[ OPEN? CLOSED? ] as you die, you will understand.

[passio]

WHO: dextera + others! i’m open to anyone but please tell me by PM or at pavaal if they haven’t had at least like, one conversation.

WHAT: dextera forces himself to face all the people he bailed on after dying.

WHERE: the town!

WHEN: forward dated to late june, and probably the 1st and 2nd of july.

WARNINGS: death death death

[ for the first time, dextera wakes up from death to a sky that isn’t red. it’s all as grey as the world around him, and slowly, the memories return to him—the bogeyman, his brother, the feeling of his very soul being taken from his body. then, there’s a long expanse of nothing. now, his consciousness has returned.

he keeps out of the way at first in this sketchy body, staying private, staying safe with a friend he’s sure won’t tell—there are things he’s not ready to talk about, and faces he’s not ready to see. after a few days have passed, though, and his features reform, color returns, and his voice continues to stay just out of reach, he can finally be seen around town again.

he saw the post. he knows guren announced his death. he’s just hoping that no one will ask about it, if they see him. ]

...

[ as ever, he's silent. ]


( i'll be posting closed prompts in the comments for people who want them, otherwise... go HOG WILD. )

Comments

CLOSED TO NOCTIS

[passio]

[ dextera had managed to sneak in undetected, late at night, in order to use his laptop to contact guren—but the next day, there’s no helping it. he needs to show himself to his roommates, even if he couldn’t bring himself to read their responses to guren’s post on the network. noctis had just lost his father, he remembers that, and dextera doesn’t want to put him through the death of another.

however reluctantly it’s occurred to him, he knows that he’s important to some people. noctis will want to know that he’s all right. ]

…

[ so he takes a deep breath, and knocks on the door. ]

[messianic]

[It's inevitable, really, that he'd start looking for Dextera. Guren said that he was dead, but Akira--Akira had died too, but now he's here, and....Minato, himself, is here, as well. Surely if Minato can have been granted a second life, then Dextera, who was trying to save everyone...

Surely Dextera deserves to come back to life too.

So he comes by on the daily, knocking on the door, greeting Noctis and Joshua who he knows anyway, and... leaving a bit after, when Dextera isn't there. Over and over, he'll keep trying to go their home, and he'll keep trying to knock, hoping that eventually, Dextera will be the one somehow answering that door.]

7/1

[inheritance]

[After Guren's post to the network, it had felt like a gloom had fallen over the town, everyone shaken by the deaths. Izuku's done his best to be there for Guren the whole time, nagging him to eat and rest when it was necessary, but things still look bleak. Izuku's made a promise to out-stubborn Guren, though. He's not going anywhere, no matter how hard things might get.

When Izuku had passed out on the coach from exhaustion the night before, he hadn't expected that things would've changed so drastically by the time he woke up.]

Morning, Dextera-san. [Izuku greets him sleepily as he trudges into the kitchen the next morning in search of something to munch on. Normally, he's much quicker to wake, but with the week they've had, he's still feeling somewhat groggy after a terrible night's sleep. It takes his brain a second to catch up.]

D-D-Dextera-san??! [He almost trips on his feet in his haste to turn back around.]

CLOSED TO RYO

[passio]

[ after waking up and figuring out that he was alive and very wrong, the first person he chose to go to was oddly not guren. there’s too much on his mind, and strangely, not enough in his heart. he doesn’t feel right, not at all like himself, and so the only person he can think to see in this time of need is… ryo.

whether it’s rationality or punishment he’s looking for, he can at least trust ryo not to spill it all over town that he’s back.

by the time he makes this decision, he’s still stark white, mostly featureless, but his silhouette is certainly that of dextera’s. he looks like someone cut out his figure from the world itself and left him blank, but he’s not worried about appearing to haunt ryo’s house as a ghost. carefully avoiding signs of anyone else, under the cover of night… he lets himself in. no lock or door is going to stop him from getting in like this.

normally he would knock, but he isn’t feeling normal right now. ]

let me know if this works

[withwisdom]

[ like others she read guren's message, even chastised him for his decisions, but chose to grieve for the dead alone. she gathered whatever colored flowers she could find, and the pickings were scant, but regardless she placed them at the well and came to pray there every day since, for all three of them. there is nothing more that can be done but to keep them in her thoughts, regardless of the short time she knew them.

unlike others she has no idea people can come back to life here. and so when she's walking on her way to the well in the morning to do her prayers, she's shocked to see dextera walking. just ahead of her. it shows in her expression, as though she's looking at a ghost, and her voice calls out to him when she feels the lump in her throat expel. ]

Dextera?

[theshowsover]

[Akira saw the post too, belatedly. He supposes he should be happy that there was no such post for him, so not too many people know what happened.

