355/The Time Is Out Of Joint

The Time Is Out Of Joint
Date of Scene:	03 September 2023
Location:	The Forgotten District
Synopsis:	The time is out of joint -- O cursèd spite, that ever I was born to set it right!
Cast of Characters:	Pyrite, Kyouka Inai

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Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko Soryuu has changed in many ways. That is something the dead don't do; not really. They will always forget eventually. They will always revert back to what they truly are: a memory or series of memories that repeat over and over, for eternity, until they don't even remember who they used to be, they just remember the memory they are made of. This is to say that, given time, Himeko will also revert back to what she was.
    But for now, as long as she keeps being reminded of who she is here, she may be able to retain this current form of herself. It's not truly a change, since it's still the same base soul, just with more of her 'present', but it's more of a change than a ghost normally sees.
    She remains true to her nature. Her nature is not a curse that seeks to kill and devour souls, but a good girl who has been betrayed by every single person who was ever part of her existence, alive, dead, or undead. There's an ocean of hurt enough to drown all of Japan inside of her, but because of who she is, she wants to spare anyone else the suffering she has experienced.
    Recently, a fight took place in the haunted district where nobody lives, and which has been the isolated domain of an embodiment of Death for decades, and home to a Kami of Murder for even longer than that. Himeko couldn't be react or be there at the time, because that wasn't where she was back then. She existed in a different time and place, so could not acknowledge or act upon her knowledge that her realm was the site of a battle, or the disturbance of the person she is bound to engaging in hostilities.
    But the time has come for her to be there, back then. Unfortunately, Kyouka Inai was only there back then, and isn't there now. So what's a ghost to do?
    A dream is no different from a memory, for Himeko, except in the way the two bleed into each other. You see, sometimes... Dreams spill. Further, the dreams of children are much bigger than an adult, so they can spill even more.
    This evening, a dream spills and flows into Kyouka Inai's own, and the memory of Being Here becomes part of said dream. As that was the only time that Kyouka was Being Here, and now is the only time Himeko is Meeting Here, now and then are temporarily overlapped.
    Sitting on a cracked sidewalk alongside an overgrown copse of trees, in a dimly-lit place somewhere in Tokyo, Himeko Soryuu sits. She now looks 13 or 14, and she has a scar on her left cheek, and her long black hair is in braids, and she's wearing an oversized motorcycle jacket over a pink shirt with yellow ducklings marching across it, and a pair of jeans. Her legs seem to trail off into nothing around the bottoms, as is typical of Japanese ghosts, so there's no sign of her feet.
    She just sits there, humming to herself, and messing with a piece of broken glass, waiting for Kyouka to 'arrive'.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka was sleeping. Or at least, she's supposed to be. So exactly why she's ended up back in this forsaken place she's not entirely sure. But she is here, more or less without remembering getting there. Or going away. She's dressed in her 'casual' attire, aka what she wears when she's not at school trying to look respectable, which means a t-shirt and ripped-up jeans, calf-high boots and her own leather jacket, which is actually pretty similar to the one Himeko is wearing. Sunglasses over her ash-grey eyes. Also, her left arm is in a sling, bound against her chest.

    She takes a moment to look around. She frowns slightly, glancing up at the sky, as if perhaps expecting to see a figure in grey and black hovering up there. But no- her arm is already broken. So this can't be then. She looks around instead and spots Himeko sitting on the curb. Her reaction isn't one of surprise, or even confusion. More like curious interest, as she draws closer.

    "I thought you said you weren't going to talk to me again." She says by way of greeting. "This is a bit invasive, isn't it?" A vague gesture around at the spectral surroundings. "But is it invasive of me, or of you?"

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko looks up. "Oh... You don't need to keep that..." she gestures at the arm. Well, up to Kyouka really. Instead she blinks her bright red eyes. "I thought you said you hope I come see you again. Wasn't that our last interaction?" The surroundings shift to a coffee shop at the plaza in Juuban for a few seconds, before reverting back to the abandoned district. "Anyway, um. I just wanted to say hello again, and apologize. If I hadn't said anything, you wouldn't have gotten hurt, or had to do all this work... I did get blamed for something you or someone else did, but it turned out fine." She smiles nervously as she gestures with the piece of glass.
    "After all, look at me now! I am surprised you recognized me, but... Perhaps I shouldn't be." She looks thoughtfully up at the overcast sky. "Would you prefer my original appearance? I don't have to use Dark Energy, so I can just look like the me from then without hurting your nose."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I did say that. I guess I'm just used to my hopes being dashed." Kyouka says, with gallows humor. No offense to the present company. She doesn't comment on the shifting surroundings. She's obviously gathered that this is a dream, or a vision, or some other flavor of 'not physically real'. But when you're dealing with ghosts, or dark energy constructs or other flavors of 'not a real person', sometimes shit like this happens.

