destinystrings | Something Old, Something New

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Something Old, Something New

▼ Something Old, Something New (13th hour & arrival log)

Who: Anyone
Where: The entire city
When: The news two weeks
Summary: This is both a Newcomer log AND a General 13th hour log
Warnings: That depends who is there

▼ When it is darkest, men see the stars...(13th hour)

The night sky once again turned red as the 13th hour hit the city. By now it was almost too easy to accept it. The moon (or what was of it up there) shone, affecting the monster population in subtle ways.

By now, even the strange events which had happened almost seemed a little too common. The pulls from a new building, or the odd creatures that showed up and increased the population for that hour gave rise to new oppertunities; both good and bad.

To keep the population safe, the mayor had asked the city to stay inside that night and let the city police and visitors do their job, despite the dividing population on this issue. For the most part, there wouldn't be much resistance.

Each night, the sky was always filled with at least one or two signs of something new, and people were ushered inside buildings as much as possible.

Who knew. Maybe tonight you'd get lucky.

▼ Ode of the Newcomer

You're not in your homeworld anymore. That much is evident. So how do you feel? Happy? Sad? Troubled? A little of all three? No matter what, the memories of a butterfly man named Philemon are fading like a dream; you'll remember the details, but perhaps not everything he has said. What time you showed here seems to be as random as everything else; if you were lucky it was during the day, if not, well the 13th hour was rather dangerous. Fortunately, there was a high chance you'd be spotted quickly.

...hopefull anyway.

There is one word that stays with you, however.

Persona.

So...here to save the city, huh? First you'll need to find out more information. And who knows, maybe a familiar face or two...

▼ Extra Long OOC Blurb

[(Make sure you read it!) This is a dual log, both 13th hour, or newcomer posts (we're testing it out to see this works well or not.)

This will be up to you on what you want to do; start a new post where you can character's name and OPEN and write the days they'll be wandering during the 13th hour.

If you are a newcomer, write OPEN and what hour they arrived. It can be the 13th hour if you want too!

Join other people's post, do some exploration, post them fighting monsters and just have some fun leveling up / interacting! For this log, you can level up persona, but not in the same thread and the same day, IC-wise. Please do not abuse this. The conditions is that the fighting must happen on different days. The threads should be long enough that an attack is possible and shouldn't just be a few comments just for the sake of leveling up (Ie, we want effort in them, as much as you would with a normal log.).

If you submitted a building and it was accepted, feel free to start a post with them discovering it! The original owners who submitted will be the first to see them, due to a strange pull that made they feel like they NEEDED to go to that area. What they do with this information is up to them; they can contact others in their group, start exploring by themselves or allow the thread to be open for others to come in with them...it's all up to you. That next morning, the government will be coming over to analyze them (that will be done offscreen, however).

FOR THE CREATURES 1) The creatures have to be in the Beastary for you to use them. You don't need to use creatures from your own home worlds either, as long as someone's put in a creature in there! Also, make sure your characters could logically take on the creatures you pick let's not have them take down a giant creature when they couldn't normally.]

DON'T FORGET TO TAG WITH YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME PLEASE.

▼ Quick Links

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Even now, Hizumi sometimes spends time out and about during the thirteenth hour. Not so much because he takes any sort of joy from seeing demons - really, he avoids them when he can - but more so that he can quietly observe the sights that are unique to this hour alone.

Tonight, however, things are different.

He's been spotted, although that in itself is no surprise considering how carelessly he's been navigating the city. He doesn't even fight back as the Night Spirit attacks, only making minimal movements to dodge the Spirit Barrage attack. He only begins to show even the slightest care when he takes a hit in the shoulder, gasping at the pain. After all his body has been through, his pain tolerance had gotten quite high, and the searing feeling in his shoulder is unexpected.

But... at the same time, he still makes no attempt to even counter attack. And why should he?

"There's... no real point, is there." No point in fighting. No point in trying.

There's no point in any of this.

With one hand grasping at his injured shoulder, he only stares dully at the Night Spirit as it readies itself for another move.

And the move is... intercepted?

If Hizumi looks up, a boy is just now whipping a vest back onto his shoulders. Did he actually block the attack with it? He fires back, a stream of hairs shooting from his head and giving the spirit no end of grief. It's not having as much of an effect as he'd like, though.

He looks up, but there's not much joy in his expression. He never expected the spirit to be able to kill him, but he didn't necessarily expect someone to defend him against it.

Life is funny like that, in the most depressing kind of way.

He slumps where he is, allowing his legs to fold under him. If Kitaro was planning to have any aid from Hizumi, he isn't likely to get it.

Kitaro honestly doesn't seem to mind. He prefers it this way as opposed to humans who go and make the conflict worse by showing off with those head things of theirs and turning the situation into a genuine conflict. It just reinforces to him the guy needs help.

Still, it takes a lot of work. However, the rapid barrage of his hair needles, coupled with a few geta blows, and the creature definitely looks to be on its last legs. He pulls one last hair out, which extends to the length of a spear, and hurls it at the creature, and down it goes.

