open

[whereyoulead]

Who: Ken, open
What: He preferred having no memories at all, thanks. Also he doesn't feel at all bad about stealing some asshole's motorcycle.
Where: Starting at Antheia's temple, in town, then up around the mountains in the Far Shore. Feel free to encounter him at any point.
When: June 13
Warnings: Violence, flashing back to violent murder the guy totally deserved it, brief domestic abuse, parental advisory for crude language :(

[The memory rose up from nothingness, very nearly crystal clear and echoing--as if underground, surrounded by thick walls and monitors as they are.

There are no faces that got caught up in the memory, besides his own in the glare of the monitor. Everyone else is nothing but hazy impressions of what might be people, no discerning characteristics to them, as if they're ghosts.

Even the man in front of him, he can't see his eyes, his hair is only a vague impression, he might be wearing a military uniform, but it's nothing solid. All Ken can tell is that his expression is pained, bloodspattered, and he's crying the desperate tears of someone who knows perfectly well he's about to die horribly. He's pinned, like an insect to a board, arrows through his arms and legs and hopelessly tangled in the web of bloody razor-sharp wire digging into his flesh. The air reeks of blood and his fear.

That's not what's about to kill him.

What's about to kill him is the sawed-off shotgun Ken has shoved practically down his throat, so far he's drooling around it uncontrollably, muffling his pleas for mercy into something garbled and unintelligible.

'Akira. This is your revenge.'

Who Akira is, he doesn't recall. He just knows, viscerally, with absolute certainty, that this person whose name or face he doesn't recall deserves every single ounce of the buckshot Ken's about to empty into his skull.

He feels his lips curling upward, baring teeth in a razor-sharp smile as his finger tightens on the trigger. The roar of the gun in his ears is almost deafening, the smell of gunpowder, lead, and blood overwhelming from so close.

He can remember the blood and fragments of bone and brain matter splattering his face, the weight of the shotgun as his arm falls to the side, the terrified shrieking of a young girl somewhere behind him.

What he doesn't remember is feeling a single shred of guilt about it.]

------

[He still doesn't feel guilty when he wakes up, the memory clearly and undeniably etched into his mind, so deeply he knows it's true.

He doesn't know why he made some fucker deepthroat a shotgun, but hey, if his memory's to be trusted he deserved it. So, Ken doesn't feel bad. At all.

But he needs time to parse it nonetheless. He'd already figured whatever he'd done in life, it had been violent, after all he knew how to fight, where to strike the human body to cause the most damage with his bare fists. He was pretty sure he knew how to work a gun, and well...he'd just gotten proof of that.

But he was the shinki of the goddess of god damn flower crowns, not the patron god of violent homicide.

So, he goes to the city. He finds some drunk fuck with a nice motorcycle parked in the alley about ready to lay into his girlfriend and descends on them like the wrath of god, and he doesn't even feel bad about that. He'd been about to hit her, she'd been crying, begging him to stop, no one else paying attention--what else was he around for?

She had run the second Ken had dropped her shitty boyfriend, heels discarded so she could get away, and hopefully she wouldn't come crawling back to him.]

First off, you shouldn't hit your girl, and second, you shouldn't fucking drive drunk you piece of shit. You're gonna fucking kill someone.

[Ken punctuates his last word with a kick to the guy's kidney, not that he's conscious to hear it, and steals his jacket, wallet, helmet, and the keys to his bike.

An hour later he's outside of town, opening up the engine as fast as he can push it up into the mountains, until he finds a clearing of wildflowers overlooking the road below and makes a sudden decision to stop.]

Comments

here to steal ur bike

[disciplineking]

[Hibari wanders to get alone and away from people, and often found himself in strange out of the way places in both the city and surrounding countryside. This time was no different, except the spot he was haunting had been invaded by another person.

Or he assumed there was, because why else would a motorcycle be sitting by the side of the road? Its owner probably just stepped off for a bit or whatever; Hibari didn't really care. It was a very nice bike...expensive and in good condition, if a bit dusty from being driven here.

