[open]

[planetary_bonds]

WHO: Yusei Fudo & you!
WHERE: Jeopardy, De Chima
WHEN:jul. 28th - aug. 2nd
WHAT: rocks fall, everyone cries
WARNINGS: yusei being a cryptid and possibly taking this way too well


[a. cats(?), the musical]

[It's become a fairly common sight during nights in Jeopardy to find Yusei outside, surrounded with what passes for cats in the town. They're the same ones that were mooching off of him back when he first arrived, and while the pack has grown somewhat over the months, it seems to have almost quadrupled in size overnight.

Or maybe more than quadrupled. Actually, the entire convenience store parking lot is covered in cats(?). It's an alarming sight, to be sure, but Yusei doesn't seem to be worried about the prospect of feeding fifty cats(?) with only a scant few tins of tuna. If anything, he just blinks once he steps outside of the mart, before sighing.]

Just because there's more of you doesn't mean you're getting extra.

[There's quite a lot of plaintive meowing(?) at that - it's almost disorienting to hear. But Yusei just stares blankly at the mob before a good ninety percent of the cats seem to give up...and then just melt away. They seem to just get sucked into one of the cats that's closer to the front of the group, and Yusei just shakes his head at the sight.]

Better. [Annoyed mrrowing.] It's not fair to the others if you do that. [The cat(?) seems ready to protest again, but when another cat(?) zaps its tail with heat vision, it gives up.

Yusei pays no mind to the antics of the cats(?), nor the strange glowing stones that they've seemed to pick up here and there. He's just here to eat. And feed the cats too, since they keep following him here.

The whole thing is just...odd, though, to any passersby. Please don't mind the flying cats(?).]

[b. crash landing]

[Yusei always enjoys shopping for supplies in De Chima - the mechanics there are well-versed in the local tech and almost always have excellent recommendations for projects he's interested in. His current project (the motorbike he's currently riding on) is making excellent progress thanks to their assistance, and he's looking for a few newer engine parts now that the basic frame of it is completed.

Any thoughts he has about the ensuing shopping trip are completely forgotten in an instant, however, with one of the periodic kryptonite showers suddenly raining down without warning. A green golf-sized shard lodges itself into its helmet with a loud crack, but when Yusei tries feeling for it he doesn't quite reach. Assuming that it's just bounced off, he shakes off the brief feeling of tiredness and continues on.

Now, under normal circumstances, Yusei's power weaking wouldn't be such a big deal. Wind powers, navigation, those are all things he can do without even if losing their convenience would be a shame.

The problem is that he hasn't really properly eaten in days. Most human beings can't really get by on a can of tuna or so once a week. But thanks to the near limitless energy provided to him due to his momentum blood, Yusei's been doing exactly that. And that passive benefit is now gone.

What this results in is that Yusei suddenly starts getting dizzy in the middle of the street, and before he can really register what's going on he starts losing consciousness. Fainting in the middle of the street is bad enough, but doing that while driving a motorcycle and ferrying a bunch of parts is even worse.

Yusei crashes quite spectacularly into a lamppost, startling pedestrians and motorists alike; while his supplies go flying every which way, causing the intersection to become littered with a sudden shower of metal parts and motor oil. It's making things rather inconvenient, which is not something Yusei likes doing.

He'd feel bad about the whole ordeal if he wasn't so, you know. Concussed.]

Comments

a; arrives fifteen years late with starbucks

[dragony]

...

[ Sometimes, people work weird hours. Sometimes there's an unexpected change that's needed, or a file corruption that requires something be redone, or sometimes the project manager forgets which months happen when and a deadline that was supposedly three months away is, in fact, actually next month, whoops. Sometimes that means you miss dinner, and the only place open is the shitty haunted gas station.

So when Ruka exits the aforementioned shitty, haunted gas station, it's not quite an unbelievable sight: Yusei, again, crouched under the sole streetlamp for the lot, shape cast in shadow and eyes too-bright for a human face, surrounded by................................................ whatever the fuck those things are.

The bag twists around her wrist as she walks, the crinkle of plastic as loud a signal as her boots on the pavement, but the beastly little creatures barely pay her any mind. She doesn't cross the path of any of them, and so does not come into the proper light of the street lamp; despite the illumination, the creatures form a dark disk of barrier between them. ]

... You know they're not supposed to do that, right?

[ The flying thing. the laser thing. the....... everything....... ]

[planetary_bonds]

[Yusei barely looks up, instead dropping a piece of tuna for the cats to catch.]

Yeah.

[He doesn't even blink when one of the cats(?) nyowwls and suddenly doubles in size to push the other cats(?) out of the way and claim the piece for itself.]

They'll go away eventually, so it doesn't matter.

[It's unclear if he's talking about the powers or the cats(?) themselves...]

[dragony]

You really don't care about anything, do you?

[ ... well. That was a cut to the chase a little quicker than even Ruka was anticipating, but despite her own surprise, she does nothing to pull the words back; she bites her lower lip, and looks out into the rest of the parking lot, and the empty stretch of black horizon. ]

[planetary_bonds]

[Yusei blinks owlishly, the bright lights coming from his eyes making him look just like one of the eerie animals surrounding him. He ends up not actually taking the bite of food he'd planned, instead leaving it held out in the open with the chopsticks. A cat(?) floats over and grabs the unclaimed morsel, much to the annoyance of the others.]

