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[ open ] a river will flow

Who: Guren Ichinose & YOU!!
Where: All around town
When: Anywhere from 8/15-8/31
What: Guren around town! Some open prompts and also this will be a catch all.
Warnings: None really? Prompt D may have more gore mentions depending on how it goes, tho.

A. Siren follow up

[On the day that everyone returns from the island, Guren gets to the docks looking like an even hotter mess than when he'd left. His injuries may be gone, but anyone might catch that he definitely faceplanted on the docks and stayed there for a minute before being convinced away to take a nap somewhere.

Immediately after that, he comes back to make sure everyone's had something to eat and been bandaged, if not healed. He looks a little less filthy, thanks to Dextera's purification, and his wounds are all completely healed! His uniform sure is torn up, though. It seems like he's nonstop even now, going between people, bringing plates of food or just sitting next to anyone who looks deep in thought.

If you don't catch him then, he stays at Dextera's house the night of, and the following day, he's back to wandering around the town or working on his laptop in his own house. Feel free to catch him if you want a follow up thread from the event!]

B. Training montage

[As always, Guren doesn't let up on his training. He can be found close to the forest for things like this, usually as early as 5 in the morning. Stretches, jogging, exercises, things like that. It seems like he's taken to altering some of the peasant clothes to be workout worthy. Sleeveless, loose pants, and so on. When he's not doing that, he has a number of fuda (paper spell tags) that he's shuffling through, taking some sort of inventory of what he has on him. His sword is currently leaning against the base of one of the trees, and though no one else can see her, Mahiru is watching on with a curious gaze.

Don't stare for too long, though, or you'll get roped in. Hiding or not, Guren can sense someone looking his way, and he sighs, stopping whatever he's doing to stare over in that general direction.]

[He'll put you to work!!]

C. Cooking...?

[What's a little more rare is seeing Guren walking around with a bag of what seems to be... vegetables and various foods hanging over his arm. He's stopped at one of the gardens, crouching over one of the food plants and holding it in his hand, brow furrowed like he's trying to figure something out.]

[Eventually, he bites back some of his pride and turns to whoever he sees next.]

D. Anime rooftop prompt

[It's funny, but sometimes Guren seems to appear out of nowhere in the middle of the town, looking worse for the wear. He's definitely wiping blood from his mouth as he leaves from his hidden apothecary this time, but more than that, he's carrying himself a little differently. Shoulders heavier, eyes tired and dark. Testing drugs on yourself isn't a fun time, it turns out, even if your demon heals you.

After that, he heads back towards his house, but it's one of the buildings with a flatter rooftop that he ends up on, instead. He's watching the sunset, leaning back against the wall near the doorway to the roof, looking lost in thought. But he won't chew out anyone if they want to join him.]

(OOC: As always, if you want to plot anything, I'm

zeloser and zlos#3826 on discord! Feel free to make up your own prompt if you want something different, or work something out with me if you want.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[real men like staring straight at the sun, huh]

It's not like I show up only because I need something from you! [she shows up for purely chaotic reasons, too?? But Okuni enters the rooftop properly, so she's clearly not intending on going anywhere.]

You're just watching? You're not even going to have a drink? [sunsets are prime sake time]

Everyone else does.

[Well, that's not really true at all, but he feels like it sometimes. He feels like that's what he should offer. His arms are crossed, and he doesn't bother looking at Okuni as she enters properly.]

Anyway, I don't really drink. Why? Do you even have anything to drink? Because I don't.

What a lonely thing to say!

[He might not be looking at Okuni, but she sure looks at him at that comment. Is that self-deprecation? Acceptance? She takes advantage of his gazing at the sunset to pull a face at him, this is why the entire town is worried about Guren, even though he probably has eyes in the side of his head... that or Mahiru can probably see Okuni be a punk butt.]

Anyway, I don't have it on me now, because I wasn't planning on sun or moon-gazing tonight unlike you, but I do have something. It's not sake though. It's some kind of Western alcohol. [it's red wine, it probably tastes gross] It's just as well that you don't drink. I'll save it for another more festive occasion.

[like blowing something up.... well maybe not that, but it is in consideration.]

Maybe when you're in less of a mood?

Huh. What kind of mood do you think I'm in?

[Now, finally, he peels his eyes away from the colors restored to the sunset to eye Okuni. It's not as angry as probably expected, for once. Just a little unimpressed, like he's not expecting a good answer from her.]

