IC Shit

[psychogeminate]

THREADING!!

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[psychogeminate]

[There's a weird sense of grogginess, and urgency, Uzuki throws herself against it blindly Up up up up wake up! like trying to force her way out of a nightmare. Eiki is slower, but only until he 'hears' his sister, then starts trying to force his eyes open, force his brain into action. Why were they asleep... what had happened? Where were they?

It doesn't quite come back to them all at once, they could remember that there had been danger and they'd been terrified but when Eiki finally manages to snap their eyes open, breathing already hard due to their collective sense of fear, all they see is... a human.

Not someone they know but not something to be afraid of.

Calming a bit immediately, Eiki flicks tries to touch his head, assess the situation.]

Who..?

[surrogated]

[Eiki should be the last of the Pest Control squad—the fifth—but the suddenness of everything that had just happened made Haruna jittery and overcautious. Whatever he had just done, whatever he was about to do, he couldn’t shake the sense that as long as he got it over with quickly, he could still return to his life as normal.

So he hauled Eiki’s prone body over his shoulder, sacrificing speed for the assurance of being able to use his Cantus against any lingering threats, and started making his way through the underbrush. He was probably leaving a path a meter wide behind him and he was barely hitting a jog but all his rattled attention was on balancing the warm, soft human body over his boney shoulder. His heart crawled up his chest throat every time his forehead nudged against his lower back.

What was he going to do with him?

Kill him, if he didn’t agree to leave the Antler Moth colonel alone. Like he had just killed his squad mates, and like he would kill their successors. The more Haruna thought about it, the more it seemed the only option; Eiki would not be able to stop more from coming, even under threat of death. The only thing he could do right now was save Eiki's life.

Finding a relatively uncluttered spot, he lowered the other man to the ground, finding the right foliage to bind him easily enough. It would be enough to slow him down, if he immediately ran. He picked a spot leaned up against a tree a respectful distance away to wait for him to wake up and try to untangle his thoughts. Why was it important to save Eiki? Was it just the shock of seeing a familiar face, or was it just too difficult to reconcile his memories of Eiki with the title of murderer? How much had ten years warped his memories...

But the memories seemed so clear that when Eiki gave him that blank look, he physically startled, recovering with a short bow—he could feel the unnatural stiltedness of the gesture he hadn't performed in years bunch in his shoulders.]

Suzushiro Haruna. We went to school together.

[maybe ten years had been too long for Eiki to remember someone who had disappeared]

[psychogeminate]

[This still wasn't right, and Eiki's heart still trembled nervously. Uzuki agreed, and clamored for control, eyeing Haruna with blatant suspicion, even after she pushed herself to her feet, trying to reassemble Eiki's broken guard.]

No we didn't.

[School hadn't been so long ago that they'd forgotten who they didn't. The name... it wasn't familiar, was it? If it was surely it was from somewhere else, they remembered all of their classmates just fine, the school hadn't been large.

Where were they? She wanted to look around, but something in her gut warned her against taking her eyes off of Haruna.]

[surrogated]

[the hairs on the back of Haruna's neck felt electrified. Something was just... wrong. This conversation wasn't going anything like he expected; it felt too bizarre to be rehashing schoolyard memories given what he had brought Eiki here to talk about. He decided to shoot for direct as possible, steeling his expression]

I broke Takamichi Yamato's nose when after Uzuki's Cantus awakened.

[psychogeminate]

[Uzuki was in control but her blank faced look of shock shock spoke for both of them. How long... How many times had she heard someone who wasn't her brother say her name since she died.]

You...

[She licked her lips, her throat worked, Eiki reached for control but she absently brushed him to the side, slightly admonishing, she wasn't stupid.]

You remember Uzuki?

[surrogated]

Yes—We were all in group three. Eiki?

[something was still off. Why was he so... surprised? Why would he recognize Eiki and not remember he had a twin?]

[psychogeminate]

[While Uzuki was still reeling Eiki was cataloging everything that wasn't adding up in this situation. Who was this person? Why did he know of his sister? Could he really have been in group three...? Where was the rest of their team? What had happened to the queerats--

Their face closes off abruptly, wonder giving way to suspicion as Eiki wrests control from his sister, who didn't have a response to that anyway.]


What's going on?


