Lea [Axel] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
doestheickyjobs) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2016-06-12 07:29 pm
doestheickyjobs) wrote in thenearshore2016-06-12 07:29 pm
[open]
Who: Axel (doestheickyjobs) and you!
What: He's been hanging out on the Near Shore on his own, trying to get a taste of this world. Turns out the world... or, at least, the ayakashi... sometimes want a taste of him back.
When: March 24 /25, evenings - each different thread will be a different ayakashi encounter.
Where: In and around Tokyo.
Warnings: Violence, possible injury.
[And it had started out as such a nice, quiet day.
He'd been hanging out here, on a bridge over a set of rushing train tracks, watching the sun slip behind the artificial horizon of the buildings and light them with red and purple that glinted off the facets of every mirrored window. He likes sunsets: if there's a reason for it, buried somewhere back in the past he can't remember, he'll leave it forgotten, but he still likes sunsets. He's been coming down to the Near Shore to watch them when he can.
Mostly it hasn't been a problem. Today, as the last bits of light started to fade into blue shadow, something grabbed his foot.
At least this ayakashi wasn't giving him trouble by going after mortals: Axel still wasn't totally sure how he'd deal with that, what with the humans not noticing him there unless he actually punched them, and forgetting about it even if he did. No, this one wants him. It's all whippy legs and tiny claws, and three times his size with a bloated body that's broken out in sickly yellow and red eyes like the horror movie version of a teenage acne attack, and it keeps mumbling about how nice he smells, in this high, cracking voice.]
Get out of here!
[A sizzling line of flame springs up, but the ayakashi steps through it like it's not there, and Axel scrambles backwards, swearing. There are humans around, coming home from work or crawling the bars, and they're scattering from the flames as shouts start to go up.
Well, fuck. Axel flings another handful of fire at the ayakashi, hitting it on an eye. It blinks away redness with a weird vertical eyelid, and stretches out a leg, crooning, "Tasty...."
This just isn't his night.]
doestheickyjobs) and you!What: He's been hanging out on the Near Shore on his own, trying to get a taste of this world. Turns out the world... or, at least, the ayakashi... sometimes want a taste of him back.
When: March 24 /25, evenings - each different thread will be a different ayakashi encounter.
Where: In and around Tokyo.
Warnings: Violence, possible injury.
[And it had started out as such a nice, quiet day.
He'd been hanging out here, on a bridge over a set of rushing train tracks, watching the sun slip behind the artificial horizon of the buildings and light them with red and purple that glinted off the facets of every mirrored window. He likes sunsets: if there's a reason for it, buried somewhere back in the past he can't remember, he'll leave it forgotten, but he still likes sunsets. He's been coming down to the Near Shore to watch them when he can.
Mostly it hasn't been a problem. Today, as the last bits of light started to fade into blue shadow, something grabbed his foot.
At least this ayakashi wasn't giving him trouble by going after mortals: Axel still wasn't totally sure how he'd deal with that, what with the humans not noticing him there unless he actually punched them, and forgetting about it even if he did. No, this one wants him. It's all whippy legs and tiny claws, and three times his size with a bloated body that's broken out in sickly yellow and red eyes like the horror movie version of a teenage acne attack, and it keeps mumbling about how nice he smells, in this high, cracking voice.]
Get out of here!
[A sizzling line of flame springs up, but the ayakashi steps through it like it's not there, and Axel scrambles backwards, swearing. There are humans around, coming home from work or crawling the bars, and they're scattering from the flames as shouts start to go up.
Well, fuck. Axel flings another handful of fire at the ayakashi, hitting it on an eye. It blinks away redness with a weird vertical eyelid, and stretches out a leg, crooning, "Tasty...."
This just isn't his night.]
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Ayumu responds to Axel's question by aiming and throwing one of the knives hard at the ayakashi's leg where it looks like its joint might be weakest. Then she throws another one at its open eye just to be thorough before ruling it out entirely.]
I do.
[Ayumu holds the third one in reserve for now until she sees the effects. If she's nimble enough, she should be able to retrieve them and escape.]
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And then he turns, twice simultaneously. One blade severs the leg entirely as it spins to fly back to Ayumu's hand. The other leaves a long, ugly slash in the creature's eye socket and out through the skin on the other side.]
