[open] the best valentines gift is gods disappearing

[smilingbullet]

Who: D2, all his cats, and you
When: February 14, before the blind dates start, early morning
Where: Lakshmi’s former temple grounds, Southeast District
What: So Forrest has disappeared. This sucks. Now what?



[ This day is starting well, apparently. He was actually looking forward to today at least partially, but that just goes up in smoke when he wakes up confused and disoriented, and he discovers that he’s been sleeping on the ground- which in itself is nothing new but he went to sleep in his bed last night. It’s not the first time he’s had this happen, waking up on the cold hard ground having to face the reality that he’s lost another god, considering he’s had two gods before being named by Forrest, but he had been hoping that the kid wouldn’t disappear like Riku and Grell had. It lasted longer, at least. That’s nice.

D2 covers his face with a groan, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and eventually sits up. There are some stuff spread out over the empty lot where the golden temple used to stand, and there are cats wandering around in confusion. Only two have dealt with this sort of thing before, but not the rest of them. A kitten crawls up in his lap as he finds that somehow, his thermos is still safely around the same spot where he would have put it, though the bedside table it had stood on is missing. He twists the cap off the thermos, scratches the kitten by an ear to calm her, and decides that he’ll deal with this after he’s had his coffee. He’s not even going to think about it until he’s not as grouchy by sleep.

But eventually he is awake, and, foregoing his usual morning routine, which includes two long laps around the Far Shore between ca half past four and eight, and instead he starts to figure out what’s still there and what’s missing as he collects things in a pile, which the cats crawl over or find a seat in. It’s not a very big pile. A CD (Hibiki will be pleased at that sticking around), a solar powered dancing bee, a few books, an uchiwa... The main things he can find what was he was carrying with him when he initially came to the Far Shore. He’ll have to get a new Swiss Army knife, though, it seems like. And he’s had this particular one for years, too. He did find a hoodie that he’s pulled on, because he was wearing sleepwear and even in the Heavens winter gets a bit chilly and he was born in a tropical climate, and in the hood there is a snoozing little cat. There were some hairpins and clips he had to pull out of the pocket first, so he’s stuck those into his hair. All the color and the random flowers are not really matching the mood. There is one grown cat wandering after him, and D2 is talking to him in a mix of languages; mainly English and German, but there are other ones to be heard as well.

Now what? He needs to contact Kairi. And Forrest’s dad, that one guy is his dad right? They don’t really know each other so that would make it extra awkward. Make a post about it on the BBS. Find another god... Damn it all. Sure he’d been feeling a little inadequate serving Forrest, because many of Forrest’s duties involved things that D2 could not help him with, but he had liked being Forrest’s shinki and he’s not exactly happy about this happening. ]

Comments

[reformedsinner]

[A low bark heralds the appearance of Hakkai around a nearby corner, on his usual morning dog-walking routine. He stops short, the absence of the usual temple catching him by surprise, and his eyes widen.]

D2?

[That's Forrest's temple-- his god's-- that should be here.

Bon barks again, and takes off towards D2 to tackle his friend.]

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 doesn't initially notice the approach, somehow managing to miss Bon's first bark. The cats, though, do hear it, and the one at D2's feet alerts him just before he hears Hakkai's voice.

With a stray plate that's been broken in half in his hands, he turns in time to see Bon incoming. The plate definitely breaks further when D2 drops it in the face of Very Large Dog making impact. ]

Oof. Hey, you. [ He gives some scritches to Bon. ] Moin- [ German is less helpful than English here, oops ] Good morning, Hakkai. [ And to Bon: ] You watch your paws now, big guy.

[reformedsinner]

[Bon drops back down, tongue lolling in a happy pant as his paws -- each nearly the size of D2's broken plate -- hit the ground. Hakkai's not too far behind his dog, but he stops a few steps away from D2, looking around.]

Good morning.

[And, meeting D2's eyes:]

... Forrest?

phone tag so no coding

[smilingbullet]

[ There is a tired meow coming from the kitten in his pocket, and the tiny cat bats an offended paw at Bon. Be careful. D2 looks away from the animals and the broken shards and back up at Hakkai. ]

If I'd hazard a guess, he's gone.

[reformedsinner]

[Bon sits immediately, eyes fixed on the little cat as he emits another small woof. He knows how to show proper respect to cats. He's lived with enough of them.]

Ah-- I'm sorry.

[Hakkai winces at the confirmation, but it's no more than he'd expected.]

Do you need somewhere to stay? For yourself, and these cats?

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 gives Bon an appreciative pat and he picks the kitten out of his pocket when it squirms to get a better look at the large furry not-cat. He leaves the animals to getting to know each other though he keeps an eye on them (dog used to cats or not, that size difference can be a bit dangerous) and picks up the plate shards. ]

Mmm..

[ He rubs at his eyes with the back of his hand. There's not really anything to do about somebody disappearing, but picking up the pieces gets tiring. ]

More the cats than me, particularly the tiny ones. [ The kittens don't exactly have a lot of fur, on top of being kittens.

