ᴋᴀᴍᴜɪ ᴜᴇʜᴀʀᴀ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
metafictions) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
jigokulogs2022-04-02 02:00 pm
metafictions) wrote in jigokulogs2022-04-02 02:00 pm
[closed] california's a garden of eden
Who ⬤ Kamui & friends
What ⬤ Kamui has a fun time at the festival-- until, of course, the festival stops being fun.
When ⬤ During and after the Night Parade
Where ⬤ Around the city
Content Warnings ⬤ slapstick dildo violence, the backdrop of the bathhouse orgy but no actual sex, actual violence later
while these prompts are closed, please feel free to hit my plotting comment if you'd like a starter!
[art source]
What ⬤ Kamui has a fun time at the festival-- until, of course, the festival stops being fun.
When ⬤ During and after the Night Parade
Where ⬤ Around the city
Content Warnings ⬤ slapstick dildo violence, the backdrop of the bathhouse orgy but no actual sex, actual violence later
while these prompts are closed, please feel free to hit my plotting comment if you'd like a starter!
[art source]
no subject
[ He hates doing undercover work. He's not even convinced that he's much good at it, but he must be, because he got assigned to it again and again. They had used the excuse that he looked young at first, then the excuse that he was slim and Seolite and therefore easier to overlook. In any case, it was difficult, dangerous work. Even moreso because he generally did it alone. He'd gotten into his fair share of thorny situations too.
It's where most of the black marks on his record came from, deaths that weigh heavy on his conscience, but less heavy than Kim suspects they ought to. Still, he came away from the experience without the ability to take on three oni single-handed, so there are bits and pieces of the story that he's missing.
He crosses his arms, thinking. ]
But even I never went undercover to investigate my fellow cops. [ The idea is ghastly. Awful though they are, they're his brothers. The only family Kim's ever known, really. He would do it without complaint if assigned, particularly if the offenses they were accused of were dire enough, but he would hate every moment of it. Kamui's story still doesn't make total sense (he would only need to be able to stay alive in the instance of staying caught, surely; after that, the cavalry should have been sent in) but Kim's aware he's receiving an extremely truncated version of events. There's plenty of questions he could ask. In the end, he asks what he feels is the most pertinent one: ] Were you successful?
no subject
On stage, the very first firework is lit. It crackles to life, springing into the air and bursting in the sky in a shimmer of emerald green sparks. The time it takes for the noise to clear gives Kamui just enough time to carefully weigh his words before he responds. After all these weeks of saying there was no possible way he could be dead and in hell, he knows how unusual this admission will sound.]
Yes and no. I helped flush out that rogue administrator.
[He turns to Kim, looking grave.]
But his influence also gave my partner cause to find and kill me.
no subject
It takes a hell of a lot to get him to balk. As it turns out, a young man he had previously believed to be alive, and who he quite likes despite himself, plainly informing him that he's dead fits the bill. ]
What?
[ There is a break in his composure, momentarily crestfallen. Then it smooths over to an expression like stone, the only giveaway being his brows, bunched up in confusion (and yes, distress). ]
What are you talking about? When we first met, you said -- [ There was no way that he could be dead. ] Was that a lie?
[ God, but he's so young. ]
no subject
He never once considered that Kim could care.]
It wasn’t a lie.
[In the interest of information, for the sake of answering the vital question of why and how they are here, Kamui has to be up front. The very strange story will only get stranger, and if anyone should get to hear the truth of it, it’s Kim.]
It’s exactly why I know I can’t be dead: because waking up here felt nothing like the first time I came back.
[And there it is.]
I know it sounds impossible, but I’m telling the truth.
no subject
After what I've seen here, anything is possible.
[ For someone who grips so tightly onto reality as he knows it, who is frightened by the potential of the unknown, it has been a distressing thing to grapple with. He doesn't feel he'll ever truly grapple with it in the way that he should. Worse yet, it's damaged his critical thinking; when there are no fundamental truths to hold onto, how will he ever know when someone is lying? He's spent years dismissing the idea of listening to his gut, too worried that his own propensity for fearing the worse will marr his judgment, too reliant on facts and figures so that he can point to something concrete if someone questions him on why he thinks a certain way.
