people come back from the dead here. [ A pause where he doesn't want to share more, but then...he thinks over his own impression and notices a hole in it, and it seems too dangerous to leave it sitting as-is. ]
i saw someone die during the fight with the farm spirit, anyway. but i think time...was not working right during that. like something wouldn't let us go forward if we picked the wrong choices. maybe we're not immune to dying unless it happens...when time isn't working? [ Will this world only save them if it helps the world at large, not just them individually? It makes logical sense, or as much as anything can, around here... ]
you'd only need weapons for other humans, anyway. these aren't youkai.
[ And somehow, just like that, it's agreed upon. Since when did Johnny start relying on the idea of someone around him while he's traveling? How did he get so used to the habit of arguing with someone about the best way to do every little thing while out on an important mission?
(He knows how, and considering the timeless, skyless days have turned into weeks and he's pretty sure months and there's been no sign of him, it's seeming like for whatever reason, Gyro wasn't chosen to come and help these youkai. Maybe it says something about Johnny himself that he was pulled through. Are the youkai looking for strengths or weaknesses?)
Regardless of Johnny's mixed feelings and mixed motivations in general, this puzzle's got him hooked. He only barely manages to wait until their agreed-upon time to meet up and then head north in the city. By the time they're meant to go, Johnny is irritable but quiet - focused on the task at hand. Considering that Alucard seems reluctant to speak unless someone hits on the exact topic he feels like educating someone else on that day, it makes for a very silent trip.
And as they come closer to the northernmost section and the air cools and sharpens, their own silence grows heavier. It's not just them, now - it's the city itself. Haunted and slow, the silence grows on them like a slime. Johnny almost feels a pressure to keep it that way, like something cold and heavy sits on his sternum, presses against his ears.
The city is rotten up here, waterlogged in a way even the rains from before hadn't accomplished in the district that they've been living in til now.
Johnny really thought he'd explored most nooks and crannies of this place, in his search for a horse. Had he just missed this section? Or had something warned him subconsciously away, before?
His chair means that exploring upper levels of any of these buildings would be tediously difficult, so he's stuck to first floors and alleys and even sticking his head on the damp earth, nose pressed to the ground-level windows, to check cellars. So far, nothing has moved, and only the wind and rushing water he's yet to spot has made any sound at all. It's just him and Alucard and their uncomfortable silence, broken only occasionally by discussing a left here or a right there. Johnny's not even sure anymore that he knows the way back, except that surely he'd know when he left this area and its haunting, oppressive aura.
His youkai has been bristling but silent. Johnny's wings retracted days ago and the skin over his shoulders has mostly healed, since the incident with the farm spirit's discovery. ]
Hey. [ Johnny clears his throat. Breaking the silence after so long feels strange.
Alucard's over by the edge of the staircase in the latest abandoned building they're exploring. Johnny's eyeing the sink. ] I'm gonna check the cabinets. You want to go upstairs? [ It would make the first time they've separated since they started...that's probably fine, right? Nothing's happened so far. ]
no subject
i saw someone die during the fight with the farm spirit, anyway. but i think time...was not working right during that. like something wouldn't let us go forward if we picked the wrong choices. maybe we're not immune to dying unless it happens...when time isn't working? [ Will this world only save them if it helps the world at large, not just them individually? It makes logical sense, or as much as anything can, around here... ]
you'd only need weapons for other humans, anyway. these aren't youkai.
[ And somehow, just like that, it's agreed upon. Since when did Johnny start relying on the idea of someone around him while he's traveling? How did he get so used to the habit of arguing with someone about the best way to do every little thing while out on an important mission?
(He knows how, and considering the timeless, skyless days have turned into weeks and he's pretty sure months and there's been no sign of him, it's seeming like for whatever reason, Gyro wasn't chosen to come and help these youkai. Maybe it says something about Johnny himself that he was pulled through. Are the youkai looking for strengths or weaknesses?)
Regardless of Johnny's mixed feelings and mixed motivations in general, this puzzle's got him hooked. He only barely manages to wait until their agreed-upon time to meet up and then head north in the city. By the time they're meant to go, Johnny is irritable but quiet - focused on the task at hand. Considering that Alucard seems reluctant to speak unless someone hits on the exact topic he feels like educating someone else on that day, it makes for a very silent trip.
And as they come closer to the northernmost section and the air cools and sharpens, their own silence grows heavier. It's not just them, now - it's the city itself. Haunted and slow, the silence grows on them like a slime. Johnny almost feels a pressure to keep it that way, like something cold and heavy sits on his sternum, presses against his ears.
The city is rotten up here, waterlogged in a way even the rains from before hadn't accomplished in the district that they've been living in til now.
Johnny really thought he'd explored most nooks and crannies of this place, in his search for a horse. Had he just missed this section? Or had something warned him subconsciously away, before?
His chair means that exploring upper levels of any of these buildings would be tediously difficult, so he's stuck to first floors and alleys and even sticking his head on the damp earth, nose pressed to the ground-level windows, to check cellars. So far, nothing has moved, and only the wind and rushing water he's yet to spot has made any sound at all. It's just him and Alucard and their uncomfortable silence, broken only occasionally by discussing a left here or a right there. Johnny's not even sure anymore that he knows the way back, except that surely he'd know when he left this area and its haunting, oppressive aura.
His youkai has been bristling but silent. Johnny's wings retracted days ago and the skin over his shoulders has mostly healed, since the incident with the farm spirit's discovery. ]
Hey. [ Johnny clears his throat. Breaking the silence after so long feels strange.
Alucard's over by the edge of the staircase in the latest abandoned building they're exploring. Johnny's eyeing the sink. ] I'm gonna check the cabinets. You want to go upstairs? [ It would make the first time they've separated since they started...that's probably fine, right? Nothing's happened so far. ]