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Waking the Dead 2.0 || August 9, 2063 || Tuesday
[Dinner is served late in the mess hall because it's a grand banquet in honor of the Magistrate of Kibo. It's a pretty modest celebration, all things considered: the people at Kibo are invited, along with her family, any Searing Wind members who feel like dropping in from wherever they've been as of late, and a few friends among the other Keepers of the Vigil. That's about it.
Still, Kalika looks like she's having fun. Her husband and her children are, of course, all in attendance, together with her husband's familiars and the entire division of the Strays from Seigi. The food, mind you, is excellent, and there is more than enough booze.
You're welcome to come and go as you please. Kalika's easy like that.]
OOC Notes:
+ Will have some threads for NPCs of note, but just to give you a general idea: many members of the three blades are in attendance, along with pretty much anyone whom Kalika views as family. If you want to request for somebody, lemme know!
+ Debby and Noey: feel free to put your NPCs in here. =w=
+ Feel free to start your own threads too. Just specify if it's open to all, or if you're going to thread something out with a particular PC.
After the non-conversation
He's never felt this bad before, never felt like a total dick, so he lights up and starts singing to Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams. He's alone so there isn't anyone close enough to hear it, and no one around when the voice turns into quiet sobs. ]
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She lets him walk a little further, listening to the way that Kaz is singing, the tremor in his voice when he hits a certain verse. She's lighting up her cigarette when the words quiver away and sobs take their place.
It's alright honey. Fights with big brothers who you love very much are hard.
She knows that very well. ]
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He's at a loss where to rid himself of the butt so he can light up again though. ]
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Something on your mind?
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I... I made a mistake.
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It happens, honey.
[ Sibling spats, she's pretty familiar with those. ]
What happened?
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[ 'You're being stupid. He loves you and there's no two ways about it.' ]
We were at the construction site for Rhiannon and we were drinking 'cause we learned that Aniki can be brought back to the cycle. I... I called him stupid for wondering about whether or not Hikaru loved him enough to stay once--
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Once... what, hon?
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Once the effects of the Unnamed Tower are undone for him.
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No words yet, you look like you need a listening ear. ]
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It's just... Josh doesn't see that Aniki loves him. Can't see past the files, the lifetimes with Alistair and the one with Katherine.
[ Kaz's lineface makes itself known, and he still looks like a puppy. ]
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Still... ]
It must be terrifying though, to realize how small you must be in the grand scheme of things.
[ Once, long ago, she'd mouthed off to a certain Rivers Hunter about how giving up meant proving the Unnamed Tower right. Strange how, if things had turned out differently in 2012, and Alistair Mordechai and Hikaru Shinta had worked out, this conversation would not even be happening. ]
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[ He's brought his legs closer to his chest now, as if willing himself to shrink. ]
I dunno, tita... He's not small. At least, I can't see it changing much between them.
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Remember I told you before that people gave up things in the Unnamed Tower in order to join the battle to fight off Nyx?
[ It's been a while now, so she'll just head on through and hope you can follow. ]
Hikaru gave up several of his future lives. And he and Alistai were a thing at the time, so much that Hashtag Alistair and Hikaru was a thing over the Vigil's take on Twitter.
[ She bites her lower lip as she pauses. ] hikaru has this thing that he... he gives up pieces of himself, if he thinks that the greater good will benefit from it all.
Those lives? Giving them up. It... didn't really go over well with... your former mentor.
[ She bows her head at that. You can press, if you like. ]
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What do you mean... Give up his lives?
[ Not that you can see it, but he's totally shrinking a little bit more. ]
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It was the trade-off, Kaz. It was what Hikaru gave up to be able to fight. [ She takes a breath. ] He traded some of his lives, the ones he hasn't lived yet, he won't... he won't be... himself.
[ And she's falling quiet at that. Perhaps she's said too much? ]
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He'll be Brother Death.
[ That changes everything. ]
But... Undoing the effects of the Tower means he gets some of those lives back, right?
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[ Cisco's got a fairly thoughtful look on her face right now, because she's thinking back to her exchange with Alistair minutes before and the direction her own thoughts had turned.
Josh is a kid, who is in love with a being who will outlive him, who has had countless loves and will likely have more because Hikaru will just keep on living.
It's an odd place to be. ]
Undoing the effects of the Tower means that he gets them all of them back, Kaz. [ he's looking back down at her hands and remembering that exchange in the range. How young she'd been then, in many ways, quick to speak and naive at the core of herself... because the situation between Alistair and Hikaru was a unique one. The Seer a fixed point, a constant that the Blade King could always have, no matter how many times he died and came back. ]
I don't know what's going on in Josh's head but... I guess it begs the question: you're a footnote in the very long book that is Hikaru Shinta's incredibly long existence.
You're not as long-lived as the others who've walked beside that one. [ Not like the Kings. Or some of those in the Three Blades, or those Hikaru regarded as family who were in Zangyaku. ] Someday you're going to die, and that one's going to live on.
[ She falls quiet at that. ]
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[ He shrugs. It's not about the end, because all things eventually die, except those that can't, and Kaz knows that. ]
I mean... He'll have lived beside Hikaru for as long as possible. Isn't that worth something?
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[ There's a pause on her end, and she looks like she's trying to find a way to phrase her next words gently. ]
What if -- Elaine forbid -- Hikaru dies while you're all still so young. I'm not saying it'll happen, Kaz, but the mortality rate of hunters who are just a little bit more than Sleepwalkers isn't a comforting statistic.
What if that happens? What if their time gets cut short and by the time Hikaru comes back around and awakens, Josh isn't around anymore?
[ She's lived through losing Hikaru twice. Her other friends, Elaine rest their souls, didn't have that luxury. She's also had the luck to fall in love with someone she can grow old with, someone who waited when she'd needed a decade to get her shit together and who loved her enough to take her back anyway. ]
It's a reality that Josh is as mortal as any other Deadwalker, Kaz. As the people you've grown up with and care about. A number of those people have been fortunate enough to live long and fulfilling lives with the privilege of calling Hikaru Shinta their friend. [ When she speaks next, her voice is soft. ] But none of them were in love with your aniki the way that Josh clearly is.
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[ He's resting his head on his knees now, looking sadly out at the forest.
He understands that he's being really, really optimistic about all this, that Josh and Hikaru are in love. Kaz can't defend himself here because he knows that Cisco has a point.
She's right, Kaz. Roxas pipes up. He did also make you promise to look out for Hikaru hours after you came back. I know what you know, dude, and you know she has a point. ]
What do I do, then?
[ His eyes are shining with tears again when he looks at Cisco. Clearly, sibling fights that don't end in blows is different for him. ]
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I wish that that question had an easy answer.
[ She pulls back a little and lights up a stick of her own. She'll take a long drag in silence at first, and then pass you a sad and quiet smile. ]
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I know. It's just... How am I going to make it up to him now?
[ He's always worrying about his brothers anyway. ]
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[ A hand over yours, a reassuring squeeze to your fingers. ]
Is Josh the type to hold grudges? [ She doesn't think so. But you'd know better, and she doesn't want to presume. ]
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