WHAT: Avi arrives in Vallo and gets an absolutely terrible welcome party WHERE: The Forest WHEN: When Avi arrived in Vallo, before the kid plot WARNINGS: Some like, real minor violence? Trolling STATUS: Complete
AI landscape sims were predictable in specific ways, if you knew where to look. Sure, they’d gotten nearly indistinguishable from real life, especially once humanity had cracked the code on alien tech, but that ‘nearly’ was hauling a lot of weight there. To a kid like Avi, who’d grown up staring at images of the lost world from the cold nothingness of space… well, he’d had plenty of time to learn the tells. Waves repeated after a while, on a loop. Bird song became repetitive, if you listened to it long enough. Everything felt very rehearsed, and no sound or sight or smell overlapped another. It was very coherent, which was bullshit, Avi knew, because the world was chaos and AI was neat. You had to look really closely for a long time to parse the repetitive textures, but it was there in the details.
This forest was chaos. It was either real or the best damn sim he’d ever seen. Better than anything he’d cooked up, at any rate.
Avi, in the middle of losing his damn mind, was at least appreciative of that little fact.
So he’d never seen a forest in real life. The ground was a lot squishier than he’d anticipated. Gaea Station, made of worn metal, never sank under his weight. It must have rained here recently. Rain - he’d experienced that on Chrysothemis. What a soggy disappointment of a planet that had been. He’d thought Gaea Station was shitty, but it turns out that shitty was a state of mind you took with you. Poetry.
Back to that whole “suddenly in a forest” thing, when only ten minutes before, he’d been in space. Back to that whole “losing his damn mind” thing.
Avi was a pragmatist. Okay, so he was in a forest, and he shouldn’t be in a forest. He was bleeding from a wound on his head, which - admittedly - could potentially have introduced this illusion of a forest, what with getting clunked on the head and all. But Avi had been out as queer for like seven years now; he’d had his ass beat by Warbreeds harder than this. Had one head wound, you had them all. Okay. So he was minorly injured, he was lost in a (fucking) forest, and he was alone.
So he started walking. Why not. What else was he supposed to do? He somehow thought going insane would be more enlightening.
Katou was… well, Katou was feeling better than he had in a long time. It had been three months since he’d gone to Hell. Not the Hell of his own world, which actually wasn’t too bad so long as you stuck to the upper levels. He’d spent a lot of time in Gehenna with Kira and Setsuna and Kurai and all the rest of them, making plans and harassing the cute little angel Raziel and just generally hanging out, insomuch as that was possible when the world was ending. It had been some of the best times of his life. Or … death. Or whatever the fuck. Existence. He recalled his Hell with some degree of fondness.
Whatever Hell Vallo had sent him to had been, well, Hell and he’d spent the last few months in a funk over it. And then he’d been sent to the future, which had also sucked. But he hadn’t sucked. Not there. He’d saved people. He’d saved Hopper, had maybe he hadn’tsaved El in the strictest sense of the word, but had stopped her from doing things she’d have never forgiven herself for. For the first time, he felt like maybe there hadn’t been some mistake when he’d been sent to Vallo instead of burning up in the apocalyptic star he’d unleashed on his world.
He’d had the pieces of Kira’s sword for months. Had stared at them almost every morning since they’d arrived, wondering if he should try to put the pieces together again when he’d been the one to break it – and then the world – in an attempt to kill Lucifer. But he’d asked Brigitte to reforge Shinranui a couple weeks ago. It was whole and pleasantly heavy in his hand, and he was absolutely going to use it to slay the manticore some farmer had seen terrorizing his sheep. The cash was good, and the job would pay for most of a real nice drum set that he’d been eyeing up.
Except that the forest was big, and, as it turned out, Katou didn’t have the first clue how to actually track a manticore. He’d briefly considered stealing one of the farmer’s sheep to use as bait, but he was pretty sure that El would be pissed off if she ever heard of it, and so he’d put that thought aside. His strategy right now was to wander around calling “Here, kitty kitty,” every now and then and hoping for the best.
He heard the snap of something stepping on a twig and grinned. He stalked toward the noise. “Here, kitty, kitty,” he sang, just before he leapt out from the bushes, sword raised high and…
And he was pretty sure that wasn’t a manticore. He frowned. Lowered his sword so it rested on his shoulder. Tilted his head to the side. “Hey, you ain’t hiding like, a scorpion tail back there, are you?”
Avi was not. Avi had red hair frizzing mightily in the humidity, and the scrawny, angled look of someone that had been malnourished from birth. What he lacked in scorpion tail he made up for in chutzpah, and at the first realization that he wasn’t alone, he drew the laser pistol that had been languishing at his hip and aimed it, hands steady.
