Shun Kurosaki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
revolutionfalcon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2016-12-01 10:31 pm
revolutionfalcon) wrote in thenearshore2016-12-01 10:31 pm
[Closed] What happens in fight club stays in fight club...
Who: Shun and Ren
What: Card gameassholes antiheroes have a post-fighting-lesson sleepover and talk about their respective dark pasts.
When: May 20th
Where: Nekhbet's Temple
Warnings: Discussion of war and likely PTSD and survivor's guilt at some point, others will be added if they come up.
[Shun and Ren's fighting lessons have become basically routine at this point, every three days like clockwork that's only thrown out of time by the few occasions Shun has to work, in which case it's picked up the next day and the cycle continues. Not even the more brutal lesson on the fourteenth had managed to stop the following one falling in line, and now it's the one after that, and as always, Shun's demanding a rest period afterwards to be sure he doesn't send Ren back out weak enough to make easy pickings.
This time, though, is a little different, because he's not sending Ren back out, and though they discussed this extensively enough a few days ago when Ren suggested it, Shun doesn't really get what the difference between a sleepover and sharing quarters with his allies is. But there is definitely one thing they agreed on when it came to "getting to know each other better", and after coming across from the tiny kitchen with both a jug of water and a pot of the most obnoxiously strong black coffee imaginable, cups already on the little coffee table in the other room, Shun drains a glass of water in about two and a half seconds before he switches to the coffee and gives his guest a level look.]
You did better today than last lesson, but I'd be surprised if you wanted to discuss something that obvious.
What: Card game
When: May 20th
Where: Nekhbet's Temple
Warnings: Discussion of war and likely PTSD and survivor's guilt at some point, others will be added if they come up.
[Shun and Ren's fighting lessons have become basically routine at this point, every three days like clockwork that's only thrown out of time by the few occasions Shun has to work, in which case it's picked up the next day and the cycle continues. Not even the more brutal lesson on the fourteenth had managed to stop the following one falling in line, and now it's the one after that, and as always, Shun's demanding a rest period afterwards to be sure he doesn't send Ren back out weak enough to make easy pickings.
This time, though, is a little different, because he's not sending Ren back out, and though they discussed this extensively enough a few days ago when Ren suggested it, Shun doesn't really get what the difference between a sleepover and sharing quarters with his allies is. But there is definitely one thing they agreed on when it came to "getting to know each other better", and after coming across from the tiny kitchen with both a jug of water and a pot of the most obnoxiously strong black coffee imaginable, cups already on the little coffee table in the other room, Shun drains a glass of water in about two and a half seconds before he switches to the coffee and gives his guest a level look.]
You did better today than last lesson, but I'd be surprised if you wanted to discuss something that obvious.
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I suspected he was a traitor already, so I drove him into a corner until he finally took off his mask and showed himself. I hadn't known exactly who to blame for Ruri or the invasion before that, and when he admitted it I had a target for all my comrades' regrets, all that I'd taken it on myself to become a channel for. I ended the duel with Satellite Cannon Falcon and destroyed half the track with it, but when I tried to seal him into a card I found out my duel disk had been tampered with when I'd handed it over for modification with the others before we left for Synchro. I couldn't use the sealing function anymore, so I tried to beat him down even though he was already semiconscious at best. The security crews dragged me away before I could actually do anything, though.
[He definitely sounds a little bitter about that, because that's one time he considers his blind rage actually justified for.]
I couldn't trust anyone after that. If they weren't from my own dimension, they were an enemy, and if they got in my way I'd treat them like I would any other. I went into my next duel with that in mind, against a Synchro resident called Crow.
[It's pretty clear from the absolute dissipation of negative emotion from Shun's voice at that point that things changed after that.]
We were both furious with our situations - me with the war, Crow with being locked at the bottom of society and the orphaned children he looked after having no future beyond that. He wanted to carve a new path for them, and during our duel, I realised I respected that. That there were worthy things to fight for even outside of the war. But his children were watching the duel, and one of them fell from a bridge across the track onto one of Crow's monsters. I was behind him, so I could see it, but he couldn't, and he wouldn't listen when I told him to stop the duel. He didn't even realise until just before the kid fell off, and at the speed we were going, it'd be a miracle if he lived hitting the track unprotected.
