deercountry | Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

Entry tags:

Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

Who: Johnny, Daniel, Ortus, Gideon Nav's Exquisite Corpse, Paul, Kaworu, Deku, Harrow, Maybe more?
What: Kidnapping, Forced Adoption, Getting these kids away from the Emperor
When: Shortly after boatgate
Where: The Bone House and Cobra Kai

Content Warnings: Probably references to Murder, Manipulation, Johnny Lawrence.

Prompts and Mingle will be in the comments.

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[ Honestly, Daniel doesn't mind the rambling in the slightest. Even if it's a little all over the place, he will gladly go along with it. It could be that it's just this kid's way of coping - and if so, Daniel sure isn't going to leave him with an awkward silence and nothing else. ]

I think I can wrap my head around it when you put it that way.

[ After all, it doesn't seem that strange after realising magic is just real in some worlds due to seeing this place. Midoriya's world sounds like.. like the world in superhero movies. The same as theirs, just with at least some people having superpowers.

That's manageable. ]

I'm from the U.S. like Johnny, but I've been to Japan before. It's such a beautiful place. [ He pauses a little. Usually he'd bring up mister Miyagi, but considering some of the other guy's explanation about these kids' situation involves the mention of a bad mentor, Daniel isn't so sure threading there won't hurt them. Better to avoid it. Let them think about something lighter. Something that doesn't have a huge chance of letting their thoughts spiral to darker or more hurtful places, especially with the way these kids somehow - strangely enough - even seem to avoid contact with each other a little while sitting back there. ] Especially Okinawa. Have you ever been there?

[ The entire corpse experience has sure been.. something, alright, especially after arriving so soon in this place. Daniel has kind of been trying really hard to not think about it, especially with the handy excuse of there being a lot to do to ~~make Johnny's dojo habitable~~ look after the kids, but it's definitely the kind of thing that's been nagging at Daniel in the back of his mind. It's not even like he really knew Gideon super well, he just chatted with her on the day he arrived here, but..

.. well, it's not like seeing a corpse is ever not awful. Especially when it's someone so young. No matter how much Daniel has been told that people who die here come back - somehow!! Yet another thing he's trying hard to not think about too much!! - it's still a lot.

And seeing her standing there? Also a lot. At least it's the kind of A Lot that comes with relief of seeing that the information was actually true, and she is walking around and alive. Their little previous social interactions make this a little more awkward, but Daniel would feel like a huge jerk for not helping welcome back a teenager who's clearly been through a lot. ]

.. hey. [ He greets. The awkwardness shows a little in his tone, but the guy tries his best to smile a little anyway. It's a soft smile though, especially when his gaze falls on the parts of her that didn't entirely heal yet. God, it's so awful. ] I'm.. not sure if you'd remember me. We talked on the beach a little while ago.

[ Not that it's the important part here, but it makes this feel a little less awkward to at least announce that. ]

I've been helping out here. But more importantly-- no, way more importantly. Are you okay? Do you feel like you need anything?

[Ortus emerges from the back of the dojo with a basket of freshly laundered clothes in his arms, and he halts on the threshold of the room, the door close to where Gideon's sword has been mounted with the greatest respect upon the wall. It bears a woven wreath of dark clustered flowers, petals nearly a perfect black, and there is something of a makeshift shrine on the table beneath its scabbard's point: white candles, bone trinkets, a pair of silver winged pins, and folded sunglasses.

He does not drop the basket. He sets it aside on the floor with exaggerated care and crosses the space between them the same way, trepidation draped heavy across his shoulders and eyes full of anxious awe.

They had explained to him what the dissolution of her form might mean. It had not soothed him. Nothing had, these past shadowed days, but he had borne it in silence that resembled, though was not, stoicism. There is no trace of it in the great open relief that transforms his features, a sheen of tears already in his vision as he beholds a resurrection.]

You are returned to us.

[Not entirely whole, but so much more so than she had been, that hollow, incorruptible shell. He takes in the wonder of her eyes alight, and in an outburst of most unseemly exuberance he reaches out to lay his hand upon her warm shoulder.]

[ Honestly, even after time has already passed, Daniel is pretty sure he doesn't have anything close to the full story of what happened - just the bits and pieces he managed to pick up, and even they aren't much. He doesn't fully know what weighed down the hearts of all these kids so much, but..