Why he knew how to drive one despite being so young he didn't know and didn't really care, he just really wanted one. It would make getting around a whole lot easier.

That is, if the person who owned the bike didn't walk in on a teenager attempting to steal it from him.]

how dare you try to steal my stolen bike u asshole

[whereyoulead]

[The actual legal owner is unlikely--he's probably still laid out on the dirty pavement in an alley some 70 kilometers or more away, if no one stepped up to get him to the hospital.

But if you subscribe to the theory that possession is 9/10ths of the law, the bike's current rider is hopping the guardrail at exactly this moment, catching sight of the teenager trying to hotwire his ill-gotten ride and saying, eloquently:]

The fuck are you doing?

b/c fuck u he's a delinquient

[disciplineking]

[Well, technicalities like that didn't matter to someone like Hibari who made his own laws, as evidenced by his armband that declared the fact that he was part of the disciplinary committee. He also had a very bored look on his face for looking up and being caught in the act of actually stealing something.

So the bike wasn't actually abandoned. What a shame. Though this guy seemed rude for someone about to get decked to the face.]

I'm taking this bike. I need one and it's a good model.

[The way Hibari was standing was probably a warning sign that he was going to jump and fight at any slight provocation.]

fuck u 2 buddy gimme the excuse to fight

[whereyoulead]

[He seemed rude? The fuck.]

One problem with that. It's mine, the fuck is wrong with you.

[Okay, technically it isn't his, but he's ready to fight for it all the same.

Mostly because he's itching to fight in the first place. Ken can see that the kid is ready for it--he's not the only one.]

bring it loser

[disciplineking]

For someone so attached, you're awfully lax with your belongings.

[But it wasn't like Hibari really cared who the actual owner of the bike was. In the shifting of this guy's body language, the shinki could just tell that this guy wanted a fight-he could practically smell it.

Well, who was he to deny someone a fight? Maybe this guy would even be entertaining. Hibari looked down to make sure the kickstand for the bike was snug in place, before suddenly vaulting off of it, brandishing his two tonfas from his sleeves at his opponent's head with a speed that was far too great for a normal human teenager.]

i will do my level best to smash your nose in punk

[whereyoulead]

Tell you what, if you can get the keys off me, you can fucking have it.

[Ken's not going to tell you where they are--in his left jacket pocket--not that he'd have gotten the chance to because he's suddenly ducking a flying goddamn teenager.

The displaced air from the tonfa ruffles his hair, Ken ignores it and digs the ball of his foot into the earth, lashing out with his bare fists.

He might not have preternatural speed, but he knows how to fight up close, brutal, and fast, striking at weak points and even at not-so-weak ones as a distraction.

The guy he originally stole the bike from wasn't a challenge, not in the least. This is promising. This is fun, and exactly what he wanted.]

[slantedcross]

[Further down the slope, Youji hears the motorcycle stop and looks up.

He takes a general survey of the bike, which starts and ends with 'where the hell did that come from?' and... well, he doesn't really care much beyond that. He briefly considers throwing something at Ken to catch his attention, but there's nothing to throw and something is... edged, sharp somehow, and he doesn't want those sharp edges stuck in his back when he turns back around.

So he tosses aside the sketch book he wasn't using and walks slowly up to where Ken is... wondering.]

[whereyoulead]

[Ken is paying less attention to his surroundings than he normally does. He's not sure why he's so paranoid--though he might have a bit of an idea now--but he's constantly feeling like there might be someone watching him. And like he has to be ready to...what, defend himself? Maybe.

But he's distracted, replaying the scrap of memory in his head, trying to tease out all the detail he can from it and only coming up with more questions. Who else had been there, at his back? At least four, he thought--the two responsible for the wire and crossbow bolts, he knew somehow that hadn't been him. A deep voice he hadn't recognized, telling someone not to watch--probably the girl that had screamed.