So I took advantage of the autopilot function they use in D-Wheels and rode Revolution Falcon to help him instead. I caught him before he was hurt, but everyone seemed surprised that I'd do something like that to help another person. Even the kid asked me why I did it, so I told him that before the war, I'd had children like him cheering me on as well. [A faintly mournful note creeps into his voice at that.] And I realised that I'd forgotten why I'd started fighting, what had made me so angry about the war in the first place. Those children...they should never have had to live through something like the war, or Synchro's society. Crow and I started that duel as enemies, but we ended it as friends. It was his battlefield, not mine, and it was the first time in a long time I can remember being fine with losing.
Losing in the Friendship Cup meant being sent into what might as well have been the depths of hell, though, so I promised him I'd claw my way out from that and we'd both win our respective battles before I was taken away. [There's that quiet disgust again, as he remembers it being when he learnt what the stakes of that tournament were, hidden behind a name like that.]
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But he is glad that Shun didn't stay in that state of distrust forever, for his own good and everyone else's.
A smile slowly forms on his face as Shun talks about Crow and the children...at least until he mentions the D-Wheels and then Ren spends most of the rest of staring blankly through his face while his smile fades away as he tries to work out what the heck that is. Because he knows what it sounds like, but he's having a really hard time imagining that that's actually what it is.]
...Wait, what's a D-Wheel?
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It's a specialised system they use in the Synchro Dimension. It's something like a motorcycle with a duel disk built in, they use it for Riding Duels, which are a bit like a duel and a race at the same time. Obviously most people don't have the skill to manually use something like that and play at the same time, so they have an autopilot system which maintains your speed and stops you from running into walls or anything stupid like that.
[Not that it saves anyone from actively malicious acts like having someone ram into them, but he supposes it's better than nothing.]
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You're game must be a lot different than mine, because I think it would take a lot of work to get something like that to work for Vanguard.
[Which is pretty much how he feels about the duel disks too. There are just too many cards on the field.]
But that sounds like so much fun! And you helped that kid while you were in the middle of that? That's really amazing. I wish I could have been there to see it.
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That's hardly surprising. I'm not even sure why Synchro came up with them.
[As for it being fun, he has to consider that again, because he's still not nearly as familiar with what can be called "fun" as he should be.]
They were interesting, at least. But I doubt you would've wanted to see that whole duel knowing what was at stake in every match of that tournament.
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And Shun may not seem to know what fun is anymore, but Ren is pretty sure he was having it. If he had fun with that one little race they'd had, he definitely had fun with something like this.
Hmm, maybe a rematch, then. So were you able to claw your way out of it?
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As frustrating as it was, his last experiences in Synchro weren't actually that bad compared to a lot of his others, so he's fairly neutral about it when he goes on.]
I was sent down to the garbage sorting facilities they'd enslaved the losers in until they couldn't work anymore, and for a while I went along with it. The work was easy for someone like me, and breaking out was something that needed to be timed right. But before long, Crow was brought down as well, and he was telling the guards that he'd seen the forerunners of an invasion - he'd heard about Academia from me, so I knew it was them, and that was when I knew it was time to escape. I took down some of the guards, and a few of the other sectors down there started a riot at the same time, and we all managed to get out of there working together. The city was in chaos, and Roger had captured Hiiragi Yuzu - the girl from Standard with Ruri's face - to use as some kind of leverage against Academia. She got a message out to Yuya, and after I met up with some of the other Lancers, I used my Raid Raptors to pull us all out of the riots and conflict in the city and get us back to the duel stadium so Yuya could fight the city's dueling "king".
[As he goes on, he sounds more engaged, reminiscing about the events of that duel.] I hadn't trusted Yuya by anything but Yuto's word before then, but watching him fight to change the city like that, completely firm in his beliefs but adapting what he needed to for the sake of getting that message across...that was when I really knew it hadn't been him who killed Yuto. And after that, I was ready to call the Lancers allies. We headed into the city to break up the fighting between Tops and Commons, but even as the city council finally spoke out to step down and return the city to the hands of the people after Yuya won, Roger was trying to escape with Yuzu. We headed to the Security tower to stop him, but he completely lost it and tried to drag Synchro into the space between dimensions by opening a wormhole. It consumed him and sent him hell knows where, and Yuzu too, and we thought it was over then. But it opened again, and Yuya had been so close from trying to save Yuzu that it started dragging him in. Two of the other Lancers and me tried to stop it, but it just meant we all got pulled in with him.
