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Tl;cr!
① List all the characters you play.
② People reply with CR they truly, madly, deeply want to know about.
③ Tl;dr on character relationships. First impressions count too!
④ ???
⑤ Harvest all that tl;dr!
① List all the characters you play.
② People reply with CR they truly, madly, deeply want to know about.
③ Tl;dr on character relationships. First impressions count too!
④ ???
⑤ Harvest all that tl;dr!
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Kaoru Nagumo | Hakuouki |
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Ugh okay Tsuru!! TSURU. In this magical jamjar where he hasn't been comrade-shanked (yet), Kashuu's opinion hasn't really shifted much from where it was when they were back home at the Citadel! He's a stupidly friendly sword so there really isn't a single person that he doesn't like or mostly get along with, and Tsurumaru isn't an exception. He's not top pick for company or anything, and Kashuu's sort of tangentially aware of the fact that there's a gap between younger swords like himself (who were around for a lot less time but did herald in the final era of swords) and older swords like Tsurumaru (who have certainly experienced much, much more on a whole) so he just doesn't spend a lot of time with the ye oldes who aren't really accessible on a whole. Not that Tsurumaru's intimidating or hard to talk to or anything! Like, he's no Taroutachi or Souza... But since Kashuu's pretty sensitive to the way other people carry themselves, I think he probably subconsciously detects that there's some subtle something that makes it hard to really connect with Tsurumaru. Those are the primary reasons he doesn't ever delve into deeper topics and is content with a more or less surface-level friendship! He figures older swords will probably be able to connect better, basically.
I think there's also some hesitance that he holds about Tsurumaru's backstory in general, too. It's ridiculously upsetting and he absolutely feels sympathetic, but the whole symbol of death thing is basically like... he can see the potential for similarities there and that's a bad similarity to have so he avoids the heck out of talking about it. #lonelydeathswords!?! LIKE TSURU SAID IN SHIPTRAP Kashuu wears his emotions on his sleeve instead of shoving everything behind a door like Tsurumaru himself does, but Kashuu also has a nasty habit of moving on without actually moving on and part of that coping mechanism is to avoid things that might remind him he's not actually making any progress at all. They could probably have a pretty substantial bond otherwise since there are a lot of similarities and matching struggles between being viewed as a symbol of bad luck/death and being crafted from a class of pariahs associated with kegare, and there's the potential for a lot of true understanding there, but unfortunately they're both morons who sweep things under the rug. One of them will probably have to die again before they get to that point, so GOOD WORK TEAM...
SERIOUS STUFF ASIDE Kashuu does think Tsurumaru is a genuinely good and kind-hearted sword, even if he can say some scary things sometimes and seems a little distant and is a rude shithead. He'd 100% trust him with his life and he would absolutely sacrifice himself if it meant he could help Tsurumaru out of a sticky situation, which goes for pretty much any sword, but HE MEANS IT!! The other swords are like a family to him okay, even the ones he's not personally very close to, and he loves them all a lot, including Tsurumaru! Even if he shakes up the sodas that Mutsu drinks and blames it on the gumis... ugh. Basically Tsurumaru is like a distant, concerning great-cousin and Kashuu doesn't mind visiting his house and taking his old people candy and putting up with his kooky shenanigans, and if the neighbors ever gave him grief for being a weird old man, he'd go over and kick their asses personally.
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Not much to say about Kaoru and Yuri since Kaoru's blanket opinion of people is generally like "MEH" and sometimes "EW", good lord. He thinks it's good that Yuri's a decent fighter, at least?! Just in general, considering there's something of a shared enemy here, he can be appreciative of other people who are strong and intelligent.
Kashuu thinks that Yuri is hilarious, on the other hand... In a good way! Like not "haha, entertaining" but rather "THIS GUY IS THE LIFE OF THE PARTY", if the party involves breaking out of hospitals and eating macarons I guess. He thinks Yuri has good taste (both in food and in fashion), he's mildly jealous of his l'oreal-level locks, and he thinks it's kind of endearing in an overwhelming way that he has a friend who cares about him enough to put him on hospital arrest after being injured. Not that that stopped him from helping the break-out BUT WHATEVER... He'd definitely like to get to know Yuri better in the future! And will probably be super impressed by his fancy footwork and sword skills.
