awashlogs | Event Ten.

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Event Ten.

Little Willie, mean as hell,
Pushed his sister in a well.
Mother said, while drawing water,
"My, it's hard to raise a daughter."

t's pretty dark and miserable down in the well. The cavernous area feels much larger than a well should be, bodies milling about in the darkness and knee deep, frigid water. So you're here -- and you're not alone, and the only way out appears to be the thin circle of sunlight from above, the opening of the well.

(And elsewhere, in the Town, everyone's waking up to gifts of various usefulness, but hopefully they remember to check the well today even so!)

What now?

Welcome to Awash's tenth event log, and the intro log for this month, everyone! All new characters have found themselves waking in the well in the middle of the Town. Hopefully they can get a hand out! For more information, please go here!

Meanwhile, the current characters have some new gifts.

If there are any questions, please ask them here, and have fun! Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Did you say sad dad angst roof?? Only Guren can do that. But really, spotting someone else up there like that... he has to look into it. So, he jumps. I guess it's kind of like naruto jumps so it's fine. He's not on the tippy top of it like Sasuke here, but he's stepping up behind him a little closer, just a lower level.]

You can't be tired of people already, right? You just got here.

[It's weird to call out a stranger on this, probably, but Guren doesn't seem to care.]

[The crawling, electric energy swooping in to tickle Sasuke along the spine and shoulders makes him turn his head to acknowledge Guren out of the habit of combat.

He doesn't move; in fact, he does little else than curl the shuriken into the palm of his hand, but his attention is attuned to one man completely.

Sasuke can't see Mahiru like Guren can, but the rinnegan standing out under the blowing hair shows him a kind of collective generalization of the power. It's strong, and it's dangerous, as far as he can tell. It feels a lot like kinjutsu. Something forbidden. Interesting.]

It's the best place to see most of the town.

[After a moment, when he feels as if Guren isn't an immediate danger, he glances back out. Sad dad club. They match a little: Sasuke has a sword, too, pushed to his backside and only the end of it visible beneath the wavering cloak.]

Who are you?

So you're people watching.

[The complete opposite! Guren says it with a bit of a humored air to it, though, and it's clear that he doesn't have any murderous intent, or anything even close. He's more trying to figure out why Sasuke has the weapon in his hand.]

Guren Ichinose. I've been trying to help people get settled in. [Sorta] And you?

[Maybe he is people watching, Guren. The people just come to him is all.]

Sasuke. [Just enough to watch for a reaction, his head turns back so he can peer at the other man from the corner of his eye. The left one, ghastly purple from corner to corner and broken by rings of black, is eerie to say the least. Bottomless and piercing without any discernible reason.] Uchiha.

Have you seen a man named Naruto Uzumaki or a boy named Boruto?

[There's zero reaction to the name, and a minimal one to the whole eye thing he's got going on. Guren prefers to keep his emotions hidden in response to anything, but he's never seen anything quite like that before. Anything close has been... dangerous. Things like seraphs, and their twisted, bleeding eyes.]

No, there's no one by those names here, unless they just showed up in the well. But if you're up here alone, I'm guessing that means they didn't.

[This guy seems like he could have sensed if they were there or not.]

Friends of yours? Sorry, but you're a long way from home.

Edited (plural) 2018-09-09 05:18 (UTC)

[Hm. He doesn't recognize Guren's name or Guren's look, and it seems as if Guren has no knowledge of "Uchiha" or the name of the Seventh. He's not sure yet if that is entirely good or bad.]

They didn't come out of the well. [He won't ask about Sakura or Sarada; he doesn't want to think about them being somehow flung across space and time. Let's just pretend they're safe at home.

The only thing that malfunctioned was his own dimensional portal.] I'm use to being a long way from home. I don't want anyone else to be.

How long have you been here?

About six months now.

[Counting the days, keeping the weather in mind, as close as he can manage to match it to home. Six months. Saying it aloud makes his stomach sink.]

We're all working together to find a way out of this mess. Right now, the most I can say helps is following those quests on the laptops— have you found yours yet?

Half a year is a long time.

[Not as long as it could be yet, and not necessarily as long as he's been gone before--worst dad--but long enough for homesickness to linger.] Yeah. In the district you call "Flavo."

What happens when you complete the quests?

[You don't have to tell him, Sasuke. Guren walks around that tall pointier part of the church Sasuke is perched on to be more next to him, instead of behind.]

You get a reward. They tend to be useless prizes or small objects with gimmicks. A music box that makes you feel rested if you listen to it, a pile of knives, some socks. Things like that.

I'm pretty sure they're also the largest reason that color is being restored to the town.

[Guren comes around, but Sasuke doesn't stand in any kind of respect. Ironically, the refusal to get up doesn't seem to stem from anything malicious or rude. He seems... tired, if anything.]

I see. [Do a mission, get a reward. Sounds familiar. The right knee rises, and he drapes his right arm over the knee, idly flipping the shuriken over and over along his knuckles between each finger.] Is that the goal?

To restore the color the town is missing?

It's not clear. But it's the closest thing we're given to one.

[Again with the weapon, and Guren's eyes flick over to it this time.] It feels like the best thing to consider progress in this place, too.

I'll keep it in mind.

[The watching is both amusing and curious. So Sasuke does little else at first except watch Guren back while maneuvering the shuriken. After a few moments, he lets it slide flat into his palm, showing it off to the other man.] Catch.

[Instead of tossing it, he throws it as a shuriken should--directly at Guren, but the aim is lower, near the chest. Is this a test?

Maybe.]

[That is so Extra... and yet Guren is used to extra people in his life. Actually, he's pretty extra himself. He's the one who catches the shuriken between two fingers, looking mildly annoyed about it.]

