SHOWTIME ⦁ open w/closed prompts.

[deathrespect]

Who: Samatoki Aohitsugi deathrespect & co.! Open with closed prompts.
What: Event things.
When: 9.8 and on throughout the month.
Where: Prompts will have locations.

Content Warnings: Event-typical warnings. Missing person trauma. Slight self-harm + PTSD flashbacks. Bad management of breakdowns.

001 ⦁ GROWING PAINS | cassandra district | open.

( Not long after the 8th Samatoki can be seen outside of his home in Cassandra, looking over a small slip of paper with burnt edges. It says "have a nice trip!" and is written in blood-ink.

He has his mask fixed on his face as he buries the slip of paper after folding it into a neat square. Once his claw is drawn across his palm, pale blood spilling onto the soil below, a red spider lily blooms and stretches towards the sky.

There's a hidden smile from behind the mask when the flower doesn't change its bright color. NO rotting, no wilting. He knows, then, that the Blood Minister path is the right one for him.

He turns to see someone a little ways off; not removing his mask, he stands. )

What's good, boss?

002 ⦁ POST-GROWING PAINS | cassandra district | closed to orpheus.

( Heading towards Lumenwood is Samatoki; he's been location-scouting lately for an idea he has ... There's a craning of his head and a stop in his tracks when he sees someone with a guitar, heading down the street.

Makes him think of doing music again ... Even if his music was typically heavy beats, rhyme and flow. )

Ah, hey. You good with that thing?

( He calls, pulling his mask down and fixing it to his belt. Not weird at all. )

003 ⦁ RIVER OF REGRET | ???? | closed to atsushi.

( Ah, fuck. )

The fuck is this?!

( The day is idyllic and pretty, sunlight and trees and a peaceful river. The only other one in the boat is Atsushi, that kid he'd talked to the other day ... )

You got any clue?

004 ⦁ POST-RIVER OF REGRET | lumenwood district | open | self harm + PTSD flashbacks warning.

( His claws itch and flex; it feels like there's something under his skin that keeps him moving, laced with pure anger and anguish. He chainsmokes. He walks.

This isn't Hakagemachi, where his walking had more of a purpose, where he knew what to really bury himself in. Right here and now, in Trench, everything feels fucking pointless. He stops along a fence, leaning on it, breath shaky and uncertain but deep all the same.

Visions of his sister, mangled with her middle pecked out by hungry birds ... He clenches his fist and punches through the fence on reflex.

Then he beats his fist against the top of it, splinters of wood embedding themselves in his skin. )

Stop ... Stop ...

( His breathing is labored; the opposite hand is digging furrows down his face. )

Fuck ... Nemu ... Nemu, please ...

( Anyone happening across him now might recognize he's having flashbacks, eyes turned unseeing to the space in front of him ... )

005 ⦁ BLOODSPORT | prufrock district | open.

( Oh, this is certainly a way to let it out.

He's all too quick to put on his mask again, a comfort of sorts, and tear into monster after monster.

After felling his third on his own, he's not had enough. )

Gimme another. Fuck, gimme two. Things are fucking weak!

006 ⦁ WILDCARD.

( want a starter or something else? hit me up @ vandalisto if you would like to plot/discuss! )

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

Oh, shit, what's up, Sama-kun? [at least her shit-eating grin isn't going anywhere.] Haven't tried it myself yet. Mostly just walking around, seeing everyone else do it. Can't be too careful with stuff like this, right?

[really, she has a fair amount of history with dangerous flowers, and she's definitely not taking any chances. but this is probably fine, she figures. doesn't make a lot of sense to introduce stuff that will end the world right now.]

So what are you looking for an answer on?

[deathrespect]

( No one's called him -kun since Jakurai from the beginning of their relationship. He has to laugh. )

Careful? Yeah, I get what you mean.

( He sniffs. )

In the old joint it was like you couldn't win no matter what you did when this kinda shit cropped up. I guess I was ...

( He looks down and furrows his brow. While Anna isn't like Kanae in the slightest as far as personality goes, they're both terribly easy to talk to.

That's a bit dangerous. )

Getting rid of something I can't do anything about anymore. Trying to see if that's the move or if I can still find something out.

[hauntedsavior]

Huh. And you can actually interpret your results right?

[she's asking mostly because she hasn't given the disciples a lot of regard, but she generally knows good results from bad ones by now. it's a good question to ask, and god knows she's got a few things she'd like something that clear-cut about, but. well. there's a lot of reasons she hasn't done it herself yet.]

Like right now. Say you're still trying to find something out and that thing blooms. Maybe it's telling you to keep looking. Sure as shit ain't telling you where or how to do it. [she shifts her weight and her line of thinking.] Or maybe it's telling you it's time to go bloom on your own and leave it behind. You trust it?

[she doesn't sound incredulous when she asks. it's a real question, like she's asking for his actual input instead.]

[deathrespect]

( There's some doubt about his interpretation of the flower's blooming, then. He pulls a bit of a face, looking down at the bloom.

There's just something in his blood that tells him burying the girl's words down and leaving it there was the right thing. )

What I buried was these words that were haunting me, right before Hakagemachi turned upside-down. Right before I lost Genkei.

