( 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
b. duck tales
c. flower gardening
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. ]
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[ He's in the bedroom of a very pretty girl, he'd better have taken the wrong turn!! Even though he is acting very lackadaisical about this. ]
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Rubbing at his head, as though that will jog his misplaced memory: ]
If you can just...point me in the direction of Tartarus. I think. I'll be on my way.
[ wheremst ]
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[ What is happening, she can't make any sense of this. Granted, she'd just been about to fall asleep, so her mind also hasn't fully woken up yet. ]
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...except that he doesn't really know what's going on, either. ]
You haven't noticed it? Perhaps you know it as the Tower of Demise? It's...my home. I'm supposed to get back there to —
[ What was it for again? ]
I can't quite...remember.
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[ She still has no idea who this is, but... well, if he can't remember, she can relate. ]
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[ Ah. That does rekindle something, however. ]
...This has happened to me before. Losing my memories. Not an experience I was keen to repeat...
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[ ... ]
Wait, Ryoji?
[ Hello??? ]
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...Wait. Yes! That's my name! [ ... ] At least, I think it is.
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Wait, did something happen to your memory? Do you know who I am??
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[ A hand rises, pressing over his chest where a heart would be. ]
My heart remembers you, even if my mind doesn't.
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[ She can't say she even knows what that feels like. Nothing had seemed even vaguely familiar to her when she woke up. ]
Well, I think that's probably better than nothing, right? I've got amnesia myself, but maybe yours is just temporary. Like my friend's, when he had a procedure done.
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But he had remembered, and she still hasn't. ]
You think so? I hope that's the case. I don't like the idea of forgetting. Especially forgetting people who are important to me.
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[ Intimately, which is why her voice is lowering slightly because it's not like she'd even know if someone was important to her in the past since she doesn't remember a thing! ]
If it's a side effect, it could just be a few days. That's how it was with me, even if the effect was different.
... Does anything hurt right now?
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Here. And... [ Moving his hand down by his stomach. ] Here. Is that what you experienced, too?
[ It's somehow comforting, to not be going through this alone. ]
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[ Well. He looks like This, but you know. It's Ryoji. ]
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If this doesn't suffice, I can...try to change back to my usual appearance. It's bit hard to control.
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Feel anything?
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Without preamble, in a flash of light, he returns to his usual, human form, still sitting in the same position, still with his hand between her own, but now warm with life. ]
— Oh. Thank goodness...
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[ March heaves a sigh of relief, giving his hand a squeeze. This is a far more familiar form, but at least she knows what his other form looks like now. ]
You look like you're feeling at least a little better.