Really, it was. But to him, it was a gift. A gift he could utilize pretty freely, and to the best of his ability. Snakes were his friends, after all, and you gave friends what they wanted. He could hear exactly what their wishes were, so naturally,
"Your wish has been granted. ~"
Every snake 'rescued' from captivity was let loose along the ground in the middle of Basileia Plaza. It was a bit of a journey to the forest from here, but here warranted the most favourable reactions from the humans occupying the space, didn't it?
Cooperation. Now, that was a word he just didn't get along with. People weren't his thing. All that kindness and friendliness as you met them walking your dog down the street? Bullshit. He could call a lie like that immediately, empty personas as real as a con artist. There was no point in investing in people without the ability to be genuine. That was wasting time, wasn't it?
He thought these exact thoughts as he had been caught in Kairos, entirely unwilling to fit in with the situation and lend a hand to those who needed one. At least now he could make his way back home, completely uninterested in the sense of partnership and the "walking in another person's shoes" experience.
"I don't fit in here, and I don't fit in there. What's the point of trying?" A rock collided with the rubber of his boot, sent skidding against the ground and hitting a garbage can in the Plaza with a distinct 'clink'. And then, a sound--
-- a hiss.
Now, he claimed to be a very sane person. He knew exactly how he thought, had a pretty decent reason for why he thought that way, and if given the chance to be human he wouldn't fail. He didn't hear voices, he didn't get random, ridiculous thoughts. However, he could very distinctly pick out the voice of the moving black predator ahead of him.
'Get me out of this placcceee...'
He could hear it within his mind, a rattly whisper mimicking the very actions of a snake. Still, he pursued, yellow eyes trapped on the object as it moved, through the grass, around a park bench, through a picket fence and away from the plaza.
'Don't belong... belong..... Thisss world.... not your own.'
Further into the black, he continued, background noise growing quieter as terrain grew more difficult to traverse. Wherever this talking snake was leading him, he felt as if it were taking him to the place where he could call home. Further and further, until he may as well have been engulfed by darkness, until finally -- it stopped.
The snake turned, and looked directly into the mirroring neon yellow hues. Its tongue flickered out, and with it, the uttering of many more words clearly sounding in his mind, rushed and hoarse in tone though understandable once paid attention to. Before he was fully able to grasp what the snake was saying, another one chimed in-- another, and another, four, six, tens, too many to count -- numerous black snakes emerged from the tall stocks of grass and formed a circle around the youngest child, all whispering their complaints and pleasures in a deafening muddle of thought.
'Kill..' 'Let them die,' 'It's wonderful!' 'August 15th was the day you told us, wasn't it?' 'I'm so happy!' 'All the despair-' 'Your wish has been granted.' 'such delicious agony,' 'We'll swallow it all up..'
"CUT IT OUT!!" Anger controlled the youth when the noise became too much to take -- all the snakes ceased, raising their heads as Kuroha's feet shook the ground with a stomp and hands covered his ears, desperate for silence. Firstly, it was an outright odd situation, completely impossible. Secondly, as the victim, what did this make of his sanity? And thirdly--
Thirdly--
There was red.
Snakes coiled to surround his body completely, and all vision set on was red. He had been lifted by a tower of snakes, kept in place by their tightening grip, and all around him stretched an endless sea of red. No matter how you look at it, no matter what you believed in, this place could only have one word to describe it.
This was hell.
Why, then, did it feel too comfortable? Like the vacant space of him and the snakes was a warm womb where they cultivated and lived, apart from humans that the snakes seemed to mock so much.
Once the realization of the reason had set in, the cobras' coil relinquished, and red faded back to the deep forest around him. Every snake had disappeared, not another sound of a slither, as if they had never been there in the first place.
Indeed, he felt like a mad man. But what was shown couldn't have been anything he could have ever made up on his own, especially so when it all felt too real.
It must be, then, that his true place was really out of this world.
now that i'm finally off my hiatus and draftless, it's time to look for new threads. i'll be searching through the open tag tonight, but like this post if you're interested and i'll shoot you a message to plot something!
It was minimum day at Xion’s school. And seeing how she had her last class as an open class, she decided to leave school a bit early. With the weather being a bit sporadic as of late, she thought it would be a good idea to get a few more clothes to fit such weather. Luck favored the prepared.
