rekindleme | A night out! [OPEN]

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A night out! [OPEN]

Who: Pilouette and You!
Where: District 5 and later, the Guest Apartments.
When: Evening of October 9th and into the night
Summary: Pilouette decides to break from her usual schedule and have a night out. It doesn't go as smoothly as she would hope.
Warnings: None as of posting. Maybe some awkwardness?

Though she's been living on her own in Saeng Seong for over a year, Pilouette has been sticking more or less to the same general schedule she had back home: Get up early, do whatever she was doing during the day — usually work in this case, rather than school — then come home and be in bed by 10.

However, since turning seventeen the month before, she had been thinking about something. Why was she still following that schedule? After all, she's been living without any kind of actual adult supervision for a while. Really, she could do whatever she wanted. Plus, she's a year older, even closer to being an adult than she was before! Plus, seeing as was given the next day off...Pilouette decides to have a night out. Even with the warning the previous week, she figures she'll be fine. After all, Ren said those people were headed towards a closed district. As long as she doesn't spend too much time near those she'll be fine. Probably.

After work she dresses up, just a little bit, to make herself feel a little more grown up before heading out to District 5. She's still a little nervous and she might not notice if something, like her cellphone or wallet, fell out of her purse on the way.

Before long, she gets to the theater having decided to see a movie. However, she's having trouble deciding what to see. She's pretty bad with scary movies, but...well, since she's older now, maybe she can handle it. After all, it's just a movie. However, she could also see one of any number of other movies that won't scare her to death.

After it's all over, Pilouette walks back to District 2 and up to her own apartment, 3-03 in Building 2. She stands there for a moment, rummaging through her purse for a moment, looking for her key. When she doesn't find it she begins to backtrack to look for it. It's not until she's been searching the first floor for a while when it hits her. It's on her table. Inside her apartment. She's locked herself out. Great.

After a few moments of being generally annoyed and upset at herself, she thinks about what her options are. She doesn't want to bother anyone at such a late hour and she can't just mill about all night. So, Pilouette makes her way back up to the third floor and, settling down on a couch in the third floor's lounge area, buys some coffee from a vending machine. She comes to find that she doesn't actually like coffee very much. At all. It's so bitter and gross. However she wants to try and stay awake so she can see about possibly getting another key or something to get back into her apartment bright and early. However, it doesn't work out very well and she ends up falling asleep.

...It's probably not the best place for it.

((ooc: Brackets and prose are both okay!))

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'Not being able to fall asleep very easily...' She wonders for a moment if that means he doesn't sleep well in general. Pilouette makes sure to make a note of that. Since she usually falls asleep without much trouble, maybe she could think of something.

"Oh! You're right, it is getting cold again. It's still kind of hard to believe it's been this long...," she replies. She hadn't realized before just how fast summer seemed to fly right by with little notice. After all, without school there wasn't really a "summer vaction" to get excited about like there was back home, no rush to cram as much fun as she could into each day before the break was over. It's a little strange now that she thinks about it.

"I'm glad you found me before someone else did, you know?" she says, trying to shake off that feeling of oddness for the time being. "Just imagine if someone who didn't know me found me just like, snoring away on that couch. Like, people might started saying stuff or whatever."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Shinju says, stepping out of the elevator when it reaches the bottom floor. "Every time I think about how much time has passed, I have to look at my calendar again to make sure I'm not making it up."

In general, he tries not to think too hard about it, but it's hard to avoid sometimes, especially around certain dates. He does his best to brush away those thoughts before they get too far.

"Saying stuff?" he repeated, smiling like he wasn't quite sure about the idea. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're living in a magic city with giant robots and talking animals. I think anyone talking about a person sleeping on a public couch would need better gossip material."

Pilouette's cheeks go a little pink. He has a point. Maybe she is being a little silly to worry about it given the circumstances...but still...

"But don't think that it's because stuff like that is kinda common around that people will still talk about normal stuff?" she asks. "I mean, it does feel like, kinda unreal seeing robots and stuff around, but we see them all the time these days, right? Plus, like, some people find gossip about every day stuff really interesting."