He settles. "Father, did you recognize that one?" he asks.

Something shifts under his hair, and an eyeball suddenly pops out and crawls on top of his head. "Can't say that I did! Must be another one of those new arrivals! Looked kind of like those silly Western ghosts with a cat motif, though!"

Kitaro nods, then turns back to his ward. "He looks pretty out of it, Dad. Maybe we should just leave him to it."

The eyeball harumphs. "Honestly, Kitaro, you're so impolite lately! The least we can do is walk him to a safe location! Even if he DOES have the look of an outworlder."

The boy sighs a long-suffering sigh. "And here I thought they could all handle themselves. Oh brother." He walks over to Hizumi, and holds a hand out. "Come on. I'll get you somewhere out of the way."

Normally, Hizumi would view this sort of thing with a kind of detached interest. However, he can't even muster up that much. Instead he remains on the ground, his eyes glancing Kitaro's way even as his head dips towards the earth.

"...Do you two have something against Visitors?" His voice is low and decidedly lacking in emotion. If anything, it might just be a good reason for them to leave him here instead.

The boy tchs. "Only the ones that can use those weird things that look like youkai. The conflict between humans and youkai these days is rough enough, but now all the humans think they're just as good as the youkai and don't need them anymore. All I ever see them doing is hunting youkai. It makes me angry!"

The eyeball seems to pat his head, then looks apologetically at Hizumi. "Well, he's angry enough, anyway. I do apologize for him; he's been much more irritable since everything happened." It shakes his head. "Honestly, things have just been so confused."

There's a short bark of laughter, though it's not at all happy. "Sorry to say it, but I'm one of them, too."

It takes some concentration - his mind is a swirl of negativity right now, and it only makes the process difficult - but a card appears before him and shatters, summoning up a cheerful little demon.

"What the hee-ho? I don't see anything worth fighting with here!"

His face darkens a bit. "...So I see. He seems rather... violent." Tch. "So why didn't you use him if you've got him? I thought humans could do everything themselves these days. Even fight the terrors of the night."

The eyeball hops down, walking over to the Persona. "Now now, sonny, fighting isn't everything you know! You got to take better care of your human, got it?"

"Maybe I didn't feel like it." Hizumi gives a small shrug. He's being difficult, and he's aware of that, but he also doesn't feel like playing at pleasantries right now.

"I would, but this guy has been so hee-ho out of it lately, we just keep on running into trouble!"

The Jack Frost's words are followed by an irate click of the tongue, and the Persona vanishes. Normally the snow demon's chatterbox nature was amusing, but right now it's getting on his nerves.

Kitaro stares at him. He hems, and haws, and finally grunts in exasperation. "Look, come over this way. I know a few routes where aggressive youkai don't like to hang out. We can talk more there." He pauses. "Unless you really want to die THAT badly."

"Kitaro, REALLY." His dad shakes his head a bit.

"Maybe I did."

But he does stand straight and begin to follow, one hand still gingerly on his wounded shoulder as he makes to follow the small youkai boy.

He leads the way, a somewhat confusing path that eventually leads them to a slightly constrained but relatively quiet area. His father retreats to... wherever he retreats to. You might not want to think about it.

"All right. Not that I really care about the daily lives of humans, but I see one wandering around with a blatant death wish, and I'd at least like to know why you're wasting my time," he says bluntly. It's a crude way to put it, but you get the sense there's more behind what he's saying that just that.

"You're the one who offered. You didn't need to butt your head in if it's really such a pain."

Just listen to at all of that sweet sweet information that he isn't actually expanding on.

"I believe in getting to the root of a matter, and the root of the matter is that your... little head friend apparently thinks you're moping. I have enough to deal with without mopers." He leans against a nearby wall. "So? Why're you moping?"

The eyeball man crawls out again. "Kitaro! Stop being so blunt! You'll never get him to talk about anything with that sort of attitude!"

He gives an annoyed sigh, stopping to lean against a wall himself. The pain from his arm is getting to be dizzying... Just his luck, he supposes.

"Because sometimes, when bad things happen, we humans start to sulk. It's a normal thing to do." Maybe not always with a death wish, but...

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bondsofsuffering - 2013-03-16 08:13 (UTC) - Expand

'There's no point, is there?'

How funny. Strange words― familiar words that strike a chord deep within his subconscious. The hopelessness stings, as a formerly healed wound might when reopened long after it had been patched and forgotten.

The feeling is distinct; it teases his memory, provoking a blurred image of a busy street, loud horns blaring in his ears and car lights flashing by peripherally, a day cold enough for his fingers to feel a familiar numbness. Then again, is it a the headlight of a car or the light of a flashlight in a dark tunnel?

All familiar, but none of it quite fits the picture of this boy allowing himself to be injured. Why? Otonashi doesn't know this boy, not at all, but why in the world would that stop him?

It doesn't. The redhead races forward, looking up to his Persona before even noticing he had called for it. Panacea can heal. And if this boy refuses Panacea's help, he'll have to answer to Otonashi.

