[Day 196 and 197] Seconds march into the past [OPEN

[bastionpc]

Who: Everyone!
Open: Open
When: Days 196 and 197
Where: Skyway
What: The last locations have arrived
Format: Any
Warnings: N/A

[Call it a strange sort of intuition, but when more locations were found out on the Skyway, Zayna couldn't help but feel like that was the end of it. Maybe not for good, but it just seemed sort of... final, the way things were arriving.

She didn't really speak this thought aloud to anyone but Zulf and her father, showing the new sketches to the residents of the Bastion once more without too much insight in to what was on her mind.]

Comments

[kyotoprincess]

[When Rin does that, Bon turns instead to the snakes. He knows he can't understand them, but maybe they can understand him. He doesn't even try to hide the desperation in his voice.]

Please, don't do this. Come with us!

[Instead of responding, the snakes look back into the house. three smaller snakes, each about four feet long, reluctantly come slithering out. Once they are by Rin and Bon, the older snakes will say one last word.]

Go.

[And with that, they turn their backs on the two exorcists.]

[hellpyre]

Ryuuji...

[It hurt to see him like that, and it hurt just as much to know nothing they said was going to change their minds. They were leaving them to the mercy of the Gasfellas and the Scumbags and whatever else that would take up residence here once they left.

And did nothing to push away those memories of what had happened to Night...

Once the older ones were gone, she pulled her hand away from his just to give him a hug from the side, pressing her face in to his arm.]

I'm sorry...

[kyotoprincess]

[He's trying not to cry, he really is. Bon hates showing his emotions like this. He doesn't want anyone to see him in a moment of weakness like this, where he's so close to breaking down.

But not here, he decides. Keep it in until he's home and alone, that's what he's got to do.

So he takes a few shaky breaths, and then he nods, to show that he's okay. Well, okay enough to pretend that he's okay.]

Right. Let's...let's go back.

[He feels like he's leaving a piece of his soul here, but he also knows that the hurt (not just from the snakes, but from everything. The ash, the memories of what used to be, everything.) will swallow him alive if he gives it a chance. He has to leave this in his past now, without looking back.]

[hellpyre]

[She'll leave him to that, if that's what he wants. She wants to be there for him but she also knows better than to force her presence on him when he's not in a space to have others around.

She's the same way, really. Maybe that's why they work so well.

But she has to ask, before they leave. Because she also knew taking things back from the church and from True Cross still gave her something physical to cling to in the wake of so much heart ache.]

... d'ya wanna get... anythin' from here? I can help carry things back.

[kyotoprincess]

[He really wants to go back to his room, to gather up as much as he can and take it back with him and have a piece of his home there so that he doesn't feel quite so lonely anymore.

But he also knows that he won't move forward, if those memories of the past remain.]

...No. Unless it's alive, I don't want to take it.

[People, he will gladly bring. Demons too. But nothing material.]

[hellpyre]

[She almost argues.

Almost.

But she won't. He has to deal with this in his own way.

She steps back, taking his hand again and giving it a squeeze.

I'll be here for you whenever you need me again.]

Okay.

[kyotoprincess]

[Bon makes it all the way back to the Bastion without any trouble. He keeps it together long enough to walk the demon-snakes through the dos and do-nots of living in the Bastion. Once he's sure they won't eat anything they're not supposed to (especially not Tobias), he'll head home to 'drop off his Skyway stuff.'

If Rin comes looking for him later, he'll he in the corner of their room, legs drawn up against his chest and his forehead resting on his knees as he quietly breaks down in private.]

[hellpyre]

[Rin had left to attempt to make dinner for them during that time (after getting the snakes settled in that is, sorry Yukio you're going to come home to something... interesting) but her focus was all over. She'd even managed to nick her thumb with the knife while cutting things, but given her advanced healing it hadn't done much damage.

But it was easy to say that this meal certainly wasn't going to be her best ever given that. Still good, plenty edible, but anyone trying it might notice something off.

There were bigger things to be concerned about, though, like Bon...

She'll eventually make her way back there given that, knocking on the door gently and poking her head in.]

Ryuuji... ?

[kyotoprincess]

[As soon as he hears the door open, he lifts up his head and moves to stand up. He doesn't want Rin to know how much he's hurting right now. But that doesn't work, he's way too tired to stand up suddenly, so he manages to get halfway up before thumping back down on the ground.

Welp. This will have to do.]

What?

[Don't mind him his face totally isn't red and puffy.]

[hellpyre]

[She's not exactly in the best shape either. Another reason why her dinner suffered a bit tonight - she's exhausted after two trips out, but far too worried about Bon to even think about sleep.

She figures he doesn't want to be seen like this, but she won't leave him in that state either. He'll just have to settle for her closing the door so Yukio doesn't overhear them.]

