[He gives a casual shrug at that remark. Of course he didn't have any intention to keep it as entirely his. That would get boring. Not to mention kind of lonely. He probably didn't explain himself right, this wasn't a sanctuary by any means, this was a stage for some mind-blowing adventure.
And if he got lucky and could kick things properly in his favor, maybe he'd be able to turn the outlook of a couple people he knew around.]
Of course! If I made a place just for me, it'd get boring as hell in a hurry. This is gonna be a gathering place of fiery spirits!
[Anxious to show what he had in mind, he clears some of the books away from one of the coffee tables, revealing a laptop with a video file cued up. And while the operation of the peculiar device was still fairly new to him, he'd thankfully been wandering from dream to dream and finding a few that had such devices to at least get the gist of how to work it. Thankfully, while he's not tech-savvy by any stretch, it seems even he could figure out the basics on his own. And it didn't hurt that because it was stuff he was dreaming up, all the media he needed was right on the desktop.]
But I got the idea for this place from this!
[A quick hotkey tap sends the video into motion; a clip show of late 1940s to 1950s cop, gangster and detective movies. Most of them involving car chases, gun battles and live shows at night clubs with an often fem fatale-looking singer.]
[He offers a casual shrug in reply. While it was a reminder of an era that long pre-dated her on her own world, to Kamina this was brand new. With the ability to pick and choose what combines to create his dream, he would probably feel like a kid in a candy shop... if he'd seen a candy shop.
And with the kind of outlook he tended to have, of course whatever he came up with would be used by everyone he knew and even the people he didn't know.]
It's not an exact copy of the stuff from that book or those movies either.
[He offers Mercury a wide grin.]
If I did this right, there's surprises in all this that even I don't know about.
[She likes, finally, having control of what's around her - she'd had so little for most of her life, between living for other people's expectations and then, the Dark Kingdom's goals, Kunzite's goals which intertwined with her own.
So her words come out a bit unsure.]
You want that? Not to know? Even though this is yours?
Well if you knew everything that was going to happen; exactly what to expect from anything at anytime, you can't tell me you wouldn't get bored as hell.
[He lets that sink in for a moment as he casually walks over to a stack of fruit crates outside of what looked like an old-time grocery store. Kamina wastes little time in snatching up an apple for himself, before tossing another for Mercury to catch.]
I don't know all of what you've been through. From what I can tell from the shit you have told me, it's some pretty dark stuff. [A pause to rub the apple on the shoulder of his cape and then take a bite into it.] But the way I'm seeing it here; it's a whole new world. What happened before can't be helped, so unless you just wanna wallow in all the misery the world before left you with. [Another bite.] You gotta push forward and write a better ending for yerself here.
And for a guy like me, that means having surprises to deal with. Nothin's worth doing if it's too easy, am I right?
[He doesn't flinch or turn his gaze from her. At most, he continues to casually munch away at his apple as she speaks, being courteous enough to pay attention to what she says... which admittedly, isn't too much.]
So then where am I wrong? Last time we talked, you kept going on about doing all kinds of stuff that you regretted -even if it was for the right reasons.
What I'm saying is that here is your second chance at things -to do things without all the stuff that happened before tying you down. That's the point I'm getting at.
[To fight fate is something that Kamina would wholeheartedly agree with. The path one took and what lay at the end of that road were things he felt that each person had to determine for themselves.]
Hmm, that's right. Keep forgetting you're just dreaming... it's kinda hard with you sometimes.
[None the less, his expression seems largely unphased aside from that note of commentary.]
So then yeah, it's happened and it's over with. So you can either keep beating the shit outta yerself for it even in yer dreams. Or you can start doing things here and figure out how to move on. Even if it's a dream, it gives ya something to aim for when ya wake up.
I'm not saying that you should. But I gotta admit that listening to you sometimes, it sounds like you're at least beating the crap outta yourself for doing what you thought was right.
[He grins.]