Not as much as people would like me to, if I think about it...

[He still seems vaguely surprised by the insinuation that he doesn't care about anything, though.]

[dragony]

If it's a consensus, there might be something to it.

[ Even his reaction to an accusation like that is muted, distant. But of course, why would a blow like that do him any damage? It's not like he knows her.

Even now, he's looking her way, but he doesn't see her at all. ]

What do you care about, then? It's obviously not yourself, and it doesn't seem to be anybody else, either.

[planetary_bonds]

["It's obviously not yourself" rings more harshly than any accusation that she's thrown his way so far - mostly because it's true. Probably the most honest thing she's said so far. That, more than anything else, gets him thinking, brows furrowed even as the cats(?) at his feet yowl for more sustenance.

What does he care about? For someone as direct as him, realizing that it's a question he's been dodging around doesn't sit well with him. Maybe that awareness is what she's been trying to get out of him all this time? He's never sure with her.

Still, as he sorts through his thoughts, the answer finally comes out. Each word is heavy, weighted, like it's something he doesn't want to admit, even to himself.]

The things I care about...aren't here.

[With that admission, things seem more final. Like he's finally drawn a line in the sand somewhere. It's hard to acknowledge, but...he hasn't really made any lasting connections. Anyone familiar to him has long since gone home, or he's just never really run into again. And Yusei himself hasn't made much effort to reach out to anyone, despite his own words.

Unaware of any impact his declaration might have had, his expression grows thoughtful, and he murmurs to himself.]

It seems like...I've fallen back into bad habits...

[dragony]

[ It doesn't show in her face, or in her stance, the way those words land. It doesn't show, not really, but there's noise as her shopping bag swings, her arms crossing against her ribs. It should seem a defensive posture, but there's no look of injury to her. It's no use feeling hurt about things she's always expected, is there? There's no place for pain to settle, is there?

Even if he learned her name, his answer wouldn't change. Nothing ever changes. ]

You've never been on your own list at all, [ she says instead, forcing herself to shrug, nudging one of the cats(?) away with her shoe. ] I suppose that explains a lot.

If they're not here, then what are they? Did they ever exist in the first place?

[planetary_bonds]

[Pain always finds a way, doesn't it? Even if you batten down tight, cross your heart, steel your limbs, it ends up nestling somewhere. In the crease of your eyebrows, the squeak of your shoes against the pavement, in old aching scars too deep to ever really remove.]

I suppose not.

[Even if the one inflicting it doesn't realize what they've done. Ignorance is no excuse, but even if they knew...

If they knew...

Would it ever change?]

What are they? They're home.

[Not where. What.

Whether things could change...doesn't matter now.

There's no point in wondering.]

[dragony]

It sounds like you never crawled out of those bad habits in the first place.

[ It is a little strange. An existence like this is awful, but she can hardly imagine anything that's happened these last few months could have been this destructive to him, like so many things have been to her; he was like this when he got here. Would it have been different, if Jack had been here, or Kiryu? If he'd known her from the start, would it have changed things?

But that's the problem, all over again. He didn't know her, and despite all the times she's met him again, all the times they've spoken, he's never once wanted to.

Her shoulders drop. It's hard to say she's disappointed, when things always go this way, but she is... she's tired. ]

Well, at least try not to get killed by your cats, Yusei. You might not care what happens, but they don't get paid enough around here to clean up after you.

[ With an exhale, she pivots, arms dropping from her cross and stepping out of the lamplight, moving to get back to her bike. She has better things to do than waste her time on ghosts. ]

[planetary_bonds]

[Maybe it would have, but possibly not for the better. If you were the only person he knew from the start...maybe him latching on unhealthily to one or a few people might have brought about worse thoughts, stranger situations. Yusei with a laser focus is one thing, but Yusei with very few people to live for...

Let's just say it's probably for the best. It doesn't change how bad his current habits are, but...]

It...you might be right about that.

[Jack's the one best known for his fallback into bad habits, the amount of times he has to learn the same lesson again and again and again. But that doesn't make Yusei's own habits any less galling, and his own dive into self-reflection almost makes him miss her last statement. His brows furrowed, his expression conflicted, he isn't quite sure if he heard what he thought he did.]

I never...introduced myself, did I?

[He doesn't remember ever giving her his name.]

[dragony]

[ It's enough to get her to stop walking; the bag sways at her side, and though her fingers hook around the handle, it's with too much force to call it stabilizing. For a moment, she doesn't answer. A dozen possibilities cross her thoughts, a list of moves to take. But no matter what, there's no winning play, is there?

Her head tilts, turning back just slightly — but it's her blind side that he'll see, the obscured red heart instead of her eye. ]

You were never going to.

[ good cool not suspicious at all, but there's no point in revealing a folded hand, is there? There was, perhaps, never a point at all.

She doesn't say anything more than that: she puts on her helmet before her expression can change, she revs the engine loud enough drown out anything else she might hear, and just like that — she's goes, and soon is nothing but a red light fading into the darkness of the desert. ]