Sunday 1: Introspectre

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

FIRST POST! Roleplay is now open.

Please hide long entries behind lj cuts. Thank you!



Modified posting rules (titles):

Day, number, title.

So:

Monday 1: A bright morning

the next post on the same day would be

Monday 1.2: Out and about

Following post:

Monday 1.3: An encounter!

(you can go on indefinitely...Monday 1.235 is an option...)

Next:

Tuesday 1: On the street

In the event of a mission, add Mission # to the title. So - Monday 1: Mission 1: The ant farm (location of mission)

The next week would be:

Monday 2: The day after

Monday 2.2: Cold cereal and cigarettes

Etc.

Thanks be to pichi for revisions on this.





Aya was doing something that he rarely did, although no one was around at the moment to see it.

The smile felt awkward on his face, the corners of his lips pulling at the dried clay of his cheeks and chin.

He fingered his naked ear and looked to the table beside his bed. A single gold shaft lay in its center, under the canopy of the lamp and beside his alarm.

His sister was awake. She was home.

He was no longer Aya.

He was Ran. Again.

Or maybe he had always been Ran.

His face settled back into its familiar mold, smile fading to neutrality.

He hadn't thought he would be like Omi, where the name Takatori held such meaning. He hadn't thought that it would matter, aside from the constant reminder of a past that was so starkly different from his present. No matter what he or his teammates chose to call him, he was the same person.

Wasn't he?

But Aya's eyes, his sister's, told him otherwise when they looked so earnestly at him. She remembered someone else, someone her brother could barely remember being.

He didn't care, but for a brief moment he wondered if his teammates could remember to call him Ran. He had told his sister that he had taken her name for a time, to keep her present and with him, but the Aya they knew and the Ran she expected him to be - well, he was afraid that she would be able to see the truth of himself as Aya stripped open in their eyes.

Perhaps, he reflected, it would be better if she knew.

The thought made him grip the fabric on his bed.

He wished he could see her now. She was here, she was living, he could make her laugh if he opened his door to find her. But he had told himself he would let her live, and grow, in a space not smothered by his presence.

At least, as much as he was able.

His eyes flicked to the sword on his dresser.

How long, he wondered, could he keep her sheltered?

Kritiker had changed leadership. There was a new contact, and a new leader. How well could this new entity protect them?

Manx had promised that his sister would be under Kritiker's care, at least as much as was safe for the organization's interests. But Manx was gone.

It didn't matter. She had spoken for their employers, and as far as Aya was concerned, he would hold them to that.

Slowly, he released the sheets and picked up the book he had been reading a few moments before.

"In order to grow, flowers must be planted in fertile earth. The earth is like your past. It's made of the same material as the new life it will give birth to, but it cannot be resurrected. Till your memories like the earth, but let them rest..."

Comments

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji watched the siblings with interest. Aya-chan was so clueless. The distress her announcement caused was written all over Ran's face. He would have found it comical if he hadn't already overstepped his bounds with those too.

To interfer or to not interfer?

It was hardly a question, Yohji loved interfering.

He took his sunglasses out of his pocket and polished them on his shirt, making his lack of genuine interest clear.

"It's terrible manners to make the cook also buy the groceries. That's Ken's job, Aya-chan."

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

"SINF 'HEN?!" Ken blurted accidentally through a mouthful of pancake. He blushed a bit at his rudeness, swallowed, and started over.

"I don't remember that being the rule, and I've never seen you offer--" He stopped mid-sentence and glared at Yohji. "Saa. Never mind. I'll go with you and carry stuff. I was going that way anyway, and you can tell me what to pick out and pay for." There was no way he was falling into a hole. Stupid Kudoh and his big mouth.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"If you'd rather do the dishes, I'd be thrilled to act as the grocery escort instead...." Yohji replied smugly. He didn't have to wait for an answer to know how Ran would feel about that.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi knew already Yohji and Ran were headed right for another argument. He resisted the desire to simply push his plate away and thunk his forehead against the table. Im. Possible.

And at the same time, it was just a little hard not to laugh. Somehow, when Yohji and Ken bantered, it didn't seem to carry the same tension that it did when Yohji and Ran did.

"Where were you going, Ken-kun? I've got a big math assignment of my own to do." The blonde sighed and rolled his eyes up mournfully at the ceiling. "I'll probably be doing that all afternoon..."

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

I knew he was gonna try to worm out somehow. Knew it, knew it, knew it.

"I was thinking about getting a new MP3 player. Mine's kinda getting worn out. So going to the store is no big deal," he added forcefully for Yohji's benefit. He turned to Aya-chan "That is, if you don't mind the extra stop...if we leave soon, wanna tag along, Omi?"

He fixed Yohji with a triumphant grin. Take that Yohji. Not only do you get dish duty, but Ran can't get pissy with two escorts to the store. {andigettospendtimewithOmi}...Shut up and get back in the box.

[7bladed.livejournal.com]

[haha, implying something there?]

Aya-Chan smiled at Ken, "I wouldn't mind going to pick out a new MP3 player, it might be fun."

The thought of asking Ran to help her on her math homework later that night came to mind, but she brushed it away; she would only bore him with her pathetic attempts at the subject. Still... it would mean getting to spend more time together with him. "Ran-niisan, would you like to come along too?" There, that was better than, so, would you like to do my homework for me?

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran had been staring at Yohji, contemplative.

It would be reaching to say that the man had done it for his sake, but despite it he felt gratitude.