"Uhm…" When stopped by the person, Xion didn’t expect to be handed the item so hastily. At first glance, she thought it was a water hose. Now why would someone be carrying that around? It took the girl a moment before realizing that what she was holding was actually moving.
"Ah!—" she wanted to drop the creature but hearing the other say that it would bite made the girl temporarily frozen with fear. Of course she didn’t want to be bitten! "What do I do with it?" Panic was starting to rise and the snake began to move to make itself more comfortable. "I don’t want to drop it, I might hurt it!"
There was the kind of mild reaction he was hoping for -- it wasn't over the top as Tsubomi's had always been, and it wasn't unreasonable. It would have been cute if he didn't find it amusing above everything, and all that was left to do was laugh. A bit more than a chuckle, he let out a sound and clapped to convey how well she'd done in amusing him. Of course, it wouldn't last for long, but it was better than nothing at all.
"Just relax and don't squeeze it, and you'll both be fine! Really, it's just your heart he's after." Although meant to be metaphorical, with another laugh it could have sounded literal.
"Just hold tight for a sec." And back into his backpack he dove. He rummaged around a bit longer than needed to provide the girl some extra, needed bonding time with her new friend, and eventually returned with wallet in hand. He stuffed it into his back pocket, slung his bag back over his shoulders, and ended the girl's panic.
"See? That's not so bad, is it?" Pale digits reached out to grasp the snake's attention, tongue flicking out to hit his finger before that same one trailed against its back. "They're not poisonous and they very rarely bite. They're harmless. You could play with him all day if you wanted to." He might get aggressive by then, of course, but it wasn't impossible. All of these factors contributed to the decision of leaving the garter snake in her hands until she felt truly uncomfortable. "You don't have anything against reptiles, do you?"
Cumbersome tasks of this sort were not an expertise of the student and acting upon this specific request was just asking for more trouble than good. If asked of by any other person than Konoha then a firm objection would’ve been given, but as it was a certain weakness for the male had developed and made it difficult to fathom the very idea of disappointing such an innocent soul. It was for that that rather begrudgingly had a near perfect attendance record been further blemished in order to locate a rogue troublesome brother.
Privy to venues in which the aforementioned male often took to occupying, it’d been quite simple to narrow them down until the correct location was reached. Obsidian hues fell upon the distracted visage of the sought individual once he’d been found, weight shifting to the right as a way in which to go about this without any complications was silently mused over. The forethought proved to have been in vain as he approached without any prompting, but not without raising red flags.
A snake, a real coiling, deadly snake, had been placed upon her palm. Complexion paled immediately, body stilling as the sudden fear clawing at her insides almost caused a shrill scream to tumble from the depths of her throat. The Yankee wanted to do nothing more than fling the creature away, to retreat backwards in drunken panic, only … doing so would only give the other ammunition; there was no choice other than to endure the impossible.
“K - Kurohaaa … stop messing a, around. This isn’t the p - place …” Voice cracked despite the meager amount of bravado that’d been mustered, caused by a particularly fearsome flick of the reptile’s tongue. By all means distressed at the vulnerable position she was in, the terrified woman swallowed thickly to try once more. “Not the place. Knock i - it off .. and put your frieaugh —" It was once the slimy appendage touched skin that any semblance of composure could no longer be managed.
Look here, it was Kido who showed up to kindly take the role of his assistant, perfectly shivery as usual! Did fate always work out so well for him? It wasn't every day you caught a fearless leader in absolute fear, and that was something to brag about.
The way she worked to keep a calm face in the panic was simply beautiful, a performance grand enough to deserve an applause. However, humor was more his business, and all he could do was snicker and laugh the more it faded, a friendly lick from the snake sending her into a panicked frenzy no longer manageable.
How truly entertaining.
"Ahaha! Oh, Tsubomi, he likes you! You can take a little nibble, can't you? Can't the scary protector walk away from a poisonous bite? Here I thought you were impervious to everything, but I suppose I was seriously wrong..." Head shook with mock disappointed, arms raised as if to question, 'what do to with this girl?'
"You just hang tight, I need to buy some food. Want anything, chicken? Beef? Something to share with your new buddy?" Another laugh tore through his throat in absolute amusement as he turned to join the longest food line in the entire food court. Whether she was brave enough to move and pull him out was entirely up to her. He'd just stand and watch, patiently waiting with a smug look of victory.
On an ordinary yet strangely hot day, it was her first encounter of the boy who was responsible for trampling all of her hard efforts. First of all, how dared he. This obviously led to consequences that showed no mercy whatsoever to the poor child’s pale cheeks, but eventually she learned to adjust to his behavior. For some peculiar reason, she felt familiar with his presence and found his attitude rather compelling.
One thing was clear for certain, she wasn’t alone.
While she took care of her business, she let him watch her progress through each floret with care. It would do him some good in obtaining a bit of patience since it seemed as though he could need it. Perhaps that would also suppress his troubled personality but she wasn’t planning on raising her expectations too high. Still, the days he came she tend to educate him by sharing her knowledge of the floral world.
From names to their respected meanings behind it, almost everything she could manage to give him.
Now as she inspected a flower or so in the vast field, she turned her attention occasionally at the other who would quietly focus back on her. There were doubtful concerns whether if he decided to come along expecting it to be a thrilling journey, though he couldn’t have anticipated something grand- right? He wasn’t that ignorant to begin with and she assured herself she wasn’t making this whole thing too much of a disappointment for him. Besides, if he didn’t enjoy it he could leave on his own.
His inquiries were followed by her casual responses as she briefly glanced at the flowers he directed with his finger. Easy enough for her to answer, she knew everything after all.
"Those are Petunias, and the blue ones are Hydrangeas."
Before she could continue on with her own task, the final question paused her and red optics gazed at the white flowers. "Of course they are, they stand for-" Silence. What… what did lilies stand for again? No, that couldn’t be. Had she forgotten? Ah- such meanings she didn’t find much care for must have slipped out of her head. How embarrassing.
What should she do? She couldn’t lie, that would only be a foolish mistake. There was one option, however, that she tempted on. An excuse to blame it on him. That would have to do… For now.
"H-Haven’t I told you that one before? You should remember!" She hissed at him with faint blushes blemishing her cheeks, hoping that her pretense was convincing enough for him to fall for her bluffing act.
A break in her confidence appeared. A slight hiss in her tone gave it away instantly, paired with the red of her cheeks to make it obvious. He snickered, lips cracking as fast as a snake's tongue slithering, like he'd just caught her in a moment of weakness.
"Heeeh? What's this, Azami? I can't remember, so I need you to tell me again. And while you're at it-- What's the meaning behind tulips? What about white roses? Hydrangeas? Petunias? Daffodils?" He was relentless. Anything to tease the little adult, to push her out of her comfort zone and into a frenzy of nervousness. It might've been heartless to pick on an old woman, but he felt he was allowed. If he was out of place, she'd hit him again. He didn't mind, as long as he had his fun.
He stood from his crouch, placing hands on his knees and stretching his legs in preparation to walk around. "If I wanted to give someone a message, what flowers should I give? Educate me even further, Azami. I need to tell someone I love them without using words."
A ball. It was supriring for someone such as he to have the desire to go dance at a fancy meeting, but it was more of the friends he’d meet and the food that would be bestowed upon him than anything else. However, it meant he required a date, and finding one was a tough task.
The last pick someone had thought he’d go for, the offering of food not so long ago did place Kuroha on the top of the list as favorite. Grabbing his arm lightly, Konoha attempted to lead the other to the rendezvous without any explanation besides, "I’m ready.. You’re coming, aren’t you?"
Really, that was all he needed to go hand in hand with Kuroha to the ball, crimson immediately widened at the sight of luxurious objects that occupied the space inside, the albino becoming dizzy when watching the dances for his first time, twirling around and around. In fact, he felt as if he should participate too. "Kuroha, I want to try that. Is it okay?"
Stumbling onto the dance floor, his movements without a partner were awkward and shaky, arms moving back and forth like an alien with tentacles, "How am I doing?"
The evening had been planned all by himself initially, a hot date with his brand new video games all he needed while others partied it up in some far away castle. He'd gotten himself into his coziest pajamas and grabbed his favourite food and drink from the kitchen to set himself up for a fun night, only for his albino sibling to rain on his plans with socializing. The one event he tried to get away from had crept up on him fast.
However, he could hardly say no when he was already dressed up nice and ready to go. So came fixing Konoha's tie and pulling out his own suit, complaining all the while.
