InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "we are the weirdos, mister"

Ikeda Kiriko | 池田妃凛子 (apathyisboring) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2011-05-26 00:49:00

Entry tags:

kiriko, reizo

Who: Kiriko, Reizo
What: we're all gonna diiiiiieeeeeee
When: Ridiculous-o-clock
Where: Butterfly House bar.
Why: Because.

The rec room was empty - something to do with it being ridiculous-o'-clock, most likely. The only person who was usually awake at this time was Isao, and even he was passed out on one of the common room sofas, as Kiriko had earlier discovered. She should be asleep, too, really - she had, for a while, before vague nightmares had woken her up and left her lying awake and staring at the ceiling until she had successfull fought down the post-dream paranoia. Her eyes had adjusted enough that the room didn't seem dark at all, and feeling far more awake than one should feel at ridiculous-o-clock, she'd pulled herself out of bed and started wandering the house in her robe and slippers.

Three aimless tours of the place later and she'd wound up at the bar. The hands, sympathetic, poured her a drink, one she was still nursing as she watched a muted infomercial from the corner of her eye and tried her best to settle down. Some kind of food processor with a shark's face painted on it - Mystic Shark, the TV announced, as a man and woman with fake smiles took entirely too much pleasure chopping onions in front of the studio audience.

Kiriko went for another drink.

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some_other_dog
2011-05-26 06:07 am UTC (link)

Reizo’s schedule had become completely fucked since they’d moved in. His few constants were the weights, the bar, Kiriko’s room, and the bike he had stashed away in his room now. He didn’t like being cooped up. It wasn’t anything like prison, this fantastical place that seemed to surrender to his whimsy, but he still felt like a caged beast. It made him want to hit things.

Which he’d been on his way to do before he found Kiriko at the bar. He’d wandered past the games room on the way to the kitchen, intent on a sports drink or bottled water for after his time with the punching bag, but the sight of the dark-haired girl, all alone with alcohol in hand (and in a robe that hid -- well, he had a very vivid and wild imagination, and he could only hope that her nightclothes were half as interesting as what he was thinking of) had knocked the plans he’d just made out of his head.

He slid onto the seat beside her, much too quiet for someone so big, and leaned a little across her, making a show of reaching for the bowl of peanuts, but mostly eyeing her. Once he was sitting right again, the bowl somewhere between their hands on the table, he asked her: “What’re you doin’ up so late? I know a real good fix for imsomnia. And it ain't even illegal.”

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apathyisboring
2011-05-26 03:31 pm UTC (link)

Kiriko started. She had been lost in idle contemplation of this chopping shark thing, hadn't heard him coming, and barely noticed him at all until a big, unidentified hand was reaching for the peanut bowl. Her head snapped towards him and then rolled back as she sighed. Just Reizo - with a helpful solution for her to roll her eyes at, no less.

Raking a hand through her hair, she hunched forward over the bar, stretching her shoulders. Her response to him was hardly overwarm but she was glad for his company, and the thoughtful silence that proceeded her answer was hardly the uncomfortable sort.

"Can't sleep," she murmured, as if that wasn't already obvious. She hesitated to elaborate - a bit of a stupid holdover habit, one she knew better than to indulge, but which served as a stumbling block anyway. She lifted the glass to her lips for another drink.

"I guess all this end-of-the-world stuff's got me rattled," she said dryly, "Who'd have thought."

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some_other_dog
2011-05-26 11:11 pm UTC (link)

It was Reizo’s turn to fall silent. That was why she was here? He didn’t really think of her as the type to solve her problems with substance abuse, but there it was. The room was quiet except for the rattle of the yakuza boy going for handfuls of peanuts. He rested one elbow on the counter, and his chin on the heel of his palm, considering both the girl’s words and the hands that were standing at attention on the bar in front of him. He waved them off, not in the mood for drunken thumb wrestling.

