mementosola | (no subject)

(no subject)

[Well. Let's invoke some timeywimey in here. Obviously, the forces of Darkness (tm) and Orochi are on the rise, shit is terrible and Hisoka and Keisuke may or may not be actual incarnations of their representative gods.

Of course, if one was nearing other large revelations and wanted to find Hisokas, it is a school day and so, once more, Hisoka is (mostly) politely turning down scores of far-too-insistent admirers, in a tone and inflection that might signify she is very much wishing her powers were not quite so restricted. Particularly the part where she can fly.

Or perhaps one could catch her get rapidly less polite with an oddly familiar dude with way too many bad pick-up lines and something about the Moon Kingdom.

What do?]

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Hey, hey, it's lonely if you're so formal, isn't it?

[She smiles, but it's just a touch off from her regular smiles.]

I know that she's long since passed on--after all, Keisuke and I weren't even a year old, at the time. But still, I think it's better to speak to her as though she's listening...and I know I'd get lonely if everyone was formal and sad every time they spoke to me!

Forgive me. I suppose that falling back on decorum is the only thing that I am entirely sure how to do, at the moment.

[He glances up.]

Besides... what you're doing, is it any really less lonely to pretend?

...Maybe it is pretending, I can't deny that. This is probably just a fanciful way of making up for something I never had.

[How she says this without her smile even faltering is another mystery of Hisoka, we suppose.]

But...if I choose to believe, that she can still hear us...then I can't help but wish to assure her we're doing alright, to ensure she doesn't have to regret anything.

That is an admirable way of looking at it.

[He stands there for a moment longer; perhaps, consider how he would feel were their positions reversed. He apparently doesn't like the answer.]

I apologize, but... I will be in my room, should you need me.

Retsu...?

[...She doesn't stop him from leaving, but she's wondering if, perhaps, taking a dude to your dead mom on the first date was a bad plan. And it really doesn't end up taking that long before she's wandered over to his room.

At least she knows how to knock?]

[He will simply be stretched out on his bed. The staff may have mentioned he does this a lot when he doesn't have something else to do; just relax and think and not sleep a ton.]

It is open.

[Well, sometime between when he left and when she wandered over, she took the time to change out of her school uniform. Which means a tanktop and sweatpants because Hisoka likes to be able to flop when she's hope, okay.]

...Are you alright?

I am alright. I am sorry if I worried you; I simply didn't have much to add to that scene from before.

I suppose that I had not considered the mortality of others surrounding me, either. Though you and your twin brother are not wholly mortal, you do exist in this world of shadows and dust... as do I.

My name bothers me. I have wondered why it came to me; Retsu is an antiquated term for violence, after all. I've spent hours awake, wondering, what it could be. Everything I come upon is no better. Messatsu, Minagoroshi... And somewhere in this I feel these are only incorrect where Retsu is not because of an external factor; that I was "named" Retsu rather than it being a placeholder.

[He pauses.]

I'm sorry, my mind wanders on my own.

...[She is quiet for a while, and it isn't a normal sort of quiet. Somewhere, something is...pushing. Just at the edge of her mind, a feeling she can't quite name, like not quite being conscious, after a long sleep.

So it's fair to say maybe it's not quite Hisoka that leans over him on the bed, one hand pressed just over his heart. The weird, echoey resonance to her voice may be a hint.]

The truth of your name is in the tale of a snake. Remember it and you will remember the rest.

[A pause. And she blinks, sinking down to press her face to the mattress.]

...I...have no idea what that meant.

[He just stares up at her for a moment, clearly not sure what to make of that statement or really, of what just transpired.]

Of course you don't. That wasn't you who was speaking then, was it?

[There's also the fact that, though he has not noticed that, the archaic sealing characters on him have begun to glow, resonating brightest at the one on his chest.]

I don't know...it didn't feel like it was something else. It felt like...like something I heard in a dream once. But prophesy isn't usually in the powers passed down to the Fujiwara...

[...Staring at him a bit.] And, uh. You're glowing.

[...Looking down.]

So I am. Whatever it was that said that felt familiar when you touched me. Perhaps it is a resonance of a past life?

[He sighs, sitting up. The other characters to the side may have stopped, but the one over his heart has not stopped glowing.]

"The tale of the snake?" I can think of a few, but...

[...Well she's going to idly trace the rune with her finger.]

But...? But what? Maybe listing them would help? I mean, I have no idea why it would, but I've got nothin' here.

[There's almost a perceptible sound of a chime as she does that, and he shudders a bit.]

W-well, the most famous would be the tale of Orochi, but... I seem to recall, ah, the principle actors in that being accounted for.

[...What if she keeps doing it because she likes that reaction.]

Unless Kushinada-hime was suddenly a fox and a dude, not all of them are present.

[She furrows her brow a little, and stops tracing.]

Tale of a snake...tale of a snake...Wait.

I-I somehow doubt I am Kushinada-hime!

[He does kind of gasp after a bit; apparently the active rune is very sensitive.]

W-what are you considering, then...?

Was it tale or tail?

If it was a tail, rather than a tale, then, that would mean that my identity is...

[Funny. He seems to know the answer and yet can't will the words out of his mouth.]

...Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi?

[It turns out, when you inherit powers like these, you're pretty well-drilled in one of the most famous folktales ever.]

[He doesn't actually get a chance to respond. He opens his mouth to, but before he can get any words out there's a sound like glass breaking and the seal goes from glowing intently to blindingly bright.

When it clears Retsu isn't there. Not that there's any reason to freak out. In one of her hands, perhaps clutched in both, lies a sword. It is a bit larger than it should be, given how light it is - built in the ancient style, with no real handguard but a serious pommel. It plain but with some ornamentation design; austere but the craftsmanship of a master, and most curiously, of a singular, silvery-white metal, so perfectly forged as to be reflective.]

...UM.

[THIS SEEMS LIKE A PERFECTLY GOOD REASON TO FREAK OUT.]

Calm down. I'm still here; it seems that whatever contract we forged in prior lives has remained.

[VOICE IN YOUR HEEEAAAD.]

I. Am doing what I can to remain calm. But can you...do you know how to...are you stuck as a sword now?

[Because oddly-comforting talking swords are not really huggable and if he hasn't caught on yet, Hisoka does not cope well without another human-shaped thing nearby.]

You need only command it. I, Metsu, am listening.

'Metsu'...?

[That's a little odd. But she does take a steadying breath.] Could you be...human-shaped again, please? It will be easier to talk that way.