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[well he was encouraged to ask questions, so Dextera will try for one more.]
What kind of things do you need to fix other things?
[it may be a strange question, but given that Dextera is standing inside the church might give a hint as to why he's asking.] | |
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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... ) | |
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[It’s a bright, sunny day outside, out in a field where there’s trees sparsely providing shade as the sun shines brightly. Then, a gloved hand comes up to block the sun’s rays, and then comes into view a field of dead lotus flowers, and just a ways past the gloved hand stands a young woman, blonde and dressed casually for the age, with her back turned.
“Hey, do you know what this flower is? It reaches for the sky.” The voice sounds like it belongs to a man, but it most definitely doesn’t belong to Kanda.
As the woman turns, the memory begins to fade out, her voice also growing fainter as she answers.
“A lotus flower. It grows from the mud, towards the sky, and makes the world a fragrant place.”
When the memory comes back into focus, it’s the same gloved hand, in a different field this time, reaching up toward the sky. There’s blood on the arm, the sleeve of the shown coat and glove are torn, providing some evidence of a kind of struggle.
The man’s voice speaks again, though it’s weaker now – hoarser, raspier. “I love you…forever.” The hand falls limply to the ground as a hideous looking akuma comes into view, resembling the appearance of a clown one would see in a horror show or house.
The akuma walks toward the man, cocking its head to one side. The man’s closing his eyes, and unfortunately the last thing he sees, hears, and feels, is the akuma above him. It bellows out “this is the final blow, exorcist!!” before there’s simply nothing.
Nothing but black. Cold, dark, endless black of death.
Then, there’s a bright light – back at the very first field of dead lotus. The very same hand’s reaching up to block the sun once more to get a better view.
It’s the woman that speaks up first. “I wish I could see it. The ground carpeted with flowers.”
“Maybe if we can see it someday, together…”
The woman turns towards the man, her face slightly flushed and a bright grin on her face, delighted by the idea. “Really? Even if we become grandpas and grandmas?”
“I’ll be waiting, forever.” The words echo, and once again things fade to black.
Major time shift. When things come back into focus again, buildings line the cobble streets, the neon signs, coupled with street lights, give illumination to the block during the night. Though, the street seems to be eerily empty with places that look like that caters to a…frisky and flamboyant lifestyle. (Cough, Cross, cough.)
Kanda’s with one other, a man of average height, fluffy brown hair pulled taut in a ponytail in back and thick not-quite-coke bottle glasses. Those of the Black Order will recognize him as none other than Johnny Gill.
There’s also a chubby girl wearing barely anything wearing a bear head mask (or is that really it’s head?), holding up a sign that reads “Sexy 500 ♥♥ More fire!”
The duo ignores the working girl and continues on, though they don’t make it very far before Johnny is grabbed by the working girl…and is taken into the air. Kidnapped. Kanda’s one to act quickly, ever, even with a few drinks in him. He activates his Innocence, sending it after the ‘girl’ as it tries to devour Johnny, its mouth open wide with a set of teeth that look like it belongs to a bear. It’s an akuma.
Before that happens, however, Mugen slices right through the akuma’s mouth, using its force to pin it to the brick wall of the closest building, dropping Johnny in the process. While Johnny’s down, Kanda uses him as a spring to lift himself up higher as he leaps up to take hold of his sword, literally crumbling the wall behind the akuma.
As he pulls his sword out, the akuma starts to laugh hysterically, calling Kanda a fool to have come back, that he should have just spent the rest of his life in peace, as the Order has no chance of winning. That akuma are being born more quickly, quickly quickly quickly— Clearly, he’s chosen hell.
But Kanda has none of it, choosing to ignore the akuma and kill it, leaving it to explode behind him as he lands safely back to the ground below. Johnny, having watched, does ask Kanda pretty much the same thing. Kanda answers as follows:
“I was the one that awakened him into Nea. … I didn’t care what happened to the Order… so, during the mission in Paris, when I caught a glimpse of that guy’s Noah transformation, I ignored it. Without even reporting it to Komui… I just let it be, because I hated the Order even more than the Noah and the akuma.” Kanda turns toward Johnny, giving the scientist a bit of a wry smile.
“But now…this regret simply won’t let me die peacefully.”
