Does she? I haven't spoken to her in a while. I think I accidentally frightened her off. She's a good kid too, though. Smart.
[Maybe he'll have to message her sometime, see how she's doing. It's hard to keep tabs on every single person here, but if anyone's going to try, it's him.]
[Doesn't he fucking know it. Teenagers are something else. They can still be smart, though, but - yeah, moody, don't always make the best choices.]
That was months ago, though. If that's the worst she's done, then she's doing all right. Did you ever find out what happened to her? Why she was so intent on guarding it?
[Right, Kuai wouldn't. Too noble. If someone says not to do something, he just doesn't do it, apparently. Just how did the man become a leader of his caliber and stay there for so long? As nice as the thought of someone in charge being so kind is, he just can't quite imagine it usually works like that.]
She was too tenacious for it to just be something embarrassing. She has something she's afraid of us finding out. I wish I had tried harder to learn it when it was an option, in case it's something genuinely dangerous to us.
[Just because he's honorable doesn't mean he didn't kill a whole lot of people. Honorably. Spine ripping for a good cause.]
She has shadow powers she doesn't want anyone to know about. There is that. But she's not doing a very good job of hiding it, much as she thinks she is.
[Right, shadow powers. He seems to recall having heard that some time go, but never really followed up on it. Coraline is hard to find, and it isn't as if he goes out of his way to look.]
I haven't seen her use them. What sort of things can she do, do you know?
I've only seen her use it once. Similar to what my brother can do, manifest some solid.. shadow type things.
[Wow okay, he's definitely drunk now because he almost lost his train of thought mid sentence there after he mentioned Bi-Han. He blinks and looks down into his empty cup, trying to center himself.]
More like formless tentacles that can interact with the environment than an actual person like he has.
[Rosinante, meanwhile, is failing. It's hardly his fault - he's drinking at a normal enough pace, but he's just big. Probably should go harder. Got to match Kuai. Time to top off his glass again, and then Kuai's while he's at it. Would be rude not to.]
Formless, but they can interact?
[He's trying to picture what that means, but the alcohol has at least made his mind fuzzy enough to make that kind of difficult. Oh well - he shrugs, not actually needing a real explanation because a more interesting topic just came up.]
Explain his powers to me, instead, since you know them better.
He manipulates shadow energy. Weapons, portals, that clone that follows him around. He can make more of them as well.
[He frowns. He shouldn't be describing Bi-Han as having shadow powers. That's not the future they should have had. Kuai will forever regret he wasn't there when Hanzo beheaded Quan-Chi, the man responsible for turning Bi-Han into... whatever he was now.]
They look like shadows, but they're deadly. Stay wary lest he surround you.
I see. Formidable and dangerous in a place full of darkness. You might not realize he's about to attack.
[So, point taken, he'll be extra cautious next time they have a run-in. Hopefully, the caution won't be needed, but the last time they spoke, Bi-han threatened both him and everyone who was asleep, and it's had him slightly on edge whereas before he simply found the man irritating.
He frowns, and levels his gaze at Kuai. Real talk, bro.]
What do you think the odds are that he would harm people here, directly or otherwise?
His motivations make no sense. He wants to be the ruler of the Netherrealm, a lord of the undead. And somehow he thinks he can still do that here. He'll be insufferable now that he's been bested by someone.
[He knows a thing or two about that. It's hard being the one to shoulder such a burden, but he knows in his case, he wouldn't have wanted anyone else to have to suffer through those long years of silence and feigned cooperation. He knew Doflamingo better than anyone - knew who he was, who he could be, not who those twisted, hideous followers of his wanted him to be.
Maybe it was naive, but he can see why Kuai would want to manage his own brother despite the potential risk involved.]
If you ever need any help, let me know. I'm sure I don't have his strength, can't compete with his powers, but if an emergency situation comes up, I wouldn't want to just stand by and let him do what he likes. Hopefully, though, he'll remain unprovoked.
[He doesn't want to. It's a constant reminder that the man he knew as his brother is gone. Even though Kuai will forever keep the faint hope alive that he could be reached, he knew just how unlikely that was.]
Thank you. I hope the same. I don't want anyone to be injured or worse because he decided he didn't like something or was annoyed.
[Surely that deserves another deep drink. Finally, he thinks, it's starting to hit him and he slouches heavily back in his seat on the pillow. Please be at least tipsy, he begs mentally to nobody in particular. It's been a long time since he really felt like he could forget what's going on around them.
Poor Kuai, though. Rosinante just isn't a very fun drunk and it's showing, it seems. He's just getting quieter and more frowny. Eventually he tops off his glass again, sloppily spilling some on the table - but that's just normal for him.]
[Even tired and drunk he notices that Rosinante is just getting quieter and quieter. The man seems to have a high tolerance for alcohol, on top of being gigantic.]
We are talking of unhappy things again. That seems to be the way of it.
Even when I'm not thinking about this place, I'm stuck thinking about home. What I could've done differently.
[There's no escaping those thoughts. Hazily, he regrets saying that too, for that's a subject he never brings up if he can help it, but alcohol does tend to loosen the tongue.
Six months here, now. Half a year gone by and every day he misses the kid. He's found people here he can somewhat trust, he has plenty to keep him busy and so much to work toward for all of them, but the heartache doesn't ever lessen.]
[Not here, probably. Maybe dead anyway, but maybe not stuck here. Of course, it's not the worst thing. He might not be the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, but he has the will to try and help and so do a lot of people here. However the portal selects its victims, it got a batch this time that he's at least a little bit optimistic about. The chances of sparing the rest of the universe from the world eaters aren't completely zero.
And the past is what made him who he is today. Jagged around the edges, a little anxious, a little too willing to sit back and observe and let others talk over him sometimes. Able to pull the trigger and sacrifice a few to save the rest. He's not the ideal human being, he never will be, but he doesn't hate everything about himself. He respects his parents and their struggles too much to completely hate everything he turned out to be.]
That's true. It shapes who we are and who we'll become in the future. And how we take our deaths and our current predicament.
[He'd have some more wise words about that if he wasn't drunk enough to be verging into the sleepy phase where everything is a little fuzzy around the edges. ]
I thought maybe the way we died was the catalyst for coming here, but maybe it's something in our past, some shared experience we don't realize we have. Unless it truly is random, but it would be easier to ensure we work together towards a solution if we all have similar backgrounds.
We don't though do we?
Nevermind. I don't know what I'm saying anymore, thinking in circles.
[That had seemed right in his mind until he said it out loud and then it seemed stupid and you know what he's done trying to be logical right now.]
It's fine. It's a mystery we might not solve, but we'll do what we can now that we're here.
[Sounds like it's time for them both to cut themselves off. There's still more than he'd like in his glass, but he downs it and grimaces at the sting.]
Just keep moving forward. All we can do.
[Advice he's very bad at taking for himself, but isn't that how it always is?]
If we keep saying that to each other, maybe we'll each believe it.
[He sets his empty glass in the middle of the table, staring at it intently before standing up. It's taking all his focus to not wobble, his typical ramrod straight posture slightly off and hunched. Even he can't be properly posed all the time.
But he definitely needs to go sleep this off, and there are many stairs between him and there.]
[He watches Kuai get up, nodding as if agreeing that's the right thing to do, then rolls his head to where he can face the spirits lazing around on top of the bar. Nah... can't be bothered to ask them for water. He'll let Kuai go, then will head up to his own room. Before Kuai can really leave, though, he adds,]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Better things to think on than we currently have been. Or are.
[He frowns. Yeah, he's feeling it now. But you know what? He doesn't care.]
There are good people here. Ones that won't give up and are trying to make the best of it.
Coraline keeps wanting me to make snowmen for her.
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[Maybe he'll have to message her sometime, see how she's doing. It's hard to keep tabs on every single person here, but if anyone's going to try, it's him.]
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[He's trained a lot of them, they hold grudges and get all nervous around authority figures and have mood changes every four seconds.]
I know she can be, but she does questionable things like camp out at her gravesite so no one can see how she died.
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That was months ago, though. If that's the worst she's done, then she's doing all right. Did you ever find out what happened to her? Why she was so intent on guarding it?
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I assume it was something embarrassing.
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She was too tenacious for it to just be something embarrassing. She has something she's afraid of us finding out. I wish I had tried harder to learn it when it was an option, in case it's something genuinely dangerous to us.
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She has shadow powers she doesn't want anyone to know about. There is that. But she's not doing a very good job of hiding it, much as she thinks she is.
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I haven't seen her use them. What sort of things can she do, do you know?
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[Wow okay, he's definitely drunk now because he almost lost his train of thought mid sentence there after he mentioned Bi-Han. He blinks and looks down into his empty cup, trying to center himself.]
More like formless tentacles that can interact with the environment than an actual person like he has.
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Formless, but they can interact?
[He's trying to picture what that means, but the alcohol has at least made his mind fuzzy enough to make that kind of difficult. Oh well - he shrugs, not actually needing a real explanation because a more interesting topic just came up.]
Explain his powers to me, instead, since you know them better.
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[He frowns. He shouldn't be describing Bi-Han as having shadow powers. That's not the future they should have had. Kuai will forever regret he wasn't there when Hanzo beheaded Quan-Chi, the man responsible for turning Bi-Han into... whatever he was now.]
They look like shadows, but they're deadly. Stay wary lest he surround you.
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[So, point taken, he'll be extra cautious next time they have a run-in. Hopefully, the caution won't be needed, but the last time they spoke, Bi-han threatened both him and everyone who was asleep, and it's had him slightly on edge whereas before he simply found the man irritating.
He frowns, and levels his gaze at Kuai. Real talk, bro.]
What do you think the odds are that he would harm people here, directly or otherwise?
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[Or bored. Or if he feels like it.]
His motivations make no sense. He wants to be the ruler of the Netherrealm, a lord of the undead. And somehow he thinks he can still do that here. He'll be insufferable now that he's been bested by someone.
[Or someones. However it is he died.]
He's a danger, but he can be managed.
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[He knows a thing or two about that. It's hard being the one to shoulder such a burden, but he knows in his case, he wouldn't have wanted anyone else to have to suffer through those long years of silence and feigned cooperation. He knew Doflamingo better than anyone - knew who he was, who he could be, not who those twisted, hideous followers of his wanted him to be.
Maybe it was naive, but he can see why Kuai would want to manage his own brother despite the potential risk involved.]
If you ever need any help, let me know. I'm sure I don't have his strength, can't compete with his powers, but if an emergency situation comes up, I wouldn't want to just stand by and let him do what he likes. Hopefully, though, he'll remain unprovoked.
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[He doesn't want to. It's a constant reminder that the man he knew as his brother is gone. Even though Kuai will forever keep the faint hope alive that he could be reached, he knew just how unlikely that was.]
Thank you. I hope the same. I don't want anyone to be injured or worse because he decided he didn't like something or was annoyed.
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[Surely that deserves another deep drink. Finally, he thinks, it's starting to hit him and he slouches heavily back in his seat on the pillow. Please be at least tipsy, he begs mentally to nobody in particular. It's been a long time since he really felt like he could forget what's going on around them.
Poor Kuai, though. Rosinante just isn't a very fun drunk and it's showing, it seems. He's just getting quieter and more frowny. Eventually he tops off his glass again, sloppily spilling some on the table - but that's just normal for him.]
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We are talking of unhappy things again. That seems to be the way of it.
Thinking too much. Doing too much.
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[There's no escaping those thoughts. Hazily, he regrets saying that too, for that's a subject he never brings up if he can help it, but alcohol does tend to loosen the tongue.
Six months here, now. Half a year gone by and every day he misses the kid. He's found people here he can somewhat trust, he has plenty to keep him busy and so much to work toward for all of them, but the heartache doesn't ever lessen.]
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[He'd seen Rosinante's death, he could make some guesses about what he's thinking about that he could have done differently. ]
There's no way to escape is there? The past seems to always be haunting us.
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[Not here, probably. Maybe dead anyway, but maybe not stuck here. Of course, it's not the worst thing. He might not be the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, but he has the will to try and help and so do a lot of people here. However the portal selects its victims, it got a batch this time that he's at least a little bit optimistic about. The chances of sparing the rest of the universe from the world eaters aren't completely zero.
And the past is what made him who he is today. Jagged around the edges, a little anxious, a little too willing to sit back and observe and let others talk over him sometimes. Able to pull the trigger and sacrifice a few to save the rest. He's not the ideal human being, he never will be, but he doesn't hate everything about himself. He respects his parents and their struggles too much to completely hate everything he turned out to be.]
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[He'd have some more wise words about that if he wasn't drunk enough to be verging into the sleepy phase where everything is a little fuzzy around the edges. ]
I thought maybe the way we died was the catalyst for coming here, but maybe it's something in our past, some shared experience we don't realize we have. Unless it truly is random, but it would be easier to ensure we work together towards a solution if we all have similar backgrounds.
We don't though do we?
Nevermind. I don't know what I'm saying anymore, thinking in circles.
[That had seemed right in his mind until he said it out loud and then it seemed stupid and you know what he's done trying to be logical right now.]
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[Sounds like it's time for them both to cut themselves off. There's still more than he'd like in his glass, but he downs it and grimaces at the sting.]
Just keep moving forward. All we can do.
[Advice he's very bad at taking for himself, but isn't that how it always is?]
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[He sets his empty glass in the middle of the table, staring at it intently before standing up. It's taking all his focus to not wobble, his typical ramrod straight posture slightly off and hunched. Even he can't be properly posed all the time.
But he definitely needs to go sleep this off, and there are many stairs between him and there.]
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[He watches Kuai get up, nodding as if agreeing that's the right thing to do, then rolls his head to where he can face the spirits lazing around on top of the bar. Nah... can't be bothered to ask them for water. He'll let Kuai go, then will head up to his own room. Before Kuai can really leave, though, he adds,]
Good luck.