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That went better than expected. Ayumu's confidence in their ability to win this fight grows. Monsters are beyond her training and experience but the sight of this noisy, disgusting thing in clear agony from its injuries cheers her up. As the ayakashi lunges haphazardly toward her, she dashes forward into what she calculates to be its blindspot now. It tries to twist its massive body and swipe at her with its claws.
Ayumu chooses that exact moment to throw both of the knives she's holding simultaneously at the thrashing limbs. One blade heads for what seems like an elbow on one arm and a wrist on the other.]
Tell me which joints feel weakest.
[Axel has a much closer perspective on this than she does. It just makes sense to her to ask him directly.]
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Wrist. Elbow. Turn and cut. One arm falls, severed at the elbow joint, and his blade jars against something like a bone inside the wrist. He tries to turn and scythe through, but it doesn't quite work, and he has to turn the other way before he's free of flesh and able to fly back to her hand.
His perception seems to snap back into focus when all three blades are back with Ayumu.]
Definitely that elbow. Or the first one you threw me at.
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In the meantime, she'll continue disabling it for a little longer. Its movements are growing clumsier but it's still moving a little too easily for her liking. As the ayakashi continues to turn, trying to get a fix on her location, Ayumu keeps dashing forward, staying in its blind spot.
As fast as she moved when she hiked up her kimono the other day, Ayumu's twice as agile today in her haori. She shoots a quick glance at the creature, memorizing the location of three of its legs.
She throws the knives one after another at its knees, entrusting Axel to know what to do next. It's odd being the one directing the flow of battle and working with a partner when she's so used to fighting alone under the command of others. But Ayumu has to admit this is kind of fun.]
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Slamming home into three joints in three perfect throws, though?
That feels good. And Axel's blades slice with comfortable ease through the softer space between the bones, leaving the ayakashi collapsing on the ground with only one leg still intact, and that one wounded at the wrist. It bellows, thrashing, as Axel's blades fly back to Ayumu's hands.]
We've got it! Just strike the final blow.
[How she's going to do that with knives the size of the ones Axel's become, he's not exactly sure, but she seems to know what she's doing. He'll leave it up to her.]
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[Three knives and only two hands to work with will be a little tricky but Ayumu can manage it. She was the strongest shinobi under Hijikata's command and the hand he played when he had something to lose.
Ayumu stops running, still in the ayakashi's blindspot. After quickly pinpointing the possible vital point she spotted earlier, she tosses one knife high up in the air. Now that she has both hands to work with, she quickly throws the remaining knives at what seems to be what passes for a neck on this creature. She catches the third knife as it descends and throws it, too.
The knives travel in an almost perfectly spaced trajectory, all headed for the ayakashi's figurative throat. If none of her throws were off, they should impale in a cluster.]
Leaving the rest to you.
[He'd done well with separate targets. Let's see what he can do with one big one.]
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Axel knows where he is, with all three knives so closely placed, and so as each knife whirls to fly back towards Yumi, he feels each one slicing through its neck, deeper, and deeper.
The ayakashi's head collapses back, almost completely severed from its body, as gouts of phantom blood spray from the wound. It's already starting to dissolve into nothing more than supernatural muck on the pavement as Axel returns to Yumi's hands.]
You've got a knack, Yumi.
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[Still, she can't help but glow under the praise. It's always nice to have her work appreciated - particularly when it's her real work. But with their enemy vanquished, the battle is over, and it's time to turn him back.]
Axel, revert!
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How about that! So, I guess I get to roll the dice on a new shape for every name. You've used something like that, I guess.
[She'd been good with them, her aim perfect. Axel smirks, pleased.]
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[She gives a surprisingly girlish giggle, casting him a sly but affectionate sidelong glance.]
The life of a cook can be very dangerous, you know!
[Her mood's definitely improved from what it has been since arriving, enough for her to crack lame jokes. A job well done always does wonders to cheer her up.]
It seems like the life of a shinki is full of gambles.
[She sincerely hopes if he's named by others, they treat him well. There's no doubt in her mind that Axel's valuable.]
