afterliving | video; backdated to valentine's day

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video; backdated to valentine's day

[ Have a brightly waving Yuri right now, looking too happy. ]

Hello on Valentine's Day everyone! As you can see, apparently the entirely school's gone completely insane!

[ Okay yeah no she can't keep that up with the stupid banging on the door in the background. It's obvious she's in her dorm room right now. There's another chair in front of the door, blocking it. Sorry about the inconvenience, Sonia. ]

Shut up already!

[ Yuri looks back to the laptop. ] Heads up, they're still pretty stupid. You can lose them for a while if you trap them in a classroom, but they'll find you eventually. Sonia, I hope you don't mind if I use your sheets to escape out the window. I don't really want to slaughter them.. [ She side-eyes the door. ] But at this point even knocking them out doesn't last more than a few minutes.

[ There's already blood on the door handle and it's unclear just whose it is, since Yuri already changed clothes. ]

We need a way to lock the doors from the outside to trap all of them. If anyone needs help, let me know where you are as soon as you can. SSS members: If you're close to the location calling for help, get to them as soon as possible. You know where the extra weapons are in HQ if you need--

[ There's a loud crack in the background as some kind of kitchen knife breaks through the wood of the door, making Yuri look back. ]

I'll be replying from my phone when I can. Stay in groups if possible.

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[He goes quiet as she issues the command to stay still, watching her intently. Did she have a plan? Were they going to run for it?]

[Initially, her repetitive grabbing of his hand was confusing, wondering if something was supposed to happen each time she took his hand... but then he realized where she was looking. He peered around the building at the NPCs, everything suddenly making sense.]

They calm down when we... hold hands..? [He turned back to her, spotting that disgruntled embarrassment on her face.] I guess we should make sure it works~! [And unless she stopped him, he'd be tugging her out into the open with him, because the most efficient way to test armor is to go to battle, right?]

Don't drag me out where everyone can see!

[ HINATA DO YOU NOT GET THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION HERE? SHE HAS TO HOLD YOUR HAND ALL DAY IF SHE DOESN'T WANT TO GET TAKEN OUT. SHE'S NOT ACTUALLY 100% SURE SHE CAN HANDLE THIS!! ]

Why not?

[He looked over his shoulder at her as he dragged her out, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world. Standing out in the middle of the sidewalk, he firmly held her hand, and... the NPCs walked right past them.]

Ha! Did you see that!? [He's still working off the adrenaline rush he got from solving the mystery, not yet understanding the possibly long-term implications of having to hold hands to survive.] Come on, we should tell everyone!

[ Yuri held onto his hand a little more tightly, planting her feet firmly on the ground. ]

We're not telling everyone, are you crazy!?

[ Maybe it would be the leadery thing to do. Maybe. ]

We don't even know if it works with everyone! What if it's just--

[ No, nope. Yuri takes a deep breath, then narrows her eyes at him. He better not follow up on why she might've thought that. ]

But what if it does work for everyone?

[Surely it couldn't just... be... them... He slowly turns to look down at her, prompting her to continue.] Just... what?

[That dumb grin fades a little as he thinks about it. So they'd have to... hold hands. For how long? He starts running over his daily activities in his head, some of them more private than others. If that was the case, then-]

How am I supposed to shower!?

You're taking a shower at midnight with the lights off so I can't see anything!

[ Yuri sighs, trying to concentrate on anything but Hinata showering now.. ]

I'll try it with an NPC and see if it works.

[ One of the ones that isn't trying to stalk either of them, hopefully. Yuri's going to proceed to drag him over to one whose face she doesn't recognize now and grab their hand, then let go of Hinata's to see what happens.

Said NPC mostly just looks confused, but the others seem to be getting riled up again...

[Shower time is private time! How is he supposed to relax if she's-!?]

Y-yeah... [Not that he's any more thrilled about the idea of holding hands with an NPC and showering, but at least that doesn't come with the threat of mutilation or death.]

[He watches intently as she holds the hand of a passing NPC, realizing pretty quickly that it's not working... Without waiting for further permission, he grabs her hand again.] Maybe it only works with humans... Should we go find someone?

[ If it's just humans in general and not just Hinata, Yuri will honestly find a little relief in that. She was still reeling a tiny bit from even considering that it could just be him, and that weird moment when he caught her before that..

When he grabbed her hand again, Yuri holds it loosely for a moment before squeezing a little bit. If she were being honest, she'd probably have to admit that she didn't really want it to be anyone else's hand that worked. ]

You're right, let's go find someone.

We should head for HQ, there's probably someone there!

[He doesn't think much of it at first, but as they start walking toward the main school building, he realizes how nice it is to hold someone's hand again... He remembered liking the feeling of being with someone when he was alive, but he'd only ever walked around holding hands with girls he was... dating.]

