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

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.

[wipingallout]

Hamuko's quiet for a bit, staring at him from where she sat, though her eyes weren't as sharply focused as when she read him previous times. No, it was a distant, thoughtful gaze, only barely focused.

After a beat, she let out a little breath of a laugh. "Well, long term liver damage wouldn't mean that much to me either, so why not?"

[unit_8910_wolf]

Zenkichi himself was all too dazed to really keep up with what was going on around him. Just shuffling into routines that felt familiar to him. Put him at ease.

"Drinking yourself stupid isn’t exactly the smartest afterlife hobby," he muttered, giving her a sidelong glance.

He hadn't even realized his hand still stayed there, on her back. He pulls away, trying to be as casual as he can be without meeting Hamuko's stare. It was never easy...looking into people's eyes when he knew he only disappointed them.

"...just go get some rest, Hamuko-chan. You really do look like you need it."

[wipingallout]

She didn't comment, but she already missed the comforting touch. Gosh... she really got a lot more touch starved and lonely after dying, too, huh...?

"I will... I'm just not ready yet," she agreed quietly. "They'll pamper me I'm sure. I don't need to break down in front of them, though."

There was the silent, implied you know what I mean?

[unit_8910_wolf]

He did.

Despite what he did in battle, losing focus, losing himself into his old destructive habits when he had nothing to live for (and he just felt like he lost it all over again) no one treated him harshly. He wasn't forcibly shut down for defying orders...nothing.

There was so much trying to force its way up his chest.

He nods ever so slowly. "If you don’t mind the stench of the paint thinner then be my guest, knock yourself out,"

[wipingallout]

"Thank you," Hamuko closed her eyes and rested her cheek against her knees, curling up again. "I feel safe here with you."

Not to say that she didn't feel safe in the dorm, but... those guys needed her to be strong. Maybe if she got emotional she could take Koromaru on a walk - he wouldn't tell on her if she needed to have a good cry.

[unit_8910_wolf]

The words settle in his chest, something warm and unfamiliar pressing against the cold, empty spaces inside him. He almost doesn’t know what to do with it.

He reaches for the decanter again, fingers curling around the cool metal. *Safe.* It’s been years since someone has said that to him. Even longer since he believed it.

Back when he was still a cop, it was different—people saw the badge and assumed safety, but there was always skepticism, always a sliver of doubt. Back at home, after everything that happened with EMMA, with Akane—he knew better than to think anyone could feel safe around him anymore.

But Hamuko...

She said it so simply. So easily.

And for a moment, he lets himself believe it.

He takes another swig of the whiskey, feeling the burn settle deep in his stomach before he exhales, staring at the decanter in his hands. A dry, self-deprecating chuckle barely makes it past his lips.

“Well,” he mutters, tipping the bottle slightly as if toasting to himself. At least someone’s glad I’m here.

His gaze flickers to Hamuko, watching as she curls into herself, allowing whatever emotions she’s been holding back to exist and ponder—even if just for a little while.

She’ll go back soon. She has to.

And that’s fine.

She still has people waiting for her. People who need her strong.

But right now, she’s here.

And that’s enough.

"...You did good today," he says at last, voice quieter, steadier than before. "Made a tough call with a once old friend and maybe its going to be a rickety terrain from here but I think Fatalis needs it more then anything else."

A pause.

"I’m proud of you."

It feels strange to say, but he means it.

[wipingallout]

"I'm proud of you."

What... a special sentiment. Pride in someone else... she feels it all the time, she felt it in this very moment with everyone on the team, mistakes or not. But... it's been so long since she'd heard it said to her.

Specifically to her. By someone who had been through what she had to face, who was in her corner wanting her success, who fought with her. Got to know where she had been wavering before tackling the fight, and accepted her and gave her advice. Believed in her.

Hamuko's eyes welled up, and she smiled, happily. She'd repaid his confidence and he was proud of her.

"Thank you. I mean it. And... it's rough now, but... I think it'll be okay," she assured in turn. The painful argument, the sense of betrayal and the sense of failure... however long it took for them to work it out, she thought that they probably could. And will.

[unit_8910_wolf]

Hamuko's expression softened the uneasiness and hesitation in his stance. Like the slow pouring of cold water over a burning wound, a temporary reprieve from the infection that was already making home in his heart. He finds himself curling one hand over his stomach- as if trying to put away the pain that nearly forces him to blink tears paired with Akane's raw declaration of how she regrets taking the hit for him.

Obviously he regretted that too. Akane should have never stepped out like this...he isn't worth all that saving.

It's been rough for far too long.

"Can it...there's no point boarding the ship now," he closes his eyes as he runs his hand over one of the scars barely reaching his lips- now splintering off his damaged mask. He knows once he goes to sleep it will be back to normal from there.

It's already sunk.

"...I appreciate you offering to talk to Akane, by the way," he says. "She will come around to you."

With that, he settles down and tends to his whiskey again with really nothing else to do. He really doesn't want to talk about his end of the deal...nor does he wish to talk about anything else.

[wipingallout]

"I promise I'll look after her. She's my friend," Hamuko whispered back, dabbing at her eyes a bit. She'd be checking in with Zenkichi, too, but she got the sense that he didn't want to hear it - and they were both probably on the same page... of the two of them, the teenager needed more support in the moment.

But Hamuko wouldn't be forgetting what Zenkichi's done here for her, even when he was deeply hurting.