shithogs | open post

Six months. Roger had lasted six months before the cracks started to show.

It didn't take a genius to pick up on being lied to. Yuri is inclined to believe he's never been a genius, now or ever, but the old man's behavior raised so many red flags Yuri finally forced him to come clean.

...by getting him super drunk at his favorite bar. It was a night - full of tears and snot (from Roger) along with confusion and anger (from Yuri). It was only after he spoke to Keith and Margarete, getting their side of the story, did he even believe his name was really Yuri.

After that, it's been nothing but downhill.

A year and a half later he finds himself living a life he imagined he used to have - drifting through towns, stowing away on trains and boats. Well, boat. Nobody warned him about the horrific seasickness that seems to try to kill him on the way over to China.

Never again. Roger can figure out how to fly places.

Shangai doesn't bring what he's looking for - recognition. Nostalgia. Anything other than the indifference. Margarete offered to travel with him for a time, thinking her own stories would jog his memory, but he's on his last leg of hope here.

Does he even want any of that back? He has run across a few shopkeepers who recall him visiting - the reactions have been mixed, to say the least.

He's standing outside a bar, hands on hips and contemplating just going inside and getting obliterated. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Without further thought, he enters the bar, not worried about keeping a low profile by any means. What's the point of it? A fight might do him some good.

The funny thing about tracking demons was that it was, simply put, almost fucking impossible. They could look like anyone they felt like, travel wherever they wanted without being limited by trains or boats or whatever else, but finally, after what felt like forever, she had a good lead. That lead had brought her to Shanghai— a first, though she's no stranger to travel, and she knows she sticks out here even more than she usually does.

The hair, in particular, draws attention, and most people in the bar she's taken up residence in have been giving her a wide berth since one patron had gotten a little too chummy with her and walked away with a couple of broken fingers. The barkeep had chosen to overlook it this once, if only because said patron was a repeated offender, but anything else might be pushing her luck.

She's halfway through her second drink when the door opens and Yuri walks in. There's nothing about his appearance that strikes her as significant, but he still manages to command her attention— there's an undercurrent that moves through the room, dark energy that makes her feel just a little bit on edge, and that all-too-familiar voice at the back of her head offers his two cents.

"Lookit that, Sunshine! Can't say for sure what he is, but he's some kinda freak. Might just be our guy. Only one way to find out, you know..."

"Shut up," she mutters under her breath, but even so, she grabs hold of her drink and angles herself just slightly towards the door, watching the new arrival with veiled intent, curious. He's probably just here for a drink like anyone else, but Tyrann is right, much as she hates to admit it. He's not human.

He ambles up to the bar, ordering a beer and parking at the bar itself. There's a crowd, which isn't such a bad thing, but this crowd looks fairly local. Which means he stands out.

Or maybe he just gives off a vibe, because the trouble makers sure latch onto him as soon as he has his glass in hand.

"Don't recognize ya."

A heavy sigh makes his shoulders droop, and he wonders if this has always been his life. Knowing the luck he has, it has. Maybe that should be reassuring but right now it's real fucking annoying, just like this guy coming up to him to show off for his friends. He decides to ignore him.

"Yo, you look at someone when they're talking to you."

Rolling his eyes, he downs the beer and turns to face this idiot. One of those tough guys. One who immediately turns ghost white when he sees Yuri's face.

"Aw, shit, nevermind man."

That's...new. Yuri gives the guy a baffled look as he scrambles away, clear out the door before he has a chance to say anything. He blinks a few times, then glances around the room. There's a few people staring - old bartender pretending to clean a glass, a lady with blonde...white? Hair. Glaring at him?

That's what he's used to. Usually from the men, though.

Shaking his head, he turns back to the bar. Maybe he should chase after the guy, but he's fricken tired. Can't he just have a night? A day?

Cursing to himself, he slams a bill down on the counter and takes off after the weirdo. He's gonna get some answers at least.

