fidelias | 001. pass the ammunition. // open post.

[ The sun is barely up, dawn having broken not ten minutes before, and Cisco curled up in fox form right outside the gates. She isn't napping so much as listening, eyes closed and ear pressed to the ground as she listens for the familiar step of Tohru Fukuzawa to register.

Everyone has patterns and tells and habits, and if you can't see them on the person themselves, you turn your attentions elsewhere. Like the curious way that Zangyaku patrols drop without anyone making a fuss, and how somehow, the city manages to stay clear of crime even with fewer people keeping watch. And how The Assassin wanders back at dawn to have breakfast at the little hole in the wall ramen place a couple blocks from the base.

When his footfalls finally come and go, Cisco waits several heartbeats before rising, stretching and trotting over on all fours, shifting back onto two legs only when she is close enough to duck beneath the little flap so that she can nod a greeting at the stall owner.

In well-practiced Japanese, she addresses the man who is currently Hikaru's father with the utmost deference: ] Good morning, Fukuzawa-san.

[ She doesn't ask if she can join him, she just takes a seat on the other end of the stall and sweetly states her order.

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, she's hungry, she hasn't had breakfast, and she heard the ramen here is good. ]

[On the bedside, there is a folded piece of paper with the words, For shisho written in tiny writing. It cannot be opened (without dispelling the spell holding it closed anyway) by anyone who isn't its addressee. Anyone who touches it feels a mild unpleasant buzz; anyone who lifts it is outright shocked, and his image is sent to a phone in a certain Mortician's pocket.

These are the words written inside.]

I'm sorry. I thought we had your back. I'm sorry you couldn't have me along to help because I wasn't strong enough. Perhaps two of us could have done twice better. I'm sorry your son was hurt because of your choice. I'm sorry you had to make that choice.

I'm glad you're alive. There are yet many things needing killing. And many things about killing that need teaching.

I'm glad you're back, shisho. Your family was all torn up without you. I guess that means you're not yet meant to go.

Heraclitus

[It is awkwardly worded and the periods are dug quite a bit deeper into the paper than is probably normal. But the words are meant anyway.

This is his first real father, after all.]

[ He sends the message a bit after the other texts he sends out when he sees Kalika's message. ]

SENT: 12:10 PM
Good to have you awake, Brother Fukuzawa! We never stopped believing you would fight this out and come back. I hope you have a speedy, full recovery.

[ At this point, Josh can't imagine a world without access ports.

New Atlantis in the evening is as beautiful as he remembers it, but he doesn't stop to take in the sights -- not tonight. He's got two more people to see before he hightails it back to Falner to get on that plane headed to Ireland.

He'll ring the bell and wait, hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie as he runs through all the possible ways a boy who messed up can say sorry to the parents of the one that he's decided he'd gladly love for as long as he's allowed to breathe.

What can a body say? Family is important to this one. Always has been, always will. ]

Edited 2014-04-17 05:50 (UTC)

Waking the Dead 2.0 : 17 May 2063 | Patterns.

Waking the Dead 2.0: 28 July 2063 | Taning, and a random letter

August 6 || Saturday

Waking the Dead 2.0 | 10 August 2063 "sorry is never there when you need it"