Wanderings [Open]

[iron59]

Who: Felix and You!
When: October 27th
Where: Anywhere cat-free Far Shore in the morning, Near Shore in the afternoon.
What: Since an invitation to look at cats isn’t high on his list, Felix is going to use the day to get a feel for the area.



A. Western District; early morning

[Even as the sun is rising, Felix is jogging through the Western district, coat tied around his waist. He’s making a point of looking around at all of the different places that exist around him, but he never lets up on his pace.

Jogging along behind him is a soulless shinki, their feet hitting the ground out of rhythm as they move through the district. Periodically, Felix will take a sharp turn, never speeding up, even if he is testing the agility of the figure behind him. She keeps up effortlessly, of course.

The longer they spend jogging, the more focused he becomes, taking turns, doubling back, really seeing what his shadow is capable of. If he wasn’t so consistent with his speed, even checking himself once or twice so she stays with him, someone might even think he was trying to lose the poor woman…]

B. Central District and The Heavens; mid-morning and early afternoon

[Having successfully given his shinki the slip, for better or worse, Felix has made his way into fancier parts, though his coat is still tied around his waist and he looks a little grungy for the area. Unlike his calculating (if meandering) path from earlier, he’s now wandering around looking for the sake of looking, because some of these places are amazing.

It takes a few hours, but he eventually finds his way back to the meeting hall, though he is wary of spending too much time there, given the dangers of being press ganged into cleaning by the white-robed shinki that practically swarm the area (or so he claims to anyone who asks).

Before he heads home in the afternoon, Felix will lose himself for a little bit in the Sakura grove to the North of the meeting hall. While he does spend a bit of time appreciating the beauty, he spends more time practicing teleporting himself between the trees.]

C. The Near Shore - Tokyo; late afternoon and early evening

[It’s not dark, yet, but the day is winding down. Even if people aren’t supposed to be able to see him easily, Felix has no intention on taking the chance that he missed something important to make that happen. As crowds increase on the streets, with everyone getting out of work and heading either home or out to socialize, he’s feeling a little more comfortable slipping away into the mortal world.

Alone.

It’s not exactly that he hasn’t been told about the dangers, and not even that he thinks he’s going to be able to handle it better than anyone else has. But he doesn’t like being told not to do something, and besides, if this was what he was meant to be doing, putting it off isn’t going to make it better.

Besides, he’s never, ever been to Japan before, and after the all the stories he’s heard from his family back home, he’s not about to pass up a chance to see it for himself.]

Comments

[iron59]

Shi...

[It's his fault, really, as the snake latches into his leg. First rule in a foot chase is don't look back. You need to see where you're going, and they'll either catch you or not. But these are big, bright snakes. They're magical. They're trying to eat him. So he looks back for a second, and still two snakes, and then something's biting his leg and it hurts.

He stumbles, goes down, but training kicks in and it turns from a deadly spill to just a tumble, rolling and coming to his feet just barely in the water. He reaches down and grabs the snake, wrenching it away and hitting it once with the blade in his other hand as he throws it to the side. The blow doesn't kill it, but at least gives him enough break to jump across the canal again, narrowly missing a strike by the larger snake that is following him.

His leg gives out as he lands, forcing him to roll again. He switches the pain off and forces himself up, running again. His hand, likewise numb, is marked with a discoloured blotch, and he starts to actually run, pushing himself far harder than is wise with an injured leg - especially when he doesn't know where he's going.]

Shrine...shrine...where...?

[The fact that he is pushing hard enough to be breathing hard is a bad sign, especially with the sound of the snake ayakashi still hot on his heels. He barely registers the sound of running footsteps coming from the side as he nears an intersection. He's more interested in the bridge...now he can actually take a direction instead of following a path that has already proven dangerous.

Now, he just needs to figure out which direction...as a shape comes into view, with more snakes after it, he doesn't even think. The knife, clearly not of much use to him at the moment, flashes, striking one of the hideously beautiful things just as it is about to bite at the heels of whoever it is that's running down the street. The blade knocks the creature aside, but now he's totally unarmed. If they are attacking that person, though, it has to be someone else from the Far Shore. He pushes hard to get to the bridge at the same time.]

