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 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2022 12:49 am
Quote: The Gargoyles (7) : By all accounts, you should have seen the last of them. The Star Festival had its fair share of oddities, but it seems like some of them did escape into Destiny City. Maybe you see them perched on the roof, or hiding in the shadows, but not all of these grotesque creatures are satisfied with just escaping their interdimensional prison–some of them still have a bone to pick. They seem stony; some of them will watch with a penetrative gaze and never strike to attack, but some of them will dive down to target anyone who gets too close. The monsters come in an array of sizes and shapes, but they are no more than half the size of their target. Their goal is uncertain, but they will crumble into a pile of rocks and dust if struck hard enough. Powered characters can use one roleplay with an attacking stone beast to count as a battle requirement if they are roleplaying with another powered character. Toráin was having a pretty normal night, all things considered. Slowly, things had started looking up. He'd been doing what he could to squirrel away things from this civilian life he hated leading. He had some nice friends, sure, but this was a life that had been thrust upon him, to paper over the life he'd led before. His real life. Something he had no idea what it was like, but he still felt hollow when he thought about who he'd been before; the kind of person he was, the things he did, the people he'd loved. He'd never have that back. The poor imitation of a life he'd once led now was something he was going to miss, too, strangely enough. How was that? Would he always be left wanting more? What would happen to him, once he made the switch? He exhaled shakily as he walked down the sidewalk, bringing his hands up to his face to breathe into his gloves and hopefully trap some fresh warmth into them. The air was getting so chilled. He liked it, though. The leaves changing, the spooky season, all of it. As everything slowly transitioned into the beauty of winter. The hair on the back of his neck stood up in a way that definitely wasn't from the cold, and he stopped, peering around. Something... was watching him.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:53 am
Even more than it had since Astraya, everything felt so impossibly ******** wrong, of late. The threat of hearing again from Faustite, Albite, Fafnir, or the rest of their team loomed over Reiki’s head. Honestly, it was probably only a matter of time on that, and thanks, Reiki hated it. Didn’t want anything to do with it, or with them, or with most of the world until he could rest assured that those <******** people would leave him alone. What part of “No, I won’t be your pet weapon, find somebody else” was so ******** difficult to understand?
Did Reiki have to come right out and tell them “Just because we’re all Chaos rats doesn’t mean I’m anything like you—and what’s your collective ******** excuse, exactly? You have the choice to do <******** better. All of you could get. out. of the gods-forsaken Negaverse. Purify. Turn over a new leaf. Sort your <******** LIVES out! Maybe do some good in the universe before you die! Do you know how many people would do anything for a chance like that?”—because on the one hand, it felt like they preferred willful ignorance, like none of them would get it through their skulls where he stood unless he forsook politeness, did the verbal equivalent of choosing violence, and forcefully rubbed their faces into it.
But on the other hand, he really didn’t like his chances for survival if he said even a fraction of that out loud to any of them.
Still, life went on. By necessity, it had to. And tonight, Reiki found himself just……walking home as himself, for once, instead of powering up so he could get there faster. Increasingly, bothering with that felt……wrong. Impossibly wrong. Reiki couldn’t even explain it or pinpoint what his deal was; he only knew that, much like Murikabushi felt like somebody else’s name, getting into his fuku……didn’t feel right, anymore.
Since being on foot allowed him to stop at CVS more easily, he’d swung through and picked up a shopping bag full of Sno-Caps that he probably wouldn’t manage to stomach. Treats he was supposed to give himself but couldn’t. Exiting the store in the same fog that had been descending over everything of late, Reiki almost missed the familiar (but long-missing) figure walking past.
Fortunately, the other one stopped. Let Reiki get a better look at him. And softly—hopefully—he called out, “Toráin?”
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2022 1:01 am
Toráin only didn't startle because he'd been standing there waiting for something to happen. At the sound of his name, though, he turned in confusion, searching for the source, until he spotted— "Reiki!" he called out joyfully, jogging over to him with a bright smile. "Hey hey! Long time no see, right? Gosh, it's great to see your face, man. I'm sorry I was so, uh... so into my own life s**t that it's like I was practically off-planet or something. I wish I could've texted more, but things were so... up in the air, and my service provider was not playing nice with me." He grinned bashfully, scratching the side of his nose, pleased with his cutesy little talk around the powered problems he'd been having. At least, some of it. "How's life been with you? Bag any cute boys while I was out?" he teased.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2022 1:51 am
It was, in all likelihood, a straight-up miracle that Reiki didn’t simply hug Toráin, that he held back on how much he wanted (needed, if he was honest) that contact, given his awareness of his friend’s physical boundaries—and, probably more importantly, of how much he’d need to have some kind of bodily autonomy after everything that the Negaverse had put him through and everything his own brother had called down on his head (that sick, twisted, craven little worm who called himself Arsenolite).