“Hi,” he said pleasantly, and deliberately placed a finger on the trigger. “I will absolutely-positively use this, so level with me - what the fuck is going on?”
He would shoot, yes. Avi didn’t bluff. At least, he wouldn’t generally bluff - the fact that the laser pistol was as broken as the day is long was beside the point. Also besides the point was the fact that the person addressing him looked to be around his age. And carrying a sword? Whatever. A sword was better than a broken pistol so Avi tried to appreciate the aesthetic.
Katou’s eyes narrowed at the sorta-gun that was pointed at him. Generally, Katou didn’t enjoy having weapons pointed at him, and this was no exception.
He lashed out with the sword, using the tip of it to knock the pistol away from him, and in three strides and less time than it would’ve taken if he were still entirely human, he was behind the man – Red, Katou decided – his left arm braced across his chest to stop him from doing anything stupid and his right gripping the sword that was now pressed against Red’s neck.
“Hey,” he responded, just as pleasantly, and continued in a sing-songy voice. “In these parts, it ain’t considered polite to point weapons at people. So, why don’t we put away our little toys, put up our hands, and play nice, huh?”
By we, he meant Red. Katou wasn’t going to be putting nothing away.
Well. Shit. Avi had never been great at fighting; he’d been fucking off of drills ever since he could get away with it, and he certainly hadn’t been keeping them up since joining Systems. A laugh caught in Avi’s throat, something aimed to be careless and coming off more like strangled panic. It wasn’t advisable to laugh when there was a sword to your neck. It probably wasn’t advisable to go with “snide” as a response, either, but Avi had never been good at eating crow.
“Guess you’re not polite, huh?” He gave an experimental wiggle to see if he could duck out of Katou’s grip, but-- nope. Fuck. With a sigh, he stilled, careful where the sharp end of that sword dug into his throat. “Okay, okay, got you. Loud and clear. Consider me disarmed. Helpless.” He pitched his voice to something flirtatious, if flirtation was built of poisoned knives. “Pliant.”
It was a good thing that Katou was standing behind Red, so he couldn’t see the annoying red that rose to his cheeks. Katou was usually the one who did the obnoxious, inappropriate flirting, and he wasn’t used to having that turned against him.
“Ain’t no one ever accused me of being polite,” he said, the annoyance creeping into his voice. He took another moment before he dropped the sword from Red’s neck, patted him condescending on the cheek, and circled around to in front of him again. He gave him a proper once over, now that he wasn’t focused on not getting shot.
He frowned, resting the blade of Shiranui against his shoulder again. “I’ll chalk your lack of manners up on that head wound of yours. Should probably go get that looked at. You new around here, Red?”
Avi didn’t bother retrieving his stupid-ass broken gun, crossing his arms over his chest and returning Katou’s once-over with one of his own. Albeit with a squint. His vision was shit, after all, and he’d never had glasses. Avi wasn’t great with people, but he was great at sizing them up. The blond in front of him wasn’t a Warbreed, obviously, but nearly was as fast as one. Trained by someone important, maybe. Off-station? He couldn’t figure the sword. That was the weird detail he kept circling back to. Who the hell used a sword?
“Why the sword?” he asked, because he didn’t really care about answering any of the blond’s questions and he had blown through any interest he might have had in his own concussion. Avi’s downfall was always in the details. He couldn’t abide by shit that didn’t scan. “You clearly knew what a gun was, so a sword’s a choice. I’d say you brought a sword to a gun fight, but hey, that didn’t go badly for you, so okay. And,” he added, gesturing at Katou’s outfit with a hand, “you’re not dressed like the sword’s part of a costume, which implies that it might be ceremonial - you know, one of those things Command might give out as an award of valor or whatever. But as someone who intimately felt that fucker against my neck, I feel compelled to vouch that it isn’t just a wall ornament or trophy.”
Avi babbled when nervous. It was a bad habit. Shutting up was only accomplished by knocking him unconscious. …hence the head wound, honestly.
Katou stared, and then, slowly, ran his hand down his face. There was a reason he wasn’t in defense. He liked the idea of getting paid for violence, but frankly, the idea of him being the first point of contact for any new arrivals just felt like a situation where no one won.
Well, that, and the fact that while Katou was great at following orders, he’d much rather choose whose orders he followed. There was Setsuna and Uriel back home. Here was El. Having one of them defense stiffs telling him what he could and couldn’t do just made him grit his teeth.
