Haze-
eternal brainrot™
Dante Aguilar ˣ Hiachi Ito ˣ Shishido Takakazu
SCENE:
[ Ours and Ours Alone ]
TIME:
Post-Arc 3, Timeskip 1 | June 20th 2022
LOCATION:
The Vanishing Lot, West District
PARTICIPANTS:
Passeri, Eric, Sebastian, Hiachi, Tak, Dante, Kisara
OURS AND OURS ALONE
Hiachi was not present.
This was not uncommon—she found herself floating off in her head more and more often, as of late. There was always a new thing to concern herself with, from the overbearing weight of her hopeless fate to calculating if she had enough change for the gacha machines outside her old job.
All this to say that her aloofness was not of concern, not unless one was observant enough to notice the shift. A weight was hanging heavy on her neck. When she breathed, she breathed one heavy exhale, before inhaling and forgetting she had attempted to breathe normally in the first place.
Alternatively, if you knew her that well, the fact that she was acting so melancholic amidst a video game store was an anomaly.
“The hell? You really tellin’ me 50 bucks can’t get me a flat screen?”
An idiotic complaint, all too out of the loop from how the world works and operates came from lips that always had something entirely witless to say. Empty pale green eyes scanned through the vastness of the options of the current technology, uninterested and uncaring as he slouched forward, hands in his pocket.
“Ya sure they don’t have some in the back they’re lookin’ to get rid of?” His question brought his narrowed gaze to the side, a hand reaching up to scratch the back of his scalp, digging through the mess of his tangled unkempt hair just to do so.
Tak, as usual, didn’t seem to have a real care in the world, his mind focusing on the unnecessary, the ridiculous machinations of his own reality, forcing others around him to put up with its absurdity. And the one person who knew all too well what it was like, stood next to him as the three of them walked together.
He, on the other hand, had one too many things to care about in this world. One of the many was loud against his ear, he could hear the anger rumbling and scratching at the walls of the beast’s throat, rabies-drooling and sniffling a petty whimper in the bare crevices of his mind “YOU’LL EAT YOUR FUCKING SOUP.” A man’s crying, sobbing vocals filled the half-empty space in his head. Couldn’t quiet it down.
It wasn’t long before the second voice filled the other 50%, like they’d found a clean medium inside his skull.
It was a woman’s voice, sassy, valley girl “We gotta eat our veggies and meaties to get big and strong, handsome-face~ C’mon now…buy some soup.” It became “We.” all of a sudden, ever since he got injured on the job. They’d gotten louder, everything felt crowded.
He could’ve sworn the other wolf had never uttered a word before…
“Yo, talk to meatbag,” She barked “Ask if he’s got one of those mikerwaves— or whatever— back in that crackhouse of his. Gotta re-heat some of that soup later.”
“FUCKING MEATSACK.” The other one bumped brainwaves, took the mic, struggling on his own cries again.
Dante grumbled, putting a hand up to his temple. Something felt wrong every time the damned thing whined in his mind. His head felt wavy. Shifting and melting. Up and down, like jell-o or a crack of acid— but not like the good type of jell-o, it was an off-brand cheap one, the type that doesn’t bounce all that well when you slap it.
But maybe it was akin to the good type of acid-crack. He didn’t really know. Didn’t experiment much when he was a teen. He sighed, turning a piercing glare at Tak “You should be locked up for some of the shit you say, y’know? If you want a flatscreen for 50 bucks you better go haul ass to one of those cheap pawn shops, ‘cause we ain’t getting one for 50 here.”
His head hung low for a moment, the long mane of black hair he’d grown uncut these past few months waving down “And no, you’re not borrowing cash from me.” As if he could read Tak’s mind like an open book
Tak immediately responded to Dante’s preemptive denial by shoving his face into Dante’s, teeth gritted in annoyance as a visible vein of anger protruded from the side of his head, “You think I want your money!? You’re the last person I’d want to borrow from!” Tak blurted out, aggressively jabbing a finger into his chest, “Not like you would have enough anyway! I bet you’re blowin’ all your money on some skincare routine or somethin’!”