...This kind of makes us look like a couple, doesn't it? [And there he goes sabotaging himself. See, this is why we can't have nice things.]

[ Nope, Yuri's tightening her grip on his hand and trying to pull him toward the dormitory building. ]

I'm finding someone we don't talk to regularly!

[ Her grip on his hand is probably a little too tight. Sorry about your fingers, Hinata. She's not really looking at him either. She's not asking someone they know in case it is somehow or other just Hinata and Yuri that this will work with. Yuri's not even sure why she's convinced that it's just Hinata, there's no evidence that it would be just him but.. She doesn't really want it to work with anyone else. Not for Valentine's Day. Not while he's talking about how they look like a couple. ]

[He nearly loses his balance as she yanks him in the other direction, but manages to catch himself and follow her lead, as always.]

Like who?

[He... kind of has a point. Being the founders, Yuri and Hinata tend to make the rounds in talking to people. Especially Yuri, who seems to always know everyone.]

[It's a little surprising that she didn't hit him for suggesting they look like a couple, following dutifully after her, even if she's squeezing a bit too tight. He doesn't really mind... getting to walk around with her like this is... nice. Nostalgic, even.]

I don't know, idiot. Let's just look. Maybe someone dropped out of the sky this morning.

[ Probably not, but it was worth a shot wasn't it..? For a brief moment she considered just dealing with the stupid NPCs. Honestly, that sounded better than having to force herself to not think anything about holding Hinata's hand all day, especially while he was spouting stuff about them looking like a couple. ]

Are you sure you didn't grab anyone's hand earlier today? You're the type of person who likes to grab people, I'd be surprised if I was the first.

Ehh... [He reached up to nervously rub at the back of his head with his free hand. She was right that he was a touchy kind of guy, but...]

Well, I haven't been to class in a while, so I went today... [Which had nothing to do with the obligation-chocolate from some of the female NPCs, definitely not!] ...and all these girls were giving me chocolate, and asking if I had a girlfriend, and-

[She knew how he was, so he probably didn't need to say anything else, but long story short... he'd only really been grabbing NPCs today. Hugging girls, winking at them from across the classroom, practicing his rusty ladykiller smile... He could look past the creepiness when they were shyly offering him chocolate and calling him senpai, apparently. But he hadn't really been in contact with people until he realized something wasn't right.]

Idiot.

[ She wasn't even going to address him doing that kind of crap. Valentine's Day wasn't her day, it definitely wasn't something that she wanted to deal with, but she didn't exactly like that Hinata was just enjoying getting chocolate from a bunch of girls and didn't exactly seem to care about the ones he wasn't getting chocolate from. Hinata had always worn his heart on his sleeve, which was probably why she was the slightest bit disappointed about him not being upset by it.

..Even if anyone in their right mind probably wouldn't expect a damn thing from Yurippe in the first place. And anyone in their right mind probably also wouldn't want to eat anything Yurippe concoted in a kitchen either. There was a reason she was all udon and yakisoba pan and cafeteria food almost all the time. Still, the point obviously stood.

Yuri sighed and shook her head. ]

It's not like it'll last, let's just let people figure it out on their own. There are enough touchy feely people that they probably already know.

Eh- Weren't they bothering you, too? [Really, it's not like he was even slightly interested. An NPC girlfriend would be so weird... but the ego boost of being swooned over was a pleasant change of pace.] It was all giri-choco anyway...

[He'd long since given up hope on ever getting chocolates from Yuri on Valentine's Day, since she'd avoided holidays before, he was just trying to accommodate that. Most everything that could be considered distance from him was just him trying to abide by the rule she'd set all that time ago, not really realizing that maybe a few things had changed.]

[They couldn't find love here, that's what she'd told him.]

[Despite all this, despite knowing it was a stupid question... he asked it.] ...Did you make chocolate for anyone this year, Yurippe?

[ Having Hinata holding her dominant hand made one thing a little more difficult: hitting him for saying stupid crap. She didn't want to let go of his hand, so the response to that question about her making chocolate came with her attempting to raise both of their held hands up to try to get him in the face. It'd probably only work if he didn't fight it.

Either way, her next words were coming out quickly. ]

Who the hell do you think I'd make chocolate for, moron!?

I don't know! [He grips her hand more tightly to prevent her hitting him, raising his other hand up to shield his face from her wrath, just in case.] Someone you like! Who else would you make chocolate for!?

[Then again, after the fiasco with the New Year's dinner... maybe her not making chocolate was a good thing.]

[ She's honestly trying to fight his grip to really get him to hit himself in the nose if she can. This is turning into arm wrestling as she starts yelling at him. ]

Just who do you think I like anyway, you complete dumbass!?

I don't see you holding anyone else's hand!