Don't go around playing catch like that. There are too many trusting idiots who won't stop it.

[He throws it back like he's used one before himself, but it's not directly at Sasuke. It's at part of the high point of the roof he's perched on.]

[Hm. So Guren really isn't so normal after all. There's a new kind of professional scrutiny in Sasuke's one visible eye. It isn't anything at all like a ninja. It's not like one of the Tails either.

He still thinks it feels a lot like kinjutsu, forbidden.]

I wouldn't have thrown it at just anyone. [Sasuke doesn't seem to be bothered by Guren tossing the shuriken at the roof instead. Quickly, at the right moment, he pushes his foot out to clip the shuriken and redirect it; the speed and precision involved is insane, impeccable. The shuriken turns upward, and Sasuke plucks it out of the air before it flies off into space.] You aren't a ninja. Your energy is different. Something else is with you.

What do you do? In general.

[...Interesting. It's speed that he can track, thanks to his own bizarre power and upbringing, but he's sure a number of people here wouldn't even be able to process speed like that visually. It's impressive, the kind of show of power that has him excited in the very back of his mind, even if that's pushed back with a wall of wariness, a reminder that he's looking out for too many people here, and he can't trust anyone new.]

I'm Lt. Colonel of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. It's kind of a long story what I do. [Fight vampires, fight monsters, team up with vampires and monsters to fight an even bigger monster— it's complicated.]

Before all of that... I guess I was a sorcerer. [Yay, cults and onmyoudo and bullshit] Ninjas, huh. Is that what you are?

Yes.

[Even if he doesn't know anyone here personally, not which he's aware, he doesn't think there's any point in lying. The arrogance of his youth is lost; he knows now he's capable of protecting himself. Guren being a sorcerer gets a narrow-eyed look momentarily.

It rings too close to Orochimaru.]

Those in our village refer to me as the Shadow of the Hokage, but I don't care for titles. [Still, Guren gave a title, and he feels it should be somewhat reciprocated out of politeness.] The Hokage is the strongest ninja in our village, the leader.

His job is to protect everyone there. [Naruto... you old loser. Don't fuck up without him.] You're the boy's mentor.

He said you were his family.

Yuu.

[Guren breathes it out, suddenly tenser than before. Why bring up Yuu? Why bring it up like that? Dealing with ninjas isn't so out of the ordinary, considering his track record, but he doesn't know what this guy wants, and being unable to tell always has him on edge. He's like a cat, wound up and ready to strike if necessary, even when the hand reaching out is peaceful.]

So what? What about him?

[The defensive change is amusing in a wholesome way, but Sasuke's face doesn't really shift.]

You don't have to worry. [He may be Goth Dad, sure, but Guren shouldn't be fooled by anything. There's something in Sasuke's face, in Sasuke's visible eye, which lacks the apathy and gleam of someone full of malicious intent.

It's good to be wary, though. Sasuke can appreciate it.] I was establishing a connection between the two of you. I've already met him. Your energies are similar.

He said he was a half-demon. He's rather open-lipped about himself to people he's just met.

...That idiot.

[Guren's shoulders do relax considerably, but he's still not comfortable. This Sasuke guy may not seem like an immediate threat, but Yuu is just opening his mouth to anyone he meets. He doesn't have the heart to correct him when it took so long to encourage him to open up to begin with, though.]

I took him in, and he's part of the army, too. We use demons in our weapons called cursed gear. [No need to discuss that half-demon nonsense, thanks, shh.]

There's no need to hide that here.

I see. Your enemies must be powerful.

[Demons and cursed gear? It doesn't sound far off from ninja technology and the newly appeared group with a link to the mark on Boruto's palm. He's old enough now to be able to acknowledge when opponents and enemies might give them some trouble.

Doesn't mean they're going to win. Not with him and Naruto around.]

Don't be too hard on him.

You remember being a kid, I'm sure. But you may want to dissuade him from giving himself up to the demon completely for the sake of his friends. [He doesn't get he should be giving Guren this pointed look also--but maybe he will in time.] Family is important to him, but he's important to his family, too.

[Guren breathes out a laugh at that. He doesn't know how to explain that it's Yuu's self-sacrificial attitude that's been keeping him alive this whole time. The way he goes into things with his whole heart... he's fallen completely into temptation, but he's resisted losing himself all the same. It's a delicate balance, and one Guren needs for the plan he's helping along.

That's too much to say, though.]

You think I don't know that? He's got a will to live, so don't worry about him. He's tougher than you think.

I don't doubt he's strong. [Sasuke levels Guren with a single, dark eye, though the expression behind it is surprisingly patient.] I was strong, too, when I was his age. Almost unstoppable. There's nothing wrong in wanting to live.

But a good friend of mine taught me I meant more to them than they meant to themselves.

He knows that already.

[Calmly, clearly, just a simple fact. Yuu... is just like himself when it comes to this, so he understands completely.]

But he's the selfish kind of kid who doesn't care about that. He'll do what needs to be done, no matter what it takes. Let me guess, you tried to tell him otherwise and it went in one ear and out the other?

More than likely. [Sasuke doesn't sound put-out by Yuu's resistance for advice. He hadn't taken much advice when he was Yuu's age either.] He reminds me a lot of my friend's son, Boruto.

But he seems to think a great deal of you. Your words hold more weight than anyone else's words. It's how families are.

I know.

[It's quiet, short, and it's because he 1. doesn't like admitting gushy things like this in the first place, but 2. doesn't feel comfortable when other people become aware of them. It's too much danger to everyone else when he puts worth in them. His life is exhausting, and he's trying to protect what he can.]

I won't let him die. [If he can help it. This side of him, at least.]

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