vatheon | Sometimes, Death just sneaks up on ya.

Entry tags:

Sometimes, Death just sneaks up on ya.

Who: Sol, passers-by?
Where: S'up, Lamufao?
When: Backdated to Friday evening ;;;
Style: I adapt! :U
Status: Opennnnn

This was not where he was last time his eyes were open. Sol sat up with a hand to the back of his head, half-frowning as he considered his new surroundings. Well, at least he wasn't soaking wet, this time around. But he'd been up on the island; maybe time up there was limited and the coral dragged you back after a given amount of time. If random teleportation was a "curse", then he was going to get annoyed awfully fast; he liked being able to determine his own course in some regards, thanks.

No, wait. Something else had happened.

Systematic shut down.

Shit. He'd passed out? No, not quite. Passing out didn't work like that. Light headed, cold--that was passing out. Deeper. What? Coma? How did comas work for Gears? Whatever, something had happened and he didn't have all the data. Irrelevant since he was up and moving again, anyway. If it came up again, he'd have to hope he was in a better situation so someone could log data.

Whatever.

He was fine, as far as he could tell, and he was in good health. Couldn't have been that long, regardless of what happened.

Which left him eying the coral with a flat, unamused look once he stood. Alright, buddy. Sol folded his arms across his chest, sneering for a split second before deciding it just wasn't worth his time to think up nasty things to say to or think at the glowing mass.

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[Tsubaki doesn't exactly make it a habit to wander around the city, especially not by the Coral where it's often crowded between newcomers arriving and other people needing the Coral's services. But she is just passing by today when she spots Sol, staring at it.

Has the time come already? Had he just arrived, and would more follow him?

She doesn't really know, but she finds herself adjusting her glasses and approaching, wondering if he's looking at something specific on the Coral.

...But she won't say anything right away.]

[Not a new arrival, no, but probably striking someone as similarly frustrated. Or maybe not, given his stance is rough and careless. Her approach is noted, but he doesn't really react to it just yet. She's not in his space, not trying to say or do anything involving him, so it's not yet his problem.

Automatic processes mentally log details, though; young, Japanese (unusual)--those register immediately. This place is unusual, though, and it's not like the Japanese population has always been insignificant in number. Also any given number of theories concerning the nature of this place could explain it, too.

If only Sol cared.]

Is there something wrong with it?

[Tsubaki speaks, after being unable to find anything unusual. Though her eyesight had been so poor, she likely wouldn't have noticed anything about the Coral before she got the glasses, anyway. As far as she can tell, though, it does glow.

Bright or dim, depending on its power output.

If only she cared more, too.]

[Wrong with the coral? By normal terms, yeah probably. By Vatheon terms? No, probably not. But he hadsn't really managed to get a grip on "Vatheon terms", so who knows. Maybe it's just as fucked up here as anywhere else and people just don't know better to question it.

Rather than say any of that, Sol digs through his pants pocket to pull out a half-crushed pack of cigarettes. He would speak, though, just not in a way he really expects himself to.]

How old're ya?

... Fourteen.

[That was not an answer to her question. That's okay though, she's much more fascinated with watching him pull out his cigarettes to call him out on it. She will tilt her head though, after providing him with an answer.

Why...does he want to know?]

[Because he hadn't seen any kids around Vatheon, yet. She just seems too young to be here, wherever here really is. But no, it's really not an answer to her question, though he's not inclined to give her one in the first place. It's not information he has to give her.

Cigarette between his lips, Sol lights the end the lazy way: the simplest of manipulations of the magic already in him, drawing a meager flame to the tip of his thumb. He shakes his hand once that's done, dragging on the cigarette and exhaling through the corner of his lips. Hands and pack return to their respective pockets, and the man almost imperceptibly scowls.]

What's some'ne yer age doin' here?

[...Tch.

For her age, Tsubaki is capable of a lot, so if she looks insulted, she is. From the way he's smoking his cigarette though, it isn't as if he cares, so she doesn't bother to bring it up. Nor does the smoke bother her; she'll breathe it happily.]

Why don't you ask it?

[She gestures to the Coral, a demanding look in her eyes.

It's apparently the one responsible, here.]

[Sure she is; he knows a three year old who can command an army with her mind and unleash startling levels of destruction. He followed a 16 year old into war for two reasons: to make sure the kid didn't get himself offed out there as a favour to a "friend", and to keep his own fight going. Children with high capability isn't new, but that doesn't mean they're any better suited to questionable terrain or environment.

