synflux | ( open ) may catchall

WHO: ryoji + you!
WHAT: post-surgery wuh-ohs, ducks, and some gardening
WHERE: around base
WHEN: first couple weeks of may
WARNINGS: cw for discussion of surgery, needles, etc.

a. post-op glitches

[ So, as it turns out, the only thing worse than signing up for two enhancement procedures at once is dealing with the aftermath when your brain is fried.

No matter how approachable and grounded Ryoji is, even he can't escape from his hubris, and having never experienced significant pain in his human form, he didn’t…think it would be all that bad. Uncomfortable, maybe, inconvenient, yes…but he completely did not anticipate the way that the pain fully overrides any other cognitive thought in his brain. It hurts, to move, to think, to simply be conscious, and he has only stumbled out of the medbay for a few moments after being released that the impact of the double surgeries fully overloads him at once.

For a few long, untenable moments, it’s like he blacks out completely – and when he comes to again, staring at the hands that caught up, it’s like he doesn’t recognize them. Are they his own?

A simple question carrying a lot of weight, when he can’t remember anything about who he is or what he’s doing here. All he really seems to recall is that he was going somewhere, and given he just received a nice teleportation upgrade, well.

In attempting to find his destination by testing out this new power he can’t even remember how he got in the first place, he may just wind up in your room, looking half-dead (ha) and delirious. While he's usually in his human form, he may appear as a Shadow instead, without consciously making the effort to change. Whether you’re awake or asleep or even just heading back to your room yourself, he hardly seems to register another’s presence, instead muttering to himself: ]

No, this isn’t right…

[ He needs to go to…the top level of Tartarus, right? So why can't he remember how to get there? ]

b. duck tales

[ Well! Those were events that sure transpired, and while Ryoji is still feeling out some of his new abilities, he’s at least recovered enough from the surgeries that he’s back in his right mind and up and about again. Whether or not he should be, strictly speaking, remains to be seen! But whatever, it’s fine. Violet needs walkies.

Around the base, Ryoji can be encountered walking…a duck. A beautiful, newly acquired mandarin duck, wearing a jaunty little bow around her neck. Since Outsiders aren’t, you know, supposed to keep pets, strictly speaking, Ryoji has taken great care to plan routes for them that will hopefully avoid crossing paths with LILITH officers. However, Violet is as inquisitive and independent as her owner, and also a duck, so when she catches sight of your shoelaces or anything shiny you may have dropped on the ground, she waddles right over to pick at it with her beak, chirping with enthusiasm.

…Or that’s how it sounds to Ryoji, anyway. ]

Ah, hello there. I’d love to chat, but we have a schedule to keep…oh, but if you’d like to join us, you’d be more than welcome!

[ Who wouldn’t want to walk a duck?? And Ryoji is there, too, I guess. ]

c. flower gardening

[ At various points during the month, Ryoji can be found in the greenhouse, tending to some flowers. It’s a curious hobby that he’s picked up, one he didn’t expect to find himself so captivated by, and one that’s perhaps a bit ironic for him, all things considered – yet even given his proclivities, there’s something so captivating about the way life can bloom from a seed, with just a little sunlight and water, a little currency of time...

...and whatever mutant fertilizer they use in here, but that’s not important.

Whether you’re enjoying the plantlife independently or have approached to peek at the flowers that he tends to, Ryoji swiftly plucks one of the blossoms, sweeping down into a bow, and offers the flower to you with an outstretched hand. ]

Please, take this. You deserve it, as the only thing here that eclipses its beauty.

[ He’s feeling back to his usual self, it seems. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ what the fuck

akechi blinks, looking up from the bed he’s lounging on to the shadow in front of him.

the fuck? where did it come from, why is it— whatever. no matter what, this can’t be good. ]

Fuck off. [ he murmurs as he stands up, assuming a position to summon his own persona. ]

[ Had Akechi been in Minato’s place when Ryoji asked him to kill him, well…things probably would have gone very differently.

Fortunately for all involved, Akechi was not Ryoji’s wildcard. He doesn’t recognize the boy whose room he’s teleported into, even if there’s something distantly familiar about the way he’s readying himself to fight.

The fact that Ryoji can recognize it as readying for a fight is enough for him to draw his sword — not with intention to attack, but to defend, though whether or not Akechi recognizes that may depend on how threatened he already feels by the appearance of a Shadow in his bedroom. ]

Wait. There’s no need to fight. [ He…thinks. ] I’m looking for someplace. Could you…help me?

[ Kind of a big ask for a spooky, eldritch abomination but okay. ]

[ admittedly, akechi wasn't exactly expecting this thing to... talk to him. so he pauses, hands up, eying him suspiciously. ]

'Looking for someplace.' [ he repeats, bemused. ] And that involves drawing a sword at me?

[ look, okay, he's a little suspicious, here,, maybe a lot suspicious. it's whatever. ]

You looked like you were prepare to attack...

[ Said simply, straight-forward, even if there's...almost the sound of a pout in the words. Coming from his distorted voice, it's quite the sound.

