expertonshutters: (my hive of skin and chrome)
Ichimonji Hayato | Kamen Rider 2 ([personal profile] expertonshutters) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2022-02-07 11:17 am

And if I need a rhythm

Who: Hayato and YOU
What: Open Prompts around Trench
When: The month of February
Where: Willful Machine, The Raccoon Room, Trench city streets.

Content Warnings: Possible event warnings, which will be updated if it happens.



[Prompt 1: Willful Machine]

[Hayato was nothing if not adaptable. He’s lived a preposterously strange and dangerous life and if he was good and stuck here, then he had to make the best of it while he tried to understand his situation better. He was a people person, despite the often solitary life he had to live, and he found he did his best work immersing himself in the people around him. Trench was an endlessly fascinating, if baffling, city, and the people here were equally curious.]

[He’s spent plenty of time flagging down Sleepers for information, so this time he’s focusing a little on the locals. They’re friendly and more than willing to speak to him, which is nice, though a little strange. There’s a weird irreverence for Sleepers from the locals — Trenchies — and he’s not sure what to make of that.]

[For now he can be found speaking to a family just outside a clothing shop. It seems they’re explaining to him a bit about the philosophies of practical vs indulgent, and Hayato is listening with rapt attention. After a moment he asks for a picture, and delighted, the Trenchies oblige.]

[He steps back with his camera.]


Alright now. Say squid legs!

[The kids laugh, and Hayato snaps the photo. Pleased, he stands up and offers them a small card.]

Thanks a bunch for speaking with me. Once I’ve got the means to develop these, I’ll send you a copy, yeah?

[Looks like he’s free now.]



[Prompt 2: Raccoon Room]

[Hayato’s been popping in and out of places around town to get a feel for the atmosphere. He’s seen a lot of interesting places! Lot’s of nightlife it seems like. It doesn’t take him long to stumble onto the Raccoon Room, which he finds out quickly is Sleeper run and owned. That was interesting.]

[Liking the vibe, Hayato finds himself a booth to sit at with a drink. It’s quieter in here for the moment, and so Hayato has his camera, a notebook, and some scattered papers he seems to be pouring over while he looks up occasionally to people watch, or take in any performance that might be happening on stage. You’d think someone wouldn’t be able to get any work done with the noise of a place like this, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him any.]

[A fresh face with a unique sense of fashion, so clearly he is prime bothering material.]




[Prompt 3: He came with the storm]

[Beasts. This is what Anna had told him about. He sees now- they’re oddly far more grotesque than some of the monsters he’s had to fight, and yet, there is something sadder about it. These beasts were feral and vicious, but didn’t appear to be even remotely conscious of themselves.]

[It wasn’t like Shocker, or even Badan. Brainwashed monsters who spoke and acted with purpose. No …there was nothing like that in these Beasts, and so, the kindest thing to be done would be to put them down. He didn’t intend to take up the mantle of Hunter, but if he were in the right place at the right time, he wouldn’t turn his back on those who needed help.]

[And so, perhaps you are one of two options: 1. You happened to be in need of saving when the Beast came from the shadows with a roar. Or 2. You were already on the scene with the Beast and looked like you could use some help. Either way someone is in danger and back up has arrived in the dorm of a masked, armored figure.]

[A masked armored figure that greets the roar of the Beast by clocking it in the face and sending it hitting the ground with a bounce.]


Stay on your guard!
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Really now?)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-02-17 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
If you've woken in places strange enough to compete in the past, you must come from a wild world indeed.

[This is a passing comment, not a judgement. Absently, he wonders whether this guy will turn out to be one of the ones who doesn't appreciate the place at all, or one who actually finds Trench to be an improvement, despite its faults. The majority of those he meets here are the latter and Break himself is decidedly the former, even as Trench slowly gets its claws into him. Because of that he can't help but think of people in those categories.

Baltus trots off to do a circuit around the park, making sure there's nothing weird hiding out in it for the moment. Break watches the stranger, with a look on his face that is cunning, but not unkind.]