Dante jabbed back with a rapped knuckle jamming hard against Tak's shoulder, whiffing a few times, swatting at empty air until he finally got it "Who's this fuckin' brokie talking shit to me right now!? You WISH you had even a tenth of what I end up splurging on my skin. Maybe then you'd get women to talk to you without 'em clutching at their pepper spray behind their back, asshole." Their shouting, of course, earning the growing attention of people who stopped to look at the pair.
She watched nothing with blank eyes.
The monochrome insides of the store blended with her thoughts. She couldn’t get excited or mad or annoyed or distracted because there was only one thing that could be on her mind.
Occasionally, in the past few hours and now, she caught ear of conversations. All circling the ‘disappearance of Our☆Dream’. They spoke of crumbs, factoids she couldn’t trust; she needed the whole cookie. Or else the hunger of her regrets would starve her.
A text. The phone’s light was swallowed by the pits of her eyes as she stared. An act of grace, of ease. The promise of truth out of pity.
Another thing made clear: there was no way in hell Dante or Tak were coming with her.
Wordlessly, she turned for the door, pushing past strangers without so much as an ‘excuse me’.
“Man, why’s it gotta be so difficult just to get some basic necessities nowadays!” Tak openly complained, looking up towards the ceiling in his anguish, “Everyone needs a high definition TV in the current day, it's basically as important as food and water!”
Tak grit his teeth, frustrated with his lack of money, Tak could only think how much richer he’d be now if he had sold out Hiachi back then, just a few more dollars and he could have a flatscreen!
“Oi, Hibachi. Think your brother can lend me a few dollars?” Tak absentmindedly asked, thinking back on the pompous looking dolt that was related to her, but upon not hearing a response, his face scrunched in annoyance.
“Eh? Hibachi?”
He blinked, looking around with a dumb look on his face.
“Where’d she go?”
“Huh?” It took Dante longer than it should’ve to realize that Hiachi had been silent this whole time, moreso than usual.
He looked around, eyes peeking under his drape of hair, flagging down the hazy figurines dancing in his blurry world. But no Hiachi, not even a shape that resembled her. There was only empty space beside Tak “Wasn’t she with you just a second ago?”
“Oi, oi, did she dip on us?” Tak said with a frown, a hand sliding into his pocket as his brows knitted together, “She just gonna leave without sayin’ goodbye? What kinda manners was she taught growing up,” Tak spoke dismissively, clearly not too dismayed at Hiachi’s sudden disappearance, she was a grown ass woman, she could do what she wanted.
“Continuing with the ongoing investigation over the disappearance of Our☆Dream Studios, only moments ago, the whole building has mysteriously unmanifested for currently unknown reasons--”
Tak’s head turned away from the disappearance of the beady-eyed member of their troupe to the T.V. nearby, a large flat screen which just so happened to be playing the local news, advertising his high definition quality. Tak blinked as he stared down an empty lot recorded from above, the bits and pieces of electrical and pipes sticking out from the ground indicating something that was once there no longer was.
“Damn, a whole building just disappeared? Crazy times we live in,” Tak commented absentmindedly, “They probably ain’t gonna find anyone who was in that buildin’. Shit’s gone,” he stated, already jaded on the whole situation as he closed his eyes, “Life just works like that.”
“That’s what m’sayin’, sis~! Crazy world we live in!” Cerb added; chirpy, like you could tell she had that big toothy grin on her. She always had that big toothy grin on her. Dante swatted the noise as it came, grunted with a fist bumped and pressed against his ear.
“The whole studio…?” His eyes flashed over to the static zizz his ears had caught onto first, as if they could see whatever the hell was showing on screen. Eyes struggled on their focus for a bit, not getting much out of the blur. Flat screen, and he could tell even with the strain on his eyes that it wasn’t worth less than 50 amestrians. Maybe life really did work in mysterious, mocking ways “No, I really don’t think it does.”