As such, he's not really all that surprised when he sees Dex walking around again. He's living (hah) proof that people don't necessarily stay dead around here, after all.]

Dextera.

[He quickens his step, to try and catch up with him.]

Hey.

i wasnt gonna but here i am

[bittybat]

[There's no need for Damian to watch the chickens fiercely, even with Dextera--gone. Other friends and roommates have it covered. But Damian swings by at least once a day just to see them. To inspect the hutch, the food and water.

Between the length of the month, he's worked on something better than cans. He's built a small wooden trough for the food, and it sits on legs along the side where he put it. They can eat as they please without being able to kick dirt and other things in it when scratching around.

He comes out of the hutch as Dextera comes out of the house. For a second, he pauses, except for the arm that pushes the door back into place. He regards Dextera for a moment or two quietly.]

Hi.

[scooptimistic]

[ She's not as close to Dextera as half the town seems to be. But Maya's never been someone to compare relationships. So what if she hasn't known him as long? So what if they haven't been through several hardships and forged a bond of steel?

She'd fallen off a dock and he'd almost drowned and they'd fought a crab, he's definitely a friend, and when she'd heard he'd died... well, who wouldn't have been upset!

So when she sees him around town, she performs a very quick double-take and then-- ]

Dexteeeeraaaaaa!

[ She's... running at him. ]

[whereabout]

[ When he comes back to the house, Joshua's there.

And Joshua, as he tends to do, doesn't make it into a scene. A raise of the eyebrows, a look up and down to make sure there's nothing visibly wrong with Dex, and he's rising to his feet and moving towards him. ]

Welcome back.

[dualtone]

[ Fushimi nearly (nearly) drops his coffee cup, when he sees Dextera. It's a near thing, but instead he just sloshes a little out of the side in surprise, and then completely ignores it, not even bothering to try and stop it from soaking into the edge of his sleeve. ]

-- Hey!

[ Fushimi doesn't usually get that involved in the affairs of other people, but he liked Dextera, from the time they spent together, as much as Fushimi ever likes anyone. More importantly, Dextera meant a lot to Guren, and Fushimi was right there watching Guren deal with the after effects of the fight, the loss.

It's really a toss up whether he's more worried about Dextera or Guren, at this juncture, but he feels something like relief that Dextera is -- alive? Back? Healed?

Ugh, that's gross, he doesn't want to be attached enough to people to feel relief. ]

You're --

[ He cuts off when he steps over to Dextera, not quite wanting to say 'not dead' or 'okay'... in his defense, the last time he had to deal with someone coming back from the dead, he cared substantially less about their well being. ]

[brightlyshines]

[Estelle was out detangling fishing line and watching the chickens peck about the yard when Dextera comes into view. She's very, very lucky that she doesn't straight out get herself tangled in her project when she sees him, but it's a near thing, chickens skittering out of the way as she stumbles to her feet, dropping her spool of line as she does.]

Dex.... Dextera?

[Her bright red eyes are wide... but she's moving forward the next second. Hello Dex you have one (1) small girl hurtling towards you in a full body tackle. Prepare yourself.]

[queenofminiskirts]

[She hadn't stayed at the house with Ryo so much the last little while, opting to spend more time sleeping over with Shiho even though she knew it meant Kyrie going off to stay with Caramia. But that was fine. Just for a little bit...she will apologize for Kyrie another day.

She hadn't cried, though she had wanted to. But there had been other people who needed her and for their sake, she had tried to keep smiling.

But then she spots Dex while she was out and about, moving supplies to a supply depot and she drops everything, the boxes making a heavy thunk on the ground before she launches herself at him the way only a psychokinetic could: with great speed but surprisingly soft impact.]

You idiot! [Was not actually what she meant to say first but there you go. Maybe it's softened by the way she was holding him a bit tighter than necessary.]

[doublecrowss]

[ For the past days, Akechi had found himself even more lost in his own thoughts than usual, going through the motions of his routine as though on autopilot. In between Akira's death, his alleged return, and the vortex of conflicted feelings he had never been good at dealing with, in the first place, Akechi had trouble in being himself-- or rather, in keeping intact the mask he presented to the world.

In some ways, that might be the most real he has been in years.

Still, deep in musings as he was, he still recognizes that face; it's a face that shouldn't be there, walking and breathing, if Guren's information was to be trusted-- the guy may hide a lot of himself, but Akechi doesn't think he would downright lie about this.

Well. Only one way to find out. ]

Dextera-san? [ He tries, inquiring but gentle. ] You're... here.

[ Not dead. But does that mean he's actually back, or did he just never die at all...? ]