A few weeks is long enough to pick up a great deal. Then, why don't you tell me what you know about the place so far, and I'll fill in the blanks as best I can?
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: The last thing you'll ever see)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-02-18 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Well. Those are the basics, certainly. And yet, it's so very little, in the grand scheme of things. No wonder this guy was having such a moment back there. Break doesn't need much by way of personal context to know that Trench's antics can get to most anyone, if you don't know what's happening or why.]

...my understanding is that -- this place is something of a split away from an infinite number of timelines, across infinite dimensions. The people it pulls in are mirrored souls, in a sense...those who are still alive still exist in their home timelines and will carry out their stories to the end, uninterrupted. No one has gone missing from any given place. The versions who exist here are something new, created from the characters in those stories. And...squid-shaped, apparently.

Now and again someone is called to return to the sea. I couldn't tell you why, though I've seen it happen. I know that there are those who refer to this as "going home", but -- as far as I'm aware, the ocean is "home" now. With our roles in our old timelines occupied and moving merrily along, there's nothing to truly go home to.

[This is the most important thing: Brutally killing any notion this guy might have that he can go home. It's a cruel thing to have to tell him, but to Break's perspective, also, a kindness.]
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Nothing for it)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-02-19 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[Qrow's expressed a similar sentiment -- that he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he properly "retired" as Break has. The Hunters have too much by way of rules and paperwork for his tastes, but Break knows he still hunts down the odd monster here and there just for the sake of doing what he's always done, and has written deep in his heart. Break himself keeps his hand in, far too paranoid to let himself go even as he claims there are far scarier warriors in town and that means he can fight for fun again, and even thinks in passing from time to time that taking on a proper apprentice might be fun.

Probably every veteran of anything has those sorts of thoughts here. The world is so inherently dangerous, and you can't just escape what you've always been.]


Whatever suits you, really. [This comment sounds flippant, but he's not without sympathy.] If you're the heroic type, there's always something to do. The Hunters focus on bringing down the beasts and things that plague the place, if you're keen on being on a local team. Mm, but -- there are plenty of endeavors led by Sleepers, too. A particular young lady of my acquaintance and some of the friends she's made here focus on keeping safehouses about the town, for example, so that people will have safe and well-stocked places to go in the event of a crisis.

[He braces his hands on the back of the bench on either side of him, so that he can lean back a little. The next thing he says comes in a somewhat brighter tone. Break was uncertain of himself too when he arrived, but the path he's chosen has treated him well, and he's confident in it now.]

Me, I'm retired, these days. At home I was one of the strongest fighters around, but this place is just crawling with folks who can say the same, and with much weirder and greater powers than mine. Since no one will miss me on the field and I've a pile of kids to look after, I've spent these past several months learning to cook. It's always good for frightened kids and tired warriors to have a soft place to land in at the end of the day, you know?
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Not sunken just yet)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-02-21 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Break gives him time to organize his thoughts, occupying himself with giving Baltus ear rubs in the meantime, once his omen has trotted back out of the underbrush. When Hayato does speak, it's probably the least surprising thing he could say, honestly. Break felt it himself when he arrived, the sudden shock of a quest that had guided him for fifteen years abruptly over. He knows very well that if he hadn't had the kids to stand up for right away, it would have taken him months to sort himself out.]

Mm. I suppose that...part of the beauty of this place bringing in people from so many different worlds is -- you'll find, I think, that there are a great many people here who understand how it feels to be in exactly that sort of situation. The place seems to have a taste for such people.

[He doesn't bother to clarify that he is one of them. It's really only true on a technicality. Things didn't solidify into "holding the line" like that until the very end, and when they did, Break served as support to the real stars of the story. He also stops just short of saying that Hayato isn't truly alone here even if he is without his team, because that's gross. But it's what he means.]

Only a few against a much larger enemy with no respite, monsters out to destroy humanity, those who would take control of it all with no regard for who it might hurt, even awful experiments on innocents...I have heard of all of these things since coming here. It's dreadful to think of such things being so common, but -- it means that those who stand up against them are common, too, right?
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: A tender moment)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-02-25 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[Break is watching from the corner of his eye, so while he hasn't caught what was going on within the seeping wounds the man's inflicted on his own arm as of yet, he does spot him pausing to shudder and collect himself. To launch straight into a statement like that right after, only a little ways into their conversation here -- does that mean he's already sussed out that this place terrorizes you until you talk about serious things, or is he just the sort of guy who is totally willing to unload onto a complete stranger? He can't help but approve in this moment, either way. If Hayato were as cagey as Break is, no doubt sorting him out would be a lot more difficult! Funny how convenient it is for other people when someone isn't Xerxes Break.]

