[ strange is one way to describe it, and one khun doesn't disagree with. he doesn't seem off-put in any case, giving mikaela a small smile.
(the glasses might have gotten the most reaction out of him which was an eyebrow raise, but he doesn't comment. do vampires need glasses? he wouldn't know. ) ]
This is novel to me [ he points upward at the night sky. ] . Stars don't exist where I'm from, real stars, anyway.
If you listen to tales of the Old World, they exist on the outside. But in Tower, all of the environment is artificial. They look more like spotlights than what you can see here.
[ given that he's here, ostensibly taking them in, this is probably something he should care more about but it's all said rather matter of factly. ]
[ with a small sigh, khun earmarks the book he was reading and closes it. he should really just hold a talk on this topic considering everyone he's mentioned it to has been some degree of baffled (for good reason). ]
The world outside is a wasteland. And it's bigger than you're imagining. All the land in these countries is still smaller than certain floors.
Mika seems a little "huh," but seems to accept it decently enough. It's hard to imagine, but he's also met a plant man who rides dragons and a world-hopping elf, so... why not, he guesses. )
... I see. I used to live underground, so I was imagining something like that. We could go up if we wanted, though. Not that there was anything there.
( Underground being small and cramped and with pretentious architecture (all right, maybe Khun was spared of that last one).
He glances up at the night sky. )
The moon and stars here are still different than the one I knew, though. Suffocating, I guess.
[ he was about to mention that there really is no leaving the Tower either, at least that's what been said, but for him there's no reason to leave the Tower when all of his purpose is within it. he's not an adventurous spirit but one who needs control no matter the cost. truthfully, he doesn't know what it's like to think like that, it's something beyond him.
the suffocation remark though catches his attention instead. he's here looking at these stars for a reason even if he personally could care less about them, and it's a bit of a shock to hear them described like that. ]
( "Why?" is a good question. It's hard to articulate, himself. It's just... )
There's too much.
( In the stifled underground corridors, the scent thick of stagnant decay - in the world above ground, the air choking debris - in the skies above, God's gaze distant, and unforgiving -
Everything here is too small, too close, too... )
... It's too alive. The earth and the sky feel close together. There's too many people, too many stars in the sky. The moon is too heavy.
The underground and world above had nothing there. This place... isn't like that.
[ "The underground and world above had nothing there." Just like the last time he heard something similar there's an echo, helped in part by the very reason he's under these stars in the first place.
Baam, you really should have turned out like this guy did. Who else would crawl out from complete darkness and be in awe of the light instead of turning away from it? Of being overwhelmed by it and the weight of the unknown. Only you. I've been staring at these stars every night hoping to see what you wanted to see, but I can't. I'll keep trying even if it's stupid and pointless, even if you're dead. Look at what you've done to me, a Khun, wanting to believe in the impossible, in a miracle.
None of those thoughts filter onto Khun's face, instead his expression is mostly passive. He's prepared for this conversation unlike the one with Kurapika, or at least he thinks he is. Without missing a beat he replies: ]
That almost sounds familiar, but the Tower is busier than here. And no one's really allowed to come in from the outside.
( Mika pauses when Khun begins on a tangent that seems both deeply personal and only somewhat related - but it doesn't take much for him to realize Khun's lips don't move - don't match what he actually says.
His brows furrow. A beat. )
... There are people out in that wasteland?
( The question is almost absent, but it is natural. He'd have assumed that no one existed out there, but perhaps it's like the wreckage of the world above where he's from, wherein humans, unfortunately, still persisted.
He should say something, maybe, even if he's not was what that bout of Khun's voice is (magic? a trick?). But the words sit with him familiar - they remind him a little of Yuu; not in word, but in spirit. Hopeful and naive and incomprehensible. The memory of him drifts about him like a spectre, like a curse, chill air brushing his cheeks.
But he'd never let Yuu die.
At least, he prays he didn't, with all his heart. )
[ Khun notices the beat but doesn't think much of it due to how everyone has reacted to the reality of his world. He's fairly talkative as Mikaela might be keying onto, but there's a whole lot he's not saying even in quiet moments.
There's not really a point in explaining what Irregulars, those from outside the Tower are. Not that I know much about them anyway beyond what Baam's told me firsthand—that he spent his life in a pit of darkness until Rachel found him. It's still peculiar that she left him behind after teaching him everything, and it's not like she ever made an effort to save him from that cave despite offering her companionship, but he refused to see anything but good in her. But she's the only lead I have, the only one who was with him during the last stage of the exam, so I need to keep her alive for now and win her trust. ]
Not many, if the stories are to be believed. No one from outside the Tower is allowed to enter, though there are rare exceptions. And once you enter the Tower, you can't leave.
