Midsummer Philia Prologue
Kiku's most prominent quirk was his love of observing. This love for visual stimulus shown through his life in many varied aspects- from watching a documentary instead of reading a book on the same subject; to reading a manga instead of writing; to video-calling Sadiq instead of texting. There was something about delighting his eyes' desires that was just fulfilling to him. Observing allowed him to be more passive without being completely detached from society.
Before Kiku opened the ports to the rest of the world, he often preferred to go walking around his country to observe the lives of his people. From the moving silence of a temple to the excited gibbering of children- he loved hearing people. He loved feeling the extremes of the weather- the scarring heat of summers that scratched his skin and the fierce, pinching sensation of winter- they reminded him that he was alive. But obviously his favourite thing to do was to watch the trees shed and bare life again; watch the clouds' subjects migrate across the sky; watch buildings appear from previously empty pastures and notice how everyone and everything was different. It sent his mind wild with ideas watching just simple things, like how even twins can interact so differently with their environment.
His mind whirred and was stimulated by his walks but his heart… The walks damaged his heart more than any salt intake could. The people did hurt him just by existing and warming his emotions, for he knew that they would all die and leave him soon to re-join the cycle, whilst he waited alone. Nobody, when reversing his original route, recognised him. He did not expect them to; he knew they could not, for those children he saw in the field last time had already died from either age or disease. Or, in the very worst case scenario, from more malicious causes.
"The trees always recognise me," Kiku pretended as the trees waved at him and as the wind embraced him.
Over time Kiku realised that he needed to open his ports. Not so the world could come and observe him, no- so that he could go and observe other immortals who, when he next saw them, would still be there. Immortals who would come across as strange and exotic, immortals who would recognise him and wave at him like the trees- immortals like himself.
When Kiku met the shamefully charismatic Feliciano and the severe Ludwig, he knew that observing the world around him would become all the more enticing, even if he could not let the others know that. Inspecting the two who made such a wonderful oxymoron together truly was fascinating.
But enough of the past, let us skip to the time of which our story takes place. Now Kiku lives in a slightly post-modern world, one that is not too far away in the fabric of time from our own world. As aforementioned, Kiku has now made many friends to observe like Sadiq, Arthur and many others. They may have not felt specifically close to him, as his blank exterior did make people doubt on how he felt, but he was truly close to them. Some of them more close than others, mind you. Through his inspections he learnt about others and applied these theories to himself. He learnt about life and emotions.
He learnt about philia.
