Private Comms
Jul. 1st, 2021 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notsosouThe klaxons rang. The red lights flashed. The station sections slowly listed in the dark. Long past the edge of effort, long past the boundaries of hope, Stacy kept struggling, but there was no use to it; and in the end, even the static and the voices in her headset ceased to shout.
It was a jewel to her, the moment that she understood that it was over—
That willpower could not fix this. That effort could not fix this. That even “being better” could not have helped.
It was a jewel; it was an unfolding, glowing flower. It transfixed her with the simple beauty of it.
Her eyes no longer saw the console that spread before her. Her ears no longer heard the bells. Instead her eyes were fixed on that pure and clean and inner darkness, and the silver glow that burned within it; then up, beyond, and past it, to the beginning of the world.
- Glitch, by Dr. Jenna K. Moran
It was a jewel to her, the moment that she understood that it was over—
That willpower could not fix this. That effort could not fix this. That even “being better” could not have helped.
It was a jewel; it was an unfolding, glowing flower. It transfixed her with the simple beauty of it.
Her eyes no longer saw the console that spread before her. Her ears no longer heard the bells. Instead her eyes were fixed on that pure and clean and inner darkness, and the silver glow that burned within it; then up, beyond, and past it, to the beginning of the world.
- Glitch, by Dr. Jenna K. Moran
no subject
Date: 2022-05-26 07:30 am (UTC)And now that he remembers... ]
That's right... you were carrying it around everywhere.
[It had some kind of name, didn't it? He's trying to recall it, while he tries to play off the shame of Gin's disappointment in him not being able to tell burlap dog from burlap cat and also being no fun. He doesn't take Gin's hand, but he does get up, trying to surreptitiously swipe what Gin didn't already get off his face and front... it doesn't go well.]
Ahaha, are you worried? I'll just do this, then.
[He twists around his scarf until he finds an unblemished area, and then pulls it up over his mouth and nose as he's been habitually doing whenever he's ventured outside... meant to be quick dashes in and out of quarantine, and this... definitely wasn't that.]
See? No flowers for me... Let's find a pump, you should wash that off. It's even more of a health hazard nowadays...
[And also his throat is parched to hell, but shh. He searches his pockets and with a small sigh of relief finds that most of his things are still there... there's things like marbles and nuts and a beetle missing, which means kids were the ones rifling through... Gin is instantly a prime suspect, but Shin's keeping that to himself... for now. He's starting to tip towards full wakefulness, the agonies of the flesh aside]
The new doctor, huh... Wonder what the Capital dandy wants our brave heiress for?
[By all accounts, he's been going door to door to those with money and power, rubbing elbows with them... Shin doesn't like either of them, and it's making the fact that despite his light tone he's fishing for anything Gin knows about their meeting a little clearer.]
..If a beetle crawled out of Shin's pocket and Gin picked it up thats not stealing thats protecting
Date: 2022-05-26 07:57 am (UTC)[ The shame is unending, Gin is too perceptive and Myuaka is a bit of an open wound right now... Gin traded him to another kid for something precious for Mom that he's not going to tell anyone about.
Gin mostly stands around as Shin picks himself, brow furrowed but he doesn't dart off. Loner won't take his hand...but that won't stop Gin from trotting after Shin once they start moving towards the nearest spout. ]
Myaaah... I dunno! The dandy guy is kinda nice...he called me poppet and I got some candy when I ran an errand for him. But big sister gets weird when they talk, she doesn't want me in the room. They even started talking about-
[ There's a pause, and while the beanie muffles it into nothing more then an uncomfortable tap...Shin can still feel the impact as a small stone hits the back of his head.
Theres a small ruffle of the mask as Gin breathes, about to says something but he turns away instead. ]
...Don't use me to get at my big sister. I'm not your sister, I won't forgive you if she burns up because you kept fighting. I'm putting my heart away where you can't get it, and we'll be enemies forever and ever, Shin.
