01 ✣ VIDEO

[merespark]

[ A guy with red hair is smiling faintly at the camera. He looks a bit lost and embarrassed. The look you could easily picture on the face of a tourist looking for the restroom. ]

Can anyone tell me the way to Heaven? I must have taken the wrong turn.

[ He scratches his head and chuckles. ]

I didn't sign up for this, you know. That death was glorious and it didn't lack drama either. It all served a purpose. Did you even see it, God? A hero like me shouldn't end up in Hell – not even by mistake, haha...

[ He pauses as if he's listening to some distant noise. ]

And what's with the ticking?

Comments

[merespark]

[ the sight almost makes him laugh. in a good way. this guy couldn't be any more different from Ikki. ]

Now, now, you'll be soon regretting you ever agreed to this.

[ the new training program he has in his mind will make them cry blood. ]

1/2

[errandry]

I had to live with Agito for months, I can take your training!

[errandry]

[ though that was a bad joke and he knows it and speaking of which— ]

Wait—before that, though, anybody tell you about the rest of the City yet?

[merespark]

I was told your apartment is really gross.

[ that's all. ]

[errandry]

... not really what I meant.





And who the hell said that, we clean it every week!

[merespark]

Tell me about the clock.

I assume there is one.

[ he can hardly hear the ticking anymore. odd. ]

[errandry]

It's ... underground? Pretty sure it can move around, or it's doing something to the City—there's a lot of weird rumors about it.

[merespark]

That's all?

I'm surprised you and Ikki haven't gone banging your head on it yet.

Or is there no access to it?

[errandry]

It's pretty far down, and there's a lot of monsters running the tunnels. They stuck a barrier on it anyway—even if you got down there, only thing you could do's look at it.

[merespark]

Sounds perfect for training.

[ tunnels and monsters. couldn't ask for more! ]

1/2

[errandry]

[ lskndgldew ]

You don't even know what kind they are!

[errandry]

... not that you probably couldn't handle 'em, but that's still a totally different kind of training!

[merespark]

You have to think outside the box to become the very best. Training is training no matter what it's for. As long as you sweat and suffer you're improving.

Monsters or riders – it's not that different. All men are beasts inside.

[errandry]

When you put it like that...

[ still, now that he's actually thinking about it. ]

Me and Ikki can go check out the first couple levels while you're settling in.

[merespark]

You do that. [ if they're not covered in cuts and bruises he'll know they didn't do it properly. ]

About the settling in... You wouldn't happen to know any clean cemeteries where I could go lay down for a couple of hours? Or is there an immigration detention centre?

[errandry]

... you're not actually dead, the corpses'd rise up to kick you out!

[ making A Face—still unsure what ground to tread, what's actually okay to say that won't make him sound a fool three times over, but. ]

They've got plenty of open apartments around anyway.

[merespark]

[ Kazu you're not alone. he doesn't quite know how to deal with it either, so he's just cracking jokes. jokes are good. ]

Well, I suppose a roof over my head wouldn't hurt.

I can only pay in nature, is that alright?

[errandry]

For now, yeah, it should be? They let you off when you just get here, and rent's not gonna get collected until the beginning of next month.

[merespark]

Doesn't sound too bad for Hell.

[errandry]

... it's way better than that. But—shit, did anybody tell you about the curses yet?

[merespark]

More good stuff?

[errandry]

[ he glances at Spitfire, then up and around at the looming Opera House and its shadows. ]

You wanna hear it now or after you find a place? This is probably a lot...

[merespark]

[ that bad huh? ]

I'll have to learn about it eventually, might as well do it now. It's not like I can have a heart attack, is it? Haha... [ if he was alive he'd kill himself for making jokes as lame as these. ]

[errandry]

Guess so...

[ someday he might even pick on those awful jokes, but today he's occupied: fiddling with threads in his sleeve that aren't even loose and overthinking everything. ]

Not like there's a lot to explain anyway—we just get cursed every couple days. Most of 'em are kinda like status effects. And they all end at midnight.

[merespark]

And they work on the dead too, I guess?

That should just make the training more fun.