[Okuni looks surprised at the question, despite having mentioned it in the first place. She'd expected Guren to dismiss it like all her other usual comments. Don't put her on the spot like this!!

She has one hundred and one needling things to say back, but she holds her comeback on her tip of her tongue for once, thinking.]

You can get used to the duties you've sworn to carry, but even they can get heavy from time to time.

[The Kumou duty feels like that sometimes. . . Though it's been a while since Okuni's had enough time to actually think about them. You don't really think about your arms or legs, that's how ingrained it feels to her. She doesn't know enough about Guren to confidently assume the same, but... she shrugs. He was bleeding earlier?? And the kidnappings just ended. A lot of Things have happened.]

[Guren watches her at that, and then silently looks back to the restored colors in the sky. Him being silent all the time like this probably doesn't help at all, but his shoulders are heavy, his eyes are tired, and it's hard even for him to hold as much as he is.]

So, why come up and bother me, then? [He doesn't say whether she's right or wrong, but if that's what she thought, why would she come speak to him? That's what he means.]

[Okuni looks a little discomfited at the blunt question. Don't ask her questions about her actions!!! Why can't everyone just assume she's trying to be a gremlin and call it a day.]

I saw you earlier.

[She'd like to say she'd normally wouldn't care, but if anyone was walking around Chroma bleeding from the mouth then she'd be concerned... Life is hard when you can't just honestly admit that you're worried about people.]

You don't look well. More than usual, that is. It would have been a pain if you ended up passing out here, so it's not like I came up here to bother you specifically.

[Rather than thinking anything specific like 'Guren is up to sketchy things and probably drugging himself silly with help from his secret drug notebook', Okuni thinks that it's more he's doing something that's tiring him out without telling anyone else about it. It sounds like something he'd do. . . It's what she'd do too, anyway.]

[Now that gets more of a reaction. He turns, at her mention of seeing him, and furrows his brow. It's clear that she cares, but there's always paranoia behind people being like that. Is it as it is, or something deeper, something more? Is she trying to dig for info?

He has to remind himself that they're all in the same situation here. That there's no reason for things like that. Still... there's worry beyond that in what Okuni saw. If she's worrying, then anyone else could have seen him and worried, too. That's what he's trying to avoid.]

What did you see? How much? [He used illusions to hide that building, but did she have some knowledge of looking past illusions? Or was it only afterwards?]

I'm not going to pass out, anyway... I'm fine.

You sound super suspicious when you put it that way.

[For both those questions and for that 'i'm fine'!!! She's not that surprised by either. Guren struck her as the type who kept things close to his chest, maybe he has real cause to be worried that she spotted him.]

Don't worry, I only saw you appear out of nowhere. [which could be a power he has, so Okuni doesn't immediately go "INVISIBLE HIDE-OUT".] I assume that whatever you were doing you were probably doing by on your own, so I won't suspect of you of fighting people in shady corners or anything like that.

[Guren sighs at that, bringing a hand to his head like this is a big annoyance. It's a relief that she didn't see the building, but at the same time, seeing him come out of it... It'd been pretty bad today.]

If I tell you what I was doing, will you keep your mouth shut about it?

[Okuni's eyes immediately go big and round like they always do when her curiosity is about to get her killed, but she doesn't immediately say anything snarky back.

Instead, she just considers Guren for a moment, taking in his apparent ill humor. She can't say 'I won't! I promise!" immediately, because those are words she doesn't say unless she's planning on breaking them later (OUT OF HABIT). so, instead]

I won't tell anyone else, but I'll probably ask you questions if it's really scandalous.

[She can keep a secret, but she also knows that Guren knows that she's just a talkative sort of person who asks a lot of questions forever, so she can't honestly say that she will keep her mouth shut about it. It's her way of being honest to Guren, alright!!!!]

It's not scandalous. I just don't want to bother people with it.

[He says that irritably, of course, and crosses his arms again.] I don't know if you know this, but I've been developing drugs to help people in dealing with the things that are thrown at us here. Physic defenses, physical endurance, things like that. I was testing some of the early stages of new ones on myself.

I can heal easily and I have someone who watches just in case. It's just a matter of recording the results and changing until we get it right.

[Okuni's eyes STAY BIG AND ROUND FOR THAT ENTIRE ANSWER, though it's less out of curiosity and more because she's dumbfounded. She was joking about the scandalous bit?? WHY IS SHE BEING PROVED RIGHT IN THE WORST WAY.