.. well, it doesn't really matter, huh. It doesn't even matter to him that he didn't even know some of these kids before any of it happened, and only exchanged introductions with others. What matters is that they're clearly hurting, and Daniel can't just stand by and do nothing when that's the case.

Even though he realises being approached by some random adult when you're vulnerable might be a bit much, it's got to still be better than nothing. So when Daniel's made some tea and is going around to hand it out to people, he doesn't skip Kaworu there when he's in the corner. ]

Hey. [ He says, his voice a tad softer than the usual. ] Do you want some tea?

[Johnny gives a huff over the correction of the name. Ortus was asking a lot of him if he expected Johnny to remember anything outside of his main objectives right now. But he would try.]

Built like a fucking truck, aren't you?

[That was good. That would make this easier. Johnny movies to grab a few more bags and tossed him.]

The kid said if push came to shove he'd put his chips in with Paul. He might just need some time to figure out that it's about time to make good on his word.

Open cw: corpse mention, fangs causing accidental self-harm

He and Paul do not move as one. Midoriya leaves Paul on the dead grass and stalks, animal-like, in Johnny's wake. As then, Midoriya and his jumpsuit are a wreck, but washed and bandaged. His eyes are still milk-white and pupil-less, Corruption defying the rules of physiology, and rimmed with shadows. His hands are tipped with glove-ruining claws, and his fangs cut lips unused to having them. (He remembers stalking recklessly into a house that could be a trap, and a finger on a screen pointing at him with a grin.)

He straightens and checks in the doorway out of habit, reflex, the armor on his shoes likely to put scratches in the floor--the only damage he has ever dealt to God's house, even during Paul's rager of a birthday party. It's not a house rule here, but Midoriya has always removed his shoes in every house he's stepped in, whether he was wearing just his sneakers or fully kitted in his hero gear as he is now.

There is no need. He prowls inside with purpose. He sees Gideon on the couch, his eyes dash away from someone he failed to save, he looks again because he has to, again, and she is not covered in saltwater and sand this time, and all his purpose leaves him.

He remains standing and does not double over, but he subtly buckles like a doll held up by only one thin string. Saltwater floods the moons of his eyes.

Continued and closed to Kaworu

Teacher--John--proved himself to have little regard for the life Midoriya makes it his business to protect. He wielded other people's lives like tools and made enemies of so many on that beach. Midoriya wouldn't put it past him to use someone in his care as a hostage against those who would leave him or set themselves against him. It is too easy for this man(?) to threaten someone at a distance without warning.

Midoriya does not know why Kaworu would, as Ortus mentioned, choose to stay. Kaworu did not answer his frantic messages either.

He climbs the stairs he so often bounded up in his socks with the others in haste and play (Gideon likely to slide down the banister). His shoes thump the familiar path to Kaworu's (and Paul's--not Paul's, not now) room. He knocks to announce his presence, if his familiar footsteps didn't already, and enters. (His body and mind almost expect to find the boys twined in sleep that he would do his best not to disturb while joining them after a long shift, or perhaps awake and inviting.)

"Kaworu-kun?" he says lowly and softly.

...I thought I'd be happier to know I was missed. Now I just feel nothing but guilt.

[He briefly, very briefly, glances upwards at Johnny's face trying to see if he's being mocked or teased. But there's an odd sincerity in the man's gaze that makes the angel avert his eyes.

Part of him wishes for cruelty instead. It would be easier to bear.]

[He takes the tea. Teacher used to give them tea. He had tea for waking up in the morning and tea before going to sleep. Kaworu never figured out the different sorts but he liked them all best with lots of sugar. Paul makes fun of him for it. Made fun of him for it.

He pulls the cup to his chest but doesn't drink. He cradles it there as if the warmth could melt the horrible icy feeling that has taken over his body. It feels like the chill is powerful enough to stop his inhuman heart.

Then his eyes move up and over this stranger.]

Who are you?

[Kaworu is sitting in the windowsill, back against the frame and one foot dangling back into the bedroom. The glass is open and sunlight pours in, framing him in a soft light, every color reflecting in his hair.

He'd look beautiful if not for the eyes. His gaze is distinctly inhuman, dispassionate, and terrible. It feels like a higher being viewing you as nothing more than a single line drawn on a sheet of paper instead of a living, breathing, thinking thin.

