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 Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:04 pm
Quote: One Foggy Night (6) - As the seasons shift, the temperature changes too. It’s not uncommon for fog to roll in, sometimes from the mountains, sometimes out of nowhere. This fog is particularly thick and difficult to see through; Destiny City has issued several weather warnings and cautions being out or driving at night. It’s easy to get lost and difficult to see obstacles. Not to mention the strange, smothering sensation of dread and fear that rolls in with the fog. While there is sometimes the sensation of being watched, it worsens when the sun goes down. Some have even said they’ve caught glimpses of a tall, horned figure traveling with the fog. The news has reported that this is probably just a side effect of climate change and suspects that weather patterns should return to normal towards the end of the month.
It was foggy out tonight, now that he and Leandro had finally found some time when both of their schedules allowed for hanging out. Something in Reiki itched to pull the henshin pen out of his skirt pocket and go on patrol instead, but……no. No, he wouldn’t. He didn’t have very much time left to BE Reiki, so he was going to enjoy what he could. Which currently meant sitting on this table, in the fog, with his friend who he hadn’t seen in a while, with a gift bag in Leandro’s signature shade of bright blue.
“I know it’s not, like, a birthday, and the wrong color for Halloween and all kinds of stuff,” Reiki said softly, setting the gift bag down and nudging it across the table. “But……I know it’s been rough for you, lately? So……please don’t judge me for how I can sew damn near anything but can’t wrap presents to save my life, okay.”
The main attraction in the bag was the plush shark that Reiki had made following the same strategy that Aunt Naoko had used to make Usa-chan for Reiki: a crocheted body—in a mix of blue, white, and green, but mostly blue because……it was Leandro’s color—stitched together and stuffed with cotton. But in addition to that, Leandro would find several bags of Warheads and fudge-dipped pretzels, as well as too much haphazardly arranged sparkly gift bag paper, in the same white-blue-green scheme as the queer men’s flag.
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:24 pm
Leandro hadn't made very much time for friends himself, either. Or much time to himself at all. The crushing weight of the world even without the magical influences continued to pile on and on and on—his family worried, all needing someone else to be strong, and he was usually that someone else for them. He could do that, he had to, with Meemaw constantly sick and his littlest cousins having the worst behavior problems anyone had ever seen—! He was just... getting sick and exhausted all the time, himself, running himself ragged to be Superman. So no, he hadn't paid much attention to his personal life, yet again. But that was fine. He could take it, he'd been taking it for a while, it would be fine. Eventually. Besides, hey, look at himself! He'd managed to secure an hour for himself and time to meet up with a friend! It was awesome! He was getting a good grade in friendship and self-care, a thing that was both normal to want and possible to achieve! So what if it was in the middle of one of those terror-causing fogs that made people feel bad!! He was totally doing just fine, it wouldn't hurt him!!! "Aww, you shouldn't have! It doesn't have to be a birthday or anything for gifts. I am very disappointed in the lack of proper holiday respecting decor, though," he joked, blowing Reiki a little kiss as he took the beautiful gay little bag. He carefully pulled out the soft thing and gasped when he saw the gay little shark plushie. "Reiki," he said softly, awed as he petted it. "It's so soft and so pretty!! Dude, what the hell, he's perfect!" He kissed the top of the plushie's head, then plunged his hand into the bag to fish (heh) the rest of the items out—it had definitely felt heavier than just the plush when he picked it up. "Aww, candy too?! Dude, you're gonna make me cry," he said, already tearing up. He immediately cracked open the bag of Warheads and shoved one in his mouth with a horrible groaning noise as the sour taste suddenly swarmed his senses. "You're so— guhh!—sweet!"
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:35 pm
Watching Leandro unpack his present—hearing how much he enjoyed getting some of his favorite treats, and the little plush that Reiki had made for him—Reiki felt a distinct twinge of guilt, twisting all cold and squidgy in the pit of his chest.… His breath hitched ever so slightly as he tried to think of how to even respond to that.… Like, Reiki knew why he’d done all of this—he knew why he’d made several other plushes for some of his other friends as well (for Albite and Faustite, for Levi, for Hybris/Mallory, for Sappho and Bélénos, for Acubens, which he was really proud of, having found the perfect rainbow-colored thread and a pattern for a velociraptor body to go with Acubens being the senshi of said dinosaurs)—but……
Not that he thought Leandro was secretly Negaverse or anything. Gods, no. Obviously not. They did have achingly earnest people in the Negaverse, for sure—Albite was one, General Jet had seemed so when Reiki had met him, there’d been that one Lieutenant whom Reiki had allowed to drain him so said Lieutenant would give back the energy he’d drained off Reiki’s dad—but……Leandro was such a beautiful golden retriever of a man. About the only reason Reiki saw Albite succeeding at not outing his civilian side as Negaverse, was that Reiki……didn’t really know if Albite did very much with his civilian side? If Leandro had somehow gotten sucked into the Negaverse, then somebody in his life would’ve found out about it by now, and his mama probably would’ve chewed him out with love, then hugged him and begged him to please take care of himself.
