prismatica | video | call out to the afterlife

Entry tags:

video | call out to the afterlife

[ Shino gets the camera rolling, and backs up, leaning forward and looking to where the light is, leaving him looking off camera. ]

The blinking light means it's on, right? [ He breathes out in a huff, straightening up and reaching for the table at his side. His fingers linger there, pressed against barely visible pieces of paper. ] Okay, so I don't know how to show pictures I've drawn except like this, and I have a few people that aren't here but might show up sometime, so if anyone sees them, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

[ He picks up the first, then shows each of them, one after another. ]

This is my little sister, Hamaji. And this is my older brother, Sousuke. They're the most important that I know about right away. Hamaji wears black dresses with lace and sturdy heeled shoes, and Sousuke is usually dressed like he's part of the church. You can find him in buttondown shirts, too, like this. [ He lets the drawings be lowered to show the white buttondown he's wearing. The pictures are set on the table, and he gathers up the next few. ] Then there might be one of these guys...

This is Kobungo, Genpachi, and Keno. They're the people who'd most likely want to find me. Genpachi might be in or out of military uniform? Kobungo is sometimes in his inn uniform. Keno always tends to dress traditionally.

[ These are set back on the table, his hand lingering on the surface. He looks to his last drawing, seems to frown, then picks it up to show the camera anyway. Once there, the dog is clearly given more depth to their eyes than literally any of the people, and that's... for reasons! ]

Then there's this guy, Rio Satomi, who'll probably be frowning and angry, because if I can't stand being here, he's going to hate it even more. I guess you could tell me if you see him, too.

[ All the pictures are now back on the table, and a crow, who had been off camera for most this, hops in camera and starts prodding at the drawings while Shino addresses the camera. ]

My name's Inuzuka Shino, and you can contact me on this weird phone if you see any of them in the future. Thanks!

[ He smiles, waving at the camera, as the crow picks up a drawing and attempts to fly away, over the camera, leading to Shino darting forward, hitting his comm, sending it flopped flat to film darkness as he calls out for Murasame to drop that, don't eat the drawing, you stupid bird, and then a fumbling click as the feed finally ends. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He certainly sounds impressive.

[ He's actually not been around many young married couples, so he's a little sweet on the way he can tell she's enamoured of her husband. So nice, seeing these things in their first blush. He hopes their marriage goes the way of all the nicest ones, long lived and filled with all the joys and tears of a life well lived. May neither of them meet tragic endings!

Such a wish in his heart, but he takes care to not let it project. He doesn't know what might happen here, if it's different or the same as back home, and he doesn't want to find out. Murasame responds even when Shino doesn't realise. Giving form to the formless, life to the dying, there are things one should not do, and yet, still can.

So instead, he'll simply smile, and set Murasame down on the table. The crow flares his wings and hops in a circle, then settles down again, turning his head to watch the camera with one black eye. ]

They mostly hide where I'm from, and few people would ever run into them. Or survive running into them, for one reason or another. [ The difference between Yukihime and Kokonoe is great, after all. One simply lives in winter and appears to the dying, the other actively usually eats men, normally going by the name of Yashahime. Keno is her heart in many ways... including the literal. ] It's not safe for them or humans to cross paths for the most part. But you say you've met demons here?

Mm, he is. I'm kind of biased, I guess, but...

[Okay, it was hard to explain to some people with how gruff and distrusting he could be of meeting new people, but. She knows better! If he can just get to know people they'd realize why she thinks he's so amazing.]

That sounds like the stories from my world... that if you met one and managed to get away you'd be really lucky, since they tend to eat people... or lure them to dangerous places, that kind of thing... But the demons I've met here are mostly really nice!

[She pauses, looking up a moment and trying to be... a little less positive. Should probably describe them more realistically.]

Or, well... They're not evil, I mean, like how I always thought they'd be. I've met like... four now!

[ He laughs at this, grinning and resting his hip against the table. Murasame doesn't bother moving, blinking slowly and staying put on top of whatever drawings lie under his feet. ]

I'd like to think you would be! Why not be biased? You married him, didn't you? Seems like a good enough reason to me.

[ He has no dealings with romance, but he knows some of other people's, and shouldn't one be biased toward their lover? Genuinely caring for them tends to mean that people look past their weakest qualities to focus on their best. Maybe also nag them about their worst, but hey, out of love, right? That's family, or the start of any family looking to take on kids of their own. ]

Mm, there's a lot more of that... guardian gods will kill, depending, too. Or a demon might save your life. They make their own decisions, as much as we do.

[ The whole pause and admission they aren't evil, versus "really nice," gets him to smile... a little less brightly. ]

Make that five, if you want. [ He hooks a thumb at Murasame. This is the same as pointing to himself, but he doesn't state that, since in his mind, he's Human, Thanks. But Murasame is, by his very origins and being, demonic. Godly. Chaotic? No one really seems to know, and he has not much to say on it either. ]

[Konoha can't help but laugh a little bit herself, glad he seemed to get it and also, selfishly, that she'd had a little chance to gush. She's been trying to keep it under control, but!!

She just bites her lip a little and nods. She did marry him after all.]

I think that's it, though- all the stories just describe them as evil, but... they seem like they could be good or bad just like humans can, just... from what I've seen, I mean.

[Except he points at the crow, and...]

- Eh? Your crow is a demon, too? I thought it was just a really well-trained bird!

[ Please, gush about family! He prefers that, loves hearing it, compared to the more mournful stuff... or hating family. Or wanting to die. Things he doesn't understand, doesn't know how to understand, even as his lack of full recollection of his own life means there are things he simply doesn't know he doesn't know involved with all of that. ]

Good, evil... it's all from a human perspective, isn't it? I don't know how it is elsewhere, but back home, someone told me demons are born from the shadows in human hearts. They're only given form because people have given them life from their own dark thoughts, fears, and natures. Humans are some of the scariest people around, in that sense.

[ Said more quietly, because yes, he's fought and dealt with demons of different kinds, but he's friends with more, quietly understanding the harmlessness of others, and studiously avoiding a certain fuzzy eyeball with a giant appetite. These are all topics more complicated than a black and white good or evil. ]

Murasame? I wouldn't say well trained is a word that applies to him...

[ Murasame's head whips around and he quarks a denial at Shino: ]

Not trained!

[ Just very fond of his bearer, and that fierce love is not always a good thing; it is theorised to be Shino's doom in the end, if or when it turns sour, or when it's great enough to turn to fear and devour him whole.

But who wants to think about that? Not him! Nor how he, technically, isn't human by scent or spiritual feeling. He's human in his heart and mind, and that's what matters. ]

See? He's just a greedy thing. Always trying to steal my meat or eat strange things!

[ Which then Shino ends up taking in but he's never going to think hard on how any of that works, because who wants to think about what a demon you host in your body does with the things it eats when it, well, is hosted in your body. ]

[When he says that, that humans are some of the scariest things... Konoha can't help but avert her gaze a moment. The wars that had decimated and enslaved her race, that had killed her parents, her husband's father, that had killed her adopted parent's natural children... those had all been started by humans. They did terrible things. But those same humans had also taken her in as an orphan and raised her as their own...

So she doesn't want to believe it. That humans as a race were like that.

It's easier to look at the crow instead, "Murasame", and be shocked that... it talked.]

It talked...

[Which she accidentally said out loud. Oops.]

Ah- I'm sorry, I didn't know... all the demons I met here look mostly human...

[ He's from after World War One, but before the second; humanity is both the best and worst of itself. Yet he clings to it, believes in the best of humanity, because in his eyes that's what shines brightest. For darkness to exist, there has to be sufficient light, and the light is always brighter to cast shadows as deep as some demons he knows.

Humanity is worth fighting for, and believing in.

Murasame lifts his head, turning it further in an exaggeratedly birdlike way. ]

Demons are humans. Humans are demons.

[ Sounds more cryptic when stated by a bird, but he settles into preening himself right after, dropping the topic just like that. ]

... Ignore him. [ Shino says, placing a hand on Murasame's head, meriting a grumpy noise of of the crow. ] Demons come in all shapes and sized and kinds where I'm from; this is just one possibility.

[ For Murasame, one of many. ]

Mostly human? What gives your demon friends here away?

[Oh... That was. Confusing sounding. Deep, but confusing.]

Ah... they have pointy ears... or animal ears... not the moonblessing, either, just. Naturally.

And they smell sort of... like animals. If that makes sense...

[ He blinks, registering both these facts while thinking about the brothers in oni form. ]

... Uh, not really? What kind of animals?

Ah...

[She tries to think of how to describe it without being rude, absently rubbing at her nose- more sensitive than a human's but not quite as keen as a true beast's.]

Depending on what type they are, I guess? I know some dog demons... and a wind demon... and before I came here I met a water demon... and they all sort of. Smelled like what they were?

[She guesses Murasame would smell like a crow, but- That one's obvious!!]

[ He blinks, since... that makes sense, even if it's not how he's ever scented demons back home. Maybe it was? But most aren't animal related, huh...

He wonders what he and Murasame smell like. One would think bird, but he has a feeling it's more metal and rain and something dark and hulking. This isn't his demon's true form, after all, and no natural animal can stand being around either one of them in close quarters. ]

I guess that makes sense... demons just kind of have their own scent back home. Maybe extra ones depending on what they are, but it's two different things, I think?

Maybe it's different depending on the world? Some of the ones I know are from the same world... and I've met all sorts of people that don't exist in mine now, and sometimes I didn't figure out what they smelled like until I got here. Like "androids", do you know any of those?

[Not that demons and androids were the same in any other way but... this talk of scents, but!]

I found out when I went to a world with it that some of them smell like plastic... but before I found out plastic I couldn't quite figure it out. So many your demons would be like that for me?

[... though she supposed they could test it?]

I guess that makes the most sense with it being different... I've come across so many different kinds of people with different things about them that'd be strange back home. I haven't met anyone who says they're an android... but I know what plastic is, so there's that?

[ Are androids... plastic? Really if he knew it was more like they were advanced robots, much more svelte and singular than the GIGA units they'd traveled the Nothing in, it'd make sense! ]

You'd know as soon as you were around us, so seems like we'll know whenever we meet. Assuming we meet? These picture phones are so weird...

I met a lot back in the group I was with before I came here... and some of them smell like oil and metal, some like this "plastic" stuff... so I guess it's just. Different worlds and all sorts of other reasons.

[Oh-]

I guess I could just sniff for crow? My sense of smell isn't that great, though, I'd have to be kind of near you... but we could meet sometime! This city is so large, but I prefer talking in person to these phones anyway... We don't have them in my world. Or... anything at all like them.

Half the smells around here are enough to give me a headache... how does a city with people who end up with super senses part of the month stand being like this?!

[ Let him complain, even if he looks abashed a moment after. Ah, he doesn't need to complain in front of her! ]

I... don't know if that'd work? The sniffing. Meeting up is probably easier. I definitely think it's better than these picture phones!

No, I totally get it! Mines better than a humans, sure, but anyone better than mine must be so overwhelmed, I thought...

[Complain away!]

Do you want to, then? I don’t mind- you seem nice!

[And it may be naive but... she’s nearly a half ton of muscle, so. Unless someone has shown themselves to be physically stronger she accidentally assumes she can handle most human shaped people if she ended up being too trusting...]

Mine's not necessarily better, just more sensitive to some things...

[ He's Normal. Normal, okay! ]

Huh? Yeah, why not? I don't mind, and you seem nice, too.

[ He smiles at that; on the bright side, he's honest, and he's not much of a danger overall. Not to someone who isn't intending to harm him grievously, at least. ]

I'm not so great at navigating around here yet... where's someplace easy to meet up with someone? Hard to get lost finding?

[and who’d want to do that???]

How about the Greatmoon Groves? On the east side there’s a park with lots of benches?

Greatmoon Groves, east side? I should be able to find my way there.

[ He gives a firm, enthused nod, because getting used to navigating here is a good thing. Especially if he ends up having to track down any of his important people.

Besides, can he really end up missing someone seven feet tall? ]

[Indeed, Konoha is very hard to miss.

The sound of hooves announces her presence in the park before anything else, the sharp sound of unshod hooves on stone path, trotting closer. Curious if she could find him that way Konoha is trying to sniff him out, smelling for bird or crow and trying to pick anything out from the groves itself that she can, scenting the wind every few feet and adjusting her direction, tail alert beneath the fabric work over her rear for modesty amongst humans.

This way? Over... here?

It’s taking a while, but to her credit she’s going in the right direction?]

[ Shino and Murasame have taken to investigating the trees at the east end, Murasame perching on the lower branches and peering down at Shino, who stares back up at him. They're not immediately obvious in the gentle crowd that moves through the area, a shortish young man and the crow disguised by the shadows, and neither of them smell quite like they should‐certainly, warm bodies, one with a featheriness to it, the other with warm skin and a pleasant sort of light floral soap, but also something... dark. Heavy, not quite bloody, never that, but as if there's an implication of it.

Shino waves at Murasame and then collapses onto a bench, tipping his head back to stare up through the branches of the trees overhead. His legs are straight out in front of him, everything about his posture relaxed, until the crow who'd been in the tree hops off and flaps his wings as he flies out, heading toward the figure of Konoha with a caw and a called out: ]

Jinba! Jinba!