AND STAHN ugh I'm laughing, Kashuu likes Stahn so much already, he's captivated by the friendship mullet. He's basically a friendship train himself so When Friendship Trains Collide, these two morons happen... He appreciates sunny and optimistic personality types and finds Stahn's care for others very sweet and genuine, which gains him all the points. He's also extremely appreciative of the fact that Stahn has such a good relationship with his sword... Like clearly Swordians are a different beast than tsukumogami but he knows that life can be pretty rough when you can only communicate with a handful of other people (or spirits), and he knows that it's still easy for some people to look at something that's an object and treat it like an object even if it has thoughts and feelings. WEIRD SWORD BULLSHIT BASICALLY but since Stahn is so good at treating everyone well, Kashuu immediately leapt to the conclusion that he must be a good person and he wants to stay friends and get to know him better too!! He'll take Stahn out for a friendship picnic someday.
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That said, he's entirely annoyed by Tenka's outlook on basically everything he's heard so far and disagrees with all of it. UNSURPRISING. Tenka is his antithesis when it comes to their view of life in general and their ideas on how problems should be tackled and sometimes just hearing him talk about how much he loves people makes Kaoru want to roll under the nearest dumpster and barf BUT HE GRINS AND BEARS IT. One day he'll end up shanking someone in front of Tenka or something and he'll just drop his act on the spot though because he's so tired of keeping it up consistently for so long, god.
AND THEN ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM there's Kashuu who's talked to Tenka like, what, five times?? And he genuinely likes him so much already... He's closer to Sousei, but he's also the kind of moron who basically looks at the friends of his friends and goes "THEY MUST ALSO BE GOOD PEOPLE". Sousei clearly trusts and respects Tenka a lot, so Kashuu does, too! Plus he's been looking out for Kousetsu and Sayo for ages, and he was watching Souza while he was around, and they have/had nothing but good things to say. His comrades are the most important thing to him so anyone who treats them well earns a one-way ticket to the land of respect and friendship.
They started off on kind of a funky foot because Kashuu is an easy target to pick on and tease and Tenka is the sort of PUNK who takes advantage of that, but!! Despite being easily annoyed, he can also tell (generally speaking) when someone is a good person beyond that. The more time he spends around Tenka and the more he hears about him, the more he's like, okay I guess I can forgive this guy for giving me shit about how old I look. Tenka's definitely one of the people that he's most interested in getting to know better outside of his circle of comrades from home, anyway! They've already traded the WE'RE FAMILY NOW promise okay there's no escape...
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(I wrote "awful" and "hilarious" before finally just settling on "great" here)
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Kaoru and Oona! Oona is actually the closest thing Kaoru has to a friend in Cerealia, and the only person that he actually likes. I mean, I'm using "likes" really loosely because at the end of the day she'd still get an "eh" from him and he'd still shank her without hesitation if he needed to, but!! There's just something refreshing about how blunt and honest she is that he really enjoys. Since he's a big fat hypocrite, one of his least favorite things about both humans and demons is the fact that no one can do anything without sneaking around and being underhanded about things, but he's basically come to expect and accept that. It's why he can be such a bigass liar and not feel any more or less self-directed hate than he normally does... He just thinks it's An Inescapable Thing. But Oona turned that on its head and it's just a breath of fresh air to spend time with someone who isn't bound by the usual societal rules and normalcies that he's used to.
He also doesn't actively encourage her to be a shithead or anything but he sure doesn't feel the need to tone himself down as much around her anymore... It's not like he's come out and said "I'M AN ASSHOLE" or anything but there's basically just been this slow progression where he's somewhat let his guard down inch by inch over the months, in a way. Like obviously he's still very guarded about himself personally, but he also understands that Oona wouldn't judge if she did know more about him, and feels a sort of solidarity with her because of their shared "EW HUMANS" sentiments. THAT SAID if he knew she was having a positive character development arc and was getting over her biases, he'd probably recant all of his somewhat positive-ish opinions of her... What a butthead.