It's hard to look at.]

I thought you had left.

[(But no... he'd have seen the truck leave from this view.)]

[ Johnny Lawrence actually bothering to use his seatbelt?

Maybe this is a more serious situation after all than Johnny's weird threat-like message would indicate. Daniel frowns as he listens to Johnny's explanation, but rather than waiting around once the other is talking, Daniel too puts on his seat buckle and - after a moment - turns on the engine to start the car.

He has absolutely no idea what this situation is about, sure, but it's clear Johnny is being serious here, rather than just janking Daniel's chain over nothing. And if there are kids in trouble, even if they are not Daniel's own kids - either biological or karate-related - then there's no way he can idly start by.

The car starts moving across the cobblestone streets, but though Daniel is making sure to look at the road ahead of them, he's also glancing aside to the other guy from time to time. ]

Look. I'm willing to help.

[ As evidenced by the fact they're driving now, rather than still just sitting there and not moving. ]

But you've got to at least explain this a little better to me. What's been going on? [ He's only been here for a few days! Daniel has hardly even managed to wrap his brain around the entire concept of this place, let alone having been able to actually keep up with recent things going on here. ]

[ Gideon knows all about the casual, no big deal lean against a doorframe. She does it all the time, especially when things are a huge deal. There's a surge of warmth in her chest, mixed with guilt and shame.

She can't believe she waited this long to come back. Waited for closure, maybe, or at least for the man biologically related to her to see her, or to care. But he never mattered, not for a minute.

Here's what she's been searching for, all along.

Gideon offers a small, lopsided smile, followed by as precise of a Cohort salute as she can muster. ]

Yes, sensei. I'm... [ she swallows, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to sound completely pathetic, either ] I'll get there. I bet the sandwiches for men are gonna work wonders.

Oh, hi. Yeah, I remember you.

[ Gideon brightens up at seeing a semi-familiar face, even if her reaction is more subdued than it would ordinarily be. She's not sure what he's doing here, though. Doesn't he have problems, back home? The last thing he probably needs is to take on Gideon's problems, which are many and complicated, and generally make her want to zone out and stare at a wall for long stretches of time.

Then he asks if she needs anything, and the confusion she's been trying to hide shows up plain on her face. Gideon doesn't ask why do you care, because she's not an asshole. But she does stand there silent, like a moron, which is almost as bad.

That's not a question strangers, or really, people ask her. Gideon takes care of herself. ]

I mean, uh, not really? But better than when I first washed up. I guess. I'll be fine.

[ There, very reassuring. ]

[ Gideon used to think it was easy to die. It was a secret she'd kept for months, one she learned from someone ten thousand years her elder. You just check out. You just let it happen. You never have to see this: the work of people mourning you, words and objects collected to call you back, or at least trap your memory. Gideon does not take her eyes off the sword, or the things surrounding it, for a long moment.

(Harrow made herself into this. First Harrow, and now everyone else, and it would have been kinder if Gideon had driven the sword directly into each of their chests instead, wouldn't it?)

She barely registers Ortus until he's close by. When her eyes focus on his, they're shining damp. She's been crying so much lately. It's so embarrassing.

So embarrassing that she might as well go all in, and throw her arms around Ortus when he reaches for her shoulder, praying that she'll feel at least some of his skin or clothes against hers. ]

What, you thought a bit of water was going to keep me down?

Midoriya barely looks human, claws, fangs, and a tired prowling slouch altering his shape, iris and pupil impossibly clouded and ringed with sleepless shadow. He is all too human, a bundle of the acute nerves and instincts that fear harm to another. He's a star spinning faster and faster into an explosion that never comes to relieve him. It's a wonder he did not enter by smashing through the roof, but he knows a thing or two about proper raids and pissing off powerful villains with hostages at the wrong time.

He closes the door gently. Midoriya still has aftertears in his eyes after seeing Gideon on the couch. They throw and twist the light in his vision, blurred rainbows haloing Kaworu. He stays standing where he is, feeling odd in the armored shoes he chose not to remove at the door for the first time here. It's not the number of eyes, but the look in them, that keeps him rooted still.

"Without you? No." His voice is still hoarse from all the screaming during the storm, so he keeps it low with only the faintest emphatic defiance in that No. Sometimes his relentless determination is quiet, but no less present.

