riverviewlogs | there is no place in the world we do not belong

Where are you?

Who are you?

You awaken in the middle of darkness. No—that’s not the right word. Awaken implies sleeping previously, and you’re upright. There’s a layer of dirt caking your bare feet, an ache in your muscles. You haven’t just awoken, but you realize these moments are the first you remember experiencing in your entire life. Your life….what is that, exactly? Who are you? You don’t know. You’re not sure you know anything, or have ever known anything.

How long has it been, that you’ve been wandering around here? It feels like forever, even though your experience of consciousness has only lasted about twenty minutes up to now. You don’t ever seem to get any further. The moon sets, but the sun doesn’t rise in its place. You trip on a root in the darkness, before another moon rises instead. You’re frightened by it. Desperation for the light aches stronger and sharper with each passing step. You’re not so sure how many more of those you can manage; your body is small and frail, undernourished, though you don’t really know enough to be aware of it. You’re not even sure how old you are.

You’re afraid of succumbing to the darkness, though. The perpetual night. The yearning for light carries you forward, through moon after moon after moon, but finally it comes. It’s so bright, overwhelming, but you bask in it like a wilting plant.

(A stranger approaches in the distance, calls out to you, but you’ve already pushed yourself too hard. You try to focus on the light before it all goes dark again)

Edited 2017-10-13 07:14 (UTC)

[ It doesn't take long for Rin to think his way out of this memory. Mostly because, like all drow, he is absolutely not afraid of the dark. He was born from it, he was raised in it, and he's more comfortable in absolute darkness than he ever will be in harsh light. So he endures this foreign sense of fear, this sense of smallness. He grits his teeth, even as his lavender eyes burn red, seeing beyond what the average human can see. ]

How terrible to fear something so comforting.

[The feelings transmitted to Rin are perhaps inconsistent with the man as he is now, sitting on a bench outside a cafe calmly having tea. He looks up at the sound of the voice, and his expression shifts to a frown as he sees the other's discomfort. It's obvious what's happened, though he can't quite guess what it is that Rin is referring to.]

Ah...what did you see?

Darkness, mostly. Overwhelming, all-consuming. Fear manifest, it seemed.

[ He raises an eyebrow. ]

Ringing a bell?

[Ohhhh.]

Yeah. That's about the earliest memory I still have.

[He lets out a softly amused sound; nowadays, the dark isn't quite so alarming. The Tokoyami allows him to navigate in the dark, and without such a total lack of awareness of anything, it doesn't feel quite so suffocating. He knows now, too, that there's no meaning in light without darkness.]

I would say it's in the nature of humans, to fear the unknown.

[A beat. He thinks of a blind girl whose eyes were touched by the Ganpuku, who became able to see not only into the world, but the future, yet never change what she saw. I think I would rather live in the darkness, remembering the light, she'd said.]

...But it can be a relief in other ways, too, I suppose.

[Perhaps it's a blessing, then, to be able to embrace that comfort entirely, without the fear.]

I don't think I ever got your name.

Edited 2017-10-23 03:53 (UTC)

[ He shrugs at that. As can be plainly seen, he ain't human ... and the culture of the Underdark is an alien, brutal thing. Not that he misses it overly much. ]

You can just call me Rin.

[ He might leave it there, but the sensation of the memory chews on him still, pulls at him. ]

For the drow, darkness is a shield. A safe haven. It's the light that frightens most of us.

Ginko.

[He's never heard of a drow, before. Humans are the only sapient species in his world; the mushi of a different manner of existence altogether. He's not had much of a chance to ask the man questions before, but he's been intrigued from the outset by his unique features, and the confirmation that he isn't human only adds to Ginko's interest.]

Your species really doesn't require sunlight at all?

[Even some mushi, like the hihami, needed the sunlight; during eclipses, it split off into a root and a core, the core ascending into the sky so as to gather nutrients while protecting the root by calling other mushi to it, to provide shadow.....

The thought of a flesh-and-blood creature that could survive off no light at all--whose existence didn't depend on it even tangentially--it's somewhat strange to imagine.]

Edited (oops i hecked up a canon detail) 2017-10-23 22:47 (UTC)

[ Rin shrugs. ]

Makes me a little sick, actually.

