uccellodifuoco | 14th Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

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14th Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

[Morning - early afternoon]

[Luceti is just a village, surrounded by a forest full with animals, so it may not be a surprise for some to see a small wolf pup, little over a year old, wandering around the village. Or maybe it can be a surprise since the animal is all alone. At any rate, Hyoga, will be sniffing at everything and everyone, using all his tracking talents to find a certain person, though if he meets with anyone whose scent he knows the animal may give it a try to drag them with him to Ikki's apartment. The wolf pup is rather insistent and seems to have a huge sense of urgency, as if he's terribly worried...

Eventually, though, the animal will find House 15, where his target now resides. Hopefully none of the people living there will mind the howling and barking wolf pup at their door until the door gets open for him or Selphie appears, somehow. Again there's a certain sense of urgency and insistence in the animal, this may not be a game for him after all.]

[Late afternoon - night]

[Later in the afternoon, after a talk with Selphie, Ikki will be hitting the Good Spirits bar. Apparently trying to check how much alcohol he needs to drink before he gets intoxicated, he will be there until someone drags him away or he's kicked out of the bar. Fortunately despite his intents he's a slow drinker so his life isn't in danger.

That doesn't mean he may end at the wrong place because he's too drunk to remember where his apartment is.]

((OOC: Feel free to meet Hyoga and be dragged to Ikki's apartment, specially if you've CR with him already, but even if not the animal would probably end guiding them there if anyone asks what's wrong. Selphie's thread will be the last one chronologically for that part. For the next part, your character can meet Ikki as he makes his way to the bar, when he's on it or when he's trying to return home, be warned that his grade of coherency may not be high in the last situation.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ See, animals are already a lot less scary than people considering there's no way an animal could be a bully. ~~No, seriously, we're talking about the girl who defended sharks in Luceti before too..~~ But either way, this means when she spots the wolf pup, she can't help but smile a little at it, although she doesn't recognize it nor realises what it's doing here.. ]

Good day. [ as if she's speaking to a person rather than an animal. ] Is something wro... ng..?

[ Her tone trails off, because before she can finish she's being dragged somewhere - although she follows the pup obediently either way once it seems to lead the way. She's too impressable, okay. ]

[Hyoga takes a bit longer sniffing at her when she stops and starts talking, ignoring her all the way before he is convinced that he has smelt this before. Not directly but in Ikki, and Hyoga knows his owner enough to know that if he let someone close enough for their scent to get on him somehow they must be a friend. Which means this girl may help, even if she's not the one he was looking for. Which means he starts to drag her.

It's a good thing the girl ends following obediently, Hyoga's happy with that, but still keeps urging her to move quickly until they arrive to the apartment's door. Firmly closed. The pup starts scratching at it, whining and looking at the knob, it's not locked but the animal can't reach the knob. Hyoga looks at Kotomi and barks before pawing at the door again, apparently telling her to get inside.]

[ Normally she would find it rude to just walk into someone's room like that, even Kotomi knows enough social customs to know it's not normal in this place, but.. it's like the animal is just urging her to do so, so that's almost the same as an invitation, right?

... Ah, she knows! She knocks just a little, very lightly. There, that should be polite enough to indicate she's coming in, so she slowly pushes against the door to open it and step inside the room. ]

[Inside the room Kotomi will find... Nothing. Actually there are many things, it's an apartment with people living in it, of course and it's obvious. But the place is pretty clean and there's no one in sight. At least in the living room.

Hyoga quickly scurries between her feet and stops at one of the bedroom doors, the only one closed, looking at her again. Apparently she will have to barge into another room to get to the bottom of this.]

[ Huh.. Just an empty apartment, is it? She's just looking around obliviously, as if she's wondering why she was brought to an empty room, but then she notices the pup going between her legs, and that's enough to attract her attention again.

She steps over, glancing from Hyoga to the door itself. ... She should knock again, just to make sure, just once. It's only polite, after all, even if there might just be no one inside again.. Turning the knob now. ]

[Just like before there's no answer from the inside, it may be because he didn't hear her, or because he just doesn't care. It may be both. This time she will find something quite different, a bedroom, with a shelf full of plushies shaped after people, it's like a complete collection of plushies of characters from an anime. In one corner of the bedroom there's a cushion and a pet plate with water, obviously for Hyoga, and at the bedside table there's a vase of flowers with flowers that are quite plain and boring, the type of flowers no one would consider putting in a vase.

However, it's probable all those things will be ignored in favor of the man sitting on the bed. Back against the wall, with the headboard on his side as he leans against it, face resting against the wall... And with what seems to be a barrier of fire around him, burning slowly and cold. It could seem that he's sitting in a fire ball, but it's a fire that doesn't burn anything else neither gives off any heat.

Kotomi is free to freak out and throw water at him or something to turn it off, though.]

[ Oh, even if the fire had actually been some illusion, or some light that just seemed like it was fire, that would already have been bad enough to freak out Kotomi. After all, it's fire, and that much is enough to make her mind go blank, replaying memories of all those years ago, of a crying little girl in a burning study, a fire she caused with her own hands in a fit.

She chokes up, freezes up, she can't even let out a sound of shock because she's too caught up in the sight of the fire. Maybe she hasn't even realised yet that she recognizes the person inside it, but.. it's happening again, that fire, and this time there's no one to put it out, no Tomoya or that other man running in like last time-- ]

[ ... No, she can't let herself be that way again, she can't let everything burn down because of her own cowardlyness, and in her eyes this fire is just real fire, dangerous fire. So she forces her body to move, stumbling over to the first water-related thing she sees - the pet plate, sorry, Hyoga - and throws it at the barrier.

