insert appropriate lyrics here

[evokingfool]

Characters: Minato and YOU.
Setting: Room 2-02, cafeteria, anywhere.
Format: Starting in third person, will match.
Summary: Minato's return, before he went off to eat and explore/talk.
Warnings: Mentions of dead people and basically experiences in ruined homeworlds.

2-02
Waking up in an familiar bed—his bed—and feeling the familiar presences of the voices confirming his Social Links. His alive Social Links, nonetheless, kept him from getting up at first. Was this a dream, or was he truly back in this tower? Minato didn’t dwell on the question for very long. His dreams never tried imitating the feeling of knowing his Social Links was alive (not dead, not like back in that world when he found the bodies of everyone) to such a degree.

So he’s truly back.

Slowly, he got out of bed and explored the room. Did anything change in his absence? And what about his roommates? They’re still here, or went back home like he did?

“...Yu?” His voice sounded raspy from disused. Minato knew he’s quiet, but there wasn’t any good reason for him to talk back home this time. He had no one else to talk to, no one but the voices to listen and the infrequent appearances of Pharos. “Mondo-san? Richtofen-san?”

He wanted to talk to people again.

CAFETERIA
The first thing he did after leaving his room was to head for the cafeteria. After living on canned and preserved food for so long, he longed to eat other type of cooking and food.

The sheer amount of food on his tray looked rather surprising. It’s a little more than Minato usually put for his first serving, but he didn’t mind it. He’s going to eat a lot, no matter how many servings he’s getting. After a certain bowl of oatmeal.

No complaints at all from the young man, who was absent for the past month.

EVERYWHERE
After he’s done eating, Minato made a quick trip to the nearest terminal to put up a post and stay there long enough to answer anyone who replied. Typing, talking with his voice, it’s all the same for him on such a simple activity: conversing with others.

Once it’s over for now, Minato made his way to explore the tower and re-familiarise himself with the place. For all he knew, the tower might have new places to see or changed things in his absence. It’s a little better than back home, where there were actually signs of life around if you look carefully. Even if this tower and the admins can be horrible to them.

But if he can admitted it, it was nice to see living people again.

Comments

2-02, welcome back, roomie!

[doctor_dismemberment]

"Oh, you're back," came a voice from the other side of the room.

Richtofen was sitting on his bed, a book in his hands. He'd been so absorbed in his reading that he hadn't noticed Minato had appeared until he started to move around. It was a bit startling at first, but Richtofen kept himself from looking too jumpy.

"Wunderbar. Yu will be so relieved," he said, as impassive as if they were discussing the weather.

glad to be back??

[evokingfool]

Minato looked over at Richtofen, relief showing in his eyes. They're not particularly close, but Minato's glad to see Richtofen. And the older man's words helped.

Yu was also still here.

"And Mondo-san?"

BDb

[doctor_dismemberment]

"Oh, yes, him too."

Richtofen waved his hand dismissively.

"They will both be glad to see that you haven't been swallowed by some monster," he said, and he gave a little chuckle. Then he closed his book halfway and leaned forward, an eyebrow quirked. "You weren't, were you..?"

:|

[evokingfool]

Minato smiled a little, before shaking his head.

"No, I wasn't." Being eaten by a monster was a messy way to go. "I was somewhere else during my...absence."

Now that he thought about it, how long was he away for?

Cafeteria, the social link has been worried

[altitonant_emperor]

Hidetoshi had settled onto a routine in the Tower. He was neat and brisk in awakening; he rolled blearily out of bed, put on his school uniform, grabbed his knives and spent a short amount of time in the bathroom brushing back his gray hair and cleaning up before making his bed. Then it was down to the cafeteria to receive breakfast and take it back up to his room to eat.

Upon entering the cafeteria, he was... Not expecting to see a familiar slouched set of shoulders, and deep blue hair seated at one of the tables and demolishing his plate piled high with food. Minato (both of them) had been absent for awhile now. After a minute of shocked silence as he stood there, he decided to approach.

Minato would hear Hidetoshi cautiously call out before he reached him. "Minato-kun?"

\o/

[evokingfool]

After spending however long it was to eat specific food, freshly made dishes seemed more delicious in comparison. It would be easy for him to tune out his surroundings and just eat.

But his manners, fortunately, wasn't completely eroded. Minato paused when he heard a familiar voice, setting down his fork and quickly finished the piece of omelette in his mouth. He knew that voice, how couldn't he when it's Hidetoshi's?

Minato turned his head until he saw Hidetoshi.

"...Hidetoshi-kun."

'You're alive.' Of course he's alive. If Hidetoshi was standing there, in this tower, then he's alive. That fact did nothing to remove his memories of what he saw.

|D

[altitonant_emperor]

"... Hey, it's good to see you," he offered as a greeting. What happened, are you okay? is what he actually wanted to ask, and lingered on his tongue, but the... tone of Minato's voice when he said his name made him leave the question unspoken.

It didn't have anything to do with his vague suspicion he knew exactly when Minato had been the last month, it really didn't. Hidetoshi waits a moment then sits down next to his friend, leaving a space on the bench between them and eying that small mountain of food. "Famished?"

It seemed as good as conversation starter as anything.

|3

[evokingfool]

He nodded in reply. It was good to see Hidetoshi again. No, relieving to see him again. Standing and not lying on the ground as a lifeless corpse.

It's a sharp confirmation of what the admins said about their worlds. Didn't he always said he would prefer to see the truth with his own eyes, in person?

"Fairly. I haven't had eggs in a while."