[ Not so much anymore. Not after so much time on the surface. But he still doesn't enjoy it. ]

We were born in the dark. Most of us die there, too.

What about food?

[This is such a strange and fascinating phenomenon to him, honestly. He's utterly intrigued.]

Do you have crops and such that can grow in the darkness as well?

Ciel absorbed the memory, taking it in stride. It's more mild than any of his own, he could handle it well enough, but come out of it the teen couldn't help but stumble. The remembered exhaustion that wasn't his own confusing his own feet.

"What in the seven hells?" A memory, his mind registers. Not like the ones he'd seen so far, not a dream and not shown for all the network to see. His good eye flicked over towards the person he'd bumped into and-

yes, it was him. He wasn't entirely sure how he knew but it seemed right.

Ciel stumbles and bumps into Ginko, and he turns toward the source of the sensation. The boy seems to have regained his balance already, so he doesn't need to reach out to steady him.

Nonetheless, he asks: "Are you alright?"

He had to stare for a moment, equal parts confused and surprised. Had he not realized what had happened? He'd at least shared in the dream-memories so both involved had been aware after. This felt more real an exchange.

"I- yes, I'm alright." He had to remember his manners first and the straightened, glancing around them to ensure they didn't stand in anyone's way.

"Just what was that?" He could relate, a frail body, being malnourished. He'd spent time like that himself but he hadn't been left wandering and confused about who he was, where he was.

He hadn't realized, no, but he's experienced it enough times that he figures it out immediately. These incidents are becoming quite troublesome, aren't they...

"You'll need to tell me what you saw, first."

The trouble with it not being a dreamscape or a broadcast is that he has no way of knowing which memory was plucked from his mind at that precise moment. He's happy to explain, of course; has no cause to hide anything about himself, but he will need some manner of context clues first.

"Confusion." He answered immediately and then thought back to the details. "Confusion, aches, a lack of memory. And walking- for days?"

He didn't want to hold too tightly to memories that weren't his own. Especially that fear. Ciel himself had set himself on a path of darkness and fearing it wasn't acceptable.

Confusion could refer to any manner of things, as could aches, but it's the reference to walking and a lack of memory that finally solidifies what Ciel experienced enough for Ginko to be able to recognize it. The earliest memory he can reach...it must be distressing, for someone to receive it without any kind of context.

"That's right. My memories were devoured by a Tokoyami at some point in my childhood. I 'came to' in that forest, though I have no way of knowing how or why I was there."

Ginko's probably not even his real name, from what he knows about the Tokoyami now as a full-fledged mushishi. When you can't remember anything about yourself....come up with a name, any name, to escape--but you won't remember anything of your life before when you do.

"I'm sorry. Experiencing that must have been unsettling for you."

That didn't clear anything up for the teen, though the word seemed vaguely Japanese. Maybe he should have listened to Tanaka's stories more often when he'd been a while. That aside, it certainly sounded like a creature to be worried about.

"It's fine." He was confident enough in that, at least for himself. "I've experienced worse but I can't imagine how that must have been."

Well, he could but imagination could only take someone so far. "Did you find anyone you knew from before?"

Wandering like that, alone and without memory, couldn't have been even remotely safe. And there had been someone at the end there, calling.

If that wasn't the response he was expecting, Ginko doesn't show it. Ginko has met plenty of village children with ordinary lives...but he's also seen many that have suffered. Due to famine, or disease, or natural disaster...the influence of mushi, or the lack of it. Some could pose danger to humans, it was true, but an area barren of mushi was typically equally barren of life. Crops wouldn't flourish, and children born to such an area often were frail and sickly.

"I didn't. Or rather, if I have, they didn't recognize me, and I couldn't recognize them, obviously."

His hair and eye color aren't normal, he knows. And while he no longer has the specific knowledge of how they came to be that way, Suguro had suggested long ago that it too was related to his encounter with the Tokoyami. It's as good an explanation as any; he doesn't think about it much, having long since accepted the portion of his life that was lost to him forever.

"Most likely, I was traveling somewhere, but got separated from whoever I was with at the time."

And those people....are either dead or abandoned him intentionally. After all, Suguro had also been able to tell that his condition of attracting mushi had nothing to do with the Tokoyami trapped within him. If he had lived in a village, he would've only brought it the same kind of disasters he did to the village mushi-shi who used him to gain work before shooing him away.