Seems like it's on yer mind a lot too. Cause I'm sitting here wondering how me liking stuff being unpredictable got us here.
[If she just forgot about it, if death was really that easy to deal, she'd lose the parts of herself she didn't want to totally lose; Kunzite had warned her of that much, in his indirect and taunting way.
And more, she'd become like the princess.
Of course, she comes at it another way, a less personal way.]
[It wasn't so much a matter of forgetting about anything. Just it seemed to be a constant occupation on her mind; whenever he encountered her, the matter of the actions she took always seemed to come up in one fashion or another.
The way she phrases things forces him to pause for a moment. It takes a moment for him to mentally jog remembering the word 'therapist' from his memory. Finding so much around the different dreams had exposed him to more books -those things with countless words printed inside them. And while he'd been learning to read in life, this afterlife had somehow made the process of continuing to learn a modest bit easier. Though that particular term had only come up a few times in the things he'd read.]
Tch, nah. I'll listen if you've got a problem and even try to help ya with it. But all the making sense of dreams, gestures and other crap like that bores me.
[She could probably use one. But even if it wouldn't be admitting a rather giant weakness, who could she trust? And even if she could trust them, who could really cope with the scope of it? And even if someone could, who'd want the responsibility of such a high-profile patient (aside from the money and prestige it could bring them - which made her uninterested if that was all it was about for them)?]
Freudian analysis is outdated.
[It's the first thought to jump into her head. Then, when she's less caught off-guard by that simple offer to listen:]
Let's just explore this place for now, then. We have more to build.
[He blinked a moment when she brought up 'Freudian analysis'. Granted, he wasn't stupid by any stretch -just he had no idea who the guy it was named after was and honestly, he didn't care. But at least he could appreciate that she seemed willing to push aside whatever guilt she was carrying and do something more than just dwell on it.
Truth be told, he wasn't planning to give up on working on that outlook of hers by any stretch. Just he needed to know more about the kind of person she was, the kind of life she led and just what happened to make her that way. And it just wasn't his way of doing things to listen while she talked on a couch -not by any stretch. This would be something done through getting on her good side; swapping stories, experiences and just doing things together. He would show her that she could afford to hope and believe and that those things could yield payoff. And while he had little patience, this was something important enough that he'd try playing that subtle game he sucked at for now.
A real man would never consider it below him to do things in new ways anyway.]
Now that's the kinda attitude I'm looking for!
[Kamina gives the new 'city' a quick glance around.]
Let's see, so we've got a style for how the place looks. What'do you think would be a nice touch? I know I wanna get some Ganmen in here... just can't decide how yet.
And if he got lucky and could kick things properly in his favor, maybe he'd be able to turn the outlook of a couple people he knew around.]
Of course! If I made a place just for me, it'd get boring as hell in a hurry. This is gonna be a gathering place of fiery spirits!
[Anxious to show what he had in mind, he clears some of the books away from one of the coffee tables, revealing a laptop with a video file cued up. And while the operation of the peculiar device was still fairly new to him, he'd thankfully been wandering from dream to dream and finding a few that had such devices to at least get the gist of how to work it. Thankfully, while he's not tech-savvy by any stretch, it seems even he could figure out the basics on his own. And it didn't hurt that because it was stuff he was dreaming up, all the media he needed was right on the desktop.]
But I got the idea for this place from this!
[A quick hotkey tap sends the video into motion; a clip show of late 1940s to 1950s cop, gangster and detective movies. Most of them involving car chases, gun battles and live shows at night clubs with an often fem fatale-looking singer.]
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[The bland words cover her surprise that he really had this place intended to be used by everyone. She wouldn't have thought that way herself.]
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And with the kind of outlook he tended to have, of course whatever he came up with would be used by everyone he knew and even the people he didn't know.]
It's not an exact copy of the stuff from that book or those movies either.
[He offers Mercury a wide grin.]
If I did this right, there's surprises in all this that even I don't know about.
Reply
So her words come out a bit unsure.]