Kashuu and Yuri crack me up because they've talked like, three times, but Yuri knows more about him than most of the non-swords already... Events sure do bring people together. THAT SAID, even though he can't really understand people who have a desire to die (or people who are just ambivalent about life in general), there was a lot that he could connect with and understand when it comes to the underlying loneliness and isolation that he sensed when he saw her memory. It was an upsetting experience for sure and he still worries that he crossed a line without meaning to since that seemed so personal, but at the same time, that basically shot Yuri up from "weird girl who may not be able to dress herself" to "friend I want to protect". Sure, he wants to protect pretty much everyone because it's in his nature as a sword, but there are more personal stakes involved when it comes to Yuri now. She seems to him like the kind of person who might sometimes need a tether, and he doesn't mind reaching a hand out to help where he can, which is why he made the offer he did back when they were discussing the memories they'd swapped.
He also is still super concerned that Yuri doesn't actually know how to dress herself... 90% of the time, he just sees her in her weird priestess garb and he was kind of starting to wonder for a second if she just had no other clothing in her closet?! One day he'll take her out shopping because A) he thinks she needs it and B) he's definitely got the feeling now that she just never did things like that back in her home. Not that he's an expert when it comes to Fun Things Humans Do either, but now that he's promised to stick by her side, he'll basically be that annoying loud friend who's constantly dragging Yuri everywhere that she's reluctant to go.
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no okay CRACKS KNUCKLES OH BOY... Haru and Kashmoney... where to even start. So his sword comrades are The Most Important to Kashuu, and he's made more progress with Souji in Cerealia than he'd have ever personally thought possible, but Haru is still the most important person in Kashuu's life by far for a lot of reasons. Some of them are good, some of them aren't so good, but his affection and love toward Haru are entirely genuine and he really does want only the best for him. He wants to see Haru grow and change and better himself in the way humans do, for Haru's own sake and because he never really had the chance to watch over someone like that before. The Okita he remembers was static and then he deda so he never watched him change or grow (and he wouldn't have had that chance even if he didn't break, anyway), so it's kind of nice to him, being able to look at this human that he was like "oh....... WELL OKAY" about at first and watch him become someone so impressive and even more worthy of respect.
ON THE GOOD SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM, he really does find Haru a wonderful, strong and kind master and thinks he's very, very lucky for it! Plenty of swords have bad masters who just don't care, and he's sure that there are some saniwa working for the organization who treat their swords poorly too, so having someone who genuinely cares and treats himself and his comrades so well is the most important thing in the world to him. Of course he understands that Haru still has his insecurities, and it's kind of sad sometimes that he can't be wielded by his new master directly (yet), but he also has complete faith that Haru will be able to overcome those and the problems that they've stemmed from someday, and hopes he can be there to help that process along! Like, just in the recent even where Haru was able to bind all of those KBC, Kashuu was so ridiculously impressed and pleased that he could be there to see Haru stand his own even though he was scared and outnumbered. In that way he kind of views Haru as someone to guard, guide and mentor, and it's part of the reason he's so fiercely protective. It goes beyond the usual sword-master bond to him: Haru's the precious person who gave him life, so now it's his turn to give back and make sure that his life can be used to support the one who gave him so much.
Aaand then more negatively, there's a huge amount of extremely unhealthy dependence here... lord. Kashuu is using Haru as a coping mechanism of sorts and while he would never do something like that consciously because he'd never want to hurt Haru in any way, the truth of the matter is that he was a substitute for Souji for a while and that's the base he built his affection up from. Haru has eclipsed Souji in importance and has earned his own love and respect between the day they first met and now, obviously, but Kashuu attached so quickly because he needed someone to love him and need him and find him irreplaceably important after being discarded, and he needed someone to keep his attention away from his own past failings. This obviously puts a lot of pressure on Haru and Kashuu is a moron who doesn't even realize it (though Sousei did start to point it out, so he has a peripheral awareness now, at least) so he just carries on like "THIS IS FINE".
