[backdated: july 3rd] video —> text responses; un: otoproxy

[ends]

[ although the thought of reaching out via text had crossed his mind (exhausted as it is) more than once, Otonashi ultimately settles on video for the sake of consideration. if anyone had seen Ruca’s earlier message and still had lingering concern, seeing him functional and able to speak for himself should alleviate it.

he’s not quite fine given the tells of poor sleep etched into his face, but he’s not torn to pieces or missing, either. ]

Hey... I just thought showing my face would be the right thing to do after I wasn’t able to for... uh, however long. [ a pause before he continues: ] 3, 4 days? I’m... not your go-go person if you need someone keeping track of time.

[ death will do that to a person. what do days matter when they blur together in endless time? ]

With that great character flaw covered and out of the way... I’m Otonashi. Anyway, I wanted to pitch an idea to everyone for—something like a club? A support group? I haven’t been here very long, but I’m, ah, noticing a trend... [ of people with poor socialization, or who have issues making friends, or trusting people, or... hm. his point. ] ... and I think there’s a lot of strength in organized numbers. I know there are groups designed to protect, clinics, recreation, but I was thinking something a little more informal?

[ he has to workshop it a bit more, but the world certainly has enough space to accommodate wishes such as this. surely it’s feasible, and if it already exists? all the better. strength in numbers. ]

I’m going to leave this here... My roommate insisted I sleep with him, and he was pretty adamant on not taking ‘no’ for an ans— [ almost as if on cue, the sleepy, comfortable voice of Ruca cuts in for those who may be familiar, slurring Otonashi’s name. Otonashi, in turn, takes the opportunity to turn aside to yawn a little. ] —answer... Right, so, let me know what you think..? See you later, switching to text.

( so Otonashi is running on empty, getting back from a series of unfortunate events, and letting everyone know he’s fine following some choice, sleepy wording. chaos may ensue. responses may come from Otonashi or Ruca (demonicbookworm), probably text but may swap depending! disclaimer: they are not, in fact, about to go to town on each other. )

Comments

Text, UN: anisotropic

[fractaljesus]

It was 72 hours exactly.

[Without a face to go with the username, will Otonashi recognize who it is? Then again, it's pretty obvious...]

text; un: otoproxy

[ends]

[ Otonashi might chalk it up to someone keeping close tabs on him out of concern, and that conclusion might have given him more peace to sit with. it might have, if he could have convinced himself of it.

but he knows better.

he has to rise from bed to dart outside the room. it likely won’t spare Ruca from seeing inevitably, but he owes everyone involved to try. ]

yeah, thanks for ... that

[ that’s all he has for a minute or so. ]

why
did you feel the need to clarify?

[ and that’s hardly the biggest issue, but it’s the easiest one to address. ]

[fractaljesus]

Because you could not remember. [And clearly that is the most important thing here. Clearly. He really can't comprehend what part of this is problematic.

Otonashi hadn't crystallized. He'd survived. That was what was important.]

[ends]

I said I was bad with time... I covered it already

[ taking responsibility for his skewed perception of time (and to a lesser extent, his history of poor or absent memory) had been easier than contending with yet another complication of his well-intentioned, ill-fated adventure. ]

if you can clarify that, can I ask-
why didn’t you let anyone know I was
safe?

[ because he technically had been, and he can’t and won’t deny as much. it could have been worse, it wasn’t, it doesn’t matter. ]

I would’ve understood you stepping out for that
I think

[fractaljesus]

At the time, your name was information I did not possess. Had I known it, I would have responded to the inquiries regarding your status. [But they'd been worried for nothing, he thinks. Otonashi was safe, and is now back among the people who are important to him. He hadn't died. This time. What's to be upset about?]

There would have been no need to "step out." The "me" who was with you within Kado was merely an aspect--a projection.

text—>video;

[ends]

[ he reads over the reply that appears on his device once, twice, ten times over. no amount of reading and rereading changes the meaning or gives him a new interpretation. Otonashi hadn’t missed anything, though the temptation to blame misunderstanding and exhaustion both strike him.

when he finally switches his input over to a video, he’s still shaking his head, eyes wide, wild, haunted. ]

Tell me you’re screwing with me... Tell me your sense of humor is just as screwed up as theirs..! [ while he does not clarify who he might mean, he doesn’t feel the need to, either. “they” aren’t here, and yet the compulsion to protect them and their privacy, their safe anonymity, still persists. he moves his device, pulling at his shirt to reveal the brand that still remains struck into his chest in the same patterns zaShunina had left. ]

This is a joke... isn’t it? It has to be... You can’t touch people with a projection... You can’t—

[fractaljesus]

[It could be said that his sense of humor was "screwed", as it were, but at the same time, it could also be said that he didn't really have a "sense of humor" at all to begin with.

When Otonashi switches to video, zaShunina does as well--he prefers this mode of communication anyway.]

You misunderstand what I mean by "projection". [He shakes his head,] Kado is an extension of myself. The aspect that was with you was created within it, but it was no less solid than the body that remained outside.

Do you understand?

video—>locked;

[ends]

... No.

[ though he denies it, he knows it’s a lie as soon as it leaves him. zaShunina’s explanation rings familiar, like an old song spun to him in the haze of waking, half-forgotten to time. some of the color leaves his face, his expression cycling through disbelief, horror as his device slips from his grasp and clatters to the floor, and cold, miserable acceptance as he retrieves it again.

but each shift in his face maintains its haunted finish, always distant and almost unseeing. he’d forgotten to lock this down, so he fixes his mistake.

better now than never.

he understands, but maybe he wishes he didn’t. ]

... Hey. Why—why did you help me back then..? What was it all for..?

[fractaljesus]

[Once upon a time, Yaha-kui zaShunina couldn't comprehend the concept of lies. But he knows better now, and even if it perplexes him why someone would lie about this, in particular. Still he doesn't call Otonashi out on it.]

You were crystallizing. [It was the first thing he'd said to the human when he'd come across his injured body.] Placing you within Kado served several purposes; it eliminated environmental factors that could have impeded your recovery, and allowed you to replenish chroma at a constant rate. [Those are the immediately important parts.] Moreover, your presence within Kado also generated chroma for me as well--it was mutually-beneficial.

[As for the dragon runes... those only became a factor after he'd already committed to it.]

[ends]

But that doesn’t tell me why you did it...

[ he can glean an answer from the information he’s been given, but that answer gives him little solace. if his hands had been free, he would’ve looked to them for logic that they would never have, answers that they couldn’t possibly carry. ]

Was it really just... kindness? For a small payment of free chroma by keeping me..?

[ he hasn’t even addressed the runes yet, but he’s getting there. they’re not at the forefront of his mind, but with everything they’d done, they’re screaming to be. ]

And the three days, it doesn’t—it never takes so long for my body to heal. That’s never how it worked.

[fractaljesus]

Kindness is not the correct word. [He argues, setting his chin in his own hand contemplatively.] Rather, 'opportunistic' is more accurate, but it carries certain connotations that are likewise incorrect. [Language is finicky that way.] I encountered you in a state that, had I left you alone, would have resulted in your crystallization. I possessed the means at the time to prevent this undesirable outcome, and in a way that would symbiotically benefit me as well. Assisting you in that situation was simply the right answer--it would have been illogical to do anything else.

[It's still an unsatisfactory explanation for the anisotropic being, but it's what he'll have to settle for.]

It is true that physical damage to your body had been fully repaired in only seven hours. Additional time was allotted for chroma generation.

[But enough dancing around the elephant in the room.]

Moreover, the Astella and Ostella runes also influenced the decision to keep you within Kado for the full 72 hours.

[ends]

[ he shouldn’t look so disappointed, but he does regardless, the sigh that follows only solidifying it. ]

So you took advantage of a shitty situation... You had the option and you took it. Doing anything else would have been... stupid. Like passing up a gift.

[ Otonashi can at least walk through the logic without necessarily agreeing with every aspect of it. he has had to set aside unfortunate truths and seize opportunities out of ugly scenarios. it is what it is, and he cannot deny that he had been a beneficiary.

he and zaShunina differ, though. where zaShunina seems to act out of efficiency, Otonashi is too deeply bound by altruism. ]

Seven... hours..?

[ he lingers on this, feeling his stomach twist as he recalls the sound of Ruca’s sobbing when Otonashi had finally made contact again, the distress and ache of abandonment he’d left Lucy with, the quiet agony in Inaba’s voice, the terrified expression of Keigo as Otonashi had made his initial sacrifice. ]

I—I told you that, didn’t I..? That... I didn’t need... [ he’s struggling to parse through his own racing thoughts here, sounding neither angry nor demanding as he does. ]

[fractaljesus]

While not inaccurate, that assessment implies more desire for individual gain than was present. I would not have acted if the benefit had only been one-sided. [The mistake Otonashi is making in this moment is assuming that zaShunina's brain or sense of morality works anything like a human's.]

You are distressed. [He observes, his brows furrowing as though the thought that Otonashi had been troubled by the event saddens him.] Why?

text; un: asura

[demonicbookworm]

[That response to Otonashi's post catches Ruca completely off-guard. His eyes narrow as he types and sends a single question.]

How do you know that?

[fractaljesus]

Because that was the span of time that I detained him for recovery.

[demonicbookworm]

You're saying you saved him? And you never told anyone where he is?

[fractaljesus]

He was crystallizing.

I would have responded to inquiries on his status had his name been information I possessed at the time, but it was not a priority.

[demonicbookworm]

[Otonashi mentioned that he had a brush with death. So that was what he meant. But then why does he have so much chroma? What are those marks on his body?]

I see. But how did you save him? Was he unconsciousness for three days?

text - Video

[fractaljesus]

[YOU KNOW HOW EVERYONE GOT REALLY HORNY ABOUT A WEEK AGO?

Rather than type the answer, zaShunina quickly changes the feed over to video, as explaining this would be far easier with visual aid. Was a pale, red-eyed young man what Ruca had been envisioning? Because that's the face that greets him.]

To answer that, I must first explain Kado. [In the video, a small, flat shape appears to float beside zaShunina's head. It's perfectly square, and perfectly flat, with no depth whatsoever--resembling a hole in space more than an actual object.]

Kado is a Boundary Device and transforming mechanism that functions as an extension of myself. I used Kado to create an isolated space and placed Otonashi within this space. As it is an extension of me, his presence within it was functionally identical to moonlacing.

He was unconscious for the first hour. After this, however, he regained awareness.

>Video

[demonicbookworm]

[He knows, but let him hope that this wasn't what he thinks it was..

The face he sees does not match what he imagined, but he doesn't say anything about it or let it show in his expression.

He frowns at the explanation, but at least he knows now why Otonashi has so much chroma to spend. It still feels kind of disturbing, but it could've been worse. Or was it?]

And you never asked his name after he woke up?

[fractaljesus]

It was not a priority. [They'd both had other things on their mind than exchange names.]

[demonicbookworm]

Then what was?

[His eyes may be narrowing.]

[fractaljesus]

Yuzuru Otonashi possessed an Ostella mark during the events of the dragons' songs. Likewise, I possessed an Astella mark. It had no influence on the initial decision to place him within Kado for recovery, but it did influence our actions afterward.

[In contrast to Ruca, the white-haired man remains coolly aloof, as if discussing the weather.] Is further explanation necessary?

[demonicbookworm]

[His expression changes from some sort of shock, to deep worry and sadness, before Ruca manages to find words for it.]

So you're trying to tell me that you two...

[He feels like he was just hit with a brick. There's this heaviness in his chest, like it hard to breathe. He's pretty sure it's not because he has a problem with the idea of Otonashi sleeping with someone, even though now, being Sanguis, he doesn't like it. The bigger problem is that he heard Otonashi asking if everything was real, he saw his expression. Before all that Otonashi felt so full of energy, now he looks like he's going to break.]

And just because of that mark? That's the only reason you've done that to him?

[fractaljesus]

[And yet Yaha-kui zaShunina is only confused by this reaction, because he's unaware of how deeply it had affected Otonashi. By his account, he'd taken the human into Kado to heal and restore his chroma, and during that time their respective marks had driven them both to engage in more rigorous moonlacing. No part of this makes any sense to the anisotropic being insofar as why either Otonashi or his roommate are so upset about the incident.]

To what exactly are you referring?