Again, it's not something he spends a lot of time trying to figure it out.

And that was entirely alright with him. Ciel wasn't as willing to share but he also hadn't shared one of his own on contact, for which he was thankful. Hearing this, he could only imagine what this guy would think of what he'd done in the past. Then again, it was equally possibly to had shared something more pleasant, even if those memories were more rare.

"You can't possibly have changed so much since it happened." It wouldn't have occurred to Ciel that his hair and eyes were likely not their original color. One of his own eyes were changed but he never showed it and he wasn't about to guess anything equally supernatural to be in play there.

"There were no frequently traveled routes to look into later?"

Ginko's world doesn't have anything like demons that can be contracted with, really, so he wouldn't particularly have anything to compare it with; despite the fear in his own memory, Ginko as an adult bears no ill will against the Tokoyami in his eye. It was simply living, just as he was. The result is unfortunate, but there's nothing that can be done for it.

He simply shakes his head at the boy's remark. To some extent, he appreciates what Ciel is trying to do--give him some kind of hope for reconnecting with those people from his past--but there isn't much point dwelling on any of it.

"My hair and eye color aren't natural," he explains, "And my original name was lost in the encounter with the Tokoyami."

Simply put, there was just no information that could be used to connect him to his original identity; in those days, fingerprinting didn't exist, after all, nor were people aware of the unique DNA of every creature.

"There's no way to tell which direction I could've come from in the forest, either."

It's such a large forest, and there were many, many routes within it. Many ways to get lost, too.

Really, Ciel couldn't imagine not having memories of who he'd been, knowing where he'd been. Of potentially having things that could be used against him that he couldn't help. Or losing the resources he might have had.

"What exactly are Tokoyami?" The hair and eyes were slightly less of a curiosity, especially since he knows several non-humans. Only one had silver hair, but Ronald's was strange as well, with the two colors.

He wasn't a fan of wandering forests himself, so he'd never learned a lot about dealing with being in the forest, or tracking and trails. The only one Ciel had gone into willingly had been on a job for the queen.

Edited 2017-10-24 04:34 (UTC)

"Ah, right."

He's usually better at remembering to explain things as he goes, given the line of work he's in, but things have been strange at the quarantine, lately, and he hadn't realized he'd forgotten.

"Tokoyami is a species of mushi." Of course, that in itself is its own complicated explanation. He thinks it may be best to start from the beginning, here.

"It might be easier to explain with an analogy." He holds up his arm, and points to the fingers and thumb individually.

"Imagine that the thumb of your hand represents plant life, and the four fingers represent animal life." He points to the middle finger, then. "Humans would be here, at the farthest point."

Then, the thumb traces back down his palm, all the way to the wrist.

"Fungi and microorganisms would be here, where the various forms of life begin to meld together. But there is an even more fundamental form of life--"

And then, the thumb traces back even further, up past the arm and the shoulder...all the way to the heart.

"--Mushi. Close to life itself, in its purest form."

Edited 2017-10-24 05:49 (UTC)

He listened, thoughtful, trying to understand. Ciel was smart, he always had been, a genius at chess as a child, and an Earl at ten. So he was fairly sure he had the basic idea of it as he let his eye follow the trail Ginko made across his hand and down his arm.

"So... If I'm understanding correctly, they're spirits? Souls?"

That was the closest he could relate them to, and partly because of Undertaker's explanation about souls, life and death, when they'd been on the Campania. Before that, he might have scoffed a bit at the idea.

Ginko shakes his head, at that.

"No, mushi don't have souls." Aside from the lack of a physical body, it's the main thing that sets them apart from creatures of flesh and blood, such as themselves.

"They are of an existence separate from our own, part of our reality and yet removed from it at the same time. Few of them are capable of individual thought, and fewer still of anything we might call 'emotion.' "

They possess will, and some can become capable of learning, even speech, such as that one Watahaki he'd encountered...but for the most part, they simply existed.

"They are 'living', like animals, yet inanimate, like objects."