“There’s no sense in worrying,” he told her sincerely, his voice making it clear he’d delivered this speech more than a few times. “The wheels are already in motion. We can’t do anything now but get ready for the fight that’s sure to come next. In the meantime, we should be enjoying ourselves.”

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apathyisboring
2011-05-27 01:12 am UTC (link)

Her face had already been cloudy, but now she looked even more petulant as she sulked over her glass, turning it this way and that and listening to the ice clink against the sides. No matter how many times he said it, she couldn't quite get her head around it - she felt jealous at the best of times and weak at the worst, which always came with a side of self-resentment.

"Hard to enjoy myself when I'm sitting around waiting for the hammer to drop," she muttered. "There's nothing I can do and I hate it. And even if there was, I definitely screwed everything up last time." She had lifted the glass to her mouth again, but paused, glancing at him over the lip of it. "We, actually," she added with cool nonchalance that suggested spreading the blame around, if nothing else, made her feel a little better.

She emptied the glass and set it back down, holding it between her hands and watching the ice melt. This, too, had been a stupid idea - she was more tired, but certainly no calmer. At least with Reizo around, she was no longer pathetic enough to be drinking without company. Grimacing, she fought down the needlessly defensive urge to explain that this was an unusual occurrence - he'd spent enough nights with her to know that, anyway.

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some_other_dog
2011-05-27 04:48 am UTC (link)

The boy clicked his tongue when she brought up his own involvement. It wasn’t a happy thing to think about, and the more he dwelled on it, the more it did seem cowardly. He tried to justify it to himself, but the closest he could come to softening the self-inflicted blow was recalling what Tachibana had said about them having no chance. There was a chance she was wrong, but there’d be just as big of one that she was right.

He sighed and tapped on the countertop, a wordless signal for a drink. He liked the bar. It was swanky and earthy, all glossy dark rosewood and even tones, a place where you could imagine serious people with serious problems downing serious drinks and nursing their serious drinking problems. Kiriko could belong there, in one of those classically sexy evening dresses, but her robe and the fact that the bar took up only a sixth of a room dominated mostly by a massive television and other such things really hurt the atmosphere.

“Half the stupid team was with us,” he said, the confidence that had been in his voice moments earlier evaporated, “and it wasn’t a cowardly thing to do. We had no chance, and when you look at it that way, no choice. When you’re the one staring down the barrel of a gun in the hands of someone who you know will use it, you can either be a brave dipshit who throws his life away, or you can give in to their demands and live with it, or at least live with it until a chance to fuck the stupid bastard sideways presents itself to you.”

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apathyisboring
2011-05-27 06:00 am UTC (link)

She watched him with interest as he deflated, called for a drink and started speaking, listening as a small, wry smile tugged at the corner of her lips, visible between the gaps of her fingers. Misery really did love company. She dropped the hand away from her mouth and leaned a little more heavily against the bar.

"I never said it was cowardly," she answered, smirk fading as she spoke. "So despite what you're saying, you were thinking it too."

"I don't know. Going back to living like that was... miserable." All but the most recent of her Millenium City memories were foggy, now, but she recalled with a pinched expression the feeling of being crushed by fate and duty and hopelessness, the tremendous relief that had washed over her at their arrival to the Butterfly House, and the subsequent shame that had settled in for having been scared enough to give up in the first place. "But it was better than being dead. Doesn't mean I'm pleased with myself.

Her slender arms folded one over the other and drew in 'til she was almost hugging herself.

"And who's to say it will be any different the next time? We're making plans based on nothing. Maybe we still have no chance. I'd say our best bet is just staying here, but... I hate thinking that I'm that weak."

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some_other_dog
2011-05-27 06:52 am UTC (link)

“Well, we have two options,” he started in between a gulp of peanuts, “we can either stay here for much longer than we should, which means you’d probably all end up fat and lazy, or we can get our shit together and at least try to beat them. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this place is pretty fucking cool, but if I have to stay here for much longer, I’m going to snap.”

