Heaven, Hell, or Something Inbetween?

[Jirou]

Heaven, Hell, or Something in Between?

Character: Trey/Toku


Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Adventure, Comedy, Romance, (+)


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"Alright already! Can't you people just stop chasing me! I didn't do anything!!!" Yelled a strikingly white-haired male of what seemed around the age of sixteen as he zoomed down the cobblestone street, police vehicles following right behind with their sirens blaring and lights flashing about. His hands were tightly bound behind his back with manacles, so it was rather difficult to lose the authorities via buildings if the doors weren't already propped open — which wasn't likely.


Always like this, him and officers — security even. Never really mixed well no matter what country he was in. This place, wherever it was, was no different.


Bright sapphire hues darted about, hoping to find a place to hide. Spotting a corner, he abruptly turned and ducked into an alleyway in the attempt to rid himself of his pursuers.

 

[Cookies Need Love]

Maria Anne Stryph was dancing down the street. Not simply swaying to a song in her head, but spinning and swooping gracefully. Well, kind of gracefully. Honestly she wasn't very graceful at all. Maria looked kind of like a heron trying to swallow a particularly slippery fish but she didn't mind this a bit. After all, she was having fun, even if her curly dark brown hair had come loose from it's bun and was flying wild around her face. Maria had a very hard time controlling that mess and it always did it's best to look as crazy as possible. She didn't mind too much, however, and instead focused on keeping time to the tune she was making up in her head. All in all she looked like a crazy lady.


Maria barely noticed the sirens, or even the cars themselves, as they raced by. They were background images that she hardly processed and Maria only took a moment to wonder what had happened. Presumably something to do with a crime, or maybe doughnuts. Or a doughnut related crime. Or a doughnut fairy committing a crime. Maria soon stopped that train of thought when it threatened to go off the rails completely and instead returned to dancing her way down the street until she reached her building. Well, not that the entire building was her building. Maria only owned one apartment in it, an apartment she lived in by herself for reasons she usually preferred to forget.


Maria frowned, the expression scrunching up her dark chocolate eyes and making her freckled nose wrinkle. She patted one pocket of her jeans, then the other before reaching into both pockets of her grey jacket. She had forgotten her keys. Again. Luckily Maria had planned for this since it happened almost everyday, and there was a side door that the landlord had agreed to keep open for her.


Maria turned and started down the alleyway, aiming for the side door. She passed by a boy in handcuffs and had set her hand on the handle before realizing that she had walked by a boy in handcuffs. Maria turned to stare at the boy, taking in the white hair and blue eyes in a swift glance and instead choosing to focus on the handcuffs. They were important, she almost positive of that. For some reason those handcuffs were setting off an alarm in her head because she had seen something else earlier that was connected to them... Maria stood there for a full thirty seconds, her face a picture of deep and focused thought.


"Oh!" Maria exclaimed suddenly. Her hand pointed to the boy, then the road, then the boy again of it's own accord, showing that it too understood. He must've been the one the police were looking for! Well, still were looking for since they clearly hadn't found them. Maria twisted the knob and swung open the door, fully intending to phone 911 and let them know they were looking in the wrong place. Then she made a very stupid choice. An incredibly, obviously, ridiculously bad and stupid choice.


"It's quite cold out, isn't it? Would you like to come in?"

 

[Jirou]

Despite the fact that he loathed the authorities, he knew they were just doing they're job. But even though he didn't have in it him to blame them for the pursuit, he wasn't about to give up and give in and let them haul him off to the station for questioning. The last couple of times they managed to keep him seated in a chair long enough to get him to talk, not a single word of his was taken seriously. Again, he understood their reasoning and why his answers would come off as doubtful, but surely they had to draw the line somewhere rather than laughing their heads off and changing the subjects merely for their own amusement in his answers. It was downright ludicrous for them to be asking if the tooth fairy was an accomplice in his getaways and if the jolly fat man was instructing his helpers to mass-produce explosives.





In all honesty, he'd rather spend a lifetime in prison than being taking in for questioning again — not that he deserved a sentence of any sort.