It's a confusing explanation, he realizes. As he'd told that boy, Shinra...it was difficult to explain a sensory experience like the presence of mushi, much as someone born blind would have no frame of reference for the colors red or blue. But Ginko is patient with it; he's had many years of experience answering these questions, and he's patient enough to continue with the conversation until Ciel is either satisfied with the answers he offers or is prepared to move on.

Edited 2017-10-24 06:54 (UTC)

Ciel was no expert but he thought every living thing had a soul. Except plants. So every sentient creature, and it did sound like they were sentient. At least someone of them. Suddenly, the teen was struck with an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude that he'd been born in England. It didn't seem like this would be easy to understand even if he'd been from this mans world.

"So the closer comparison would be the plants and fungus?" The question came out then he sighed, frustration directed at himself more than anything. "I apologize, this is a bit beyond anything I have experience with."

"It's alright. Most in my world don't have experience with them, either. Because they're so close to life itself, their existences can be rather ambiguous--many are unable to perceive them at all."

Even those who could see mushi didn't always understand them. Ginko himself has had many, many years to learn all he has.

"At any rate, it depends on the kind of mushi. Some have a greater sense of will than others."

An ominous bell tolls in the distance. Most of the villagers can't hear it, but the apprentice of the local mushi-shi can. You tell him it's nothing for him to worry about, and continue your "stroll." You find his mentor at the summit, where you knew he'd be. He smirks vaguely at you, as if amused to see you.

"Oh, you still have business with me?"

"Your foot's not injured, is it?!" Your voice is rough and angry, a rare frustration lancing through it. "All that time, you were beckoning a Kuchinawa in that inconspicuous place."

"What are you talking about?"

"That bell-like sound that's getting closer...that's the cry of a Kuchinawa. A mushi that eats guardians....mountain and swamp guardians, and takes their place."

"...It is also a mushi that will bring stability to those places. It is my mission to do this. Don't interfere."

He looks down, then, a deep grief evident in his eyes, weighing down his entire frame.

"The previous guardian was a magnificent one. It was a beautiful guardian whose figure was that of a giant old boar."

His grip tightens against his walking stick, fingers clenching around the wood.

"I am...to blame. I shouldn't have said what I did..."

But you're not listening. You grab at his arm, trying to tug him away from his perch. "Save the details for later. Get off this mountain now."

"It's too late. The Kuchinawa has already found me." He shakes his head. "A creature like the Kuchinawa ought to sit in the guardian's seat...it's too difficult for a human..."

You've already moved away from him, though, pouring something onto the ground. He asks you what you're doing, alarmed.

"I'm ripping the mugura from you."

"It's useless! Even if you could do that, there's no other recourse..."

"There must be something, other than doing this! What about the villagers? They revere you...need you..."

You grit your teeth, agitated. It strikes at a vulnerable place in your chest, twisting up in your insides with a sense of loss that's not even yours to feel, but aches nonetheless.

"You said you were a little envious of me. But the truth is, I was a little envious of you, too. You can't just decide to die by yourself like this!!"

You place your hand on the mountain where you splashed the kouki earlier, trying to draw the mugura to you--pull those mushi forming the nerves of the mountain away from Mujika before the Kuchinawa can devour him.

"Don't! You'll only get yourself dragged in!"

The rest is a blur. The mugura envelop you as the bell tolls again, signalling the arrival of the Kuchinawa, and then...

It's a memory within a memory. You feel the sudden swell of images from an entirely different person's life. About a man and a village and a woman who loved him. A man who indulged in a brief moment of unrealistic fantasy, and the woman who was willing to kill a god, kill the guardian of the mountain, to make it a reality.

You feel all of his guilt and his fear and his suffering, the overwhelming burden of taking the mountain's life onto his shoulders for years and years and years.

---

A warm room, blankets covering you, and smoke you recognize as mushi-repellent filtering through the room. Mujika's apprentice sits there, leaning over you.

"When I arrived at the summit, you were on the ground...and Mujika was nowhere to be seen. I looked and looked for him, but I couldn't find him. There wasn't a trace of his den, either. And not one villager remembers who Mujika was."

You close your eyes.

"Once a guardian is eaten by Kuchinawa...once the guardian is replaced by a new one, that's what happens."

Edited 2017-10-13 07:47 (UTC)

The brush hadn't been intentional, just a step too close as he tried to pass between the man and pillar on his way from work in the crowd, but what happened next took him by surprise. Memories slipping between him and another were rare still, but nothing new to him, only this time, it had happened while he was wide awake. Lost in the reliving of it, he slowed to a stop right in the middle of the sidewalk, until it let go of him.

When it did, he shook his head, blinking several times though it did his vision little good, disoriented somewhat from the experience and that he'd been seeing things in crystal clarity, as he hadn't seen them in centuries. One hand went to a temple, reality sliding back into place, and he thought to turn back to look in the direction from where he'd come, unsure of who or what he was searching for. He hadn't been paying much attention to who he passed by in his travels so much as where in space around him that they were, mind set on one thing, and now he wished he had.

Luckily, the man in question happens to pass through again not long afterward, having apparently realized he had gone in the wrong direction to wherever he was headed. And though the vision was through Ginko's eyes, his voice will probably be recognizable when he pauses--having noticed the other man's apparent disorientation.

"...Are you alright? You look unwell."

His search hadn't been brief, curiosity getting the better of him - he'd even wandered back in the direction he had come from a ways to try and find who it was or what it was that had given him the strange memory. The man approaching him then wasn't one he recognized, but the voice caught his ear right off. Undertaker turned his head sharply in that direction and looked the other up and down one good time, tilted his head.

"Well as ever." He forced a grin, his usual response to... well, everything. "Tell me, lad. Did you feel something strange just now? A flicker of memory, by any chance?"

Ah dear. This again.

"I hadn't, though I don't doubt that you did. It's been happening fairly often recently."

A shame that these memory exchanges, so far for him at least, have only been one-way. He has no way of being able to tell what this other man saw, which complicates things at least slightly.

"If you have any questions about whatever you saw, I'll answer them."

So it hadn't been a two-way happening. Not so unusual, then, not in this instance. But that it had happened while they were both aware and awake still had his interests. The memory, he could care less about; that it had happened at all was what had him.

"Only two, since you're so kind as to offer. Looks like this is growing more and more common. Have you ever had this occur while you've been awake? Those times I've had it happen to me, those involved were asleep."

There is a young woman who lives in a sea of writings as if she's drowning in it.

"So is that 'case closed'? Any other stories?"

"Hmmm...let's call it a day."

"We can still continue. Less than half of what you told me is useful for sealing away mushi."

"You had a hard day yesterday, and you must be tired. Don't overdo it."

"All right..."

It's a man and a woman, sitting together by a fire on the floor of what appears to be a traditional Japanese house. The man has white hair and one visible bright green eye, with loose-fitting traveler's clothes and a cigarette in his mouth. The woman has black hair and similarly dark eyes, and wears a fine kimono -- she's the lady of this house, clearly of a much higher station than him, but they talk like old friends. There's a warmth and easy comfort between them, a sense of security and trust.

She opens up a scroll then, seemingly steeling herself for something. She doesn't turn to look at him when she asks--

"Ginko, stay there until I finish, okay?"

"Sure." It's a firm but gentle affirmation; he seems to know what's coming, and he remains where he is as the woman seems to summon an endless series of characters from within her own body, traveling through her and out her fingertips onto the scroll. She has to stop occasionally during this process, hunching over the scroll in pain, her good leg twitching slightly. Ginko doesn't move or say a word, only stays there with her as she finishes her writing.

There is a young woman ravaged by mushi, who loves mushi, while sealing them away.

Eventually, an elderly woman comes in, inquires if she's finished yet. Ginko tells her they are, and picks up his things to leave as he asks her to please prepare bedding for the younger woman. But then she calls out to him, instead.

"Ginko...I'll be fine without rest. I want to go outside instead. Will you take me there?"

She's worn out, sweat framing her bangs, but he can't bring himself to refuse. He carries her on his back, her arms carefully wrapped around his neck.

"When will I ever be able to use this leg?"

"Don't rush it. The birthmark is gradually getting smaller, isn't it?"

"Yes, though little by little. If I can't get rid of it before I die...then my descendants will inherit the birthmark. Just as it's always been..."

He sets her down on a rock outcropping in the field near the house, and settles down beside her.

"What will you do if your leg heals?"

She seems surprised by the question, for a moment, but her answer comes quickly. "I want to travel with you. To see the mushi you told me about..."