Across the bridge, they're in the water!

[unlucky7]

[Find a shine. Find a shrine. The thought pulses with the slap of Ginia's boots against the ground, arms pumping as she sprints away from the ayakashi. There are thousands of shrines in Tokyo, all she needs is a single one, yet this seems to be the one area without a single one in sight.

She spots someone ahead as she nears an interaction--young, a child?--dodges instinctively as there's a flash of metal flying past her. Ginia doesn't look back to see if it hits, but reaches the same realization about Felix that he reaches about her; they're also from the Far Shore.

At his warning, she pushes toward the bridge. She turns on a dime as she reaches it, her hand slashing through the air, a thought screaming in her mind, her other hand spelling out the word.

LINE!

A streak of white light cuts across the entrance of the bridge as a barrier shoots across it. The first snake bounces off the barrier, hissing furiously as it slithers along the perimeter in search of a way past. The other snakes strike the barrier--it shudders and Ginia knows instinctively it'll hold for another minute at most--and trade a few more blows before they seek another way around.

But the barrier only covers one end of the bridge. The presence of two from the Far Shore --unpaired, defenseless--stir the ayakashi in the area. Hissing and overlapping voices rattle through the air in a rising crescendo.

A lot of people cross through this bridge everyday. People on their way to work, on their way to school, on their way home. I don't want to go to work...I failed that test...Maybe he won't be home...I'm so alone...Everyone hates me...

Come into the water...end your problems...you won't be alone...

Ginia looks at Felix, eyes widening for a moment as she recognizes him as the boy from the training day. She notes the heavy rise and fall of his chest, the slight limp from an injured leg.]

Keep running!

[Her fingers snap through the air as quickly as her borderline, brushing away ayakashi and preparing a path for him. Wasn't this what she wanted? Wasn't the chance to fight, help someone everything she was craving? Yes. Yes, it was. The pulse of her heartbeat pounding in her ears, Ginia sizes up the ayakashi around them, pulling down her barrier and recasting it to protect Felix, a large snake crashing into it instead of him.]

[iron59]

[Ginia.

There isn't time for him to react to her, and so he doesn't. Not yet. Instead, as the barrier snaps up behind him, he charges forward, head down. He shoulders hard into one of the snakes that had followed her, running it hard into the railing and bouncing off. Grabbing it with the same hand, he tosses it over the edge and ignores the spreading stain of blight as he turns to follow her across the bridge.]

Straight on. There has to be a shrine.

[His limp is growing worse, slowing him down as the leg itself weakens, even if the pain is gone, for the moment. His arm, likewise, is sluggish and unresponsive, though he doesn't say anything to her about that. Instead, he falls into lockstep beside her, dialing into her network. It's easier than wasting breath on speaking.]

I am not sure where the closest one is. I got a little lost. If you know, take the lead.

[He looks over at her and holds out his hand, the good one, keeping the injured one pressed to his chest for the moment.]

Knife. I lost mine. Watch for a pipe or something. I need reach and I'm down a hand.

[Later, he'll freak out, and kick himself, and whatever he hads to do. Right now, they are going to get out of this. Somehow. And if she doesn't remember all of her training, well, damnit, he remembers his. If she is unsettled by the commanding tone or disciplined attitude of a 10-year-old, he couldn't care less, because this is what they were both made to do.

Well, minus the colourful, magical, eating-you-alive, evil-spirit snakes.]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia sweeps her leg at a small cluster of snakes and sends them scattering like twitching strands of neon silly string. She throws out more borderlines ahead, cutting ayakashi and leaving them writhing and coiling in pain, but it's not a rend, a killing blow.

Her memories may be gone, but her training is etched deep into her body. When his voice fills her mind, she doesn't even flinch as she continues to attack. She draws her knife from her back holster, slices through the hood of a lunging neon blue snake, and passes the weapon off to Felix in a smooth movement. She doesn't need a knife when she has her borderlines and she's ruthless in her attacks.