[it was a broad question, but he felt sure this person knew the answer.]

[surrogated]

[too broad. Haruna hadn't seen a human face up close in ten years but he was surprised how easy it was go tell that Eiki wasn't going to listen to whatever he told him right now. What leverage could he have with him as a stranger?

He pressed his closed fist to his mouth, chewing lightly on his knuckle. He eyed eyed Eiki, thoughtful]

You need to remember me.

[quiet but decisive]

You won't believe me otherwise—you know it.

[psychogeminate]

[Eiki frowns, not missing the fact that Uzuki was strangely silent on this issue. This person wasn't wrong, and he was... aware, that his memories could be lost, taken. But he didn't trust this person enough to let his guard down while he tried to fill the gaps in his mind.

A more direct question then.]

I'm not going to believe you if you can't tell me anything else. Where is the rest of my team?

[surrogated]

[They had been in the village for two weeks now, and though they’d established a routine, Yasuo still didn’t know if he was managing to ‘be normal’ as Eiki had told him to do. He felt completely abnormal, tired and anxious from blurry dreams that woke him up in the middle of the night and the daily ordeal of trying to socialize. Normally. It was obvious to Yasuo he had no idea what was doing, but the children and adults who periodically wandered by to chat up the new arrivals deftly brushed his clumsy silence. It was maybe getting easier; the people were very kind.

So the unease was purely his own to work out. He felt it less keenly when Eiki was around, but frequently he was out doing research that Yasuo had not asked about and Eiki had not explained.

Night was falling, though, so he would be home soon. Haruna wandered out onto the porch of the guest house, stretching out so his feet caught the last warm rays of sunlight as he waited, an ear cocked for the dinner simmering over the fire]

[psychogeminate]

["Chou" returned not long after the sun had completely set. Honestly, he would have stayed alter but Uzuki insisted that they not leave Yasuo alone too long. Eiki insisted that they not leave any of his research where Yasuo could see, which meant long days combing through the village's library and only returning at night due to hunger and avoiding suspicion.

They had charmed their way into the trust of this village's librarians quickly enough that he had access to as much as any citizen could reasonably expect, but not as much as he would have had back in his own village, before they thought he was dead. There were still plenty of interesting finds in those but he itched to read some more 'dangerous' material. What they had been looking into, and finally questioning, was that this village as well as many of others seemed quite liberal with their use of manipulating memory for the better of social order, which left the question of what variety of events they were being made to forgot...

Eiki was still pondering over it as they walked home, so Uzuki easily slid in, taking over and leaving her brother to his thoughts. She was pleased to get out of a stuffy room, if not in time to see daylight then to enjoy the night air. Yasuo probably wanted them back earlier, but it was fine, she could make up for it. Eiki's mind was bogged down and tired from researching all day but she was bustling with all of the energy stored up from doing nothing herself, not even bothering her brother.]

Yasu~~~o!

[She opens the door of the room they'd be afforded by the village cheerfully. Eager for food and companionship.]

[surrogated]

[The call was loud enough to twitch him awake, the dream slipping away from him before he could grasp more than a vague impression of importance without any affect. He didn't linger on it. The eagerness in Chou's voice pricked his own, and he was already pushing himself to stand, rubbing a hand over his face.]

I'm here. Good evening.

[psychogeminate]

Were you sleeping?

[She immediately wanders in the direction of the stove to inspect what was going to be for dinner.]

I hope that means you were saving all your energy for me.

[surrogated]

I didn't get enough sleep for that.

[He doubted he could sleep enough for Chou, but he was generally boisterous enough for the both of them. Yasuo got far more practice at bring normal with him; sometimes too much.

He wandered over to the stove, flicking it off. He hadn't been asleep that long, so the miso was fine.]

[psychogeminate]

Sleep more when I'm working.

[she immediately grabs some bowls not bothering to dirty a spoon and instead lifting globes of miso out with her cantus instead.]

You're getting pretty good at this. It smells great.

[surrogated]

[He sat himself down, stifling a small yawn]

Wouldn't people think it was strange? They'd wonder what I was doing at night. —thank you.