Could Leandro have secretly been a Knight or a White Moon senshi? Maybe. But on the other hand, Reiki really didn’t want to wish that kind of life on him, given everything else he’d had on his shoulders lately……and if Reiki operated with this assumption that Leandro wasn’t in the whole magical girl game, then how was he supposed to explain his motivations?
………He couldn’t. Not really.
What he could do, though, was give Leandro a soft, earnest smile and a shrug. “I just know you’ve had a lot going on recently—and I mean, I have too, but……” Ducking his chin, Reiki rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought that somebody ought to do something nice for you. And I swear, I would’ve included some of your favorite skin stuff, but I couldn’t find the right products anywhere in town, it was appalling.”
Almost as appalling as it might’ve been for the fog-stalking cryptid to show up. But that probably wouldn’t happen.
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:43 pm
Leandro's heart ached at the words, the expression. God, he'd put off so much of his own personal life for far too long. Reiki looked so serious about something, too. Even as he responded light-heartedly about the gifts and not being able to find the skin stuff, which— "Ughhh, I know, right? My stuff's been, like, super out of stock," he groaned, throwing his head back to look up at the sky (sort of, given the fog coating everything) as dramatically as possible. Only by the grace of something-or-other did he not choke on the stupid sour candy in his mouth. He righted his head, making a funny face as another wave of sour flavor hit him hard. He shuddered and swallowed around it for a moment before he could relax again. "Thank you, man. Seriously. Everything's been so up in the air... it's like, nobody can stop worrying for five seconds. It's so... hard... taking care of everything," he said quietly, slumping and gently petting the shark. "I really appreciate it, I'm sorry I haven't been a very good friend to you lately."
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 3:47 pm
Watching Leandro be ridiculous with his candy at least helped defuse some of the tension building up in Reiki’s chest. Mostly by making him laugh good-naturedly. See, this was one of the reasons why he liked Leandro, and why Leandro was such good people to have around……and why, even when Reiki stopped being Reiki, he really, really hoped that maybe they could cross paths and make friends again.…… Assuming Leandro wasn’t actually involved in any of the magical nonsense, then that should’ve been doable……even if it would mean needing to make friends a second time, starting over again from square one, as Leandro and Kiyoshi (……maybe. hopefully. Reiki hadn’t asked Ojiisan for permission to take his name yet, though, and ********, if he said “no,” then Reiki didn’t know what he would do because he really, really wanted—)
No. Nope. Nyet.
Reiki cut that thought short and kept smiling. Until further notice, he simply needed to channel more of D’Vana Tendi than he did of Beckett Mariner. He needed to smile—in a way that was hopefully encouraging, because ********, Leandro really was carrying so much on his poor little shoulders, and sure, he swam a lot but he didn’t do nearly enough strength training for how much he wanted to lift—and he needed to remind himself that making friends with Leandro all over again would be fun. They’d lose out on the old history, but they could make so much more new history instead! Totally fun!
………Except for one little sticking point that Reiki needed to be sure to mention before he left his life as Reiki.
“Hey, please, it’s okay, hermanito. I’ve been kind of a huge mess for a while and not the best friend I could’ve been either……”
Because frankly, if Reiki were being the best friend he could possibly be, he would have snitched to Leandro about Gabi/Lete’s involvement with the Dark Mirror Court ages ago. Even now, sitting across from Leandro and knowing how time was of the essence here—how important it was for someone in Lete’s life to be looking out for her (because Hybris, bless his beautiful fluffy hair, could only be expected to do so much in light of his allergy to putting effort into things)—Reiki found himself hesitating.…… Part of him wanted to spill and tell Leandro literally everything—but on one hand, there could’ve been other people out there in the fog, listening. Since Reiki wasn’t powered up, he couldn’t sense any powered auras, and if he got Lete on the Negaverse’s radar in a bad way? Worse than Faustite making the totally accurate point about how Lete would get herself killed if she didn’t start taking things seriously? Or if Reiki got her and Leandro’s family targeted, whether by Negaverse operatives with a bone to pick or the more black-and-white-minded sort of White Moon people? He’d never be able to live with himself.