Well. A great many people do refer to this world as their "second chance", you know? An opportunity to start over. Those who come from worlds where their circumstances had trapped them to this role or that role often say that they prefer this one over their own, for all that it certainly isn't a kind place. Because...for once, they get to choose.

[Break's own kids are in this position. Technically, so is he, but -- well, the kids, the kids are what's important here. Some are handling it better than others, but all of them are taking advantage.]

I think that, if you were to seize such an opportunity for yourself too...you'd find you certainly weren't alone in that, either.
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: It's all a game)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-03-05 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
You've come around quickly.

[Whether that speaks to the adaptability this guy is claiming or it's a matter of this particular idea being something that has haunted him for a long time, something he's only too eager to cast off, Break does not question. Not aloud, anyway. That seems rude.]

It's not difficult to contribute to the good of the place, I think. In a world so intent on being terrible, and where it's crucial to keep corruption levels down...most anything that can bring a touch of peace about matters.
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: Tender)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-03-10 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[Break gives a gentle, thoughtful hum. This is something that -- well, he's never experienced it directly, but he has an idea of it, perhaps. Given his own tendency toward chronic pains, thanks initially to the Mad Hatter and these days thanks to some sort of irritating darkblood issue he probably deserves, Break does know what it's like to get used to hurting, have that hurt taken away, and then to be totally blindsided by it when it returns. Even if you were entirely accustomed to your own aches before, it all starts over when they're fresh and new again. Break imagines it must be astronomically worse if pain is something you weren't even capable of.

No wonder this guy was in such a state back there, even if it's been relatively easy to talk him down from it.]


One of the first incidents to happen to me here...was getting kidnapped by a flock of ravens who tossed me into a decidedly unromantic boat ride with a guy I'd met exactly one time, where we were shown illusionary corpses of our loved ones. Fortunately, he's been in this place a great deal longer than I have, and -- told me right away that if we talked of those painful things and got it over with, the illusion would resolve itself. I've found this to be the way it is over and over again since.

[So, there's the reason Break was so willing to swoop in here, if Hayato is able to read between his lines. Someone who understood things was there to help him as he found his feet, and it made all the difference. Thus, Break is here, paying it forward.]

...shall I help you with that arm?
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: Surprised)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-03-19 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'm certain there has to be, and whatever it is can see right into our souls. But the most obvious culprits are the Pthumerians, and I don't believe for a second that they're the primary problem.

[Break has theories, but mostly because he can't really help but have theories. This is the part of retirement that truly does suit him well. He has seen to it that the whole "eldritch little girl with the entire Core of the Abyss attached to her soul" problem has been solved and whatever eldritch power core nonsense is going on here is not his problem. Not when there are all these Deerington veterans around who have more context than Break can ever dream of and it's not as though he has anything to go back to if this dimension collapses in on itself or something.

He might feel a little more motivated once he stops being massively depressed, but today is not that day. More importantly, that is a weird way to talk about a wound.]


Ah? You make it sound like you've got bits loose -- oh! [Leaning over to peer at the injury, he perks up with interest. Enough so that his omen pops up over the back of the bench to peer too, ears erect in horse mode.] Why, that's metal in there, isn't it? Then -- what's the newer word for automaton, "robotic"?
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: Vulnerable)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2022-03-19 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh.

[He'd gotten excited because this is clearly some sort of future thing, and he sort of recognized it. Break backs away a little, sensing that the reply is something of an admonishment -- to be human and become something else can't have pleasant memories attached. However, he's too curious to look away entirely. After all, he doesn't like people being nosy about his missing eye and whatever else, but he also doesn't actually blame them for it.]

We haven't got such things at all, where I'm from. I'm told that, in the equivalent timelines of a great many worlds, I'm something called a "Victorian". [Not everyone has these, but it seems to explain things immediately for those who do.] A friend from a world far ahead of mine introduced me to...ehhh, the concept of this sort of thing.