Then again, hearing Toráin speaking so positively, seeing him smile like that, all of it…… It just felt weird, in a way that made Reiki’s head spin a little. Felt jarringly at-odds with everything that he’d been feeling, lately.…… Well. For the past two-and-a-half months or so.…… At least it was easy enough to shake his head ‘no’ at bagging any cute boys—even if anyone were remotely interested in him right now, Reiki had enough problems without ruining some poor boy’s life on top of it—but……beyond that? He really did not know.
So many things swam around Reiki’s mind that he could’ve said: “I went to space and got starseeded by a robot, but Kerberos, the patron saint of cute sluts, was there to save me”—no, too miserable and worrisome.
“Learned that I have a past life, and some part of it involves being friends with some kind of courtier-droid who dressed like Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire, and honestly, I think the last Sailor Murikabushi must have ******** up something bad, because it sure feels like the magic in this starseed is a punishment for something. Like, I cannot imagine any conceivable justification for magic like this to exist. Everything about it feels fundamentally evil, and oh, by the way, I’ve triggered two addicts into borderline or genuinely relapsing, and one of them was Kerberos”—ugh, no, bad, bad, bad.
“Hey, do you know some Negaverse General by the name of Faustite? Because Sailor Ida of Orchids went Princess about six weeks ago or something, and he snatched me from the scene while I was being In My Feelings about something stupid, and I have no idea what to do about him or how to read what the ******** is up with him or any of ******** couldn’t he remember anything decent that had happened for him lately? There had to be something!
“I did……put together a gift-basket? Uh. For a birthday.…… For this guy I like, he……” Reiki shrugged, looking away bashfully. “I’m not sure how he liked it or not? He—he wasn’t home when I took it to him, and then my cousin and I went on this weird magic adventure with some drunk flautist, and—ugh, I just hope none of Levi’s neighbors took it out of the hallway or anything, but? I haven’t like, asked if he found it yet……”
Which, while true, was far from being the most important thing that needed talking about between them.
Trying to decide how to bring up what he really wanted to ask, though, Reiki felt thick, cold guilt writhe around his throat, like it was trying to choke him. Toráin looked so pleased with himself. And maybe simply talking about this at all would do something awful for them—which would’ve killed Reiki to bring down on his friend’s head, when he was so close to getting out, but……
Lowering his voice and leaning closer, he asked, “Can we go somewhere quieter? Like, I don’t know, a roof maybe? Somewhere it’s just us.” He swallowed thickly, looking Toráin in the eye. “I met Lysithea. She’s probably the biggest reason I didn’t completely lose my mind, worrying about you.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2022 5:56 pm
Toráin's brows knitted together at the mention of Reiki and his cousin going on some strange magic adventure with a drunk... what? He was pretty sure that Reiki didn't mean the guy played music with flatulence, but he couldn't get the stupid image out of his brain, so he pulled out his phone and did just a quick google search, acting like he needed to respond to a text. He put it away with relief as he learned that yeah, no, his brain was very wrong. "Aww, gift-baskets are nice," he cooed a little, grinning. "Levi, huh? He sounds cuuuuute." Teasing sufficiently done, he sighed, glancing around before nodding to Reiki, Lysithea's name spearing him in the heart. Reiki.... He should have known that some silly comment wasn't going to be enough. He pulled Reiki into the alley and powered up, becoming Monoceros in a flash, and leapt up to the roof, waiting for Reiki to follow. After a beat, there he was, and Monoceros smiled with exhaustion. "So you met Lysithea." He shook slightly, wondering what Murikabushi knew. What Lysithea said. He didn't know how to ask. Did Muri know that he wanted to purify? Would he be prevented? Could he even fish for that information, without sounding exactly like what he was—someone trying to make sure their bases were covered before purifying out? He swallowed heavily and tilted his head to stare up at the sky. At the stars. Somewhere up there was his home. And he deeply desired to go to it. .... It was the only home he had left he could go back to, after all. So he prayed that Murikabushi wasn't about to do him badly.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2022 3:02 am
Following Monoceros up to the roof, Reiki felt a sense of dread and desperately wished that it were coming from the threat of someone finding them together, rather than simply……powering up. Dread in magical girl matters should’ve had the Negaverse to blame, rather than Reiki’s skin simply crawling over……having to be seen like this, as Murikabushi, in the first place.