[There's a short, but deep pause as he finishes saying that, and his next words are full of a difficult-to-read emotion.] When we woke up, it was in Heartland.
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It's also been interesting hearing about all the times Shun seemed to have used his Duel Monsters to physically help people. He had said once that some of their holograms could do real damage, but he hadn't expected it to be quite as complex as what Shun's been describing here.
And good on the council, but it shouldn't have taken something like that for them to actually look after their people.
And there's the moment he'd been waiting for, when this would start being painful again. He was hoping it wasn't going to show up, but if there's one thing he's learned from what Shun has told him, it's that he never seems able to catch a break. Ren lightly squeezes his hand again. Even if Shun hasn't seemed to care the other times, he wants to feel like he's doing something.]
It sounds like you were lucky you woke up anywhere, instead of between dimensions. And better there than Fusion if you were separated again?
[Although that probably depends on whether it had gotten better or worse. He's not sure he wants to ask that.]
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Maybe. But as soon as we got there, I went to meet with the Resistance. Spade Branch had used our school as a base, and I knew how to get there and didn't want to be slowed down trying to lead the others to it.
[His free hand curls in as he continues, fingers eventually digging into his palms, and the one Ren's holding instead curls into what it can, nails hard against the skin.] Everything was gone. Everyone was gone. I found two of Clover Branch's members trying to get back to the other three, but when they took us to the outskirts of the city to the hideout of what was left of the Resistance and civilians who'd been able to escape with them, I found out that I was the last one left of Spade, and Clover wasn't much better off.
[At this point, he's practically forcing himself to continue, and he presses his eyes shut in an effort to stop any more emotion from straining his tone.] Yuto and I were two of the best duelists in the Resistance. After we left, another all out attack started, and without us, Spade was annihilated, and Clover was taken down to maybe a dozen or so people. Because I left for my own interests, everyone I fought with was killed without me even knowing, and I'd been so focused on Ruri I hadn't even considered what could happen when I left.
My old friend and rival from Clover, Kaito, was still alive, but his family died in that attack, so he'd struck out alone and convinced that making allies and friends would only mean he'd lose them. The way he was acting was like looking at myself, how I'd been before, so I dueled him to try and show him differently. I wanted to convince him that we could still be trusted, that I was still his friend and that you fight alongside your friends because you don't want to lose them, but he turned my last attack back on me. He'd said when we started that he'd turn me into a card if I lost, and he would've if Sayaka hadn't begged him for my life. He left, but I still failed him as well.
[There's not much more to the story, anyway, so as painful as it is, Shun decides finishing it here is the best course, carrying on with only a hint less pain in his voice.] After that, Academia came looking for the Lancers, and two sisters playing the same deck crushed Allen and Sayaka, then the other two Lancers in tag duels. Yuya and I stepped in to stop them before they could actually kill anyone, and it turned out they'd been the ones to destroy most of Spade. I could feel Yuto like he was alongside me, wanting revenge like I did, and I told Yuya to heed that wish if he thought he knew Yuto, because by then he'd admitted that Yuto's soul was within him. But they locked us into a cruel trap, and Yuya was the one who had to tell us to follow his way out of it. We won, but more reinforcements came, and we had to keep fighting. I was pulled to this place in the middle of that.
[While he could mention the part where he'd been pulled here after having a building fall on him, he won't, because he's been worrying about that enough himself and doesn't particularly want to pass it on. As he finishes, his eyes open again, but he doesn't make any move to look at Ren. He just looks deeply tired and sad, like a veil set in over his face.]
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In fact, he can't help thinking that it really isn't fair, as Shun goes on and it somehow gets worse. All of the crises in his own world were over, as far as he knew, all their enemies defeated, and everyone presumably reunited the way they should have been. Shun deserves to have that kind of closure too, especially after all that. That he's had to live with knowing that everything at home is still in turmoil and might only be getting worse...that's really awful too.
But it also makes him even more sure of one thing: Shun is really, really amazing.]
For what it's worth, I'm really glad she saved you, because then I was able to meet you.
