[open~] October Things

[yokeye]

October 19th and onward.

1. Late Arrival - Castle Ruins

[The last thing Toki had seen, he thought, was a parking lot. He hadn't been able to process his surroundings at the time, and was barely responsive; disconnected from his body after experiencing multiple successive and disjointed visions of the future. It's all a blur; there was a cat, and car horns blaring, pain, and confusion. Awakening here was unexpected, and he's still unsure if he's actually awake or if this is some other weird vision shit. There's a vague recollection of spiders and talking to... something, or someone, hidden in shadows. He sits up abruptly, grateful his body seems to be responding to his brain once again. Only to realize he's been lying in half an inch or so of water. It's not a puddle, it's everywhere. This place looks abandoned mostly. It's raining outside, steadily, and everything seems cast in a muted grey.

The first thing he takes notice of is the large blood stain on the left leg of his jeans. It's left some tiny streaks trickling down onto his shoe; the flaky dark red spots added to the bright orange and white checkered pattern. With a squeak, he yanks up his pant leg to see the damage, but there is none to be found. Weird. Something happened, but he can't remember. He gets to his feet, something dislodging as he does so and landing in the water. He frowns and picks it up; a small light pink omamori with extensive shimmery embroidery, oddly offset by a black crow on one side. He doesn't bother to read the characters sewn in or try to make sense of it, but just shoves it in his pocket.

Toki attempts to gather his thoughts coherently, hoping for anything to come back to him so he can figure out where he is. He paces back and forth, splashing through the water and muttering to himself. He's surmised that he was severely injured somehow, and subsequently healed, but- how long ago did that happen? Has he missed days, months? Something brushes up against his leg. He screams and jumps, before looking down and recognizing the offending object. It's his soggy and gross-looking carry on bag. Poor Rilakkuma.]

New York!

[Toki grabs the bag by the strap and slings it over his shoulder. He was in New York for the drama club field trip. Is this still New York? Somehow he doesn't think so. The ruins give off an eerie feeling and he decides he's better off outside... in the rain. The forest isn't quite reminiscent of the one near the academy, but he thinks it's more likely he's made it back to France through unknown means. Magic. He can't hear any city noises, and it wouldn't be too strange to find more ruins on campus. A thought suddenly occurs to him- that a fey like the Giraffe occupies this place- and he's running away from the castle immediately afterward, in no particular direction.]


2. Torii

[For the first time in his life, Toki wishes he had better shoes, ones with sturdy bottoms or even just laces. He's stepped out of his four times already, trying to slog through the water and mud and unseen roots in the forest. He hates this place already. Every little noise makes him twitch and the panic keeps building. A crack of a branch somewhere, creepy mewling of far off cats, rustling of some sort, raindrops splattering at odd angles. It's all working together to create an atmosphere of tension.

Then, out of nowhere, he takes a turn and there it is. Ominous and evil in the grey light. A torii. Slightly charred, maybe, damaged by fire or lightning, but it's there. Looming above him, menacingly. A sudden panic runs through him, his heart stopping as his brain can only think that he will die here, underneath a torii, just like his sister. His subsequent screaming can probably be heard from quite a distance.]


3. Hospital

[Japan. It's Japan, maybe. At least he can communicate with people here easily, though he still stands out with his height and light hair and mismatched eyes. The blood on his clothes doesn't help, though at least the large spot on his pants is hidden underwater. He can't see it, but there's more blood around the collar of his t-shirt, from when his teeth were knocked out, turning the purple fabric a brownish color; along with some almost transparent crusty substance of unknown origin (it's dried saliva from his unfortunate time in the New York hospital). His hair is streaked a little pink on one side, dried blood washing out into the more blond strands of his uneven bleach attempt.

He's told the name of the town is Hirajiro, and he wishes he'd paid more attention in school, because he doesn't know where that is. No one seems to be able to tell him beyond that either. Several people have pointed him in the direction of the hospital, despite his assurances he isn't hurt. He goes anyway, because maybe someone there knows what happened. Arriving at the front desk, he launches into babbling of half-questions and half-explanations.]

Hello~! Okay, so like is there anyone on staff who does the magic healing thing, you know, like a demon!? Is there a network of sigils where like you can contact the guy on staff at Daybreak Academy in France? Because I think I took like a wrong turn somewhere after some kind of... incident... and I'm really confused and I tried to explain things to some people on the street and they kept telling me to come see you guys, so I am~! Can you help!?