It's not the drugs part that really surprises her, mostly because she remembers sticking her nose in Guren's things back at his house and the way he reacted, so she figured he was doing some kind of research on it, but maybe as a hobby? Not as a real viable defense against whatever Chroma enjoys throwing at them. She won't put the idea down -- it's a better idea than having nothing, and she remembers very keenly how helpless Shouto had been against the siren's call.

She's just struggling with the part that Guren apparently makes drugs and ingests them by himself and also apparently suffers while some other Dude watches and makes notes. And they do this?? Repeatedly???]

. . .Was that how it went today? Did you end up getting the results you wanted, or should I take the bleeding as a sign of failure?

[Guren's proved himself to be reliable, even if Okuni would never tell him that. He had been pretty sick during the siren rescue, but they had all been sick. There's something to be said of organizing a rescue effort while barely being able to keep on your feet. That sickness was out of all of their hands. She doesn't know what to think about Guren purposely putting himself in danger like this, more than what he usually does??? It's like she can see the benefits in a detached sort of way, but the detachment is the problem. Because she's not detached. She's worried about him.

She can't believe she's worried about Guren. Okuni feels like pushing him off this rooftop for making her feel this way.]

[Ugh, she saw that, too. Of course she did. He'd been working overtime, trying more than he should, daring more than he should to get to desirable results faster.]

It's not a failure if we get answers. When my body reacts like that, we know the dosage of that particular ingredient is too much and we kick it back. We learn the exact measurements we need and apply it to future drugs.

Sometimes, we find ingredients that should never be used, or mixed with certain others. Other times, we find some that mask the ill effects of others. It depends, but it's always about finding answers.

We get further every day.

[The part of Okuni that's detached is going "at least Guren has some kind of system built into his suffering," and the other bigger part of her is ANNOYED and UPSET that Guren has to use suffering to pinpoint things at all. Is this how it feels to be worried about someone who isn't essentially already a part of her...]

You're saying we, but the one who's taking the brunt of the experiments is just you, isn't it? There's only so much you can take on your own, even if you do heal fast.

[It's not a question of having to stop Guren or even trying to convince him to abandon the project. Okuni already Knows how impossible that would be.]

If you don't take care yourself properly, then someone else is going to see you mysteriously bleeding out. And they'll naturally be worried about you, and then ask you all sorts of questions, and then demand that you either stop or rely on them -- which you probably won't do either! Your good intentions are seriously frustrating! I can't believe you.

[She says it in her usual 'i can't believe u done this' tone, but there's a measure of some real frustration here and actual concern that she can't help showing. Someone as strong as Guren dealing with something as dangerous as experimental drugs..... what a Bad time]

[Guren just places his hand on the hilt of his sword, more of a rest, a comfort, than anything else. He watches Okuni, and then glances away. The sun is completely tucked away below the horizon, now, but the sky still looks nice.]

You're right about one thing. I shouldn't have been so careless to let you see me. I was in a rush and left before I was ready to. Next time, I'll take the time to wait.

[He says it so seriously, like the only fault in his plan is that he got caught. Even talking like this, something looks tired in his eyes. Or distant? Anyway, though, he's gotta attack her now.]

Sorry, Okuni. I didn't mean to worry you.

[HMMM, BAD

This really is an attack on Okuni. Just like the time Guren transformed into gap moe and called everyone his family and left Okuni scrabbling for her usual defenses. Okuni is flashbacking to that singular moment of crisis, surely she’s learned from that.

It’s not too late to throw Guren off the roof.

It wouldn’t even be that bad. She did the same to Toubee except that was a cliff, so Guren really is getting the better deal here. Okuni is a nice, fair person. The sky is beautiful, just perfect for a good, solid prank. It would be like the cat ear crown, except better.]

[But the look in Guren’s eyes is uncomfortably familiar. So is the concept of keeping every burden to yourself in an effort to spare others, so is missing the point of an apology.

Okuni leans forward, pulling out her fan to jab it at Guren MENACINGLY. SHE KNOWS THIS WAY OF DEFLECTING, and she’s too annoyed to go flustering off a rooftop right this moment, so she’ll settle for the next best thing.]

Idiot! Moron! Captain Careless!

[NAME-CALLING!]