[ As he wheels higher overhead. Shino lifts his head, looking in Konoha's direction, and he smiles at the sight of her: larger than life, and she says that she's smaller than others. Incredible! He pushes up to his feet, wearing slacks and a buttondown shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, hair pulled back in a high ponytail. Murasame continues to circle overhead before angling back toward him, coming in to land on Shino's shoulder with practised ease. ]

Konoha!

[ He lifts a hand in a wave of sorts, having called out in what amounts to a shout. This had been about scents, hadn't it? Probably, but he's upwind anyway, and he's curious if not expectant. ]

[In the end, Konoha isn’t quite positive she’d have been able to pull them out of the crowd by scent alone, because in the end it’s the visual register of motion that brings her to Murasame, identity proven once the bird began to caw out her- well, species would do!

There’s too many strange aromas in this city and this park, but when she meets Shino’s gaze and identifies him from the video Konoha is quick to trot the rest of the distance between them, greeting him with a bow that brings her down more to his height.]

It’s nice to meet you in person!

[Unsure how smart a demon he is, Konoha still greets the crow with a smile when she straightens up, adding,]

You, too!

[Before she takes a deep breath, absently trying to identify that strange, darker sort of smell. Like the layer of wet, rotting leaves a few inches down in the woods.]

Thanks for coming out here... it’s way easier to talk this way than on the devices, yeah?

[ Her bow takes him by surprise because people aren't usually so formal with him, and he sure isn't formal with just about anyone, but he thinks for a moment and returns her bow with one not quite so artful or well practised. ]

It's nice meeting you too!

[ Murasame, after being smiled at and greeted, opens his beak to say: ]

Nice to meet you!

[ He likes being included in conversations when he's in the mood for it. Hence returning Konoha's greeting, though he tips his head just so he can eyeball Shino's face right after.

Both of them notice she in no way feels like she's part of the spiritual, less human side of things, which makes sense with what she's said. It's just nice, and fascinating, considering she comes from a place that could be like his world, and yet they clearly have some big difference in peoples going on here. ]

It's way easier. I get that those weird phones can be useful, but it's such a bother... how can people talk on them as often as they do? I see them all over this city!

[Still not quite sure exactly how intelligent Murasame was, and not wanting to potentially offend by asking in front of him, Konoha is just going to keep... looking at them both.]

I still don’t really know, to be honest. I tried to get used to it, but... I still can’t do the writing well, and then there’s just the voice, plus the video...

[She laughs a bit helplessly, scratching behind an ear as a hoof awkwardly slips along her opposite foreleg. As “half” as she might appear, she moved seamlessly, rather fluid even with the size granted by ones waist beginning at what was already many people’s chest or shoulder height.]

There’s nothing at all like this in Echigo, either, so while it’s nice and all... I don’t want to get too used to it. Or spoiled!

[ Murasame seems unaffected either way, though he does watch with marked understanding, if the times when he blinks or responds with subtle body language to what's being said means anything. He's not prone to great speeches... but he's more than aware enough, in his own, far less complicated way. ]

Ah, writing on this? Or writing on the screen keys? It takes me forever, I have to write things by hand in the second thingy that comes up.

[ It's overwhelming, but phones at least exist in his time. So he could connect that much back to the rest, even if he had no reason to use Rio's phone back home.

Her fluid movement is rather distracting, simply because it's so natural and seamless, and he watches with wide eyed wonder. ]

So beautiful...

[ He says, and really, she is? Look at her! Jinba have to be incredible, and her husband has to be a sight to behold. For her sake, he hopes he does meet more, and also for himself to simply get to see more of such lovely people. There's something so much more personable about people-horses than just horses... says the guy who hasn't spent much time around horses, and only's ridden Genpachi's horse, which seems fine with a double-demon load while on duty.

Funny, that. ]

Mm! I know what you mean, though I don't know if I'll miss any of it when I get back home. Other than maybe how easy it is to get word out when you're looking for someone... way better than an ad in the paper. You said Echigo, though? [ He scratches his cheek, fishing after the memory this brings up, eventually. ] Ah, right, part of Niigata now. You've got to be from sometime earlier than me. You're still from the Empire of the Rising Sun, though, right?

[ He's met people telling him about when they stopped being an Empire, and while emotionally, he's not distraught about it either way, he has no idea what's "common" across people's realities. Or even what the words are to describe these things! ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject