NOTE: The following post will mention ( @ ) several of Gokudera’s allies. I don’t expect or need replies to this post, thus grouping it all together: Gokudera is giving the same thing to multiple people, and putting it all in one post makes the most sense to me! The first mention will give full explanation of what’s being given, but otherwise you can skip reading the full thing at your whim (everyone will be given similar explanations of how to use it).
If you do want to reply I am totally down for it, and you’re welcome to mention me in a new post or send an ask or anything else! If not, if you could hit me with a like to lemme know you saw it that’d be chill!
◆ * This project had been a long time coming, had been started before several of the currently-present Vongola had ever arrived, and had been delayed in no small part by everyone’s sudden transferal to a fantastical realm at war-- wherein Gokudera’s project had been left in his room at home, components spread out none too neatly in spite of his otherwise stalwart cleanliness. When he’d returned he’d been pleasantly surprised to find things untouched, and after a long ass nap and about a pack and a half of chain-smoked cigarettes he’d gotten himself right back to work putting together the finishing touches.
It hadn’t been too long since they’d returned, but they all seemed to have gotten back to whatever counted as normal in their daily life here anyway, so it took some measure of planning to reach out to them all in turn. He had already approached all with their true Vongola rings to attach the apparatus, though he hadn’t been fully clear about the purpose yet; and to those he had passed out the replacement rings, he hadn’t mentioned having a purpose at all.
@ilbronco :
The easiest to seek out was incidentally the only one not of the Vongola Family, but there was no way Gokudera could leave him out of this particular loop. Entering Dino’s office during work hours, he offered a short “sup” and waited for Dino’s work to come to a suitable lull.
When it did, he dropped a dark metal ring shaped in the visage of a skull on Dino’s desk. “Been workin’ on this for a while. It’s an early warning system-- kinda like a panic button. When anybody’s in trouble, they can alert everyone else without too much effort, and send out a beacon. Since you don’t have a Vongola ring...” He grinned a bit sheepishly. “I made you one instead. Just twist the skull to the left and it’ll set off the signal.”
He pulled out his phone and leaned over to show Dino what he was doing. “I developed an app for it too; I dunno if people will be able to use this part of it before they get internet privileges, but the ring side should still work regardless.” He twisted the gift ring to demonstrate, and his phone lit up, vibrated, with a notification at the top that said “ALERT: DINO”. Opening it found a distance marker in numbers (0.0km) and a red dot right on top of him that said the same: ALERT: DINO. Unfortunately, where it looked like there should be a map, there was only a blank texture. “This place’s map doesn’t seem to work... normally, so it’s just distance right now. And if you set it off by accident, there’s a chat function in the app to let people know you’re okay, or to talk to everyone about who’s on their way.”
He was pretty proud of his achievements here, making good on an idea he’d wanted to find time to act on even before arriving in this shithole, but he tried to contain his cheer for now. “The app is private, you have to have the password to download it, so-- uh.. try to keep it to yourself? I’m only trusting this to Vongola, and... not even Squalo, right now. Maybe after it’s out of the beta phase, I dunno. Point is, I’m, uh. Kinda trusting the lives of the Vongola to you. So.. thanks for being worth that trust, I guess.”
@itsmoistyams :
“Hey, there you are!” It was on his way to the next stop that he ran into Yamamoto, a lucky grab that he’d been planning to just call and meet up with at the end of the busy day ahead of him. “Been lookin’ for ya. You know that feature I added to your ring?”
He gave Yamamoto the abridged version of the explanation, knowing he would work it out better on instinct himself once he had the basics down. For him, though, there was a moment of brief silence after, before Gokudera put a hand on Yamamoto’s arm, mood serious.
“Seriously... I want you to use this. No matter how dangerous it is, if you’re in trouble, use it. I won’t be the only one who comes running. ..I promise I’ll use it, too. No stupid pride when shit hits the fan.” A bit embarrassed by the mood he’d brought on, he broke it with a clap on Yamamoto’s shoulder. “Call me if you get some free time tonight and we can hang!”
@caligosum :
“Pretty simple, right?” He’d just handed over Chrome’s skull ring, delighted to find it matching her aesthetics as well as he’d expected (they’d been made in his own aesthetics, to be fair, but he and Chrome had some great fashion overlap). “I know you’re tough, but it works two ways, so don’t hesitate to use it to call for help either!”