Taking behind the side of a dumpster, the youth(?) fell silent as he began to catch his breath. He heard the vehicles rush past and, although he knew it wouldn't be long until they backtracked, he felt at ease for the moment. That is, until he heard a nearby voice. Shifting his attention to the stranger, he couldn't help but raise a brow at her gestures. It was amusing to him, however only slightly. He figured she must have come to the realization that the police were after him, not that he felt threatened by anything she had the potential to do.





And then she spoke to him.


It was times like these that proved the air about him held a naturally efficacious characteristic, no matter the fact that his openly droll personality had the same affect. It seemed as though no matter how dire the situation, some stranger would always be willing to offer an open hand. Then again, perhaps it was the act of the subconscious, reaching out to the universe itself as if it were not overbearing or filled to the brim with the unknown, but rather that of a close friend you couldn't help but be there for.


Blinking at the offer in slight surprise, he returned her words with a friendly smile, nodding lightly. "I'd love to, if that's alright."

 

[Cookies Need Love]

Maria frowned slightly as the boy accepted her offer with a smile. She hadn't really been expecting him to. Well, she had, actually, since what criminal wouldn't jump at the chance to hide out? More she'd kind of, a little bit, been hoping that he would say no and then she'd feel kind of mean for hoping that because perhaps he was a really nice person who just got caught up in something bad. Or perhaps he was framed and was now escaping to find whoever did the framing. Still, the handcuffs were kind of off-putting.


"Well, that was a silly thing of me to do, wasn't it? Offering shelter to a criminal... Well, I'm assuming you're a criminal because of, well, that-" Here Maria gestured to his hands, which were still shackled behind his back. For another moment she frowned before finally seeming to accept it with a shrug and a smile. "Oh well. I suppose God wants me to, or perhaps it's Zeus. Although it could be Zed. I met a small cult in Alabama that worshipped him once. Quite nice people... I should write them..." Maria's sentence faded off as she cycled through the various deities she had stored away in her mind and considering whether the cult would've committed suicide yet. Her eyes focused on the boy and she looked vaguely confused, as if she wasn't quite sure what he was doing there and why he was looking at her. Then understanding crossed her features and she grinned widely.


"Well, whoever wants me to shouldn't be kept waiting, should they? Come on, come on! Can't be standing around all day or someone will see us and then what will we do? Say hello, I suppose, but I don't feel like greeting people just now and I don't think you do either. I'm assuming an awful lot about you, aren't I?" Maria opened the door fully and gestured for the boy to enter the hallway it led to first. Her own apartment was just a couple doors down and she rarely locked that.


"Besides we should get those off you. I mean, every time I glance at you they're there screaming 'dangerous' and 'bad' and 'shiny' and honestly it's simply distracting. The handcuffs, I mean. The ones on your wrists."

 

[Jirou]

The male noted her expression, but didn't attempt to protest to her clear assumption. Instead, he allowed her to think as she pleased, a small simper gracing his lips. "Oh come now, criminals need a little empathy too, y'know."


A criminal? Not in the least. Well, perhaps a smidgen. He did tend to dine and dash on a weekly basis, if that counts as being a criminal. It was a crime, after all, no?


Framed? If that was the case, the one who framed him was he himself. Although the suspicions of the authorities was inevitable, it could have been delayed if he had been more careful and had taken extra measures to ensure everything was sensiblely within reason. But no, he was too busy being the carefree fellow he often portrayed himself to be to pay any mind to the law.


As the female rambled on, the youth(?) took this time to give her a brief once over, and had come to a conclusion that she was a bit of an air head. Not in a bad way, but an air head nonetheless. In actuality, he found this aspect to compliment her, peaking his interest at the moment.


After all, he didn't meet many with her personality. And that's saying quite a lot, coming from him.


Smirking lightly, he stepped past her and muttered softly, "you sure do talk a lot, don't you? Well, no matter. As long as you get these big bad shiny things off me, by all means, talk up a storm all you wish," as he entered the hallway.


//I apologize for the short reply. I'm on mobile. Also, I just noticed one of your quotes: "bow ties are cool." Have I happened upon a Doctor Who fan? =w=

 

[Cookies Need Love]

((I don't mind! Your responses are good, instead of useless and nonsensical chatter like mine are right now xD


Yes. Yes you have met another Doctor Who fan. And now the question we all must ask... Who's your favorite Doctor?))