"Ah―?! No, fall back!" His usual politeness drops: the situation is far too dire. Even if Hizumi refuses, he'll still have a redhead standing in front of him, ready to counter the oncoming attack with an (unfortunately) weak Kouha, or at least take the hit in Hizumi's place.

Why?

He had already figured the spirit would attack him until he was within an inch of death before being miraculously distracted, leaving him to his pains. But it seems that this time, his "luck" has decided to be especially strong.

He takes a single step back, slumping to the ground as he watches Otonashi with slightly narrowed eyes. It's not exactly anger, no- more like a mild irritation dulled over by obliging acceptance.

This is how it always went. No matter what he tried, there was simply no way he would be allowed to die so easily, was there?

The likelihood of his support Persona -- with her single, lonely attack -- actually coming out victorious is slim. Calling on friends would take too long. With only very limited options, he fires a few rounds from a small handgun at the creature and backs up towards the despondent Hizumi.

"Can you run?" Otonashi does a quick once-over of the other boy, searching for any outstanding wounds. It goes without saying that the redhead will help in (almost) any way possible. "Right now, we should leave..!"

"Probably-" His reply is cut off with a wince as he reflexively tightens his hand over his wounded shoulder. After all the abuse it's been through, he'd gotten good at ignoring the signals his body tried to give whenever he sustained an injury, but for whatever reason he seems to be unable to block out the pain as effectively.

Lucky him.

Still, he does get back to his feet, his sense of balance in tact enough to do so without moving either arm. Judging by the wetness against his palm, it's probably for the best that he keeps applying pressure for now.

Oh. Oh. That doesn't look good. Otonashi's previous urgency has nothing on his insistence now. That wound changes everything. He motions for an exit, a path away from here, and insists on tailing behind Hizumi for now.

He wants to be sure that the other boy will leave instead of trying to pull this stunt again. Giving a nod to Panacea who will indeed do her best to fend off the monster for a moment, Otonashi keeps an eye on Hizumi's balance. And -- when and if they get a chance -- he looks more closely at the injury.

"Did you get this just now? Let me see--all I have is water on me to clean it, but my Persona can heal it too... i-if that works better." This magical healing on actual living people and not just the dead is... still a point of confusion for him. It works, but it's still a little weird. It's enough to question it, at least.

This guy... He's the type to stop and help even the most pitiful person on the side of the street, isn't he? Trying to save anyone he can, as if he even has the power, the ability to do that.

How troublesome.

Once they are far enough away from the monster, his steps slow to a stop. At Otonashi's inspection, Hizumi gives only a half-shrug, his expression stiff as he conceals the pain of even that small action. He doesn't even look Otonashi in the eye at this point, knowing all too well that this kid is wasting his time by dealing with the damage Hizumi may as well have inflicted on himself. "If your Persona heals it, it'll be easier to move."

It's something of an admittance of defeat. He realizes that for now, he's just not going to be getting away with anything.

Convincing Otonashi that humaneness is wasteful is an impossibility. He might not snap back harshly due to Hizumi's state, but he would indeed reject the very idea.

"Okay... I'll get rid of the pain with Panacea, but I want to take a look at it, too." As promised, he beckons the Persona, who wordlessly seems to understand the intent. She casts a light healing spell, the effect augmented by her passive healing amplifier. It isn't a completely perfect patch-up, but it should feel better.

At least physically.

"How do you feel? Any dizziness?"

He obligingly rolls his head to the side so Otonashi can get a better look at the now-patched wound. The wound itself seems to be clean at least - it was an energy-based attack that inflicted it in the first place, after all.

"No dizziness. The pain is dull - do you want that on a scale? It's probably about a six." His voice is flat, like he's simply reciting information. "I don't think the damage itself is that bad. It's just low pain-tolerance." It used to be, this sort of an injury would be more like a two.

"On a scale..!? This isn't a game! No—" He shakes his head, examining the wound. No dirt, nothing really worrisome. All that had been near the wound was Hizumi's clothing and his hand.

Hopefully he's not as unwashed as some boys could be. "No, it's not that bad, but it could have been. If your pain tolerance is low, then why are you trying to... to—" He's searching for a word that's not so harsh. As much as he wants to lecture, he probably shouldn't. So far, he hasn't quite found one.

There are a lot of reasons Hizumi could give in reply to that half-spoken question. Because there are some things that hurt worse than a little physical pain. Because it was unbearable, realizing that the happiest he's been in years was when he couldn't remember most of the years, and gaining them all back had only made him feel worse.

Because the world itself had decreed that he and his kind needed to be removed - and frankly, he couldn't blame it.

But in the end, he opts to keep his mouth shut. There are few who would be permitted to know any of this; to get even an inkling to the full story. And this boy certainly had not gained any right to it with his feeble attempt to save Hizumi. And Hizumi had no intention of letting that change.

So instead, he only partially addresses it: "But it's not. It hurts, but it's not going to kill me or anything." He's absolutely sure of this. "...Do you really have time to waste fussing like this?" It might be better if he just left to treat it himself. The pain was getting wearisome.

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Something Old, Something New

CAPRICORN - 13th hour; Monday the 4th

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