Haru is also the centerpoint for a lot of his stronger insecurities for the same reason, since Haru is essentially the functional center of his identity and... life now... He defines himself based on how Haru treats and views him and that is so far from okay, but he doesn't know how to change that and doesn't even really think anything's wrong with it. He'll get jealous or upset if Haru pays special attention to other swords without giving him his turn, he only thinks he's successful at something if Haru tells him so, he'll turn to Haru for praise or affirmation before anyone else and it wouldn't matter if the entire world liked him for something - if Haru didn't like it too, it would be useless to Kashuu. This is such a huge amount of pressure to put on one person and it really isn't fair to Haru at all. Their relationship won't ever really be able to progress to something that's a balance of equality while Kashuu is like this either, because Haru has just been stuck up on a pedestal and that gap will always exist as long as Kashuu keeps hero worshiping. There's also the fact that Kashuu sort of believes he won't really be able to stick around after the war which complicates his Haru Feelings even more BUT THAT'S LIKE A WHOLE DIFFERENT ESSAY SO--
On a whole the biggest dichotomy here is that Kashuu views Haru as someone to teach and guide and help along the way and watch grow like a proud parent would do, but he's also super dependent on him to guide him and take care of him in turn. If he didn't have Haru or Haru's love, he wouldn't know what to do with himself, honestly.
THAT UNDERLYING MESS ASIDE he's perfectly content to push Haru around... Get him to dye his hair pink, do his nails, try to get him into heels... you know, little Kashuu things. He is fully aware of the fact that Haru's weak to his swords and LIKE A BRAT he takes advantage of it and he'll continue to do that until Haru learns how to say no!! Which will be never, okay. Poor Haru. And as much as he likes just spending time with Haru (whether it's ridiculous shenanigans or just sharing a quiet meal or resting next to him on the couch), he's also determined to find out more about him, since he knows much less about Haru than Haru knows about him and he's fully aware of that! He wants to get closer and be able to help him better and know everything about him, but he's also not the sort of person who pries, so it's a slow-going process. One day he'll ask Haru about his home life... ONE DAY. In the meantime he's completely content to continue fighting for him and attempting to shove him into dresses.
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YOU PRETTY MUCH COVERED KAORU AND SOUSEI Sousei is an irritating nonentity more or less, someone who Kaoru dislikes but in a distant sort of way... As long as they don't have to share a room it's not too bad but otherwise it's puffedcat.png all the way GOOD WORK GUYS.
Kashuu likes Leon much to the surprise of approximately zero people! Sure he's prickly and rude and blunt, but Kashuu has actually dealt with people who are even more caustic than Leon and he still likes them, so keeping up the friendship with a cute tsuntsun is really no effort to him at all. He can tell that there's more to the distance Leon keeps than just him being socially awkward and bad at the friend thing though, but he isn't the type who pries, so that may just stay a mystery forever. WHOOPS. That said, he doesn't feel super close to Leon or anything! As things are now, Leon's mostly just a friendly(??????) acquaintance who Kashuu wouldn't mind getting to know better. He automatically has an appreciation for anyone who's good at sword fighting and the fact that Chal likes Leon so much basically makes Kashuu think it's okay to like Leon too. Moron logic at work, honestly: "if another talking sword likes this person, he must be okay!" NOT THAT HE'S WRONG IN THIS CASE but still... Basically he's dumb and he's decided he likes Leon and so Leon will never be able to shake him, rip.
He also really likes Chal who is obviously the pure bean of this duo. Chal is so chatty and sweet and genuine! Kashuu feels kind of empathetic toward him because he assumes some of the chattiness is a result of... not really having many people to talk to. Considering he couldn't communicate with non-spirits for most of his existence, he's like "THIS SUCKS, I KNOW" and so he'd 100% take the chance to chat more with Chal one-on-one if he could. Sorry Leon, swords gotta sword sometimes, you know.
AND THEN SOUSEI AND KASHBROKE. Canonmates and Souji aside, Sousei is definitely the person Kashuu is closest to in Cerealia... STARTED WITH A DANCE NOW WE'RE HERE. Somehow their personality types just meshed in a way that Kashuu could latch on without latching on to the unhealthy extent that he usually does (though this could always change HE'S A MORON), and theirs is a friendship that has a stronger balance of give-and-take than most of his other ones. Sousei is level-headed and down to earth and extremely sure of himself/where he stands in the world, which is the exact sort of tether that Kashuu needs in order to keep himself grounded. It's harsh sometimes, especially since Sousei never really sugarcoats what he wants to say or what he thinks and some of the truths he points out can be really hard to swallow, but Kashuu is grateful for the guidance and understanding.
