swordhardy: (pic#13862317)
ROKUROU ᴍᴀʟᴇᴠᴏʟᴇɴᴛ ᴅɪᴄᴋ RANGETSU ([personal profile] swordhardy) wrote2020-10-29 08:10 pm
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Slumscape Inbox

TO BE MADE PRETTY





💬 ☎️ 📧

convicter: (037)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-06-07 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ He's not...expecting that. Gentleness. It doesn't match with his perception of Rokurou: flamboyant, cheerful, ruthless. The fist in his hair is actually comforting. The pressure keeps him grounded.

You look like shit makes him bark out a laugh. The sharp noise quickly devolves into a thunderous snarl as the wolf comes over him, his face twisting, flashing massive teeth in the hairsbreath between them. It lasts only a moment, this time; Ozen is physically caught in Rokurou's hands at his neck and wrist, nowhere to go but to thrash a little, before Yuri breaches the surface again.

Every time it feels like treading water on a very stormy ocean, but a friend's presence is a buoy. ]


That makes two of us, jackass.

[ Yuri's not one for oaths, never has been...but sometimes it just feels right. Playfully, he thumps one fist against Rokurou's chest plate. Laughing, joking, makes him feel more human than he has all week. ]

I'll braid my hair next time, how's that?
convicter: (116)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-06-08 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ At the words tie you the wolf surges up, causing Yuri to stiffen, but it's a momentary lapse. Tense, he shakes his head. ]

No point, unless you really need a breather. There's nothing you could tie me to, or with, that he can't break.

[ He knows because he tried it already. His futon, his table, whatever's left of them at any rate—demolished. But to answer the first question: ]

He was worse a few days ago. [ There seems to be a lull. He pulls back from Rokurou a bit, deciding he should just come out and say it: ] I hurt Yuya and Six. I really...I was barely able to hold him back. [ His face twists, but it's not the wolf. Just pure misery, and shame. ] Sid too, I think, and maybe others. I don't remember most of it. The wolf just wanted to kill every sinner in his path.

[ Turns out, when your standards are gone, everyone's got skeletons in the closet. He doesn't know what Rokurou is going to do with that information, but no matter what, he'll take responsibility. ]
Edited 2021-06-08 01:02 (UTC)
convicter: (067)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-06-08 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
[ For someone like Yuri, who prides himself on his mental fortitude, there's little more humiliating than admitting he got wrestled out of his own head.

On some level, he knows it's humiliating for the wolf, too, to be reduced to a mad beast. He can't look past the consequences, though; the blood tainting their hands. Whether the wolf's vision of Rokurou is true, and it seems to be—Yuri's in no place to be throwing stones right now. Maybe in another life, with Flynn's precious world order to protect, he and Rokurou would be on opposite sides of a divide.

But in a hellscape like this, he'll take all the allies he can get. ]


You better not. [ He doesn't sound too worried on that front. He wouldn't have asked if he didn't think his friend could deliver.

His focus isn't on Rokurou for the moment though, head turning back towards the tunnel he came through. It's too calm in his head; that means the wolf is gearing up. He should do this now. ]


C'mon. I need to give you something.

[ He leads Rokurou to his apartment. Usually messy but spotless, it now looks like it's been ransacked. Everything that wasn't nailed down has been torn up or smashed, the walls have deep furrows where claws dragged down. Yuri had fruitlessly tried to make himself a meal at some point, because there's off-smelling food sitting in a pan, untouched. Piles of clawed-up furniture shore up the front and back doors, which have been fully boarded up.

(It's been a bad few days.)

It's the oven, of all places, that he ends up opening. Of course, the wolf knew what was in there, but Ozen's limited dexterity kept the contents relatively safe: it's Yuri's sword, still in its sheath. Mercifully unused.

He presents it to Rokurou with the heavy certainty of a man passing over his most treasured possession. ]


I nearly lobbed somebody's head off with it. If the wolf's controlling me, I don't want him to have it. [ Rokurou's a swordsman. Surely he must have noticed the absence of it, always at Yuri's hip next to his mask. He's never been very precious about the weapons he'd use, but this one's special, not the least of which because it's kept him safe these last six months. He feels naked without it, nevermind passing it along to someone else. ] Keep it safe for me.
Edited (i can't write, i'm sorry) 2021-06-08 04:29 (UTC)
convicter: (027)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-06-13 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ozen-through-Yuri has used the sword, but the longer this goes on it seems the more the wolf's mind is fracturing, rendering any thought more complex than escape and kill more challenging. Whether it's just the wear of the rain's effects, how tired they're both getting, or something else, Yuri can't say. Either way, he feels like if he can just weather out these last gasps of brutality...Ozen will finally still.