I'm not giving up on Genkei or my sister, but ... Maybe I'm giving up the rage I feel when I think about that girl that knows something about them both.

( He fiddles with the mask. )

She felt more attached to Hakagemachi than I ever did. I can say with some certainty she ain't gonna end up here. So I can't shake her down or do what she wants me to anymore.

( Or maybe that's just hoping. )

[hauntedsavior]

[and almost instantly, anna's demeanor changes. she's trying to hide it on her face, but all it takes is samatoki talking about his sister for her stance to shift and her brow to furrow in sympathy instead of puzzlement. she can't bring herself to keep up the premise when sisters come into play.]

You still have your sister back home? [she can't really think of much more to say immediately, but gears are turning in her head and after a pensive moment, she continues. she's come closer so the flower is in better view. there's a dry quality to her voice that's almost rehearsed.] Mine never got to Recolle. She stayed at home with my parents. Missed out on everything her older sister did.

[and then, far more genuinely and in a tone halfway between a question and not.]

You really have faith in this.

[deathrespect]

Yeah. Her name's Nemu, she's my pride.

( His tone is clearly a bit pained, but he listens to Anna talk. )

Mm. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?

( He looks away. )

Yeah. I guess after with all the fuckery in Hakagemachi I kinda feel like shit like this works, y'know.

[hauntedsavior]

Don't know. Never had the chance to ask.

[she's. more fucked up about this than she's willing to admit, even though she's certain it's showing in the way she's holding herself a little closer, keeping her arms near her body and her legs together. never could get the hang of full-body lying.]

Forget everything I said. All the skeptic crap. If you trust it and it's helping you, I think you won me over. [she looks around briefly.] Let me track down a disciple. You got room next to your flower?

[deathrespect]

... I got room, yeah.

( He nods, stepping aside a little as though to invite her past and through. )

[hauntedsavior]

[it's not too hard for her to flag down a disciple, and in a moment she's got a small blade to help her draw blood. she kneels down next to samatoki and digs a small hole, then uses the blade to cut off a lock of her hair in front of her face. it's not even her hair anymore, is it? it's... theirs, together, hers and A2's. god, she's so caught up in all this stupid metaphor that she can't even bring herself to bury it, but she does.]

Let's make a little monument to the worlds only we remember.

[she doesn't know exactly where that came from, but she's trying not to think too hard about it. all she knows is that she's not sure if she can cut through her robot hands on her own, so she goes for the only thing on her body that she knows has easily accessible blood. turning her head, she runs the blade along her cheek and smears the blood on her hand, then drips it into the soil.]

[it's hard to tell what the flower that blooms from her patch of earth is, since even as it springs up it looks wilted, barely on the edge of dying. her breath stops in her lungs for a moment, then comes out slowly.]

That's probably not great.

[deathrespect]

( He watches silently, diligently. When the flower turns up wilted, he shifts his weight over one hip and nods. )

If it's like that, you can make it better. Like it's down, but not out.

( He's not sure if that sounds weak or not. Platitudinous. He sure means the words, but whether or not they fall flat isn't on him but rather the gravity of the ritual and its outcome. )

[hauntedsavior]

[there's a cold trail running down her face that she's trying to ignore, but at least she does know it's blood and that she didn't just start crying or anything. samatoki's cool and she's not allowed to have emotions in front of him. it does still suck shit, though, seeing it kind of... laid out in front of her like that.]

Yeah. It's not dead, but it's not doing great. Wonder how I'm supposed to come back from it. [a pause, and her head turns towards him very slightly.] Never been great at forcing myself into a total 180. I don't even know what part of my life it wants me to turn around.

[deathrespect]

( He pulls a bit of a face, regarding the flower and then Anna in turn. )

I got faith you can figure it out. I don't ... know that there's a timer on it, either.

[hauntedsavior]

That's good, at least. Trying to figure all this stuff out is gonna take a while. [she looks over at his flower, fully in bloom and telling him all the right things, and tries not to let it weigh in her chest. instead, she starts trying to motivate herself.]

Let's make this a monument we can both be proud of. I don't mind having someone I gotta catch up to. Could be nice to have that kind of fire under my ass again.

[deathrespect]

I dig it.

( There's a shake of a soft pack, then, and he sticks a rollie into his mouth and lights it.

Offering the pack to Anna in some kind of polite gesture, he grins around the cigarette. )

Sure. I'll keep it safe while we figure all this shit out.

[hauntedsavior]

[it's been a while since she's last smoked, and the only reason she kicked the habit was because she was convinced it wouldn't do anything to her robot body. but hell, now she has blood again, so who even knows, right? so she takes one and lights it off the end of his, then takes a long drag and immediately feels that rush that she'd been without until now.]

Fuck. Forgot how good that shit felt. Thanks, dude. I owe you. [in more than a couple ways.]

[deathrespect]

( He thinks of Jyuto. They used to kiss the ends of their cigarettes together and, briefly, he wonders how Jyuto and Riou would deal with being here.

He's not entirely sure, but it'd be easier if they were here. )

Ain't no thing. Probably shouldn't enable habits, but ... In a place that's out to kill us, I'd take what I can get.