( As curious as what Khun says is, what he - thinks? are these his thoughts...? - are even more so, and suggest a broader picture than what Khun says. It does not offend him, if so; there's plenty he doesn't say that he thinks himself.
But... are these really his thoughts? Or is this something else? Khun hasn't reacted to it, so he presumes it's only him who hears this - though there's a chance that Khun himself has set up this mischief.
As Khun's final words leave his lips (his true, spoken words), Mika is quiet. He's quiet for a little longer than one might expect for someone just pondering over what was just said - it's not as if Khun said anything too complicated, strange as his world was.
Perhaps the best way to understand is to probe.
Slowly, and with a vague air of suspicion, he says: )
[ Khun freezes. His thoughts, his body, it might even seem like the night around him has paused. And then slowly, crystal clear even if his voice is lower than it was moment's ago, he asks. ]
How do you know that name? [ there's no anger in his voice, no fear, just a complete lack of anything. ]
( Mika studies Khun for a moment, and the nothing that there is. It's enough for him to determine that Khun probably isn't the culprit of this - and that this information was probably authentic to Khun's experience.
Strange.
Should he be honest? )
... I heard it from you.
( He watches Khun. )
While you were speaking. Rachel, Baam, and the Irregulars. I was wondering why.
( If those were truly Khun's thoughts, he doesn't need to hear every word mirrored back; he should know the rest. For better or worse, Mika leaves it vague. )
[ Throughout his time here, Baam has been on Khun's mind constantly. It doesn't matter that Khun's been spirited away to another world, though it's also true that Baam had been on his mind just as feverishly back home. Baam's death, Rachel's part in it, how he had been blindsided when there wasn't supposed to be anything to be blindsided by, because they had won. It's not guilt, but an obsession.
But Khun hadn't spoken his name to anyone here. For as freely as he talks, there are some things he keeps close to his chest. A habit, that's been drilled into him as long as he can remember.
[ So the fact that his name was being uttered aloud could really only mean one thing.
His thoughts. This person was reading his thoughts? What an extreme and utter violation. What a complete loss of control.
For Khun Aguero Agnis, who was born to be the perfect tactician, raised to use people, their hearts, their emotions, their family against them—it's unthinkable. He who's magic words mean to control, can never bear his heart like this. It is a failure, and Aguero does not do failures, unless they're of his own accord. He doesn't care how and he doesn't care why.
[ His course of action was decided the moment he realized what exactly had transpired. Is there thought in it? Yes and no. He's killed people for less and he's killed people for worse and though normally he might take a second to think, stripped down bare like this?
This is who he is.
A horrible person without a shred of morality, who claws for control in any way he can. And if he can't control it? Then it needs to be destroyed. It's just that simple.
The first of two movements is quick, holding out his hand to the quiet night air. It's certainly not an aggressive movement and it might not look a little ridiculous actually. His second is quicker, as fast as lightning. The distance between him and Mikaela is crossed in less than the time it takes to blink and the knife now in his hand, glinting in the moonlight, is drawn against the bare skin without hesitation. The blade, a gift from his father, cuts easily against skin, muscle, tendon, and even bone with all the power that simmers in his blood. ]
( Mika is quick. Quicker than any human; quicker than the harbingers that roam the earth since the world's end - but quicker than something so akin to lightning? Would God really grant His whipping boys capacity to trump nature?
So it seems not. Mika is instead blessed by the privilege of his enhanced sight: seeing the twitch, the shift, the whip in the air - the scent of strange iron, familiar as it comes around him; a moment to twist his head in reflex; some darkened edge of Khun's expression, in the corner of his eye.
That he pulled his head back might be what stops him short of a full beheading.
It doesn't hurt very much. His senses are generally dulled. He feels instead how the knife slices through each layer of skin, the meat and the slick insides, with acute awareness of each sensation. Blood sprays; a lot of it; even more than a jugular should. It's all gelid, as cold as his heatless body, chilled by the night air.
A split second lasts quite long when you can see every detail.
But at this point his speed catches up, and as he feels the knife sink dangerously near the nerves - something that would make him lose consciousness, dangerous right now even if it didn't kill him, if things worked like they do at home - he brings up his leg to kick into Khun's stomach— hard, hard enough to knock him further back than he was before, ideally into a wall or a tree to make him waste a few seconds on recovery.
His lips split to cast as he reaches for his rapier. He doesn't care what set Khun off or why; only that he intended to kill him, and that he would kill him first, if he had to; restrain him, if he could.
Wind whips through his wound, gasping up through his throat - fuck. No vocal chords - no spells. His head feels unstable on his neck - his wound is too deep. It's not healing - it stings familiar, with a tinge of a permanent wound.