[psychogeminate]

[she hands him a spoon and takes a seat across the table from him]

I'm sure we could think of some ideas to give them~

[psychogeminate]

[Eiki finally gave up, after pushing them both insistently through the night and most of the morning, until mountainside that had become a battlefield was well behind them, until they couldn't see or smell the smoke anymore. They had no idea who was winning, or had won.

What was important now...

What was....

Eiki dropped to his knees and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He didn't have the heart to ask Uzuki to take over, though she had always enjoyed the burn of worn muscles more than he did. Their failure had shaken her. She'd been sure...]

We need to get to the next village...

[Not a surprise, that had been their goal all along. It was too far to go in one day but they had made much of it anyway. Except now that he'd finally fallen, getting up against felt beyond him.

He sat on his heels, breathing.]

[surrogated]

[He hadn't seen Eiki stop, he'd been looking behind them for the three hundredth time though they were long past seeing or hearing anything now. He tripped right over him, grabbing his shirt to stay his fall and holding on it as he lay there, stunned, trying to catch his breath. ]

What... What are we going to do when we get there?

[He felt cold under the sweat covering his skin. They hadn't been able to do anything; that battle had been like an avalanche with the ferocity of the destruction so great it buried everything in its path. It had been nothing like the squirmishes he'd been in on behalf of the Antler Moth's.

He didn't expect Eiki to have an answer but they needed... They needed some kind of plan. Or maybe there was nothing they could do, the system had gone on so long only destruction of one or more of the components could stop or change anything.]

[psychogeminate]

[Eiki barely noticed Haruna stumbling over him. Just curled up a bit more to absorb the shock. What would they do? He had had an idea but it all seemed futile now. What could two people possibly do against the tide of war? Most of humanity didn't even see it rising. Eiki himself hadn't seen it until a few months ago, and now it was all just too inevitable.]

Warn them...?

[But for once he doesn't sound sure. Win or lose, this would spread.]

But that will only get more involved now instead of later.

[He takes another moment, to breathe. The only 'answer' was something he finally, truly, did not want to say.]

There's no way to stop this. But we may be able to... determine who wins.

[surrogated]

[He was shaking his head already, and the motion became more violent St the last]

No.

[He couldn't, for any reason, help kill his own people. And while he didn't doubt be could still kill a human if he needed to do it to protect the queerats, he could, but he didn't think Eiki could watch him do it.

There was a part of him, too, that was afraid of Eiki's answer as to who exactly should win.

But that was only the smallest void Erin the back of his head. He was thinking, churning desperately through the options. There were none--no political gambit, and no negotiation. The humaans were too arrogant and the queerats were too desperate on the raw pain and fear to back down.

He tried to slow it down, but fear seeped into his features, and his eyes were wide as he met Eiki's eyes, grip tightening]

No.

[He desperately wanted something else to say. A reassurance even. But there wasn't even anybody to save; everyone was staked on this conflict

[psychogeminate]

[That look hurt. He wasn't sure why. It was as if Haruna didn't trust him hbut he wasn't wrong to hesitate. He was hesitating himself. He felt the realization rising up and kept expecting Uzuki to say something to push it back down.

But she didn't. She had put all of her skill and charisma into trying to stop this outcome and it hadn't been enough. Even if neither of them hated queerats with the clarity they'd once had. Even if it was true humanity had wronged them...

They wouldn't see them destroyed.

He blinks slowly at Haruna, finding some sort of resolve. But even he can't keep the sadness out of his voice.]

If there is going to be a war, isn't it better that one side win than both destroy each other?

[surrogated]

No!

[Why couldn't he think of anything else to say? He could feel the sudden shift but he didn't know how to stop it]

You know which side I'd pick.

[He let the implication hang between them. ]

[psychogeminate]

[Eiki met that gaze only briefly, first looking to the side, then putting his head in his hands.

He was so tired

But that meant Haruna certainly was as well.

He barely even notices himself making the decision, just abruptly lashing out, cantus slamming into Haruna's mind, disrupting, eradicating thought processes. First make it too hard for him to focus to use his cantus to retaliate, hen locks down on a particular corner of his mind.

Forcing someone into unconsciousness was not nearly as difficult as manipulating their memories. He didn't need Haruna to forget, just to give him time to get away.]

[surrogated]

[He yelps, more surprise than pain, rearing back and looking for an enemy, eyes landing on Eiki completely bewildered before he blacks out.]