four

[bookpapers]

Comments

week zero, saturday

[bookpapers]

[WHERE ARE THEY i'll void us, but wherever Four is walking, she'll probably hear... screaming...

if she goes closer, she'll see Lavi! hands around his mouth! shouting into the dark sky!! there are no words, it's just indescribable yelling]

[forefall]

[ they can void. four is pacing all the energy the trial built up in her. otherwise, it just has no where to go and that's maybe bad.

she follows the shouting to find him and waits until he's done. unless he takes a while to be done. ]

[bookpapers]

[imagine i said he takes five more hours,

no he's just about finished, staggering a little as he tries to take in lungfuls of air. then, as he turns

he jumps as soon as he sees Four,]

-- Woah, Clover?!

[HE DIDN'T HEAR HER WALK UP because of the screaming]

[forefall]

[ she would stop him after five minutes. probably after three. ]

Is that helping you?

[bookpapers]

[thank you four

he still looks surprised, then... he shifts a little,]

Kinda.... feels like it all just goes back inside me every time I yell.

[forefall]

That isn't helping at all, then. It's not working if it's not a release.

[ she tilts her head. ]

We should try to find another method.

[bookpapers]

[hmmm]

Like what? I think I read the same twenty books these past few days.

[forefall]

I have been told treating yourself to something indulgent can help.

[ she says it like it's almost a foreign concept. ]

[bookpapers]

[all this time, lavi's felt the anger -- that tension bookman's always scolded him for, treated as one of his many failings. and he's kept it reined in, during the trial and after, now --

and then, like a little pinprick, it stops. doesn't disappear, but there's just enough of a pause that Lavi feels something else other than anger,]

...Yeah? I'm willing to test that theory out, if you are.

[forefall]

[ is anger a failure? perhaps in some cases, it is, but anger at injustice is never a failure in four's book. ]

... I can try. They say, trying to eat something sweet helps, as a start.

[bookpapers]

[he'll fall into step with her then, heading towards the food courts.]

Then we'll eat something sweet. Cake, ice cream? I think they've got something called McSlooshies...

[as they walk, he slants a look towards her, curious]

I promised you a story, right? I can tell ya over dessert if you want.

[forefall]

McSlooshies?

[ that sounds like poison to her, but if he wants to try it first.... sure.....

she nods. ]

I want to hear it and listen to your story.

[bookpapers]

[IT'S NOT POISON probably.... anyway here they are at their mickey ds, lavi will get a mcSlooshies but there's probably way more normal looking ice cream on the menu that Four can get?

He takes a sip and makes a face between intrigued and disgusted,]

People in the future really like their sweets, huh...

[forefall]

[ she is going to get the apple pie because it has apple in it. her nose wrinkles, not at the apple pie but at how sweet she imagines the mcslushie to be. ]

It's like the future wants to bombard your senses, so it can distract you from how much it's going to eat away at your life.

[bookpapers]

[it's so sweet, way too sweet?]

I think you're onto something there...

[He'll gently deposit it in a bin.]

Well, at least it's not the first time I've had to risk my life.

[forefall]

Does that have to do with your job as an exorcist?

[ four nibbles on the apple pie delicately, as if afraid it will affront all her senses with its sweetness. ]

[bookpapers]

Yup. We're called Exorcists, but we're not the traditional kind? We "exorcise" souls, but only those trapped in Akuma.

[the taste of sweetness is cloying on his tongue, but he doesn't let it distract him as he chatters on,]

Akuma are killing machines that can only be destroyed by Innocence, which is something only Exorcists can use. So we're basically soldiers, wielding weapons against monsters in order to protect humanity.

[forefall]

Is someone trapping these souls in Akuma, or is it a natural occurrence in your world?

[ unfortunately, while terrible, she is used to soldiers wielding weapons against monsters in order to protect humanity. ]

[bookpapers]

The former.

The Millennium Earl approaches a grieving human by offering to bring their loved one back to life. All he needs is them to call out their name, in order to summon their soul back. Which it does, except it gets trapped in the Akuma machine instead.

[forefall]

[ why are you still awake

four is aghast. ]

That's atrocious to prey on the grieving and to used their dearly departed like that. That's unforgivable. Are the Exorcists close to defeating him or has it been a long and drawn out war?

[bookpapers]

[i napped for too long.... seeing Four's disgust does remind Lavi of the stakes -- he's mentioned the war to a couple of people, but always in sort of vague terms, or to types who've apparently seen it all (we're looking at you scara).

Lavi points at her at the second part,]

Long and drawn out, for thousands of years even. We're the only ones who can use Innocence, which is the only material in our world that can destroy Akuma.

[without his mcslooshies, he's free to link his hands behind his head]

But we're still human and easy enough to kill. And even the strongest of us can't fight the Earl one on one for long.

[forefall]

It sounds like the Earl is just that powerful and elusive.... and immortal, in his own way.

[ thousands of years..... die of old age, millennium earl. ]

[bookpapers]

Definitely seems that way, especially to regular guy like me. He's made it clear that he's no longer gonna hide in the shadows. He wants the war to end, and he wants to win it.

...It's too bad I won't be able to see that end.

[forefall]

You can, if you believe in that party with Satan. If you trust someone like Satan won't renege his words

[bookpapers]

[. . .]

...I don't know. I thought that even if the whole deal was real, it still wouldn't matter for me.

But Bucky was convinced that he'd be able to go back way before his death, not at the moment of.