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 Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:23 pm
Kouyo returns to an empty house, and does his best to wait as patiently as he can for Setsushi. He takes a shower to get rid of the last of the dust from work, changes into his robes, and (with some difficulty) gets his hair dry. He braids his hair, changes his mind and brushes it out, then ends up braiding it again. He settles down over at a table with his pretzels jigsaw puzzle and counts the pieces into stacks of five, then arranges those into ranks and files. He starts working on the puzzle, linking a few adjacent pieces here and there. Then he counts the remaining pieces again. The priest fetches his jar of coins, and counts those into fives as well. Kouyo cleans up the coins and puts the jar back where he keeps it with the rest of his modest collection of belongings, and returns to the public side of Setsushi's house to water his hyacinths. Throughout all of this, he measures the Knight's home at least six times, very carefully.
Finally, the High Priest takes Setsushi's note and flips it over and writes a note of his own on the back ("Wake me when you come home, please") and goes to curl up on one corner of Setsushi's mattress.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:29 pm
And it's just as Kouyo lies down that Setsushi arrives; he steps over the threshold at the same moment he pulls out two pins from his hair, one loop of it coming loose and falling back over his shoulders.
He pauses there, looking around the room with a heavy sigh, then calling out softly, "Hello?" Has Kouyo or Dame Tenkyuu arrived home before him?
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:01 pm
Hearing the door open, Kouyo immediately sits up again and then gets to his feet. "Setsushi?" he calls back, doubling over for a moment as the stars running by his eyes remind him that he should not stand up so fast. Then he comes towards the entryway to meet his dear friend, tears welling up as he reaches for Setsushi's sleeves.
He is okay, yes? Miss Lucretia did not mishandle him, or damage his pure maidenly heart? Kouyo is so sorry....
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:05 pm
When only Kouyo responds, a tremendous change comes over Setsushi's person. He snatches his sleeve out of the smaller man's reach, turning his head away, though not before a brief flash of anger becomes visible in his eyes.
"Lucretia did not. But someone else did."
The Knight swishes past to put the pins down on top of the little chest of drawers and sets about removing the rest.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:12 pm
Kouyo freezes, even his thoughts stopping dead for a moment as Setsushi brushes past him. Then he turns to follow the Knight, tangling his fingers in his red drapes as he shuffles across the floor.
"But... Kumoru was with me, for an hour, and then he went to work," the priest stammers quietly. Will Setsushi be alright? Kouyo was worried sick - quite literally, though no small part of that was that sweet milk tea full of little eyeballs.
... But Setsushi is okay? The smaller Porcelain sniffles and makes no effort to wipe away the tears running down his face.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:20 pm
Setsushi turns to fix a glare on Kouyo as he removes another clip and pin -- but he can't, really, when the High Priest is wearing such a pathetic face. His own gaze softens, and he just sighs, shakes his head a little -- Setsushi isn't seriously hurt -- and turns back to the wall to finish his work.
But after all the little fixings are removed and his long hair, all twisted and broken and frayed, hangs loose around him like that of a Sorcerer, he turns back to Kouyo with a severe expression, no longer angry, but rather unfriendly.
"You cause me a lot of worry," he says, giving off a grumpy feeling.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:33 pm
So he does not have to look at the Knight's face as much as for any other reason, the priest buries his face in his hands as he starts to cry harder. Clumsily, Kouyo projects an apology, and staggers away from Setsushi to the wall so he can attempt to measure the dimensions of the house again.
So Miss Lucretia told Setsushi where he had gone? The little bird swears he hardly spoke to the human, told him next to nothing at all. Kumoru did not even touch him.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:40 pm
She did, but then Kouyo also did just a minute ago.
"But why were you with him in the first place? -- why do you continue to place yourself where you know you will be abused? -- why do you throw off your defenses and show your weakness to those who will take advantage of it? -- why do you always refer to yourself as an animal?"
Following that question, Setsushi suddenly steps towards Kouyo, symbolically, though not actually, trapping him in a corner. Does Kouyo call himself a bird over and over in the hopes that some hunter will shoot him down? Is he nursing some sort of secret desire to be plucked, roasted, and devoured??
If so, "You are selfish."
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:55 pm
Kouyo cowers before the Knight, visibly shaking. He... he is measuring the room and Setsushi is in the way! Kouyo needs to finish.
A purely nervous laugh escapes the High Priest's lips as he tries to explain: he is out of his birdcage now, so he is a little bird, free to flutter where he pleases, right? Someday, when his wings are stronger, he will be able to go anywhere and he will be almost like a free maiden, as soon as he learns how, and those things are never quick to learn, right? It's a pretty thing in his mind - he's always dreamed about being free and growing strong - and now he can actually become. Much prettier than being cooked and eaten!