At Aya-chan's question, however, his head shot up. He stared at her, then relaxed into a smile. She was being considerate of him. Ken and Omi were closer to her age, and that would be good for her. Without an overprotective older brother. And more likely than not, he would want to kill Ken before they got back anyway. "Thank you, Aya-chan, but you should go ahead. I have some things to take care of here." He paused, then mostly towards Omi and Ken added, "But be careful."

Be careful with what, he hadn't exactly figured out. Everything, maybe.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi’s eyes grew huge. Somehow or another, it seemed everyone had just decided for him he was tagging along. “Ehhh? B... But I.... The math assignment!” He feebly protested.

Not that he'd rather do it than spend time with them, but his sense of responsibility was a little too strong to voluntarily procrastinate homework for a social outing.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Math is severly overrated," Yohji chimmed in. He got the feeling that if Omi stuck around he'd end up with a much larger workload than alone with Ran, as in his effort to ignore Yohji, there'd inadvertantly be a lot more leeway for cutting corners. The flipside scenerio of course would be that Ran would watch him like a hawk to make sure he worked extra hard, which would without doubt lead to arguing. In that case, Yohji found the prospect of having a third party trying to break up the tension even more annoying than the tension itself. There was no question that Ran + Omi + work would lead to an unhappy Yohji.

"Unless you want a math-centic job after school, all those formulas are useless. And if I'm not mistaken you already have a job."

Yohji got up and started clearing away the dishes in hope that it would encourage the others to leave before Omi convinced himself to stay behind.

"Besides," he added, remembering an earlier piece of conversation, "Aya Chan has math to do today too, right? You two can talk about it while you're shopping and then work on it together when you get back."

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi couldn’t argue that he probably wouldn’t need most of those complex formulas in his life. On the other hand, a good base in math had helped him several times doing mission work. He used it in pinpointing locations, finding patterns, determining how much gunpowder to use in their explosives... and he clearly already knew the math needed for those purposes, didn’t he? Maybe Yohji was right, and he was just wasting his time extending his work ethic to school. What was he trying for, anyway?

Omi’s expression deflated. Yeah. He did already have a job. He turned his eyes to the wall, not wanting to look at Yohji directly after that reminder.

“Un...” He flatly acknowledged, and stood up, pushing his chair back under the table. So that settled that? He looked at Ken and Aya-chan in turn. He tried to smile, but the effort only harvested a pathetic quirk at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

[7bladed.livejournal.com]

Aya-Chan nodded back, absently. Omi seemed almost unhappy, and Aya-Chan sure hoped it wasn't because he had just been talked into going grocery shopping. Not wanting to let her paranoia show, she turned to Ran and Yohji instead, "should I pick up something for you at the store?" She glanced warily at Yohji's empty beer bottle, something I can legally obtain seemed implied.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Kudoh, you're an idiot.

"Omi," Ran stated, watching the boy's expression change at Yohji's words, "A trip to the store should not take long. Aya-chan also has homework."

It might not have come out as the most comforting, but it was what he could do.

"Juice would be good, Aya. Thank you." He added to his sister, not without a look at Yohji first, clearly thinking because someone drank it straight from the carton.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji opened his mouth to say "junk food" but then thought better of it. That request would surely invite criticism from either Ran or Omi. Better to be specific. "Ice cream," he said with a smile, "I don't care what flavor."

Looking up from the dishes, he caught an accusatory look shot at him from Ran.

"What'd I do now?" he asked in exasperation. He didn't really mind people acting pissy with him when he solicited it (which was often,) but he didn't feel he had warrented that one.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran ignored him, energy levels for combatting Yohji's obliviousness gone.

Instead he turned back to his paper. Nothing had changed much today in the stock market, it seemed.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji had to clench his teeth to stop himself from literally growling at Ran. That righteous bastard was just too good to answer him was he?

He'd see about that.

Letting the dishes clink loudly into the sink, Yohji stormed over and leaned into a distance he was quite certain violated Ran's personal space. "Listen asshole," he fumed, "right now I'm trying to be nice. But I've obviously done something to piss you off yet again. So why don't you maybe just stop being an arrogant bastard for five seconds and tell me what the fuck I've done wrong, so MAYBE I can just possibly try to avoid doing it again, and you won't have to be so goddamned mad at me all the time!"

He stormed back to the sink and started scrubbing the skillet with about ten times the force necessary.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Slamming his paper and his hands down on the table, Ran pushed up, nearly knocking his chair over. He would kill...

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his sister. Aya...

Jaw clenched and muscles near spasming, he instead ground out as evenly as he could to Omi, "Call if there's problems." Nevermind it was a trip to the grocery store. "I'll see you soon," he added, more gently, to Aya-chan.

With one last look at Yohji's lucky ass he turned on his heel and went upstairs.

He would practice kata.

And not grab his katana and go straight back downstairs after the other three left.

[Ran leaves.]

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji nearly dropped the skillet onto the stack of dishes in the sink.

Asshole.

Goddamn motherfucking basterdized *asshole*.

Yohji decided that Ran simply wanted to be mad at him, and there was really no point in trying to avoid it. He was certainly used to being the target of Ran's anger. He hadn't thought much of it until his stupid sister woke up. Then all of the sudden Ran started being *nice* to people. "People" including just about everyone except Yohji. Goddamn, it really pissed him off.

When the dishes reached a point of cleanliness that Yohji found satisfactory (he certainly wasn't going to let the other's standards worry him at this point,) he all but tossed them in the cabinet and stomped up to his room.

He needed some sleep. And his special cd. The really twangy one that he only played when he was sulking and/or trying to annoy a certain someone in another room.

[Yohji Leaves}