This is what she was made for. She's a shinki, she's a tool. (She's an operative, she's a killer.) Her blood pumps hard but she keeps her cool, gaining more ground toward the other side of the bridge. A thin green snake manages to coil up her leg, the squeezing bleeding past her clothes as her calf begins to burn. She grabs the head of the snake and whips it off her body, ignoring the burning sensation across her hand. It's only blight, she can treat it later with holy water.

There's an opening. She hauls Felix onto her shoulders and takes off running, careful to keep her blighted hand away from any exposed flesh as she carries him. Even with his weight, even with her own leg burning, it's still faster than him limping along on an injured leg. She's a shinki, it's her job to protect and dammit she's going to.]

[iron59]

[Felix is a killer...not only a trained assassin, but an accomplished one. He's killed more people than most of those jailed for murder, and he's been hurt before, too. Still, this isn't like most anything he has seen before, and while he is reacting out of training, that's the problem, too: he's clicked into an autopilot that isn't quite tuned to the current circumstances.

His arm, already useless, flashes out, taking the full brunt of a snapping bite meant for Ginia. The knife slashes across the thing, and as the mouth loosens in a hiss of pain, he punches it, hard, tearing it free without regard for the damage that will cause.

It curls back for another strike, but the pain and reaction was enough to clear a space, and before he can say anything, Ginia's on it, her training as sharp as his and honed with far more experience. She slings him over a shoulder, and he has a moment to inspect his arm, and the blood running down it, and decides to keep the pain turned down as low as possible when the image causes a phantom throb. The arm is a write-off, for the moment, and so he looks back, blocking a strike with the blade and turning the snake away.

Carrying him is faster, but not fast enough. They aren't going to get away. It's his fault. He was the one that was hurt, he's the reason she turned her attention away from the fight and he's the reason she's slowed down.

Now that he has a moment to think, he realizes that he can probably teleport behind them, draw the snakes back. The middle of the bridge isn't very far. If it doesn't work, they lose nothing, and if it does, well. Divide and conquer. At least Ginia would be able to get away if he can draw the worst of these things away. First...first.

He dials down the pain relief, letting the sudden shock his head clear. It also tells him that he's not going to last much longer like this, so they have to do something now.]

Try not to stumble.

[Pressing the back of the hand holding the knife against her neck, he does something that he hasn't tried yet, and releases his power...the power that, at least in part, marks him as God here. A layer of think, flexible armor encases Ginia in an instant, and not a moment too soon. One of the snakes strikes, but the bite is turned as the armor on her leg, beneath her clothes, turns the strike aside.]

I'll be back. DON'T STOP.

[He twists, suddenly, pushing at her with both hands (though careful of the blade, despite her new protection). He's not in the best position to fight, but she also isn't in the best position to hold onto him. He starts to drop and pushes off against her, shoving her forward, away from the snakes - pushing himself straight at them. The twist up around each other, slowing as they all reach out to strike at him together. He closes his eyes, thinking of the middle of the bridge behind them, and then vanishes as they strike air.

He hits the ground and rolls, coming up to his knees partway back along the bridge, flipping Gin's knife up and catching it by the blade. Time to get their attention. He takes aim and throws it at the largest snake.]

HEY! UGLY!

[He'll find you another one, Gin. Honest. For now, he's square in the middle of the bridge, angry and defiant, arm hanging at his side, blood dripping from his fingers, but it doesn't matter. Because he is a weapon, and his purpose if to destroy these things. They should be afraid of him, not the other way around. If his leg is trembling a little beneath him, and his breathing is a little fast, he'll just ignore it a little longer.]

Ginia, RUN. I'm not going to leave you behind. I promise.

[unlucky7]

[Ginia doesn't break strike as Felix taps into his god-given power, armor covering all of her skin, durable and able to withstand the attacks of the ayakashi without constricting and hindering. That extra boost of protection bolsters Ginia's spirit, gives her extra energy to press on without worrying about attacks. They'll get out of this.

But then Felix is gone, his message reverabting through her mind as she pushes off her, falls out of her arms. She turns as he vanishes, reappearing at the center of the bridge.

(Later, once they're safe, adrenaline cleared from her system and her mind able to think clearly, she'll wonder why he didn't teleport them to the Far Shore when she was carrying him.)

