Even Out of Battle Mode
by Laly Konstantin
disclaimer in chapter one.
Reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - claims Nakago
Natalie - claims none
Jacob ?
Len ?
_______________________________
It would be so comforting, right then, to reach out and seize someone's mind.
Jacob had learned to deal with loneliness years ago, mostly filling the void through actual conversation and socialising, but there were still moments he felt desperately disconnected.
This one came as he rounded the corner to the coffeehouse, trailing behind his friends by several feet. From this distance, he couldn't understand much of what they said, and he'd rather not intrude. He felt increasingly uncomfortable around them, and was almost - not quite, but dangerously close to - having regrets about contacting them in the first place.
Well, why had he done it? Because it was exciting at first, that was why. The game, the discovery, and faking, faking it. Realising that he didn't need mind control to figure out what people were thinking, as long as he made it clear what he wanted them to believe about himself.
He decided, kicking at an acorn on the sidewalk, that he was something of a manipulative bastard at heart.
The three Japanese stopped at the coffee shop door, waiting for him to catch up. He smiled in thanks, making sincere eye contact and trying to radiate innocent curiousity. He had to justify his place here somehow; as their host, he asked to come as a favour, just so he could learn more about the situation. It was a lie, and a poor way to keep them around.
But he needed them around. It was so lonely, otherwise.
_________________________
After he hung up the phone, Seit remained in the hallway, standing and thinking. There was something so odd about talking to Rose, lately. Something that spoke of windy hilltops and flickering torches in corridors. He hadn't remembered anything very well since that first meeting with Yui - the memories had been a deluge then, brief and so rapidly following one another that he couldn't remember which way was up, much less assume that what had been a real then should be anything but dream or illusion now. Or vice versa.
But how could it be anything less than real?
Rose had admitted to him that she didn't have full memory now - she had, she thought, for a few moments at the beginning, but now she couldn't think of what she had seen. When Seit told her what she said, she replied with disbelief.
'What?!?' she'd half-shrieked. 'That makes no sense. What is going on here?'
They could only trade so many memories - a lot of their memories so far were the same, or at least similar. Rose had more extras than he did - the more he thought about it, Seit was more convinced that he didn't care to remember much of what he hadn't already remembered.
There, the brick wall. He still had most of an hour to kill, but he didn't intend to spend it thinking in circles. He would get answers from Yui, wouldn't he?
He went into his room, settled at his desk, and started to draw.
_______________________
Natalie saw them coming - finally! - and took off her headphones. She took another sip of chai, unnecessarily hurried, then waved across the room to greet them as well as get their attention. Yui had brought both of the Japanese guys as well as the guy they were staying with... oh, well. Maybe not a girls' night out, but it was fine with her.
Conversations never flow like a gentle stream across the plains, but for the first few minutes Natalie worried that no one would get around to talking. Fortunately, there's a limit to how many awkward looks five people can exchange before one of them breaks down and tries something, anywthing, to get it started.
It was Jacob. 'Maybe I'm just thirsty, but I think we should at least order coffee if we're going to hang around a coffee shop all night.' It was on him, he declared, and gathered orders from everyone before rising and heading for the counter.
'Quite a host,' Natalie commented. 'So, um, about... well, what everyone under the sun knows except me, I guess.'
Keisuke had the most experience telling the story, but he deferred to Yui at first. At the point where she'd become too involved to really give a subjective telling, he took over - getting help from Yui when his English dried up. Soon after that, Tetsuya started to haltingly add his commentary. On it went.
________________
Jacob had fingered the mints displayed at the counter, the truffles, the biscotti jars. He'd been tempted by the After Eight mints - they must buy them from the British shop downtown - but decided he didn't like the number.
Seven, plus the priestess. All on the hit list. He wondered where they were now, despite what he'd learned from Duke, and from his Japanese guests. He didn't mean recently, he meant *now*.
He shook his head to clear it, and to order. The counter help gave him a cardboard carrier for the drinks, and he thanked her sincerely. It was only a matter of waiting, from there. He could still be patient, couldn't he?
Toying with a red-wrapped bon-bon, he wondered if the Suzaku reincarnations had ever needed therapy.
_______________
Amidst the blizzard of information, Natalie hadn't noticed when Jacob returned to the table. Eventually, it occurred to her that everyone else had a drink in front of them, and she swung her head over to the formerly empty seat. 'Oh, God! Thank you. Sorry.'