"You've got to come with us. Teacher doesn't care about people's lives. It's too dangerous. Now that he's made enemies, he could hurt you."

[He can't help but feel he made Midoriya that way. All of his foolishness, his lack of control, his naivety... Midoriya had suffered these things at his hand. His small weak hands who tried to grasp more than they could hold.]

No one can hurt me. You know that.

And you know I don't care either.

[Midoriya had been angry at him for killing the pirates but... even now he didn't feel bad about that. He only felt for what had transpired after. Maybe Midoriya had started to forget he was dealing with something inhuman and strange.]

I... think this is where I belong.

[Midoriya and Daniel go back and forth about their overlapping worlds, and Paul only listens. If he seems to have tucked his knees a shade closer at the mention of peach, the only one in a position to notice is doing everything he can to not look at him.

(The bright stain of red on Kaworu and Izuku's mouths, a vividness of color that only comes from summer sunshine, and their lips tasted like sugar and Izuku hummed when their teeth clicked together, Kaworu squirming between them impatiently. His tongue had ended up as red as theirs, the faint pink of peach conquered overwhelmingly.)

There's never a time when learning is wasted. Paul listens to them talk about a place they nearly have in common. He places Okinawa on an ancient map of Earth, which occupies all of a fraction of a second, but it's time not spent thinking of even more unreachable things so much closer.

It's a gentle topic to engage Midoriya with. Kind, an open, outstretched hand. Paul's averted focus slowly shifts, until he's not quite looking at Daniel out of the corner of his eye, guarded and watchful.]

Daniel LaRusso. I'm.. an acquaintance of Johnny's. [ He feels like it's probably more simple to leave it at that for now, even though the word 'acquaintance' sure doesn't reach the level of 'intense karate rival' they've got going on instead. But Daniel will be damned before he calls himself Johnny's friend, so this is the better neutral term that doesn't saddle this exhausted sad teen up with all that baggage Kaworu surely doesn't need in this moment.

Taking another cup of tea for himself, Daniel moves to sit down as well, not wanting to just awkwardly loom over the other. He actually is sipping from his own cup though before he speaks on. ]

He said that all of you had been through a lot and needed help. [ Not that Daniel ever got the full details. But he can grasp by now that it was all pretty bad, judging by the state of most, if not all, of these kids.. ] So I'm here to provide just that.

[ Even if it might not do much. But it's so much better than doing nothing in the face of them all being so miserable. ]

I know it's all very sudden [ meeting him, that is ] but I'm still glad you ended up joining us here. [ Because from the sound of it, no one should have had to stay behind there.. ] Just know that if you need anything at all, you're free to ask me for it any time.

[ It's too bad for Gideon that Daniel has way too much experience dealing with teenagers to see right through this. Not.. that it'd take much, but the experience certainly helps.

Which means he definitely knows I'll be fine never necessarily means exactly what those words would imply. Especially not coupled with that surprised expression on Gideon's face. It definitely worries Daniel, because.. well, has no one ever offered this girl some actual help? Or is it because he's a stranger, and she's unused to kindness from those? Who knows, but even that implication is kind of sad to Daniel, whose life was basically turned around by a man he met as a total stranger. ]

Well, we ought to do something about that 'not really' then. [ He offers, though there's something a little gentle around its edges rather than forceful. ] Do you want something to drink? I could make some tea.

[ If only he knew how Gideon's taste just aligns with Johnny's.... ]

Or some food. Are you hungry? [ And, you know, sitting together and eating might give him an opportunity to coax some more out of her, if this entire situation is still bothering her.

Which Daniel can entirely understand, since.. well, she was a corpse. So much must have happened there. He doesn't even want to think about it, and he's entirely uninvolved. He can't imagine how much worse it is for all of them. ]

[Johnny waits a moment but doesn't get the response he's hoping for. There's a dumbfounded moment where he just stares at Paul as he tosses and turns. He never had an adult figure in his life who would comfort him when he was scared or afraid- So it takes his brain a moment to wrap around just what he should do.

In the end he steps down and moves to grab a hold of one Paul's hands while his free hand without a care for the flames. Being afraid of a little pain was for pussies as far as he was concerned. The other hand moves to gently shake his shoulder.]

