Day 171 | Freedom, at last.

[individuating]

Who: Hikaru Hitachiin and EVERYONE
Open: Open
When: Day 171
Where: Absolutely everywhere inside the Bastion.
What: Hikaru is finally all healed up from his crash landing, and is out on a mission to meet everyone he possibly can.
Format: Any; I'll match.
Warnings: Super sneaky ninja Kaoru may be called in to avert disaster if Hikaru starts making messes with people. Swearing, probably. Warnings will be edited as they become needed!


It feels so good to finally, finally be out of the hospital. 17 days - yes, he was counting - of being cooped up with nothing to do besides absorb the apparent fact that his world had ended. It had gotten to the point where he had honestly thought he would go insane from sheer lack of things to do.

It's with great relish that Hikaru strides through the Bastion, exploring and generally getting to know the place. He's seeking out the other people who have been brought here; Kaoru's told him very little about anyone, but somehow still managed to assure him that they were mostly good people.

In typical Hitachiin fashion, Hikaru will make a nuisance of himself wherever he goes. If there's something to be touched, it will be fiddled with. If someone looks like they're deep in concentration, he will most likely be determined to distract them. For more subtle cases, he will hover over people's shoulders, and he will pretend to be on a safari and stare at them from a distance until they notice him. He may also wander into people's residencies without knocking, if their door is open.

Aside from the brace on his right arm, there is no trace of injury left on Hikaru, and he is otherwise exactly identical to Kaoru. He doesn't know how many people - if any - have been informed of his appearance yet, but he guesses he's going to find out pretty soon.

Comments

She knows neither twin except maybe by sight

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn is at a table off to the side of the farm, which is apparently her workspace for the afternoon. She has an assortment of jars and other containers arrayed over the table. If Hikaru has been observing for awhile, he might note that her black-edged forest-green robes are looking a little worn.

Rosethorn walks away for a moment to pick a couple of plants. It's the perfect opportunity for someone to start investigating what's on the table, and to fiddle with all of it.

Some of the jars are harmless, but just Hikaru's luck, he's reached for one that has Rosethorn yelling sharply, "PUT THAT DOWN!" as she rushes back. "Do you want to sleep for the next month!?"

[individuating]

It's so sad, how everyone here has to live in such poverty. Hikaru sees her worn robes, and honestly it's kind of pitiful. He is not looking forward to the day when his own clothes start to look so shabby.

Whatever it is that this person's doing, it sure looks boring. Hikaru needs little more reason than that to stride in casually and start messing around. Boring jar, boring jar, boring jar... he picks one of them up to eye-level, peering at it skeptically. What's so interesting about this?

The sudden shout has him jump a little, and he turns to the stranger with wide eyes.

"It can do that?! What do the other ones do?!" Suddenly, he can see the appeal of these jars!

[dontyoujustwish]

Hikaru can encounter Anya not far outside of the onsen, still toweling off her hair. Hair which she should really find a way to dye back to its natural brown, because after nearly two months, those roots are showing something awful.

She doesn't take him for a newcomer because she's fairly certain she's seen him around. Consequently, that curious look he has can only mean one thing.

"Were you spying on me in there, too?"

[individuating]

Hikaru's definitely staring, but probably not for usual reasons. Holy shit he's glad his hair hadn't been dyed before he was brought to this place.

He shakes his head in the negative, holding his hands in front of him in an 'X'.

"Bzzt, wrong. I'm just suffering mild trauma from your dye job."

His arms fall back to his sides, and he tilts his head curiously.

"What do you mean by 'too'?"

[dontyoujustwish]

"When you find the salon around here, kid, you let me know."

A little disgruntled by that remark, she nevertheless continues on quite matter-of-factly.

"Even with the two inches of roots, I know I'm still very attractive. I thought maybe you'd been stalking me a while."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko is doing what Zuko seems to do on most days: training. She has a hard time just sitting still and hasn't been convinced to get a hobby yet. Of course, it's a little hard to train firebending when she's limited to just fifteen minutes a day. Her solution, for the moment, is to run through the forms without the fire, so it resembles the unarmed martial arts of Hikaru's world.

She doesn't react to being the subject of a safari. It's tough to tell whether she's outright ignoring her audience or whether she's so focused on what she's doing that she just hasn't noticed him. Either way she doesn't have the most inviting expression.

[individuating]

[Hikaru is, admittedly, kind of impressed with Zuko's practice! It's not like he's never seen martial arts before - in fact he's gotten pretty used to having front-row seats to 'anything goes' matches - but her style doesn't seem to be quite what he's used to. Once Hani or Mori get here, he'll have to demand why they haven't demonstrated this style before.

His safari-style, close-to-the-ground watching will end quite abruptly at what he considers to be the end of a kata, with a loud cheer and applause. He's giving a standing ovation, Zuko; take a bow.]

Encore, encore!

[daughterofursa]

Zuko doesn't seem surprised by his revealing himself, but she does look over in confusion at that particular reaction. "What?"