The man he'd killed.

He was obsessing over it, he knew. This had to be why memories were so dangerous. He wanted to know, but was equally afraid of it.

The sound of something falling into the grass shattered his reverie, his entire body twitched with pent-up energy and the quickly shoved down reactive need to fight as he turned to stare. Someone was fucking here, of course they were. The one time Ken wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

Youji. That was his name. They hadn't spoken for a while--a few days at least, he didn't quite remember.]

What the hell are you doing out here?

[It shouldn't annoy him so much, it's not like there's a law he's breaking or anything. Or like he wasn't there first, evidently. But still.]

[slantedcross]

Trying to appreciate the scenery. [Keyword: the first.]

But I can't, or commit it to paper. Might as well take it out on you.

[whereyoulead]

Figures, I come out to the middle of nowhere and still run into your annoying ass.

[Ken snorts, flopping down to sit in the grass. Not uncontrolled--he's never uncontrolled--but it almost looks like it.]

The fuck did I do to deserve this shit. It's like purgatory but worse.

[Don't...ask how he remembers what purgatory is. Boy was raised Catholic, that shit sticks.]

[slantedcross]

Mm, how do you think it looks on my end? Here I am, [wallowing in] enjoying my solitude, when you come along and ruin it.

[Even so, he sits a little lower down on the hill, not quite outside of punching range, but far enough away that Ken would have to lean.

Youji almost dismisses Ken's clear agitation, simply because he's used to it, but... that talk with Omi is still in his head. It's an interesting question, and this isn't the hell Ken must have envisioned for himself. If only he knew how fortunate he was...!]

Well, it wasn't disturb me, because you did that afterward. And you're actually saving me trouble by doing it.

On his way back to Antheia's temple

[volksdaemon]

[Schuldig's out being his usual creepy self, as far from his temple as possible. With Crawford around, it's got him thinking about Tot again, so teleporting near her temple is a good option.

He doesn't necessarily plan to run into Ken as a result, but it's to be expected, and Schuldig can feel the shift in focus from the last time he saw Ken.]

Woah, someone's in a bad mood.

[He keeps walking towards Ken anyway.]

Run into an ayakashi or something?

why this

[whereyoulead]

[Ugh, this fucker again.

Ken almost snarls, violent intent bubbling under his skin. Bad mood, he'll show you a bad--]

If I did, you think I'd be standing around listening to your bullshit?

[He does look like he's been in a fight, though. His jacket's torn, he's bruised and his knuckles are bloody.

Apparently he hasn't quite gotten all his aggression out.]

because i <3 u

[volksdaemon]

[Why it's almost like the man he once knew. A little nostalgic, even! And not even his fault.]

Possibly. Because if you were halfway to blighted, you might not have a choice in the matter.

[He stops outside of bugnuck range purely out of habit.]

Because that's halfway to insane and then I'd be putting down a dangerous beast.

[The kind of thing the heavens praise for.]

i <3 u 2, kenken is less certain

[whereyoulead]

'Halfway to...'

[Ken's fists clench and god or no he's gonna fuckin' deck you buddy. There's just so much about you that puts him on edge, and he's already got his fur up.

He's obviously favoring one arm, though--he's stopped the bleeding but it's still mangled. The pain radiating out from the broken wrist centers him.

Dangerous coping mechanism, but apparently effective.]

Fuck off, buddy, I'm perfectly fine.

Re: i <3 u 2, kenken is less certain

[volksdaemon]

[Schuldig teleports around to just behind Ken.]

Oooh, perfectly fine he says.

[Then he teleports again, farther away and off to Ken's bad side.]

Somehow I don't believe that. Bloodied beasts only hurt themselves more, in my experience.

[oneblackcat]

[Omi first spots Ken in the city intervening on behalf of the girl under attack. He almost calls out, but something holds him back. There's something unsettling here, and that concern only deepens as he watches from a distance as Ken mugs the guy and rides off with a bike that doesn't belong to him.