Her suggestion earns her a look, Sol peering down at her without moving at all. His expression remains impassive for that, and when he looks back to the coral, lips quirk in a faint smirk.]

Ain't got a mouth t'scream with.

The truth was, Ky was starting to think that Sol might have left the Bubble. Johnny had, he'd determined, and perhaps whatever had pulled them to this place in the first place was losing its hold on their world. In which case, he didn't know why he was here, but so long as Dizzy was then he would do his best to keep his panic down, because he didn't want to worry her. But Sol was clearly still here, and Ky surprised himself with the depth of his relief at that. He shoved that feeling aside as soon as he recognized it, because it wasn't going to do any good.

Instead he marched right up to Sol, stopping close enough that it would be easy for Sol to read the anger on his face but still giving Sol his immediate personal space. "Where have you been? Even if you have carefully avoided having any responsibilities here, is it really demanding too much to ask that you not fall off the face of everywhere!"

Ky crossed his arms, glaring up at Sol's face. "And don't you dare walk off without an explanation!"

He hadn't left, not really. Been completely MIA, yeah. Not that Sol knew. Which... showed when he turned to Ky with a brow raised and his expression a little caught off guard. What? The Hell was Ky going on about? What was he even this mad about? Sol was pretty sure he wasn't on Ky's "to nag" list outside of the expected "fight meeee" whining, so this was new.

"Miss me?" Sol drawled instead, rocking his weight as he turned to face Ky properly. His head lolled to the side a bit, lazy. The mocking was half-hearted, of course, but it was also just the easiest way to react to this ridiculous behaviour. What even was Ky's damage, being this demanding? It couldn't have been that long since the last time the blond spoke to him. But here he was, acting like it'd been weeks or more. Sol could lose track of time being as long-lived as he was, but...

"No!" Ky snapped, automatically, because it wasn't about missing Sol, it was about...being completely unable to find him when he'd gone looking, it was about wasting his time, and it was about the fact that Sol was daring to act like this was no big deal. Him disappearing for long chunks of time was understandable when he was off doing Sol things in a different city, but Ky couldn't even understand where Sol would have gone for all that time that Ky couldn't find him.

"I was concerned," he continued, emphatically. Because that was completely different from missing Sol, in that in the actual case Ky was worried that Sol might be dead somewhere on the way back to the world they came from, and if he'd missed Sol it would have been meaningless and something that was his fault, instead of Sol's.

Well, no. That's obviously completely different from missing one of the people you harass regularly and wind up frustrating yourself over and then blaming said person for it. For Sol, this was no big deal; he hadn't known how long he'd been gone, so he couldn't see a reason to get so worked up over it. And besides, Ky knew better than to worry about Sol. Or he should have. They weren't working a battlefield together and he didn't need the boy scout wanting to watch out for him at all odd hours. Ky needed to learn how to be a little selfish.

Or maybe reacting like this was Ky being selfish.

"Tomayto, tomahto." Teasing, jeering maybe just a little. Might as well have been the same thing, in some ways. Was totally different in others. Much like Ky's assessment, it'd be completely on Ky. But so was freaking out over this, he thought. "Nothin' t'be concerned over," Sol pointed out helpfully and... utterly blasé.

Lots of things were worth getting worked up over, but as far as Ky was concerned that was particularly the case just now. It wasn't too much to ask for some awareness of where Sol was once a week. It wouldn't even take that much effort, they had the SFC's! Ky might possibly be being a little selfsih, but he really didn't feel that it was unreasonable to ask for at least a sign that Sol was still alive every once in a while.

"It's one thing to disappear for weeks when there are actually places for you to go! But you can't simply shut yourself away in a place like this...something could have happened! Or something could happen to this place, and you wouldn't even be contactable to help!" Not that Sol would want to help, but if it was all of Vatheon in danger then he really ought to.

A brow arched high, and the American watched the young man go off. The Hell'd he mean by "weeks"? Better be some kinda comparison to normal behaviour. Sol was damn sure he hadn't been out for weeks. What was Ky even going on about? He'd be aware if shit was going down, wouldn't he? Not like it'd be very easy to hide in an underwater bubble with a little island attached to it.

"Look, kid, dunno what you're on 'bout, but try breathing once 'n a while. I didn' shut m'self away, just stayed up 'bove the water." Speaking of, how did he even get down here? Back to the coral and whatever abilities it possessed--brought him here, time outside the bubble proper could still be limited, the theory wasn't entirely invalidated yet.

