音無 結弦 || ᴏᴛᴏɴᴀsʜɪ, ʏᴜᴢᴜʀᴜ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trainwrecking) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
compnetwork2013-09-23 09:04 pm
trainwrecking) wrote in compnetwork2013-09-23 09:04 pm
A mostly useless video post; backdated to the 20th
[He spent three hours staring at his (now mostly functional) watch, rehearsing this a hundred times. Shouldn't it be fine?
Unfortunately, no, thanks to the TRIHARDO virus. The feed opens to a sterile white room and a bandaged up redhead, who seems to be doing his best to appear confident and normal despite the lingering rasp in his voice.haha! "normal"]
A-a-ano, ahh, hello, it's— No, that's stupid, I mean to say— er, no, I, um—
You don't have to do this if— a-ah, ehhh, umm... I... I-I... uhh.
...
N-nevermind. I forgot what I was going to ask. Ahah... [No! TRY EVEN HARDER. TRIHARDO.]
Wait! [Cue an emphatic gesture for "WAIT."] No, ahh, that wasn't true..! I would really appreciate it if someone could get something for me!
Or— uh, if you can sew, that would be great too.
Ahh, uhh, I'll do anything I can in return! Ahh, no, that was worse than when I practiced... Eh? Did I leave the video go—
Unfortunately, no, thanks to the TRIHARDO virus. The feed opens to a sterile white room and a bandaged up redhead, who seems to be doing his best to appear confident and normal despite the lingering rasp in his voice.
A-a-ano, ahh, hello, it's— No, that's stupid, I mean to say— er, no, I, um—
You don't have to do this if— a-ah, ehhh, umm... I... I-I... uhh.
...
N-nevermind. I forgot what I was going to ask. Ahah... [No! TRY EVEN HARDER. TRIHARDO.]
Wait! [Cue an emphatic gesture for "WAIT."] No, ahh, that wasn't true..! I would really appreciate it if someone could get something for me!
Or— uh, if you can sew, that would be great too.
Ahh, uhh, I'll do anything I can in return! Ahh, no, that was worse than when I practiced... Eh? Did I leave the video go—
no subject
[She looks down for a moment before it suddenly occurs to her. Maybe it's just because she was thinking of birthdays, but...]
You're a Virgo too, aren't you? Then-- [A small pause. Her lungs burned to cough, although she does manage to turn it into rather a dainty little affair rather than a rough, haggard one.]
--think of it as a birthday gift. Would that be alright?
no subject
[He stops mid-sentence, his jaw unceremoniously hanging open. Virgo. They were both Virgoes.]
T-today is the twentieth... Aoi, I... isn't that your birthday?
[Nevermind that his had most likely passed. He felt no connection with it and no sense of loss, only shame.]
no subject
...Yes, it is. But don't worry about it.
[It had been disappointing to realize of course, but it wasn't as though she wanted others to feel badly about it, too.]
no subject
[How could it have happened this way? He thought they were doing a good thing by going out that night--
-- but then, it wouldn't be the first time he failed to do good for someone.]
I don't... I don't even know where to start making it up to you. [But he'll have a while to think about it while confined in here.]
no subject
There's no reason for you to. Even if you hadn't been there... I would have done my best to help that woman.
no subject
[He stops to cough, continuing to hesitate after the fit passes.]
... M-maybe I should make this private.
[Private]
[She looks at him questioningly, but obligingly switches the feed over to private on her end.]
[Private]
["Revive me," he wants to say, but it's almost too impossible for him to believe, even now. It shouldn't be. Returning from death was a casual occurrence in the afterlife. But knowing that this world followed the logic of the living world challenged his already weak perspective on "everyday" death.
He shouldn't be here. This world and its gods didn't protect the inhabitants from death.]
I was... I was dead.
[Private]
But in hindsight, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?]
...I'm sorry. I didn't realize... you knew.
[Private]
[Death and Otonashi are well-acquainted. The truth of that circumvented fate could never have been anything but obvious.]
But I didn't know that... you would--that I could wake up again. You...
[The incomplete thought lays heavy in the air. She came back to save him.]
[Private]
However, it was also one that she had so wanted to keep secret, even in this world where people had powers even greater than those she had originally gained when the Dragon Stream was first disrupted. Being able to stave off death is not a power that should be used lightly, but even still, she had done so twice now in Hinoto-Ri, and been caught both times.
The woman before, the Death - she seemed to understand Aoi's power instinctively. But now that the time had come, could she-- should she explain it?]
...
I... think you understand, too. That power of mine... It would be better if people didn't know about it.
[Her voice is very quiet.]
[Private]
[Indeed, he seemed to understand the gravity of such a thing. Even in a world where death was inconsequential, he never saw it as quite the same trivial ordeal that most others did.
So easily could people begin to see death as a fleeting inconvenience instead of a permanent end. Otonashi had witnessed that shift.
Not again. Not here.]
But my friends from the afterlife... they might see through it. [Perhaps not. Maybe nobody would press him further on the impossibility of his survival. Like Hizumi, maybe they would focus on his self-sacrificing nature and its role in both Aoi and Otonashi's hospital stay.]
[Private]
If there's any way at all for you to hide it... please. I--
...I probably shouldn't have used it then. It's... not a power that should be used lightly.
[She knows she's being selfish, imposing this request upon him even though in the end, it is her fault he has to worry about it in the first place. But at the same time...
She doesn't regret bringing him back in the slightest.]
[Private]
I... don't want you to have to use it again. Not on me or anyone else. I'll do what I can to keep that power safe, but... if I have to tell them, at least, I'll make sure they understand why.
[It's the least that he can promise. It goes without saying that this will be kept from Noda, especially, due to the purple-haired boy's volatile nature.]
[Private]
[It's her own fault that it came to this, after all.]
...This power... inspired wars in my world. I want to help Hinoto-Ri grow, but if people here were to find out about my power...
[...The same events could repeat, just as they had in her own time.]
I don't want to cause another battle. Not because of this.
[Private]
[It's a debt that he's not sure where to begin repaying.]
Ah... people would covet a power like that. Everyone would want it for themselves, wouldn't they? The power to revive dead allies...
But you-- you can't use it without cost, can you? [Her eye. There had been no injury sustained to it, and yet she had been clutching it, visibly in pain. The eyepatch is the final proof, isn't it?
Something happened.]
[Private]
Please don't think of it that way-- [She pauses to give a few more coughs.]
--I don't regret bringing you back. Even though it's dangerous, I... didn't want you to die.
[And then he mentions the cost, and she nearly brings a hand to her eye out of reflex, although she stops the movement.]
...It's a small price to pay.
[Private]
[He appreciates her role in saving his life, of course. But him being here still leaves that burning question. She says it was only a small price, but--]
... What was it?
[Private]
However... the damages aren't permanent. [Or at least, they haven't been so far.</i] As long as I leave it alone, it should heal on its own...
[Private]
Bodhisattva's Eye... I'm glad you're the holder, then. I don't know of many people who would be responsible with a power like yours.
[He's not even sure that he would be. His intentions would be good, but a power to force death itself to bend--
It's hard to comprehend at all.]
We should probably rest though, shouldn't we..?
[Private]
It's the most she can do.]
...Probably, yes. Avitus... will probably worry about us enough as it is.