He wiped his hand on his pants, ridding his fingers of the slightly sticky feeling they’d acquired from the honey-roasted peanuts, and downed the drink the hands had brought him. Reizo was, unsurprisingly, a very simple drinker. Surprisingly, and much to his chagrin, he was also a light one, so he would have to watch himself or be hammered within the next couple of shots.

He ran one big, slightly-sweet-smelling hand over the dark bar top, traced the reflection of the harsher lights on the other side of the room reflecting off it, and let out a huge sigh.

“I don’t think we’re going to die. I’m not stupid, but I am arrogant and confident, and I guess.. we didn’t get stuck with such useless assholes in the end.” He seemed to cringe a little at admitting that. “They could be better, though. So much better.”

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apathyisboring
2011-05-27 07:18 am UTC (link)

"I don't get fat," she answered, indignant, clearing the most important matter out of the way first and foremost. She was pedigree! Thin and gorgeous was in the genes, and one of the few things she was genuinely grateful to her mother for.

She watched the hands with vague interest as they brought his drink - they were dutiful and able barkeeps with a knack for working out what you were in the mood for, but they also seemed to hover nearby to "watch" with increasingly disapproving posture the closer their patrons got to being completely smashed. Her attention turned to Reizo at the sudden heaving sigh and caught his hand tracing the lights while he talked. It suggested hesitance to her - possibly because it was a habit she'd repressed many times before to avoid suggesting just such a thing. Her eyes lifted to his face.

"Well..." she mumbled, "I don't think they like us much better, for the most part."

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some_other_dog
2011-07-01 11:10 pm UTC (link)

The yakuza boy shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t give a damn if they don’t like me. Better they find it out sooner than later.”

He lifted his glass, refilled, and gave it a gentle shake, just to get the ice tinkling again. He watched the hands through the amber of his drink for a time, adjusting hand and head to keep up with them as they moved around the bar top, and eventually sucked the shot down and clapped the glass back down on the counter.

“I’ve come too far, been through too much, and I’m not gonna let any shitty teenage feelings get in the way of what I got my eyes on. I’ll rely on them, because I need to, because maybe I want to a little bit, and I’ll be the most vicious, demonic son-of-a-bitch they’ve ever seen, because you don’t gotta like a monster to know you need it on your side.”

The smile that spread across his face was warm and, if you squinted hard enough, rueful.

“Hell, saving the world might even off-set some of the horrible shit I’ll be responsible for later.”

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apathyisboring
2011-07-02 04:42 am UTC (link)

"Oooh, look at you," she teased, the spark that had returned to her eye tempered with good-natured softness that reflected his expression. She leaned sideways, nudging him playfully with her shoulder. "Dramatic speeches, ready to save the world... very heroic."

The dark polished wood reflected her face as she looked down with a quiet laugh, leaning into him.

"Really, though, you give yourself too little credit. Bad people are still people. You have your good points." She glanced at the ceiling, reflecting on this for a moment. "Subjectively speaking, anyhow. And if you wanted to make friends, I think most of them know better than to try to interfere... Even if they don't appreciate your ambition quite like I do."

She chuckled at the last bit, canting her head and looking up at him with a sardonic smile as one of her arms curled around his.

"When it's do or die, I guess the both of us will do. Just, if our hands are tied much longer I'm going to end up making a bad habit out of this."

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some_other_dog
2011-08-05 03:08 am UTC (link)

The smile sharpened, turning into a toothy grin that was anything but heroic, when the girl ribbed him and leaned in against him. He just shook his head slowly twice, and pointed at his empty glass to indicate a refill, which didn’t arrive until the Hands had a brief conference.

His big hand came down on her smaller one, covering the back of it, long fingers slipping into the gaps to hold onto it, and he leaned his head in against hers. The vicious scar on the side of his mouth turned the smile he wore now into a lopsided smirk.

“We’ll be okay. If I don’t keep you safe, how’re we ever gonna take over the world?”

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