Carefully, he sheathes his sword, though he keeps his hand on the pommel, just in case. ]

Can we strike a truce?

That's because I was. [ he admits easily. ] Can you really blame me? You're the one barging into my room like... this.

[ he gestures to him as if that explains it before narrowing his eyes. ]

Fine. You have a few minutes to explain. If not satisfactory, [ he tilts his head. ] Well, I'd rather not make a mess of my room, but... you understand.

[ No, no, that gesture does pretty much explain it. If only Ryoji actually knew how to explain what's going on. Of all the times to lose his memory (like there's ever a convenient time for that). ]

I really would explain, if I could. I don't...remember what happened to me, though. I don't remember much of anything. Only that I need to get to Tartarus.

[ Something about The Fall. He's sure he'll remember more once he gets there. ]

[ oh, convenient. a lack of memory... except the thing doesn't seem to by lying about it- and akechi can't exactly think of a reason he would have to, anyway.

there were surely better lies to use to get out of a fight. ]

Tartarus? [ there's a word he vaguely recognizes. ] As in, the depths of the Greek Underworld?

[ ... ]

Good luck with that.

[ Akechi isn't wrong, yet Ryoji is still shaking his head. ]

No, not the Underworld. A tower — The Tower of Demise, that climbs higher in the sky than one can see. The birthplace of all Shadows —

[ Ah! ]

Like me!

[ He sounds so excited about remembering this!! ]

[ a tower? well, that's sort of the opposite of "under," isn't it? akechi raises an intrigued if confused eyebrow, but then-

ah. a shadow.

there's a glint of understanding in his eyes at that. after all, how many shadows can there be in this place? either this... thing is actually ryoji, ooor... ryoji would know about it.

maybe. do all shadows know each other? ]

Hmm. And what are you going to do when you get there? [ he asks first, curious. ]

[ If only Ryoji had taken the time to show off his Shadow form for Akechi before, but he'd been a little concerned he might try to fight him if he did. Now he doesn't have the presence of mind to even understand why he made that choice.

He's just going to sit on the edge of Akechi's bed and have a think. The bed creaks under his considerable weight. ]

I'm...I'm going to...

[ Ah. That's it. ]

Initiate the Fall. The end of the world and humanity itself.

[ what the fuck. this thing is just sitting on his bed?? akechi moves over a little to give him space before thinking about it. then thinks about it. and thinks what the fuck.

still, what he says is more interesting, so he'll allow it. ]

The end of the world and humanity itself... [ he repeats, weirdly intrigued. ] And how exactly would you do that?

[ the world sucks, but akechi doesn't necessarily want to end it completely. just... change it, if he could.

anyway, this doesn't sound very much like-- ]

I don't think you really want that. [ he announces, sitting down on the bed next to him. ] You told me you were almost a human. Most humans don't want to end humanity.

[ for the sake of the moment, he's... going to assume this is ryoji. if not, hey! his memory is gone anyway. ]

[ Fortunately for Akechi, his assumption is correct, but also, it'd be so funny if this wasn't Ryoji, and just some other random-ass Shadow with existential dread.

Anyway, since they're having a little powwow now, he leans forward to put his elbow on his knee, propping up his giant masked head with his hand. Hopefully he doesn't, like, hit Akechi in the head with one of his...coffin lids...it's fine. ]

You're right. I don't think it's what I want, either. [ Admitting as much should feel like more of a betrayal of himself than it does, but in the back of his mind, he realizes he's already been aware of this fact for some time. ] Yet it's what I was created for. I can't defy my own purpose for existing.

[ What would that make him then? ]

[ it would absolutely be hilarious if it just happened to be another. you know what they say about making assumptions, akechi...

for now though, he's more amused than alarmed. the way this shadow is acting... an elbow on his knee like that...

(akechi. dodges the coffin lid.)

it really is very human. of course, that could just be a ploy, so he should stay on guard, but... it seems to want to. talk?

fuck it. he's never been good at talking to shadows. he's not that kind of wildcard. ]

Why not? [ he says simply. ] Not everyone has a reason for existing.

[ some people are horrible accidents, after all!! ]

They defy not having a reason all the time.

[ Perhaps Ryoji could see the reason in that, were it not for one unavoidable truth: ]

Because I'm Death. The Thirteenth Arcana...and I cannot have no purpose to exist. If I didn't, then all life would cease to have meaning.

[ In essence, the absence of death would achieve the same end as the Fall, if in a completely different way. Either way, life would stymie, and those who persisted without death would fall into a stupor of decay.

...So no, he can't agree with that one. ]

[ akechi can understand that.

he just came from a reality that brought back people who were dead, after all- himself included, he assumes- and he'd thought of it as an unnatural hellhole.

still- ]

Does it really have to be one or the other? The end of humanity, or stagnated immortality? Can't it just... continue the way it already is?

( open ) may catchall

a.

this is how ryoji dies

REST IN PIECES I'LL MISS HIM

goodbye u little shit

i'll miss him

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject