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

[wipingallout]

"Because you're my friend," Hamuko answered almost immediately, taking a moment to wipe her eyes quickly and take a shaky breath in.

"Because you're my friend, and I don't want people to take advantage of you or hurt you. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to get emotional, I'm just-- so mad and sad for you two. But-- I'm sorry, this isn't about me."

1/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

Akane heaves a deep breath. "You...you wanted to know what's on my mind so I told you."

"I never thought you would-"

2/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

"No."

Hamuko's right about one thing, this isn't about her. It's about me.

"You feel sad for him?" Her voice sharpens. "Can't you see the way he's acting? He's...he's guilty of it."

[wipingallout]

"Guilty of..."

It takes a moment before it clicks. She'd been distracted by just... the sheer inhumanity of the Kirijo Group. But it does click.

"--Because he never told you."

1/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

Zenkichi doesn't want to remember it.

He can't remember those nights. He doesn't want to even think about those nights again, listlessly trying to talk to Akane while he knew that his conversations were constantly monitored by the Kirijo group. By the cold, bitter response he always got in return until he ultimately sold off his soul again to protect that one piece of Akane he had left still. Even if they were trapped in a cage together, it was better than her bleeding in his arms.

He wouldn't dare to burden her with those memories.

2/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

"He didn't." She affirmed Hamuko's words.

And she turns to Zenkichi who still has his hands to his sides and one leg angled in front. "...tell me how I died."

"It's not that simple."

"You're..." Akane grits his teeth. "You're such a goddamn coward. I can't believe I took that attack for you!"

And Zenkichi as always just ends up taking it. In some instances, he couldn't believe it either.

"But maybe it was better this way." she brings her hand to her chest, fingers clawing at the top he bought along with her. "Because if you are not going to tell me the truth I will figure it out on my own."

This is just like...

"I am done talking to you." With that, she turns away from him. "Don't bother waiting for me to reboot, Wolf."

He sighs, closing his eyes in grief. "When can I speak to you again?"

"..."

Her shoulders hunch as she throws her hand back in anger. "I don't know- I don't care-!"

And that's the end of it. She walks past the disposed off hat, ignores the pang in her heart when she catches the pink and goes for- god any knob he finds. Fucking Inaba- whatever. She doesn't care.

[wipingallout]

"Akane..." Hamuko called, walking right behind her and to the door, though she didn't block.

"Akane, wait, just..."

Her voice was still a little wavering, a bit tearful, but she smiled. Smiled easily, like she always did. And she didn't crowd the door, or block it, or grab for Akane whatsoever. Instead she just... lowered her voice to a gentle near-whisper.

"...If you ever need somewhere to be, Akane... you can come to the Iwatodai Dorms. I'll be there in a little while, so - whenever you need, okay?"

1/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

A shiver of anxiety passed over Akane when she could easily sense Hamuko’s presence closer to her then she originally anticipated.

She stopped for a moment at the door, even if she stayed stubborn enough not to glance back. Go ahead! Tell her she's being irriational! Just another grieving daughter who didn't know the truth.

What comes after doesn’t exactly surprise her though. Hamuko had always been the hospitable type- whether it was on the first day when she opened up about her tragedy or when she struck a poe with her dad's hat.

The one that laid listlessly on the ground- fervently abandoned.

[unit_8910_wolf]

"I don't..." need anything. For nearly a decade she's been dependent on Wolf, living under his and the Kirijo Group's sleuthing lies.

"I want to be left alone."

She raises her head and goes for the door knob- turning it over as she steps out.

Zenkichi dares to look at her, "I will be waiting for you too, alright?"

And disappears in a flash of static and a glitch. Zenkichi doesn't even know if she heard him or not.
Maybe it didn't matter.

[wipingallout]

Hamuko hung at the door for a moment, still a bit shaky as she rubbed her face. She still felt like crying, but-- she should've held herself together more. She's gotten more sensitive since dying the first time, hasn't she...?

After trying to collect herself (a bit of a fool's errand, but what is she if not The Fool?) Hamuko walked back to Zenkichi, looking up at him. "I'm sorry."

[unit_8910_wolf]

He should have seen this coming.

The moment he had said yes to the body, he should have known that he would wake up to a day that Akane would question it all. He really has been naively clinging to that selfish hope that he will never have to rip out the bandage like that.

Somehow this was worse though. Akane herself had ripped out the bandage.

He stops when he feels Hamuko's presence coming close to him and he has to step back himself- away from the plush couch. ".."

When he hears her he blinks like he just woke up again, spacing out behind his cracked mask. Don't think about it.

"Oh no, don't be sorry," he waves his hand and releases a low hefty sigh like he actually was very bothered and depressed from this whole interaction. "She's just...at that age you know. Probably the whole quantum thing makes it worse." Why? Emotions were mostly out of the picture for him. His mind is swimming in drugs right now- why does it matter if Akane is mad at him.

Despite that he finds himself falling back to the wall and resting on it for a second, before settling down on the floor- one knee to the chest.

[wipingallout]

Slowly, thoughtfully, Hamuko walked with him and mirrored him - leaning against the wall, feeling the plush padding, before sinking down to the floor and letting out a deep sigh.

She pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly.

"I'm sorry about what the Kirijo Group did. It's so, so wrong. And... I didn't know, but that doesn't make how hurtful it must have been to hear what I said before about Mitsuru."

[unit_8910_wolf]

Zenkichi's eyes shut close as he curls in on himself, lips pulled into a thin line as he presses one hand to his face. Feels the cool of the mask that has only left him when he wasn’t himself.

Or when he was truly truly himself.

