Redi Domum

[stringmods]

Who: The missing visitors and you. Open to everyone.
Where: MAGI Labs
Summary: After being violently removed from the Tower of Animus, everyone is returned 'home'.
Warnings: None

There was a tight clench behind your navel, the sensation of something dragging you through the fabric of time and space itself... it was an unpleasant sensation, almost sickening. Those of Hinoto-Ri had vanished from the tower completely when the clock struck midnight from what had just happened, removed from that reality. It had happened with such abruptness that it was downright disorienting to observe. There was no chance for a hurried goodbye, no chance of even letting out a surprised scream...

Those of Hinoto-Ri were dragged back to their own world with very little grace, and for a dizzying and wild thirty seconds, they suffered from the sensation of thick tentacles grasping and yanking their bodies this way and that through a swirling blur of matter. Where were they going? What had caused this?

After those sickening moments that seemed to last far longer, they were unceremoniously shoved out of the Shining Trapezohedron in a stream of bright lights, and into what looked like a giant room filled with computer screens. At least it didn't appear to be the Mictlan, like when the other group had returned.

Pray that you weren't on the bottom of the pile...

Now there was a quiet hum, as an alarm went off. Lights shone brightly upon you as scientists outside were running scans to determine you weren't harmful from your trip. That left you time to think.

You had finally met him...

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. He'd taunted some of you, shown you another world you had been sent to save...but in the end, nothing much had changed. Perhaps there was small solace that it was still standing and not completely obliterated as had been his plan. The questioned remained, however...

Where was He now? ...you could figure that out later. There were reunions to be had first.

[OOC - Anyone can start threads.]

Comments

[greatseal]

Minako may be here to meet up with several specific people that she's been missing for a while now, but she can't ignore this somewhat pathetic looking pile of demon king on the floor. Maybe it's his hair. She always winds up being extra sympathetic to people with blue hair. It also helps that she recognizes Kazuya as being Atsuro's tactless friend.

"Hey, are you all right?" she asks, approaching to stand next to him. "It'll probably be more comfortable if you head home to bed."

[belfire]

"Probably."

Kazuya's voice is dull and listless, but he managed to somewhat shuffle onto his side enough to turn his head. Cheek resting against the floor, he looked up at the girl talking to him. Oh, it was Minako...

"Hey, what's up, chicka?"

[greatseal]

Whatever is afflicting him hasn't affected his personality, at least. "Just making sure you aren't dying over here."

Since he's not making any move to stand up, she kneels down to be more on his level. He probably knows, but if he tries to take advantage of his position and stare up her skirt she will end him. Even though she's wearing tights beneath it.

[belfire]

The thought doesn't even cross his mind. Ever since becoming the Demon King, Kazuya's libido had plummeted into non-existence - he wasn't sure why though; maybe it was because his physiology had changed... or maybe it was because he had become desensitised to the hordes of Succubae and Incubae throwing themselves at him on a daily basis, in an attempt to try and curry some favour with the Demon King. He had seen enough bare breasts and, uh, other things to last him several lifetimes.

In short, no panty peeks for him.

"Not dying. Just...tired," Kazuya muttered, closing his eyes as if he was going to sleep there and then. "I think Atsuro is here, somewhere, maybe, if you wanna check up on him. He's your friend, right?"

[greatseal]

Was that a subtle 'go away and leave me to nap in inappropriate places?' If so, she's not sure she can oblige. "Well, yes... but he's your friend too, right? I don't think he wants you sleeping on the floor over here either."

[belfire]

"...yeah."

Kazuya's voice was very quiet then, and he abruptly sat up, pulling his knees up to his chest as he rested his chin on them, opening his eyes again to scan the room.

"I'm guessing you didn't come along for our awesome adventure into Horror Tower?"

[greatseal]

"Horror Tower?"

Is that enough answer to his question?

[belfire]

"Guess not. Lucky. It wasn't fun."

Kazuya let out a small huff, shifting to rest his cheek on his knees instead, closing his eyes. "I want my cape..."

[greatseal]

That's not a statement she wants to leave hanging... but she has other friends to beat the details from later. The second part catches her attention. Is he talking about the Dracula cape he'd been wearing the last time she'd seen him?

"What happened to it?"

[belfire]

"I lost it. Well. No. I didn't arrive with it. I guess it's at my apartment."

Kazuya had been greatly upset, mostly because his cape - especially the cape Atsuro gave him - was like a safety blanket. Getting pushed through a mental torture device for the past two days without it... it hadn't been fun. He felt like a child about it though. Wasn't it immature to have something like a cape as a security blanket...?

"I should probably look for Atsuro..." Kazuya mumbled, slowly climbing to his feet. He should check to make sure his friend came with everyone back here, or survived the horrible maze thing.