And his hand was literally held the entire way there, including the walk up the stairs with copious amounts of people arriving and continued into the hall itself, where everyone was. And there he stood, hand in hand with his triplet, both faces displaying completely opposite expressions. Konoha, completely enchanted by the charms of the party; Kuroha, face pink with embarrassment and eyes looking everywhere but the grand details of the gathering.
But he still couldn't say no.
"Kuroha, I want to try that. Is that okay?"
"Yeah," he muttered, but whether or not permission was heard his hand had finally been released for the older to step foot on the dance floor. And as if it wasn't obvious that grandiose events were something brand new to the two, Konoha's dancing experience was exactly the same, and the younger promptly began feeling second-hand embarrassment simply watching, in horror, as the boy with the same face as his began wiggling and shaking his arms in a horrendous alien dance.
"How am I doing?"
"You... Are you..." He was shaking, caught between bursting into laughter and yelling out in disbelief. "What is that?"
"That's not dancing!" Long strides brought him directly to the enemy of dance, parking in front of him and shaking his head. "At least be a bit more presentable if you're gonna do that." Hands immediately captured the others while they were still in the air, and brought them back to his sides to save the two of any judgmental stares. In favour of continuing the dancing he wanted to try, the darker began to lead the lighter in a circle, digits with the same paleness intertwining and acting as support as he leaned backwards. "Didn't we learn how to dance in gym class last year? Let's try one of those. No more dancing like an octopus."
There seemed to be many things that was desired to learn, however, it seemed to be more a talent for him to forget what he’s learned, and never evening out what was in his mind and was was not. Surely, living that way was difficult as any other problem that may arise, but when it threatened an hour as important as this one, it was certainly a death wish to survive the way he does.
Lunch was as important as everything else.
A savior, however, was far from expected, the approach of his brother causing crimson to stare up at him, expression close to one of tearing up. "Kuroha.." A response back at greeting, a continuation didn’t take long once more when a lunchbox hit his head, voice quieter than normal, “Mhm.. Yeah.” Although it was immediately raised cheerfully when made an offering, Konoha taking the box between his fingers and lifting it in eyesight.
Head glanced to his brother, before quickly back at the meal he sat upon the table, "You’re my favorite. After food.." Taking a bit of the box’s contents, he moved it towards the face of the other, "Here, I’ll split." Shoving it between his lips until his mouth was opened, Konoha paused for a moment to voice his gratitude, "Thank you. If you were a doughnut, I’d eat you last, Kuroha." Mostly because he eats his favorite last.
Against his lips was pressed half a steamed bun, previously warmed in the school's microwaves, now split between the two to be shared equally. His mouth opened to bite into it seeing how denying it wouldn't be allowed, and so marked the beginning of lunch with his brother. It wasn't without his questionable remarks, either.
"..."
But, it was a fondness he wouldn't want to be without, something special in Konoha's words that let him accept it without the will to tease him about it. He took his half, chewed, and swallowed. "I'm glad that means I'm your favourite. Don't let Haruka know, or he might cry." An exaggeration, but it held some bit of truth to it. Kuroha was always the trouble out of the three, and not everyone liked trouble the way trouble makers did. For either of his brothers to like him more than the other was impossible. If they said so, it was a lie. Konoha wasn't a liar, but his judgement couldn't be trusted on being absolute.
Fingers curled around the front ledge of the bench, straightening his back with a stretch to loosen himself up. He'd been trying terribly hard lately to get his mind off such thoughts, and would need some kind of entertainment to keep them away. School did everything but entertain him, so an adventure off campus would have to do. "Hey, Konoha. What class do you have next? Nothing important, right? Something you can skip out on to help me out with a little something, right?"
So I heard you like soap operas. Want to know what happens next in the one you're obsessed with? The main antag shows up and major plot twist he shoots xxx and xxx and then continues to shoot all their friends, never expected that from a soap opera huh?
"Excuse me…" She called out too softly from above, her voice laced in quiet embarrassment, "Hahi—!! he can’t here me…" Haru muttered to herself, mahogany hues flickering contemplatively at the boy below her. Clearing her throat, the brunette gathers herself, breathing in her last breath before calling out to the stranger the second time, though this time a little bit louder, make sure he would hear her. "E-excuse me!"
