[The view is trembling a little as it's being shown off, nothing of the owner but the ID registers as Lavi's. Right now the view is of a bunch of white, shadowed white.

Then his voice comes on, chattering with cold (pretend please, it's annoying to type out) which explains why the view is shaking.]

Tunnels are dug, made it to the closest church, the school, and the train station. I'll try and blow out more tomorrow, this took me three days. [It's been three days since the blizzard blew out after all.]

From the station to the river probably then south to the square from here. Don't worry about cave-ins. There's ice between you and the snow now. [His fire snake did that for him.]

Everyone enjoy their presents?

[[ooc; I didn't post it on the Christmas post but Lavi's are here on the first sheet.]]

Okay, so continuing on from the previous video... [Insert a link here.] Well, things have changed quite a bit over the year from when that was made.

( Read more... )

The memory that plays out is vivid, full of details. The gift and the curse that is a Bookman's memory.

Staring up at a ceiling is one Bookman Junior, years younger with a uniform he doesn't even have anymore. An orange scarf so tattered that it's amazing it's still holding together. He's resting after getting back from a mission, wondering why it feels like that one made more of an imprint on him than any before.

Was it Doug? A Finder who had said Lavi's eye was like glass but had finally changed to something warmer.

Was it Celeste? The little girl who found herself wrapped up in the mission without knowing and had made a connection with both Doug and Lavi.

Or even still, was it the realization that he had a home to come back to for once. A term as foreign as it was familiar but it had never once applied to him. Lavi thought of the Order and he had a warmth in his chest as he thought about the various people who lived here with him. Doug, the old man, Lenalee, Kanda, Komui, Reever and Johnny and the others. He felt as if he belonged here.

And now he was just waiting for Doug to come home, his first friend. Doug had stayed behind in the town of Elysee to give a gift to Colette and make living arrangements for the young orphan. He was eager to know how the little girl reacted even if she never did call Lavi by his name.




Suddenly screams of terror an pain from the halls nearby rouse him from his bed. Lavi all but falls over himself trying to get out there with Innocence in hand, wondering what it was that could have caused the yells. Only...

Once he gets there he finds a number of Finders, all of them dead and impaled in the same fashion as those attacked by the Akuma in Elysee. Confusion clouds his thoughts, he got rid of that Akuma, he knows that he did. One of the men in the pile stirs, not quite dead and Lavi leaps to his side, kneeling.

"What happened here? Who did this?" An Akuma couldn't have gotten inside the Order, could it? There was the main gate that was able to detect Akuma and no one knew about the underground entrance via the river except Finders and Exorcists. He couldn't imagine one of them giving up that information even under duress.

"Do-Doug..." The Finder points down the hall in the direction that Lavi's friend had gone before succumbing to his injuries. Gritting his teeth Lavi gets up and follows after the young Finder, finally finding him. Only Doug isn't as the redhead left him.

Doug's eyes, once full of light and life are now dulled and darkened in a way that even Lavi's hadn't been. Eyes so dark they could only belong to an Akuma. Doug wasn't alone, a golem of the Millennium Earl's, Dobi, accompanies him in order to send a message to the Earl of the entrance's location. It's from Dobi that Lavi learns that Serge, owner of the diamond that was part of the fight in Elysee and former employer of Colette, thought the young girl had stolen it and strangled her to death. Doug had been so heartbroken when he found her body that he gave in to the Earl's wicked way of tricking mourners into bringing back their loved ones.

Doug had called back Colette's soul to the skeletal machine and Colette, under instruction of the Earl, killed Doug and put on his skin. A skin now transformed into a level-two Akuma, ready to attack and kill Lavi as it had the Finders in the hall.

Lavi hesitates in his grief for his friend - how could he kill Doug? - and is hit by one of the Akuma's attacks in the narrow hallway. He snaps out of his daze slowly, defending at first to keep from becoming injured even more. And then after he gathers enough strength, enough determination to do this horrible act, Lavi has tears in his eye as he ends Doug and Colette's existence.