There was a beat of silence. “But, uh..” Another, he glanced around; they were in Chrome’s own condo, and he was searching for evidence of the resident demonic presence. Whether or not Mukuro was here, Gokudera couldn’t tell, but his reaction was the same anyway. Bluntly, with only partially forced cheerful casualty: “Please don’t let Mukuro use the app! I don’t like him!”
@gyuupyo :
It was with some curiosity that Gokudera found Lambo not too far from Chrome’s apartment-- wasn’t this a bit far from anywhere he was supposed to be? Not that Lambo had ever cared much where he was supposed to be; that pioneering spirit could be a real pain in the ass, but for now, it had worked out in their favor.
“Oi! Stupid cow!” The ‘nickname’ was out before he’d even thought about it, catching up to kneel down next to the titular cow. “You still have that ring I gave you?” He pulled out a spare he had configured just in case (though it wasn’t configured for Lambo specifically, as he was more worried about someone else having tossed it than the actual kid, which was saying something). “It looks like this, but yours should still be in your hair.” Hopefully.
“I told you it’d be important, right? It’s kinda like your bazooka. It won’t bring you anywhere else, but if you turn the skull at the top--” he demonstrated, and immediately pulled out his phone to hit the cancel before anyone saw the odd notification. “If you turn it like that when you’re scared, someone safe will come to help you. You don’t have to worry about being left alone, okay?”
@yunyield :
Gokudera’s last stop was different, in that he didn’t make it for a few weeks more: He had promised Hibari some peace and quiet for a bit, and he wouldn’t be the one to break that for something Hibari wouldn’t even want. When he did arrive, however, the spiel was largely the same, except for how he handled the ring.
He held the same spare in his pocket, already with Hibari’s name on it, because honestly, there was no reason to think Hibari had kept the original. He wasn’t stupid, but neither was Gokudera, most of the time. He had learned that, maybe, honesty was the best policy with a carnivore.
“So if anyone runs into an enemy they can’t handle, they’ll turn the ring,” he demonstrated without turning it enough to set it off; Hibari got the idea, “and you can decide if it’s worth your time. There’s a chat function but it’s only available when someone sets off their beacon, in case it’s an accident.”
As for how Hibari wanted to handle his own ring, that was up to him: If he’d ‘lost’ it, and wanted it, he could say as much and get a spare. If he wasn’t sure, maybe he’d keep it, and have it as a last-ditch effort if things went south. Or maybe he would call Gokudera an idiot and forget about the whole thing; at this point, who fuckin knew what that dude was thinking.
... Hey, that girl looks her age! Rosalia blinks a few times as she seems to silently study the other, free hand brushing some of her messy pale mint curls out of her eyes so she can look at the other better.
Huh. She should probably stop staring, but, like, whatever. She doesn’t really know how to start conversations anymore, but at least she doesn’t look unnerved or disgusted or anything. She looks like she wants to start a conversation! Or she just looks... really, really sad. Pick and choose to your heart’s content.
... Something about this girl’s expression... reminds her of her brother. It kind of hurts her chest something awful, grief twisting her heart again.
he couldn’t reach her. displacement, he could handle, his hard-won power being ripped from him, he could handle, being rendered `helpless` by the everyman’s understanding, he could handle. he was a beast with snapping jaws, and to be backed into a corner was the folly of the enemy only.
to take her was a death wish. this had happened before, once, twice, her transportation to the future ( the connection had severed and he had been prepared to raze namimori to the ground to find her, ready to kill every plaything he’d kept there until she was returned to him ), her kidnapping by daemon spade ( his only regret in this life was in not spending the eternity on daemon he had promised, in allowing his hubris to align too easily with daemon’s theatrics and release the scum from hell too soon ).
he would not suffer it again. to reach out and feel nothing. he would pull from the deepest pits of his fury and the mist’s creation would not stand up to hell’s destruction, if needs be.
he’d tried to quell his nerves in his pretty ( not pretty enough ) cage, paced the rooms, frightened a bystander or two, but every attempt he made to establish their mental connection was met with nothing, not the wall of a girl who wanted some privacy but nothing, it trailed into the aether like falling into a yawning pit and gave him vertigo while sitting down. he needed some fresh air.
he took the stairs outside the condo two at a time, rushing his way down to the ground floor and prepared to go anywhere, anywhere, he could stretch his legs now in a way he hadn’t been able to for years in vendicare and sometimes he did so just to prove he could, just to say to himself that he had more agency than ever and whatever he was going to do, he could do it whenever. but even as he power-walked away from his temporary abode, something tugged at him, some baser instinct, and he turned back just before he rounded the corner--
just in time to see her approaching the very same building he’d just left. good lord.
