vermicompost: (six)
Kariya Matou ([personal profile] vermicompost) wrote in [community profile] towerofanimus2013-01-13 02:33 am

Long lost days of you and me

Characters: Kariya Matou and open
Setting: The dormitories and the meadow (or anywhere else, if anyone would like to take him somewhere, as he isn't very mobile on his own– he likes visitors, and trips.)
Format: Action to start, but prose is fine, too
Summary: It's only been a year or so, by Kariya's reckoning (when he can remember), but time and magical parasites have taken their toll.
Warnings: blood and possible body horror or angst



Kariya's Room:

[It's difficult for him to move at all, yet he has his wheelchair, and he can push it a little ways. It's hard for him to leave the dormitories, yet sometimes he still tries. Not now. For the moment, he's resting in his room, his eyes closed, even though he isn't sleeping. It's hard for him to fall asleep.

His body is smaller than it used to be. He's shrunk. Both his eyes are oddly whitish, both sides of him equally affected by what lives within him. His pale skin is all lines and veins, and the movement of the worms within him is evident beneath it, where it shows. His skin appears so thin, it seems it might break at any moment. All of him seems like it might break. Sometimes it does. His skin cracks in lines where it's thinnest, and the blood seeps out. He hardly notices when that happens. Maybe it's because it happens all the time, or maybe he simply isn't thinking clearly enough to realize.

He mutters to himself sometimes, and today is no exception. Sakura, he says often, or he mumbles something about going back home. Back home. He's going to get there. He'll go back to the War, he'll fight and he'll win, and he'll make everything all right again. Suddenly, he speaks, his voice firming, loud enough to be heard clearly.
]

I'll help everyone go home.

[That's what he'll do.]

The Dormitory Hallways:

[Kariya wheels himself slowly along. He probably won't get very far, but he likes the feeling of moving forward. (He hasn't told anyone he was going.) He likes to travel. He used to travel once, didn't he? He feels so confined when he's in his room too long, trapped in one place. It's better to get out and around. Unfortunately, the corridors are so confusingly, frustratingly similar.

When he's gone a certain distance, he forgets how far he's come and where he was headed. He stops in the middle of the hallway, not sure whether to go forward or back. Maybe if he waits here long enough, he'll remember. Or maybe it wasn't so important. This is a change of scenery, isn't it? He sits back and gazes down the corridor, a wasted figure with white hair, waiting for someone or something interesting to arrive. He can't see very well, but his expression, if anyone were close enough to read it, is a hopeful one.
]

The Meadow:

[It's a good day when he can get to the meadow. Some days, he's stronger, if only a little. The meadow is his favorite floor. It's beautiful there. It makes him smile. The grass and the flowers remind him of the park where he used to play with the children. Sometimes he thinks it is that park. But not today. No, he's thinking more clearly today. He moves a thin arm and manages to take out his photograph, from where he always keeps it, in the pocket of his jacket. It's wrinkled and torn and stained with blood, but it's his. His picture of his family: that's Aoi standing beside him, his wife, and with them are two little girls: their two daughters, Rin and Sakura. When he goes home, he'll see them again. They'll be happy again.

He's forgotten that he never married, that he never had children. But why would he want to remember a thing like that?
]
achillean: (we must leave with the first gentle)

Meadow

[personal profile] achillean 2013-01-13 11:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Waver had come to the meadow for a breath of fresh air, and somewhere quiet to read. But when he notices the wheelchair and familiar, broken figure, he approaches Kariya, standing beside him.]

How are your girls today?
wrigurun: (Default → IN)

Dormitory hallways

[personal profile] wrigurun 2013-01-13 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[From behind him comes the voice of a young woman, who's tiny friends had alerted her to his presence]

Hey, don't strain yourself.

[Wriggle takes hold of the handles of the wheelchair but she doesn't move him anywhere yet]

Where're you headed today?
Edited 2013-01-13 13:37 (UTC)
mycloudedskies: (pic#5522469)

[personal profile] mycloudedskies 2013-01-13 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope that you can find a way Kariya [Romeo smiles at him as he enters the room, he always finds time to come and visit the man who was kind to him when he was a child. And is always sad that there is nothing he can do to help his suffering.] I brought you some carrot soup.
wrigurun: (Cheerful → BAiJR)

[personal profile] wrigurun 2013-01-13 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
You always say that when you don't look fine. I don't understand why you won't accept my help.

[It's an issue that's been done to death so many times so she doesn't peruse it much further than that]

Some fresh air might do you good? How about I take you to one of the outside floors?
wrigurun: (Cheerful → BAiJR)

[personal profile] wrigurun 2013-01-13 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
That park? Well, I dunno about that...

[In all the years she's been here she doesn't remember a park being put in, although it would be a nice addition]

But the meadow's pretty nice this time of year, we can go there.

[Then again it's nice every time of year]
achillean: (on an odyssey of self-discovery)

[personal profile] achillean 2013-01-13 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[He looks down at the photo and smiles. He's seen it a thousand times over, but he knows how Kariya is, so he acts like it's new.]

