vrdr_mods: (mod igor)
Velvet Room Mods ([personal profile] vrdr_mods) wrote in [community profile] personavelvetroomdr2025-03-03 09:23 pm

The Silence After the Storm

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.]]
wipingallout: (Do you have the resolve?)

[personal profile] wipingallout 2025-03-13 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"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: (unmasked smiling)

[personal profile] unit_8910_wolf 2025-03-14 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
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: (Fleeting)

[personal profile] wipingallout 2025-03-14 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
"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: (dismissive)

[personal profile] unit_8910_wolf 2025-03-14 10:42 am (UTC)(link)
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.
Edited 2025-03-14 13:24 (UTC)
wipingallout: (Fleeting)

[personal profile] wipingallout 2025-03-14 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"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.