Well, whatever an encore is, she can at least recognize the clapping.

"I'm not putting on a show."

[amphibian]

[Nothing short of death can keep Aoi from sticking from her exercise routine, so Hikaru will be able to find her in one of the donut trees not too far from the lost and found, doing pull-ups and counting under her breath.]

Thirty four... thirty five...

[She's far too focused to notice any gawking, so Hikaru's just going to have to pick the funniest way to interrupt her.]

[individuating]

Fifty-six, twelve, eighteen, ninety-four... [Look how helpful he is, Aoi, saying numbers with you as he leans against your tree. He's passed the glee and surprise of finding trees growing donuts, and has very quickly moved his interest on to the girl who seems to be using one as exercise equipment.]

Forty-two, thirty-one...

[He'll continue like this until she stops.]

[amphibian]

Thirty-six, thirty-seven, ninety-five, ninety-six, thirty-two—hey!

[Pouting, she drops out of her position and dangles from the branch, feet swaying a few inches above the grass.]

Aww, you made me lose count!

[findsrisks]

"Don't mess with that."

Nanaki happens to be working on gathering some of the fruit from the fields. She can't cook, that's Rin and Mireille's job anyway, but she can at least get the supplies for them.

That is, if Hikaru can resist messing with the apples in a small bucket on the ground while she is up on a ladder filling up a second bucket. Bruised apples don't make for good pies!

[individuating]

"Why do you need so many?" Nudging the full basket with his foot, Hikaru is genuinely befuddled as to what one person could possibly need this many apples for. "Are you trying to feed an army, or something?"

[findsrisks]

"I suppose that's one way of describing it," Nanaki muttered under her breath as she continued to work, but a moment later she spoke up properly to answer Hikaru. "It takes a lot of food to feed fifty people. This right here is going to be used to make dessert for today, and the leftovers will probably be put out for anyone to take and eat."

She stops to glance down at Hikaru, and she adds, "If you're hungry, you can take one now."

[hellpyre]

"If you want food you can wait."

Don't think Rin doesn't notice you there, Hikaru. Just because she's busy working away in the kitchen doesn't mean she's not going to realize when some one is in her space, poking around at things.

[individuating]

Oh, Rin, acknowledging him just means he's going to get worse. With a few long strides he crosses to where she's working, and aims to quickly drape himself across her shoulders to peer at what she's doing. Personal space, he's clearly never heard of it.

"You should make us more of those pastries." He's not really hungry, but, well, those pastries were pretty good and Rin isn't bad company. He wouldn't mind waiting for her to make some.

[hellpyre]

Excuse her while she mentally key smashes. She's not against random shows of affection (she is a demon after all, they tend to be oddly clingy and possessive of people they care about a great deal) but she's still getting to know Hikaru. It's... a little unnerving to have that happen so suddenly.

Plus she kind of has a knife in her and and she'd rather not accidentally stab either of them just because he's completely ignoring proper kitchen safety.

She tenses visibly under him, hand slowly and eventually stopping on the vegetables she was busy cutting up.

"I can't right now."

[dragonform]

Ryu's making his usual rounds around the Bastion. A prayer to Ladon at the Shrine, and checking in on a few matters relevant to him. It's becoming increasingly rare that Ryu wouldn't know someone, though the sight of Hikaru is one he probably hasn't noticed before. Though if he's been in the hospital, it's possible he has seen Ryu visiting periodically. After all, he wants to make sure he's memorized what Colin has been teaching him.

"Let's see... Maybe I should work out on the Skyway. I should be gathering more of those fragment things."

[individuating]

Hikaru spies the vaguely familiar stranger walking about, and throwing caution to the wind, easily steps into stride next to him. It may be unnerving how easily Hikaru habitually mimics Ryu's movements, down to step length and arm swing, but that's something that's just natural for him to do. Blame the twin thing.

"Fragment things? That sounds boring." Sorry, Ryu, but your private conversation with yourself is now neither of those things.

[dragonform]

"Why would it be boring?" He asks, a little surprised by the sudden interruption. "We need them to make things better here." He turns to face Hikaru as he explains it, noticing the brace on his arm. "What happened to you?"

[yinyangfox]

Naturally the universe was against him and would see fit to have Seimei return when his rival for Kaoru's attention was free to cause mischief. He had intended on a longer trip into the Skyway but found himself return earlier, prompted to do so by a shikigami he was unfamiliar with and his own companion animal's nervous dislike of the wilderness beyond.

Stepping through the light barrier into the Bastion, Abe no Seimei checked himself and plucked a bit of debris from a sleeve with a wrinkled nose, ignoring the fluttering and chirping of his young Pecker as he reassured himself that he was, as always, impeccable. With colorful and elegant robes carefully made and tended to, the onmyoji never looked out of sorts when he could manage the time to arrange himself. Long black hair pulled into a topknot, pale skin clean and free of blemish, it wasn't hard to see why anyone might find the serene noble attractive. He was, after all, quite aware of himself.