... The priest shudders with nausea at that thought, and insists again, a bit more urgently, that Setsushi needs to move so Kouyo can complete his measurements of the house.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:01 pm
Setsushi steps slightly to the side, allowing Kouyo to pass, but then begins closely following behind him, almost bumping into him, he so closely matches Kouyo's steps.
Is Kouyo really trying to learn and become? For it seems to Setsushi, "You return to danger and pain, over and over." Kouyo runs crying home to Setsushi, then climbs back up the lightning-rod, then returns to sob on Setsushi's arm and lament his cruel fate -- "Why?" Why does Kouyo act as if he is so greedy for pain?
And "Do you not realize that it is not only your pain?" Setsushi is going crazy worrying about whether Kouyo is going crazy!
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:22 pm
Kouyo reaches the wall and turns around to double-check his count of paces, and finds himself face to face with Setsushi again, and quite close to him as well. Again, he asks Setsushi to move, because he needs to finish measuring.
Maybe he is trying to start off with steps that are too big. Because he cannot constantly trouble his precious dear only friend to hold his hand all along the way, can he? Kouyo has been trying to help himself and teach himself, and maybe he is jumping in too quickly, tumbling from the nest before he can properly spread his wings. But he is so thankful that Setsushi is always there to help him when he falls, so he can try again next time until someday when he's strong enough....
Cracks are starting to appear around the edges of Kouyo's pretty little denial, and he tries again to grasp Setsushi's sleeves. The little bird does not mean to harm his dearest friend.... The priest breaks down once more in tears and waits for Setsushi to move out of his way again.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:33 pm
Setsushi once again moves to the side, but continues to follow Kouyo at an oppressively close distance, throwing his huge shadow over Kouyo's.
"Plausible, plausible, plausible," Setsushi replies, "but why that person?" Kouyo is not just tossing himself wildly and randomly into the ocean of the world, but seeking out, again and again, the manipulation and abuses of a particular group of people. "What is the reason for that?" Is Kouyo enchanted, literally or metaphorically? Perhaps Kouyo, believing himself already having secured the unconditional support and kindness of Setsushi, has come to rely on those people as reliable sources of torment, so that he can go get himself taken advantage of whenever he needs a good session of self-pity?
"What is the reason?" And then, he suddenly shifts from the bitter and accusative tone to one that is almost desperate; Or can Kouyo tell Setsushi that he is completely wrong?
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:57 pm
Setsushi... is ... messing up... his... counting! Kouyo gets about halfway across the room before falling to his hands and knees, head spinning as he tries to deal with Setsushi's questions on top of his current inability to cater to his compulsions. He is also still quite sick to his stomach, which he haltingly reminds Setsushi, half hoping to get his precious friend to stop with his interrogation.
There is only one person who could so enchant this little bird.... And she is the one, Kouyo realizes, who has already plucked, roasted, and devoured him; a few shreds of his memories of Ranko filter through his projections, enough to lend the words an obviously sexual connotation. Kouyo's breathing quickens, and he twists around where he dropped himself on the floor to attempt to cling to Setsushi's legs.
His wife broke his heart, and now - "I am crazy!" Kouyo chokes out.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:07 pm
And Setsushi stands there, angry and miserable, though in enough control of his emotions to release the hounding pressure on Kouyo.
Gazing down at him with an indecipherable mixture of emotions in his face -- contempt or pity, maybe, or even just tiredness -- Setsushi is silent for a time. When he finally does speak, his tone is calm, but almost exhausted and dead; instead of gazing after the humans here who trick and hurt him, or peering into the deep mirror of his mind, "Can't you look for her?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:24 pm
The High Priest clings to the tall Knight's legs, shaking fearfully and chattering away through quiet projections that the walls are going to close in and crush the life from him and he would never know because he cannot measure and be sure the room is the same size as it was and all of his counting things are on the table or on the other side of the screen and he's going to die and Setsushi doesn't love him anymore-
So when the taller Porcelain finally speaks again, Kouyo actually jumps with surprise.
But how could he look for her? She had left him behind; what if she did not even love him? And what hope does little Kouyo have of finding her?
For a brief moment, he recalls when he had asked the Name if it was possible to break his bond to her... and how Name had answered by reminding him that somewhere, she was alone as well....
- And then he throws himself at Setsushi's legs again, begging his friend to love him and hold him and protect him from the suffocating walls and tell him what to do and where to go from here.
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