4. Occult Shop

[He hasn't has a vision since he got here, and it's freaking him out, because he knows it's coming. He's spent several minutes outside the occult shop, debating with himself over whether to go in. In the back of his mind, he recalls telling himself he'd never try orichalcum again after the vision cluster result, but another part of him insists that he would be fine, that stopping its use was actually the problem. His hands are shaking, and not knowing when the next vision will come, or how bad it will be; it's a constant anxious thought, penetrating through everything.

Toki makes his decision in the manner he always does, he picks something and runs with it full force. He abruptly stalks into the occult shop. Or would have, if the door opened. It appears they've been closed due to flooding. Toki looks around quickly, and seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, heads to the side of the shop to try and break a window. Someone walks by at that moment, and he clears his throat loudly, both trying to appear nonchalant and also being terribly obvious about what he's doing.]

Hello~! I'm uhh, just trying to get a look inside, you know, since they're closed! I am in need of something in particular and I hope they can fulfill my request for this most precious of metals~! Do you know if they sell orichalcum?


5. Wildcard
~ anything goes

Comments

3

[suddenlybees]

[ Just like at Daybreak, Kano's got eyes and ears all over town, though it's hard with the weather being as it is, nonstop rain and flooded streets that make travelling on rooftops both a hazard and a necessity at times. With a town overrun with cats, he's comfortable in his black cat form that blends right into the packs of cats, and his Persona Ala takes the form of a crow while outside, swooping here and there to relay any news to Kano from a bird's eye view. The Persona has no idea who Toki is, but she could hear him screaming all the way from the forest, and that's big enough news to report back with. There's a hysterical screaming kid at the hospital, she tells him, which he wouldn't normally want to get involved with except for the fact that he came from the direction of the castle. So. Alright. He'll play around for a bit, getting Ala to fly him over to the hospital and make it look like he's coming down the lobby in a more presentable form than himself, sopping wet, and just coincidentally happens upon the scene at the front desk. He approaches Toki from behind, thinking nothing of it. ] Hey, is something...? [ Wrong. Very wrong, when he sees Toki's face and realization crawls down his spine. What's Toki doing here? ] Are you lost? [ WHAT IS TOKI DOING HERE. ]

[yokeye]

Yes!

[The answer is immediate and kind of exasperated, because he has been telling the townsfolk he's lost for like two hours. The desk clerk is ignoring him, as expected. Occasional looks of what Toki perceives as disdain and annoyance.]

I'm very lost and I don't know where this is! I mean, it's Hirajiro, yes, but where is that!? No one's listening to me! Why are there so many cats!?

[Is he dead? The black cat in the elevator heralding his death and the afterlife in this disturbing cat infested town? He grabs Kano's collar, the other hand flailing as he gestures.]

This is all really happening, right!?

[suddenlybees]

[ The townspeople here really can't handle these sorts of questions, and the staff tries to shoo Toki away to talk to Terry instead. He also gets disdainful and annoyed looks, but for different reasons, and almost pushes Toki's hand away when he grabs his collar, but just leans back far enough so he doesn't get hit by a stray hand gesture. That'd be a really stupid way to get outed for disguising himself like this. ] It's... [ what does he answer first ] Well, I'm not entirely sure, but it's probably part of the Outlands, where there just happens to be a lot of cats, I guess? Everything is really happening, though. Do you want to sit down somewhere? [ Please sit. Kano knows Toki is prone to having seizure fits, at least the last time he saw him before flouncing to Canada. ]

[yokeye]

The Outlands!! Oh my god, I didn't even think of that!

[After that shriek, he's calming down a little. Which for him is not much, but he's trying.]

Are you... a student? Was there a portal? I guess it doesn't matter, really, but Outlands. Okay. That's. Fine. I don't want to sit though, because like, the chairs are underwater.

[He says the last part matter-of-factly and then his eyes widen. Because maybe the cats are real, but-]

Do you see the water?

[suddenlybees]

[ Mav had mentioned to Kano that Toki was backsliding, but he didn't imagine it was this bad. Terry nods through the bulk of Toki's rambling, slow nods of the head that mean more that he's listening, rather than saying yes to all those questions. He can wait patiently until Toki talks. It's really annoying, but he'd missed this too, so he's got to do his best to assuage Toki and make this whole thing not so terrible. ] Yeah! It's been raining all month, so the town's gotten to be like this. It doesn't look like there'll be an end to the storm soon, so let's go upstairs. I think there's dry chairs up there.

[yokeye]

[At least someone's paying attention to him now, but he's still very confused. He wanted to run away, but not to a place like this.]