“The sword belonged to a friend,” he answered shortly, which was about all he wanted to say on the topic, until he thought about it a moment longer. “Also it’s fucking badass.” He pulled his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, brought it to his lips to remove a smoke, and then held the open pack to Red so he could grab one if he wanted. “As for the rest of all that, just forget it. There ain’t no Command or whatever here. You got magically transported to another dimension. Welcome to Vallo. Let’s get walking.” He tilted his head in the direction he’d last seen a Waypoint and started walking.
“Where are we going?” Avi took a cigarette and squinted at it before ultimately holding it in his palm like a bug. He notably was not following Katou. “Is this… what is this?” Not that he expected an answer. The other man hadn’t given him an answer on why a sword, no matter how badass it was or wasn’t, and honestly, fine. Avi had a lot of questions. First of all - magic? Another dimension? Vallo?
On the plus side, Katou didn’t seem like he wanted to kick Avi’s ass - he’d only retaliated with violence when Avi had, and he seemed fine with keeping his sword lowered now. Avi could work with that.
One more question. “Who are you?”
“Who, where, what,” Katou muttered, rolling his eyes. It took him another two steps before he realized that the new arrival wasn’t following along at his heels like an obedient puppy like he should’ve been. He wondered if he should prod him along at sword-point. If Katou wasn’t gonna go out hunting a manticore then he wanted to at least go home and toss on a movie or something.
He sighed heavily. Sara or someone would probably complain if he did it, and frankly, Sara scared the shit outta him.
“That’s a cigarette,” he said, swapping the pack of smokes with the lighter that was in his pocket. “You smoke it, like this,” he said, lighting his smoke. He inhaled, and then exhaled through his nose.
“We’re going to the city. They’ll give you the rundown of this place, show you some video with a buncha explosions, give you some cash, and send you on your way. And you can get that bump on your head looked at by someone who knows what they’re doing.” He frowned thoughtfully at the wound. Head wounds bled a lot and buddy was wandering around without a care in the world, so maybe it weren’t as bad as it looked.
“And me, my name’s Katou. But you can call me shishou. Katou-sama. Sir. Master. You know, whatever your preference. I ain’t picky.” He shot him a cocky grin.
Avi stared at the cigarette, wrinkled his nose at the smell, and pocketed the one Katou had given him. What the fuck. Why would you light something on fire and put it so close to your face? Whatever, maybe he could sell it or trade it.
“Katou works for me,” he answered brightly, because fuck that Master/sir/whatever nonsense. Someone would just give him currency? Yeah right. Avi knew when he was naive about the world but he’d never be so naive as to think that he’d get something for nothing. But he sure as shit would get ‘nothing’ out here in the woods, so with a distinct air of begrudgement he started off after Katou.
“Avicenna,” he said after a moment. “Is me. Avi to most.” A pause. “Is that a fucking rabbit?”
It was a squirrel, but sue him; he’d never seen an animal before. Avi gave it a wide berth.
“Katou-sama,” Katou insisted, but he recognized defeat when he was handed it, and when Avi introduced himself, Katou responded definitively with, “Red.” He’d already named him, he’d be damned if he lets something like his real name change that.
“Is what a rabbit?” Katou asked, and followed Avi’s gaze to the squirrel. His first instinct was to ask if he meant the squirrel, but he bit it back before the words could escape. “Yes,” he deadpanned instead. “You never see a rabbit before?”
“No,” he answered, giving Katou a fleeting expression that clearly read you dumbshit, but didn’t elaborate. Katou didn’t have the coins to spend to unlock his tragic backstory - or, more accurately, Avi was paying him back for not answering that initial damn sword question. He’d hold a grudge for that, but never something as silly as a nickname. Red was fine. Red was nicer than most of the nicknames he’d had over the years.
The “rabbit” ate some sort of seed. It was cute. Avi was charmed. “Do you have a lot of rabbits here?”
“Christ, you ask a lotta questions, don’tcha?” Katou asked, but there a hint of amusement in his voice and the hint of a smile at the corners of his eyes that belied the annoyed way he rubbed the side of his head. It was kinda cute the way Avi looked at the squirrel. Katou hadn’t paid that much attention to the wildlife since he’d been a little kid.
“But yeah, we got a lot of rabbits here. Woods are crawling with them, and you’ll see ‘em in the city, too.” How did that one meme go? He looked up at the sky, trying to remember. “All sorts of animals. Foxes and mice and shit. Pigeons too.” He scanned the underbrush, and spotted what he was looking for fluttering from flower to flower near the Waypoint Crystal that had come into view. “There’s one over there,” he said, pointing at the butterfly.
