video; un: ny4n

[ichimyatsu]

[The feed buzzes on to Ichimatsu looking boredly down with his hand resting on one fist, his other clearly setting the phone up to record. Despite how often he looks bored, this time he looks a little perturbed, as well, and he glances up at the phone after a while, shifting its view a moment later. It shows a large wooden chest, in the corner of a relatively nondescript room, and the inside of the chest is sectioned off into several segments, most of which are... filled with plants, be they dried or in seed form. He slowly moves the view across the entire chest, and then sets it back on a shelf, or a windowsill, where it can focus on him as he sets his cheek back against his fist.]

...so I've had this chest of plants for almost a fucking year now. I completely forgot about them, and all the labels are... burnt, it looks like. Somehow the plants are okay? They're weird space plants, they all do weird shit. I remember two of them, but not their names.

[A long silence, and he shifts to uncurl his hand and set his chin in his palm, instead.]

...guess I'm gonna be selling some weird space plant extracts once I figure out what they all do again. Anybody interested? Or, for that matter, anybody know anything about plants? Reaper, Karamatsu, you two remember these things?

[ooc; Ssssso these are plants Ichimatsu's had since he was in Eluvio. There was an event in that game where the ship visited a planet with seven districts based off the seven sins, and characters were allowed to harvest and keep flora from the districts. The moderation of that game has since locked the post with the actual names/effects of those plants, so I'll be working off memory for effects and making up new names, but the plants bear no actual resemblance to any other existing flora. Feel free to have any botany-smart people tell him as much! ...also hi I changed usernames.]

Comments

[bottombitch]

Yeah, kinda?

So basically you got them from another world, right? That can't be too weird, considering people are bringing stuff from other worlds all the time here.

[ That's definitely weird... but somehow he thinks this isn't the first time someone's brought some weird (and potentially dangerous flora or fauna into this world. Aoba blinks at Ichimatsu as if maybe he knows what he's getting himself - or anyone who sticks their nose where it doesn't belong, into. ]

Maybe there's some kind of facility here that can help? Maybe at Salvage?

[nyahilistic]

I mean, they're plants and I got them in space, I didn't have any better way to describe them.

[He nods, turning his attention back to the chest of plants, sifting through them idly, pinching leaves and smelling them, chewing a little on the end of one. He makes a face, sticking his tongue out, and looks back up at the screen with it still sticking out.]

Mmn, you think? I figured maybe I'd just build some kind of greenhouse... [Not that he knows how to do that.]

[bottombitch]

[ Imagining his glum buddy here actually swinging a hammer to build anything is so odd that Aoba can't really envision it. ]

You mean at your house?

I heard you and your brothers moved in together. How's that working out?

[nyahilistic]

[You hush, he will figure something out.]

It'd be the easiest place for it... It's no different than before, really.

[bottombitch]

[ NO. Go back to being shoeless in a corner with the cat! You're scaring him with all this talk of productivity...

...Maybe there's a Reaper girl involved somehow. ]

You know, I'm not sure if that means you're all getting along better or not. But I think it's a good thing, it's not good for any of you to feel lonely.

[nyahilistic]

[Excuse you, he started doing this long before he got close to Reaper. ...but maybe his constant inferiority complex to having a massive crush on a former soldier is helping maintain it.]

[He scrunches his face up in a grimace, shrugging.]

Karamatsu's new favorite thing is proclaiming that we're friends, since he got me to drunkenly agree to it at the not-birthday party. So that's something, I guess.

[bottombitch]

'New favorite thing'...? [ Aoba cocks his head to the side. He doesn't know what he's referring to. But that last part he understands completely! ]

...Ah, so he bullied you into it.

I guess that's just the sort of thing expected of Kara-kun... he sure has a funny way of looking out for you!

[nyahilistic]

[He squints slightly, quirking a crooked grin.]

"Kara-kun", is it? [He goes back to his plants, but the grin stays, faintly.] You two must be close.

[bottombitch]

Mm. [ Aoba nods, his smile softening. He looks a little distracted, lost in some troublesome thoughts. ]

We're soulmates, so I guess that's why...

[ He thinks back on recent history and his smile falters. ]

...A-actually, it's a little embarrassing to say that out loud.

i love everything right now

[nyahilistic]

[He chokes on air and makes a startled snorting sound, rearing back from the chest of plants to point at the screen.]

You're the soulmate??

[A beat.] ...you punched him in the face?!

SPUTTERS HAHAH OH GOD; 1.2

[bottombitch]

[ Aoba flinches. Oh... he heard... about that... ]

A...about that...

[ Please don't be angry with him, he had a good reason to give Karamatsu that black eye. Although looking back at that now, it seems so long ago and kind of silly. ]

I guess it makes sense that you'd hear about that.

[bottombitch]

[ But then something occurs to him. ]

...He told you about that, but didn't mention me by name?

[nyahilistic]

[He bursts into sudden, vaguely maniacal laughter, though short-lived, and waves a hand dismissively.]

Fuck, I'm honestly glad somebody else punched him for his shit for once. He got all weird and flustered about his soulmate being a guy so we didn't exchange names.

