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.]]

Comments

[willowandoak]

"Yeah," he sighs. "My brain hurts."

What with keeping track of the flow of the entire huge battle with its various horrible twists, and keeping himself alive and fighting, and giving orders when people needed direction, and refusing to sit down and die like Fatalis's aura wanted him to do... He feels weird now. Kind of dull and foggy, like his brain has run out of thinking juice.

[lakebrat]

"Why do you think I wanted to come back here and cook?" Cooking makes him feel better. More like himself. Master Chef Goro Akechi.

He gives Ren a little push in the direction of the stairs. Come on, Ren, bed's awaitin'.

[willowandoak]

"I thought you didn't want to deal with them after they woke up."

He's too tired not to say it. He goes where Goro nudges him, keeping his eyes on the stairs. So close to bed...

[lakebrat]

... and Goro slams to a halt behind him, feeling slapped. "You're kidding."

Of course he would have dealt with them. But he's not the one who built relationships with them all, not really. Not even Hamuko. Not like Ren did.

[willowandoak]

"No?" He turns to look back, brow furrowed. "Like. I didn't want to. I wanted to go with you."

But he studies Goro's expression with a glimmer of worry.

[lakebrat]

... and Goro forces himself to relax again. It was a lot. Even it being over is a lot.

"I guess. Come up, let's go up." He nudges Ren toward the stairs again. "Of course I would have stayed to deal with them. It's just... I don't know. I think you understand it."

Leader shit, is what it was. Ren was the leader. Goro wasn't.

[willowandoak]

Yeah, that's why Ren stayed, and why he doesn't blame Goro for leaving. But rather than continue up the stairs, he hesitates, caught by a strange, wobbly anxiety that he's too exhausted to hide like he usually would.

"I didn't mean it as an insult."

[lakebrat]

And it's so unlike Ren to wobble like that, that Goro wobbles himself, staring wide-eyed up at him. It's okay, kaasan. Here, I'll make you some tea....

He shakes himself. "I know you didn't. I guess I'm more tired than I thought. Not surprising, given everything."

He looks exhausted.

[willowandoak]

"Yeah." He holds out his hand.

[lakebrat]

Goro takes it, lacing his fingers through Ren's, just a little desperately. Then he kisses the knuckles. Lancelot watches from the back of his head, with something like contempt.

[willowandoak]

Ren's heart twists. "You're okay," he murmurs. "That fucker is just some weird black goop locked in Nox's weird body. Everyone's alive again. Nothing left to do but collapse."

He tugs Goro up the stairs.

[lakebrat]

He goes, glad to be led along a little. Let Ren push him and prod him and mould him into shape. Right now, he'd be glad of it.

The attic is lit as it often is late at night, with the soft glow of a multitude of lights in the rafters, threaded through by Yusuke's glowing stars from the planetarium. Goro likes the restfulness of it, the multitude of shadows to hide in—although maybe he shouldn't, at this point in his life. The bed is, as he promised, turned down, with the cable of an electric blanket hanging out. It is February, after all.

Goro buries his face in Ren's neck. "I was wondering about him," he says, lips brushing skin. "What do you think he'll even do now?"

[willowandoak]

"Rot," mutters Ren, as he unlaces his boots and steps out of them. "Cry like a baby. Thrash around in pain. Wish for a body that could scream."

Admittedly, these are hopes and not actual thoughts.

[lakebrat]

Goro's mouth twists in a nasty grin, behind Ren's back. "If only," he agrees, reaching around to peel off Ren's overshirt, instead of undressing himself.

"I wonder, though. Whether there was just a stupid kid in there, in the end. Once you took the multiverse-ending powers away."

[willowandoak]

He shrugs out of his overshirt with a grateful grunt and starts the process of disarming, setting his weapons down one by one in a neat pile next to his boots. "We'll have to ask Nox, I guess," he says. "Once he's more used to stuff. If he can sense anything."

[lakebrat]

Watching the pile of knives, guns, and gun-like objects form is distracting; it always is. Goro fiddles with the top button of his pyjamas, watching. And I wonder how sustainable that situation even is, he thinks. What happens if it blows up in the future, after we've separated, when nobody is on hand to stop it?

Well, then they'd all die, wouldn't they? No true victory. A bit like how there's always another, tougher Palace.

"What a nightmare that would be," he says, instead. "Nothing but a voice in someone's head."

[willowandoak]

"Yeah... I hope he loses his fucking mind." The thought makes him perk up a little, actually.

With all his pointy things and explodey things removed, he's free to turn and flop down onto his back on the bed. "C'mere."

nsfw

[lakebrat]

He's still in his pyjamas. Evil Ken's predicament slips from his mind, as... no, he's too tired to fuck. Definitely.

He flops down next to Ren instead, basking in the warmth around them like a lizard. "Mmm. I can't believe it took me so long to get this thing. Could have used it at home."

And Ren. Pressing up next to Ren is pretty lizardlike as well.

nsfw

[willowandoak]

He breathes a voiceless laugh. "Don't bother. I couldn't even get it up."

He pulls Goro close, feeling his muscles slowly start to unlock under the heat of the blanket. "You did so good," he murmurs against Goro's hair. "You were beautiful."

nsfw

[lakebrat]

Beautiful. Listen to that. It's like the warmth around them gathers all at once behind his heart.

"Damn right," he murmurs back. "Me and the team, watching all your backs and keeping you all alive. I was a lot more than beautiful."

Beautiful, though. His eyes are a little too wide in the soft light.

[willowandoak]

"Yeah, true." His hands tighten on Goro's pajama shirt. "You were stunning. Brilliant. Talented. What else... fierce, gorgeous..."

[lakebrat]

Heheheheh. Almost glowing, he lifts himself up for a moment to kiss Ren.

"And what about you?" he asks, snuggling back into place. "You were the centre of that room. You drew them all together. Born to be a leader."

[willowandoak]

...But he sags down against the bed a bit, when Goro says that.

"I dunno. Hamuko said I didn't adjust well enough to the Maruki thing."

That's not at all what she said and it's especially not what she meant, but it was at least part of Ren's takeaway.

[lakebrat]

Shit. Goro leans back up on one arm, so he can see Ren's face. "That sounds a bit harsh, for Hamuko."

Of course, she had just died. That would upset anyone.

[willowandoak]

"It was part of a whole... I was telling Maruki how he'd put everyone at risk. He was, you know, acting like he knows everything and everyone is against him for no reason. Going on about he had to do that because we were all just gonna fucking let him die. She was trying to calm us down."