[ Forever and ever, unlike the older teen who used to play with Gin, before he hid away and got weird and twisty. ]
CUSTODY OF BEETLE FORM... SIGNED
Date: 2022-05-26 08:42 am (UTC)[To the point that Shin's been assuming Gin must have given Myauka away, or decided he was too grown up for that, or something... he was really attached to it at the time.
Gin your paws are filthy right now... even if Shin wasn't a neat freak, he's trying to preserve some dignity in getting up himself, not realizing that it's takeable as a rejection. He's relieved Gin at least is following him... it's strange, everything's going to hell but this at least is a little piece of the past. He's already snorting, and making to say something about wasn't Gin told to be careful around strangers, especially suspiciously nice ones? when the stone hits the back of the head. It doesn't hurt, but the surprise of it does make him jolt a little, head ducking and shoulders and hands lifting before he turns around with his mouth still open behind the scarf before it shuts, brief faint flickers of emotions running across what's visible of his face before it smooths out to neutral. Talking about- so there is something they're colluding on.]
It's not my fault she's setting herself on fire, Gin. Don't pin this one on me.
[He's pushing back against her, because she's going to doom them all, the ones left on the margins, the ones most powerless, including Shin himself. You only need to look at (or hear about, from Kanna) people throwing molotovs at the infected on the streets to see that. She's dangerous, and people are drawn to her and her words like moths to flame... including Gin. That hurts a little.]
Ahaha, if you stay too close, you're only going to get burned as well... Don't say I didn't warn you.
[Gin's not going to listen... but Shin wouldn't live with himself if he didn't at least try once to dissuade him. He's putting his own heart away, that thing his self wants to attack, so that being 'forever enemies' with Gin isn't so painful. The past is a photograph in a fireplace.]
...I'll find out somewhere else, anyway.
[Which in Shin language is him backing off on pumping for information here... he won't try through Gin. To him it's tit for tat since he's sure Kanna tells Sara things, and that Gin'll tell her about this meeting, neither of which he likes, but... well.]
his name is rupert now
Date: 2022-05-27 05:50 am (UTC)[ There isn't an accusation in Gin's words, but there is the knowledge between the lines that Shin wasn't there, that he hasn't been here for the town or anyone in it for the past five years. That's enough for a lot of trust to erode, and enough for Gin to give his warnings very little thought. ]
Fires might be scary, but I believe big sis and the city doctor when they say people need them too! [ Sara could be a fire in the heart as much as she might be the low burning glare of a steppe fire in the distance. Shin just couldn't tell the different, he hid away to long. ] Loner, your eyes got too used to the dark. You need to start paying attention, woof. What you do is important. You and big sis are more alike then you wanna think.
[ Threat or warning aside, Gin's made his point and spotting a water pump, he dashes towards it with usual good cheer and some animal noises. ]
I'm so happy, this part of town has the nicest water! You picked a good place to pass out. Meow, meow!
rupert ibushi...
Date: 2022-05-27 07:54 am (UTC)Alike, huh... [Not in the way Gin means, the mark of sunshine is what comes to his mind. The gleam of teeth, maybe.] Even if that's true... Can't see us ever getting along at this point.
[He's sure she hates him, after all. It would make sense. Then Gin's running towards the pump in excitement, breaking the moment. Shin follows behind at a paced walk so he doesn't pass out.]
Ahaha, they actually maintain the pipes over here, that's why... The Chine, too. Strange, isn't it? Looks like architects like having clean water themselves. If you took the Kains at their word they'd live on nothing but air...
[Shin takes on odds and ends jobs around town nowadays, when he has the energy, and repair of various mechanisms is one of them. If you passed him on the street you could probably get him to repair your gun... for a trade.