Omi follows him through teleportation-- partly out of curiosity and partly out of worry. And when Ken finally stops at the field of flowers, Omi gives him a few minutes before approaching.]

Hey, Ken... are you okay?

[whereyoulead]

[Is it really mugging if you're confiscating the vehicle so he doesn't kill himself or someone else while driving under the influence?

...probably, but Ken doesn't give a single fuck.

He's settled in the grass and gently waving flowers--he doesn't remember the last time he did this, of course, but he feels odd here. Half at ease, half wound tight like a too-tight spring, ready to jump out of his skin.

He gives a full-body twitch when someone approaches unexpectedly, fingers digging into the dirt. At first he doesn't seem to know who's speaking, eyes wild, burning, and far away--then he shakes himself again, recognition coming back to his face.]

Omi. Yeah, I'm fine.

[(Almost) no memories and he's still a piss-poor liar.]

[oneblackcat]

[Yeah Omi sees right through that. The very fact Ken seems startled-- Omi hadn't been trying to mask his presence in walking up-- and the look in his eyes.

The assurance is wholly ignored.]

What happened?

[whereyoulead]

[Ken's eyes close, he lets out a gentle puff of breath and flops backwards, so that he's staring at the sky. Getting dirt and crushed flowers all over his jacket and in his hair.

He doesn't hear Omi walking away. Even though he's quiet for a few minutes, waiting for it to happen. He kinda doesn't want to talk about it.

(Doesn't want to tell the kid about remembering a guy's head exploding like an overripe melon.)]

I remembered something. That's all.

[oneblackcat]

[And something in this case clearly meant something really upsetting. And that leaves Omi with a conundrum.

On the one hand, he knows from Weiss that there is sort of an ironclad rule about not probing into each other's personal lives much.

On the other hand, how can he simply walk away from someone he cares about so much at a time like this?

He settles himself on the ground a couple of feet away. Comfortable for talking without breaking the personal space bubble. And he thinks about what he can say that can communicate enough without treading into too much.]

I understand if this isn't something you want to tell me... But for what it's worth, if this is about something you did when you were alive, there's nothing you could share that I'd judge you for. I'm not as innocent as I look.

So, if you want to talk, I'm here to listen. And if you don't want to talk... I'm here anyway. You're my friend either way.

late to the party

[papas_bunnydoll]

[Tot had been in a state for most of the day. There's a lot of energy she doesn't know what to do with. And then there was joy and pain and a whole lot of confusion on her part. Maybe if she'd thought about it, she would have realized the source and called Ken back one way or another.

All thoughts disappear once Ken walks in the door. Just looking at him the pain and all finally make sense and she's up and pulling him in to sit down immediately.]

You're not supposed to go fighting things on your own! Tot doesn't know if she has enough bandages for all of this.

[It's not easy to tell which she's more upset about - being left behind or not knowing anyone who can heal him (as far as she knows). He'd better have a good answer for everything.]

nah you are precisely on time

[whereyoulead]

[Oops. He didn't mean it?

He does look sheepish anyway, with his mangled, chewed-up arm and broken wrist.]

I'm fine, really, it wasn't an ayakashi or anything--pretty sure the kid was another shinki, never got his name though...

[He trails off and shrugs, still with an embarrassed grin on his face.]

I didn't mean to worry you or anything.

[papas_bunnydoll]

[He was fighting another shinki? That doesn't make a lot of sense, besides that's a lot of damage for one person to do. She's just going to grab some things and start cleaning him up.]

Don't complain if it hurts. [And it should since she isn't going to be very gentle with him.] Tot wasn't worried, it was just weird.

[whereyoulead]

[It was fun though! Until he broke the wrist, that's when things went south.]

Yeah, I know, it's gonna sting...I mean judging from the scars I've probably had worse.

[That one on his right side under his shirt looks nasty, not to mention all the burn scars.]

Sorry. I think I'm kinda weird in general.