Bad enough that Lysithea had probably passed that name along to ‘Ceros, so Reiki couldn’t even have the small comfort of getting called Tagame instead. Sure, it saved time right now, not needing to disabuse ‘Ceros of that idea and explain that “Tagame” had only happened because Arsenolite had pissed Reiki off enough to troll him by leaving a curiosity there for him to Google, knowing that, if he indulged in the urge to find out what “Tagame” meant, Arsenolite would have found the wholesomeness of My Brother’s Husband and an endless trove of shameless, exceptionally explicit smut.
Saving time mattered and all (especially since, in Toráin’s absence, Reiki had—among other things—gotten himself firmly on the radar of a bunch of Negaverse creeps whom Reiki did not trust to hold up their own end of the “stay away from each other” rule, given how rampant “rules for thee but not for me” mindsets seemed to be among those ******** people). Reiki realized that it helped for ‘Ceros to know the senshi name he carried, permanently noosed around his neck like Albite’s ******** tattoo-whip—but god, at what cost?
Still, more important things to deal with.
Like nodding at ‘Ceros, and slouching at the hips a bit so his height wouldn’t make his friend feel more intimidated. Like keeping his voice low as he hovered close and said, “She told me that she and a friend helped you with whatever……made you start talking like forced corruptions were ever okay?” Reiki’s face soured at the thought, remembering how uneasy he’d felt, to hear Toráin talk like that. “And she said that you’re working on a plan, which……I have two questions about.”
He needed a deep, shaky breath to get them said, but—“One, can we still be friends when it happens? Or are you going to forget me, or……? How is it going to work with that? I mean, I assume we can’t just hang out and chill in civvies anymore because it might put you at a huge risk if Arsene-hole-ite, like, gets to stalking me or something and recognizes you? But……do you have any way? Of predicting how much you might forget? Because……” I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want someone else to leave me behind. “I still want to be friends, when you get out.
“And two……” Another deep breath, and a painfully earnest expression as Reiki looked ‘Ceros in the eye. “How can I help? I—I know I’m still a Chaos rat, I don’t think my Court gets the option of purifying out like the Negaverse does, I know nobody else involved has to trust me just because you do, and Lysithea might, and if all else fails, I can go ‘What’s up, slut, I need a character witness, are you free around lunchtime on Saturday the eleventeenth’ at Sailor Kerberos, but……” Reiki shrugged. “I don’t care who doesn’t trust me. Whatever I can do to get you out of there, I……I want to help.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2022 8:51 pm
Monoceros inhaled sharply. "So you..." He choked up a little, turning to face Murikabushi. "You know? You're not going to..." He shuddered, hugging himself as he gave Murikabushi a desperate stare. "I know I'll forget everything from my civilian life. I'll have to make new friends all over again, there. But I won't forget anything with you... with the both of us, like this." He gestured to his fuku. "I don't know what you can do to help, but..." Shivering, he threw his arms around Murikabushi and hugged him tightly. "Just... be here. Keep my cover, until I can figure out how to do what I need to do. Because I..." Breath hitched. "I ******** up. Bad."
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2022 7:41 am
Although Reiki hadn’t been expecting the hug, he caught Toráin regardless and held him close. For one thing, it helped soothe Reiki’s own nerves. Having his friend here, in his arms, where Reiki could squeeze him tight, and protect him for some definition of the term, and just……remind himself that this was real, it was happening, Toráin might have had a lot of problems on his plate and a lot of trouble ahead of him, but he was alive, which meant that he could deal with said trouble—and as he’d just said all around, Lysithea had meant everything she’d said about helping him get out of the Negaverse.
For another thing, though—and of significantly more importance to Reiki personally—it felt like Toráin very badly needed this hug. Like he probably hadn’t had enough gentleness since his ******** brother had dragged him into the Negaverse, and maybe he badly needed to be reminded that people in the world did care about him. That people wanted him to be well, and knew that helping him was worth whatever pain they might have theoretically invited upon themselves.
Giving his friend a firm, affectionate squeeze, Reiki tried to put words on all of it, too—just in case Toráin also needed to hear them: “Honey, I’ve been really ******** suspicious of the Negaverse since before you started talking about how they dragged you in like it was a good thing.… Not, like, by that much longer? But……I met this other guy who got dragged in against his will, Valjean? He didn’t remember anything of who he used to be, not even the senshi parts, it seemed. And whoever brought him in, however they did it to him—he was talking like he was so much better off, not knowing who he used to be, as if it works like that, which?”