“nagi,” he breathed her name with all of his affection and none of his worry; the worry was instead communicated in his hands, fretfully caressing her shoulder, brushing her cheek, in ways unbefitting his usual unearthly calm. “i couldn’t reach you,” he tried it again, reflex, and still found the void between them. “..are you alright?”
Yeah, Misora is still lost. Nobody has been any help to them so far in finding a clothing store, or any way to pay for anything, or much of anything at all. Their kidnapper has made this all hellishly inconvenient.
They’re wandering through the Archimedes Ward, still dressed in their blue yukata (with cute goldfish on it), when they encounter... a black cat, curled up next to a tree. Their attention grabbed, they stop and crouch down near the cat, trying to get its attention.
“Come here, kitty kitty...” they call out, but the cat ignores them.
They don’t even notice, at the same time, a person with purple hair and an eyepatch also crouched nearby, admiring the very same cat.
◆ * Gokudera really shouldn’t be spending more money on clothes-- he’d been a little loose with his wallet for a guy with no job so far, and the food fund was getting light. But shit... a little window-shopping couldn’t hurt, right? And if window-shopping turned into real-shopping it wasn’t his fault, what was a guy supposed to do when he had just enough in his virtual pocket for a really amazing pair of pants?
Such was his current dilemma, staring into a shop window, trying to decide if he could raid Dino’s or maybe Hinata’s fridge without getting shit for it, when a passing reflection caught his eye, a familiar shape that had always made him do a double-take.
“Ah-- Chrome!” Shopping trip abandoned, he immediately rushed after the retreating figure, stopping her with a hand on her shoulder before quickly retracting it as if fearful she’d run if he was too rough. “Shit, seems like every day someone new shows up.” Another guardian down. Fuck. Fuck. “D-don’t worry, though, I know this place is huge and weird and you’re like, probably scared? Mukuro’s not even here, shit--” he’d seen Hibari recently, no massive changes in attitude that he could see, surely Mukuro wasn’t here, “b-but hey, don’t worry! Your family is!! Not all of us, but.. y’know, the Vongola are here, so you’re not alone!”
“ ...do you always hang out between alleyways like this? isn’t it kind of reckless? „ he teased, leaning lazily against the cold brick wall staring aimlessly at his surroundings. perhaps alleyways provide some type of comfort? either way, vanitas has never heard of that before. it was reckless, sure but relatable. as for himself, he wasn’t worried about the mysterious wanderers that lurk beneath the shadows at all knowing that he himself was a shadow. fortunately for her, she did not have to worry (at least not now), vanitas was only wanting hold a conversation if this night was going to feel endless to him. “ but i guess i won’t judge you for your preferred place of hangout. or well, i shouldn’t be anyway. „
“Something about this place looks familiar...” Sora muse out loud as he look around the city. It’s like he was pulled from the last dream he had before entering this place all over again. At least it wasn’t night time, and things seemed much more liver this time around. More people exploring the different shops, socializing with one another, everything seems to be at peace. At least, that’s what it appear until something unnatural caught the boy’s attention, glancing over to see a man running away with a box, with two guys chancing after him.
With so many people blocking the way, there’s no way the others could catch up to the guy. It looks like it’s up to Sora to deal with whoever this was. It was pretty easy once the guy turned a corner, with an area less crowded, it was easier for the boy to jump against the walls and catch up tot he guy with no problem! Able to swipe the box under the guy’s hand, landing a few yards in front of him, one hand with the boy and the other with his Keyblade.
“Wanna tell me what this is all about?” It wasn’t until a few second the other two guys chancing the first guy were also after said box. Though hearing the other two demand the return of the box made the boy think... or at least ask himself, who were the real bad guys around here?