[With some fish successfully caught, 2B admires their catches as she cradles them in her arms, an uncharacteristic glow behind what features are still visible. Her mouth falls open as she considers their weight – decent – and she looks at Kaine with newly formed conviction.]

Good catches.

[She seems... excited about this, and is making sure that Kaine is listening before she turns to her support unit.]

Pod. What are they?

[A blip in response as it considers for a moment...]

Koi Carp. Arowana. Killfish. Bloatfish.

[Wow!!!]

[Kainé nods in response— she was far from a professional angler, but if you wanted to eat, you learned how to fend for yourself. Good to know those skills were still going to serve her well here, especially since she's not interested in guzzling oil or whatever the hell it is these androids use to power themselves.]

Yeah, not bad. Better than I expected to find.

[But if they have moose and boars, she guesses it makes sense that there are still fish hanging around. Humans couldn't fucking cut it, but the wildlife was doing alright.

She narrows her eyes a little as 'Pod' lists off the names one after the other, curious.]

So he just— helps you with whatever the hell you ask? Doesn't give you any shit?

[This is Important, she needs to know.]

So much for observation. Whatever energy he'd brought into the bar with him, it follows him right back out— but she doesn't intend to lose sight of him so easily. Even when he'd noticed her staring, she hadn't batted an eye, and subtlety isn't something she puts too much stock into on a normal day. Slamming money down on the bar behind her, she shoves herself off of the stool she'd occupied and heads towards the exit, ignoring the barkeep's shout that she'd overpaid.

She has eyes on him almost immediately upon leaving the bar, and takes off at a run to keep up. Wherever he intends to chase his own prey, she plans to follow— and seeing how this guy deals with him? That'll tell her a whole lot of what she needs to know in itself.

[Satisfied with their catch, 2B nods in the direction of the Resistance Camp, just up the hill. There's a small corridor between buildings that dwarf the camp, hiding them away from any machines who happen to pass by.]

Each unit deployed to the ground are assigned pod units. They're useful to have and provide intel and support in battle.

[Pod 042 gets a pointed look.]

If our Pods disobey orders, we can order them to temporarily shut down.

[Basically, if they give them shit. Same thing, right?]

He's about a conspicuous as they come - making a direct beeline to the men who had just left. They see him coming, and with eyes wide they scurry off, down an alley way. He doesn't hesitate to follow them, and it's in the shadows of that very alley that he sense someone following him.

His shoulders tense, but he stays the course, torn between running after the idiots (who have already booked it around the corner) and confronting the presence behind him. It doesn't seem very friendly, and he wonders if he could just...go back to his hotel.

Take a nap.

Go back to Europe.

With a sigh, he knows that isn't a choice for him and he stops abruptly, whipping around to confront his shadow.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" He says...to nothing he can see. Shit, this hellhole is pitch black. Can't see nothin'.

Shit.

[An actual, honest-to-god smile pulls at one side of her mouth.]

Wish I could have used that trick on that goddamn book.

[As it was, there was no combination of words she could spit out, no threat she could ever make that had been enough to make Weiss shut the hell up. She's actually kind of jealous of this whole pod situation, except if she were being honest, she misses that stupid magazine a hell of a lot more than she's willing to let on.]

Friend of mine— floating dictionary with his head up his own goddamn index. Never shuts up.

She stops short in his wake, and when he turns to face her, she's standing there in the open rather than trying to appear inconspicuous, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. The dark doesn't bother her so much, but she still can't see much more than his outline here in the alleyway, and she's willing to bet he can't see much more of her, either.

"Depends."

Shit, even when he talks, she can feel that demonic energy pulsing through the air surrounding. Whatever the hell he is, it sure as hell isn't human.

"C'mon, sunshine, why waste time talkin'? Rip him to shreds! Bet he bleeds real good..."

She closes her eyes for a brief moment, exhaling to steel herself before fixing her gaze on him— her vision is starting to adjust, and while there's still several feet of space between them, it's a small distance that either of them could clear in no time.

