Unforgotten

[02:45] Half lidded eyes lock in on Jericho.
(Crypto Exile)
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[02:45] Saige sloooowly looks over.
(Saige Gunner)
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[02:45] Kenshin pointed to Jericho. "Is that your cousin?"
(Kenshin Koba)
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[02:46] He turns to his cousin, Crypto Exile, and blinks. It's been awhile since he's seen the one once named Aiyamari - quite awhile, infact. He's genuinely curious.

"Yeah," he says at once. "This is my cousin. How have you been, Aiyamari?" He asks, genuinely not knowing what his preference in name even, well, was.
(Jericho)
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[02:48] "Aiyamari is dead." he states firstly. "Only Exile exists. I've been. Existing." he states passively. He looks like someone that had just been from prison. Long sharpened claws, torn garbs.

Long messy hair. Tired eyes. However he didn't necessarily address Jericho as a cousin or family member. Crypto had lost what the meaning of 'family' was years ago.
(Crypto Exile)
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[02:48] Cicero cos Morneau says, ".. uh.."
[02:48] Saige Gunner says, "..."
[02:48] Alexander blinks. Then he decides to keep on walking by.
(Alexander)
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[02:48] Saige looks over to Kenshin before looking back to the Exile.
(Saige Gunner)
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[02:48] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[02:48] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "Haha!"
[02:49] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "I thought he was a girl!"
[02:49] Jericho says, "..."
[02:49] Saige Gunner says, "..."
[02:49] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[02:49] Saige squints.
(Saige Gunner)
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[02:49] Cicero frowned at Crypto's damaged and unkempt looking appearance. It wasn't the kind of individual you'd expect to see in this district. In fact, it was the opposite of what you'd expect to see in Aerandale. He was pretty sure they had a dress code here, or something.

"A-Are you okay, sir?" he asked.
(Cicero cos Morneau)
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[02:51] Cybele Drassen asks, "?"
[02:54] "Existing's good," he says, a bit...awkwardly, unsure of what to make of that exile thing. His cousin was someone he had never really gotten a chance to grow that close to, but by virtue of being family, he did want to maintain a good relationship with him. His hand raises up to scratch at his chin as he examines the lad from head to toe. "But...existing wherever you've been existing looks like it's been kinda harsh, cousin...

What's happened to you?"

He sounds shook, actually, the more he registers the boys ragged appearance. Crypto Exile looks like he's just fought his way out of Azkaban, and here he was, standing in areas that got you dressed down and torn apart for less.

"Who- what did this to you, Exile?"

(Jericho)
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[02:55] Kenshin placed his hands along his hips and put on a stupid smile. Where he came from, seeing people like that was normal. He didn't even realize they were out of place until Cicero spoke up. Then, he squinted, and came to the realization that they looked bad!

"Hmm." He said, as if that was adding something to the conversation. "Hmm. Mmhm." He repeated, not really knowing what to say. Maybe he should just be quiet and watch how it unfolds. "Hm."
(Kenshin Koba)
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[02:57] The other blue haired person didn't seem nearly half as invested as Kenshin. She still idled in the area, watching.

Maybe she was invested.
(Saige Gunner)
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[02:59] "I was just released from prison. My four month sentence turned into a year sentence. You can imagine what happens to you if you're forgotten about for a year. Behind bars." he states bluntly. all in all, his physique was fine, the lad was toned. Though pale and tired looking. He did seem to upholding some sort of training while locked away from the world.

"The knights and their god complex did this. However my fun time in prison doesn't too much matter. I suppose I physically look harsh because I didn't care what the nobles and other things think about how I look. Especially being employed by one." he had more ruthless and violent words to say. However he decided to keep them to himself. People were sensitive.

"I breathe another day. So. I go on. Indefinitely until I cease to breathe."
(Crypto Exile)
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[03:00] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:00] Kenshin Koba says, "Must've sucked, yeah."
[03:00] Crypto Exile says, "Absence from human contact was. Refreshing."
[03:03] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:03] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "That's what happens when you're alone for too long!"
[03:04] Crypto Exile says, "I've been alone for much longer than a single year."
[03:04] Crypto Exile says, "I've been alone my entire life."
[03:04] Saige grimaces.
(Saige Gunner)
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[03:04] Jericho says, "..."
[03:04] Crypto Exile says, "This is no different."
[03:05] Kenshin Koba says, "Hmm."
[03:05] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "No you haven't!"
[03:05] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "You're around people right now!"
[03:05] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:05] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:05] Kenshin Koba says, "Ooooh."
[03:06] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "Yeah that makes sense!"
[03:06] "I...what? No one told me about this." He swore, seeming genuinely bothered by the notion that one of his family could have wound up behind bars so recently after Kirai had been executed by the very same justice system. "Why? Why would the knights want you? What reason did they find?"