He just needs to get there.

The Second Star looks at home in Rokurou's arms and the sight unwinds a last vestige of stress from Yuri's heart. Rokurou's question, delivered with sincerity, makes Yuri smile. ]


Just don't mess this up. [ A dry huff of laughter. ] No pressure.

[ The rest of this will likely be uneventful, hopefully. He lets himself walk over to the torn-up futon, intending to settle in. He wouldn't say he's letting himself relax, exactly, because nothing about this is relaxing, but it's nice to let someone else handle the particulars. All he has to do now is focus on keeping the wolf at bay. He feels weak and worn, but hopeful.

Speaking of: ]


Don't suppose you're much of a cook?

[ He hasn't eaten in...days, probably. It's not helping. ]
convicter: (063)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-06-16 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ He snorts out loud when Rokurou defenestrates his aborted stir-fry. ]

I have noodles and rice left. Some vegetables in the fridge, I think.

[ They're probably a little wilted, but beggars can't be choosers. He also has some convenience store snacks stashed away, maybe one or two onigiri, though whether they're still edible is up for debate. He hasn't really checked in on the contents of his banged-up refrigerator, though he'd done a shop right before the rains.

The wolf, ironically enough, had sensed something was coming.

He lets Rokurou get on with it. Closing his eyes, he focuses himself wholly on the wolf's rumbling presence. The world slips away, and for a moment it's just the two of them, face-to-face in the dark expanse of his mind, the wolf's snarling teeth trailing spittle.

Crazy to think this slavering animal had been a god, once.

watch your mouth, boy

He's not afraid of any old man.

'Fighting' is a strange word for what they do. It's a very literal contest of wills, crashing together at the speed of thought. The goal, for Yuri, is a clear mind, trying to push away all the extraneous information the wolf is throwing at him while grounding himself in what's real. The feeling of the futon beneath him. The sound of Rokurou moving, the smell of blood and rot, the want to bite tear kill

Yuri gets pulled under that cresting wave, and back in the apartment, his body jerks forward, teeth massive in his mouth, eyes flaring as gold as the sun. His hair seems wilder, face contorted into an unnatural snarl.

Ozen hauls himself off the futon and launches himself at Rokurou's back, body half-shifted, claws and teeth and raw power. ]
convicter: (130)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-07-05 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's a beast that lands on Rokurou, Yuri's clothes splitting under the strain of the sudden transformation. Ozen's enormous white teeth snap in the air, spraying spittle as Rokurou's ladle handle comes crashing against the side of his head. The momentum knocks him out of the air, sending them both down. The jaws close on the spoon, snapping it cleanly in half. ]

make me, sixth son

[ Under Rokurou's weight, the wolf thrashes, twisting his massive head to sink those frothing teeth into the nearest piece of exposed flesh. Golden eyes stay locked on Rokurou's face, pupils like tiny black pinheads nestled at their center. Gathering his hind legs beneath himself, Ozen abruptly kicks out sharply against Rokurou's belly and thighs in a powerful sweep to try and dislodge him. ]
convicter: (030)

[personal profile] convicter 2021-08-02 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
[ The wolf struggles, thrashes under the unyielding pressure of Rokurou's weight and strength. He's being doubly attacked, both without from the daemon and within from the boy, clawing at their shared mindspace.

Inside, man and wolf are locked in a similar battle, wrestling without bodies. Yuri grasps at every hazy memory, everything that keeps him whole. The feeling of the Lower Quarter cobblestones beneath his feet; Flynn's flaxen hair in the sun; Karol's bravery and Estelle's books and the old man's rambling stories. Here, the closest thing to warmth he possesses: Six's quiet presence, the erune's ears twitching in tune to every sound; Rokurou's fierce gaze over blades and over cards; Alex's laugh while she cooks; Shinobu's smile while she dances, firelight licking her hair. All his bonds, the things that make him human.

His pack.

The thought shatters through Ozen, crystalizing ancient memories of summer pups, of hunting and stewardship. The wolf snaps back into himself, his own mind. Just like that, Yuri can feel it, the beginning of the end.

In the apartment, the body beneath Rokurou stills, the enormous canine shape folding, melting down, becoming a man again. The clothes are in tatters, Yuri's pale body gathered in Rokurou's arms, and when he blinks his eyes open, they're silver again. ]


Huh.

[ He looks up blearily at Rokurou, then grins. ]

I think we got him.

[ And promptly passes out. ]