Or maybe not.
“Wait…ain’t that where Miss Par…” The words sank out of his mouth, dragging to a quiet halt— barely realizing that he’d picked up on the habit of calling her that after all those jobs he’d done for her. Like a damn dog trained to bark lower, he was betting on one of the voices to start burning echoes on his ear if he let those thoughts get to them “Passeri’s studio. Isn’t that supposed to be her work place?”
“Tch,” an audible click of Tak’s lips came from the mention of Passeri Park, something anyone would assume was annoyance, which was of course, true. But, it wasn’t towards the woman herself, at least fully. What annoyed him much more is that her involvement now meant he couldn’t feel uninvolved. With any other horrible story on the news, you had no reason to care if it didn’t involve anyone you knew, that was just natural.
For someone as heartless as Tak, if it was anyone else he might have just continued to not care. But, he owed that idol, as much as he hated to admit it, it was her that let him keep hanging with the fanboys and not be stuck eating cheap food for all his days for the foreseeable future. He at least owed her that. And now that he was aware, his pride wouldn't sit back and just let him sit back and proceed like he had seen nothing. He glanced towards Dante, sliding his hands out of his pockets.
“This studio ain’t that far from here, right? Think we can make it if we hoof it?”
“Hoof it?” The misty eyed, sullen man felt his decadence grow a length larger in his heart. Like a crack. Dante eyed him for a bit before the thought of opening his mouth even crossed him. The picture clearing, centering. Tak had that look in his eye. It was personal; at the very least, an ego thing for him.
And was it any different for him? He knew her too, didn’t he? What if she’d upped and misted with the damned building too?
Dante sighed “Yeah, it’s not far from here on a jog. About a couple of minutes for you.”
“Let’s get a move on then,” Tak quickly replied, moving his way past Dante to make his way out of the store.
Once again, completely forgetting Dante was still blind, he left his fellow Tiger behind without a second though, his eyes narrowed forward.
“Let’s go.” He heard footsteps, watched Tak’s shape blur into motion and he held his hand out like a toddler— half-expecting something to tug at him. But of course…
“Tak?” His hand grasped at thin air. He bit down a grunt, balling a fist on that same empty air.
“T-hehe...C’mon now, handsome. Follow my pretty voice, I’ll guide ya. Jus’ a right and a left and a right after the left...”
“MOVE IT.”
Hiachi had never been to Our☆Dream Studios, which she already knew well. But at that moment, she realized that she had to have been subconsciously avoiding it that morning. There was a crowd of police too large to ignore around the building, along with a crowd of people being pushed further and further away from the scene. People in cars from somewhere far slowed as they passed, trying to catch a glimpse of the rumor. Murmurs, screams and demands of an answer. Echoes of nothing.
Yes, it was true. The building was gone. So was the staff.
What a tragedy; so much so that they carried on with their days without thinking about it again. For fear or ignorance—Hiachi didn’t know. She didn’t have the propensity to care.
She shoved and ducked past bodies. She lowered herself closer to the ground, weaving past the legs that stalked her path. They stayed put until she passed them, to which they shuffled behind, annoyed.
Hiachi emerged at the front of the crowd, and stared. She couldn’t see the woman who invited her there. Nor could she see through the phantom door placed exactly where it should be; exactly where it was impossible. The glass door opened to a room that didn’t exist, a vacuum of shadow and artificial light on top of it. The reflection was hazy and unclear. Fractals of rainbow colored light and a blurriness she couldn’t place.
So she couldn’t see into the building. Her single advantage, rendered useless. Maybe there was a god, and it hated her. She sighed to herself, drawing out the sound by rolling her neck and looking at the sky.
Hiachi crossed her arms and gripped her jacket sleeves tighter. Like they might fly away. She pressed into her wrists, methodically massaging soreness that didn’t exist. She needed to do something that wasn’t the something that would place her in the back of a police car.