His fists clench. There it was again - that natural disdain he still held for authority. "Exile, if I had known..."

Jericho, by comparison, looks rather tall and lanky, rather than a rippling, muscular being. The boy is built like a street punk if anything, long and lean with the beginnings of musculature rather than some built, well-developed man. Was it due to slacking in his training without his father to push him? Perhaps...

He notices the comment about working for a noble.

He winces.

He hears the comment about being alone his whole life.

He winces again.

"Are you...sure you're alright?"
(Jericho)
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[03:12] Kenshin looked at his feet, then looked at the streets, then looked at the grass, then looked at the sky. He looked at a lot of things. He was very observant, but he was also very hungry. He ate his last boar leg not too long ago, but still needed to devour some food. Maybe someone could give him some grub if he asked here..

He opened his mouth as if he were going to speak, but ultimately didn't say a word. He may have a been a fool, but he knew that they weren't in the mood to give him food. He doubted Saige had anything to eat either, since she looked like she hadn't eaten anything.. ever.

"I wonder what I'm gonna have for dinner today.." He grumbled, kicking a rock onto the cobblestone street. "Maybe some more boar meat. The nice kind.. I know how to get everything except the nasty fat and chewy parts. Plus, it wouldn't take too long to cook it.." He went on and on about how to prepare a boar, rubbing his chin like hewas an expert on the topic.

"Seasoning.. what seasoning.. I never have seasoning.."
(Kenshin Koba)
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[03:14] "The definition of 'Alright' is subjective. Physically speaking. My bone and flesh regrows it's self passively. Even if I am beaten near death, so long as my limbs remain attached. I will always be 'alright' even with the added baggage of becoming more fatigue over the healing process. Psychologically. That is a hard one. The boy over there made a comment. A comment about... People being around me. There for I am not alone." his head angle up to the sky as he gazes at the stars.

He recalls the days he used to gaze at the stars with his parents and twin sister. The feeling of being apart of something truly. The feeling of having true family. However a black sheep of this very same family, this same clan. Had made him come to realize that he was alone from the very beginning, especially if he could be casted off so effortlessly.

"The loneliness I speak of. Cannot be tasted or felt, it cannot be heard, or seen. It is an understanding, a realization, that comes in the dead of night, when you are unable to sleep. It's one that isn't fixed by human contact or by simple words, nor is it repaired by this obsolete concept of 'tough love'. No. This loneliness is poison. It's decay. It's something I've dealt with and accepted has been a growing fissure in my soul, since I could talk. It has only come to pass now that I realize that in the grand scheme of things. Said loneliness has always been there, unlike friends. Unlike cousins. Unlike uncles. Unlike... Sisters. Loneliness is... My only companion." he explains.

He didn't sound depressed, he was oddly stoic, robotic, and seemed to lack care. He was the definition of dead inside, a hollow shell with no ambitions or care or natural self preservation. He had said Aiyamari was dead, such seemed rather true at this point. He was quite... accepting.
(Crypto Exile)
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[03:15] The other blue haired person scratches the side of her head. Though she was amused by Kenshin's thoughts of food (and her apparent lack of eating) she was now clearly interested in the display before her. At Exile's words, she blinks slowly.
(Saige Gunner)
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[03:16] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:16] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:17] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "Maybe all of the above!"
[03:23] "You don't have to feel that way..." he says feebly, knowing even as he said it that Crypto wasn't going to change his mind due to anything Jericho had to say to him. This was the kind of isolation that one was resolved to, that he had talked about himself in his head for countless eons before settling on it.

Jericho's head bows. All he can think is...how had they let it get to this point? He remembers his cousin, proud, energetic, sparring in the fields with his family. And now, here he stood before them, jaded, cynical...but then, not broken. As he spoke of his physical, regenerative capabilities, the blond's not really able to remain fixated on them, seeing as, well - Crypto sounded borderline suicidal.