One of the adult cats has made way over to Hakkai to inspect him. ] I'll be fine on my end somehow though, no worries. Ah- [ He spots a boot under a bush. Considering he's not even wearing socks at the moment, that's great. ]

[reformedsinner]

I'm sure you will, but can't a friend offer some help?

[He crouches down to offer his knuckles to the cat at his feet for inspection, and looks around, counting cats. Far too many to carry, even with two of them, for a long walk.]

I'll teleport the cats back to my temple. It is a little cold out for them here, isn't it?

if this is good

[kokuyoyo]

[Frankly, Chikusa usually gets up later than this... but he has plans today. Plans that require him to get up, and get clean, and dress into something that's honestly absurd levels of pink and red. It's fine, he guesses, but still...]

[However, as he makes his way out of the temple, he can't help but think that there are a little more cats than usual around. And that's impressive, considering they already have quite a few cats as it is.]

[It becomes a little more clear when he spots D2.]

....Catwatching?

yup, sure

[smilingbullet]

[ There are indeed more cats around this morning, one of which, a curly-haired ball of fluff, is going to inspect this new person's feet. D2 watches Keanu inspect Chikusa, and he smiles, a little awkwardly, at him, while he pets the hairless kitten in his lap. He's the shyest of D2's bunch, and not yet set on exploring with the rest. ]

For a little bit at least, yeah. Hi, Chikusa, morning.

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa tends to be appealing to cats, apparently, considering the many nekomata that tend to wander in and out of Hakkai's temple like they own the place. Plus Bon, plus their goat, plus Mukurou, plus his boyfriend... Maybe Chikusa is just appealing to animals. It's possibly easy to see why he's appealing to cats, at least, since he patiently just slouches in place while the fluffmonster comes over to check him out. No sudden movements, no sharp staring... Just someone so still as to be part of the scenery.]

[Cats like that sort of chill, apparently.]

[Anyway, his attention is still on D2 right now, and he blinks slowly.]

...Hey. Are you staying here too...?

[Hakkai seems to gather people, somehow, for some reason.]

[smilingbullet]

[ Chikusa has a special kind of charm. Hopefully Chikusa won't be a good scratching pole instead of a good climbing tree.

D2 looks back down at the cats, and he shrugs almost barely. ]

Not permanently otherwise I don't know.

[kokuyoyo]

[He can manage either, honestly, although preferably not on these clothes...]

[The response has him blink at D2 for a moment, not quite understanding for a second... But then it clicks into place. Oh. He knows this kind of language. It's one that's not entirely uncommon in the Far Shore... and which he's experienced already.]

[...Well. This is a weird position to be in.]

...Has Hakkai fed you yet?

[smilingbullet]

[ He's not turned into either one yet at least, he needs to pass the examination first.

It's always awkward and he feels a bit lost every time he doesn't have a god. In the end it's something that he needs, since it's the closest to a superior commander he has these days. (This is a reason why he would be a bad god. He prefers getting orders rather than giving them.)

Not wanting to call attention to someone disappearing yet because it would sour a supposedly good day that has important things going on makes it more awkward.

D2 pets a spot by the kittens ear and hums. ]

Well.. He tried? If I eat now I will have zero appetite for that brunch I'm supposed to go to.

[ On top of not having done his usual morning workout, Forrest being gone has left him without an appetite overall. He really will be unable to eat anything if he eats before his first date. And he doesn't want to ruin Chikusa's and Minako's hard work. ]

[sing_for_me]

[ ooc: lemme know if you'd like me to change anything! ]

[ She should probably be using this time to get ready for the day, but there was still a bit of time for a walk. For a change of scenery, she teleported to a different part of the heavens She needed some of that air anyway. Dates weren't..things she did. Ever. She needed to rehearse how to politely turn down and apologize to whoever ended up having to meet her later.

She's taken out of her thoughts by a small meow, two meows..three..? Alex looks around, following the sound until she finds a familiar face. ]

D2? What are you doing out here so early..?

[smilingbullet]

[ If she's looking for all the meows, there are a lot of them. Meowww ]

Oh. Alex, hey. I'm just, y'know, doing some ground work.. cleaning..ish.. Sort of.

[ He wonders if it would be possible to salvage any of the plants he planted in the garden. Most of them are gone, but some are still safely buried in the ground. It would depend on where he might end up, he supposed. ]

But this isn't early at all, anyway.

[sing_for_me]

[ That's when Alex starts to look around. The random assortment of items around him..the state of the area.. She'd seen this before. ]

D2..was this..?

[smilingbullet]

[ While she looks around, D2 continues picking up the pieces of months in one place that were still left. A cat is batting at something sticking out of an overturned pile of dirt and D2 finds one of his swiss army knives. That's good, if he doesn't find his any razors he'll need it to shave if he doesn't have time to pick something up at a store. ]

Yeah, it was.