She was running out of ideas.
A sunless, gloomy day was overcast above the crowd. A thoughtless stroke of dull, a play on grayscaled plain, drifting where the wind fell. Looming, as if the backbiting chatter of the communing folk were stifled in this shell of breeze. Quiet. Enough for a mind to start drifting, where the wind fell, maybe.
Yet, before Hiachi could further follow the wind down, she’d feel a harsh and quick tap on her shoulder. A shadow gloomy and grey, only challenged by the skies themselves, looming over her too.
“Nightmare.” Dante half-shouted in a deep voice, leaning just half-an-inch into her ear to see if he’d get a jump out of her. Extra points if she squealed.
He had a light sheen of sweat on his brow, under the mane. He hadn’t necessarily run over to the place, not when there were enough shortcuts for the wolves to zap him around, but it was still exhausting as all hell walking this far up here with all the injuries still stinging.
“The building is gone, huh.” He sighed a cold huff of breath before shoving hands into his pockets, looking on at the blurred lightshow just up ahead. They’d tore down the building just to put up a rave? “And what the fuck is that…?
“Lemme through, damnit! Don’t fuck around with me! I’m not afraid to toss my crusty ass socks at you!”
The absurd and disruptive shouting came from ahead, through the swarms of people, a messy-haired mad man pushed himself against the barricade of police preventing anyone from stepping further on the grounds.
He got in their face, shouting in scowling, but the trained operatives didn’t budge against his annoyance, looking at him stoned faced, until all he could do was click his teeth and turn around in defeat…
Just to bend down and peel off his shoes, placing them to the side, and then promptly pulling off his socks. They were riddled with holes, and as they hung limply in his hands visible wafts of smell began to emanate of them.
“I warned ya.” Was the only warning he gave, before tossing the socks ahead at the guards like a pair of grenades. They barely got a chance to react before their socks slapped against their face, immediately causing their bodies to go limp as their eyes rolled backwards, falling to the ground unconscious.
Everyone was left to cover their nose as Tak put back on his shoes, sockless, and stepped over the unconscious bodies, strolling ahead to catch up with Hiachi and Dante, looking uncaring as ever despite his chemical warfare.
“Man, how the hell did you guys get in front so easily?” He asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. Even against Dante’s complaints, his natural dirty look only became a bit more focused at him, as his brows twitched.
“Here’s this fuckin’ asshole... You probably stick your foot out to trip blind people, huh? You heartless fuck. Could’ve at least showed me to the damn exit before dashin’ out on your own.”
“Well you got here anyway, right? You want me to grab your hand and lead you around like we’re lovebirds at prom? Stop bitchin’,” he retorted, a hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he frowned, “I got lost on the way here anyway.”
"Tch-yeah, checks out."
Wordlessly, Tak blinked at the front door placed by itself, somehow it had become its own entity, separated from the building, just peering into the building, he could see a familiar figure from the back. He didn’t hesitate to walk past Dante and Hiachi and approach the door himself, and unsurprisingly, he kicked the door open, his jacket fluttering from his movement as he strolled in.
“Oi! Paris!” Tak shouted, looking towards the brightly colored woman with a glare, slamming a fist into his palm, “The hells with all this? Some type of interdimensional terrorist attack?” He questioned, his brain not even trying to make sense of it all as he held his fist in front of his face.
“If it’s aliens, I’mma give ‘em a beating so hard they’re gonna go cryin’ back to their green mamas!”
A pained groan came up behind Tak, a tall shadow breaking through the veil of light, and into the void beyond the doorway "What are you five or somethin'? They're not green, they're grey; get your facts straight." Dante rolled a shoulder, cracking like a rusty cogwheel as his eyes got accustomed to the lack of sting in them. It was dark. Almost pitch black. Still, the blur was only ebbing away slow, he could barely make out the shapes ahead of them.