"I think you're wrong about your soul's fissure, though. Souls are stronger than that - especially yours. You've got a tough heart, to still be walking, breathing after all you went through. Loneliness ain't gotta define you - what happened with my dad doesn't have to define you - vengeance ain't gotta define you. You can be whoever the hell you wanna be.

So are you who the hell you wanna be?"

Jericho's arms raise up behind his head. There's a momentary silence as he registers that lack of inflection, the emotionless tone that Crypto uses - was it a cry for help? Or did he genuinely just not have a morsel of care left in his body?

"If you are, cousin...all I can say is I'm proud of you either way. An' I'll always be here if you need somebody. An' I mean that."

There's a language that people oft forgot. A subtle art to conversation that the most well-read and scholarly often forgot, or neglected to employ. Something that reigned supreme in the animal kingdom - body language. Jericho was a master of body language, and so he subtly projects unto his cousin something that could be felt, could be seen, even without him saying it.

You don't have to be alone.
(Jericho)
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[03:24] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[03:28] Kenshin Koba exclaims, "This is cute!"
[03:29] Kenshin Koba says, "...."
[03:29] Luca Tairin says, "...."
[03:29] Kenshin Koba says, "Are you trying.."
[03:29] Saige Gunner says, "..."
[03:29] Kenshin Koba asks, "To challenge me!?"

[03:35] Unlike many of the other cousins he's conversed with. It would appear Jericho actually listened. He didn't write of Cypto deadness to be him play emo or seeking attention. One could tell that, he was far from wanting or caring about attention. The way his body was now built was a product of circumstance and the magic he utilized refusing to allow his body to abstain from homeostasis.

"Ah. You know. I once believe I was born to... Be a sort of pillar of home for the clan. I trained and broke bones to get used to it so that if need be. I can take a sword to the chest for one of you all. I believed that was my purpose." a subtle exhale is made as he recalls such a mindset.

"I wanted to be the strongest in the clan. I wanted to be the strongest in the world. Not because I wanted to brag, no. If I was the strongest it means I would never lose. If I never lost, that means I can protect those who I loved without fail. The moment I was beaten and casted out, the love I had. Transformed into anger and hatred. My goal in life was no longer to protect everyone but to slay everyone. Those who didn't help me. Those who forgot me. To end them all. However I realized... There were still some that cared. Akira cared and I cared for him. So the one chance I had to return to my family was the tournament and I lost and there for was casted away like garbage." he pauses, reminiscing on the awful memories he had.

"I didn't care about protecting anyone but myself, I didn't care about living. I didn't care about what it took or what it costed so long as I could kill Kirai in the worst way possible. I had dreams of this, I planned it, I was prepared to enact it. But then. One day. I wake up and it turns out. He died. The right I had trained to take back was stolen from me and there was nothing I could do about it. I suppose I should be satisfied that he was finally murdered and some semblance of justice was given to me. But. No. I felt empty, My goal was strangled, my sister never understood and now we are in a relationship, that if she attacks me again. I will kill her without hesitation." he explains fully.

"I contemplated suicide, yes. But I'm no pussy. So I'll die on the battle field one of these days. The only thing I found worth saving my soul is this affectionate state of love. To feel for a woman and perhaps feel them feel for me. However such a thing was quickly murdered when the person I felt such a way for. Laughed in my face. So. Living. Is just. A state now. I suppose."
(Crypto Exile)
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[03:52] There's nothing but listening from Jericho because he was free of any kind of agenda, really. Having been indoctrinated into the clan from the wild, the desire for worldly possessions - many things were lost on him, that other children had felt. That other people felt. Imperialist desires, a drive to be the best, to be remembered, to be infamous. These things had never taken shape in his mind - only survival, and belonging, the two most base, human things.

Things everyone sought. Things the man before him had sought, until it'd done this to him.

"My father made mistakes," Jericho admits, right away. "He made a lot of mistakes. He wasn't perfect. And I don't think he would've had a problem with you attempting a lethal attack on him - weird as it sounds. I think..maybe…

He'd have even been proud of you, in a way..."

Their family was fucked up.

"But he's gone now, Exile. If you want to fight until you can't fight anymore, until your heart stops, then I would never take that from you. That's the warrior's death that no man can take from you." He paused. Was that the death Jericho himself hoped for? "But before you leave this world - before you bleed your last drop - don't you want to live life to its fullest? Make things right between you an' your sister? Find a wife - that isn't that woman - maybe start a family. I don't know. There's a lot more to the code than just fighting until you die.

