castle rooftop; no journal

[firsttsurugi]

[that had been a far longer sleep then he had thought. dreaming, endless darkness, the works. some good and bad, but this was longer then expected. and as he groggily came to, a bit of a headache and a woozy feeling, he felt a little...inverted. more vertical and not horizontal. and dare he say it...]

....uh...wha...

[upside down?]What the...

Comments

[notmachoish]

[have a Komui calmly standing beside the cauldron. what, it's Halloween-y, all in the spirits of the holiday, right? he adjusts his glasses a bit higher on his nose, casually reading over whatever paper is clipped to his clipboard - it looks like the plans for the cauldron's construction.

when he hears the sounds of Cloud stirring, he glances up; the man is being precariously balanced by an intricate system of chains at his waist - binding his arms to his body - and his ankles. Komurin is manning a pulley on the ground a few feet away from Komui.]

Oh, you're awake. I was beginning to think sedating you had been a bad idea. It would've been unfortunate if you'd taken much longer and fallen in before regaining consciousness, wouldn't it?

1/3

[firsttsurugi]

[that voice. wtf that VOICE. he looks to the side of the cauldron to see who that happens to be]

K-Komui...?

2/2

[firsttsurugi]

[Cloud will proceed to struggle oh-so-helplessly now]

W-What the hell?! Have you completely lost your mind? Let me down!

[notmachoish]

Don't be so dramatic. And you might want to be a little more careful about how you word things. If I "let you down" right now, you'd fall right in, wouldn't you?

[he takes a step closer, crossing his arms over his chest]

Let's have a little heart-to-heart, Cloud. Just you and me.

[firsttsurugi]

(Kind of hard to do that while I'm hanging over lava!)

Look, if this has anything to do with Lenalee, I haven't--

[notmachoish]

[what's THIS? Komui climbs the little step-ladder next to the cauldron, sticking his arm out and positioning the picture right in front of Cloud's face. yup, it's him mackin' all over his little, adorable Lenalee.]

You haven't what, Cloud? By all means, explain yourself.

[firsttsurugi]

!

[shocked he is definitely. but...was Komui snooping through his memories? who knew what else he had of his? his dark secrets, his happy moments, what did Komui find?!]

Where did you get that?

[notmachoish]

[the pulley drops him an inch or two]

I'm the one asking the questions, Cloud. [pats him]

[firsttsurugi]

Ah--! [okay. he'll ask questions later when he's not in Komui's hands]

It was a loss. For some reason whenever somebody said my name I had to kiss them. I wouldn't make this kind of thing up.

[notmachoish]

That's no excuse. [tosses the photo into the cauldron... and it sinks, burning] You went near her despite being on this loss and knowing what might happen, didn't you?

[firsttsurugi]

[go ahead! he'd rather forget anyway] She came to me. And I hadn't figured out how my loss worked at the time. Besides, she kicked me and... [kind of embarrassed about all of that. he still hasn't apologized for that incident]

1/2

[notmachoish]

[looking bored] You're still making excuses?

[notmachoish]

[the pulley drops him another two inches]

I'm not impressed.

1/2

[firsttsurugi]

! Komui! Wait, I...!

[firsttsurugi]

... [he was gonna have to actually talk. not just sugarcoat the excuses. truth or not, it seemed that maybe this would help. at least, he hoped. calming down, he let himself hang there, as if defeated, and he sighs]

It's all my fault. I was too stupid to see what would happen. Even if I didn't mean to, I still feel bad for having done it... I should have run. I should have stayed away from her... Lenalee's an important friend to me, but the last thing that I would want to do is...ruin that. Guess it's a little too late for that.

I can't tell you that what you're doing is wrong, because you're looking out for your sister. Your family... (Something that I...) She's something worth fighting for, and even if this is kind of...stupid

[notmachoish]

[Komui watches him for a few seconds, obviously surprised at the long explanation he received in response to his prompting. apparently this method was... well, expedient in getting what he wanted out of this fellow.

but honestly, if it was just about the kiss? he wouldn't have gone to such lengths. it was a culmination of a few... disturbing... things he'd read in the journals, not any of which he enjoyed.

so, he stares at Cloud for a minute before sighing, crouching so they're both eye-to-eye.]

I can understand that, Cloud. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to your plight. You were put in a bad situation by the castle, isn't that right? But you made some bad choices... It's something that, considering the circumstances, I can forgive - if only because you got your just dessert.

That, and my sister still seems very fond of you. [he clears his throat before sitting on the top of the ladder cross-legged, clipboard resting in his lap

...and the pulley drops another few inches]