One was pink, tall. Two were green and yellow. The other was, well, he'd recognize that k-idol hair anywhere, even half-blind "Yo, boss. Care to sign me an autograph?" He huffed a trail of breath, giving an eye-roll to himself. Already picturing how tiresome this mess was going to be.
Tak was making him dumber, that's one thing he knew "After you tell us what's going on, 'course."
Hiachi was not present.
This was not uncommon—she found herself floating off in her head more and more often, as of late. There was always a new thing to concern herself with, from the overbearing weight of her hopeless fate to calculating if she had enough change for the gacha machines outside her old job.
All this to say that her aloofness was not of concern, not unless one was observant enough to notice the shift. A weight was hanging heavy on her neck. When she breathed, she breathed one heavy exhale, before inhaling and forgetting she had attempted to breathe normally in the first place.
Alternatively, if you knew her that well, the fact that she was acting so melancholic amidst a video game store was an anomaly.
“The hell? You really tellin’ me 50 bucks can’t get me a flat screen?”
An idiotic complaint, all too out of the loop from how the world works and operates came from lips that always had something entirely witless to say. Empty pale green eyes scanned through the vastness of the options of the current technology, uninterested and uncaring as he slouched forward, hands in his pocket.
“Ya sure they don’t have some in the back they’re lookin’ to get rid of?” His question brought his narrowed gaze to the side, a hand reaching up to scratch the back of his scalp, digging through the mess of his tangled unkempt hair just to do so.
Tak, as usual, didn’t seem to have a real care in the world, his mind focusing on the unnecessary, the ridiculous machinations of his own reality, forcing others around him to put up with its absurdity. And the one person who knew all too well what it was like, stood next to him as the three of them walked together.
He, on the other hand, had one too many things to care about in this world. One of the many was loud against his ear, he could hear the anger rumbling and scratching at the walls of the beast’s throat, rabies-drooling and sniffling a petty whimper in the bare crevices of his mind “YOU’LL EAT YOUR FUCKING SOUP.” A man’s crying, sobbing vocals filled the half-empty space in his head. Couldn’t quiet it down.
It wasn’t long before the second voice filled the other 50%, like they’d found a clean medium inside his skull.
It was a woman’s voice, sassy, valley girl “We gotta eat our veggies and meaties to get big and strong, handsome-face~ C’mon now…buy some soup.” It became “We.” all of a sudden, ever since he got injured on the job. They’d gotten louder, everything felt crowded.
He could’ve sworn the other wolf had never uttered a word before…
“Yo, talk to meatbag,” She barked “Ask if he’s got one of those mikerwaves— or whatever— back in that crackhouse of his. Gotta re-heat some of that soup later.”
“FUCKING MEATSACK.” The other one bumped brainwaves, took the mic, struggling on his own cries again.
Dante grumbled, putting a hand up to his temple. Something felt wrong every time the damned thing whined in his mind. His head felt wavy. Shifting and melting. Up and down, like jell-o or a crack of acid— but not like the good type of jell-o, it was an off-brand cheap one, the type that doesn’t bounce all that well when you slap it.
But maybe it was akin to the good type of acid-crack. He didn’t really know. Didn’t experiment much when he was a teen. He sighed, turning a piercing glare at Tak “You should be locked up for some of the shit you say, y’know? If you want a flatscreen for 50 bucks you better go haul ass to one of those cheap pawn shops, ‘cause we ain’t getting one for 50 here.”
His head hung low for a moment, the long mane of black hair he’d grown uncut these past few months waving down “And no, you’re not borrowing cash from me.” As if he could read Tak’s mind like an open book
“Huh!?”
Tak immediately responded to Dante’s preemptive denial by shoving his face into Dante’s, teeth gritted in annoyance as a visible vein of anger protruded from the side of his head, “You think I want your money!? You’re the last person I’d want to borrow from!” Tak blurted out, aggressively jabbing a finger into his chest, “Not like you would have enough anyway! I bet you’re blowin’ all your money on some skincare routine or somethin’!”