You want that? Not to know? Even though this is yours?
Reply
[He lets that sink in for a moment as he casually walks over to a stack of fruit crates outside of what looked like an old-time grocery store. Kamina wastes little time in snatching up an apple for himself, before tossing another for Mercury to catch.]
I don't know all of what you've been through. From what I can tell from the shit you have told me, it's some pretty dark stuff. [A pause to rub the apple on the shoulder of his cape and then take a bite into it.] But the way I'm seeing it here; it's a whole new world. What happened before can't be helped, so unless you just wanna wallow in all the misery the world before left you with. [Another bite.] You gotta push forward and write a better ending for yerself here.
And for a guy like me, that means having surprises to deal with. Nothin's worth doing if it's too easy, am I right?
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[So easy to say. But she's sure of herself. She doesn't look at him, still angled away.]
We already ended the past the way we wanted to.
[In a world where fate would repeat, acknowledging the past and fighting to stop it was the way the forward.]
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So then where am I wrong? Last time we talked, you kept going on about doing all kinds of stuff that you regretted -even if it was for the right reasons.
What I'm saying is that here is your second chance at things -to do things without all the stuff that happened before tying you down. That's the point I'm getting at.
[To fight fate is something that Kamina would wholeheartedly agree with. The path one took and what lay at the end of that road were things he felt that each person had to determine for themselves.]
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[She's speaking too generally, but it's to make a point:]
What happened is already happened and done.
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[None the less, his expression seems largely unphased aside from that note of commentary.]
So then yeah, it's happened and it's over with. So you can either keep beating the shit outta yerself for it even in yer dreams. Or you can start doing things here and figure out how to move on. Even if it's a dream, it gives ya something to aim for when ya wake up.
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I move forward. [In a way, of course, it's true; they have a future, and they wouldn't have. She even has a life outside that, as a doctor.]
And I wouldn't undo what happened even if it were possible.
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[He grins.]
Seems like it's on yer mind a lot too. Cause I'm sitting here wondering how me liking stuff being unpredictable got us here.
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And more, she'd become like the princess.
Of course, she comes at it another way, a less personal way.]
Planning to become my therapist?
Reply
The way she phrases things forces him to pause for a moment. It takes a moment for him to mentally jog remembering the word 'therapist' from his memory. Finding so much around the different dreams had exposed him to more books -those things with countless words printed inside them. And while he'd been learning to read in life, this afterlife had somehow made the process of continuing to learn a modest bit easier. Though that particular term had only come up a few times in the things he'd read.]
Tch, nah. I'll listen if you've got a problem and even try to help ya with it. But all the making sense of dreams, gestures and other crap like that bores me.
Reply
Freudian analysis is outdated.
[It's the first thought to jump into her head. Then, when she's less caught off-guard by that simple offer to listen:]
Let's just explore this place for now, then. We have more to build.
Reply
Truth be told, he wasn't planning to give up on working on that outlook of hers by any stretch. Just he needed to know more about the kind of person she was, the kind of life she led and just what happened to make her that way. And it just wasn't his way of doing things to listen while she talked on a couch -not by any stretch. This would be something done through getting on her good side; swapping stories, experiences and just doing things together. He would show her that she could afford to hope and believe and that those things could yield payoff. And while he had little patience, this was something important enough that he'd try playing that subtle game he sucked at for now.
A real man would never consider it below him to do things in new ways anyway.]
Now that's the kinda attitude I'm looking for!
[Kamina gives the new 'city' a quick glance around.]
Let's see, so we've got a style for how the place looks. What'do you think would be a nice touch? I know I wanna get some Ganmen in here... just can't decide how yet.
Reply
[The answer is so obvious to her that it comes out almost automatically; yet it may not be the first thing someone would expect her to name.
She doesn't bother explaining herself. She simply emphasizes it.]
I want to see an amusement park here.
[But not Juuban's; she's been warned against building dreams from memories before and besides,
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