Yeah, okay. That's a good idea. Sitting. Not in water.

[Hearing himself, he starting to think his brain is still shorting out. He's going to try not to ask any question for the next two minutes. It's about the longest he can realistically aim for.]

[suddenlybees]

[ A quiet Toki is so unnerving. This is so weird. Maybe this is actually a demon, not Toki. ] We'll just go up one floor and we'll be out of the water, so just follow me. [ Terry leads Toki through the halls towards the stairs up, with occasional glances over to Toki to make sure he's still following and not flailing around on the ground. ] Did you just get here today? Was there anybody else with you? [ Because Kano's still under the impression that this whole thing is some school mission; he was on one when he'd arrived, jumping through one of those shortcut portals and he must have gotten kicked out at the wrong time. But Toki being here is great! It means other students must be somewhere out there, and faculty, and then Kano can get out of his hellhole too. ]

4, 10/24

[overstrain]

[ The flooding has gotten pretty bad around this time with water rising up to six feet tall. But for some reason, it looks to be better around the occult shop. Terry has been taking a stroll to familiarize himself with the town again, armed with an umbrella and a rain jacket. He's standing on the low roof of the building next over to the occult shop and he stares down at Toki. He doesn't remember ever seeing him before... Also, he'll look slightly different if physically aging two years does anything than when Toki "saw him last". This one also has glasses. ]

I don't think there's anything like that in the occult shop...

[yokeye]

[This guy seems familiar, but Toki can't place him. He stares intensely, trying to figure it out. Where does he know him from? He decides this guy reminds him of the typical nerdy type he's encountered, and he's just likely seen that particular aesthetic before. Glasses, overly prepared for the weather.]

Oh... What do they have in there, then? Anything that like um, blocks magic or gets rid of it entirely because that would be better!?

[overstrain]

[ So this guy is familiar with magic... that's a little refreshing. But because of that, Toki definitely can't be a normal townsperson. ]

The Attendants can make something like that. They made that out of food can labels once.

[ If memory serves him right, that's what he received. ]

So if you need something like that, you're better off asking them.

[yokeye]

Attendants? Who are they? Where can I find them!? Does it have to be any particular food can labels!? Like vegetables or canned meat or things that are pickled only!? What about labels from food items that aren't canned, like pre-sliced deli things or like, does it have to be cans and the food part is irrelevant!?

[He gives up on the occult shop, looking down the flooded street to see if there's a grocery store.]

How many labels would say I'd need to like banish some unwanted magic?

[overstrain]

[ ... ... ...

Terry stares at Toki while trying to process the info. It feels like he recently woke up from a very, very long hibernation period, so his barrage of questions feels like it hurts his head. ]

Wait a minute! Hold on! You're asking too many at once! One at a time!!

[ Ugh. ]

Like... why do you need it in the first place?

[yokeye]

[He always does this. He himself needs things addressed one at a time, but he always plows ahead when talking to people.]

Sorry! Let me go slower!

[But then he has a question to answer himself, and that slow suggestion is cast aside immediately.]

Okay, well, it's a long story, but like a few months ago my sister got killed by a w-werewolf and it was horrible and then like this guy she worked with came to talk to me, but he was a daemon and I didn't know, so I like made a really bad decision and entered into a verbal contract with him because I was like really upset and I wanted to change what happened, but I couldn't, but he said that maybe I could change what happens for someone else by knowing what was coming and I thought that sounded like a great idea and it would be an awesome power to have so I said yes, but it's the worst power ever and I have visions that I can't control about weird things and death and horrors unimaginable and it's all flashy and bright and confusing and I like tried to stop them and it worked, the orichalcum, the stuff I was looking for, and that like blocked them, but then when the- well, I bracelet out of it- and when the bracelet came off I had like almost thirty of the visions in a row because they just got offset and not actually like gone so there was like a queue and they came all at once I kind of friend my brain a little, or more than a little, and I haven't had a vision since I got here and that's like days and it's never been days and it's going to happen soon and I don't want it to!

[The words tumble out increasingly faster and more panicked. By the end, he has a wild look in his eye and desperation is obvious.]

2, 10/21

[reveilation]

[ It's been a terrible month all around and Kido's just... tired. She's tired and fed up and angry and before she overturns a table in the Velvet Room or smashes a vase against the window in her frustration, she leaves the door leading to the castle so she can take a walk and cool off. Instead of her trademark purple Kagepro hoodie, she's got a solid black one on instead, hood pulled over her head but the fabric just soaks up the rain and makes it useless anyways.

