deercountry | catch & release

Entry tags:

manabu yuuki: elle

catch & release

Who: Ryunosuke & Manabu
What: Return & recover
When: Early Nov
Where: A lantern in Willful Machine

Content Warnings: Death & body horror mentions, specifically body mutation/morphing

Reorienting in a disorienting place is a process. Manabu knows this, but it's not going to temper his impatience with himself; his thirst for independence, for the ability to rely on himself so others can rely on him, is very strong. Of course, he can't just let himself become a liability either, so he tries to behave until he's more confident in his stride.

And it's not so bad, right? For a change of scenery, he can use a lantern and not worry about wearing himself out.

It's what he's chosen to do this afternoon, taking himself away from his check-in with Mako and Wu to start picking up some stuff for himself on his own terms. Those guys are tremendous friends and help, but a man has to be able to pick out his own jackets, right? Right. And he'll be safe to wander this district full of people, right? Right.

Anyway, he apparates in a swirl of dark smoke as the lantern ghouls shift him from one place to another and all but directly on top of the person kneeling down to inspect said ghouls.

"D'AUGH-!!"

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Ryunosuke's exploration of Trench leads him to Willful Machine, which at first glance reminds him of what he's heard of the east end in London. The cool air has him bundled up in his cloak, but he really should start to look for something warmer. Something to keep him warm during the winter would be beneficial, he just doesn't know where to begin the search. He tells himself he'll figure it out, breathing warm air into his hands when he finally spots it.

The warm glow of lantern light on a dock near the canal. He approaches it curiously and crouches down to get a better look. It's the ghouls that really get him to fall back in shock, startled and stunned, scrambling backwards across the dock. It takes him a moment to collect himself, realizing that these things aren't moving out towards him, or attacking, but he isn't sure he trusts it.

Ryunosuke finds himself in a crouching position again, inspecting the lantern when it happens.

"Wha--Ahh!" He stumbles to his feet, practically catching Manabu a he appears out of nowhere. His heart pounds in his chest, but he finds himself smiling.

"We really need to stop meeting like this."

"Hruh-?!"

Manabu's got a face full of person and no idea what's going on; nobody told him of the likelihood of bodying someone via lantern travel. In his confusion, he doesn't really manage to scramble to his feet as he ought to, and so once he can lift his head and catch a breath, he's just kind of...slack dead weight in Ryunosuke's arms.

Hey--wait a second--

"Ryu..." Ryunosuke? What is it about this guy that involves just crashing into him all the time?!

"Hello, Manabu." He finds himself chuckling a little bit as he helps right his friend on the dock, holding his hand. "Are you all right?"

Ryunosuke checks to make sure that he's steady himself on the wooden planks, glancing down at his feet as he continues to hold onto Manabu. He's finally starting to catch his breath, his racing heart slowing back to a normal pattern from the excitement of Manabu just appearing out of nowhere.

It takes a second in there for Manabu to recognize the effort it's taking to get him on his own feet, and he flusters and fumbles in doubletime to get there on his own...sort of; he doesn't notice the extra hand right away, but when he does, he sputters a slurred sorry and yanks his hand free as fast as he can to spare the both of them any embarrassment. Or just himself. Who knows!

"Hh-hey," he utters, rubbing at his own shoulder self-consciously. "What were--I mean, I was..." He shakes his head a little, grimacing. "Never mind. You okay?"

He doesn't quite react to Manabu yanking his hand away, but he is a little confused as to why he's apologizing. Why would he need to apologize, he thinks as he drops his hands, one arm posed on the katana at his side. At least that they didn't go tumbling into the canal, because that would just make the chill that much worse.

"I'm fine, thank you." He says, rubbing the back of his head. "How did you....?" He gestures to the lantern, perplexed. "Sorry, are you sure you're all right? I didn't mean to uh... get in your way?"

"You weren't--I mean..." He grimaces again, looking over his shoulder toward the lanterns. "I mean I guess...the little guys didn't warn you I was coming?"

They did not. They also do not appear to give a fuck. You Sleepers and your problems and interactions - pfft, whatever.

"Well, anyway..." He looks back to Ryunosuke, shrugging. "If you were going to yoosh them...you can...go ahead." ... "Ss, sor-sorry about that."

Ugh. The stutter. The slurring. He still can't get his tongue back into proper speaking order when his brain is clearly ready to be.

"No, I... wasn't aware- do they do that?" He asks looking at the ghouls that surround the lantern.

If they did have a warning system in place, it would have been nice to know! He sighs a little as he continues to look at the lantern.

"Oh, no, I was just... I hadn't seen it before." He admits as he turns his gaze back to Manabu. He looks perplexed by his speech patterns. That wasn't usual for him, at least not that he's known from the few times they've met. "Are you all right?" He asks again, taking a step closer.

"Ffh, fine," he utters quickly, matching the step with a back-step of his own. "Still, just." He gives a quick, vague gesture with a hand. "Getting...back to things. Since."

Since the thing. He's sure he doesn't have to spell it out - he sure as hell doesn't want to; the more he has to linger on it, the less a person he really feels.

So, naturally, he pivots, turning partway so he can tilt his head in the lantern's direction while still talk to Ryunosuke.

"They connect different spots. All...lanterns with those lit-little guys. You think where you wanna go, they send you to nearest one. Free of charge."

Ah, yes. That made sense. He doesn't push the issue. Ryunosuke is pretty certain talking about one's death could be just as traumatic as the death happening, so he doesn't want to bring it up. But it occurs to him that this isn't the first death that has happened since he's arrived, and it's slightly unnerving.

How easy was it to commit murder, justifiable or not, in this place?

Thankfully, Manabu pivots back to the lantern and he nods.

"Really? Quick travel like that... what is it like?"

