icarusalsoflew | 003. and in every raindrop... // open post.

[Of course, Hikaru was blissfully unaware of the fact that someone was looking for him. He had done his damage, hadn't he? Most people in Netsach made it a habit not to bother him while he was on the estate grounds unless it was really important, and he at least liked to think that the few who might have were pissed off enough not to bother.

This might be behind the reason why Hikaru didn't end up retreating to "safer" territory, like his conspiracy's own power bases on Philippine soil, or Hell, even his own room in the Manor. Then again, while he was loathe to admit it, he needed a familiar but public place to chill the fuck out. Today's events had left a sour taste in his mouth.

So there's the Blade King, all alone at the table that was always set aside for Malice Kings like himself. He's armed with his laptop, an ashtray, lots of cigarettes, and music. It was past dinner and bordering on 'decent' to 'almost late'; there weren't a lot of other people hanging around. A good thing, that.

He'd be fine tomorrow. He'd make sure of it.]

Edited 2014-01-05 13:42 (UTC)

[ He pauses at the entrance when he gets Hikaru in his sights: to anyone else, the Blade King just looks occupied -- laptop implying official business, the cigarettes a tell-tale sign that whatever it was he was working on, he was okay with hunkering down or a while, and the earphones, a gentle Do Not Disturb sign, unless you were particularly brave or numbered among his close friends.

( Hikaru Shinta's particular with calling people close friends, so it's probably a good thing that Josh considers himself a pretty brave individual. )

Josh decides to segue towards the coffeemaker off to one side first, reaching for the stack of takeaway cups to lay out five of their number and five matching covers before he fills each one.

When he wanders back, tray in hand, he sets the cups down like five little soldiers in a row. ]

Edited 2014-01-05 20:36 (UTC)

[It was only a little before Josh's arrival that Hikaru finally decided to check his phone.

One new message. Bostova.

It's just one line, and it reminds Hikaru of the fact that the girl he apparently picked up in Russia five years back is loyal, incredibly loyal, and probably more deserving, in a lot of ways, of a slot in his conspiracy than some of the people who were born into it. But she wasn't ready yet.

The exchange is simple. It gives her a chance to warn him, and him a chance to apologize. None of that, however, is written on Hikaru's face as he sets the phone down and looks up, catching sight of one Joshua LaRue on the approach.

Not quite the person he expected, but maybe he should have. Hikaru's setting the phone down now, back on the table. He's also keeping his gaze right on Joshua.]

Edited 2014-01-06 01:23 (UTC)

[ Josh doesn't say a thing, just smiles in greeting as he slides into the opposite chair.

The exchange from earlier that afternoon lingers in his thoughts: Hikaru's eyes red-ringed, Stanley walking up with his sword drawn, the question of whether the boy was a mage, the quote from the bible and Josh's own manner of putting his foot down on the decision that no one was killing a kid on his watch.

He's only eighteen, he'd said, looking up at the Blade King and wondering again about Rethe's story. About the student he'd talked back from the edge all those years ago. About the nugget of information that he didn't doubt was truth, because Rethe looked the type to always stick to that -- how it hadn't just been Josh there that day, telling another student that making it through the next twenty-four hours would be hard but totally worth it, just as getting through the next forty-eight and then some would be if he just gave it a try. That Rethe and Hikaru had been around as well.

He turns one of the coffee cups around, so that they were all more ot less facing his companion. ]

[And there's no smile on his end, just him watching Joshua's every move. He knows what the boy's trying to do. He doesn't quite appreciate it. (Why don't they get it? Why can't they just--)

He's pulling the earphones out, leaning back, reaching for his cigarettes, lighting up.]

...Thanks.

[For the gesture, if anything else. Can't fault a guy for trying to be nice.]

[ He makes a gesture at that, a kind of no thanks needed, man and just settles in his seat, taking his phone out from his pocket to check for messages.

He'll eat in a bit. He's good with chilling out for the moment. It's been an eventful day. ]

[And now the kid's sitting down. It doesn't surprise him, but it doesn't make him feel any better.

Time to focus on the coffee. Three sips, though, and his eyes go right back to his laptop's screen. There's a lot of clean-up work to do; South Korea hasn't been good since the Armistice, and having a high-level Relic suddenly explode in everyone's faces was always an administrative headache. Especially since the Korean government was wondering why Hikaru had pulled so many strings to let some Netsach kids step in when Zangyaku could have easily handled it.

At least Kang Dae Moon is not asking questions. Loyal to the end, that one. Loyal and willing to blind himself to his leader's very real faults.]

Shouldn't you be with your friends?

[They have a new blade mate. They have a lot to occupy themselves with. He's tried very hard to make sure of that.]

I'll catch up with them later.

[ Brig had been busy at the bar, talking to Becket Duskrider, and the others were winding down.

He tosses Hikaru a smile just then. Just a small one. ] Thank you, by the way.