He values Sousei's opinion very highly and tries his best to understand where he's coming from and what he's talking about, and because of that, he's actually learned a little more about himself. LIKE, AS AN EXAMPLE, when Sousei pointed out that Kashuu is probably putting too much on Haru's shoulders - that never would have occurred to him on his own. That sort of reliance is just innate to him, and while he still doesn't entirely get what's wrong with a sword leaving every choice up to its master, he's at least aware of the fact that something might be off-balance there now. Sousei works as a guidance like that to him; it's a subtle hand, but he speaks in a way that's easy to understand and difficult to hide from, which is basically what Kashuu sometimes needs.
His trust for Sousei is also off the charts, good lord. Like Kashuu is obviously a very trusting sword in general but Sousei is absolutely in the same blind trust category that his comrades and Haru are in... Sousei could literally be like "hey go walk off the side of that building" and Kashuu would do it because he'd trust that there's some sort of weird Sousei logic at work, and he fully believes Sousei would never do anything to harm him or put him in danger intentionally. This is also obviously where things start to edge into potentially Unhealthy™ territory, because this is just a Thing Kashuu does... He goes turbo when he trusts and he trusts Too Hard and relies Too Much and it puts a lot of pressure on the people he selects to lean on. It's awful and selfish and he doesn't even realize that, but Sousei is one of the people helping him to realize it, so that's one step in a better direction.
While he doesn't really spend a lot of time mulling over the intricacies of human relationships or anything, he does subconsciously realize that Sousei's already done a lot for him, which is why he's always so eager to help out where he can! He wants to be able to support him too, whether it's by telling him to give himself a break when he overworks himself or by being there to listen when he recounts his crazyass anime backstory. He doesn't pry, so this kind of leaning and support is a slow process, but he's also always in it for the long haul once he finds someone who's really important to him. He's absolutely willing to stick around and wait for Sousei to bring things up on his own, and he appreciates the fact that Sousei trusts him enough to share important things with him. It makes him feel useful, but it also makes him feel a little more human to have a genuine friend like that.
THAT SAID Sousei will never be able to escape Kashuu being a menace in the same way that Kashuu won't be able to escape being teased occasionally because he's an easyass target. He'll always be pestering for more dances (and probably sparring matches but it's not like either of them mind those), trying to shove Sousei into the makeover corner and generally being an overly-energetic bother who is probably a little too clingy a lot of the time. He's just overbearing by nature!!! Sousei opened the doors to hell the day he accepted that first dance and now there's no escape...
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Mary too, sure why not
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KASHUU AND YANG ugh partners. They really haven't delved into much Serious Talk Stuff™, but Kashuu still feels very close to her and like he knows her pretty well! He's the sort of person who gets to know someone based on their personality first and makes most of his decisions based on that, and then he moves on to learning more about their history and life and so on. This partially stems from the fact that he doesn't really like people learning about his own backstory because he's afraid he'll be judged as a failure based on the fact that HE KIND OF WAS-- at least, in a strictly sword-y sense of things. He knows Yang wouldn't judge him or anything, but it's such an ingrained concern that he still goes the same route of not really talking much about himself and not prying much into Yang's personal life in turn. That said, he'd entirely be there to listen if she ever wanted to talk about it! He'll probably ask more about her world someday, because she knows a little about his already but he doesn't know much about hers or what she does at all!
That aside, he entirely trusts Yang (what a non-surprise) both as a person in general and on the battlefield. She's shown herself to be an extremely proficient fighter so he knows she'll have his back if he needs it, and vice versa! HE'LL BE THERE FOR YANG. Partners is a pretty good term for them, really, whether it's in regard to punching robots or raiding the craft/makeup aisles in stores. She's just a fun and good person to know and he hopes he'll be able to spend plenty more time with her and get to know her even better in the future!