Every generation of operatives were made to work within their team like a well-oiled machine of death and chaos. Every glance, every gesture, the nine of them knew how to read each other and execute a plan in silence. They were nine, they were one, and they were dangerous and deadly, and they loved and trusted each other deeply and completely. The future overlap of generation one and generation four is more a cobbled together machine, but there's a future where Ginia trusts Felix. Knows despite his age, his appearance, he's more than capable of protecting himself. Still a child, still foolish in the ways of youth and inexperience, but she respects and trusts him.

But that's an unwritten future and would be part of a forgotten past anyway. The missing components are what cause Ginia to ignore Felix's words. She turns, barreling past the ayakashi lunging toward her, their teeth and bodies no match against the armor surrounding her, sets a path back toward Felix.

He's a child, he needs help, he's an idiot for trying to hold them off when he's injured, it's her damn duty to protect and serve.

(She doesn't know him, doesn't remember him enough to trust he knows what he's doing.)

There's a timer she doesn't know about, every precious second ticking down. The first minute is lost backtracking to the bridge. A second minute as she throws down borderlines, barriers and attacks. She grabs ayakashi in a crushing grip, snapping them away, crushing them under her boot, attacking with a bloody vengeance without fear of blight. But she can only hurt, not kill, and each attack that isn't a rend only wounds them and infuriates them more.

The third minute is spent reaching Felix's side, grabbing his shoulder, turning him toward her.]

Name me! Give me a name!

[Her signs are swift and demanding, turning to throw down another barrier, swatting and kicking ayakashi away. Give her a name, let her be a weapon and they can finally kill all the ayakashi as they should have from the start.]

[iron59]

[He has a plan...well, an idea. Usually, that's the best you get with him, but he has good ideas a solid 7/13 times, easily. The rest of the time, it looks something like this. As the snakes turn, including the big bastard, he staggers to his feet, planting them solidly. Just a minute, that's all he needs. The spirits rush him, and he expected that, but then he sees her slow, and turn, and bat away one of the things that didn't take the bait.

As she turns back, he almost freezes, and that's almost it right there. At the last minute he kicks up from the bridge and vanishes, the large snake crashing down where he was just standing with a loud hiss of frustration. Twisting in the air, he reappears above it, momentum carrying him up as he grabs the blade stuck in its side and pulls it free, vanishing again, this time to the far side of the bridge. He doesn't want to Run from her, but he crashes to the ground and needs a minute to stand again, his leg barely holding his weight now.

As the snakes he pulled away from her surged towards him along the bridge, he ignored them except for quick glances. He was watching her run towards him, trying to judge the time. Tapping the flat of his blade against his leg, he waits until the ayakashi are right on top of him, kicking one aside and teleporting back to the center of the bridge. He half turns to look at the snakes behind him, but she pulls him around, demands a name.

He knows exactly what she wants from him, and exactly how to do it, too. How, he isn't sure, but it's clear in his mind.

Yanking his shoulder free, he leaps forward, hitting her in the stomach and lifting her off the ground with him, wrapping his good arm around her as far as it will reach. As they move backwards, her feet catch the railing, and they start over backwards. But the important part right now, is that the snakes are behind them.]

Please don't let go.

[His shoulder hurts. His arm, too. He's not going to be running anywhere, either. He doesn't know if this is going to work, but he is not going to name her. He can't name her. He squeezes his eyes closed, tightly, and focuses on the shrine that brought him here. They just have to make it that far, it can't be that hard. He's a god, and this is what he is supposed to do.]

Please work.

[They land, hard, on the sidewalk in front of a small, slightly neglected looking shrine. Felix rolls up and looks around, clutching the knife in his hand, but there are no ayakashhi on the street, at least not that he could see. Knuckles white around the hilt, he looks at Ginia and swings his fist at her shoulder as hard as can.]

I said RUN!

[He's trembling now, tears welling up his eyes. His left arm, the hand and what can be seen through the torn sleeve, is covered in blight. His leg can't be much better. Still, despite the armor that hasn't quite worn off taking the blows, he'll keep swinging at her until she stops him.]

You could have died.