She laughs then, softly. "Just a thought. Even in the best case, I'll be an old lady by then."

He grins, turning away as if in deep contemplation. "Hmmm..."

"I was just kidding."

"Let's do it. That is, if...I'm still alive and well at that time."

"You have to stay alive."

"You never know....I might be eaten by a mushi tomorrow."

"Even so, you still have to stay alive."

"That's asking a lot."

"You'll manage, somehow."

[ In many ways, CIsco is uniquely equipped to deal with all the strange things that have been happening, lately. The fact of the matter is, thanks to his metahuman abilities, he's grown somewhat accustomed to random, uncontrollable, occasionally baffling visions and dreams interrupting his life. In a way, these flashes of other people's memories are easier than his vibes: they don't come with the same feeling of falling, the heightened sensation and disorientation, the feeling of imminent reality. They are more muted, come upon him in calm moments and not just moments of great turmoil.

Much more unpleasant for him is not the visions themselves, but the thought that other people might see things from his past - that his privacy might be compromised. Because of this, Cisco has also been scrupulous in his determination to contact the people whose lives he has gotten a glimpse of, and to tell them what's happened, and apologize.

So, after he has the dream of Ginko and the strange woman who had summoned characters onto her skin and somehow transferred them onto a scroll, he resolves to tell Ginko what he's seen. Knowing that the other man isn't the most familiar with technology, Cisco thinks it is best to have this conversation in person. He arranges to see Ginko at the park nearest to his workshop and waits for him there, sitting on a bench near the pond, fidgeting restlessly. He goes over what he can remember of the dream in his head, puzzling over it. ]

Edited 2017-10-14 05:06 (UTC)

[Receiving messages on this device is still strange; he's only ever communicated via letter, though the buzz of a new communication is at least somewhat comparable to the shaking of the uro-san which signaled the arrival of a letter for him.

He's getting better at checking the thing, so he's able to get Cisco's message to meet him in the park. He's not sure what it's about, though he'd assume it has something to do with the mushi in the Quarantine. With the way he's lived his life, he can't really expect it to be a social call.

Ginko raises a hand in greeting as he finds Cisco in the designated meeting place, a relaxed smile across his features.]

Cisco-san.

[ Cisco smiles, back but there is a certain degree of strain behind it that shows through. He's never been someone who is good at concealing his emotions, and right now they are slightly troubled. What he'd seen of Ginko's life hadn't seemed particularly terrible, or particularly intimate, but, well... it was still Ginko's life, and Cisco had no right to pry.

He gets to his feet when Ginko arrives, then gestures him over to the bench, indicating he should have a seat. Cisco doesn't waste time with pleasantries, but he doesn't just dive in, either. He isn't sure how much Ginko knows about the situation. He twists his hands together in his lap, and asks: ]

Have you heard anything about the strange things that have been happening?

[ It's a bit of a joke, because there have been so many strange things that it might not be immediately apparent which ones Cisco means. There are a few ghosts, not all that far off, congregating in the shadows of some willows down by the pond in this park. ]

Not the ghosts - I mean people having visions. Strange dreams about the past.

[Strange things are always happening in Ginko's life tbh. He's patient as Cisco explains, and then he makes a sound of acknowledgement, nodding.]

Aah, that. You saw something of mine, then.

[He doesn't sound particularly self-conscious about it. Ginko's a man who doesn't really have much to gain from secrets. Some of his memories are less pleasant than others, but none that he'd be afraid of being seen by anyone else. He does hope it wasn't something too unsettling, though, based on the strain in the other man's expression. He waits, patiently, for Cisco to continue. If nothing else, he can perhaps explain whatever happened in it.]

[ He nods, grateful that Ginko understood so quickly and guessed correctly what he is getting at. It makes things much easier for Cisco if he doesn't have to spend time convincing Ginko that he's not lying, that something really is going on and it's not just him. Cisco sighs heavily, shoulders a little slumped, picking at his cuticles and staring down at them as he explains: ]

There was a woman and she was - there were, like, characters moving over her skin, and she was putting them down on paper. Like, writing but with a pen or- brush I guess, whatever. It seemed like it was hurting her a lot, but you sat with her, and then you carried her outside and you two, um. Talked a little.

[ The conversation had seemed deeply private, and Cisco feels his face heating a little. It could have been worse, true, but even so... ]

I'm really sorry, Ginko. I didn't mean to pry into your personal business, there's just- there's no way of getting outta those dreams, once they start. And believe me, I've tried.

[Cisco might be embarrassed and uncomfortable with having experienced something like that without Ginko's knowledge, but at least on the other man's end, any tension there might have been lingering in the air seems to have dissipated.]

Ahhh, that was Tanyuu-san.

[He smiles at Cisco, reassuringly.]

There's no reason to apologize.

[After all, as the fourth scribe of the Karibusa clan, Tanyuu's condition was common knowledge. And as to their friendship, what did he have to hide about that?]

Sanekuimushi

[It's odd, witnessing someone elses' dream through eyes that aren't his own. What's even odder is the feeling that what he's looking at, in this one, is something uncomfortably familiar.

A slightly obscured view of what he might call a forest, if the long, protruding pillars had any leaves to speak for. It wasn't Where they were that was familiar, however, it was the What.
Before his eyes he was witnessing what looked like the silhouette of a man, covered with shadow. Upon a moment more of observation, it would appear to not be a shadow at all--but rather a cloud. One might mistake this shadowy cloud for a large swarm of tiny insects, but the familiarity is striking: it looks just like Reaper himself does when he takes to his wraith form and moves around. Like a swarm of tiny, shapeless nanites that move around with a goal and purpose, this cloud is dispersed when the man being surrounded by them gives a swing of his arm.

They buzz, like an angry cloud of bees, swirling and trying to find purchase on him once again--only to seemingly change course when eyecontact is made, along with a mistake. A voice rings out in the darkness: Are you alright?!

Eyes shocked and blown wide, barely a thought can be made as the black shadowy cloud takes form--like a giant hand--and moves to swarm its new target.

Run! his voice rings out, a sound of urgency to its tone. They will take your soul!"]

--

[Needless to say, once Reaper wakes from a dream that's not quite his own, he'll have quite a bit to think about. Especially when he seeks out Ginko to speak with him...
Purposefully approaching him as that very same cloud he'd seen in the others' dream. He'll at least speak right away once his form re-takes its usual state.]

You usually take a lot of risks when you're out chasing these Mushi of yours?

Edited (html woes) 2017-10-14 06:27 (UTC)

[Way to give a guy a goddamn heart attack, Reaper. For half a second before the man reforms before him, Ginko's mind is running at a million terrified miles a minute. The Sanekuimushi...a swarm of those here would be a nightmare. With so little known about them, who knew how many would lose their souls before he found a way to contain them? He didn't even have kouki here with which to create an artificial mushi and combat them....]

[But then Reaper is in the form of a man again, and he can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.]

Ah, Reaper-san.

[...]

[Oh, right, he was being asked a question, wasn't he.]

I suppose that depends on how you define usually.

Edited 2017-10-14 08:43 (UTC)

[He can see the look on the others' face, and he's quietly just a LITTLE satesfied, only due to the fact that it's the same look Ginko had given the odd cloud of black insect-like mushi in the dream. Meaning that his own thoughts matched the Mushi-shi's own--Reaper's body was very much like those dark, swarmlike creatures, and mistaking Reyes for one hadn't been too far off the mark.]

Could define it a lot of ways.
Main way I was thinking was how you've projected your dreams about lately.

Caught one of you dealing with a pretty recognisable cloud.

[His tone is nearly prodding, somewhat sarcastic. If that doesn't clue the other in, he'll be frank with him.]

[A pretty recognizable cloud, huh. Yeah, that definitely fills in the blanks, here. Well--most of them. The fact that Reaper looked like them, for a moment, is still very odd.]

Hmmm, then no.

[He didn't even want to go into the Path of Thorns in the first place tbh .... he was only there because Tanyuu asked him to be]

Not usually.

[He can't resist sassing just a little bit.]

there is no place in the world we do not belong

one.

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lmfao mushishi is so complicated im sorry

lol it's okay

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two.

hope you don't mind my popping in!

not at all :D

8DDD yay!

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three. cw: mild body horror

3

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for reaper.

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1/2

2/2

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