"Huh???"
Dante jabbed back with a rapped knuckle jamming hard against Tak's shoulder, whiffing a few times, swatting at empty air until he finally got it "Who's this fuckin' brokie talking shit to me right now!? You WISH you had even a tenth of what I end up splurging on my skin. Maybe then you'd get women to talk to you without 'em clutching at their pepper spray behind their back, asshole." Their shouting, of course, earning the growing attention of people who stopped to look at the pair.
She watched nothing with blank eyes.
The monochrome insides of the store blended with her thoughts. She couldn’t get excited or mad or annoyed or distracted because there was only one thing that could be on her mind.
Occasionally, in the past few hours and now, she caught ear of conversations. All circling the ‘disappearance of Our☆Dream’. They spoke of crumbs, factoids she couldn’t trust; she needed the whole cookie. Or else the hunger of her regrets would starve her.
A text. The phone’s light was swallowed by the pits of her eyes as she stared. An act of grace, of ease. The promise of truth out of pity.
Another thing made clear: there was no way in hell Dante or Tak were coming with her.
Wordlessly, she turned for the door, pushing past strangers without so much as an ‘excuse me’.
“Man, why’s it gotta be so difficult just to get some basic necessities nowadays!” Tak openly complained, looking up towards the ceiling in his anguish, “Everyone needs a high definition TV in the current day, it's basically as important as food and water!”
Tak grit his teeth, frustrated with his lack of money, Tak could only think how much richer he’d be now if he had sold out Hiachi back then, just a few more dollars and he could have a flatscreen!
“Oi, Hibachi. Think your brother can lend me a few dollars?” Tak absentmindedly asked, thinking back on the pompous looking dolt that was related to her, but upon not hearing a response, his face scrunched in annoyance.
“Eh? Hibachi?”
He blinked, looking around with a dumb look on his face.
“Where’d she go?”
“Huh?” It took Dante longer than it should’ve to realize that Hiachi had been silent this whole time, moreso than usual.
He looked around, eyes peeking under his drape of hair, flagging down the hazy figurines dancing in his blurry world. But no Hiachi, not even a shape that resembled her. There was only empty space beside Tak “Wasn’t she with you just a second ago?”
“Oi, oi, did she dip on us?” Tak said with a frown, a hand sliding into his pocket as his brows knitted together, “She just gonna leave without sayin’ goodbye? What kinda manners was she taught growing up,” Tak spoke dismissively, clearly not too dismayed at Hiachi’s sudden disappearance, she was a grown ass woman, she could do what she wanted.
“Continuing with the ongoing investigation over the disappearance of Our☆Dream Studios, only moments ago, the whole building has mysteriously unmanifested for currently unknown reasons--”
Tak’s head turned away from the disappearance of the beady-eyed member of their troupe to the T.V. nearby, a large flat screen which just so happened to be playing the local news, advertising his high definition quality. Tak blinked as he stared down an empty lot recorded from above, the bits and pieces of electrical and pipes sticking out from the ground indicating something that was once there no longer was.
“Damn, a whole building just disappeared? Crazy times we live in,” Tak commented absentmindedly, “They probably ain’t gonna find anyone who was in that buildin’. Shit’s gone,” he stated, already jaded on the whole situation as he closed his eyes, “Life just works like that.”
“That’s what m’sayin’, sis~! Crazy world we live in!” Cerb added; chirpy, like you could tell she had that big toothy grin on her. She always had that big toothy grin on her. Dante swatted the noise as it came, grunted with a fist bumped and pressed against his ear.
“The whole studio…?” His eyes flashed over to the static zizz his ears had caught onto first, as if they could see whatever the hell was showing on screen. Eyes struggled on their focus for a bit, not getting much out of the blur. Flat screen, and he could tell even with the strain on his eyes that it wasn’t worth less than 50 amestrians. Maybe life really did work in mysterious, mocking ways “No, I really don’t think it does.”
Or maybe not.
“Wait…ain’t that where Miss Par…” The words sank out of his mouth, dragging to a quiet halt— barely realizing that he’d picked up on the habit of calling her that after all those jobs he’d done for her. Like a damn dog trained to bark lower, he was betting on one of the voices to start burning echoes on his ear if he let those thoughts get to them “Passeri’s studio. Isn’t that supposed to be her work place?”
“Tch,” an audible click of Tak’s lips came from the mention of Passeri Park, something anyone would assume was annoyance, which was of course, true. But, it wasn’t towards the woman herself, at least fully. What annoyed him much more is that her involvement now meant he couldn’t feel uninvolved. With any other horrible story on the news, you had no reason to care if it didn’t involve anyone you knew, that was just natural.
For someone as heartless as Tak, if it was anyone else he might have just continued to not care. But, he owed that idol, as much as he hated to admit it, it was her that let him keep hanging with the fanboys and not be stuck eating cheap food for all his days for the foreseeable future. He at least owed her that. And now that he was aware, his pride wouldn't sit back and just let him sit back and proceed like he had seen nothing. He glanced towards Dante, sliding his hands out of his pockets.
“This studio ain’t that far from here, right? Think we can make it if we hoof it?”
“Hoof it?” The misty eyed, sullen man felt his decadence grow a length larger in his heart. Like a crack. Dante eyed him for a bit before the thought of opening his mouth even crossed him. The picture clearing, centering. Tak had that look in his eye. It was personal; at the very least, an ego thing for him.
And was it any different for him? He knew her too, didn’t he? What if she’d upped and misted with the damned building too?
Dante sighed “Yeah, it’s not far from here on a jog. About a couple of minutes for you.”
“Let’s get a move on then,” Tak quickly replied, moving his way past Dante to make his way out of the store.
Once again, completely forgetting Dante was still blind, he left his fellow Tiger behind without a second though, his eyes narrowed forward.
“Let’s go.” He heard footsteps, watched Tak’s shape blur into motion and he held his hand out like a toddler— half-expecting something to tug at him. But of course…
“Tak?” His hand grasped at thin air. He bit down a grunt, balling a fist on that same empty air.
“T-hehe...C’mon now, handsome. Follow my pretty voice, I’ll guide ya. Jus’ a right and a left and a right after the left...”
“MOVE IT.”
Yes, it was true. The building was gone. So was the staff.
What a tragedy; so much so that they carried on with their days without thinking about it again. For fear or ignorance—Hiachi didn’t know. She didn’t have the propensity to care.
She shoved and ducked past bodies. She lowered herself closer to the ground, weaving past the legs that stalked her path. They stayed put until she passed them, to which they shuffled behind, annoyed.
Hiachi emerged at the front of the crowd, and stared. She couldn’t see the woman who invited her there. Nor could she see through the phantom door placed exactly where it should be; exactly where it was impossible. The glass door opened to a room that didn’t exist, a vacuum of shadow and artificial light on top of it. The reflection was hazy and unclear. Fractals of rainbow colored light and a blurriness she couldn’t place.
So she couldn’t see into the building. Her single advantage, rendered useless. Maybe there was a god, and it hated her. She sighed to herself, drawing out the sound by rolling her neck and looking at the sky.
Hiachi crossed her arms and gripped her jacket sleeves tighter. Like they might fly away. She pressed into her wrists, methodically massaging soreness that didn’t exist. She needed to do something that wasn’t the something that would place her in the back of a police car.
She was running out of ideas.
A sunless, gloomy day was overcast above the crowd. A thoughtless stroke of dull, a play on grayscaled plain, drifting where the wind fell. Looming, as if the backbiting chatter of the communing folk were stifled in this shell of breeze. Quiet. Enough for a mind to start drifting, where the wind fell, maybe.