But then there's the screaming, and Kido has to pull out her phone to check whether it turns on— it does, because it's not midnight, so it shouldn't be a Shadow attack out there. A bear? Terry said there was no more bears, but that was also a long time ago. Either way, Kido doesn't need to waste her breath calling out to Toki until he's in view, because his screaming gives her the general direction of where to go, and that torii is a landmark she'd recognize from anywhere and is very close to the castle. ]

Hang in there! What happened?! Are you hurt? What's attacking—-

[ No, Toki's just standing there in front of the torii. Maybe the bear/monster/whatever had already escaped. ]

[yokeye]

[He cuts himself off in the middle of a scream when Kido arrives. The presense of another person snaps him out of remembering horrible things and overthinking worst-case scenarios.]

I'm fine!

[It's his automatic response, even though he's clearly not fine. He's now close to tears and just completely losing it. The only bear around is his Rilakkuma bag, which he's clutching tightly just because it's something soft to hold onto.]

[reveilation]

You're obviously not fine!

[ Do not lie to her, Toki! She doesn't even mean Toki's mental state or any of that; when she rushes over, it's to gesture to his pants and everybody else that's stained with blood, that not even the rain can wash it all away. ]

Look, you're bleeding! Did something bite your leg? Where else are you hurt? I need you to show me.

[yokeye]

What? Oh!

[He lets go of the bag to roll up his pant leg. There's nothing there; no sign of injury at all, not even a faint scar from where the broken bone had been protruding.]

See? It's fine! I'm fine!

[He's unaware of how bad he actually looks here, but the deflection of conversation is enough to distract him and ground him to this reality. He's now focused on her, and not letting her worry needlessly.]

I'm sorry about the screaming, but really, I'm fine! It's okay!

[reveilation]

[ ...Kido squints at him suspiciously, but she is relieved that he looks unhurt, so she lets that drop in favor of a long suffering sigh. It's very long, and she's suffering a lot. ]

If you say so. Come on, at least let's get you out of the rain... Were you in some sort of trouble before? Or are you so opposed to laundry day that you'd walk out of the house looking like that?

[yokeye]

[He gets the impression Kido has to deal with a lot of things, and he doesn't want to be another burden to add to the length of her sighs. So he won't protest, or ask too many questions.]

Okay. I think I got a little lost out here...

[He'll follow her, without paying much attention to the surroundings, stopping every now and again to yank his shoe back on when it gets pulled off by mud.]

I'm not... sure exactly what happened with me. It's all foggy, but I think... well, there was a cat. A black cat. And cars. I was in New York City, do you know where that is? Anyway, I think I might have been hit by a car and then...

[Not sure how to explain the visions without going into a long tangent, he just trails off.]

2

[not_that_sasuke]

[All this rain is worrying, especially with the state the torii is in. He's not especially keen on trying to move around in this weather, but sometimes there's no other choice...

It's by chance that he happens upon Toki when he screams by it, and it has Sasuke hurrying all the more to see what's up, his raincoat and rainboots not at all sufficient for blocking all the rain, but making a good attempt of it.]

Are you okay?

[...Is that a black cat peeking out from under his collar? Probably. Don't mind it.]

[yokeye]

[Toki turns at the voice, the next scream dying in his throat. He breathes heavily for a moment before answering, trying to sound calm, but even his normal way of speaking often comes off as panicky.]

I um, I'm... okay. I just... I... saw a giraffe!

[Giraffes are scary, and are often found in the these types of forests. He presumes. Sasuke at least isn't imposing, and having anyone there to take his attention away from the torii is good. He says nothing about the cat. He thinks it's perfectly normal to carry your cat around.]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Stares at Toki. Slowly glances around???

He doesn't believe for a second it was actually a giraffe, but he does wonder if there's anything around here that can be mistaken for one. But he doesn't see any such thing, so...]

-You should get away from the torii. I don't think it's safe to get too close right now.

[Don't get squashed if it starts to fall apart...]

[yokeye]

[He looks back at the torii, and it's in pretty poor shape. He might have actually died like he expected if he continued to stand there under it and scream. He takes a few quick steps away from it.]

What happened to it? Lightning?

[Nothing else nearby seems burned, so it's a likely assumption.]

[not_that_sasuke]

I think so. There was a storm at about the right time.

[In complete disregard of his own advice, Sasuke approaches the torii, checking it over.]

...Looks like it's stable for now, at least.

[Whew.]

[yokeye]

Why is it out here in the middle of nowhere?

[The same could be said about the castle.]