"Don't you dare lie to me." Telling him to breathe was all well and good as advice, but Ky won't be shut down by Sol simple pretending that this wasn't an issue. It was totally an issue, and the nerve of Sol.

"I looked for you there as well, but you weren't around. And I don't think that you're the sleeping through a battle type, and that's what was happening on the island. So where were you actually then?

Lie? Sol snorted at that, hands on his hips as he shook his head. Like Hell he was lying. The nerve of him what? Telling the truth? Sol was many things, but he truthfully very rarely lied. When he did, it was for good reason and more through omission than distorting fact. He didn't have reason to lie.

"Y'got me. Didn't hear any battle, just found m'self here." He gestured idly to the coral. But Ky wouldn't lie about combat--Ky wouldn't lie about anything unless it would hurt his precious Catholic virtue if he did, being the good little boy he was. Sol's weight rocked, turning him back to the coral entirely. "S'a good question, though." Sol was too familiar with the signs of battle, the signs of incoming danger; he wouldn't sleep through that kind of thing. And if Ky'd spent time looking for him on the island and hadn't found him... But how do you get from one place to another without consciously making the effort yourself?

"You found yourself here?" What started off as irritated and exasperated faded into worry by the time Ky got to the end of the sentence. "Sol, what's the last thing you remember before finding yourself here?"

Put in that perspective, Ky deflated, while his attention on Sol stayed as intent as it had been. "Did you appear in front of the coral just now?"

Sol met that miniature barrage with simply tilting his head back and watching Ky jump from one facial expression to the next. Sol crossed his arms and turned towards the coral with that question. Ky, pick a question and ask it. Wait to ask other questions until after.

"Yep." There was really no other way to answer without inciting Ky's nagging, and Sol was curious in a quiet way about what the little cop could tell him. Something in the way Ky spoke and stood--and the fact he'd been in Vatheon longer--suggested he knew something, anyway.

That wasn't answering what Sol last remembered, but it was all important. Ky could certainly work with what he had been given so far, as much as would prefer the kind of facts that would contradict his fears, rather than affirm them.

"Sol, I think..." Ky crossed himself, then set his face. No use trying to do anything other than soldier through the situation as it was. "It sounds like you died and the coral brought you back. That's how it works, our deaths here don't last." But surely Sol would remember dying. Perhaps there was some other explanation that Sol would offer now. A curse might have caused amnesia.

Sol stayed absolutely silent for a moment, gaze impassive as it remained fixed on the coral.

"Tch."

He didn't believe it; then again, most people probably wouldn't believe they'd died upon being told. Still, he was hard-pressed to accept the suggestion as fact. Sol was, in short, very hard to kill for a variety of reasons he didn't want to ever need to explain to anyone. Considering that being shot by a couple of idiot cops until he was pretty sure their clips had run out hadn't done it, he very much doubted anything could have happened to kill him in Vatheon.

Then again...

"Don't remember bein' hit by anything that'd kill me." Benefit of the doubt. "What exactly happened up on th'island?"

"There was a fight. A really big one, a giant mechanical sphere appeared above the island and started to attack everyone there. There were defense efforts organized against it, but it killed some other people. Beyond that, it was at least as powerful as a some of the Behemoth-class Gears, though from someone else's world. She was able to...guide people into destroying it."

Sol wanted a full explanation, right? Good. "She also asked people to pray to her." Not for her, while she'd done that as well, and it hadn't been Amaterasu that had asked, but there had been no doubting that the one who had asked for that prayer had called her a god, had said they had to believe in her to defeat her enemy.

But that wasn't really the important part, blasphemy seemed to be all too common in this place. Sol dying was...

"You don't remember any of the battle?" Impossible to believe that Sol wouldn't have noticed.

All through the explanation, Sol'd only arched a brow, skeptical. Not that he didn't believe the kid--Vatheon was a bizarre place--but the idea that all this'd gone on without him noticing...

"Nope." But a Behemoth-like thing... He definitely would have noticed something like that. Even if it wasn't really a Gear, that would've been big enough to see or hear from any point on the island, more likely than not. "Don't even remember seein' anything like that. Just up on th'island, then back here."

"That kind of a transport isn't something that happens here. Not unless you die. And you can not remember it all you want, but it still happened!" Ky couldn't think of anything that Sol was gaining by ignoring the facts, other than sending Ky into a bit of a huffy unhappiness. But Sol seemed, as far as Ky could tell, to be being serious.

"What were you doing on the island, that you were so out of it?"

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Sometimes, Death just sneaks up on ya.

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