"Yes, they do. But do you? After all, you've yet to tell me whether or not you're actually a criminal. Perhaps this handcuff thing is simply a new phase you kids are going through nowadays. That would be rather confusing for the police, wouldn't it? They'd keep thinking they lost some actual criminal and find it was only a guy in some handcuffs," Maria noted. She was determined to not continue on her track of making assumptions. After all, some of them could be wildly off and then where would she be? Well, most likely in her apartment unless, for some reason, she was mysteriously transported to the planet Raskafaskas 2, where the trees were made of lemon cough drops. Then she'd be on Raskafaskas 2 with a whole bunch of wrong assumptions.


Maria simply grinned as the boy stepped by her. She did talk a lot, that she knew. However when Maria was saying something she tended to have a lot of other thoughts jump in and want to be talked about, and Maria simply obliged them. Often her responses were hard to follow and only had a little bit to do with what the other person had been saying. Every once in a while Maria became oddly sensible. She was, of course, one of the few people in which sensible would be odd. Well, not too few. There were a lot of non-sensible people, Maria noticed, but others always seemed to expect them to be sensible. No one expected Maria to be sensible. It was kind of a relief, really. She didn't have to control what came out of her mouth. Usually.


"Hmm, yes, the handcuffs. I'll have to take care of those. And don't even get me started on how ridiculous the name handcuffs is when they are so clearly on your wrists!" At this point Maria got started on how ridiculous the name handcuffs was when they were so clearly on people's wrists. This particular tangent brought her through the door and down the hall to her door. Maria tugged on the door handle, and her flow was interrupted when it refused to turn. Of course she had chosen to lock it today and forgotten. Maria did many things in the morning that she forgot about later on. Most of her mornings were big black spots. With a sigh,Maria reached into the big mass of hair flying around her head and rummaged for a moment before coming back with a hairpin.


"Hmph... You'd think morning me would've figured out by now that morning me tends to forget her keys a lot. After all, she's the one doing it, isn't she? I'm sure if it were me I would remember them, but nooo! It's morning me and she's an incredible airhead. Yet she somehow locks the door! I wonder how she manages that...I should leave a note asking one time. Of course, she'll probably forget to answer. Silly girl..." Maria's ramblings devolved into muttered complaints as she bent over the lock. A few moments of fiddling later a click sounded and the door swung inward. Maria straightened and stuffed the hairpin back into the fray before entering her apartment.


In a single glance around one would not be able to see all the stuff Maria had. She had trinkets and knickknacks on every available surface. The walls were plastered with pictures and newspaper clippings and interesting pictures. The apartment itself wasn't really messy, or overcrowded. It was more of a comfortable clutter that spoke of a busy, full life and lots of friends. Maria was in many of the pictures, grinning and waving at the camera happily with her arm around various other people.


"Well, come in. Sorry about the stuff but I didn't know I'd be having company today. You're a rather unexpected surprise, you know? I mean, who'd think in the morning Hm, I might be hiding someone from the police in here later today... Better clean up! Unless they were psychic, but I don't think many psychics live in this kind of area and if they didn't live here then why would they have been in that alley? And if they hadn't been in that alley they wouldn't have met you and the prediction would've been wrong, and so they wouldn't really be very good psychics, would they? Come over here and let me get those silly things off you."

 

[Jirou]

Chuckling lightheartedly, he strolled further down the hall, being sure not go farther than their destination as he slowed his pace to hers accordingly. "The world is full of nonsense. Add that to the corrupt society and whala..~! The universe gives birth to handcuffs!"


Taking a halt just as she when they found themselves at her door, he watched her vain attempt at the handle, blinking at her as she continued to mutter to herself. It was in this instant that he wondered if this was the result of being alone for too long. Those who didn't get out much tended to talk to themselves - and talk a lot. With this in mind, he was definitely surprised when she opened the door, peering past the doorway to find a plenty of evidence against his little assumption.


"Question," he stated, stepping inside the apartment and glancing around in slight interest, "do you ever get a headache thinking about such things?"