And many other types of food, but he can take what he get.

cafeteria

[chainsawn]

[ Wow, Minato. Way to eat a mountain of food. Urotsuki's discovered that sometimes the most interesting things can be found in the cafeteria, seriously, there's been so many interesting people there lately.. So she just watches from her own table as he gets serving after serving, not even touching her own food.

After a while of observing she does dare to come over though, blinking at him. ]

Hungry..?

cafeteria

[evokingfool]

[If Urotsuki get to know him, a pile of food was fairly normal for Minato. It's just a little bigger than normal.

A lot of eggs, from what he observed so far. An egg dominant menu this time...?

Minato looks up when he noticed her approach, and nods. Yeah, hungry.]

Just a bit.

[chainsawn]

If that is 'just a bit', then you must be able to eat mountains when you're really, really hungry.

[ She doesn't even sound sarcastic or like she's joking or anything - nope, she's 100% serious. ]

[evokingfool]

A mountain might be a little outside of my limits.

[Elizabeth out-eat him. She's not human, but that outing did make him aware of his limits.]

2-02

[mustlovedogs]

[Mondo was still rolling around in bed - or rather, lying there like a slug. He's quite wounded from his run-in with Monomaru the other day, so sleeping in seems like a pretty good option. There are bandages around his hand, shoulder and thigh, telling of all the places he was attacked. But, hey, at least this isn't from his angry mob stunt back in December shortly after Minato disappeared? Minato doesn't need to know about that.

When he sees Minato get up, he raises a hand and calls out to him.]

Ou, Arisato. Where'd you go?

Re: 2-02

[evokingfool]

[It took Minato a moment before he notice Mondo and actually replying.]

I was back home. [Dead, ruined, lifeless, except for him and one other.

But his attention went towards the bandages.]

...What happened?

[mustlovedogs]

Uh...

[He rubs his neck. How does one explain Monomaru.]

Got tricked. Thought this guy was Ishimaru and he had a sword and shit...

[evokingfool]

A lookalike or...Ishimaru-san from another world?

[The tower ingrained into him that possibility. But the thought of that guy attacking Mondo is odd.]

2-02, welcome back, sane roomie

[pitiedthefool]

Yu wasn't really sleeping, just lying there on his own bed and going over his notes. For some reason, he just couldn't; like everything in his mind wouldn't settle down. It's funny because it was the same feeling he'd get before eventually drifting off and dreaming about comforting a crying friend.

Well, not today. Apparently the reason he couldn't sleep just made itself known as Izanagi quietly mental-tapped him on the shoulder.

"...Minato?"

Yu had the sinking suspicion that someone had seen what he'd seen a few months back... but he couldn't help but be glad his friend was back. Mostly for the other Social Links who'd been worried for him.

glad to be back, roomie

[evokingfool]

If it helps, Minato wasn't exactly crying. It's that state of being unable to cry, even if the person wanted it. Necessities trumped over it first, leaving Minato just very focused on survival until now.

"...It's me." His voice was still a little raspy, but it'll get better. "I'm back."

[pitiedthefool]

To be honest, he isn't sure if it is or not. Considering where Minato likely was this entire time, he found it unlikely that it would be.

"...Welcome back." Because of the two options, this place was better. If only slightly tell anyone he admitted that and there will be words. Still, if he wanted to talk, it wasn't like he was going to be leaving just yet as he sat up fully to get a better look at him.

Graveyard

[determinedhowl]

[So someone had been often visiting the graveyard for a bit each morning to visit the tombstones of his friends, often just sitting in front of Shinjiro's or Ken's for a moment before going about his day. Usually that meant carrying around Shinjiro's knife too, but shh. Only Ken and Ryoji know about that, okay.

He was just about to leave when his nose picked up a familiar scent. Leaving the knife behind, he took off in the direction it was coming from, only to see--]

*bark bark!*

[Likely getting tackled by an excited dog in three, two...]

Re: Graveyard

[evokingfool]

[A graveyard, even after returning so soon. In a way, it's fitting. The destruction ruined the land, including wrecking the cemeteries he managed to find. Seeing the graveyard means a sense of stability.

...!

That's Koro-chan. That's Koro-chan. With a smile, he turned and starts saying.]

Koro--[Ooph! Tackled by a dog. But it doesn't matter, he get to see Koromaru again.] Koro-chan!

[determinedhowl]

[Just a little bit fitting. Still, with his leader tackled to the ground, he is just going to lick his cheek once before getting off. He'd been worried that he was going to see another tombstone with "ARISATO" written on it, okay?

He calmly sits beside his leader after the initial outburst; he just had to welcome him back before returning to his normal self.]

Floor 11 (rainbows and waterfalls and upside down garden)

[warriorscribe]

*Except this floor's still frozen - the cold outside is too much for the heat coming from the surrounding floors, still. There's a cloaked person sitting against a large ice pillar that would normally be a waterfall, his face on his drawn-up knees.

When he hears Minato passing, he looks up reflexively. Rather than look back down, he watches as he climbs the stairs, a pleading quality somewhere in his eyes, if Minato can see them. Someone else has been home - only for a week, but all the same. It's good to be back among living people.*

Re: Floor 11 (rainbows and waterfalls and upside down garden)

[evokingfool]

[Leaving the aquarium floor via the stairs, Minato feel the cold as soon as he step inside this floor. It's cold enough for him to see his own breath, he idly noted to himself.

He walks in, avoiding the edges and explore the floor to remember the area again. Just in case.

Feeling someone watching him, Minato pause and carefully glance around.]

[warriorscribe]

...I'm sorry.

*Enoch's voice is subdued, but the cold and the hard ice should carry sound well, through the clear air.*

I didn't intend to disturb you.