And this bitch is fast. He might not have the luxury of restraint.
His eyes narrow with savage necessity. Fine, then. He'll send you to Baam. )
[ Moving on instinct like this, Aguero had no time to even properly formulate a plan on how to kill Mikaela. He knows how to kill a human of course, and he knows how to kill the common species in the Tower, but a vampire? Vampires are less than folklore where he's from. But he had made the call that what works against most living things would work here, very few things can survive being beheaded. Not that it would be that easy, but usually his speed can trump most other things.
Except the speed and perception of vampires, apparently. The kick connects and he hisses as he's thrown back, into the bench opposite them. It should hurt and it definitely will hurt later, but for now he's numb to it, riding on adrenaline and the lessons that were taught to him since he was old enough to walk. He certainly wouldn't have registered the blood spray that follows both their actions, if not for how cold it is. Unpleasant, but he has bigger issues at the moment. He shakes the blood off his knife, still pristine in form but not color, dyed scarlet.
No matter where, no matter who, no matter when, his biggest weakness has always been his tendency to overthink. Seconds seem like minutes here, but he has a feeling that whoever loses this next action, loses entirely. ]
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no subject
(the glasses might have gotten the most reaction out of him which was an eyebrow raise, but he doesn't comment. do vampires need glasses? he wouldn't know. ) ]
This is novel to me [ he points upward at the night sky. ] . Stars don't exist where I'm from, real stars, anyway.
no subject
The idea of the heavens simply not existing is an interesting one - even to someone who's lived underground for four years, at this point. )
... Were they destroyed? Or were they never there?
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[ given that he's here, ostensibly taking them in, this is probably something he should care more about but it's all said rather matter of factly. ]
no subject
... Why live in a tower?
no subject
The world outside is a wasteland. And it's bigger than you're imagining. All the land in these countries is still smaller than certain floors.
no subject
Mika seems a little "huh," but seems to accept it decently enough. It's hard to imagine, but he's also met a plant man who rides dragons and a world-hopping elf, so... why not, he guesses. )
... I see. I used to live underground, so I was imagining something like that. We could go up if we wanted, though. Not that there was anything there.
( Underground being small and cramped and with pretentious architecture (all right, maybe Khun was spared of that last one).
He glances up at the night sky. )
The moon and stars here are still different than the one I knew, though. Suffocating, I guess.
no subject
the suffocation remark though catches his attention instead. he's here looking at these stars for a reason even if he personally could care less about them, and it's a bit of a shock to hear them described like that. ]
Suffocating? Why?
no subject
There's too much.
( In the stifled underground corridors, the scent thick of stagnant decay - in the world above ground, the air choking debris - in the skies above, God's gaze distant, and unforgiving -
Everything here is too small, too close, too... )
... It's too alive. The earth and the sky feel close together. There's too many people, too many stars in the sky. The moon is too heavy.
The underground and world above had nothing there. This place... isn't like that.
tower of god arc 1 spoilers
Baam, you really should have turned out like this guy did. Who else would crawl out from complete darkness and be in awe of the light instead of turning away from it? Of being overwhelmed by it and the weight of the unknown. Only you. I've been staring at these stars every night hoping to see what you wanted to see, but I can't. I'll keep trying even if it's stupid and pointless, even if you're dead. Look at what you've done to me, a Khun, wanting to believe in the impossible, in a miracle.
None of those thoughts filter onto Khun's face, instead his expression is mostly passive. He's prepared for this conversation unlike the one with Kurapika, or at least he thinks he is. Without missing a beat he replies: ]
That almost sounds familiar, but the Tower is busier than here. And no one's really allowed to come in from the outside.
no subject
His brows furrow. A beat. )
... There are people out in that wasteland?
( The question is almost absent, but it is natural. He'd have assumed that no one existed out there, but perhaps it's like the wreckage of the world above where he's from, wherein humans, unfortunately, still persisted.
He should say something, maybe, even if he's not was what that bout of Khun's voice is (magic? a trick?). But the words sit with him familiar - they remind him a little of Yuu; not in word, but in spirit. Hopeful and naive and incomprehensible. The memory of him drifts about him like a spectre, like a curse, chill air brushing his cheeks.
But he'd never let Yuu die.
At least, he prays he didn't, with all his heart. )
tower of god part 1 spoilers continue
There's not really a point in explaining what Irregulars, those from outside the Tower are. Not that I know much about them anyway beyond what Baam's told me firsthand—that he spent his life in a pit of darkness until Rachel found him. It's still peculiar that she left him behind after teaching him everything, and it's not like she ever made an effort to save him from that cave despite offering her companionship, but he refused to see anything but good in her. But she's the only lead I have, the only one who was with him during the last stage of the exam, so I need to keep her alive for now and win her trust. ]
Not many, if the stories are to be believed. No one from outside the Tower is allowed to enter, though there are rare exceptions. And once you enter the Tower, you can't leave.
no subject
But... are these really his thoughts? Or is this something else? Khun hasn't reacted to it, so he presumes it's only him who hears this - though there's a chance that Khun himself has set up this mischief.