Yet, before Hiachi could further follow the wind down, she’d feel a harsh and quick tap on her shoulder. A shadow gloomy and grey, only challenged by the skies themselves, looming over her too.
“Nightmare.” Dante half-shouted in a deep voice, leaning just half-an-inch into her ear to see if he’d get a jump out of her. Extra points if she squealed.
He had a light sheen of sweat on his brow, under the mane. He hadn’t necessarily run over to the place, not when there were enough shortcuts for the wolves to zap him around, but it was still exhausting as all hell walking this far up here with all the injuries still stinging.
“The building is gone, huh.” He sighed a cold huff of breath before shoving hands into his pockets, looking on at the blurred lightshow just up ahead. They’d tore down the building just to put up a rave? “And what the fuck is that…?
“Lemme through, damnit! Don’t fuck around with me! I’m not afraid to toss my crusty ass socks at you!”
The absurd and disruptive shouting came from ahead, through the swarms of people, a messy-haired mad man pushed himself against the barricade of police preventing anyone from stepping further on the grounds.
He got in their face, shouting in scowling, but the trained operatives didn’t budge against his annoyance, looking at him stoned faced, until all he could do was click his teeth and turn around in defeat…
Just to bend down and peel off his shoes, placing them to the side, and then promptly pulling off his socks. They were riddled with holes, and as they hung limply in his hands visible wafts of smell began to emanate of them.
“I warned ya.” Was the only warning he gave, before tossing the socks ahead at the guards like a pair of grenades. They barely got a chance to react before their socks slapped against their face, immediately causing their bodies to go limp as their eyes rolled backwards, falling to the ground unconscious.
Everyone was left to cover their nose as Tak put back on his shoes, sockless, and stepped over the unconscious bodies, strolling ahead to catch up with Hiachi and Dante, looking uncaring as ever despite his chemical warfare.
“Man, how the hell did you guys get in front so easily?” He asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. Even against Dante’s complaints, his natural dirty look only became a bit more focused at him, as his brows twitched.
“Here’s this fuckin’ asshole... You probably stick your foot out to trip blind people, huh? You heartless fuck. Could’ve at least showed me to the damn exit before dashin’ out on your own.”
“Well you got here anyway, right? You want me to grab your hand and lead you around like we’re lovebirds at prom? Stop bitchin’,” he retorted, a hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he frowned, “I got lost on the way here anyway.”
"Tch-yeah, checks out."
Wordlessly, Tak blinked at the front door placed by itself, somehow it had become its own entity, separated from the building, just peering into the building, he could see a familiar figure from the back. He didn’t hesitate to walk past Dante and Hiachi and approach the door himself, and unsurprisingly, he kicked the door open, his jacket fluttering from his movement as he strolled in.
“Oi! Paris!” Tak shouted, looking towards the brightly colored woman with a glare, slamming a fist into his palm, “The hells with all this? Some type of interdimensional terrorist attack?” He questioned, his brain not even trying to make sense of it all as he held his fist in front of his face.
“If it’s aliens, I’mma give ‘em a beating so hard they’re gonna go cryin’ back to their green mamas!”
A pained groan came up behind Tak, a tall shadow breaking through the veil of light, and into the void beyond the doorway "What are you five or somethin'? They're not green, they're grey; get your facts straight." Dante rolled a shoulder, cracking like a rusty cogwheel as his eyes got accustomed to the lack of sting in them. It was dark. Almost pitch black. Still, the blur was only ebbing away slow, he could barely make out the shapes ahead of them.
One was pink, tall. Two were green and yellow. The other was, well, he'd recognize that k-idol hair anywhere, even half-blind "Yo, boss. Care to sign me an autograph?" He huffed a trail of breath, giving an eye-roll to himself. Already picturing how tiresome this mess was going to be.
Tak was making him dumber, that's one thing he knew "After you tell us what's going on, 'course."
The One Eyed Bandit
Roda the Red
simj26
Coyote Hart
miki
thebigfella
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