Just a dog on a leash, barking wild.

"Mitsuru...Kirijo...huh?"

She mysteriously disappeared and one of her distant relatives had taken over. That didn't mean she wasn't involved now, is it? She could have hid away to save herself or was killed under mysterious circumstances.

"You died like 28 years before everything happened," he really tries to allay her doubts. "And its been only about 28 minutes of you dying again. Take it easy on yourself, jesus christ."

If the whole Kirijo group aspect matters to her so much, he will tell her. He's just...not in the right state of mind to really discern how terribly she's blaming herself...she really shouldn't.

[wipingallout]

"I haven't even begun to be hard on myself," she joked... though the humor didn't really reach her voice the way it should've.

The blowup, the anger, the reveal... it was a lot. Hamuko hung her head down for a moment, breathing like she'd been holding her breath while waiting for Akane to get back up.

"...If I had been in your shoes, I... don't know if I would've known when to tell her either. But if I had been in hers, I think I would be upset, too..."

tw: sorta self-inflicting pain?

[unit_8910_wolf]

So goddamn stubborn. He levels her a look at the rather terrible joke, a semblance of sternness behind his otherwise empty (glassy?) gaze.

"There’s nothing else I could tell her besides regret," he starts as he tilts his head- his black hair hanging off in its wet oily mess of being laced in sweat after a stressful battle for his life.

Turn on pain sensors?

"Teenagers," he shook his head as he sighs and pretends he doesn't say yes to that command.

Then hisses in pain as the wounds he subjected on himself with his rage paired with his fight with Fatalis finally course through his veins.

"Tch. Damn, my back..." Even if the hiss he let out pertained to far more. That his body wasn't screaming at him or how he found himself relaxing against the wall to hold his barely held together visage.

He digs into his coat and pulls out a decanter.

[wipingallout]

Turning her gaze to him as he hissed, Hamuko's expression was a crystal clear one - sad, worried, filled to the brim with concern. It lingered for a moment as he complained about his back, and pulled out his decanter.

A soft smile crossed her lips, but it didn't meet her eyes in the slightest.

"What's in that?"

TW: drinking/alcoholism (1/2)

[unit_8910_wolf]

Stop looking at him like that.

The image of it...seeing a younger Akane peaking through the cracks of her door to find her father drinking away his sorrows like it was no tomorrow. The image of realizing he once again failed and lost Akane for good all because of his stupid mistake. All because he wasn't careful around Fatalis.

He deflects it. He unscrews the decanter, fingers smudging its otherwise metallic gleam as he finds himself grasping at the straws and the taste of alcohol that larps at his tongue. Burns in a way he thinks is familiar. Setting it down, he brought his sleeve up and wiped away at his mouth- catching small revulets.

"Mhm...just nail polish remover with a superiority complex," he answers with a straight face.

2/2

[unit_8910_wolf]

With that comment, he halfheartedly holds up the decanter to her. Maybe that will teach her to stray away?

"Wanna try?"

1/2

[wipingallout]

...She's reminded of Mutatsu, the old monk chomping on his cigar and bellowing for more booze. Of the moments where his whisky glass was topped off and he would glower at her, scolding her for being where she didn't belong - then in the same breath, going on with whatever life advice he felt like rattling off that night.

The smell of the alcohol was pretty strong, even from just being held out towards her.

Despite how Mutatsu always told her to fuck off, don't mess with your youthful looks by drinking, there was no... aversion to it.

After all. She was dead - twice over, in fact. And once she disappeared from this place it would be back to her death.

So... wordlessly, she took the decanter in her hand, before taking a swig.

[wipingallout]

"--!!" The intensity of the alcohol burn made her gasp, which made her aspirate some of the booze, which filled her throat and sinuses and sent her into a massive coughing fit.

COUGH COUGH COUGH!!

Holy shit??? Hamuko's face burned bright red from the effort of hacking up a lung, eyes watered relentlessly - it took a bit for her to croak out, "hOly sHit, is that-- gak-- is that paint thinner?? Why does it burn so much??"

[unit_8910_wolf]

Zenkichi's smugness suddenly dissolves when she actually takes the decanter from his hand after a moment of silence. What the hell- him holding that thing out in the open should have made her recoil not whatever the fuck she did just now??

"Hey, that was a whole swig you need to-"

And there we go.

The moment he heard the gasp a low exasperated sigh leaves his mouth, like a parent watching their kid burn themselves after fervent warnings of keeping them away from the stove and snatches the decanter from her hand.

"That's what whiskey does to you," he offers as an answer- bringing a hand to her back and rub it a little to ease off the way her nerves probably feel right now. "Does nothing phase you or something? You weren't actually supposed to drink that-"

[wipingallout]

It takes her a bit for the coughing to get back under control - she fumbled for some of the tissues she'd gotten earlier thanks to Igor being accommodating, wiping her eyes first before coughing into the tissue. Whew!!

"I t-thought, it probably wasn't as bad as the cigarette..."

[unit_8910_wolf]

Oh good, she had tissues on her because Zenkichi is quite sure he doesn't have anything like that on him nor does he think he could quickly fetch them from any reliable source.

"Wow." He deadpans at the clear admission.

[wipingallout]

Bleeegh...

"I thought I might understand you all a little better..."

[unit_8910_wolf]

...!

Understand him? A man who barely had any semblance of humanity left in him?

"Understand me?" His voice grows a hush bit softer- even if its a little rough around the edges. "That's-"

"You know if you keep doing that you might just end up turning to alcohol a little more everyday," he defensively concludes as he shakes his head- even if the corners of his lips lift a little.