For what?

[Mm, coffee. Coffee is great.

He'll congratulate himself later for sounding calm, unaffected.]

[ So, playing it like that, huh?

Josh just shrugs. ]

Just... thanks.

[That earns Josh a lifted eyebrow right before Hikaru's gaze is sliding right back to his laptop screen. He's setting the coffee aside in order to take a good, long drag of his cigarette.]

You came all the way here to say that?

[In retrospect, maybe he should have ordered the boy's geist to keep his kid off of his back for at least 24 hours. (But he doesn't like doing that at all. Hits too close to home. Reminds him of way too much.)]

Why not? [ He shrugs, smiles and then gets up and leaves the barely touched pack of cigarettes on the table, a gesture that says simply: Just a sec. I'll be back.

And then he gets up to make his way to where the food is. ]

[There's another look, first at the pack, then at Josh just before he's moving off.

...Seriously? It's hard to resist the urge to sigh, and rub out the building ache between his temples.

He quite possibly did not have the spoons for this. At all.]

[ Here's the truth about people: everyone's different. Reactions, thoughts and feelings vary from one person to another and it all boils down to the fact that equal parts circumstance and personal experience make one body different from everyone else.

And then of course there's one other truth: no matter how different two people can be, there's always something that echoes from one person to the next. It's just not always that obvious.

Take Yulia for example. Josh will never tell it to her face, but part of the reason that he's personally decided never to push too hard when it comes to her opening up about past is the truth that, he might never have lost people the way she lost the blade she used to run with -- but to some degree the cards she's been dealt are cards he sort of knows as well.

She won't think them the same, the paths they'd walked prior to that fateful meeting on the plane people would say were as different as morning and evening. She had wanted to be the best hunter that Jotunheim could offer, he had gunned for pro football. But night and day share the sky, and in a manner of speaking, they'd both had teams to rely on, to care about, to lean on when support was necessary--

--and in both cases, those were snatched away by things neither of them could control.

But of course, all this is his personal take on the matter.

Josh is thinking on this as he walks over to the tables, ducks his head in a shy greeting to the staff before he starts scooping food onto his plate. He doesn't rush, but he doesn't hurry either, as he gets a modest plateful of food before finally wandering back to Hikaru, offering an easy smile as he sits again. ] How's work?

[ He doesn't have any illusions that Hikaru knows why he's here, or that the Blade King probably thinks of him a person with zero survival instinct given how he'd had the gumption to stare Dearth down in that classroom in Korea, telling him no, not this one; not today.

But there's one thing that's been going on in his mind ever since they got back -- Hikaru walking off right after Brig had spoken words that had made the Malice King look just about ready to cut something. Or someone.

There's no chasing if you're the one doing the running. He turns to his own cup of coffee then, sips quietly at the hot liquid as his own words from the Saturday before come back to rattle around in his head. ]

As expected.

[Kid was in lockdown, university was being restored, students and faculty were being processed, and the media machine was in full swing. There were also several chat boxes blinking on his screen, waiting to be acknowledged.

Aria: Heard about Korea. You okay?

Kang Dae Moon: Respectfully, sir, if I may be so forward... I worry for you. Is there nothing else that I can do for you at the moment?

Alistair: Wings activated. Kid let it. Your take's appreciated.

Satsuki: Please forgive me for my impertinence, Hikaru-san. I am merely wondering why you have not been responding to any of my messages as of late. Would it be all right if we could arrange for a meeting soon? We can take your schedule into consideration more than mine.

He minimized each and every window. There wasn't enough nicotine or caffeine in him yet. He closed his laptop, and leaned back, fixing his gaze right on Josh.]

Why are you really here?

[And since he didn't really have it in him to beat around the bush, be charming, be nice, be evasive, he might as well shoot straight.]

Edited 2014-01-07 01:31 (UTC)

[ He's never been one to beat around the bush. Oh, he'll pace himself, just so that he can get something of a read on the other party he'd like to talk to -- but shooting straight is something Josh prefers to swing with. Less misunderstanding that way. ]

Just wanted to say thank you.

[ A beat, and then: ] And to apologize.

For crossing you the way I did -- not, [ there's a pause, for emphasis, ] for sticking by my principles.

[ He leans back into his seat at that; shrugs. ] You probably do know all about what that kid is gonna do, if he's going to go nuts again and prove me wrong.

But everyone deserves a second chance. [ He offers a small, mildly apologetic smile. ] And for the record, I never said that you didn't believe in them. [ He hadn't missed that look in the Blade King's eye before he'd stormed off. ]

Man with your history?

[ He leaves off at that and thumbs out a cigarette, even if he doesn't make a move to light it. ]

My 'history', as you put it, does not have a lot to do with second chances, in my opinion.

