Aftermath [Active/Open]

[fanged_wings]

Who: Akito/Agito and you
Where: The Parlour
When: Day 4
What: A beat up teen finds a puzzle piece.
Warnings: Mention of the Crawling Boy's attack. Generic swearing warning. Also I will be slow as woa with tags.

Comments

[allthekeys]

The Parlor was a good room to set up shop in, as far as Lock was concerned. centrally located, close to the kitchen, and in the path of anyone who needed to get anywhere in the house.

It was a good room, which made him pause inside the door frame and look around before he crossed, checking for anyone who might have taken advantage of the location.

Some injured person sleeping on one of the couches, or he thought they might be sleeping. "Are you dead?"

[fanged_wings]

"Not as far as I'm aware," the light replied, opening his eye to look up at the boy. He didn't recognise him, but that was to be expected. They hadn't had much time to meet all the people here yet.

He shifted a little, trying to sit up, but gave up when it began to hurt too much and smiled apologetically at the boy. "I'd sit up, but it hurts too much." Akito didn't want to be rude after all, so an explanation was go.

[allthekeys]

"Did you get chewed on by something?" He frowned, unused to seeing injured people that managed to survive the night, rather than get taken down by the hellhounds.

The other boy didn't even look like much of a fighter. He paused, frowning as he considered just going on or helping and finally sighed, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a bottle. "Here." The pills were tiny and violently purple, Lock carefully tipped one of the tabs into his hand and stepped close enough to offer it.

[fanged_wings]

Akito winced a little at the memory. "Yeah...one of the ghosts..." He was kind of creepy...Akito did not want to run into one of them again.

He head-tilted at the pill, reaching out to take it. "What's it do?" he asked, examining it. That was a very bright shade of purple. The light placed it in his mouth, swallowing it and making a face. He hated swallowing pills dry, but he'd long since learned to live with it. Agito muttered at him to stop trusting people and tuned out, going to sleep.

[allthekeys]

"It'll dull the pain, helps shut down the receptors in your brain that process the input." He paused. "Or at least, that's what I was told they do, I really didn't understand what he was talking about. They make the pain not hurt so bad, so they're handy to have around." He shrugged faintly. "What'd you not duck fast enough or you just get caught in a corner? Sucks, but you learn their patterns quick enough. Don't fight ghosts, you won't win. Best to learn their limits and exploit them."

The words were offered with calm experience, relaxed and almost casually informative. "I'm Lock, who're you?"

[fanged_wings]

That was confusing but acceptable. He nodded understanding, listening curiously. "I didn't notice it," he admittedly, faintly sheepish. "It surprised me." By the sounds of it the boy had been here awhile...maybe he could learn something from him. He didn't know how to exploit a ghost, but...hm.

"I'm Akito," he replied, before tapping his eyepatch. "In my mind is also Agito. He's the fighter, and the reason we aren't dead." The painkiller was working slowly, feeling a tiny bit better. "It sounds like you've been here a long time, Lock-kun." Longer than Akito would ever like to be here.

[allthekeys]

"Yeah, they do that sometimes. But you learn their haunts and their triggers well enough and you can use them too." He offered a wry half smile that held little humor. "The learning curve here sucks, but...well. Survival, right?"

He frowned, head tilted as he tried to figure out what exactly he was talking about. "Are you...uh, Japanese? Cool, two people in one skull? Must be hard to get lonely."

[fanged_wings]

He nodded. "Yeah...I don't really want to die again..." That...hadn't been fun. "There's a lot for us to learn still..."

Akito nodded again in answer to the question. "Yup. And yeah, pretty much. It can be lonely sometimes, because we can't be together in this world, but...it helps." Particularly here. If he'd been here truly alone, Akito wasn't sure what he'd do.

[allthekeys]

"You'll get used to that, sometimes it's the only time you get a good night's sleep." Akito had the benefit of looking young, young enough that Lock didn't put his guard up automatically. "You'll have time, I think. To figure things out."

There was curiosity on Lock's face, interest in a topic he had no knowledge of. "Do you live in Japan or somewhere else?" His forehead furrowed as he studied the pair. "Is there a world where you can be together?"

[fanged_wings]

He didn't really like the sound of that, but sleep certainly sounded wonderful. He had to sigh a little at that though. "Kind of wish I didn't. But we'll do our best." It was all they could do.

Akito nodded at the question. "Japan. I lived there all my life, before coming here." He lifted a hand and touched his eyepatch lightly. "Kind of...we can make our own dream world in our mind. There, we can stand together. It's not the same as reality...but it's enough." So long as they were together, that was all that was important.

[allthekeys]

"That's all you can do here. Making too many plans just ends up with lots of frustration." The other boy shrugged, eyeing him curiously.

"What's it like, Japan? Are there really tall buildings and people everywhere?" He had been born here, his encounters with other worlds had been limited to stories people had told him.

"I bet there's probably a way here to split you up, if you actually wanted to do that. It must be nice to be able to build a dream world that detailed."

[fanged_wings]

He nods agreement with that. Planning wasn't going to get them anywhere at this point.

"Mmhmm. There's a lot of people. Not all the places have tall buildings though, but there's a few areas with them." Akito had been over most of Japan with his brother, so he knew it fairly well.

That though...he paused, blinking at Lock. "Split...us up?" He'd never thought of that before. Agito wakes in his mind at his shock, and growls. He doesn't like the idea. It's hard to protect Akito as it is. But the light wonders. "I didn't ever think that was possible..." Akito's a little stuck on this idea. Split them apart...?

[allthekeys]

"When someone told me, they said there were millions of people in Tokyo. That seems like far too many people. I can't..." It was hard to even think of people in millions or think on the number at all. It seemed so big and complicated and unapproachable number.

He nodded. "Yeah. Make it so you both had a body? I bet it could be done. This is the place where impossible things end up pretty probable after all."

[fanged_wings]

"There probably is. It's not like this place, after all." His words are a little muttered, as Akito's a tiny bit stuck on a certain other idea.

He hums uncertainly, lifting his hands to look at them. Even though he and Agito share the same body, Agito's always been more dominate on the right side, so Akito unconsciously thinks of that as his side. Looking at his hands, he sees it as looking at one of his hands and one of Agito's. "Be separate..." The light shakes his head to clear it. "I don't know...how can you separate two people when we both exist only in our mind? There's only one body here..." Akito's unsure about it. But it'd be nice to know, just in case...

[allthekeys]

"I know. But it's just...so many people." He settled in one of the chairs, watching Akito curiously, poker resting across his knees.

"Probably right down the middle. Put one of you in another body or something. Magic works weird, and it doesn't always need to make sense, you know?"

[fanged_wings]

Akito kind of wonders where Lock lived before arriving here now, to not know of that kind of thing. Maybe somewhere that was really sparsely populated...or maybe he'd just been here so long that he couldn't remember. That was a sad thought to think on.

He sighs and shakes his head again. "I guess that's true. A lot of this place doesn't make sense, after all...it's just strange to think on. I'm not sure it would be good though..." He rubs his neck, looking down. "Agito means a lot to me...if he got killed, or if I did...I don't know how the other would take it. Without him..." It's horrible to think of, and causes the dark to draw close in their mind, comforting him. "It'd be nice to be able to stand together, but in this place..." He just doesn't know.