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okok Kaoru and Souji... LORD. Kaoru's hatred for Souji cracks me up because it started off so stupidly, literally Kaoru being like "I'M GOING TO RUIN THIS GUY'S LIFE" because he lied about Chizuru being miserable when she was actually being treated pretty decently. Only a true moron can manage something like that...
Anyway on the surface it's a pretty dumb and nonsensical and stupidly intense grudge for no real reason, but a lot of the driving force underneath is because there are a lot of similarities between Kaoru and Souji that Kaoru subconsciously picks up on. Ask him about it and he'd be like "haha no", and it's not like he really knows Souji's backstory or vice-versa so he doesn't know they're essentially foils in which he's the cautionary tale and Souji is the fairytale, but there are so many parallels that it would be impossible not to pick up on at least a few of them. AND HE HATES IT. Souji is more than just a grating person to him; he's the representation of everything Kaoru hates and the embodiment of everything he once wanted but could never quite achieve. He's got a place in the world, he's got Chizuru's affection, he has allies who value him and friends who treasure him. Despite the way he views himself and how he treats other people, he's important and he has worth. Kaoru never consciously acknowledges these things, but that doesn't mean he doesn't recognize them. It's not exactly jealousy or anything either because he's resigned himself to just not being capable of achieving these things, but it sure doesn't endear Souji to him any...
That said, there's also some sort of... not really connection, but understanding?! Between them??! KIND OF... Like the sort of mutual understanding that only two similar shitheads can share. I like how this entire thing is basically "IT'S NOT QUITE LIKE THIS, BUT KIND OF SIMILAR" but really, he's not exactly happy about it, but he does sort of enjoy the fact that there's someone out there who's on the same-ish wavelength. He's a shit! Souji is a shit! Both of them are amoral as fuck! Which is another reason why it irritates him to see Souji get so many good things out of life, because he's like, "HE'S KIND OF AN AWFUL PERSON TOO??" Basically life is unfair and Kaoru is aware of it but that only intensifies his disdain toward Souji.
He still 100% wants to murder Souji deda and he'd be the kind of moron who would keep Souji alive just so he can be the one to kill him, though. In Cerealia he understands that murder is counterproductive which is the only reason he hasn't got his shank game on, but that will probably happen eventually because they're still playing the verbal insult game and they're both so good at pressing each other's buttons that ONE OF THEM IS BOUND TO SNAP and then they'll just become an ouroboros of murder or something.
KASHUU AND SOOJ is much less complicated just by virtue of Kashuu being a less complicated person in general LMFAO. Souji is always going to be an important person to him regardless of which version of Souji it is, so there's always going to be that element of innate care regardless of how much of a shithead hakusooj is. THAT SAID, he definitely likes this Souji the least of all the AUs he's met... He's so dang caustic and untrusting and rude?! It's a weird shock to him since he knew historical Souji first and then got to know PMK!Souji directly after that, which sort of set the precedence in his mind for nice Soujis who are just killer on the battlefield. AND THEN THIS SOUJI COMES ALONG and he's a butthead at all times...
As things are right now, Souji is basically just important to Kashuu by virtue of being a Souji, rather than of his own merit as an individual. This will likely change with time (especially because Kashuu is a punk who won't be shaken despite how utterly unpleasant Souji is as a person!!) but it'll also likely be a very slow process, because Kashuu doesn't pry and Souji doesn't open up easily. A BAD COMBO. Clearly they need to be thrown into an event at some point that forces them to talk about the uglier things. ALSO there's an element of like... bitterness, kind of. It's a lot less apparent with PMKSooj, but Kashuu never really got over Ikedaya and even though he doesn't really blame Souji for it, he also hasn't entirely forgiven him. It's Complicated™. He can kind of have a nasty streak when he's angry or upset and with Souji's penchant for needling, I see the potential for Very Unpleasant Blowouts in the future...
BUT FOR NOW he's content to just make sure this Souji doesn't stumble into traffic or something while keeping a little more distance than he normally would with a Souji (but still being hard to shake, lord).
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carry on
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will get to all the things when I'm not quite as tipsy <3
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