As Khun's final words leave his lips (his true, spoken words), Mika is quiet. He's quiet for a little longer than one might expect for someone just pondering over what was just said - it's not as if Khun said anything too complicated, strange as his world was.
Perhaps the best way to understand is to probe.
Slowly, and with a vague air of suspicion, he says: )
... Who's Baam?
no subject
How do you know that name? [ there's no anger in his voice, no fear, just a complete lack of anything. ]
no subject
Strange.
Should he be honest? )
... I heard it from you.
( He watches Khun. )
While you were speaking. Rachel, Baam, and the Irregulars. I was wondering why.
( If those were truly Khun's thoughts, he doesn't need to hear every word mirrored back; he should know the rest. For better or worse, Mika leaves it vague. )
/3 (cont tower of god pt 1 spoilers)
But Khun hadn't spoken his name to anyone here. For as freely as he talks, there are some things he keeps close to his chest. A habit, that's been drilled into him as long as he can remember.
"You musn't trust anyone."
And Khun knows a thing or two about trust. ]
no subject
His thoughts. This person was reading his thoughts? What an extreme and utter violation. What a complete loss of control.
For Khun Aguero Agnis, who was born to be the perfect tactician, raised to use people, their hearts, their emotions, their family against them—it's unthinkable. He who's magic words mean to control, can never bear his heart like this. It is a failure, and Aguero does not do failures, unless they're of his own accord. He doesn't care how and he doesn't care why.
His fingers twitch slightly. ]
no subject
This is who he is.
A horrible person without a shred of morality, who claws for control in any way he can. And if he can't control it? Then it needs to be destroyed. It's just that simple.
The first of two movements is quick, holding out his hand to the quiet night air. It's certainly not an aggressive movement and it might not look a little ridiculous actually. His second is quicker, as fast as lightning. The distance between him and Mikaela is crossed in less than the time it takes to blink and the knife now in his hand, glinting in the moonlight, is drawn against the bare skin without hesitation. The blade, a gift from his father, cuts easily against skin, muscle, tendon, and even bone with all the power that simmers in his blood. ]
Shut up.
no subject
So it seems not. Mika is instead blessed by the privilege of his enhanced sight: seeing the twitch, the shift, the whip in the air - the scent of strange iron, familiar as it comes around him; a moment to twist his head in reflex; some darkened edge of Khun's expression, in the corner of his eye.
That he pulled his head back might be what stops him short of a full beheading.
It doesn't hurt very much. His senses are generally dulled. He feels instead how the knife slices through each layer of skin, the meat and the slick insides, with acute awareness of each sensation. Blood sprays; a lot of it; even more than a jugular should. It's all gelid, as cold as his heatless body, chilled by the night air.
A split second lasts quite long when you can see every detail.
But at this point his speed catches up, and as he feels the knife sink dangerously near the nerves - something that would make him lose consciousness, dangerous right now even if it didn't kill him, if things worked like they do at home - he brings up his leg to kick into Khun's stomach— hard, hard enough to knock him further back than he was before, ideally into a wall or a tree to make him waste a few seconds on recovery.
His lips split to cast as he reaches for his rapier. He doesn't care what set Khun off or why; only that he intended to kill him, and that he would kill him first, if he had to; restrain him, if he could.
Wind whips through his wound, gasping up through his throat - fuck. No vocal chords - no spells. His head feels unstable on his neck - his wound is too deep. It's not healing - it stings familiar, with a tinge of a permanent wound.
And this bitch is fast. He might not have the luxury of restraint.
His eyes narrow with savage necessity. Fine, then. He'll send you to Baam. )
no subject
Except the speed and perception of vampires, apparently. The kick connects and he hisses as he's thrown back, into the bench opposite them. It should hurt and it definitely will hurt later, but for now he's numb to it, riding on adrenaline and the lessons that were taught to him since he was old enough to walk. He certainly wouldn't have registered the blood spray that follows both their actions, if not for how cold it is. Unpleasant, but he has bigger issues at the moment. He shakes the blood off his knife, still pristine in form but not color, dyed scarlet.
No matter where, no matter who, no matter when, his biggest weakness has always been his tendency to overthink. Seconds seem like minutes here, but he has a feeling that whoever loses this next action, loses entirely. ]
no subject