[OPEN/MINGLE LOG] New Year's Eve at the Youth Center!

[cuteshit]

Who: Kanji Tatsumi, Coraline Jones & you!
Where: The youth center!
When: Evening of 12/31 (forward-dated).
Rating: PG
Summary: The adults are celebrating New Year's Even in their own way, but what about the younger crowd?
The Story:

[The idea had actually been Coraline's, way back around Halloween. New Year's was pretty important back home, and in the wake of Wonderland's most recent event, Kanji was missing home more than usual. This would be the first New Year's he'd be spending without his mom. There was no shrine to visit here, and while he could still go around and offer New Year's greetings to his friends, he still felt like there should be something more.

Coraline's idea for a sundae bar seems like a pretty good solution. A lot of the adults in Wonderland will be ringing in the new year with alcohol, but that didn't mean the younger crowd had to miss out entirely. It's nothing like the traditions he would have observed back home, but-- since he wasn't at home, maybe doing something totally different was the way to go.

He has to ask Coraline for her expertise, not exactly knowing what goes into putting together a sundae bar, but he helps with the legwork and the lifting. By the time evening rolls around, the youth center has been turned into an ice cream buffet with an extensive toppings bar, including candy that had been inspired by some of the treats that Dustin had handed out to people for Christmas. Once everything is set up, he sends a text out across the network to grab people's attention-- can't have a party without people!]

Yo, Wonderland! Too young to drink? Youth center's got all the ice cream you can eat, come ring in the New Year right!

[Or, you know. By sending yourself into sugar shock.]

Comments

[jivitadana]

I feel like I have to do both.

[Be aware of the present and mind the future too since what he did now determined the future.]

[eatsyourscience]

It should be like that.

[Souji saw it that way, too.]

[jivitadana]

[That was a lot to ask for, but everyone had to. Minato nodded a little, again not to dislodge his head from Souji's shoulder or head either.]

I'll do my best to make each day good then.

[eatsyourscience]

Same here.

[Souji raises his head to check his watch.]

It's almost midnight.

[jivitadana]

[Minato could hear an echo of someone saying that same thing to him at home. It's almost midnight.]

After this, go to the roof with me? Let me get a pen and paper.

[And maybe a pen and paper for Souji too, if he wanted it.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nods.]

What do you want those for?

[jivitadana]

I'm writing down everyone who's gone away.

[He should. He hadn't done that before.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji looks at him with interest and curiosity.]

Where?

[jivitadana]

[Minato ducked his head a little and apologized quietly while he went to get those pens and that paper. The Youth Center had to have things like that.

He did come back with those in hands and set them on the table. He wrote two names down and what they had in common was a last name. His last name.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Now Souji understood. He nodded. It was as good a time as any to remember them.]

I understand.

[Not the loss itself, but what they were doing now.]

[jivitadana]

[Minato nodded, and wrote down more names. Mochizuki Ryoji. Kamiki Akinari. Aragaki Shinjiro. Kirijo Takeharu. Takeba Eiichirou. Yoshino Chidori. He could have written more names.

He thought about it, then decided to go ahead and do that. They were gone. In a way, if it weren't for them, he wouldn't have been able to do what he had done. Or something. So he wrote Ikutsuki Shuji, Sakaki Takaya, Shirato Jin.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji watched in silence. He'd known there were more names for that list, but he hadn't known there were so many, and so many he didn't recognize. He knew Ryoji's name and had heard of Shinjiro, but that was it. The rest were mysteries, blank silhouettes in his mind.]

[jivitadana]

[Minato thought about who else he could have written down. There were so many people that had entered his life then left it all in that one year or what seemed like the one year. He knew he was missing people though.

He pointed to each of the names and explained. His father. His mother. The Appriser, the Avatar. Sun Link, terminal illness. Senpai, Persona user, shot by Sakaki Takaya. Another senpai's father, shot and killed by Ikutsuki Shuji. Persona user classmate's father, scientist, died in explosion, tried to stop the Shadows. Classmate's girlfriend, artificial Persona user, died to save her boyfriend. He decided to write down Ken's mother's name too. Died from first senpai's out of control Persona.

Then the other set. He did the same. "Adviser" to SEES, tricked them into defeating the Shadows, shot then fell to his death. He pointed to the girlfriend, then the two names. Strega. Artificial Persona user, wanted the Fall, shot Senpai, died at the top of Tartarus. Another artificial Persona user, died after detonating a grenade before Shadows ate him.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji takes all of that in. After a moment, he asks for the pen and adds two names to the list: Yamano Mayumi and Konishi Saki. A TV announcer and a high school student who worked part time at Junes. Two people who died painfully when they didn't need to die at all. Two people someone he'd thought of as a friend had killed.]

[jivitadana]

[Minato nodded, acknowledging the last two names to join the list. He looked at the names for another moment or two before he paused though before folding the paper up.]

Can you fold this into a crane, please?

[eatsyourscience]

[With a nod, Souji takes the paper and begins to fold it, first into a square, and then making the folds to transform it into a crane.]

I can teach you to make cranes someday. Butterflies, too.

[He knew how significant butterflies were to Minato.]

[jivitadana]

[Minato watched Souji's technique with folding the paper into a crane. He thought it was appropriate. He thought about the thousands of cranes folded every year back home by people who just wanted the world to be peaceful.]

Thank you.

[He'd like to learn how to fold them both, the cranes and the butterflies.]

Let's take it up to the roof with us.

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nodded, handing the crane to Minato before getting to his feet.]

Let's go up now.

[jivitadana]

[Minato nodded too, holding the crane in his palm.]

Thanks. It's the best I can do for them.

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nodded, silent as he left the room with Minato to head up to the roof.]