Hey. Come on. Wake up, kid.

[Johnny keeps quiet at first but it's clear he's tense. His hand clutching the arm rest of the car as he occasionally let's his head slide toward the window to get an idea if they're heading the right away.

When LaRusso speaks up he looks over his way and at first he has no idea what to say. The water had been so murky between the two of them for so long that Johnny didn't trust him immediately when he said it. But there's a pause as he considers all he did for Robby. ...And even in his all his stubborn rage he couldn't deny that LaRusso had been looking out for his son's best interest. There's a light exhale as he doesn't exactly relax but he finds he words to say.]

I've been training these kids for a few months now. They're good kids who've had some rough spots here and there.

And they've been living with a guy who I thought was on the level. Was going to treat them right and teach 'em how to get through shit when life got tough.

Turns out he's a fucking asshole though. Dragged them out onto some fucking boat and had them doing god knows what. Really fucked with them.

...So we're getting them out of there. Plain and simple.

Edited 2022-07-12 17:44 (UTC)

[The fire pulses under Johnny's hand, hot enough to leave a welter of shiny new scalds, not hot enough to blister, and Paul breaks out of the nightmare like he's coming up from the black sea, gasping and wild-eyed. He stares at Johnny's silhouette against the dark unseeingly, silver-~~gold~~ light fleeting in the blown out green rings of his irises.

He has spent almost all of his life cherished. His body remembers what to do, even if all other sense has left him, his arms coming up to clutch at his sensei with desperate tightness as Paul hides his face against his shoulder. His heart hammers at his ribs like an anvil, easily felt through his thin, soaked shirt, and his cooling fingers hook into the back of Johnny's.

He hitches out, still wrapped in the delirious, trembling tatters of his dream, with a voice too young for what he is and what he has done:] Dad.

[And with that, Paul Atreides, Duke of his House, Kwisatz Haderach, bloodied and severed left hand of an Emperor, bursts into exhausted, shivering tears.]

[Johnny just ignores the heat and holds on a little tighter as Paul's eyes finally open up. There's a vague sense of relief that floods over him to know that his students nightmare is open at least for now.

That relief is cut short as Paul suddenly embraces and clutches onto him. He feels his throat go dry as he realizes how desperately he's being held. There's a brief moment where he considers how many times he might have needed this in life and how many times that his own son might have that he wasn't there.

And then he hears that three letter word fall out from Paul's mouth and there are no words to describe the flood of emotions that go through him. There is a selfish part of him that wants to think that he's the one being called that. There are much bigger parts of him that know that can't be the case and he doesn't deserve it.

It takes him a moment but he lifts his arms and wraps them around Paul and just tries to provide him whatever awkward comfort he can.]

It's okay, kid. I'm here.

I'm here for you.

[Ortus does not expect to have bags tossed at him, which may be why, to what would be his startlement under any circumstance less dire, he catches them. It takes him that span of disorientation, too, to realize that Johnny is speaking to him as another man. An adult, fit to weigh in on the shepherding of children.

In continued surreality, Ortus turns to toss the bags onto the truck, and watches them land where he intended them to. (He is aware of himself as a body. He is aware of himself as one who may act in it. He had not thought to remember himself as small.)]

The Emperor has a talent for evoking loyalty.

[The words might be praise, if not coated in ice, and followed by:]

Particularly in those rendered vulnerable by isolation.

[The other self insists on its separation from the first self. It sounds as tired as he must, the exhaustion of someone past their capacity to continue who nevertheless does, ggworn to a frictionless, unbraking persistence.

Exhausted past stopping. Exhausted past remembering how to.]

Oscar?

[There's doubt there, still barely spoken, but it's barely more than reflexive, a fading immune twitch against impossibility.

Golden eyes in a near stranger's face, and everything he now understands of the soul. It's not impossible. So little is impossible, he hardly sees the purpose of the word.]

[So little was impossible that the word had lost meaning long ago. Wars that spanned the whole of human history were just as fake as the magic they were born from-- and yet as real as more fairy tales had any right to be.]

It's me.

[He said quietly as he sought his bearings in the haze.]

I got him. For everyone. Guess it wasn't enough...

Edited 2022-07-13 11:24 (UTC)

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Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

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I don't need no arms around me

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cw: mentions of past suicide

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