[He hesitates a moment, but then decides that he might as well and shifts so that he's sitting sideways on the couch, facing Shun and holding his hand with both of his instead of just the one.]
And I really appreciate that you told me all of that. I know it was hard, having to relive some of that, and you didn't have to. [Especially that last bit. That was a lot.] And...I know saying this won't actually help anything and I wish there was something more I could do, but...I'm really sorry, Kurosaki.
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Finally, his fingers curl to properly return the hold, in a gesture of solidarity. He still looks worn, but a little bit of the sadness seems to have lifted.]
You were honest with me. I was just returning that trust. And even if you can't do anything else, being a friend is enough.
[Both in the sense of having been one before this and still being one after hearing that. He knows there are people who would likely think a lot differently of him knowing the kinds of things he's done.]
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You don't have to worry about that. I'm not going anywhere.
[He could probably mention that he's been friends with people who had done things just as bad or worse than Shun and had affected him far more personally, but he's not sure if that would make Shun feel better or worse. Besides which, if he does ever go into his "other stories", Shun's going to hear about them anyway.]
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For the few moments he considers that, his expression slowly returns to something more neutral from the exhaustion and upset. Even if he's failed to do this for others before, he's never let things like that stop him. This time, he's not turning his back on anyone.
With that resolution in mind, in the next second, his mouth curls slightly into a smile.]
Neither am I. [And even if it means he can't make it home, he'll damn well do the best he can here. There are still people to be saved.]
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This one, though, is definitely a nice, genuine smile because he's happy. Ren can't help but squeeze his hand a little again as he smile back. Shun had said a few times that children shouldn't lose their smiles, but Shun should never have lost this one for any length of time either.
And any further sappy thoughts are pushed right out of the way as he feels his stomach rumble uncomfortably.]
Oh, we've been talking for a long time haven't we? Are you hungry? [He doesn't even wait for an answer before he starts getting up.] I'm hungry. What do you think we should do for dinner?
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I don't usually have anything much, but there's a decent stock in the kitchen if you wanted to go through it.
[By "anything much" he usually means leftover stew from the batch he tends to make once or maybe twice a week, but Ren can probably figure that one out himself if he does check given there's still a few containers of it in the fridge.]
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[To be honest, Ren would have been fine with and maybe even expected they might drop by the Near Shore to order out or grab something, so he's a little surprised that Shun is fine with sharing whatever it is he already has. Not that he isn't also happy to, and he'll definitely be heading straight for the kitchen...]
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Why do you think I have a job if not to buy food? [Then again, he's not sure he's mentioned the issue of how much he distrusts Far Shore food leading to that outcome to Ren anyway. He doesn't really mind going out either, but if there's something here they'll both eat then he doesn't see why it's a problem.
While Shun is accurate in saying the kitchen is decently-stocked, it's in a rather specific way. Almost everything in it is either plain, needing to be prepared, or both - there's fruit in a small bowl under the cupboards with a loaf of bread next to it, some uncooked chicken, fish and mince in the fridge along with an almost staggering variety of vegetables, various other necessities like flour and eggs, about four containers of some kind of thick stew split between fridge and freezer, and some less usable things like meat bones. By Shun's standards, it's a lot of food, given what he's used to, but by anyone else's standards it's about average for the amount a kitchen should have in it, not to mention the general spartan feel of the selections.]
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Oh, that's a good point...
[After all, Shun doesn't seem to want it for anything else useful, like more that two sets of clothes, and he definitely wouldn't be saving up to buy anything frivolous.
He doesn't seem to be splurging on food either, from the look of his kitchen, and it's about what Ren would have expected, if he'd expected anything. Just enough to be useful, not so much that he couldn't eat it all before it want bad. That seems exactly right. Ren makes a beeline for the fridge, and that's pretty much more of the same--and then he spots the contains of stew and immediately has to pull one out to look it over.]
Eeeh, this looks good! Did you make this? [It's so hard to tell from the bottom of the container, you know.] It looks like it would go really well with rice, do you have any? [He pauses thoughtfully again, but goes on before shun can answer:] Well, I guess rice might take too long to make even if you do...
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You'd think it wouldn't be that hard for you to remember what I don't spend money on, with how excited you seem to get whenever I do something like change clothes.
