I will never, ever fall, never stumble, and I don't need to be humble

[mooninthewater]

Who: Mizuki & you!
What: Mizuki's here to talk to people now.
When: Couple days after the meeting.
Where: Inn or Therapy Building.
Warnings: Will be in the titles as they come up.

[ Mizuki hasn't really shown himself around the Grove since being outed by Irene. Add and Elsword got to see him, and Vash got to see him the one time, too, but overall? He just kept to his camouflage and sauntered around the place in secret.

Now he thinks he's finally ready for people to come talk to him. He gets the feeling that no one beyond Irene (and Lancer, though he hasn't realized this, yet) is actually mad at him, but he knows there's bound to be a lot of questions. Questions he's not really ready to answer.

Doctor Kal'tsit is going to be so disappointed in him.

You'll visibly find him in one of two places. One, the lobby of the inn, of which he'll be in the chair on the opposite end of the lobby of the Inquisition fireplace. He just stares at it, even as people enter and exit, lost in thought. Two, he'll be at the therapy building. Either just outside, putting cute stickers on the door outside, or in the lobby, playing Frogger.

He doesn't make the effort to actually talk to anyone, but he won't immediately bail if you walk up to him, either. ]

Comments

[mooninthewater]

[ Realistically, it's not very easy to sneak up on someone who's made it their job to be sneaky themselves. No matter how engrossed in the game he currently is, he is very aware of his surroundings. He doesn't give Livio much acknowledgement until he approaches, however, considering… well, it's just in case he's here for the amenities here, and not for Mizuki. He does finally look up at him when he speaks, however. ]

Oh… hi Mister Livio. [ Realistically, of the people who would come to talk to Mizuki, he's perhaps the most vocal with him, considering the very last thing he'd gotten from Mizuki was a hug. He's glad that whatever happened after he left didn't make Livio completely hate him. Positive sides! ]

Well, this is a video game, like Mario Kart. Mario Kart is a racing game, though. This is called "Frogger". You play as this little pixelated froggy and you have to jump across logs and lilypads and stuff to get to the other side.

But they're moving at different speeds or in different directions and if you jump in the water, you lose.

…Do you want to give it a try, Mister Livio? [ He scoops up a bunch of the stuffed animals nearby to make a pseudo-seat for him. ] You can give it a go.

[livlaughlove]

Hi, Mizuki. You don't have to call me "mister," you know.

[He still can't quite shake the feeling that it seems like a waste of time... but it's a way to bond with each other. And as Livio made it clear, so long as they're stuck together, they might as well be allies. So he takes the "seat" without much fuss.]

Can I watch you first? You seem like you know what you're doing.

[mooninthewater]

…I don't wanna be impolite, is all. [ Don't be too offended, Livio, there's very few people he doesn't use titles for.

Still, he gives a little nod and waits for Livio to have a seat before he's leaning against him so the vantage point of seeing his screen is a little better. Unsurprisingly, Mizuki is making the game look extremely easy, quickly spotting the most efficient paths and even rarely needing to stop before he gets to the end. ]

[livlaughlove]

I get it. Do whatever you're comfortable with.

Should I be calling you "mister" too? I don't want to be rude, either.

[After how quickly Mizuki ran away from that confrontation, Livio is surprised he's comfortable enough to lean on him. Not that he's complaining; he can't deny having even the smallest protective instinct for the Seaborn, threat or not.

And he may make the game look easy, but Livio isn't that naive. It's all judgment calls, thinking ahead, and reaction times. That takes training.]

You play this a lot?

[mooninthewater]

Umm… if you want to, I suppose. But I'm pretty sure I'm younger than you, so it's really not necessary.

[ Livio is also Very Tall compared to Mizuki's 5'2", so… ]

I play video games in general a lot. They're a lot of fun, and I'm really good at them. Plus, they're all basically just stories on a screen as far as I'm concerned. I really like to see the sorts of things that people create and the stories they weave — those sorts of things make me really happy.

[livlaughlove]

I'm younger than I look.

[Other than that, he won't argue.]

Stories? What's this little guy's story? [He is not mocking; Livio is as straight-faced and intrigued as ever.]

[mooninthewater]

Oh, this guy? He's an adventurous, courageous frog who is constantly thrown into adventures to help his friends. However, due to a near-drowning incident that happened when he was very young, he refuses to swim. As such, it's up to him to overcome obstacles cleverly and avoid the water, else he risks either losing his friends or succumbing to the psychological torture of reliving the event of his drowning.