"Yata-chan, come along," the onmyoji called, the fat black bird circling the man before fluttering after him as he headed off towards the center of the village proper, weary but motivated to seek out particular people - namely his primary reason for returning in the first place, one red-haired young Sunset Prince. He had bits of the Skyway with him he needed the boy to inspect; fabric, decorative vases - so far as he knew - colorful pieces of glass of metal, cuttings of plants he thought might accent the garden. He only wondered if the boy was yet free to do so.

[individuating]

Ah, Seimei, if Hikaru knew you considered yourself a rival for Kaoru's attention he would laugh. Hikaru's certain that there's no time, place, or situation where there would be any sort of competition for that, because he's sure he'll always be first.

He hasn't received much of a description of Seimei's physical appearance, so when he spies the colourful and well-presented man walking from the entrance to the Bastion, he's unable to realize that this is the guy his twin's crazy about. All he notices are the robes - well made, elegant, neat without being understated; decent quality of fabric, no visibly loose stitching; guy must have a pretty experienced tailor - and the overall high level of aesthetic appeal. Definitely someone who would have fit right in to their social circles back home, but...

"You should do something about that hair," he calls out from his resting place beneath a tree; one chosen specifically for its good view of the barrier so that he could observe the people coming and going. The guy's hair is nice, sure, but it's boring. With looks like that, he should be going for something bolder, more exciting! Not a plain, old-fashioned topknot.

As for Hikaru, he hasn't bothered fixing the parting of his own hair, letting it fall naturally with barely a flick to the left. The only truly visible difference between he and Kaoru is the brace on his arm, which currently rests in his lap.

If Seimei doesn't pause, Hikaru will actually get up and start following him. He's not going to miss this opportunity to get to know one of the few people in the Bastion who actually looks like they know what personal grooming is.

[yinyangfox]

Unfortunately for Hikaru, Seimei was the one more in the know at that moment. There was a brief moment of hesitance, distrust and confusion, but none of it played on the ever cool features of the onmyoji, who simply smiled and folded his hands into his sleeves, dark eyes gazing up curiously.

Ah, so here was the other Hitachiin. Indeed, they were nearly identical in every way at first gloss, but Seimei still felt something was too different for him to full understand tales of swapping places and deliberately confusing others. Maybe it was the tone or the personal bearing. Maybe they were good at it when they were making the effort. Maybe a lot of things.

"I have. I have put it out of the way so it neither snags nor blocks my vision while I am busy on the Skyway. If you are suggesting I cut it, then your taste and observations rather leave something to be desired," he remarked, arching a brow and gracefully walking closer to the tree.

"But of course you would never suggest such blasphemy, would you?" he remarked, arching a perfect brow and offering one of his fox-faced smiles. "A young man of your looks and caliber surely knows a thing or two about fashion and taste. You would not have this hair cut so much as styled sensibly, hm?" A faint sniff and he reached up with long, pale fingers to touch the top-knot with a mile frown.

"Though you are correct - efficient is rarely synonymous with attractive. Alas, I have no knack for handling hair. I may be able to put together a good outfit, but where I am from, hair is usually beneath a hat and rarely of interest as a means of denoting status among men. If you have a suggestion, I would be willing to hear it, of course."

End of the Day/Return to Hitachiin-Abe HQ!

[individuating]

Well, that's certainly a day Hikaru could do without repeating again for a while. He trudges up the path to the door of the - admittedly nice, if small - house that is apparently his current accommodation, relief starting to seep through him every step. Boy, does he have some stories to share with Kaoru--starting with the extra shoe he's carrying, and ending with the well-dressed weirdo.

As soon as he opens the door he announces himself, calling out "I'm home!" to be heard through the house. He's got no idea where Kaoru currently is and no consideration for anyone else who might be there, so it's as loud as his regular voice can go without outright shouting.

He toes his shoes off, placing them neatly with the rest, and... yeah, he should probably actually just wait near the door for Kaoru to come get him. He'll give it about a minute before he gives up and starts searching.

Re: End of the Day/Return to Hitachiin-Abe HQ!

[individuates]

"Up here!" called back from one of the upstairs rooms, "Be right down!"

It didn't matter to him if Hikaru came up to find him, but he was almost done - just a sleeve to hem and then he had a suitable place to stop on the robe he was making. Seimei didn't have as ready a supply of clothes as many others did in the Bastion, so Kaoru tried his best to put together new ones whenever the material was available.

It brought him a certain amount of pride to know that he was getting better at it. His early attempts were passable, but his trained eyes had a tendency to immediately dart to the problems. On a body, in movement, they were harder to detect but when hung out, as Seimei occasional left them, he couldn't help but see them - the sleeve lengths, the slight, slight, slight proportional errors that threw his eye every time because he knew they were there.

While Kaoru finished off the bindings of his sleeve, Hikaru wasn't left entirely alone. A horn comes poking around the wall of the genkan, followed by the Tama-chan attached to the horn, claws clattering lightly on the floor as she edged nearer.