Haru waves her hand violently up in the air, as if that would help her get his attention, currently the female found herself stuck in a tree, it was all too cliche, her trying to save a poor feline only to get attack and left behind like a fool!
”..Could you help Haru?” she beckoned, struggling to stay balance on the branch that held her full weight, at the moment it didn’t occur to her that she could just easily jump off.
Across his palm and his fingertips held together traveled a friend. A friend of the slimy variety, that is, a slug picked up off the sidewalk where feet might have crushed it should it not have been rescued. It was an excellent distraction, eyes trained on the trails it took rather than the trail his shoes sped along on, digits occasionally parted to have the mollusk take a different direction and second hand lifted to catch it when it fell. Mindless actions made walking around people pass by so much faster.
It was only natural that he hadn't heard the calling until the second time, and when he looked up to see violent waving from a girl in a tree, he grew instantly regretful. A feeling of distaste changed his face into a scowl, and without entirely wanting to, he set the slug back onto the grass to help out the unfortunate stranger. Not without a bit of mocking first, of course.
"What the hell are you in a tree for? You expect somebody to help you? After getting yourself in that mess? Please. You'd fall sooner than that." He began to walk away. Then the sound of a familiar voice popped into his head, reprimanding him for his actions. 'Kuroha, you can't say that! You should help people in need, right? You would help me in need, so you should help them too.'
"..." Damn that girl. He backed up until he was in the position to catch her, and looked up at the trembling, wobbly damsel. "Fine. Jump. I might catch you."
Sent: 4/13 @ 7:44PM
To: ???
From: Kuroha
Well, that's true. Pretty useless trying to expect anything different from such a huge mass of idiots. 1,000 is a tame number here when you think of the entire world as a whole. It's gotta be at least a million or two, right?
Anyway. Why would all traffic lights in the city be red at one point? Sounds like part of a ghost story when you say it like that.
Standing in the middle of an unknown street he'd ended up in after a bus route he thought was the correct one ended up the wrong one. The territory was unfamiliar, not a single store recognizable, nor a single street name heard of. Was this what it meant to be lost? He'd heard of his brother getting lost a few times before, and always wondered how he could get so lost so quickly.
Now, he understood. A map looks one way drawn on a piece of paper from a birds-eye view; standing in those streets looks another way entirely, a view much more difficult to understand.
To the right and left of him, bus stops lined either ends of the street, some on the corners of others streets on the block, creating four different ways to go. It became even less of an easy right-or-left decision and more of an annoying roadblock of buses.
He was going to be late for sure.
"Hey, kid." As reaching out to the first stranger looked to be his best option, he easily called out to a slouchy kid around his age, adorned in a tacky red jersey that gave him an overall lazy look. What was he doing outside? "Do you know how to get to Chania Plaza? It's north-east of City Center. There's gotta be a bus there, right?"
Sent: 4/13 @ 6:43PM
To: ???
From: Kuroha
Did you know that the amount of deaths caused by running those red lights sits at about 1,000 a year? That's three people a day at least. Imagine if we didn't have traffic lights at all.
Similarly to bigger sisters always fitting perfectly into the role. It was some unspoken occurrence, some kind of silent rule that no one broke and everyone just accepted, and it seemed that this triplet wasn't about to break that.
He may have had a lot of resentment towards the other two, but he could humanly accept the fact it was never their fault for being who they were, and it made any hatred an unfounded emotion. That never meant he still didn't feel it from time to time, of course, but when stress was settled and nothing in particular was getting in the way, he loved his brothers.
Enough to share his lunch with them, anyway.
A certain forgetful, eternally hungry, albino oaf had forgotten his lunch on the counter, he assumed, as Konoha sat on a bench in the lunch room with nothing in front of him and a worried look on his face as he found his backpack empty.
Typical.
"Oi, stupid." A comment obviously not the kindest in nature was shot at the occupied older brother, no ill intent intended but whether or not it was taken offence to was a mystery to be left unsolved. The flat bottom of his lunch box had tapped against the top of the white hair, fully garnering his attention. "Did you forget something important this morning? Something you love most in this world?"
Set on the table in front of him as the younger grabbed the seat beside him was the lunch Kuroha had so generously offered. He didn't care to eat as much as the Negima-obsessed one-third did, so one missed meal wouldn't hit him that bad. "Mom's gonna be worried sick about you missing lunch, so eat up."