Selfishly, as well……Reiki couldn’t explain the full extent of things without explaining how he knew, which would’ve opened the door to so many questions like Well, what were *YOU* doing at the Devil’s Sacrament, Reiki Rokugin? Which he would’ve deserved, and he knew that, but…… If he had to effectively die as Reiki soon, then was it so wrong of him to want the people he cared about to remember Reiki fondly and well, instead of hating him for having been so stupid as to join the Dark Mirror and ask exactly zero questions until well after the fact?
With a sigh, Reiki told Leandro, “I’m about to add something a lot less nice to your plate, too. Which—I really don’t want to do, okay? Because I know how much you’ve been dealing with already, but……” He could cite DCU as a place of connection for him and Gabi, couldn’t he? Or maybe—“So, I met one of your cousins around the queer community center recently, Gabi? And bun is really a great kid—well, young adult, really, since bun can buy buns own drinks and all, but they’re still a kid in a lot of ways, y’know?” Reiki carded his fingers through his bangs, nudging them back off their face. “And……I’m not trying to be a snitch or anything, and I don’t wanna violate buns confidence? I don’t think they’re in super amounts of danger, really? But……”
Reiki inhaled deeply. “I don’t really think Gabi’s dealing with all the stress going on in buns life as well as bun says they are, y’know? Based on the time we’ve spent together—” In Mirrorspace. Which ended because Reiki wanted to leave and Lete reacted to it by <******** attacking him, the clingy little b***h—“I feel like Gabi wants to believe that everything’s okay, and that bun’s doing fine because bun lives that whole ‘treat yo’self’ philosophy, but……I have a lot of doubts about how much bun’s actually taking care of bunself. And I’ve only gotten so far in trying to talk to Gabi about it……” Because Reiki needed to get the ******** out of Mirrorspace and this made Lete hate him as if the Dark Mirror Court was just entitled to have him because he’d gotten brought in without a full and complete primer on what being a Dark Mirror Senshi had actually meant. “And, again, I don’t think bun is super in danger? But……bun might need some checking in from somebody bun trusts and who won’t let bun wiggle out of being honest about their feelings?”
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 1:54 am
Leandro frowned as he sorted through that. What was going on with Gabi? He knew she'd been... pretty absent, driving the rest of the family nuts, but... What on Earth could she be doing for someone else to notice, even? "Thanks for the heads up," he said softly, feeling worse all of a sudden. "Were the gifts just to butter me up for the bad news?" Attempting a joke even when he felt like s**t was his go-to strategy. It usually worked. But he just felt— "What the ******** is that." Something in the fog.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 2:09 am
Reiki shook his head, giving Leandro another soft, earnest look. “The gifts were just because I wanted to give you something nice,” he said, “because you’re my friend, and you’ve been having such a rough, garbage time of things lately, and you deserve something nice because you’re you.”
A sentiment that would’ve been much more heartwarming if not for Leandro pointing out something weird.
Something tall and slender out in the fog, shadowy but more than a little bit imposing, with……were those ******** horns coming out of its head?
Nudging his glasses up so he could pinch the bridge of his nose, Reiki groaned softly. “Vegas money, as far as I can tell? Either the rumors about the horned man fog-stalking cryptid guy are actually for real,” he said, “or some DCU frat assholes are ******** around and trying to scare people because they’re assholes.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 2:55 am
Leandro chuckled at the answer. God, he loved Reiki. He'd missed him so much. "Hey, a*****e!" he shouted at the figure. "I'm sick of magical bullshit, so buzz off!" He gave Reiki a wild grin. Not that Reiki would know exactly what Leandro meant by "magical bullshit", but still.
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Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 11:02 am
……Well, that response from Leandro got Reiki to arch an eyebrow. Even given all of the weirdo ******** that tended to go on in Destiny City, that……certainly was a way for Leandro to react. Most people didn’t tend to acknowledge the weird stuff that went on around here as what it was—namely, magic—so if Leandro was doing that…… Had Reiki been wrong to think that Leandro wasn’t involved in the whole mess of stuff going on with all of Destiny City’s magical girl this that and the other?
With a soft sigh, Reiki shook his head. Banished that thought from his mind, for now. If Leandro was involved, then Reiki kinda didn’t want to know. Would’ve only stressed him out further, about not only Leandro’s wellbeing but also his own. One more emotional and interpersonal tie that would’ve made it that much harder for Reiki to do what he needed to do (which was already proving more than difficult enough as it was, considering how many excuses Reiki kept finding to not do it already……)
Gently tugging on the sleeve of Leandro’s coat, Reiki said, “Did you have dinner yet? Come on. Why don’t we go get some, just in case this guy doesn’t feel like ******** off?”
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