so a bunny girl drunk-dials a changeling

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh phones: "(Somewhere in Hikaru's 'lovely suite', a telephone rings.)"

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa phones: "Which is strange, honestly, because the last time anyone checked, bars of soap are not particularly known for their telereceptive properties. But when Hikaru looks over to the basin, he doesn't even question it. Stranger things have happened. He knows why, distantly; solitary confinement drives men mad. Is he even awake? Is he even /alive/?

It takes him a moment to get up from his bed, all drag and mass and no grace at all. He grasps the side of the sink as he digs his fingers into the bar, lifting it up against his head. There's no threat of getting soap in his hair -- they've buzzed it all off. He takes a breath, another, three, and they'd be in the receiver if this made any logical sense, if he had any hope left at all.

And then he finds his words, scratchy from lack of use. "Stop it.""

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh is silent for a long moment, only some background buzz sound to let him know that this call is connected to anyone at all. It could be a radio dial turned between stations, it could be a television tuned to snow... or, perhaps, a pair of Wahl clippers, plugged in and humming toward his shorn scalp. Then, a voice he's probably never heard before. "Stop...? Can you make it stop?"

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa slides down to the floor, ceding ground to gravity in a sluggish movement which ends in /thunk/. He leans against the sink, not replying for a long moment. "You're not me," he says, finally. "You're not... me. You're someone else." He stares at the far wall, and murmurs, barely above a whisper: "oh, God."

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh phones: "Do you know... do you know who I am?" The buzzing sound ceases, grinding to a halt. There's only the silence of the line, and that female voice. "Do you know who 'Ran Itoh' is?""

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa takes a shuddering breath. Could it be another trick? Hikaru is clever, and Hikaru can be cruel with all his cleverness, but the sound of another human voice overwhelms all that fear. His voice cracks and quivers, confused, and lost. "I-- I-I-- I don't know, I might, I can't... please... please, you have to help me. I'll... fool them right now... they don't suspect that I'm so cruel, that I could poison it, right in front of them where I'm forgotten and they've forgotten me and... they've forgotten me!"

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh goes silent. "..." The distant, echoey tone of a phone call, that rebounding-into-infinity recycled speaker crackle, has no answers for him. "I don't. I can't... I don't understand. I don't understand, I don't... Where am I? It's so dark..."

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa draws another ragged breath, shakey. Is he... crying? "I'm sorry," he says, burying his face in his other hand. It might muffle the audio, but then again, it might not. "I'm sorry, you're... you're asking for help and I'm just... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just haven't heard anyone who isn't... I'm sorry. I should've known no one would... I mean, I - I don't know where you are. I don't even... I don't even know where I am."

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh paces back and forth, or maybe it's just some unknowable rhythm the brain can't process. "I can't... It's dark, and I don't know... who 'Suou-san' is..." Deep, shaky breath. "He says he'll help me. Can he help you? Is he a good person? I can't see..."

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa makes a pained noise -- it might have been laughter, at one point, before it was raked upon the coals of his pain. It devolves into gasping, as Hikaru lowers his free hand from his face to his shoulder, raking his fingers over the cloth there, his tattoos revealed by the pulling on his shirt. "I prayed," he says, finally, "prayed for him to come. Is he good? Am I? If I'm not, maybe he is. That this is better, might be, might make sense if it were. He doesn't know. No one knows. No one /cares/... sees... the black is white and it's wrong, wrong, /wrong/..." The words trail off, and Hikaru takes a breath, trying to steady himself. "He never found me. He'll never find me. I'm too good at the game for that. I'm too good. No one knows. No one knows me, really. Don't suspect a thing. I've won and all I ever had to do was play the fool. I'll die here. I know that. I know I will. But I'm scared."

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh drags something... or maybe something is being dragged. "I don't understand..." But something... "Is this..." She listens, quiet as he rambles on. "I know this feeling." Ran's voice gains strength, even as some kind of dull wonder lifts her tone. "I know what this is..." Static is creeping up behind her voice, even as she speaks louder. "It's like before, when I was..."

	For a moment, Ran remembers a fragment of her 'self'.

	"Who... who are you? I don't know... I don't know what's happening, or what's wrong, but...!" But he's scared, and that makes her feel something.

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa falls silent, for a moment. Who? A failure, a villain, a cuckoo in the nest. He knows. He knows the answer to that, and it burns against his brain, to know just how far he has fallen and just how much danger he's put everyone in. A kinder fate might have been to forget, and yet... "Hikaru," he says, and his voice cracks. He's not like that. He knows who he is -- exactly who he is. "Hikaru Kurosawa. You mustn't trust me. I'm not like this out there. You won't meet me like this. It's ghost lights, really, I... I'll hurt you. I'll seem like your friend but I'm not. You mustn't trust Hikaru Kurosawa. I'm working for.. towards... a terrible fate."

[PHONE] To Hikaru Kurosawa, Ran Itoh clings to the voice, that feeling. She knows this emotion. It makes her herself. This emotion is part of 'Ran Itoh'... whoever that truly is. "Hi ka ru." She sounds it out, as though she's never had acquaintance with the concept of light. "Hi ka ru. Hikaru. Kurosawa..." Ran's voice has become stronger. "I don't know... who I am, or if I'm Ran Itoh, or who you are, but... but you don't have to be afraid. Not for long. Not forever."

	She can feel it now, close enough to grasp, if she could just reach out. "I... I'm scared too. But... whoever you are. Whatever I am. I remember... I'll remember. Hikaru! Hikaru Kurosawa!" Ran is shouting now, shouting to drown out the roar of the wind in her ears.

	"HIKARU! I SWEAR-- I WILL SAVE YOU--!"

	Dead air.

[PHONE] To Ran Itoh, Hikaru Kurosawa clutches onto the bar as the sound cuts out. "Wait- don't go--!" But she's gone, and the line is gone. He lets the soap slip out of his hands, drawing his knees up to pull himself into a little ball. His voice is quiet, again, as if he's afraid someone might hear. "... don't leave me..."

Wasn't it you who screamed those words so often, Hikaru? Wasn't it you who swore to save the world?

Maybe you should have worked harder at saving the world from yourself. Too late, now.