    She turns herself around and sits down on the curb by Himeko. Not right beside her, leaving a small amount of space, but close enough. "Don't apologize for that. It's going to end up saving lives. Maybe you don't care about that, but I do, so you don't need to apologize. The arm will heal. I've had worse." The sling hasn't gone away. Her self-image is strong, even in a dream. "I really don't know what this stuff about you getting blamed is about. I had nothing to do with it." Not strictly true, but she really has no idea how Kiseru got the information she was given, so has no knowledge of Nephrite's house being raided either, other than what Darien told her.

    "You look different, but you smell the same. Minus the Dark Energy." She taps the side of her nose. "I'm good at recognizing people." She shrugs her shoulders. "You can look however you want. I've never been one to judge on appearance. Plus I like your jacket."

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko looks down at the glass in her hand, and nods understandingly. Being betrayed by one's own hopes... Is a depressingly familiar cycle for her as well. "Mm. I have a good smell too. Or... Sense of smell, rather. I don't smell myself so I don't know what I smell like. I guess maybe I should check. I'm sorry, I'm still learning about the body I have now. I haven't touched anything in so long, and now I can feel it when I touch things." A small smile plays on her lips. She starts to reach out towards Kyouka but pauses. "May I... Touch your jacket? I like yours too. It's fine if not. I can always touch a different jacket..."
    Himeko is still playing with that broken glass. "I think... The part of me that wanted people to die is... Inactive right now. Maybe not sealed, but definitely suppressed. I hope that I can change or eliminate it entirely, but I only have so much time before I start to forget again... I'm sorry, I'm just... Babbling, aren't I?" Sighing, the ghost girl says, "I am a ghost, but I am trying not to be. I care about whether people live or die. People should die at the appropriate time, not have it forced upon them. So... I want to stop unwarranted death, I guess is what my objective is. If someone has lived a long life, full of experiences, thoughts, memories, feelings, connections, and achievements, and they pass on? I would want to meet that soul and learn about them. Like... Reading a really good book. But I wouldn't try to make it happen sooner."
    Not anymore, at least. She is no longer a Kami. No one prays to her. With the Curse of Yomi suppressed as well, she might finally have a chance to sort out who she will be from now on, without being enslaved by the prayers and curses of others.
    "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" she asks finally.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Well, in this case it's not actually smell." Kyouka admits, with a shrug of her shoulders. "That's just the way my magic sense manifests. I guess that's just the way my brain understands it. So don't worry- you don't actually smell in any way that a normal person could detect. At least, not to any degree that I've noticed."

    At the question about touching her jacket, she quirks a brow, with an accompanying smile. "I mean, this is some sort of dream or something anyway, isn't it? That means it's not actually my jacket. So I don't care if you touch it. Not like you can hurt it." Of course, she's not really sure if the same goes for her person. But that's best left unsaid.

    She listens to what the girl says, and can't help but add, "Wanting people to die is actually pretty human. It's actually attempting to make it happen that's inhuman. Everybody dies. Sometimes it sticks.." A contemplative pause. "Sometimes it doesn't. But innocent people shouldn't have to die for no good reason. And 'to increase the power of a bunch of dark-energy huffing assholes' is not a good reason."

    When asked if there's anything else that would help her, Kyouka seems to think about it. Finally, she says, "Help Darien. He needs it more than I do."

Pyrite has posed:
    The ghost smiles as she touches Kyouka's jacket, gently, and hesitantly, like petting a kitten for the first time. She grins and says, "Thank you." Then the piece of glass again. "Don't worry, I will. As long as he wants me to be there, I will be. I think he's going to have a bad dream soon. A really, really bad dream. I don't know what about, but there's a cloud with shadow teeth and glowing red eyes, and it's reaching out for Onii-chan and his friends. I don't know if I can eat bad dreams or not anymore. That was... Part of the Death Curse that was active at the time. But that storm cloud wants two things, and will do anything to get them, so..."
    Himeko raises the piece of glass up to eye level. "I guess... If you're okay with taking on another two responsibilities... I'd like to ask a favor. I'll protect Darien-onii-chan, and Mamoru-onii-chan, and try to get the other half of me out of the dark so I can help all the way with protecting people. And I'll keep trying to remember." She puts the piece of glass to her left cheek and cuts into it, reopening and deepening the scar there. Blood streams out of the injury and drips onto Himeko's jacket.
    Still holding the bloody glass piece in her right hand, Himeko Soryuu turns towards Kyouka Inai, smiles a bloody smile, and says, "Find the Silver Crystal and Awaken the Princess."
    After that, the connection between Kyouka's dream and Himeko's memory stretches and stretches. In a few more moments, it will break.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't flinch as the girl cuts herself with the glass. She just watches, her face neutral, and her eyes flat.

    And just before the connection breaks, after Himeko makes her demands, Kyouka responds with a simple statement.

    "Hunny, I'm way ahead of you."