But here, all he's got is his gut. And his gut is telling him that however improbable, Kamui is telling him the truth. ]
Okay. Fine. I'll believe you. [ For now. ] But... how?
[ What did it feel like, coming back?
No. He doesn't want to know. ]
no subject
[Normal as these circumstances are to him, he's perfectly aware of how outrageous it sounds to an outsider. It's a relief, to be heard: to be believed. Modestly, as if he's a kid coming clean to some mischief, he continues, pausing only for the next bursts of fireworks in the air.]
It's hard to explain. [The mechanics of it is something even he doesn't fully comprehend, so Kamui opts for the easiest analogy. No need to explain the specifics of time travel to Kim, especially not when he's sort of just being taken for a ride himself. (Maybe one day Akama and Aoyama-- his guides and fellow travelers-- will actually explain this stuff for him, but for now? This is the best he can give.)]
Have you ever read a choose your own adventure book? The story changes based on the choices you make, but you can flip right back to the page that presented you with a fork in the road, pick another path, and read the story over again. There's... one moment I can change, right before I'm killed. I've gone back many times now. Sometimes I survive, but when I don't, I go right back to the beginning.
[He fiddles with the end of his robe, glancing over for Kim's reaction.]
So, I can't be dead. I'd have returned there, and then, if I were.
no subject
[ He trails off, regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth. If he had such abilities, he would likely use them to spare him some embarrassment when he speaks without thinking; his taste in literature is neither flattering nor useful at the moment, not when Kamui is sharing something deeply personal. Still, it's practically the only way that he can rationalize it as Kamui stands here, looking him in the eye, telling him with blinding earnestness that he has experienced death after death after death.
If he stops to think about it for too long, it becomes horrific. Surely he would prefer just dying for good at this point? Kim certainly would. If Kamui is telling the truth, then how could he withstand such a thing without going mad? The man standing in front of him is quite cogent, quite sane. Kim doesn't think that even he would be able to keep it together. He removes a handkerchief from his pocket - neatly embroidered in the corners - and removes his glasses to polish them, throwing Kamui's face into a mess of blurry shapes. It's a cowardly thing, but it's easier than looking at Kamui's face, as open as the day he had met him, and to consider his life further. ]
That explains half of it. But how is this possible? Is it only you who can do this?
1/2
[If Kamui cares about the science fiction, he certainly doesn't show it. Right now, it's helpful to have the point of comparison over anything else. Sometimes, it's still utterly unbelievable to him-- that same standoff, the same guns in his face over and over-- if not for how vividly he remembers the feeling of each death and the weightless feeling in his body of returning, he too might think he'd gone insane.]
No. There are others. We're called Observers: those who exist outside the boundaries of normal reality. I know of only two others who can jump through time like I can, and one who... might be capable of far more.
[There's a nervous chatter in the crowd as one firework bursts in the sky, cracking loud and clear like a gunshot. A little too loud; maybe they'd set off two by mistake. Kamui frowns, using the break in the conversation to mull over what else he can explain-- but how does one explain Kosuke Kurumizawa, a being who's transcended his physical body and the rules of time and space completely?]
I wish I could describe this all more clearly. But even I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. Kim, you--
[BANG.]
2/2
Kim--
[No, no, no. Is it time already? Is this where he loops again? Kamui can't see Kim's face inches in front of him, but in the midst of the sensory overload all he knows is that Kim's still alive, still standing, and if he tries Kamui can keep it that way.]
A-- an explosion-- we have to move!
no subject
Shit! Kamui, we --
[ It's too late. The panic is too great, and it knocks him right on his ass, nearly trampled by the sheer magnitude of the crowd around them, throngs of people running both towards and away from the danger, the sound of gunfire deafeningly loud, steam rising up from the sewers clouding what little vision they still had. For a moment, it takes all of Kim's concentration not to get his neck broken by the heavy, thoughtless footsteps of the ayakishi around them, and the next? Kamui is gone.
Then, there's too much happening for them to find each other again, not until this whole horrible mess has calmed. All he can do is trust that if Kamui were truly telling him the reality of his life, then he has enough practice staying alive to do it for one more day. ]