You're not just an assassin, Exile.

You're a person."

That was the major issue he took with all of this - all of this cynical, detached talk was separation of soul from body. He wasn't feeling. He was thinking - an automatron brain in a human vessel - but hewasn't letting himself feel.

"You're not this incarnation of vengeance or spirit o' war...you're someone who's been hurting a long time, and deserves a happy ending. So why not go find that?"

He asks his cousin one final question:

"Can you really say...if you died tomorrow, you'd be content?"
(Jericho)
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[04:07] Crypto looks down at his hands. The hands that once carried such thick callus, split skin, fractured bone. Now... Replaced with soft plush skin. One not suited for a fighter, but the product in how his magic worked for him. He'd forever be pale and almost ghostly. His bones will always be rather hard, and his skin would be soft to allow easier means of his structure bursting out should he need it.

"A person..." he trails off.

"I haven't felt like a person in a very long time." for the first time in this conversation. He radiated a feeling. It was crippling sadness. He had shut off such a thing for years as it was a weakness.

But now, Jericho spoke to him in such a manner that made him really think. If he woke up and was murdered tomorrow. Would he be content with his life? Would he see his maker and explain that he was fine with this? Before now, no doubt. He'd remain stoic and explain his life and how he's come to such a state and how he had no regrets.

"He made mistakes..." he recalled several good moments in his life. When he learned to fight, when he won his first battle, when Kirai actually praised him for his skill. When he dedicated himself to being a protector.

"But I made none..." he closes his fist as his eyes water a bit. Crushing sadness built up over years had began to flood. He had been so angry, so full of hatred, that once he had realized that he was no longer a spirit of war, or a being for vengeance, that his goal was no obsolete, his anger and hatred began to convert. Like Mana being converted into magic to shoot fire, a means of fuel.

Sadness...

He continued to squeeze his fists shut until small trickles of crimson began to drip on the cobblestone below. This isn't how he wanted to live his life, as a shell of a human. But the tunnel that once had light was now full of darkness. He had only cried once before, a moment of realization that the greatest development for his magic may kill him. But he had abstained from such weaknesses.

Until now. His teeth clenched as tears began to leak down his cheeks. A deep inhale is made as he could feel his heart beating weakly for the first time in a while. Such an organ he had shut off. Now beated for a short moment. He had the feeling to yell, but it wasn't in his nature to become overly vocal.

So he wept silently for this moment.
(Crypto Exile)
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[04:48] Wordlessly, he moves. Words were abandoned in this instant - there is nothing left but to act. Breaching the barrier of touch, Jericho wraps his arms around Crypto Exile. He allows the man to ventilate all of his stresses to him, and tells him, wordlessly, that it was all going to be okay.

Family.


This is what it meant to be tied - not by blood, but by shared experience. Both of them had tirelessly worked upon the mountains. Both of them knew the sometimes unjust mentorship employed by Kirai. Infact - the two of them had even been pit against each other, back when they were thirteen - to fight, and fight, and fight. It was what they'd been taught. Fight, continue the clan...

But there were other things to life. To live for. He had to make sure that they knew that - that each of them understood they were more than just the sum of these parts and pieces. Beyond his bone magic, or Akira's manipulation of blood, or any of these otherworldly, phantasmal abilities, there were things more important -

Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul?

Kirai was a man worth remembering. A man worth celebrating. He loved you. He wanted the best for you. He wasn't perfect. He taught you some things that were bad. He taught you some things that were good. It was up to you to figure out. And ultimately, he'd left them here, trying to pick up the pieces of the mess he'd left behind, trying to avenge him while lacking all support, with the odds stacked against them in every facet...

But they still had teach other.

"You will always be my cousin...always."

He doesn't care who watches this emotional moment between them. No one was there but them. Nothing mattered but this. Crypto didn't need saving - he couldn't be directed. He was his own man. He'd express himself in any way he chose to do so.

But the family stuck together..

No matter what.

Kurokaiyo forever.

(Jericho)
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[04:56] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:56] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[04:56] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[04:57] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:57] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[04:58] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:58] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:58] Lionel squints.
(Lionel Leigherty)
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[04:58] As perceptive and observant as he was. He hadn't noticed the onlookers. The three years he had spent feeling nothing, had now gone to a single thirty second period that he felt everything. He half expected to be punched, yet again similar to how his sister would.