[He speaks very, very quietly. Strange how letting them know all about him had backfired. Most others had quailed, and had - as he had predicted, as he had hoped - been content to draw up their own conclusions. More often than not, said conclusions meant staying the fuck away from him.

That suited him just fine. There were better people, and better things.

Perish the thought. Back to the now, where he's sighing, pursing his lips, cutting himself off from saying more.]

Anyway. It's fine.

[Can't be a part of Zangyaku if you get upset over a single person insulting you. And you most certainly can't be their Wolf if you're so easily affected by such things.

(Right?)]

Is it? [ He sips at his coffee, gaze following the grooves beneath the varnish. He's half-there with Hikaru, half back in that room, sitting down beside the boy, Stanley having just put away his sword.

When he looks back up, there's a frown between his brows. ]

And isn't it? [ This time, about the lives, tough as they are. Hard as they looked on paper, on file and video. Because Josh has always believed in making the most of the cards that life deals you. ] You've done a lot of good.

[ And then, amending: ] Even if you say you didn't intend to.

[You've done a lot of good.

It never gets easier, hearing that. One would think that after over a millennia of living, one would build a little more confidence in one's self.

He used to deny it. He used to deflect, send people down another path. He used to try to remind them not to look at the sum of his good deeds, but at all of the terrible and ugly things that had come before them, between them.

"You need to let people who care about you care, you know."

(Forgiveness is a virtue, right, Aria Skye?)

Back in the Great Hall, Hikaru's reaching out and closing his laptop.]

I stand corrected. [A pause, as he's looking up and really looking at Josh for the first time since their conversation began, as he's grasping for the right words to say. (Read: the ones that won't give away too much, even if it's a bit too late to be careful.)] It will be fine. I just lost it a little earlier.

[And it wasn't going to happen again, if he could help it.]

You do what you've got to do... that's how things work here. If you don't get used to it, then it just makes things more difficult in the long run.

[ He's silent a moment, contemplating Hikaru's words and the truth behind them. ]

That's true. [ He offers a small smile. ] But someone as generous as yourself-- [ he says that with deliberate weight, because Hikaru Shinta didn't have to show up on that plane, didn't have to do a lot of the things that he did for Josh's fledgeling of a blade, nor the other countless people Lorenzo Reyes showed them that day he'd called Kaz to the Arcanum to share his findings.

He just did. And every single, last one of those people, Josh can imagine -- were grateful. Whether they owned up to it or not.

A man didn't have fiercely loyal followers like the Zangyaku if there wasn't something worth believing in where it concerned him. ]

You were different. [ He says quietly, thumb tracing the edge of his drink. ] And I get that you're the almighty Death, sir. So I guess I came here because I want to understand.

[ A breath. ] Because you broke pattern.

[ He shrugs at that.

Josh sees things, patterns he can't quite find context for, but that his gut asserts fit a certain way. And when that pattern is broken, he's pretty convinced that there always is a reason behind the divergence from the tried and more or less tested. ]

[And the things he could tell this one, if he was capable of it. Hell, if he even wanted to. Others had done strange things with the knowledge of Hikaru Shinta's very real limitations, with knowing that being Death meant having Rules.

Time for another cigarette. It takes him longer than usual to light up. He's forgotten, for the moment, all about the coffee.]

Sometimes, people break their usual patterns because they don't have a choice.

[(Three admonitions, and three only. Like the cock crowing thrice at the crack of dawn.

Poetic, no?)

He takes a long drag and breathes out, because silence is always an option.]

Edited 2014-01-10 09:36 (UTC)

[ His brows furrow at that. ]

You don't strike me as someone who'd stand for having his choices taken away.

[ The words are said out loud, but mostly as a means to process his thoughts. Nevertheless, it is the truth that Josh knows based solely on his observations of the man seated across him.

And then, quietly offering: ] I have a question.

I might not be able to answer you.

[It's not a no, at the very least. He has a feeling that he knows what's going to go down next.

It doesn't make him feel any better.]

[ Josh narrows his eyes at that. It's a strange thing to say, makes him wonder about the way Hikaru's sudden mention of a lack of choice, a lack of other options. ]

If it's fine by you sir, I'll ask anyway.

[ He leans back into his seat at that, eyes still fixed on the Blade King. ] Do you think he deserved to die?

[ He stresses the 'you', looks straight at the other man as if to say: not Death, but the man, Hikaru Shinta. ]

[He could deflect this, perhaps. Throw the scent, send the kid down a different trail. It would make things easier in the long run.

Right?]

I don't think that my opinion matters much in this case.

[And he's left, briefly, to wonder why he's hedging, why he can't bring himself to do it.]

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didn't yulia text him, bb?

RIGHT I WILL PULL THAT NOW. #fail

LMFAO #foreveramused

cry the universe is not ominpotent!

ahahahahahaha x))

and now i get to oggle Josh's icons.

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i am so sorry this is so kalat.

but it's pretty!

s-sob /)(\

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