He had to admit, she kind of reminded him a bit of himself. Well, the part about possessing all the odds and ends anyway, seeing as he usually only spouted off about every little thing that popped into his head when he was rather drugged or intoxicated. A long ways back, the room he called his own was something similar to her living room. But nowadays, said room held nothing but floating doors and windows, not even a rolled up futon crammed in a corner - not that he needed one anyway. With his type of lifestyle, a bed in the house wasn't exactly a necessity.


Doing as instructed, he proceeded over to her so that she may free him from the manacles on his wrists. One would think that after having been chased do many a time by police that one would learn to carry something to pick the lock or otherwise break the things altogether, but he failed to do so - and by choice.


Found it more fun not to prepare himself for the expected, he did, for it always seemed to lead him to the unexpected. And just as such, it had yet again proved to be true.


//Thanks. I was kinda' cauught off guard with your style, and I wasn't quite sure how to respond at first. xD intimidated me, you did.


None other than David Tennant, for me. c: how about yourself?

 

[Cookies Need Love]

"At the very beginning the universe was a tiny little dot. But then Humans came and there was so much nonsense stuffed into the tiny dot that it exploded into the huge thing we have today," Maria recited, sounding as if she was quoting something. A small smile interfered with her usual huge grin for a moment before the boy spoke again. Maria let out a light chuckle.


"Nope, but whenever I talk about it other people say they do. I think it's 'cause they're head is filled up with other stuff like work and family and all that but mine isn't. They tell me my heads filled with all silly stuff that doesn't matter, but who's to say that their stuff isn't just another type of silliness? I like what I think about and it seems to me that they're always complaining," Maria replied cheerfully. She was standing by one of the many mismatched, plush chairs scattered around the room. All of them were worn by years of use, and their colors faded. She knelt down as the boy approached her and grabbed his hands in order to study the handcuffs.


"Oh, this should only take a minute. You'd think they'd make these things harder to break, but I guess lock picking isn't really a common skill. Well, I wouldn't really know. Maybe everyone knows it and they just keep it under wraps or something. But that's silly because why would everyone need lock picking?" As Maria spoke she retrieved her hairpin from her hair once more and set to work on the manacles now trapping the boy. A minute later there was a click and the metal cuffs fell away into Maria's hand. She stood and tossed them on the chair carelessly. Maria then turned away from the boy and proceeded into the kitchen. There was no wall separating the two rooms, as in most cheap apartments it was just some counters, a sink, and a fridge.


"Are you hungry? Or maybe thirsty? I haven't got much but you're free to have any of it. Not like anyone else is gonna have it besides me, and I don't want anything right now so if you do just let me know." Maria moved into the kitchen towards the window in the back. It opened up on a rather dirty view of the back of the apartment building, but that wasn't why Maria was opening it. As she passed by a bag of birdseed she grabbed a handful and dumped it onto the window sill. Almost as soon as she slid the glass open, a robin fluttered down and began to peck at the small pile. Maria grinned at her longtime companion.


"There you are, Kyo! Sorry I was late today. I met a guy in handcuffs and invited him inside," Maria explained to the bird. Kyo lifted his head and gave her what definitely looked like a reproving stare. Maria giggled and stuck her tongue out at the bird before turning back to the boy. She then furrowed her brow when she realized that she was still referring to him as the boy in her head. Well, that wouldn't do! Maria approached him and held out a hand.


"We haven't introduced outselves, have we? How silly of me! Here I am, taking you inside and getting those things off you and I didn't even think to ask your name. I just don't think of things like that, you know? But I thought of it now, didn't I? So I must think of things like that only it's delayed. Or something. That doesn't matter right now because I have yet to tell you who I am. Maria. That's who I am. Well, that's my name and it's debatable whether a name really reflects who you are but that's a philosophical debate for another time. What's your name?"


((Really? Wow... Thanks, I guess xD I'm not really used to how you do it either... Sorry about this post being so crappy, I've got a headache and my imagination wasn't churning out the usual insanity. Next time will be up to standard, I promise!


I've gotta say Christopher Eccleston is my absolute favoritest! ^-^))

 

[Jirou]

He couldn't help but raise a brow at her statement. It wasn't quite the way he ever remembered the existence of humans — and not to mention the beginning of the universe itself, but he supposed it was just another one of those concepts that the human raced thought up to sound clever and sophisticated.


But nevertheless, he understood what she was getting at.


"Oh..~ But every little thing matters, be it an abstract thought or an incident left unknown and unaccounted for. Take away what isn't important, and there wouldn't be a single thing left in existence that was," he responded softly, that simper of his once again gracing his lips.


As the other continued about her rambling and dealt with the objects around his wrists, he continued to look around, trying to piece the young woman's life together. He would never use his assumptions directly and without testing their probability, but it was always nice to keep his wits about him. Once the cuffs were removed, he gave a lighthearted "thanks!" as he rubbed at his slightly reddened wrists.


The moment she mentioned food, his bright sapphire hues lit up enthusiastically, and as if on cue, his stomach sounded, grumbled lightly at the offer. Placing a hand on his stomach, he looked down and chuckled lightly. "A bit hungry, yes."


Although only slightly gangly in appearance, the boy was practically famished. Hadn't eaten in a little over two weeks in counting, yet didn't look starved at all.


Since she was busy with the bird, he decided to take a close look at the knickknacks and pictures around her home. He saw nothing better to do at the moment, and he had plenty of time to waste as it was.


"Hm?" he looked over to find her beside him, her hand extended out for him to shake. "Oh — right! Sorry about that too," he replied, grasping her hand gently yet firmly. "Maria, eh? Well, it's a pleasure, really. I go by Trey."


Ah yes, he 'goes by' Trey. His words often managed to deceive others who paid little attention to the technicalities in his words. Always left a trail to the truth, he did, but very few ever spotted it and walked down the path he created.


It was more or less a test of sorts.


//No problem, I've been there before. Migraines are never pretty. >.<


Awesome! Do you have a favorite companion?

 

[Cookies Need Love]

((Ugh, yeah, it's taken me a while to shake this one off XP


I have to say; Amelia Pond is my absolute favorite xD ))


"Of course it is every single thing effects everything else and if you changed one thing then everything else would change and then nothing would be as it would be, and that would be like taking away what isn't important, wouldn't it? Well, maybe not since all the new stuff would then be extremely important... I think there was a point to this, at the beginning.." Maria trailed off before shrugging and adding "Oh well!"


Maria had several small tables littered around the room, each cluttered with various items. There was currency from other countries, and an Empire State Building figurine. A half solved rubix cube was tossed onto one of the tables next to a scattered handful of colorful pins. The pictures on the wall were from various different places. In each Maria was grinning at the camera, and several other people were surrounding her. The only constant person in each was Maria herself and only rarely did someone else show up more then once or twice. There was one picture set on a table that was clearly different from the others. Rather then simply taped up on the wall, this one was in an old but well taken care of frame. The picture itself was old too and featured three people. One was a curly haired woman that looked remarkably similar to Maria. The other was a man with his arm around the woman, who was holding a tiny baby in her arms. They were standing in front of a plain grey building, and both the man and woman were smiling. A robin was seated on the man's shoulder, its head blurred from some movement it had made just as the picture was taken.


"Well, good. I'd be worried if you weren't hungry and then I'd have to make you eat something and that wouldn't be a pretty sight, would it? Anyway, I think I have some pasta in here somewhere. Feel free to rummage around. What's mine is yours, as they say, although I've always found it silly because once what's mine becomes what's yours, doesn't that mean it's no longer mine? Or something along those lines, anyway," Maria responded cheerfully. Kyo fluttered further into the apartment, lighting one of the tables next to the framed photograph. He gave the boy an intense once over, determined to get every single detail and judge the newcomer thoroughly. Maria shook her head and giggled at her companion's silliness. She shook Trey's hand firmly for a moment before releasing it and taking a small step back.


"Well, you can go by whatever you want as far as I'm concerned. I'm not too fussed to know who you are, or what your name is, or even what you did to earn yourself a pair of handcuffs. As long as you don't rob me blind or murder me in my sleep we're good. Anyway, anything you wanna do now? Or anywhere you need to go? Kyo, be careful!" The last words were directed at the bird who had managed to bump into the picture. Maria swooped in and grabbed the picture before setting it back carefully. Kyo let out a squawk and a disapproving glare.


"Kyo, that's my only one. Don't say stuff like that!" Maria scolded the robin.