He made a throaty sound like the vocal equivalent of a shrug, so he didn’t have to let go of Toráin until and unless Toráin wanted it. “Maybe the magic parts of everything do change things from how I’m used to them working? But…memory and trauma…I’ll be the first to tell you, I’m not one of the science-y people in my family? But I do know that there are deeper levels to memory and trauma. There are physical levels to them. Ways the body can remember while the mind forgets. And in a lot of ways, it’s like……”
Well. It was like one of the Dax-centric episodes of Deep Space 9. Several episodes, really—not least since the show had gone through all the Trill things twice over with Jadzia Dax and Ezri after her—but only one in particular had come to mind for Reiki to specifically cite. “I—the whole thing I have in mind is really complicated, and long, and it’s Star Trek so all the details aren’t super-important to this conversation? But there’s one episode in my favorite series, where one of the queerest characters in the franchise basically gets to talk with all of her past lives. And for alien reasons, she has their memories, but not all of them are exactly conscious for her?
“And while they’re talking, Jadzia and her first incarnation? Lela tells her ‘What is a person but the sum of their memories?’” Reiki sighed, gently rubbing Toráin’s back. “That’s just always stuck with me, y’know? And maybe I’m misjudging because my cousin and I didn’t completely change when we went through the Black Mirror? Maybe the situations aren’t the same at all? But I just felt like……Valjean was somebody’s son, before. Somebody’s friend. Probably the b***h in somebody’s class who wouldn’t stop raising his hand to go well, actually while the prof’s trying to tell you what’s gonna be on the midterm.
“Even if maybe he wasn’t a good person before, forcing him to completely forget that is……kind of like killing him. In some sense. And making him feel grateful for it—that is just so ******** sus to me, I can’t even—like, ugh. I don’t even like him, he was a ******** jerk to me when we ran into each other before I became a senshi then acted like a gentleman as soon as I had powers, and I’m still upset about somebody doing that to him, okay?
“Then, there’s been Arsenolite with his garbage attitude, and some senshi with green hair and huge boobs who thought it was totally cool to hunt victims around Scandals during Pride season, and a General called Faustite, who I guess has a ******** harem of something? But he’s also got an absolutely godawful attitude, like I know it made a mess when he wanted to see what my magic does? I didn’t know what it did or how it would affect him, at the time? But if you hate a b***h so much, why don’t you just leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone, and you tell your harem to do the same, right? Like, it’s that easy. Plus, with everything else I’ve heard from Kerberos and this Cosmos Knight I met, just—ugh.”
Reiki probably could’ve done without rolling his eyes. And without sticking out his tongue, like a true bastion of mature adulthood. But doing those things just Felt Right to him, as a means of expressing his disgust with……everything about the Negaverse. Softening, though, he wrapped up, “Whatever it takes to get you out of there and home? I’m here for you, okay? And…I don’t know what you messed up? But……I believe there’s no mistake that’s ever completely unfixable, as long as you’re willing to try?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2022 11:35 pm
Monoceros just kept his head in Murikabushi's shoulder as he let himself cry silent tears, listening to the other Senshi rant. It seemed like he had an awful lot to say on the matter, to justify his answer to Monoceros. He wishes that others in the Negaverse would hear this and listen, too. But he doubted many would. He needed to keep himself safe, first, anyway. He shivered as Reiki's rant came to an end and pulled back, wiping at his face. "Mm. I don't know. I think this one will be really hard to fix. I..." He struggled to find the words, wondering how to admit his problem. "I... I fell in love. And he's in love, too. And I'm going to leave him. And I know I can't convince him to come with me, not in person. Not without the threat of being... pinned down and forced to go under whatever brainwashing thing they did to me before."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2022 4:16 pm
“……Oh,” fell out of Reiki’s mouth before he could think to stop it happening. “Oh, no, Toráin.”
Blinking vacantly, he turned that entire revelation over and over in his head, waiting for the comprehension to fall out. Or something like that. Logically, it all made perfect sense—right down to the fact that Toráin’s love could now stand in the way of him escaping the Negaverse and being well (because what else but love could so powerfully compel someone to stay in a place so toxic and heinous as the ********, they didn’t exactly make greeting cards for “I’m sorry you have to make this horrible choice between doing the right thing, both for you and for the universe, and being with the person you love”—much less social scripts that would actually be helpful right now.