[greatseal]

"I'll help you look for him!"

She offers a hand to help him stand again, as well. Once he finds Atsuro he'll be all right, but until then she feels like she ought to keep an eye on him, lest he fall asleep and be forgotten on the floor of a government building.

[belfire]

"Uh? Um, sure."

Kazuya looked genuinely startled at the offer, but quickly schooled his expression into its usual apathetic look. "So how've you been?" he asked absently, starting an awkward, sleepy shuffle into the crowd.

[greatseal]

"Mm, well, while you were gone there were anti-Visitor demonstrations and some suspicious censoring on the network... So nothing that big, really."

She says it like it's a joke, even though her expression is serious. But it's still not as serious as a horror tower, probably.

[belfire]

"Nothing that big, haha, right okay," Kazuya suddenly laughed - he was laughing mostly at anti-Visitor demonstrations because, oh dear, those sounded familiar. Get out Demon King! Oh right, yes, that was very unpleasantly familiar...

"Oh well, if shit hits the fan, we better hope they don't start lynching visitors or something. That'd kind of suck a lot."

[otakuro]

As they wander around the stacks of people sprawled out on the floor, they may eventually come across someone familiar.

...A familiar-looking rear end, anyway.

Atsuro appears to be awkwardly groping through a pile of people desperately searching for something.

[belfire]

"..."

Kazuya just stared at his friend's rear-end when it caught his gaze, his eyebrows furrowing together before he let out a small, weary sigh, breaking away from Minako to march over to him.

"Atsuro, that's a bit inappropriate, don't you think?" he asked, hooking his fingers into the waistband of Atsuro's trousers and pulling him back a bit.

[greatseal]

For once, Minako basically agrees with both Kazuya's statement and the way he says it.

"Did you drop something...?" She asks, hoping for an innocent answer to this situation.

[otakuro]

"Kazuya!"

He whirls at the sound of the voice with a smile... that quickly fades when he sees who's standing next to his best friend. Of course it would be Minako; he wasn't already embarrassed enough.

They have caught him practically naked. Self-consciously, Atsuro raises a hand to his head and tries in vain to smooth down his horrific hat-hair.

"Uh... Yeah! ...Yeah, I did."

[belfire]

Kazuya released Atsuro's waistband, and placed his hands on his hips instead. Hat hair? Wait- that meant Atsuro's hat was gone!!!

"...you have hair?"

Okay, he was kidding, but it was still bizarre as fuck to see Atsuro without his iconic hat.

[greatseal]

Minako is more used to seeing hat-loving people occasionally without their hats, but wow that's a pretty bad case of hat hair. Does Atsuro even brush his hair before he gets dressed in the morning?

"Want some help finding your hat?" That's clearly what was worth scrabbling about on the ground for.

[otakuro]

No. No he does not. To be fair, most days did not involve facing Nyarlathotep, evil fog, dragons, and tentacle-aided dimensional hopping so he can be forgiven for not looking his best. Atsuro continues to hold one hand on his head with a crestfallen expression as if that is at all helpful.

"You can see my bangs all the time, sheesh." Maybe it's Maybelline. Or maybe it's laziness.

"And, uh, yeah! I'd appreciate it. ...Thanks."

[belfire]

"Ahhh...I just want to go to bed..." Kazuya mumbled under his breath, but he cracked his knuckles and started to carefully push some people aside as he focused on the floor, looking for Atsuro's wayward hat. It was probably going to have footprints on it, or scuffed up, but so long as they found it, right?

He paused suddenly though, and turned on Atsuro with a strange sort of intensity.

"...hey, are you okay?"

[greatseal]

Minako meanwhile, is both trying to shoo people away from the area and searching for the hat. She glances over her shoulder at Kazuya when he asks that question. Did this go back to the "horror tower" business?

[otakuro]

"Huh?"

He glances up at Kazuya with a slight expression of guilt on his face for a few moments before it quickly changes to an easy smile. No need to get Kazuya worried about what had actually transpired in the tower....

"Y-Yeah! I'm... fine. It was weird; we were traipsing around that maze when we got pulled back here again..." A short pause. "Everything alright with you?"

((I am so sorry about my lateness to both of you. You're welcome to not continue with the thread; I can't promise to be able to respond in a timely manner, so it's not a problem at all. Sorry about this. =( ))

[belfire]

((hey it's fine by me, Wighty uvu I know how busy you are, and I backtag to infinity BU ))

"..." Not at all, but like he was going to say that. He was relieved that Atsuro seemed okay, at least. Not too shaken up, in any case.

"Hahah, come on, Atsuro," he said, grinning wickedly as he straightened up, cupping his chin in a stereotypical 'pretty boy' pose. "That stuff was nothing for an awesome King like myself."