"Is that even your own goddamn face you're wearing?"

A floating...?

[2B's mouth falls open, confused. She knows what a dictionary is, but trying to imagine what a floating book filled with words describing other words is a bit too big-brained for her android brain to process.

A floating device like her Pod is not odd by any stretch—for her—but she's never heard of a book that could do the same thing? Or talked, for that matter, but one step at a time here!]

How did it float?

Magic, I guess?

[Really the only explanation for it. She looks annoyed just thinking about him, but not so much that she can't answer 2B's questions.]

I'd say it's not common, but I've seen at least two other floating books— they were even bigger assholes than he was. He was just the first.

[And the lovable kind of pompous asshole, really.]

Do you guys have magic here?

That takes him completely off guard.

"What?"

His expression can only be described as dumbfounded. Emphasis on dumb. Shaking his head, he goes into Hero Mode or at least Guy You Don't Mess With Mode. Crossing his arms over his chest, he cocks a hip to the side and frowns at her. He opens his mouth to answer as his eyes adjust to the dim light and something in the color of her hair, the lines of her face, pings some recognition.

"Hey, you're that lady from the bar!" He sounds accusing. "Why you worrying about my face, anyway? You like it?"

You've found a stupid man, Kaine. Not completely, though, since there is an energy that surrounds her he hasn't felt before. It sure as hell isn't Light based either.

Magic? No.

[Not that she knows of. And even if there were, 2B might have a hard time believing in it. Though, there are some things that she does find magical, like these fish, and the way that the lunar tears glow all pretty-like.

But then, she recalls watching some data logs of the humans—many of them, in fact—and there is something that dings somewhere in her memory banks.]

Oh... Hm. [As if she's having some kind of revelation in this very moment.] Do you mean pulling animals out of hats?

[That's what the humans did, and she's sure that they called it magic.]

[She actually squints for a moment. Pulling animals out of—?]

Not that I've ever seen. Read about it in some kids' stories, though.

[Maybe that's the kind of thing people used to use magic for.]

Only thing magic seems to be any good for now is killing shit.

[Which, honestly, she can get behind.]

She sure has found a stupid man. Goddamnit.

She gestures broadly, bracing a hand against her hip. He seems like he has the potential to be a talker. She's not so sure she's into that.

"Not particularly," she all but spits back, her jaw tight. "But I got a feeling it ain't yours. The whole mood of that bar changed when you strolled in. Doesn't seem like a fucking coincidence to me. I can practically smell the demon on you from here."

Alright, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but they're trying to out-Tough Guy each other here, right?

[Well, if it kills the hostile machines, then 2B can get behind it. But that's what swords and hacking are for.]

Your book... That used magic somehow, didn't it?

[Kaine had mentioned it earlier, and then steered the subject towards magic, so the only logical explanation for the link is that it had used magic to float, right?]

Yeah. The more blood he saw spilled, the stronger his magic got.

[Which means that even though they spent the majority of their time arguing, he and Kainé had actually gotten along just fine— her own inclination towards violence had worked in both his and Nier's favor.]

Asshole had a real mouth on him, but that magic was useful while fighting Shades— bullshit monsters we're overrun with instead of machines.

[But in the long run, it's not that different. Both here, and where she's from, the ongoing conflict seems endless. She'd do well here, although destroying machines isn't as satisfying as cutting down Shades had been.]

I see...

[Spilling enemy blood makes him stronger. Just like her, and just like Adam and Eve. Machines and Androids alike adapt and learn, grow based on their experiences, just like their creators do. Androids, however, are different. They...

2B makes a disconcerted noise in the back of her throat and scoops up the fish they'd caught.]

We'll go back to the Resistance Camp. You'll need nourishment if you want to continue surviving here.

[She does her part to help, unwilling to let 2B carry everything on her own, and gets down on one knee to gather up the remainder of their catch. Really, they'd done pretty well for themselves.]

Got a lot of uneasy stares when we were there before.