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[Axel snorts, darting her a knowing sidelong glance.]
So, just a cook, huh?
Under which name?
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Really how long has it been since she's been completely honest with anyone? Even at home, she lied constantly to nearly everyone she knew. Only Hijikata knew her and even then, their relationship had been almost entirely professional. To live as a true shinobi, to be useful to her commander and the shogunate, she'd had to sacrifice the luxury of friendship.
But Ayumu's more than just a shinobi now. She's a goddess. Like it or not, her life has changed. Maybe even enough to allow herself to have a single friend?
She could try, at least, and see how it goes.
After a bit, she speaks, consciously slipping into her natural Osakan drawl. It's a little hard but if she's going to do this, she's going to do it right.]
Sometimes as Ayumu. Most of the time, under other names.
[She sounds tentative, unsure.]
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[...and like Ayumu might be her real name. Cook definitely isn't her real occupation, though, not if she's that good at faking accents and personas. Maybe she was a spy. Assassin?
Maybe Axel shouldn't be so comfortable with those possibilities, but then, he's found there's not much that makes him uncomfortable here, outside of not really knowing what's going on. And that would bother anyone who's not too dumb to care, he's pretty sure.
He gives her a quick grin.]
And now you're a goddess, huh. -- What's that name again? Vesta? [Something like that?]
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Yes, Vesta.
[The more she says it, the easier it is to pronounce. Though she still hasn't quite gotten that 'v' sound down yet and it's still coming out as 'Besta'. The 'b' sound's softer now so that's progress?]
You could say that.
[A pretty lonely one, too, but Ayumu usually keeps herself too busy to think much about that. People can't choose what families they're born into or the obligations that come with them.]
My family's line of work is different from most.
[Both that of her blood relatives and her adopted ones.]
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[Axel's expression goes distant for a moment. Family business. That sounds nice. Like continuity, or at least like the kind of life where you always know who you are.
That might be tricky if your family business is espionage, he guesses.
Not like he knows what his family's was.
It's weird, talking with her about her life like this. It makes him feel even more like a blank slate.]
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Yes. Ever since I was a small child.
[She'd begun her training very young, learning the kunoichi's trade at her mother's knee. Her tone's a little sad, wistful.]
It's the only life I've ever known. There's so many new things here.
[It's a little daunting but she can only keep moving forward.]
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... It's kind of exciting, though, you know? Anyway, I think so. Beats being dead.
[He shrugs. That's his other option, so this amnesiac servant business? Might not be his first choice, but it sure as hell beats the alternative.]
We get to figure out what we'll make of it.
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[Literally so for Axel and the other shinki with new lives after death. But perhaps she's been dwelling too much on what she's lost instead of what she's gained. She's lost her family but she's gained more freedom than she's ever had before.
And it is a little exciting even if she doesn't really know what to do with it.]
Funny. Never thought I'd have one, too.
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[A second chance. Axel can live with that.
It feels like... something he didn't expect to have, even not knowing why he would feel that way: his expression is distant for a long moment before he snaps back to the present and grins at her.]
I know I do!
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We should probably get back to the temple before something else decides we look tasty, though. And you can pick out a room if you like.
[Making sure Axel has a comfortable place to sleep in is as much her responsibility now as it is Pippa's after all.]
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That was just to get rid of the ayakashi.
[Axel waves a hand, his expression shifting from the smile to something more dubious. It's not like she's responsible for him now or anything.
Not any more than Pippa is. He can take care of himself.]
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[She won't push, though. It's a choice she's leaving entirely up to him. In the meantime, she'll just have to figure out what to do with the rest of that space. Maybe she'll ask Satoshi for some suggestions. He's proving himself more capable than she'd initially thought him to be.]
Either way, have a good night, Axel-kun. And take care.
[She turns to leave.]
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I might take you up on that sometime. And, for now, just give me a call if you need a hand fighting!
[He smirks, back on more secure ground.]
That was fun.
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[But if Ayumu has time to send a messenger, she'd have time to escape herself.
Poor technologically challenged shinobi.]
But it was fun, wasn't it? It's been a while since I've had a good fight.
[Perhaps she can turn that one big room in her temple into a practice hall.]
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