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[onerous]

"You have reached the automated voice mailbox of--"

"Um. Kozukata Yuri."

"At the tone, please record your message. when you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a call back number, press 9."

Comments

[tuishou]

[What do you mean he now has to be the one to answer the call? Cursing lightly under his breath, Neji hears the small incessant chime and sees the name come up on screen again. Okay, so-- naturally he presses ANSWER in the bold green letters. He only didn't expect the device to suddenly show her face.

Her.

In some robes he wasn't the least bit familiar with but that he knew were solemn things anyway. And in one corner of the screen, it showed... him. In his shinobi blacks, no flak jacket present, strips of bandages covering his forehead if only because he needed today for thinking, not for peering at his reflection at any opportunity. Neji hastily sat up from where he'd been on his stomach in bed. Thought he could pass it off as him having always been sitting proper, upright. The second time his eyes widen, she's addressing him the way some passerby would address any older man of his clan, save for the Head himself. Neji's hardly masking the discomfort there.

Voice. Video. This was video, then? He nods, though. Drained. He understood.

Could understand her wanting to reach out to others over what she'd gone through, though the gods knew he'd love to let his own devil rot in silence. Yuri's tone changes and Neji's furrowing his brows. He doesn't understand the thanks.] It's as you said. [A... pause. And a sigh.] I'll be alright. [He thinks that's that, but adds on in case she should get the wrong idea-] The city is overwhelming. There's nothing like this back home.

[onerous]

[She can sense the discomfort more than anything else giving him away, and that's curious in and of itself. She'll address it a little later though, because she can understand the sentiment of "this city is overwhelming" pretty well.]

It was similar for me too, when I arrived. Where I'm from, we had huge cities that weren't too different from this one, but I didn't live in one. I lived at the base of a mountain, and my town was pretty rural. [Well. Sort of?? Maybe not the city itself, but the area she lived in was. But she's not going to confuse the issue here by trying to explain all of that.] So, it was a big shock to come here. It's too bright and noisy...

[She looks away from the camera a moment because while she's around the quieter areas right now, she can still see the city around her. She can move freely around thanks to her job, but she's can't really stick to the totally silent areas, if such places even existed.]

But there are good things too, if you look for them. [Gonna need to see the receipts there, Yuri.] But you can relax for a while, the worst part's over. [okay... that sounds fake, but okay.]

[tuishou]

[He listens intently, silently curious and perhaps hoping, a tad, that she'd elaborate on how her own 'huge cities' were laid out. It was a difficult thing to explain when the points of reference themselves ('city', for example meaning to Neji a larger village teeming with less hardworking civilians and more nobility of the Land of Fire) were so distinct. He could guess that much. And Yuri had mentioned the mountain before-- but Neji knew mountains, and so that didn't pique his interest quite as much.

Then his lips are twitching up into a wry sort of smirk. (No, he isn't carved from stone thank you for noticing-- or not, since Yuri seems to have turned away.) 'Bright and noisy' was a good way to put this all.] I suppose it's some comfort to know the experience is the same all across the board. [From his small sample size of... two.

He'll fix that.

He'll also shake his head. Nope, this conversation wasn't supposed to be about him.] Anyway, I'm glad you're well. [Are well. Will be well. One and the same, really.] Lee was worried for you, so I'm glad you've already spoken to him. Take care, Yuri. I'll manage. [Neji makes a small gesture to the screen of the device. See? He'd learned not to hang up after every sentence already. He's a big boy. For gods' sakes, let him figure things out for himself.]