Don’t apologize to me. You don’t mean to worry anyone, but that’s what you ended up doing, so own up to it! Stubborn people should at least take care of their bodies, if they're not going to do anything smart like rely on other people. That’s the very least you can do! Calling people your family... No one wants to be related to someone too stupid to take care of himself, so put in some more effort!

[He deserves the name calling, the fan jabbing, all of it. He doesn't even flinch when she starts, simply taking it and staring down at her as she goes. All of it is true, it's right, and so he's silent, looking a little sad about it.

After all, it's not like he can stop and change. He can't even begin to explain all that's on his shoulders, or how he can't just drop any of it. He can't explain that he's got a heart that would kill the world to save those precious to him— it's all so stupid. It's childish. He knows, he knows. But he still can't stop.

Not yet, anyway.

It's not the answer she wants, because he can't give that to her, but he takes the space of silence to extend his free hand just slightly, resting it on top of her head. That's all he does.]

Eh --

[All she wanted to do here was yell at Guren for apparently being foolish and also let off some steam in the meantime. She didn't mean to make Guren sad!!! (maybe think about that before calling people mean things, Okuni....) She just doesn't like sad faces -- there's a real visceral reaction of dismay at Guren's expression, because Okuni goes about her life so that no one back home is ever sad for any reason. That's her goal in life!!!

But before she can do any sort of panicked backpedaling, her internal screams abruptly cut off when he pats her on the head like he really is a dad. WHAT IS THIS??? She's just gobsmacked that he's not hitting her on the head like she expected. headpats?? MMBLURGH???

She finally ducks out from under his hand and unfurls her fan in order to hide her flustered expression, SHE IS FEELING REALLY ATTACKED NOW.]

...That's -- that's all I wanted to say! [b-baka] But it's not like I think you're incompetent or anything... [DON'T BE SAD, B-BAKA] Anyway, watching sunsets is a good way to relax, old man! Keep on doing that, I guess.

[she doesn't even know what she's saying anymore.............. She just wants Guren to be careful and not to look so stressed??? But she can't just outright say that... life is hard. holds the fan up so her WHOLE FACE IS COVERED]

[There she goes, ducking out of the way and hiding her face like that. It reminds him a lot of someone he knows. Someone he misses, like everyone else. But Okuni is unique in a way that can't compare to anyone else. Everyone has their own touch to things, don't they?

He'd be laughing at how she reacted if he wasn't so lost in his own head right now. As it is, he puts on a smile, breathing out a sigh that's only a tiny bit exasperated.]

Maybe you don't want to be related to someone like me, but I still think of you as family, Okuni. I'm serious about calling people that. It means I'll be there for them, no matter what.

I won't let myself die before I can help who I need to. [That's reassuring, right.]

[WHY IS GUREN LIKE THIS

She peeps at him from over the top of her fan, disGRUNTLED. But also relieved that he looks maybe a little better than before, even if what he's saying is disturbing... Not that wanting to care for others and seeing them as family is disturbing, it's just too weird for Okuni to hear herself be included in that. She tellingly doesn't scream at him to shut up this time though, she just continues to look like she's sucked on a lemon.

ESPECIALLY FOR THE WAY HE REASSURES HER... But these's only so much a person can do if they're like that, Okuni knows, so she should be glad, right. ....SHE SHOULD BE, BUT SHE'S NOT. She can't jab him with the fan again though, what if he cries...]

If you end up helping me and then dying stupidly after, then I'll definitely beat you up in the afterlife.

[She won't demand for him to change -- and his reassurance is maybe a tiny bit actually reassuring. As long as there are people in Chroma who need his help, Guren won't go and die in some ditch somewhere right........ It's such a temporary solution, but Okuni doesn't know how to deal with it yet. So this is all she can do now.]

Haha.

[It's a half-hearted laugh, but it's there all the same. He can't die yet. That's always his reasoning, and to him, that means he'll stay alive... until he's done with everything, at least. But maybe it's not so reassuring to hear.]

You can try.

[SAVE GUREN 2K18!!! she feels like stamping her feet but LORD SHE IS NOT A CHILD ANYMORE!!! she'll settle for sticking her tongue out at him....... equally childish......]

The sun's already down! Go home already!

[GO!! TO BED!!!]

You're the noisy one who followed me up on the roof in the first place.

[GOSH!! Noisy people. He waves her off, literally.] Are you saying you're the one who's tired? You must be exhausted after blowing up like that. Why don't you go home.

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