His name is Frogger. [ I can't make this shit up it was on the wiki— ]

[livlaughlove]

[First bit tracks. Maybe gets a little dark, but understandable.

... Okay, when Mizuki puts it like that...]

... Why do I feel so bad for a little guy made of pixels? [Why do any of us, Livio.]

[mooninthewater]

Ehehe, don't worry~. I'm really good at this, so he'll be okay. I won't let him fail his friends… I think that's more important than anything, anyway.

[livlaughlove]

He does look safe in your hands.

[Honestly, Livio doesn't even want to play anymore, just watch. The guilt spiral hurting poor little Frogger would send him into...]

[mooninthewater]

[ Hop hop hop hop hop… Mizuki finishes a level or two before he speaks up again. It's very quiet, but it's there. ]

…You didn't just come in here to play video games, did you, Mister Livio?

[livlaughlove]

Well, no. I haven't been in here before at all. I've been trying to familiarize myself with everything in town.

[mooninthewater]

'M surprised no one's offered to give you a tour. Just be careful if you intend to check out the part of town up north that's all burnt down. The sinkholes up there haven't stopped being an issue yet, and I really don't want you to fall in any of 'em.

[livlaughlove]

That's okay. I try to avoid asking people to hold my hand. But thank you for the warning.

[... While he's here, though.]

How are you holding up?

[mooninthewater]

You don't gotta avoid that with most of us. There's a lot of really good people here who would be happy to help out.

[ There's also a couple who might scoff at Livio, but Mizuki's pretty sure Livio's realized who those people might be thanks to their behavior at the meeting. ]

Hm? I'm doing good. There's actually roughly over thirty levels and I've gotten through a good twenty and some change, so I should be able to get to the end here soon...

[livlaughlove]

It's more a personal preference. [Most of the people around here seem kind enough to do something like that. Livio would still feel guilty.

... Which he kind of feels, pressing, when he can't tell if Mizuki is being genuine or avoidant. But even so...]

Oh. That's good. But I meant more... after you were attacked.

[mooninthewater]

Oh. [ Not avoidant. Just genuinely too focused on video game. ] Mhm. I'm okay. Miss Irene wasn't lookin' to really hurt me or nothin', so it was just a little scratch. It was basically all healed up I left.

[livlaughlove]

[Livio stares hard at Mizuki for a moment. Maybe this is a little harsh, but he needs to be aware if he's in real danger, and Livio knows the body language of a fight. Irene may not have been going for anything vital, but a scratch it was not.]

She was trying to impale you, Mizuki.

[mooninthewater]

She… [ … Mizuki slumps a bit, but manages to click along at his game just fine.

Until he slips up and jumps into the water while his fingers move just a little too fast and his thoughts are just a little distracted. A pause. He sets the controller in his lap. ] She was upset. It’s my fault, I… I was careless.

She isn’t a bad person or anything like that. I don’t think she ever had any real intention of killing me or anything like that, so it’s alright.

[livlaughlove]

[Maybe Livio's five minutes of moral crisis on No Man's Land have made him... just a little self-righteous. He can't help but scoff at that sentiment.]

If she had good intentions, she should have just spoken to you instead of all but calling to have you tossed to the forest fucker.

[mooninthewater]

Please don’t say that, Mister Livio. Her intentions may not have been totally good, but her country and my kin have been at war for a very, very long time. She only sees Us as m-mon… [ … ] -savage beasts because that’s all she’s ever gotten the chance to see.

From her point of view, I lied about one of the worst things I could have.

[livlaughlove]

[Livio catches that Mizuki doesn't seem comfortable using the word "monster." Makes a note not to use it around Mizuki, himself.]

It sounds like you had to lie just to protect yourself, if that was always going to be her reaction.

It's... noble of you to defend her, but you won't change my opinion. I formed that based on her own actions.

[mooninthewater]

Mister Livio… [ He adjusts himself a bit to try to give him a hug the best he can from how he's sitting. ] I appreciate it. Honestly, I do. But things back from my home aren't so… simple. I don't quite get it, but… I know there's a lotta good people that just got dealt real bad hands.

[livlaughlove]

[Okay. So Mizuki knows that a hug will deflate any irritation Livio harbors like hot air from a balloon.]

... I'm sorry if I'm being harsh. I just think that if someone is actually good, they can at least attempt to see past their own bias.

[mooninthewater]

…People can make mistakes, too. Sometimes they'll do something wrong and realize it later.

I'd like to give her that chance, too. [ lol. lmao. ] Thank you, though, for caring so much about me. You don't even know me that well, ehe… You're a good person, Mister Livio.