Waking the Dead 2.0 || August 19, 2063 || Friday

[icarusalsoflew]

[This one disappears for about thirty minutes, and returns as quietly as he left with two briefcases. He doesn't explain where he went, but from how he ducks into Hikaru's room for about fifteen minutes after that, it can probably be inferred that he fetched a few things from Falner.

Looks like he'll be staying at the Tower while he has taken control of his Brother's body. You're usually going to spot him hovering around, smoking, working through a glass of rum, eyes crimson-ringed and glowing oddly in all lights (or lack thereof) watching... who knows what he's watching? And that suit he's wearing - three-piece, black, pin-striped, with ghostly faces and smoke occasionally moving over the "fabric" - is pretty nice, creepiness aside.

Please excuse him if you find him suddenly popping in on you. It's just what he does.]


OOC Notes:
+ Drop starters as you please! I'll have Death haunt you accordingly. ♥
+ Feel free to do other stuff among yourselves here as well.
+ Do note that Makoto's out and solid for this evening too, so you can bug him or ping me if you want him to come around and bother you.

Comments

[larue]

[ Smiling at that and fishing out his cigarettes now. ]

I think we all do. [ He's glancing around as he lights up. It's nice to have everyone in the Tower again. It's been a while. ]

[shuryoinai]

True.

[Kicking back, watching the other a moment before chuckling.]

I suppose I don't mind waiting around to see how that pans out.

[larue]

[ The smile one this one's face stays, but you know him well, you've had enough time to become familiar with his head and the way his thought-processes work. There's also the fact that the events of the last forty-eight hours have been yet another change -- and he's learning to roll with the punches and just taking things as they come.

The world will always move without you, after all. And he's okay with that. ]

Hey, Makoto. [ That's quiet, just as he's lifting his cigarette to his lips. ]

[shuryoinai]

Mm?

[You're bringing your cigarette to your lips, and this one's bringing a big bottle of Sapporo Label to his.]

[larue]

How'd you learn?

[ Looking youe way now. ]

How to use your manifestations.

[ He was paying attention, during this morning's engagement, the one with Todd. He also knows you died at a pretty ripe age, but not every Sin-Eater is as proficient as you, nor do they have as wide a selection of keys and manifestations like yours. ]

[shuryoinai]

[Oh, it's serious talk time. He's pretty sure he knows why, given what you all have to been up to lately.]

My geist was the one who taught me at first. He'd tell me stories, or he'd show me what he no longer had the words to express.

[larue]

[ Nodding quietly now as he goes through that stick.

When he's about halfway through though: ]

Would you be okay to teach us?

[ And he's letting that old tell show, the one where he looks slightly off to the side, just as he's reaching for Coach's attention at the back of his head.

They're both young and inexperienced. Josh with a little bit more because addressing the things that he can do is different from what his old mentor can. He hasn't pushed, mostly out of deference and respect, and a little because of apprehension -- but those are things he's getting a better handle on now. ]

[shuryoinai]

Of course. It'll save you the trouble of hounding other Sin-Eaters. I had to do that eventually.

[Hum.]

Davis-san, though, knows more than he thinks he does. It's all about instinct, really.

[At that shoutout, your other passenger is stirring, as if things have suddenly started making sense to him.]

[larue]

[ Elbows on his knees now, all the questions he'd like to ask all over his face. You know this look. It's the attentive one he's turned often enough, to Gabriel. ]

[shuryoinai]

The Manifestations come from what you needed to do in order to make your death yours. Weaponizing it, making it your shield. The Underworld can be a terrible place, and you need to be able to use what makes you you in order to crawl back up.

[As such, it had been pretty easy for this one to get back to... well, this.]

[larue]

[ He leans back quietly against the couch, thinks on that and feels around gently in his mind for Coach.

He's also trying to contextualize the manifestations at their disposal: Boneyard, to establish the playing field. Marionette, for control. Oracle, to ensure that they know.

Couple that with the Phantasmal and Passion keys and how... oh.

Turning back to Makoto now. ] What were your keys? The first ones you ever had?

[shuryoinai]

These ones.

[He's lifting his hand in the space between the two of you, and two keys materialize. The first seems like it is more rust and algae and moss than it is metal, and water oozes from its every crack. The other seems alight with ghostly, magenta light, and seems to be made of so many colors that it's a strange sort of white that isn't quite white. It is also thin, elegant, and broken in the wrong places. What pours from it are whispers.]

Tear-Stained and Passion.

[larue]

[ He glances briefly at the Passion key. He's aware of it's power, and you've seen him use it nearly as often as the Industrial key; but Josh's attention is now focused on the first one -- the Tear-Stained key. And he swallows quietly, remembering that you'd mentioned once, at the beginning of your friendship, that you'd drowned.

His gaze eventually drops and when he speaks again, his tone is even, measured. ] You told me that your father drowned you.

How... how young were you when...?

[ His lips press together and a part of him wants to backpedal from bringing this up.

It's been kind of an unspoken thing, after all -- that neither of you pry. Wasn't that how the safe word started? Goddamn snakes. ]

[shuryoinai]

Eight.

[He feels nothing about it now, because his death had, in a really fucked up way, released him in order to make him ready to receive better things.

Of course, he's also aware even as he's responding to you that this might be a bit of a trigger.]

[larue]

[ He's taking a moment to take that in then, and you'll see enough, the cues: the curl of his fingers into a loose fist, the way his eyes glance away before he closes them and sighs. ]

I'm sorry, man. [ He knows it's done, but you know him well enough to know that it still matters. He's not as explosive as he could be about this though -- that might be because of today, coupled with the fact that he knows that you had a better life. ] I know this'll sound harsh -- or not -- but, good riddance.

[ A pause though, then: ] So...Kuzunoha is... a name you took for yourself?

[ His Japanese vocab is not that big yet. He's not sure of the meaning when you break the symbols that make up your last name down. ]

[shuryoinai]

[He's giving you a crooked look at that first statement. "Good riddance", indeed.]

Kuzunoha is the last name of the Oyabun of the man who took me in two years later.

["Oyabun". The "big boss" of a yakuza group. You may be familiar with the term, Josh.]

[larue]

[ Blinking at that. ]

You were yakuza?

[ Come to think of it though, he's not really surprised? ]

[shuryoinai]

Yeah.

[Oh, the good old days...]

My father was a Mortician of Zangyaku, but I only found that out from him on his death bed. Didn't really know what that meant either for a bit after that.

[And then Hikaru came to him.]

[larue]

[ Nodding quietly, as he turns that information over in his head. ]

And then Zangyaku recruited you.

[ The tug of the smile on his mouth is a question for confirmation, because he's seen what you can do and there's a part of him that can totally picture you being approached by the Blade King. ]

[shuryoinai]

Pretty much. I did try to play hard to get, but. Well.

[Hikaru.

You probably know the feeling well, Josh.]

[larue]

Yeah, fat lot of good that did you.

[ Chuckling as he's saying that now. Yeah, he knows that feel, man.

Falling quiet now, and rubbing his thumb idly along his wrist. ]

I need to get better -- I want to get better. [ You were in his head while he was watching Todd through the Boneyard. You probably felt it, the way this one noted how efficient Jason worked to disable them all, underneath all that concern for Yulia. ]

[shuryoinai]

Well, wanting's a start. The rest is just a matter of discipline.

[And he's of the opinion that you're plenty disciplined already. As it stands, you have the tendency to border on Control Freak.

He knows the type. That's why you're stuck together.]