[unlucky7]

[He’s a small child; he shouldn’t be so vicious, so tactical, so good at fighting, but he is and that’s something Ginia can’t ignore. He’s a god and together they could be a good team. But there’s no name, not even a dismissal, just a hard blow to her stomach—the armor absorbs the impact but it’s still a strong hit—and then they’re falling back and down.

Ah. He must not like nora, is the thought on her mind as they fall, her arm wrapped around him. There’s time to consider the rejection later, but now Ginia braces for hitting water as they topple off the bridge, sucks in a breath to hold so she doesn’t accidentally inhale on impact. But instead of hitting water, they blink out of existence then blink back in, the surroundings different as they slam into concrete, the armor taking the blow for her body. Ginia releases her breath as she stares upward, buildings surrounding them, the presence of ayakashi gone. She sees the worn torii gate of the shrine, wood long worn down to an aged grey, the statues dark from age and dirt, so small and forgotten but a blessed, welcome sight. Felix’s weight rolls off and she sits up to catch her breath, assess her condition. Her blighted hand burns, the initial mark spread as her fingers rubbed against each other, palm an ugly mottled purple. Her calf burns too and she’s vaguely aware of other burning stripes across her leg.

Ginia topples back as the first blow slams into her shoulder. The armor dulls the impact but it’s still a strong hit. She pushes herself back up and braces in time to receive a second blow, a third. The armor fades away and the fourth blow hits, an ache as the buising impact spreads across her shoulder.

Yes, he had told her to run, and she didn’t, diving back into the fray instead. A fifth blow, she doesn’t even both to block or shy away from it. She was given an order and choose to ignore it. A sixth blow. He was a god and he gave her an order and she ignored it.

But ah. He’s a god. Not her god. The distinction is important. Or maybe it doesn’t matter.

She catches his hand before the seventh hit can land. It’s not a strong grip, just enough to catch and hold it as she takes her knife, fingers slightly shaking from pain. She releases his hand to slide her knife back into its holster. Her eyes are exhausted, her breathing heavy as exertion from fighting and using constant borderlines catches up. His words aren’t wrong; she could have died.

I can’t imagine dying for someone else.

And yet she jumped back into the fight so easily, all to protect a child, a stranger. Ginia gives a shaky exhale, her head dropping down. It’s not loyalty. It’s impossible to be loyal to someone she just met. So what was it? Concern? Compassion? The urge to fulfill her duty at the cost of her own health and safety because that need wasn’t being met?

I’m such a fool.

The thoughts occur in seconds as she looks back up at Felix, forces herself to smile despite the pain in her eyes.

(She hasn’t done that around him or the other generation fours in years, not since Blanc collectively chewed out the first generation for pretending everything was fine and masking their feelings.)]

You need treatment. Teleport us back to your temple.

[ She should apologize for asking to be named. She should apologize for failing him. Instead Ginia pushes herself to her knees and gives Felix a tight hug. If any blighted part of him accidentally brushes against her, she accepts it; it’s what she deserves. She keeps her blighted hand away from him as she rubs his back with her good hand, ignoring the sharp ache in her shoulder from the movement.]

[iron59]

[He doesn't fight as she takes the knife...he was holding it in his good hand, which he also used to hit her with; the two were otherwise not connected. For a moment, just a moment, he leans into the embrace, eyes closed, pretending everything was fine again, but his arm hurts, and she is stiff, uncomfortable. After the moment passes, he pulls away.]

I don't want to see you die, Ginia.

[A pause, a breath. He wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. He's crying, but he looks angry, not sad, as he speaks.]

I don't wanna see anyone die.

[Not waiting for a response, he turns away, so even if she signs he can't see her, and walks over to the shrine.]

Let's go.

[unlucky7]

[Does anyone want to see anyone die? Ginia thinks of dying in a fight, not realizing the truth of what gods see when they name their shinki.

(It's better this way: it wouldn't be just Ginia, but Erika, Beth, a time when things were less civil, less kind. He wouldn't want to see Erika shooting Ginia, Ginia bleeding out in her arms as Erika screams and cries.)

Ginia lets him go for the third time in so many days. She rises to her feet and follows him on heavy limbs, a hand lightly on his shoulder as they teleport back to the safety of the Far Shore.]