Well-maintained means the arm actually moves when Shin leans all his weight on it to get the pump running for Gin, too. He bends down to cup his hands and drink from them and while it's cold it's too refreshing for that to matter as much as it might usually. He gulps it down and wipes some across his forehead in the hopes it'll help with his headache, keeping the corner of his eye and his ears out for passersby. It's daytime, but people are bold and Shin's painfully aware of his ability or lack thereof to really fight anyone...]
H-hey, it's not like I chose to pass out at all...
[He was just... drawn here, and well, what happened can't actually have happened, so it must have been a waking nightmare. In the tapdance of hindsight, he thinks he might have heard a 'hey, get over here' on the way and just... drunkenly ignored it, which is just vicariously terrifying. He's never touching twyrine again.]
MISTER rupert ibushi to you
Date: 2022-05-27 08:10 am (UTC)[ He can't "see" them getting along...that was the whole problem! Gin makes some kind of gesture back at Shin as he runs, paws near his eyes and flapping as if to say "open up!"
...It's important, it really is. It's hard to place why he feels the need to tell it to Shin, something about the double shadowed importance that's hounded so many people in town these days, the gleam of something he can smell. It's probably the twyre making his nose funny, but Sara says sometimes the future is something you can touch if you look hard enough, and thats how Gin feels when he looks at Shin. ]
Water is alive and air is dead, so they need to have water or they'd be dead. It makes sense to me. [ Gin sticks...his whole face and hands under the water...and probably a large portion of his cape as well before he backs up and shakes himself like a dog. Yeah, not sorry. ]
Yeah right, you worthless drunk! [ He knows what he smelled! ] Loner, you drink now!? What would bucket girl say... Its ruff enough on her without you going to the dogs. We aren't even near your house...
[ How did Shin even get here, is the question Gin really wants to ask. ]
r-rupert ibushi sama
Date: 2022-05-27 11:07 am (UTC)Dead air more, but everything living needs water... Hey, quit it!
[You're getting water all over him - not like that! Although... he tries to splash some onto his front more deliberately to try get the gunk off... it doesn't quite completely work. Running the scarf under it and squeezing it out is a little more successful, flicking a little water at Gin with the tasseled end in return while feigning he's not.
He's going to have to hang the jacket and scarf from his window to dry when he somehow gets back, if the air is clean... and then bundle up, he doesn't want to catch a cold on top of everything else, esp since he should be taking his pills soon. He'd carried some on him, but someone didn't believe him and took the sheaf thinking they were precious antibiotics. It's somewhat a comeuppance, but he's not thinking about any results of that for his own sake.]
H-hold on...!
[Worthless drunk? He winces. The idea of Kanna finding out and it being both her AND Gin and probably the entire town judging him... he's not an alcoholic he swears, he knows drink can end up drinking you... it's a common affliction in this town after all.]
I'm not making a habit of it...! [Especially not now!] It's just they say twyrine can reveal secrets, don't they... Only I'm old enough for it, so you better not go trying any yourself, Gin.
[If there ever was a time to try learn more about what's going on, it's right now, when there's so much nobody including him knows, dangerous unknowns... but this still feels frustratingly fruitless, a tangled snarl of imagery and as for where it brought him...]
Not like there's anything to show for it... Everyone knows about the Polyhedron.
[Now I have to think about where Shin actually lives... Probably he works in one of the stores across the tracks from the Warehouse district, that good ol' bad side of town, and his actual house likely isn't that far from there. It's the grocery store behind the railway, I'm deciding, where lifeblood from outside reaches the underbelly of the town first. Midori's old house... that's in the Hindquarters most likely, facing the river and fenced in with semicircular wall. It's not too far from the pharmacy that's right next to a certain Broken Heart pub, which may explain some things. He's ended up walking all the way across town, which depending on which day it is means he's probably wandered through at least one infected district unscathed... alcohol sure loves to protect it's fools, in a walking across fifteen lanes of traffic way. In an eroding immunity juuust enough way.
Concerned with acquiring his own immortality Midori may have been, well-liked and accoladed... that side of town kept it's secrets better. Isidor's house was right in the center of it.]