Like her. In fact, back home, gosipping about people's personal lives was a major past time for some people, especially people who attended schools full of teenage girls. As she follows him out of the elevator, she reaches up and starts smoothing out her bangs.

"...Besides, I probably looked like a total mess or whatever, sleeping on that couch like that."

"You looked fine," he reassures her, putting a hand on her shoulder as he opens the door to step outside. "It's not like everyone is going to look like a model when they're sleeping."

He honestly doesn't know of anyone in the city who's into gossip like that. Secrets, sure, but those have typically been of a more serious nature, like what's going on with the scientists.

Shaking his head, he can't help but smile a little. He guesses she's got normal worries, if nothing else.

"Seriously, don't let it bother you. I'm pretty sure no one else saw you, anyway."

"That's good. Even if no one saw me, it was still like, kind of embarassing, you know?"

Normal worries, indeed. Pilouette struggles to hold on to what little normalcy she can still get around here, even if it means doing her best not to get involved in some of the city's more serious issues and tell herself that things were normal...given the circumstances, of course. She glances up at Shinju as she steps off the elevator alongside him.

"I guess maybe it is kind of a silly thing to worry about in a place like this, but...maybe I'm just like, a worrier or something."

From what she's seen, Shinju seems to be so level-headed most of the time, collected and mature. So cool.

"Well, everyone worries," he says, shrugging. "They just pick different things to worry about."

If he'd been brought here six months earlier than he was, he might have had similar worries. Things just... changed, and those sorts of worries felt irrelevant. He was still upset by the thought of people talking about him at the time, but that situation was markedly different. People wanting to laugh at you is a little different from being avoided entirely.

If he knew that was how Pilouette felt, he'd be glad that he'd been successful in appearing that way.

He brushes some of his unruly bangs out of his eyes as he starts to head to the third building, pushing those thoughts away. The air is a little chilly for someone only in their pajamas, but he's not terribly bothered; they'll only be outside for a little while.

"I mean, that's the kind of thing you worry about at home, right? So it just stayed with you. I guess I'm kind of the same, for the most part, so I can't blame you."

She thinks about what he's said for a moment. Pilouette isn't sure she really picks the things she worries about. She just...does. Still, even back home, her friends told her not to worry about such things so much.

"I guess you're right, but...I wonder just how someone learns to stop worrying about certain things, though," she says. "Maybe if I didn't worry so much, stuff would be easier."

She's aware that there are others who have far more to worry about than she does, especially after having been in Saeng Seong. Worrying about your city running out of power? People stuck outside the city? A horrible miasma existing outside? In comparison, her usual worries seem pretty mundane and petty. Still...she can't seem to stop worrying about those things. On the infrequent occasion that she really thinks about it, she feels a little guilty for worrying so much about how she looks or if she sounds smart enough when others, both native and not, seem to have more to deal with.

"If you find out, let me know. Figuring out how to turn that off would be nice."

Sure, he doesn't worry about the kinds of things Pilouette worries about anymore, but they shifted to things that seemed more relevant to him. If he could even just return to his old worries and forget the new ones, he'd definitely do it.

He finishes off his drink as they travel the few yards between buildings and dumps the empty cup in a trash can near the door when they get there.

"Right? But I guess if it was easy to figure out, we'd know how to do it by now," she replies, with the smallest hint of a laugh in her voice. There are, unfortunately, a lot of things she wishes were easy. However, they rarely are and she supposes it's just the way things are. She digs her hands a little deeper into her pockets, absentmindedly tilting her head to the side a bit.

"Hey, um, thanks again. For like, letting me crash at your place and stuff. To be honest when I couldn't find my keys, I like, totally freaked out. I mean, I know you said you were already awake and stuff, but like, still."

She has a few neighbors, but even after so much time, there still very few people she would have accepted this kind of help from. It makes her kind of glad that he's still around here.

He chuckles quietly in response, fatigue preventing him from giving a more eloquent reply than "yeah." In the absence of something more to say, he steps forward to open the door for her.

"I'm just glad I can do something to help," he replies. "I can't blame you for freaking out. It can be hard when you don't have your friends and family around to call and get you out of something like you're used to."