They are, and they've only grown even more so. And is that your wife? They look just like her.
oathshackledbird: Say That Again (Say That Again)

Meadow

[personal profile] oathshackledbird 2013-01-13 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[Lancer watches Kariya quietly for a long time before approaching. He's not sure why he still comes to this place when he knows that the other man is here whenever he can physically make it. It hurts Lancer to see him like this.

Hurts him to know just how badly he failed.

Again.

There had been a time, long long ago, when all Lancer had wanted to do was see to it that this kind, honorable man find his way back to the one he wanted to protect so much, but nothing he had done ever worked. The tower had thwarted him at every turn.

And now, Kariya has been reduced to this state that can barely be called life, living in a delusion that Lancer cannot, no matter how far he's fallen, bare to break.

It's his fault after all and this...

...this his penitence for failing another friend, another...master.

He takes a deep breath and sets a smile on his face. The smile never reaches his eyes.
]

It's a good day today, Lord Kariya, is it not?
achillean: (just like Ulysses on the open sea)

[personal profile] achillean 2013-01-13 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
My students are enough for me, but even they grow too fast.

I think I passed her earlier in the day, she looked busy, so I didn't stop her. But you know how teenagers are, they like to go off on their own without telling anyone.

[Of course he hasn't seen Sakura, not ever, other than that photograph. But it seems much better to indulge Kariya's fantasies. He wouldn't want to see what state the man would be in if someone told him otherwise.]
pheliostasqueen: (XVI. the tower)

dormitory hallways; hope that's okay

[personal profile] pheliostasqueen 2013-01-13 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ishtar was zoned out when she was down the hallways. She always traveled down them everyday, to do things that she knew she had to get done; things that kept her from thinking about the past and the ongoing pain that ate at her.

She didn't look too different to anyone, but the extremely long hair and the taller figure was and obvious change to her usually childish looking form. She looked up and noticed the man that she had been taking care of for the last couple of years. At least, she tried her best in everything she did.

It didn't look like it helped him much at all, but Ishtar was a determined person, and she would find a way to fix this parasite problem. She had been trying for the past couple of years looking up things and researching but none of it came in handy because she didn't understand most of it. Where was Yujinn when she needed her cousin the most. He would have been able to explain things to her and allowed her to be able to use the research.

She tried, though. That was all she could down. There was a sad expression on her face as she saw him sit there with his hopeful expression and worn out form. She almost cried. It was so painful to watch. This man who was filled with such strong will from the first time they've met. ]
Edited 2013-01-13 22:53 (UTC)
achillean: (Default)

[personal profile] achillean 2013-01-13 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
They're going well, the children here are smart. But that goes along with the desire to learn, naturally.

[He pauses, wondering if he should really add to the delusion or if it's so far gone nothing much matters.]

Sakura is easily the top, though.

It's an unfortunate fact of life in this place, no one's really safe, no matter what's offered instead.
oathshackledbird: Say That Again (Say That Again)

Re: Meadow

[personal profile] oathshackledbird 2013-01-13 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
That sounds beautiful, Kariya. I'm sorry I missed it and let me apologize if I've let too much time pass since we last saw each other. I do that sometimes.

[Lancer moves to kneel at the wheelchair's side, false smile still on his face. Once settled, he looks up and meets Kariya's eyes despite how hard it is.]

Fortunately, it has been quiet lately and so I am sure you have had a good amount of time to spend with your family. Tell me, how are they?

[He almost chokes on the words as he says them, though somehow his voice remains calm. He hates supporting this lie his friend is living. He really just wants to shake the man and make him see that it is all wrong, but Lancer knows he can't do that. He knows it's his fault things are like this.

He has no right to rob the slightest bit of happiness from his friend when he failed so badly to bring him the happiness he really wanted and needed.
]
pheliostasqueen: (II. the high priestess)

Yay

[personal profile] pheliostasqueen 2013-01-13 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello, Kariya.

[ She gave him a small smile as she walked up to him. His appearance hasn't changed much and she's somewhat glad for that but at the same time he appears a little smaller than the last time she recalls seeing him. That worries her. She hopes that the treatment itself will at least slow down the things the inhabited his body. She really wishes that her cousin was here. He can give her tips and tricks on what to do.

It is hard to try to handle things on your own without much ground to cover. She stops right int front of him as she kneels down a little bit to meet his gaze. If anything, she's prepared to wheel him to a safer location if he's okay with it. ]


It seems like it. It's always better to do it sooner than later. I hope it's been at least helping you out somehow, since I know it's been a long run since we've started.

[ and not much progress to that. ]
redbranch: <user name=mafdet-icons site=livejournal.com> (pic#5303071)

[personal profile] redbranch 2013-01-13 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey.

[Lancer gives a quick knock on the door frame. He's made visiting Kariya in his room a regular habit these days, since the other man is too weak to move around on his own.]

Helping everyone go home, huh? It's a nice goal. I bet Rin would proud of her father for saying that.

[He knows their actual relationship all too well, but he won't tell it to Kariya or anybody else. Not with the state that both of them are in. Better that they just stayed in their happy little fantasy, since they have so little else.]

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