that he has to. He can't let them both live a lie.

Shaking his head.] No, I heard...most of what happened later thanks to Kanda and the others. ["The others."

You and Lenalee.]

[ And Allen forgets himself a moment, amused and holding a hand up in mock surrender, lest the Bookman dispense with a hundred memorized examples to further illustrate what 'a while' means.

It'd be like him, because out of them all Lavi had been the one to play games and put up the fun-loving face forward.

And that drops away, freezes Allen's smile in place as his eyes widen just a comprehending fraction, and it warms into something he hopes doesn't look like disappointment the way the cant of his head down does. ]

I see. [ Lenalee... ]

A girl -- her name is Becca -- mentioned that we were trapped.

...Is this it, then?

[ Fondness there, but not defeat. Is this the part where the Order tries to make its move, and Lenalee feared they'd have to fight as enemies, and Allen has to run and keep running? ]

[He couldn't let it be said that he didn't elaborate on exactly what he meant. And in that same moment he couldn't say he's been waiting for you since April, because "you" had been there before he had been. And you're here again.

He's lost that somewhere along the way... The games and fun-loving part of himself. It's hard to keep a hold of it when everyone keeps leaving you behind.

He nods a little - in reference to Becca.] Nesreca, Russia. There's a video that we - you and me - did to welcome folks in and explain things. I-if you want to see it.

[It would be odd - he knows that now having dealt with an Allen that called himself Red - to see yourself and not remember it.]

There's a whole lot more, Allen. [A reassuring grin.

You need to elaborate. Because on that part no one was clear. No one told him you were excommunicated, that you're now declared a traitor. They only told him that you had left the Order, that you had tried to save Alma and Kanda. Tried to save the Crow.

Tried and had one of the only places you called home throw you out.

All for something that wasn't your fault.

No, he'll never turn against you, Allen. You're his friend, his little brother even, he's not going to do what they did. He'll fight along side you.]

[ And for a moment Allen wonders if Lavi had just started speaking in tongues, until he realizes 'Nesreca, Russia' is a place in that vast country and there had been something so instinctively objectionable about something he deliberately did but doesn't remember that he had momentarily shied from it.

There's a flash of white at his throat as he swallows.

Lavi's grin prompts Allen's own assurance in the form of a smile, the chagrined sort, one of many. ]

Maybe later.

[ Because Lavi had grinned and hadn't issued a cocky challenge, as he might have been expected to do had he really been sent to deal with the Order's so-called traitor. ]

I'll hear all about it, especially if there's a snack involved.

[It's a hard pill to swallow at first, the name of this place and the fact that they're over a hundred years in the future. Even if the town they're in died sometime during their own time.

Lavi nods again.] There's a written pamphlet too, sort of a transcript sort of thing if that'd be better.

[Not even going to correct him? Now who's hiding things, Allen?]

We might have some. But we have to get you to the apartment building first.

[ There's a lot to talk about--but some of it is easier said than others. Some of it is difficult enough to approach at all, let alone in near pitch-darkness, solitary amid ruined buildings that might collapse on you for breathing too loudly.

But yes, Allen's being a bit dodgy in the face of overwhelming (and unbelievable) circumstances. ]

Right. I had better get my bearings--oh.

...Lavi?

[Perhaps they can talk about things that are easier like this place for one. But home...home could wait. Home wasn't here. Even if another piece of it made its way to Nesreca.]

Yeah, Allen?

[ It's a simple message to deliver, but he's a little slow in doing it, giving his face over to a smile.

Spilling a full teapot has a stain spreading across a carpet gradually, leaving everything it touches saturated with its fragrance. Genuine smiles are like that, sentiments that spill out over the edges of a person's heart and lay gradual, inevitable claim over their mouth, their eyes.

Allen, self-conscious and still a boy in some ways, even when the Order needs only the grown to carry the fate of their world on their shoulders, laughs and says: ]

It's good to see you again.

[Lavi just watches the slow transformation, he's almost sort of missed it the way that Allen's smiles sort of blossom over his face. The ones that were real and not the gentleman's mask that he constantly used to cover up his scars and hurts.

But the ones that were truly Allen were rare, almost like the ones that Lavi tended to give.

The rest were just a show to fool everyone else that it was all alright.

The laugh catches him off guard though, he hadn't expected it. Lavi blinks in surprise and then lets an honest - but small - smile spread over his own face, meaning every single word that he says next.]

It's good to see you too, Allen. Really good.

[Pause]

Now get your sprout-self to the apartment building so we can feed you.

My what.

[ And yes, yes, he's going-- but he's not so preoccupied as to neglect certain expected (necessary, Allen would say) responses to certain dismaying terms of endearment.

Sprout, indeed! He's grown a bit since they last met, he'd have you know!!

Not... that such a small screen really indicates as much. Reverting back to that more gentle tone of earlier: ]

See you later, then.

[Hey, he could have said sprout-butt or something like that. But he chose to keep it clean~ Besides, he missed you enough to resort to that nickname. Or at least part of it.

And you're still shorter than his six foot monstrous self.

Lavi gives him another grin, well worn and more familiar.]

Just make sure you don't go across any bridges. I'm in 905 when you get here.

[ Sure, rub it in, Ginger Sasquatch. Just remember the time when he towered over you and Kanda.

(Granted, thanks to a little help from the Science Division, but still.)

Bridges? ]

...I'll steer clear, but I hope you'll explain that one when I get there.

[That? That was just you daydreaming~

Besides, Cross is the Ginger Sasquatch, not him.]

Yeah, don't worry. I will.

[ There's just one more bee in the proverbial bonnet.

Not that either of them dress in women's clothes, or anything. ]

...Have you two been here long? I think this is the first time Kanda and I have had anything resembling a real conversation.

It's a little--

[ refreshing ]

--distressing.

[Lavi rubs at his head.]

Yu won't tell me for certain how long he's been here, but I'll have been here a year come April.

[A serious expression.] He took you and Lenalee leaving pretty hard. We all did.

Won't tell you--then...

[ Lavi's been here almost a full year, Kanda... perhaps longer.

Living in this desolate place for so long, with only a handful of others as your company, trapped with no viable way to escape.

Lavi always put forth the manner of a carefree teenager, but when things came down to the wire he could be counted on to strategize, puzzle their way out of a bind. Kanda would have thrown himself at and sliced to ribbons whatever stood between him and his objective.

And they had been here that long.

That last has Allen breaking eye contact to contemplate the broken pavement, awkwardly, never one to accept graciously reminders of how much he might or might not mean to those he called comrades.

Lenalee... ]

You mean she was trapped here too?

Just his choice and I don't push it, Allen.

[He's still trying. At least with trying to find people that will help them. So far the north has turned out exactly like Nesreca, towns with destroyed buildings from the late 1800s.

Libitina doesn't seem to want to let go of them. Or Sasuke.

Nodding.]

She was, she showed up around the same time I did.

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