[Of course, it's the only place to go, so it's not like she can opt to head somewhere else for help. She's definitely at a disadvantage in this place.]

I think I make some of 'em nervous. ... do your kind get nervous?

[She's still trying to get a feel for how android emotions actually work. They do seem to have them.]

Great. Someone able to pick up on his fusion vibes. Most folks just skirt around him, if he's got his glare on for the day, but otherwise he does his best to seem like average man out for the day.

It's hard not to roll his eyes, but a hand does come up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "What, you some kinda exorcist or something? Look, it's a long story but I'm not starting fights. Just looking for info. Once I get it, my ass will be out of Shanghai before you know it."

God forbid she decides to become a babysitter. He has a feeling he's run into that plenty in his life. Whatever his life had been before.

[2B casts Kaine a glance through the corner of her eye, but her head remains facing forward at all times as they wander into the camp. A cursory glance around does have her catching some of the Resistance androids looking at them, or more specifically, the girl next to her, some appearing uneasy while others surprised.

She ignores them and leads Kaine to the back, where they will be able to set up a fire and cook the fish in peace.]

Mm, not quite, [she finally admits when they're past the gates.] If we feel things like nervousness or fear, we become a liability in battle.

[Though 2B is not quite innocent of keeping those emotions in check herself, having let those feelings turn to rage in the toughest situations, where 9S's life was put on the line. Adam made sure to take full advantage of that, but in the end, it ultimately allowed her to save her partner.

Still, she's going to abide by the YoRHa rules.

With a thoughtful purse to her lips, 2B drops the pile of fish to the ground.]

I think the Resistance are uneasy because they haven't seen a human in a long time.

"Do I look like a goddamn exorcist?"

Not a bible in sight, and where would she even tuck a bottle of holy water in this getup? Not that she's interested in mincing words, because she knows his kind— the type that think they can talk their way out of any situation, that if they swear they're not looking for a fight they'll be allowed to slither away.

Fat fucking chance.

"Right. Info. And how many heads are you looking to crack open to get it? Enough of your bullshit, I know a goddamn demon when I see one!"

Another step forward, and suddenly there's a weapon in one hand, as though a sword had materialized out of thin air.

"You're hunting."

Who is this lady? Annoyance rolls off him in waves, his energy noticeable darker - maybe dangerous, but he has no intention on transforming.

For all that Roger insists he has had control in the past, that control is gone. He doesn't want to put himself in a position of being in a demonic form and laying waste. That's apparently something that's happened before, though Roger was great at leaving out the details. Like always.

"Yeah, hunting for info, so back off." He folds his arms, glaring at her. "What's it to you, anyway? You're the one stalkin' me, lady. Does it look like I'm out here eatin' people and shit? You gotta go to one of those rural towns around here for that."

He thinks. Maybe. It feels right, saying it, even though he doesn't know if it's true. Probably one of those folk tales people tell around here and he just caught it in the air. Whatever the reason, she's got a sword out and he's ready to defend himself, if needed.

The rise in his own energy brings something within her to just beneath the surface; she can feel her pulse quicken, her blood run hot, and the voice that never shuts up for more than five minutes sees fit to latch on and goad, to try and use the moment to his own advantage.

"Cut it with the talk already, Sunshine. Just look at 'im. You can smell it on him, can't you? Don't drag this out, just go for the kill! Even if he's not the guy— c'mon. It'll feel real good."

She screws her eyes shut for a moment, closing her empty hand into a tight fist at her side as she tries to shove Tyrann aside, to ignore his goading as best he can. That's not how she wants to handle this. She grits her teeth, her eyes flying open to lock onto Yuri's own gaze.

"Well I'm hunting— a demon. And since I got to Shanghai, all signs point to you."

He's the only one who's even come close to fitting the bill.

open post

tonight we're gonna party like it's 1920! in shanghai wow so nice

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pressing fast forward on our old meme thread a teenie bit

oh this is heckin' cute

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