It's then that her strength and knees give out though, and she drops to the ground, looking utterly terrified and still clinging on to the pet plate as if it's her life raft. ]

[He's... Not there. He's somewhere else, far away, because he doesn't want to be there, in that room of that apartment in that cursed village and its cursed enclosure. He doesn't even want to go home actually, screw Athena, screw the Gods and their games, using humans like toys, forget Shun, forget Seiya, the man with endless energy, now half-dead, stuck in a wheelchair. He has had enough of it all, he has fought enough, he just wants to die already. Die and vanish in ashes to not resurface anymore, die and go to wherever souls go now, and if there's nothing then he just wants his soul to pulverize itself as well. He has fought enough, he has done enough, hasn't he?

He protected Shun the best he could, he wasn't perfect but now he's strong, he can live on his own. Their mother won't hold it against him if he stops now. He protected Athena, he fought for her and now the Sanctuary is in her hands again, he fought the Holy War, helped to defeat Hades, there won't be any more wars. None of the Saints that died, nor his master, neither that cursed man that impregnated his mother, can hold it against him if he stops now. He avenged Pandora, she won't hold it against him either. And he obtained the Phoenix Cloth and soared high in the skies like a burning bird, he died and returned several times as well. Esmeralda won't hold it against him either.

So he just wants to stop now. He has no reason to continue, specially stuck here. Just let him rest before more time passes, before more years pass by, he never wanted nor expected to grow up to this age. He should have died when he was fifteen, just let him do it now.

But the Phoenix won't let him. Sometimes he wonders if he will ever be able to truly die. But here, even without the Phoenix watching over him, he wouldn't be able to die. There's no point to it. So he just retreats mentally, away from everything and everyone.]

[He remembers, when he died how it felt to come back to life, how his Cosmo burned and fried his soul, it felt as if he was burning alive, but instead of dying he was coming back to life. It was always so hot when he returned.

This time, it's cold. And wet. It's not fire what brings him back but water, splashed on him suddenly and without warning, though he wouldn't have noticed it either if there had been a warning. Ikki jolts up, shocked and at first confused, not sure of where he is as he has been brought out from his retreat so suddenly. The fire barrier crashes and vanishes as if it was never there, and all that's left in the room for him to find is a whining Hyoga, nuzzling Kotomi's side, worried about her and... Kotomi herself, on her knees on the ground, looking terrified and clinging to a pet plate. Ikki just stares at the scene, how did kicking the pup out of the room and telling him to find someone to deal with him turn into "bring someone here and throw water at him"?.]

What do you think you're doing?

[ She barely even notices Ikki, or what he's saying. His presence is probably slowly starting to hit her now, though, or maybe the sounds of the pup, but she's still too caught up in her own trauma as well, the memories from all those years ago that for a moment seemed fresh. Her hands are shaking, and slowly she drops the pet plate to the ground, just letting it make a loud thunk sound.

Slowly, and still shaking, she moves her hands up to her face, covering it with both of her hands. Kotomi isn't crying, probably, but she does make a slight hic sound. ]

I.. I'm sorry.. [ She shakes her head, still covering it with her hands like that, and her voice shakes along. ] I'm s-so sorry..

[Okay, no, seriously, what did just happen? Ikki glares at the puppy, why did he have to bring her here anyway? As the shock wears off he returns to not being in the mood for this, but he can't let her be like that either.

With a groan he pulls himself from the bed, leaving on the wall a bleeding mark, probably due his bleeding forehead. He spent quite sometime banging his head against the wall until he finally retreated mentally, but he couldn't care less about that. He kneels besides Kotomi, trying to place a hand on one of her shoulders.]

Hey, it's okay now. No need to apologize, it's not your fault.

[Whatever she's apologizing for.]

[ She makes a few more hiccing sounds. No, it is her fault, if not now, then back then, it's why god won't forgive her no matter what, since it's all her own fault and--

... Even though she's still shaking, the thoughts stop for a moment when she suddenly feels that hand, as if it's a reminder that she's not alone right now, not like she was back then. Slowly Kotomi moves her hands just a little, enough to be able to peer past them, but they're still not completely gone. ]

I.. Ikki.. kun..? [ Right now part of her wants to reach out for more comfort like just that slight touch on her shoulder already is, but she doesn't know how, she's never learned to, so instead she just sits there, shaking a little still and staring at him. ]

... Ikki-kun, your forehead is bleeding.. [ But the first thing she remarks out loud is about him, rather than her own state. ]

[He has no idea what her problem is, for several reasons, he's not even thinking of the way his Cosmos manifests because it's just so natural for him and he is still partially unsettled. When she peers at him like that it reminds him of when he was a kid, when Shun was bullied or something and he started to cry, hands curled into fists that the kid used to wipe his tears and hide his face rather than to fight back.

He's not a hug person, but he still remembers what he did back then with Shun when he looked at him like that. With an annoyed sigh he pulls her into a light hug, mostly making her rest her head against his shoulder or his chest as he holds her lightly. Enough for it to not be something he's uncomfortable with, enough for it to still be a way to show that she's not alone and that there's someone to protect her, though he still has no idea what the problem is or if it's something that can be fixed like that. Well, back when they were kids he wasn't sure either if he could fight the monsters under the bed if they had really existed but he still did it and convinced himself that they didn't exist and that he could kick their asses if they dared to exist.]

Forget my forehead. What's wrong with you?

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[Action] puppy puppy puppy~ :D

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