Hugging Toráin tighter, Reiki sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said gently, absolutely thinking of the one thing he’d wanted to hear after he’d walked out on Greg, and of how few people had actually said it. He’d heard congratulations, good for you; he’d heard it’s his loss, Reiki, he’ll either recognize that or he won’t; he’d heard it’s about damn time, honestly what did you ever see in him; he’d heard various threats against Greg’s person and continued existence (most of them from Hinami, Haruhi, or Obaasan)……and while some people had said those two little words, Reiki hadn’t heard them nearly enough.
“I’m so sorry, Toráin, for……for all of it,” he said, his voice still soft, like handling a baby bunny and hoping it wouldn’t blame itself for the heat death of the universe or something. “I’m sorry this war gave you something as precious as love, then went ‘Do you want to be with him or be healthy, pick no more than one’—but? Maybe you leaving will help him sort his ******** life out? It could help him with leaving, too?”
Without knowing anything about Toráin’s special boy, Reiki had no idea if that would happen. But for Toráin’s sake, he had to hope for that.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2022 10:39 pm
Monoceros whimpered a bit in Muri's hold, trying to calm down as the other man spoke to him so gently about his problem. "Thank you," he said, touched by the response. That.... somehow, it helped him feel better. He sighed a bit, though. "I don't know if it will. I can only hope." He swallowed heavily. Should he confess to who it was? Somehow, he didn't think so. Even if Murikabushi wouldn't say anything, he just... didn't want to tell that it was Ashanite. That felt weird. "And I'm gonna hope. A lot. I'm never giving up on him. I don't care how long he's been here, y'know?" he said, breathing slowly. "I'm gonna wait for him. Holding out my hand."
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2022 3:03 pm
As much as part of him wanted to know the name of Toráin’s boy, Reiki could acknowledge that said part was seriously gossipy and honestly kind of annoying. Could there have possibly been a worse time for this nosy bullshit he was on? Probably, yes, but he didn’t honestly want to find out.
Besides, given his current track record with the Negaverse, Reiki didn’t trust himself not to start some s**t with whoever it was who had Monoceros’s heart in his hand, but probably wouldn’t abandon the Negaverse for him.
“You’re a good person to be so patient for him,” Reiki told Toráin, giving him another squeeze. In his head, Reiki had an idea of coming up with something more to say, something that might not put a pretty little bow on top of everything—too tall an ask for anyone at the moment, considering how messy the situation was—but that might have at least given Toráin something more positive to keep in mind.
In reality, the sound of heavy, flapping wings drew Reiki’s gaze up away from Toráin, to a couple of those Midnight Mass-looking ******** from this past summer. “Oh, for ******** sakes,” Reiki groused. “Do they not have ******** manners in your universe or what?”
Apparently, no.
And apparently, Reiki and Toráin were gonna need to send these bastards packing.
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Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2022 10:32 pm
Monoceros gave him a weak grin. He hoped Ashanite would appreciate it in the future... But then, those thoughts were ejected from his brain as the freakin' gargoyles came to life. Great. Okay. cool. "Quill flash," he shouted, flicking his wrist at them as the spines flew from his hand.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2023 6:33 pm
Truly, if ever there were something to effectively distract you from the emotional conversation you’d been having with a friend, all about him falling in love with someone but needing to abandon him for his own sake, it had to be assholes like these gargoyles. Watching Monoceros’s quills go after some of them, Reiki could at least appreciate that they had this handled between the two of them—but, ugh, his own contribution here was going to suck.
“Sorry for this in advance,” he hissed to Monoceros. “The visuals here are not gonna be pleasant. Gnawing Hunger!”
On its own, the gesture might not have unsettled too many stomachs. Just Reiki—or Murikabushi from their perspectives—yanking down on an invisible cord. But as the hunger seized one of the gargoyles, he stopped in his tracks. Curled in around himself, groaning in agony. And then, like so many youma before him—even more so like his Midnight Mass-looking brethren from this past summer—in a torrent of wailing and screaming, he clawed and rent and tore himself apart.
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Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2023 7:04 pm
Monoceros sighed in relief as the monsters all crumbled between his quills and then Murikabushi's magic. Though, it did certainly affect him, as well. What he wanted most was to just.... love and be loved, without any strings attached. Without feeling like some of it was bad for him. Without needing to run away. He hungered... for another hug from Reiki, who'd been a friend like that for him. So, without thinking about it, he pulled Muri into another hug.
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