He's had a few times he locked himself out of his car and had to call someone, so he can imagine what it would have been like if he'd had no one to call. It wouldn't have been pleasant.

As she walks through the door, Pilouette whispers a quiet "Thanks," lowering her voice to avoid disturbing any of the building's other residents.

"Yeah, you're right. Back home, help was never too far away. I guess I kind of never realized how important that was," she says. "Then again, I never needed help this late at night. It's a little weird to think I've been living on my own this long."

Not that she wasn't home alone most of the time with how much her father traveled, but it never really felt like she was living alone. However, in Saeng Seong, she has spent a little more than a year working and maintaining a life on her own, away from home. As worried as she was at first, it had been a bit exciting. She felt so much like a real adult! But after a while...she began to miss things. Her worrywart dad's phone calls, being able to just text her best friends whenever she needed to ask for help with something. Somehow it had never really occurred to her that things wouldn't always be that way.

He heads towards the staircase, glad his apartment is practically the first door they'll come to.

"I know what you mean," he replies, fishing his key out of his pocket. "It's not exactly something we knew was coming, so we didn't really get the chance to prepare or think about it."

Maybe he's not just taking about Seong Saeng when it comes to himself, but he doesn't let that through. The concept is basically the same, which is what matters. He's just glad Pilouette has a home to go back to.

"But don't hesitate to call me if you need anything, okay?" he says, peering over his shoulder as he heads up. "You won't be bothering me or anything like that. We're all in this together, so we have to look out for each other."

Pilouette smiles as she follows him. She's tried not to let on that she felt like a bother sometimes, but the fact that he specifically said she wouldn't be bothering him makes her feel like he kind of gets her.

"You're right," she replies. "So, um, you can call me, too. If you ever need anything, I'll do whatever I can. "

Though, when she says whatever she can, she's not sure just how much that will be. However, she's always willing to try her hardest, especially if it means being useful to a friend.

After getting to the second floor, he turns and nods. Even if he doesn't entirely plan to call her every time he needs something, it wouldn't be fair to refuse her offer.

"Thanks, I will."

Pilouette smiles when Shinju accepts, glad to know that she might be able to help him out sometime. However, these thoughts are interuppted when she lets out a quiet yawn. She rubs her eyes to try and stave off the sleepiness for a bit, glad that they're not far from his apartment.

"Geez...I guess I'm more tired than I thought," she murmurs quietly, stretching a little.

"I can't blame you," he replies before stepping over to his door. The door is open after another moment, and he opens it to let her inside.

The room isn't overly decorated, but it's got enough to set it apart from the uninhabited apartments--a throw blanket, a few bowls set on tables, an extra lamp here and there. It's relatively clean, thankfully, though there are a few socks and shoes on the floor. He speaks quietly so as to not wake up his roommate.

"I hope the cat doesn't bother you--he usually leaves me alone when I'm sleeping. My room is in the hallway on the left."

Pilouette enters the apartment and looks around as she removes her coat. She's been there before, but she can't help but think it looks just a little different so late at night.

"Even if he does, like, it probably won't be a problem or anything." She quietly yawns again as she starts making her way toward Shinju's room. "I should be up pretty early, so I'll probably like, see myself out in the morning."

"Well, alright. But don't be afraid to wake me up for anything."

He heads down the hallway a few steps behind her, quietly opening the closet next to the door to his room and pulling out a couple of blankets.

"Here, in case you need it," he whispers, handing one to her.

"Oh, thanks...and I'll let you know if I need anything," Pilouette replies softly as she takes it. There's a chance that even if she does need something, she'll try to deal with it rather than wake him up, but she appreciates the offer.

Somehow holding the blanket makes her feel just a little sleepier and she continues making her way to his room. As she goes, she turns to look at him over her shoulder.

"Good night."

"Goodnight," he replies with a small smile, starting to feel more tired, himself. He turns to go back to the living room, thinking he might be able to get some more sleep soon and hoping Pilouette will as well.

Even if she leaves without waking him, he'll probably just end up messaging her tomorrow to make sure everything turned out alright.

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A night out! [OPEN]

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