"It's, ah..." Hm. How does he describe it? Especially to a guy who grew up in a world with such limited tech...

Manabu rubs at his chin for a moment in thought.

"Mm. Like. Closing your eyes looking at, at-at one room...then opening them somewhere else. There's no moving-feeling."

"No moving feeling?"

Well, that must be disorientating at times if a little disconcerting. To be able to go from one place to the next without feeling like he's moving at all was both fascinating and terrifying.

"I'll have to give it a try sometime." He says with a smile. "So, what are you doing out right now? Anything interesting?"

"Mmh."

Easier to give monosyllabic answers than be eloquent! Manabu nods, shivering despite the flustered flush he still has - good ol' coldblood life.

"Um. I was--well. Since it's...getting colder, I gotta...get stuff. To-to wear. That isn't...costumes." Because Wu is a blessing and a great help! But Manabu cannot wear a big, feathery hat everywhere. It's embarrassing.

"I was thinking about doing that myself." He smiles a bit. In thinking about the cold, Ryunosuke is pretty sure he'll need to find something warm for his flat too. "Did you want company?"

He wants to ask about the costumes, but he figures it's such an easy explanation. Manabu must simply have costumes laying around where ever he's staying. No strange reasoning or devious actions were involved.

Okay, he wasn't going to ask but it comes out anyway. "Why do you have costumes?"

Before Manabu can vocalize an affirmative, the question of costumes comes up, and Manabu looks a shade more self-conscious.

"Um. Wu." He hesitates, checking to see if that alone explains it. Likely not, so, with a shrug he adds: "For the, the parade. Yeah? He picked it all out. So."

"Wu?" He doesn't know Wu, hasn't met him yet so that unfortunately explained nothing to him. Thankfully, when he adds the rest, he nods. "Mn."

Okay, see? Nothing nefarious about getting costumes for the parade that occurred. Nothing strange about it considering the costumes were easy to obtain during the last month.

"So, where to?"

"Auh..."

Good question. This man does not shop as a hobby.

Manabu frowns, turning around to look ahead at what bit of the Willful Machine is presented to them.

"...Fffforward, I guess? We may as wellllhh--"

He teeters, a sudden static feeling in his head making him lose his balance for a moment.

"Manabu!"

Ryunosuke luckily catches that Manabu is losing his balance, quickly reaching out to grab his hand again and wrapping his other arm around his waist to hold him upright. He holds him tight, making sure that he doesn't fall into the water.

"Maybe we should get off the dock." He mutters a little. "Are you okay?"

"Ye-yeah," he puffs, leaning into Ryunosuke even after his legs stabilize. "Sorry. I'm--it's like, once every...couple hours really, my head just. Fuzzes out a second is all. Yeah--"

Yeah, he's not going to be stubborn or fussy about getting led away from the water, because if he's gonna get woozy, he's not going to add drowning to the mix. After a few steps, the sickly static feeling fades and he can straighten up and not feel too disoriented by bobbing his head in a nod.

"I'm good. I'm good, I'm--yeah." He exhales with a shudder.

He leads him off the dock back onto much more solid ground, still holding onto him pretty tight. He stops after they're settled on the street, slowly releasing his grip from his waist as he seems to find his footing once more. Ryunosuke still holds his hand, just in case he starts to lean or fall again. He doesn't want to take a chance with him collapsing to the ground.

"Every few hours? Do you know why?" Was he sick? He would hate for him to be out in this cold if he was.

This time around, Manabu's not quick to disengage, instead just trying to focus his attention on his surroundings more sharply now that his senses feel a bit back in order.

"I think it's--something to do with...with coming back." He doesn't meet Ryunosuke's eye when he says it. "You remember how...weird it felt at first, right? Washing up."

"Yes." He does remember the sensation of washing up on the shore.

It was... nothing he's ever experienced. Nothing he could reasonably describe without coming off tongue-tied. It was surreal, unnatural, and he shudders just thinking about it. He squeezes Manabu's hand, a knowing look in his expression.

"You didn't come back that long ago." He says, still feeling strange to talk about his death in such a cavalier way. "Maybe it just takes time to recover from something like that."

"It's faster than you mi-might think," he mutters, starting to move forward, to put some distance between himself, the lantern, and the dock he almost ate shit in. Only in motion does he acknowledge the tether and let his hand fall slack to be freed should Ryunosuke mean to.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks, carefully releasing Manabu's hand as he follows after him. "It's all right if you don't want to."

He's not going to push him to talk about his death and subsequent revival. It must be difficult, something that causes the mind to reel and the body to react to such a memory. Ryunosuke is hoping he never learns what that is like, but after what he's seen so far in Trench, death might not be as easy to avoid as he thinks.

Does he? Man, Manabu doesn't know...sometimes it feels like he oscillates between the need to scream and the desperation to hole up somewhere. Emotional talk is not a strength he's developed, since he's grown up with the idea that such things - deaths, funerals, parties, graduations - aren't for the everyday. They're designated moments.

"In the nightmare you got dea-death flu," he says eventually, his eyes on the windows of the shops they pass, looking for something with clothes. "Like...two weeks of shaking and, and nausea and just feeling like garbage."

Ah, here's one.

"Can't really tell if it's the same now. I'm always cold."

There's a little bell over the door that tinkles as he opens it up and heads in.

"Doesn't sound pleasant."

He's pretty sure it's not meant to be. Death-flu sounded like something of a plague, but at least it sounded like it was isolated to when one dies. Two weeks of shaking and nausea didn't sound too bad but he's sure it was much worse than that. Which made him wonder if Manabu has died before in the dream. He wasn't going to ask, not yet. Not when he was hoping Manabu would open up on his own terms.

"Well, hopefully, we'll find something that will be able to keep us warm." He says as he follows him into the shop. "Maybe a nice coat will help."

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