[Well, he did buy a shirt the other day, but that was a rare exception. It is starting to get to the point now that he's got rather more than he needs just for food and doesn't have much of an idea what to do with the rest, though.
Admittedly, Shun was half expecting Ren to pass over the containers, so when he pulls one out, he raises an eyebrow slightly...though that might also be at Ren's second question.]
Of course I have rice. [It's one of the things they still had some access to during the war and could keep for a little while, after all.] And I make that every week or so. It's what I eat most of the time.
[As usual, the remark is made without shame, and without even any real sense that that's not normal behaviour.]
I wouldn't care about waiting for rice to cook, but if you're that hungry then I doubt you'd wait for it.
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[It sounds thoughtful and distracted, but also like he's only saying it to mess with him. The innocent smile Shun gets a few moments later probably only makes that more obvious.
And then he goes back to thoughtfully eyeing the container of stew in his hands. He is pretty hungry, but to be honest, the suggestion that they look into doing dinner had been just as much about giving them a break after all the storytelling as it was about his stomach.]
Well, if you don't mind waiting, I don't really mind. We'll need rice in the morning too.
[And with that seemingly decided, Ren stands up again with the stew in hand and lets the refrigerator door fall shut again.]
It must be really good if you don't mind eating it all the time.
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It's not worth remembering, anyway. [His own tone is somewhat dismissive, even if he honestly still doesn't really get why some people take such an interest in the idea of him doing that.
After Ren's apparent decision on the matter of dinner, Shun eyes him for a moment as if to make sure he's being honest about the fact that he doesn't mind waiting, before wasting no time in turning to one of the cupboards and pulling out a bag of rice. It's rather large, definitely the kind of thing that's meant to keep for a while, and probably a strong indicator of how frequently Shun eats rice as well.
While he busies himself with measuring out portions - adding a little extra just in case, since it can be saved if neither of them eats it - turning on the stove and that general area of things, he answers Ren's remark without turning his focus from the food preparation.]
It's fine to me, but I don't make it with anyone's tastes but my own in mind, so by your standards it's probably going to be more bland. [There's a brief hesitation before he says "your standards", like the first word was about to be something else. In any case, given Ren's taken him out to eat before, he figures he knows what he's in for.] You know how low my bar for strong tastes is.
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While Shun goes about working on the rice, Ren sets the container of stew down and sets about looking through the cupboards for something else to heat it up in or for plates or maybe just to look through the cupboards to see what's there.]
I know. I'm looking forward to it. [Distracted as he sounds, he also sound completely sincere about that.] If I know what you like to make for yourself, I can pick better places to take you to lunch.
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The fact that Shun's walking back to the stove again when Ren makes that first remark makes the subtle double-take more clear than it would have been otherwise, since Shun's not looking his way but for the reaction. He considers asking what exactly the hell he's "looking forward" to out of what was just described, but after a moment, he just shakes his head and continues.
As for the issue of knowing what he likes...there's a distinct lack of response for the first several seconds after that which probably say a lot of themselves. However, Shun does reply eventually, still focusing on the stove for what's likely more than just the reason of wanting to get the rice done quickly this time.]
I make what I know. It's been a long time since I had the luxury of thinking of food in terms of "like". [In other words, even he doesn't know what he likes, or likes to make.]
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Ren misses the small double-take on account of looking over dishes, but the silence after the rest of what he said is hard to miss, and he almost feels like he already knew what Shun as going to say as he says it. Probably because this is far from the first time he's said something like that. And Ren isn't wholly convinced by it either. Shun might not think he cares, but it's very hard to believe someone would repeatedly make and eat something they didn't like at all.]
It's always a good time to start! [Oh, these bowls will work. Ren pulls out four of them, sets two aside for the rice, and starts a new quest for a spoon to dish the stew into the other two.] But I can like or not like things enough for both of us until then.
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The second thing, however, is much easier to believe, and as Shun covers the rice to let it start cooking, he turns back around towards Ren, leaning against the counter next to the stove.]
I don't doubt that. It's not like you need to go out of your way, anyway. [It's somewhat token resistance at this point, but Shun's still just as bad at taking what he considers "help" as ever.
Also, he's just going to ruin Ren's spoon quest a little by leaning over silently to open one of the drawers on the other side of him, which is full of cutlery.]
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