“Asking too many questions is but one of a startling array of my character flaws,” Avi drawled, peering forward at the “pigeon”. Something dug at his brain - he’d never seen a butterfly in real life, but he’d seen images in the agoge of some of these flying things that had once populated earth. He’d even included them in some of the sims he’d made for Magnus, but an AI pigeon was nothing on a real one. The colors alone. The detail. The pigeon’s wing has a tiny flaw in it, a tear. “Pigeon” wasn’t a word he associated with them, but hey, local dialect, local slang, he wasn’t a fucking expert on any of this.
Foxes. Mice. “Are there otters?” He asked after a beat, his voice muted. For that was what his mess had been called on Gaea - the Otter mess. He had no real concept of what animal it was, not really, just like he didn’t know what “sama” was, or Japan, or anything like that. There was so much he didn’t fucking know. So much that had been lost. He hated not knowing things that seemed so basic to Katou. Avi didn’t scowl, not exactly, but the curiosity in his gaze dulled to resentment.
“Yeah, otters too,” Katou said. He briefly debated what he could pass off as an otter – maybe a dog, if they stumbled into one between the Waypoint and the DOA offices? – but then disregarded it. Otter was a weirdly specific animal to ask about all special-like, he’d leave that one alone. He cocked his head to the side and listened for water, but didn’t hear any nearby.
That was probably for the best anyway. The sooner he was free of this newbie the better. “You gotta find a river or some water or something for them though,” he said instead. He was in reaching distance of the crystal now. He slid the sword into the sheath on his back and thrust out his hand, palm up, at Avi. “Alright, come on,” he said.
Avi stared at Katou with one eyebrow raised, having absolutely no fucking clue what a crystal Waypoint was.
“Are you asking me to dance?” he eventually settled on as the appropriately snarky question.
Katou stared, stunned into silence for a long moment. Then he snorted. “Only if you ask nicely,” he said. “Right now, we’re gonna take a little trip through this magic rock here and I’m gonna hand you off to the suits at the DOA. If you ain’t holding onto my motherly hands you’ll probably end up lost the first time and I don’t got time to chase you all around the island. So come on.” He flexed his fingers in a grabbing motion. “Grab on.”
There was a lot about whatever was spilling out of Katou’s mouth that Avi didn’t much like the sound of. Magic rock? Little trip? Suits? Mysterious acronyms?
“This is an island?” was the question Avi finally settled on, because fuck all the rest of this. His head hurt and he was cranky and hungry and while nature had been magical for a bit, he was already over it. “Oh, fuck me. Whatever.”
With the air of someone who had a suspicion that he was about to be made fun of, he grabbed Katou’s hand.
"Yeah, it's an island," Katou said. "Look, they don't pay me to explain shit to people so you're just gonna have to keep your pants on and wait until I get you to someone they do pay."
He closed his fingers around Avi's and placed his hand on the crystal, losing his lazy drawl to say clearly, "The Crossed Quills."
He felt the familiar tug above his naval and the strange feeling of the ground leaving his feet as he got sucked into the crystal, and then he was spat out on the other side at the Crossed Quills, tightened his grip so Avi wouldn't pull away in a panic, and, without giving him a chance to ask any questions, made two more leaps, to Morningside and then the DOA offices.
He dropped Avi's hand. "This is your stop."
Avi had felt sudden acceleration before - hell, he’d stolen a military-class warship - and still he wasn’t what one call “ready” for the actual act of traveling via a waypoint. Similar tech existed in his world, sort of, if you squinted, but it wasn’t as if he’d used it. And so while he didn’t exactly make it through with his dignity fully intact, he managed to stiffly ride out the strange sensation of waypoint travel, finally staggering away from Katou with a loud “fuck.” Did he prefer the rabbits? He probably preferred the rabbits.
Avi turned to ask yet another question--
Katou shot Avi his best shit-eating grin at the explicative. Could he have given him a little more warning? Maybe. But this was more fun.
Avi wasn’t really a “punch first and ask questions later” kinda guy, being solidly short and half-starved and utterly uninterested in physical fighting, but damn, Katou really brought the urge out of him anyway. He staggered against the strangely swaying feeling of waypoint travel like he’d hit his head or had too much to drink, and finally managed: “Where do they have you working, Katou? So I can send my thanks later.” If that sounded threatening, fuck it. He stumbled toward the arrivals person, or someone who looked like them.
Katou laughed. “I don’t think my bosses at either the movie theatre or the bar are gonna care much, but you’re welcome to come find me at either one. Starcourt or Al’s.” He shot Avi a wink. “See ya, Red.” He raised a hand in a wave, placed his other hand back on the way crystal, and was gone.