You're... not doin' okay, are you?

[kyotoprincess]

[Oh thank you Rin, Bon really does appreciate that privacy. And maybe, if it's just Rin there, he can let his guard down a little.

He has to do something, he's been holding this in for months. It's not healthy to hold grief in for that long.

He makes no effort to get up, by the way. He'll just sit there, eventually curling back up the way he had been before.]

...I shouldn't have gone. I already knew what to expect, I shouldn't have gone and seen it.

[hellpyre]

[Rin frowns at that, tugging the blanket off the bed as she walks by so she can come sit next to him, putting it over both of their shoulders and wrapping an arm around him.]

If you hadn't we wouldn't have been able to save any of them.

[kyotoprincess]

[He'll let goof his knees for long enough to pull the blanket around himself, and scoot up next to Rin.]

I know, but...

If I hadn't seen the piles of ash, I could've gone on thinking that maybe they had survived.

[hellpyre]

We can't ignore it forever. This is our life now, for... for better or worse.

[She nuzzles up against his arm, resting a hand on it while looking up at him through the fringe of her messy bangs.]

And "worse" right now is knowin' that we made it out and they didn't.

[kyotoprincess]

[On some level, he knows Rin is right. It's better to face the truth now and start working on the whole grieving part, rather than let it go on for years and years and get worse.

But he's still upset. And he stays quiet for a while before speaking again.]

It just feels like a waste. We gave everything to save 'em from the Impure King, and then they all died a month later anyway. What was the point?

[hellpyre]

... it does. I'd be lyin' if I said it didn't piss me off. But we couldn't see it comin', y'know? Back then, we thought that was it. We'd saved the day and everyone was gonna be okay.

[kyotoprincess]

You know, I really thought we were gonna die back then.

[That's why he had told Rin to run in the first place: there was no sense in both of them dying.]

...I'm tired. Tired of always almost-dying, of seeing everyone else die.

[hellpyre]

[And why Rin had been so goddamn stubborn about it, because like hell she was ever going to let him die there. If they were going to go down, they were going to go down fighting.

But she knows how that feels. Of the first group that arrived off the Skyway, only her, Crona and Bon are left. Of the probably hundred or so survivors that have even made it this far, there's less than fifty still in the Bastion.

And then there was Night...

God, her heart aches. For her, for Bon, for everyone...

She turns her face to bury it in his arm.]

I'm tired of it, too...

[kyotoprincess]

[It's hard to keep fighting when any progress is quickly washed away by some tragedy or another.

Even here, with people from multiple worlds, they still don't have a solid plan for survival. They're pretty much flying by the seat of their pants, and without the Bastion they probably would have all died some time ago.]

...

We're going to die here, eventually. You know that, right?

[It might not be any time soon, especially not for Rin, but there's no going back. The Bastion and the Skyway are all that's left now.]

[hellpyre]

[Rin goes quiet at that, but her hand tightens on Bon's arm.

She's shaking, though not visibly. He can probably still feel it.]

You will.

[She's thought about it. She's thought about it and it keeps her up at night sometimes.

She doesn't like thinking about it at all.]

Eventually... e-eventually... you're gonna be gone... and everyone else will be gone and there's only gonna be a few of us left and we're gonna watch everyone we care about die...

[kyotoprincess]

[Oh no.

Bon had been pretty unresponsive to Rin holding onto him up until that point, but when she says that, he moves so that he can slip an arm around her shoulders, so she can be closer to him.]

Sorry. I shouldn't be bringing that up.

[He's sure Rin has thought about that before, even if she never mentioned it. Even before here, back when their world was still whole, she was still a half-demon surrounded by humans.

But in this place, she didn't even have Kuro anymore. It would be her and whatever other immortals were in this place.]

You'll have your kids, though. If you have any. I think being a quarter demon is enough to have the long life too.

[hellpyre]

[Sorry, Bon. She's supposed to be comforting you and instead she gets upset.

Commenting about kids gets a thick sounding laugh out of her, though.]

Who am I gonna have kids with? Y'make it sound like I'd be with some one else...

[kyotoprincess]

Well, I don't wanna go assumin' things.

[Because he might die. Or they might break up. Or any number of things could happen between now and when Bon is old enough to be okay with the idea of having kids.

Given that it's the end of the world, it's best not to plan on things too far in advance.]

[hellpyre]

[Except that there's really not a whole lot else to plan for.

And Rin is pretty much dead set on this working. She loves her friends but she can't ever see herself having a connection with anyone else that's as strong as it is with Bon.]

... I can't see myself bein' with anyone else.

[kyotoprincess]

[Wow when did this turn into him comforting her?

But it does help, some. Bon does much better when he has something else to focus on besides his own grief.]

...as touching as that is, you gotta promise me something.