#empath problems (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dragony) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
capeandcowllogs2009-03-22 02:41 am
dragony) wrote in capeandcowllogs2009-03-22 02:41 am
WHY THE HELL IS THIS PLACE OPEN
WHO: Yuugi and Ruka (and her ninja chaperone not appearing in this log)
WHERE: A bubble tea shop.
WHEN: Backdated; afternoon, Saturday the 21st.
WARNINGS: Tapioca pearls may cause a choking hazard; consumer discretion is advised.
SUMMARY: Explanations, Justifications, and people-watching.
FORMAT: Words.
It was not a long walk from the Law's apartment to the address where she was to meet Yuugi; it would only take twenty or so minutes on a normal day, Ruka thought. This was not a normal day, and it had been a long while since there had been any normal days. She pulled her hat down tight over her pigtails, her teeth chattering in the unexpected snowfall (and the sky had only been lightly cloudy when she left!). The whole affair was quite sudden -- Ruka struggled to cross no more than half a block in the cold before the snow suddenly abated, and within a couple blocks of that she was receiving very strange looks for being so covered in ice.
Taking a moment to shake herself free of snow, Ruka's gaze caught on the site of several city garbage trucks, parked in the middle of an otherwise closed street. Bodies littered the street, horribly mutilated; the limbs of many had been hacked off, lonely arms with hands clutching at sewer drains. Most were those monstrous creatures that had surged and retreated like locusts, leaving only destruction and death behind.
As she watched, several people of all builds -- and yet there were no more than a dozen or so, all in makeshift "uniforms" of heavy coats, long gloves, and face masks -- unceremoniously dragged each of the monsters across the pavement, and teams of two or four would lift each, throwing the bodies into the back of the garbage truck. At this distance, Ruka could not tell how many bodies they had already moved -- or how many they still had left to move.
They were not superheroes brought in by the Porter: not one of them showed any indication of super strength, or speed, or unusual hairstyles. It was a street of normal people, volunteers; they might not know anything about the Porter, or the disappearance of the suit of Iron Man. They might not know about the HIVE, or just why their City had been attacked; only that it had, and that the "heroes" who had decimated the "monsters' had left the corpses in the street to rot.
Another body into the truck; none of the cadavers were human.
On this street.
Nauseous, and bile climbing her throat, Ruka pulled her coat in tighter, keeping her head down as she hurried back on her way, trying not to think about that day. She wanted to forget that it ever happened, wanted to erase that day from her memory, but she would not ever regret having gone out there. She would rather keep those nightmares, if it meant a few more people could wake up every morning to beautiful sunshine.
It was only a few minutes more before Ruka finally arrived at the designated address; her hands buried in her pockets, she fiddled a little with the comm device before she entered the building. Ruka knew Yuugi would likely be upset with her for her carelessness on Wednesday, but surely that was not the only reason for this? She looked around the shop for her friend.
WHERE: A bubble tea shop.
WHEN: Backdated; afternoon, Saturday the 21st.
WARNINGS: Tapioca pearls may cause a choking hazard; consumer discretion is advised.
SUMMARY: Explanations, Justifications, and people-watching.
FORMAT: Words.
It was not a long walk from the Law's apartment to the address where she was to meet Yuugi; it would only take twenty or so minutes on a normal day, Ruka thought. This was not a normal day, and it had been a long while since there had been any normal days. She pulled her hat down tight over her pigtails, her teeth chattering in the unexpected snowfall (and the sky had only been lightly cloudy when she left!). The whole affair was quite sudden -- Ruka struggled to cross no more than half a block in the cold before the snow suddenly abated, and within a couple blocks of that she was receiving very strange looks for being so covered in ice.
Taking a moment to shake herself free of snow, Ruka's gaze caught on the site of several city garbage trucks, parked in the middle of an otherwise closed street. Bodies littered the street, horribly mutilated; the limbs of many had been hacked off, lonely arms with hands clutching at sewer drains. Most were those monstrous creatures that had surged and retreated like locusts, leaving only destruction and death behind.