He hears the old man's voice in the background, turning to look at a short man with a mostly bald head save for a long ponytail in the center and huge circles of kohl around his eyes. Bookman. Congratulating him on a job well done.

Inside Lavi didn't feel like being congratulated. Inside it felt as if his heart were breaking. But he couldn't show his grief, to do so would show to his mentor that he was growing a heart.

He must never grow a heart.

---

[Those that try to find Lavi after such a vivid memory won't find him in his room, won't find him where his projects are, won't find him anywhere near the apartment building at all. Even injured as he is from his trip home the only place the redhead will be found is a place that only one remaining person knows about. One of the ruined train cars that still has a roof, a place that he hid out months ago, if not more than a year ago.

He sits there huddled up on a mostly preserved bench seat under a protected part of the roof, it still had holes in it in places, with a supply of food and drink, his pillow and blanket. Perhaps he was running but he didn't care.]

[A hand slams down on the device, turning it on and fingers are stretched out over the lens with familiar half-gloves. In the muffled background there's coughing, the shifting of dirt as if someone is being dragged when really it's just someone getting up.

A flash of red between the fingers.

The red disappears. So do the fingers. A pained gasp and rattling sigh.]

Did he have to do that...? [The familiar rasp of an injured Lavi.

And a curse in Italian as the time feeds out. The device staring up at an unrelenting and unhelpful sky.]


ooc; EDIT Forgot to mention he had gone home for a canon update so now 207 with his last appearance. Can refer to the application on this one's journal.

I figured I had better ask if anyone wanted to stop with their Russian lessons or if anyone wanted to pick it up since it's been a while since I asked. Or we could do some other language if anyone wanted. Though the lessons won't be picking up for a while.

Okumura, I was going to ask Rin if he wanted to travel east with me past Credinta but... [Since he's gone...] I thought I should ask you instead. If you don't want to go that's fine. I've gone by myself before. I won't go until you or Kiriko clear me.

Just a side note, awning work has been put on hold for a while. I want to try and get a loom set up so that her majesty can try her hand at making us warmer blankets. The dining room table is done, as are the chairs, though the kitchen is still a work in progress. Thanks to Loki the library is complete, but I suggest knocking on the door before going in, it's someone's room now as well.

Loki, I left a pallet next to the door early this morning. I didn't want to wake you.

Yu. Need you to come up to my room for a minute, yeah? [Someone forgot about his friend's birthday.]

Also might need a few hands to carry these chairs down to where we're getting the dining room together. Table's gonna take a bit longer.

[Lavi's device falls off of whatever it was set on and clatters to the ground on its side, turning on. He's outside in the sun, shirtless, and working on cutting wood.

In the background there are pieces of what looks like will be tables and chairs at some point. But for now they're rough pieces.

Lavi takes a break after cutting a dozen more logs in quarters, looking for the device.]

I need a bag for you or something.

[He picks it up and dusts the wood shavings off.]

Anyone want to work on building some arm muscles? The planks I've got for the table and chairs are a bit uneven. I have a hand sander and a jack plane if anyone wants to help.

Rin, do you want any of this wood for your cooking? I can cut it finer but I was thinking of maybe having a bonfire after the solstice in June.

[When Lavi turns on the feed everyone will get a bit of a surprise. He's got rabbit ears on his head for the holiday.]

Hey everyone, it's Easter. Well...tomorrow is.

I've managed to put together something I think should be fun. And let me say this now, you're not allowed to use your powers to cheat.

I've hidden brightly colored plastic eggs all around the apartment building and the nearest church, inside are candies of various types. These are for any of you to collect and you'll find baskets outside your doors. [Cross' - should he choose to participate - is outside his issued apartment number.]

There are also special eggs hidden in those two places, they're larger than the other eggs and each of you has a specific color assigned. Inside is a candy that makes me think of you. [The candy is player's choice.]

Happy hunting!

[He ends the feed and up starts a text document with color swatches, it'll just have the name Lavi knows them by but will have full name just because.]

[[ooc; I'll be putting a log up for the actual hunting since Lavi will be posting this feed in the very early morning hours.]]