Or for a battle to commence. That is what happened when he expressed himself. He was intelligent, he wanted those who spoke to him to think and being that many did not like to think too much. They perceived him as elitist.

The natural response to the male coming towards him with such speed and ferocity was for his bones to subconsciously adjust themselves. Pile infront of his exposed organs and make themselves rigid.

Crypto didn't wear armor or much clothes because of this reason. Even if the bones didn't pop out of his skin, Jericho would no doubt be able to feel the uncomfortable sharpness of them under the flesh.

However what was assumed to be a strike turned out to be warmth and love. Love that was subconsciously desired from the point he had been abandoned by all he loved. He wasn't used to hugs, he wasn't used to too much affection.

So this was a shock.

What was he supposed to do. His mind told him to do one thing yet his body did another. Before he himself could truly think of what to do, he found himself returning the hug, the warm embrace by one he could truly call family. One who had dug deep within his body and spirit and pull out some semblance of mortality.

The once stoic teenager would bury his head into Jericho's shoulder and begin to sob. He had declared how much he had hated the Kurokaiyo, how much he desired for the eradication of clans, how much he wish to kill Kirai by his own hand.

But his true wish... Was to simply feel loved. To feel as though he existed and was once part of something. He didn't cry because of sheer sadness. He now cried because he had felt... Found.

As he heard Jericho's words, he'd squeeze him tighter, dedicating himself to releasing all the pent of sadness he held within. Rather than give a verbal retort. However it was obvious what he was feeling.
(Crypto Exile)
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[04:59] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[04:59] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:59] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:59] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[04:59] Saige Gunner says, "..."
[04:59] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[04:59] Saige Gunner whispers something.
[04:59] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[05:00] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[05:00] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[05:01] Lionel Leigherty whispers something.
[05:01] Erika cos Salis whispers something.
[05:11] There was a lot of resistance getting here.

First there was the resistance of even getting him to speak at all. Afterward had come the emotional barriers, tight, wound up and reinforced over years of bad experiences. And last...last had been the contact barrier, one that had been broken with no warning.

The bones that'd solidified underneath the other man's clothing, that which could very well eviscerate him in such close proximity due to his masterful manipulation of his own anatomy, were laid down, a warrior casting aside his weapons to embrace a member of his family.

Jericho felt like he'd won one of his greatest battles yet.

The hug lasts as long as it needs to, and not a second longer. Afterward, the boy pulls away, beaming magnificently. Crypto Exile was the captain of his own fate - where the man chose to go from here was his call.

"They locked you away. Dad threw you out. But look at you - still breathing. Nothing can break you. Nobody can stop you. My dad's gone," Jericho swallowed, at that. It wasn't an easy thing to say, but he'd ripped the bandage off raw, and he had to keep on running, he couldn't fixate on the bleeding wound over his heart, "So be anybody you want to be. An' know that wherever you may go, or whatever you may need...

I got you."

A wink.

"That's what family's for, right?"

It'd been the crack of night when this conversation began, but now, a golden light, the light of the sun at his back, basks his form. He runs a hand through his hair, his silhouette framed by the light of the solar system's star. That trademark grin on his face is radiant, larger than life. The winds of change, they are a blowin'.

"But now...now it's time for me to go bed," he says, exhausted, the adrenaline from the night settling down, like the end of the party. His body feels heavy, and he's exhausted...

Happy, but exhausted.

"I can't wait to see what you're going to become...an' I'm so damn proud of you."

With one last clap on the shoulder and a wide smile at the spectators, as well as a wave, Jericho saunters off, hands behind his head, leisurely. Like he had all the time in the world - like he had nowhere to be.

Like after so long of being ready to die, he was just happy to be alive.
(Jericho)
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[05:16] Crypto releases the hug and lifts a hand to wipe his tear stained face. Such a word was thrown around so many time, 'family', 'we are family' or 'this is what family is for.' but had any of them truly been family to him?

Well. Jericho had, Jericho had taken the darkness that was so swelled up within his body, and broken it apart. Leaving cracks in the foundation for light to seep through. Such a thing could be felt as the heavy air that once surrounded him began to lift.

He sniffs in, once again going on to look at the palms of his hands. This is what he desired for so long, it was a mere taste, but it was enough to sate his hunger for now.

"Sleep well..." he trails off a moment.

"Cousin..." with this he moves to lay on the ground and stare up at the sky. He felt elated. Relieved.

There was almost nothing that could ruin him for now.
(Crypto Exile)