The story had taken about half an hour to tell, and her head was spinning. She ran through it in her head - Sean the one with divided loyalties, and the one who survived it all, more or less. Ron his grief-stricken twin brother, and Yui's servant. Rose was the lightning rod, right? Ooh, not the best way to pose that question. Seit was the manipulative shogun.
'That leaves three, right?'
Yui nodded. 'Three we haven't identified. What do you think? Still not Tomo, Miboshi, or Ashitare? No recollection?'
Natalie shook her head. 'I'm sure of it. I'm not involved.' At that moment, she caught Jacob's eye. Wanted to look away, but she couldn't.
'Think,' he said. 'I'm sure that you *are* involved. You should remember before it gets any worse.'
___________
He couldn't help it. It had once driven him mad, having access to so many minds that he couldn't separate his own thoughts from theirs, hearing a thousand flighty or ignorant comments that, no matter how foolish their thinkers, had still never been voiced. The lowest of the low, the darkest of the frustration, the most salacious of the joyful.
But it was a habit, and one he'd avoided for so long that he knew indulging it again would be sweeter than... sweeter than...
So he invoked the god he'd thought must be long dead, and he'd twisted a long-vanished child's toy in his mind.
He'd trapped her gaze smoothly and effectively, seeking the chill that he was so sure he could call back. Then he'd lost control.
_______________
Yui froze. Keisuke and Tetsuya had taken up a side conversation, half-whispering in Japanese, but they stopped talking too. As the words hit Natalie, she realised that something was very wrong with them.
It hit Jacob, too. His face reddened, and he blinked as though he'd just woken up from a trance.
'..What was that you just said?' Yui hesitantly inquired. 'I didn't think either of you would speak...'
The words slammed against the inside of Natalie's head, losing their sound but not their meaning. Out of them grew a thousand other sentences, commands barked across palace rooms and battlefields, not-so-endearing whispers into the ear that wasn't pressed into a silk pillow.
Pretty, she thought. They called me pretty, and they laughed, and I ignored it all.
She thought she remembered something, then: dreaming of blood.
A bell chimed as the coffee shop door opened.
__________________
AN: I really didn't mean to hang this story off of anything. If it's any help, I believe this is more of an escarpment than a cliff.
Jacob: Sure, you bring me back to pay for coffee.
Laly: Hey, don't knock it. You get the supafly psychic phenomena, right?
by Laly Konstantin
disclaimer in chapter one.
Reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - claims Nakago
Natalie - claims none
Jacob ?
Len ?
_______________________________
It would be so comforting, right then, to reach out and seize someone's mind.
Jacob had learned to deal with loneliness years ago, mostly filling the void through actual conversation and socialising, but there were still moments he felt desperately disconnected.
This one came as he rounded the corner to the coffeehouse, trailing behind his friends by several feet. From this distance, he couldn't understand much of what they said, and he'd rather not intrude. He felt increasingly uncomfortable around them, and was almost - not quite, but dangerously close to - having regrets about contacting them in the first place.
Well, why had he done it? Because it was exciting at first, that was why. The game, the discovery, and faking, faking it. Realising that he didn't need mind control to figure out what people were thinking, as long as he made it clear what he wanted them to believe about himself.
He decided, kicking at an acorn on the sidewalk, that he was something of a manipulative bastard at heart.
The three Japanese stopped at the coffee shop door, waiting for him to catch up. He smiled in thanks, making sincere eye contact and trying to radiate innocent curiousity. He had to justify his place here somehow; as their host, he asked to come as a favour, just so he could learn more about the situation. It was a lie, and a poor way to keep them around.
But he needed them around. It was so lonely, otherwise.
_________________________
After he hung up the phone, Seit remained in the hallway, standing and thinking. There was something so odd about talking to Rose, lately. Something that spoke of windy hilltops and flickering torches in corridors. He hadn't remembered anything very well since that first meeting with Yui - the memories had been a deluge then, brief and so rapidly following one another that he couldn't remember which way was up, much less assume that what had been a real then should be anything but dream or illusion now. Or vice versa.
But how could it be anything less than real?
Rose had admitted to him that she didn't have full memory now - she had, she thought, for a few moments at the beginning, but now she couldn't think of what she had seen. When Seit told her what she said, she replied with disbelief.
'What?!?' she'd half-shrieked. 'That makes no sense. What is going on here?'
They could only trade so many memories - a lot of their memories so far were the same, or at least similar. Rose had more extras than he did - the more he thought about it, Seit was more convinced that he didn't care to remember much of what he hadn't already remembered.