As she watched, several people of all builds -- and yet there were no more than a dozen or so, all in makeshift "uniforms" of heavy coats, long gloves, and face masks -- unceremoniously dragged each of the monsters across the pavement, and teams of two or four would lift each, throwing the bodies into the back of the garbage truck. At this distance, Ruka could not tell how many bodies they had already moved -- or how many they still had left to move.
They were not superheroes brought in by the Porter: not one of them showed any indication of super strength, or speed, or unusual hairstyles. It was a street of normal people, volunteers; they might not know anything about the Porter, or the disappearance of the suit of Iron Man. They might not know about the HIVE, or just why their City had been attacked; only that it had, and that the "heroes" who had decimated the "monsters' had left the corpses in the street to rot.
Another body into the truck; none of the cadavers were human.
On this street.
Nauseous, and bile climbing her throat, Ruka pulled her coat in tighter, keeping her head down as she hurried back on her way, trying not to think about that day. She wanted to forget that it ever happened, wanted to erase that day from her memory, but she would not ever regret having gone out there. She would rather keep those nightmares, if it meant a few more people could wake up every morning to beautiful sunshine.
It was only a few minutes more before Ruka finally arrived at the designated address; her hands buried in her pockets, she fiddled a little with the comm device before she entered the building. Ruka knew Yuugi would likely be upset with her for her carelessness on Wednesday, but surely that was not the only reason for this? She looked around the shop for her friend.
no subject
He was leaning back in his chair, one leg crossed over another and his hands in his lap. He was thinking about the City, about the past week, and about what happened. He wondered if the City would ever recover from the attack, and if there would be many more where that came from.
Would the residents ever trust the people from the Porter? They seemed to have already pinned them all as mutants, as monsters. And the force everyone had shown during the attack most likely strengthened that opinion.
Yuugi glanced down at his drink, shaking his head. Ruka would be here any minute.
And he could tell her why he was on the Law’s list.
He had a knot growing in his stomach, something he never really experienced before. Why was he nervous? This was something all his friends back knew. Then again, what she knew about the Games was much more deadly than what he could do.
no subject
"Hello," she said quietly when she arrived at the booth, finally pulling off her hat and freeing her trapped pigtails. Small clumps of snow she had missed fell to the floor with a few soft plops of impact. She looked down, a little embarrassed. The light clouds in this area weren't even heavy enough for rain. Ruka wasn't sure if she would ever get used to the weather in this place — so very different from the milder winters of Neo Domino.
Yuugi's expression was not exactly sour or otherwise upset, but Ruka had lived with him for many days during which he tried to hide an ever-increasing affliction. The face he wore now was not the same as he wore then. But, Ruka thought, they weren't just here to hang out, either.
There were far too many things to talk about.
no subject
Snow? Why was there snow? Yuugi craned his neck to see outside one of the windows in a booth nearby. It didn’t look like it had been snowing. Settling back down, he gestured her to sit down across from him.
“Would you like anything?” Yuugi asked, in Japanese. He still wasn’t sure where to begin with their conversation.
no subject
She began digging through her pocket for the folded bill that The Law had given her before she left (and even if she knew his real name, she was too used to the community moniker to switch easily). Her fingers fiddled a little with her comm, moving it out of the way, before she found the cash.
no subject
It would’ve been rude to invite her all the way out here and not buy her anything. Besides, to him, Ruka deserved a little treat for what she did that Wednesday.
“You said strawberry? I’ll be right back.”
Yuugi made his way to the counter. This gave him time to think over what he was going to say to her.
no subject
Yuugi left her then to go purchase a drink for Ruka as well, and with this time she looked out the window, mulling over the past week or so. A lot had happened, and a lot would continue to happen in the coming days, and weeks, as though the whole City, this whole World were racing for some climax that it could never reach. There was no guarantee that either of them, any of them, would be around long enough to see it.
Ruka had already been in this place for little over a month. How much would things change in the next?
And there was so much about Yuugi that still eluded her, so many little mysteries about him, each worrisome but ignorable at first, but slowly coming together into some larger picture Ruka was almost afraid to see.
She didn't want to lose her friend.