[He stops breathing as soon as he says it, startling himself so much that he stops fighting her, getting the full brunt of both of their fists crashing into his nose.]

[It catches him just off-guard enough that he loses his balance, falling backwards onto his ass, taking her with unless she lets go of him... Thankfully, there's someone leaving the girl's dormitory, so Yuri can grab another hand while he's nursing a possibly broken nose.]

[ Yuri definitely, definitely releases his hand when he does that, immediately turning to stomp away with her face flushed bright red until she nearly runs into none other than Kirino.

Who she doesn't actually say anything to, she just grabs Kirino's hand and narrows her eyes at her. ]

Don't ask questions.

[ She's not going to explain anything about the idiot on the ground, no, and after she's held Kirino's hand for about ten seconds, she looks back to see if there are NPCs following them still.. And, well, it looks like in the distance the couple that had been following them were back on the trail, so Yuri releases Kirino and turns around before she can say anything. She walks back to Hinata and kicks him in the side. ]

It doesn't work, give me your hand again.

[As quickly as they heal, it's still annoying when he has to stop a bloody nose on the sleeve of his jacket... at least nothing's totally broken.]

[Assuming she's just going to go off and hold hands with a girl instead to avoid the comments, he's about to go barricade himself in his room until the NPCs go back to normal... only to get kicked in the side.] Ow! I didn't even do anything that time-!

[But the advancing NPCs aren't lost on him, quickly getting to his feet and offering his hand out to her. And they stop.]

[There's a silence of mutual understanding between them for a moment, until he decides to ruin it by talking.] ...So, it's just you and me, huh?

[ Yuri didn't look at him as he grabbed her hand again or as he got up. She was still ridiculously embarrassed about that stupid declaration of his that he didn't want anyone else holding her hand. Even if that was part of the reason she had been upset and didn't want to find anyone in the first place, it was still utterly ludicrous to say out loud.

She had a good idea about why it worked with her and Hinata, a good idea that she didn't want to say. Honestly, she was just hoping that he wasn't going to figure it out like she had. ]

Just like old times.

[ Well, with more handholding. The part where Hinata was in pain, alone with Yuri, and following her was the same though. Yuri still doesn't look at him, a little quieter now as she starts walking to the dorms. ]

My door has a stab wound, we're staying in yours.

[Thankfully for her, he'd spent so long telling himself she'd never want him, that the thought didn't cross his mind. But he had to admit... getting to walk around with her holding hands on Valentine's Day was just too... sweet. It was almost unfair. He had to wonder if the world was just messing with him.]

[He smiled a little when she talked about old times, looking at her even as she avoided looking at him.] Yeah... [He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.] We've been through a lot together, huh?

[With a destination in mind, he went to the boy's dorms, pulling the door to the building open and letting her go first. His room was on the third floor, so they had a little walking to do before they could take a break, Hinata side-eying a few NPCs on his way up the stairs. The one with the surgical scissors had really freaked him out, ok....]

[They'd be about halfway up when he decided to talk again, his voice hushed when compared to his usual shouting.] ...Is there anyone you like, Yurippe?

[ Yuri wanted nothing more than to excuse herself from the conversation, to come up with something she had to do. It wasn't that easy when you couldn't accomplish anything without the NPCs going nuts at you and trying to off you.

Honestly, him asking that made her chest hurt. This was a new feeling. She hadn't even let herself consider the idea of being with someone before; she hadn't been remotely ready emotionally. After she'd come to terms with everything, she felt like she actually could. It was the responsible thing not to, however. Not in a place where this heartache could cause problems that would put everyone in danger.

Yuri stopped walking, staring at Hinata for a few seconds before deciding to answer. There's a small smile on her lips, but it doesn't look happy or confident like she normally would. ]

It doesn't matter, does it? If there were, there are only two ends to that. Either we can actually be happy and we disappear or one disappears before the other and the other gets left behind and the shadows start up until it finds where all that heartache is coming from. Whether I like someone or not, I can't do that to everyone.

Edited 2014-04-04 17:54 (UTC)

[This world was just messing with him... He pushed a small sigh through his nose as she began to speak, anticipating her usual response about painful memories, but finding that the answer he got wasn't just the same old deflection.]

[She'd... thought about this.]

[He stopped with her, watching her as she spoke with a distant sadness in his eyes. Even if they needed love to heal, like he'd said again and again... would it always end in tragedy? Did it always put everyone in danger? Maybe she was right.]

[Unconsciously, he squeezed her hand.]

And what if we find the Programmer? What if we destroy the servers? [He swallowed nervously.] What will your answer be then?

[He knew he was pushing it. Honestly, he didn't even know why he was so desperate to hear her answer, driven by something he couldn't--or wouldn't--identify.]

video; backdated to valentine's day

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