[bottombitch]

[ AH. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME HE'S HEARD HIM LAUGH. But he follows that through with a statement that makes Aoba's face flood with color. Speaking of flustering... ]

Th-that's exactly what happened. He was mad that I wasn't -- [ Totoko ] someone else, and he got mean about it. I ended up hitting him.

[ He's not exactly proud of it, and he's only a little sorry. He also felt like he had it coming, but ever since he's seemed to relax his repulsed reaction to people like... well, people like Aoba and their preferences. ]

...I don't see what the big deal is, having a soulmate be a guy isn't a big deal. It's not like we're dating or anything.

[nyahilistic]

[Sorry he sounds so unhinged, he does, maybe, know how to laugh like a normal person. But honestly any outside harm befalling Karamatsu and that's all out the damn window. He chitters for a while, and then waves his hands at the screen like he's telling Aoba to stop and then chiming in mid-thought.]

--let me guess, Totoko-chan? She's one of our childhood friends, we've all had stupid huge crushes on her since basically forever. Not that we stand any kind of fucking chance with her...

[He waves a hand again, as though clearing the air.]

You two hang out pretty often, you know how he is. I tried to tell him it's not weird, but we don't talk a lot so anything resembling advice form me is extra-moot, on top of the fact that I'm his younger brother so in his mind I shouldn't be giving him advice in the first place.

[bottombitch]

[ Aoba nods. That's precisely who it was, and honestly no matter how many times he hears about them all loving the same woman, it's still a little weird. Still, as desperate as they are, just what kind of woman is Totoko that they're still pining away all this time? ]

I guess that's who he was looking forward to seeing. Honestly... I had assumed that I was meeting up with Noiz, so I think we were both shocked.

[ And disappointed. He remembers feeling really jarred by the fact that his soulmate wasn't Noiz, but this embarrassing guy who he had to pull at to take a seat in crowded areas when he started shouting and posing, or cover his mouth when he said something weird. He'd thought it would've been great to be Noiz' soulmate, like it'd bring them closer together, so he couldn't really stay upset at Karamatsu for being disappointed too.

Now... he wouldn't trade it for anything. But he wonders if that might be troublesome for his brothers. ]

Hey... does it bother you?

[nyahilistic]

[You'd probably be surprised. Or maybe not, since she's about as awful as they are... Cute, sure, but pretty awful. He shrugs with a roll of his eyes.]

The hell kinda name is Noiz?

[He scrunches his face, but then it slackens and he tilts his head at Aoba's question.]

...does what bother me? There's a lot of things that could potentially bother me in this conversation.

[bottombitch]

[ Aoba looks embarrassed. Ichimatsu isn't wrong, it is a weird name. ]

W-well, that's the name he prefers. He kinda hates his real name.

[ A LOT OF THINGS?! G-great, now Aoba's feeling a bit anxious about what those things could possibly be. Crap. Okay, he's just going to... focus on the one. ]

The fact I hang around Karamatsu a lot. I mean, we could always hang out too.

[nyahilistic]

[He squints, making an expression of... overall confused distaste, but shrugs his shoulders.]

Not my weirdass nickname to pick, I guess.

[Sorry he's hard to read, Aoba. He's not, honestly, bothered by much of anything in this conversation, seeing as he's still maintaining it, but the variables remain. He could be bothered by the talk of soulmates when he'd asked about plants, he could be bothered by his brother's soulmate being a man, he could be bothered by Aoba hanging around his brother, like he asked...]

[He shakes his head, frowning thoughtfully.]

Nah, means somebody's keeping him occupied so he's not bothering me, honestly.

[bottombitch]

W-weirdass nickname... oi.

[ AH. He said something like this so bluntly, and then again about his own brother! How rude! But... that seems to be Ichimatsu's style anyway. ]

...Yeah, he can be a lot to take in for long periods of time.

[ Karamatsu and he might be close, but that doesn't mean he's not also embarrassing or difficult. ]

You know, I was over at your place the other day. You were out. [ How unusual. ] Were you working or have you been making some friends, Ichimatsu?

[nyahilistic]

[A shrug of his shoulders, hands raised and palms skyward.]

It's weird, okay. Who chooses to go by what sounds like the English word "noise"?

"The other day" is a very vague timeframe, but I was probably working. I'm not big on the whole "friendship" thing. [Ichimatsu stop being such a brat.]

1.3

[bottombitch]

Perverted brats, apparently.

[ Aoba blurts it without thinking. It's how he teases Noiz for his age and, uh, proclivity towards being direct. ]

[bottombitch]

[ ... ]

Ah.

[bottombitch]

[ MOVING ALONG ]

A-anyway! I think it was... [ On the day 'that' happened. ] the... 19th.

[ Aoba seems to look a little distracted, lost in thought. Ah, right. That's the day things got -- ]

Y-yeah. Friendships can get pretty complicated.

[nyahilistic]

[His eyebrows raise, obscuring themselves beneath his messy fringe, and he grins crookedly.]

19th? [His grin fades while he thinks, and he nods after a while.] I think I was working that day, yeah.