There, the brick wall. He still had most of an hour to kill, but he didn't intend to spend it thinking in circles. He would get answers from Yui, wouldn't he?
He went into his room, settled at his desk, and started to draw.
_______________________
Natalie saw them coming - finally! - and took off her headphones. She took another sip of chai, unnecessarily hurried, then waved across the room to greet them as well as get their attention. Yui had brought both of the Japanese guys as well as the guy they were staying with... oh, well. Maybe not a girls' night out, but it was fine with her.
Conversations never flow like a gentle stream across the plains, but for the first few minutes Natalie worried that no one would get around to talking. Fortunately, there's a limit to how many awkward looks five people can exchange before one of them breaks down and tries something, anywthing, to get it started.
It was Jacob. 'Maybe I'm just thirsty, but I think we should at least order coffee if we're going to hang around a coffee shop all night.' It was on him, he declared, and gathered orders from everyone before rising and heading for the counter.
'Quite a host,' Natalie commented. 'So, um, about... well, what everyone under the sun knows except me, I guess.'
Keisuke had the most experience telling the story, but he deferred to Yui at first. At the point where she'd become too involved to really give a subjective telling, he took over - getting help from Yui when his English dried up. Soon after that, Tetsuya started to haltingly add his commentary. On it went.
________________
Jacob had fingered the mints displayed at the counter, the truffles, the biscotti jars. He'd been tempted by the After Eight mints - they must buy them from the British shop downtown - but decided he didn't like the number.
Seven, plus the priestess. All on the hit list. He wondered where they were now, despite what he'd learned from Duke, and from his Japanese guests. He didn't mean recently, he meant *now*.
He shook his head to clear it, and to order. The counter help gave him a cardboard carrier for the drinks, and he thanked her sincerely. It was only a matter of waiting, from there. He could still be patient, couldn't he?
Toying with a red-wrapped bon-bon, he wondered if the Suzaku reincarnations had ever needed therapy.
_______________
Amidst the blizzard of information, Natalie hadn't noticed when Jacob returned to the table. Eventually, it occurred to her that everyone else had a drink in front of them, and she swung her head over to the formerly empty seat. 'Oh, God! Thank you. Sorry.'
The story had taken about half an hour to tell, and her head was spinning. She ran through it in her head - Sean the one with divided loyalties, and the one who survived it all, more or less. Ron his grief-stricken twin brother, and Yui's servant. Rose was the lightning rod, right? Ooh, not the best way to pose that question. Seit was the manipulative shogun.
'That leaves three, right?'
Yui nodded. 'Three we haven't identified. What do you think? Still not Tomo, Miboshi, or Ashitare? No recollection?'
Natalie shook her head. 'I'm sure of it. I'm not involved.' At that moment, she caught Jacob's eye. Wanted to look away, but she couldn't.
'Think,' he said. 'I'm sure that you *are* involved. You should remember before it gets any worse.'
___________
He couldn't help it. It had once driven him mad, having access to so many minds that he couldn't separate his own thoughts from theirs, hearing a thousand flighty or ignorant comments that, no matter how foolish their thinkers, had still never been voiced. The lowest of the low, the darkest of the frustration, the most salacious of the joyful.
But it was a habit, and one he'd avoided for so long that he knew indulging it again would be sweeter than... sweeter than...
So he invoked the god he'd thought must be long dead, and he'd twisted a long-vanished child's toy in his mind.
He'd trapped her gaze smoothly and effectively, seeking the chill that he was so sure he could call back. Then he'd lost control.
_______________
Yui froze. Keisuke and Tetsuya had taken up a side conversation, half-whispering in Japanese, but they stopped talking too. As the words hit Natalie, she realised that something was very wrong with them.
It hit Jacob, too. His face reddened, and he blinked as though he'd just woken up from a trance.
'..What was that you just said?' Yui hesitantly inquired. 'I didn't think either of you would speak...'
The words slammed against the inside of Natalie's head, losing their sound but not their meaning. Out of them grew a thousand other sentences, commands barked across palace rooms and battlefields, not-so-endearing whispers into the ear that wasn't pressed into a silk pillow.
Pretty, she thought. They called me pretty, and they laughed, and I ignored it all.
She thought she remembered something, then: dreaming of blood.
A bell chimed as the coffee shop door opened.
__________________
AN: I really didn't mean to hang this story off of anything. If it's any help, I believe this is more of an escarpment than a cliff.
Jacob: Sure, you bring me back to pay for coffee.
Laly: Hey, don't knock it. You get the supafly psychic phenomena, right?