[sing_for_me]

[ Alex watched him for a moment before crouching down in front of him, stopping him by gently touching his wrist with the tips of her fingers. ]

What do you need?

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 stops moving mid-motion; he was in the middle of brushing dirt and snow off of the knife and was intending to wipe it down, so it didn't rust if he let it lay for a while.

He looks at her hand, he shifts his gaze up at her.

He shakes his head and shrugs. ]

I dunno. Priority's figuring out what to do now, ain't it?

Better late than never, right?

[pure_radiantics]

[ D2 is a good friend who made an attempt to tell Kairi about Forrest. The problem is that while D2 was reconciling with that, Kairi was losing Hajime and her temple in the same moments. As a result, all of Kairi's belongings were scattered, including her phone. All she could do was call for Nimbus and head over to Forrest's temple as soon as she could.

She saw what remained long before she landed.

By the time Nimbus descends to the ground low enough for D2 to see her, Kairi's hands are over her face and she's sobbing uncontrollably. She'd held it together in front of Davesprite, but this is too much for one day.

She pulls her hands down to around her arms and looks up towards who she's pretty sure - through her watered eyes - is Forrest's former shinki and her longtime friend. ]

D- D2... no... no!

[ Her mind is going to the conversation with Nia. She'd asked what Kairi would do - where she would go... and Kairi had wanted to follow Forrest. Now she doesn't even have that option. ]

I- I'm- so- so....

[ She's reaching out for him with one hand now. She could really use a hug. ]

Yep, it is!

[smilingbullet]

[ Vigilance is important, but it seemed his had lapsed for a moment, because he didn't notice her right away.

It is alarming to see Kairi so broken up. Though it's understandable he supposes (he doesn't really know how experienced he is in the proper relationships department), when somebody you've been seriously dating disappears all of a sudden. No matter how used to the thought of people disappearing into thin air one may be, important people disappearing is painful. ]

Kairi...

[ D2 drops the red hard-plastic folder he had been checking. Most of the papers was gone anyway, he would have to more or less start over with his maps. With no hesitation, because honestly he could use a hug too, he pulls her in for a hug.

What can he say right now, really? He doesn't know. ]

;w;

[pure_radiantics]

[ She'd felt the despair creeping in when she realized Hajime's temple was gone. This was so much worse. There was the burning sensation of a start to blight that Kairi knew all too well despite only having experienced it rarely. It was down in her feet right about now, around the ring that she wore on a toe, one of many gifts from Forrest.

And instead of bottling it all up, letting it out - along with the hug from someone who understands a little of what she's going through in that very moment - helps abate the worst of the blight. For now.

She cries for a long minute into his shoulder while hugging tight to her friend, having slid off of the cloud to lean against him. She hopes that a part of D2 understands that she's sad for him too, but she just can't convey it right now. She couldn't cry in front of Davesprite; they were too distant, despite living together. Meanwhile, Kairi and D2 had seen and experienced a lot together. He knew how many people she'd lost, and she knew how many gods he'd cycled through. They both knew how D2 came to be at Forrest's temple too - on Kairi's recommendation.

And now they were both adrift. Two shinkis without gods. ]

Sorry... I'm so sorry.

[ For everything. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ Loss is a difficult thing. He's dealt with it a lot even before this, but experience is not making things much different. He can deal with it somehow, with a little time he'll be able to move on because that's what you have to do- at least they're not in the midst of battle, so they have the time to deal with the loss right away, instead of being forced to push it into the future. He's lost CO's before, but it's different when you've bonded on a more personal level. But D2 is not relevant.

He's not entirely clear on if anything else has happened before Kairi came to the site of Forrest's temple, but there is something more weighing on her mind. Finding Forrest gone was probably the straw that broke the camel's back. Maybe. He hopes there's not more that she's going through, but he doesn't trust the Heavens (even if it's technically not the Heavens' fault, supposedly).

His grip around her tightens a little, though he has to keep in mind to not use too much strength. Kairi is one of his oldest and closest friends here and he hates seeing her in pain. ]

Me too, I'm sorry.

[pure_radiantics]

[ ... Hajime's gone too.

She mumbles it into his shoulder, but they're close enough that he may still hear her, or hear enough to gather what she meant. Kairi's body goes from tense nerves while sobbing to more of a still tension. Little by little, she's starting to reckon with what's going on around them. ]

It's just like before.

[ That's mumbled too, but louder this time. ]

Dust and rubble everywhere. I could barely tell a building had ever been there.

[ Just like here. ]

[smilingbullet]

[ He hears. His hearing might be a little damaged by nearly two decades of gunfire and bombs and grenades, but he still hears, and sure he didn't really know Hajime but he knows of her and he hurts for Kairi. He rubs her back, thumb moving and hand close to her shoulderblade. ]

Yeah... It's... like nothing ever happened, like it ws a lie.

[ Why does the temples disappear? Why can't they remain, even as ruins? It's like whatever is causing it, be it the Heavens or not, is trying to sweep the time that a temple, the person, the people, belonging to it, under the rug. ]