The Silence After the Storm

[vrdr_mods]

The Ken Amada who made certain threats, whom Igor didn't bring to the Velvet Room and didn't welcome, has been permanently contained within his other-world self. Many of the Velvet Room residents mobilized in the effort to neutralize the threat he posed, and now, in the moments after the devastating battle that sealed Ken away, perhaps you have business to conclude.

Maybe you're a fighter, left in the rubble the battle made of its surroundings—or maybe you were a noncombatant this time, left behind to wonder what's happening or prepare for the aftermath. Maybe you linger around the battle site, or maybe you have other things to do.

Or maybe you didn't survive. Maybe you're one of the glowing forms slowly coalescing in front of Igor's desk in the Velvet Room over the course of the subsequent half hour. Igor presides over them gravely, with no sign of his usual smile. Near his desk sits a box of snacks, familiar to anyone who's used the operation's training room.

[[ooc: This post is a general catch-all for the aftermath of the battle! It's backdated to February 26, the day Ken got got.]]

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2

[lakebrat]

Goro is at his back, of course, and if anything twice as grim. He knows how the leader thing works, but support was down to him. For all that he knows deaths were unavoidable, this is his fault.

He rests a hand on Ren's shoulder, testing the water.

[willowandoak]

For a moment, there's no response whatsoever. Then Ren sighs, and leans back a little, into the touch. He turns his head slightly, as if he's going to ask Goro a question, but the words fail to take shape in his head.

[lakebrat]

He looks like—well, like the shadow of Ren, the normal kind. Thin and barely there, attenuated. He lets his grip tighten, solid and reassuring.

"After this," he murmurs in an undertone, "I'm going to sleep for a week."

But his eyes fall on the half-formed figures on the floor, and he loses heart. Hamuko, the vampire Ren. Akane, strange as she is. They died because of him.

[willowandoak]

"I remember when I could sleep," he mumbles. "Bet it feels good."

[lakebrat]

"You'll sleep," Goro assures him, grimness creeping back. "If I have to hit you on the head."

Actually, Hamuko is still missing half her skull. He shudders, but doesn't look away.

[willowandoak]

He glances over his shoulder at Goro, at that, looking pained.

[lakebrat]

Yeah. What is there to be said? He sighs, looking smaller; he lowers his hand, folding his arms around himself instead.

[willowandoak]

"Hey."

He turns fully around to face Goro, his back to the people who died in the fight. Goro's distress has caught his attention like little else can.

[lakebrat]

Shit. He straightens up like a guilty schoolboy; the last thing Ren needs is to fuss over him. Or, then again....

... no, he just sighs again, drooping. "I always knew one of us could die, you know. Back home."

[willowandoak]

Ren makes an encouraging noise. In the meantime, he reaches for one of Goro's arms and tries to tug it free of its sad little huddle.

[lakebrat]

He lets it go into Ren's grip, feeling the tension begin to ease. It's no surprise to him by now that Ren comes out of himself when somebody needs him, though he knows it would surprise his friends. Frozen in time as they all are.

He looks at the dead people on the floor again. "But they didn't. Even with everything"—and he knows he doesn't need to elaborate—"we never did."

[willowandoak]

He squeezes Goro's hand, and doesn't point out that the fight back home isn't over. "Good leadership," he says instead, trying to sound wry.

[lakebrat]

The hell? Yeah, there's no way he'll let Ren get away with that—though he'll take the handholding. "Your leadership was exceptional."

[willowandoak]

"We got the job done, so it can't have sucked too much. But we had one fight and three deaths, compared to your... I don't even know how many times the Thieves have been in the Metaverse." The not-all-that-bothered act is getting harder to keep up.

[lakebrat]

"Don't give me that. How many times have you been in the Metaverse and made it out alone? None of us had ever faced anything remotely like that."

He'll take over again, as many times as Ren needs; he refuses to let his eyes slip away to the flickering blue witchlight on the floor.

[willowandoak]

Hm. If Goro is mad at him on his own behalf, at least he's not curled in on himself looking small and haunted like he was a moment ago. So he says, "Come on, dude, leadership and doing shit by yourself are totally different."

[lakebrat]

"But survival is the same. Isn't it?"

He lets it hang there.

[willowandoak]

...And after a moment, Ren sighs. "I was still right, though," he says. "The Thieves have survived because you're good at your job."

Goro can talk about his unhappiness, which is obvious to Ren, or he can keep it to himself; either way, Ren stands by what he's saying.

[lakebrat]

Nobody else is around yet—besides Igor, at any rate. Stilling the tumult inside him, he leans over to draw Ren into his arms. "C'mere."

[willowandoak]

He goes without complaint, settling against Goro with a quiet sigh and pulling him close. "I don't know what we'd have done without you," he murmurs. "I'm serious."

[lakebrat]

"We needed everyone." The pressure in his skull begins to ease, bit by bit. He buries his nose in black curls. "But you were the one, Ren. You brought everyone together. You kept them moving."

He almost laughs into Ren's hair. "Hell of a first mission."

[willowandoak]

"First and last," he says fervently. But, as close as they are to each other, Goro will be able to feel him shift, leaning in towards the praise.

[lakebrat]

He doesn't argue. "Let someone else do the next one. Maybe I'll take it on. It can't be worse than this one."

Almost, he takes that back. Then he realises, "That... is true, isn't it. Shit."

[willowandoak]

He breathes out a silent laugh, and then once he's started he can't stop. A near-impossible fight with the highest stakes he can imagine. He couldn't spend too much time thinking about that before, or else he would crack under the pressure, and then they'd all be fucked. But nothing is stopping him anymore.

[lakebrat]

... yeah, shit. He glances nervously over his shoulder, at the still-reforming dead, and their twinkling blue lights. But Ren's shaking is infectious.

Goro shuffles closer, offering a shoulder, should Ren want to bury his face in it.