And then the feed ends.]
action;
[Those that decide to seek out Kanda will find him on the roof of the apartment building, sitting of the edge of the building and looking out at the city lights of Credinta, as it's nearing midnight. Past his bedtime. Don't worry, he's dressed for the chilly night. Just don't expect him to be very talkative at the moment.] | |
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[There is muted screaming behind the walls. It is late into the night - still sharp in a dress shirt and vest and without a trace of his usual army green, Kiriko tiptoes through the hallway of his home and as he does the shouts grow louder. At the end of the hall sits a small girl, no older than eight, nearly identical to her brother if it weren't for her age. Kiriko quietly drops the suitcase he had been carrying and nudges her with his foot. The shouts are so loud he doesn't need to whisper.]( Memories of War: cut for racism, murder. ) | |
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[The memory begins with a gurgling scream, a wide spray of blood, and a male voice through a crackling speaker system.]Doctor! Alma's gone into cardiac arrest! Recovery in 420 seconds.( Cut for blood and body horror. )[ACTION][Following the airing if his gruesome memory, Alma retreats to the first place most children will instinctively choose after trauma. The boy is curled up on the bed in the room he shares with Kanda, his PDA on the sheets beside him and a troubled expression on his face. It's been a long time since he's thought about the synchronization tests. Even longer since he had to experience them, but it doesn't make the memory hurt any less. Not that he'll let on to others if he can help it.] | |
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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.] | |
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[the feed is once again showing a memory...] ( memory a; death and rebirth - warning for character death )[the feed immeadilty cuts out after that, but slowly comes back on for one last memory.] ( memory b; sin )[the static eventually dies down enough to reveal that Dextera had been watching the memory play. without expressing anything on his face or typing anything - no questions this time, he knew the answer - Dextera picks up the PDA and gently turns it over so the video feed is blacked out by the floor. he knew what was coming next but for once the mute did not want a question answered.] | |
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[The feed is clearly still off, for one thing, no place either side of the river looks like this --
( memory a; hunting )
[there's a shift, and everything changes again, the forest blurs out of focus, and somewhere else comes into view]
( memory b; assassination )
-- and then it's over.]
--
[Action;]
[Elizabeth will now be hiding with her sewing for the rest of the day in the room she's taken for weaving, you can try to talk to her, but not about the memories, she'll do her best to avoid it. It's not up for discussion as far as she is concerned, aside from reliving all that is just a little painful. Her device is being ignored.
But in sort of apology for having seen all that, there are presents for everyone (even the new people)! There will be a blanket outside everyone's rooms. Not that there is ever much to look forward too around here, she's folded them up and tried to tie them with ribbons to make them look a present like as possible. There's even a sweet hidden inside whenever they're unfolded. Enjoy~!] - Tags:* event: darkest hour, [post]: elizabeth tudor (ou), [reply]: alma karma (ou), [reply]: black dainn (ou), [reply]: cross marian (ou), [reply]: kanda yu (ou), [reply]: lavi (ou), [reply]: lenalee li (ou), [reply]: loki odinson (comics) (ou), [reply]: loki odinson (mcu) (ou), [reply]: mayuzumi lin (ou), [reply]: okumura yukio (ou), [reply]: raven (ou)
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[When the video begins, the PDA is already filming the lobby of the apartment buildings. A middle-aged man in a suit has made himself comfortable, seated regally with his legs crossed and a hand balanced on an upright black cane. He smiles kindly, if a bit distantly. The gentleman speaks with unaccented Russian, though the PDA makes short work of the translation.]
I have always been poor at catching up with technology. Forgive me if I am not using this correctly...
[He doesn't seem the slightest bit disturbed that he woke up in Nesreca.]
...Greetings. My name is Claus. With the state of this place and a few surrounding areas, I assume there are quite a few of you here.
[He sighs as if to sound annoyed, but his expression does not change.]
Your most kind neighbours inform me I am not allowed to leave this place. That will be acceptable, so long as one of you can tell me where or how I can procure a bottle of wine, fifty sheets of parchment paper, and a package of cigarettes.
Daily. I tell you this only because I absolutely need it.
[He sinks deeper into his chair, relaxing. It will only be a matter of time, now.]
One last thing. I am looking for a man named Lucas Tázlári. Should he arrive, please tell him his brother is looking for him.
Until then, I hope to come into acquaintance with each and every one of you.
[With a graceful twist of the hand, he turns off the recording.] | |
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[Let it be known that just because one is mostly made up of sophisticated technology does not mean they know how to use it externally. In short, the video starts out upside down.]
Oops...
[The screen flips right side up, now clearly showing the person attempting to operate it. She’ll get the hang of it. Eventually.]
Hello! Is there anyone on the other side of this thing?
[The question is asked cheerfully, as she seems awfully unfazed by her current predicament.]
Anyway, if anyone finds this, I’m looking for my friends. They’re probably dressed like me. [She pulls on the edge of her ridiculous stylish red uniform for emphasis.] They might seem a little weird, but they’re really nice!
Oh, and I’m Josephine! But just call me Jo, it’s easier. | |
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