purrtagonist | [Week 1, Sunday: Ichigo]

[ah. . . of course. there's no way Ichigo would be able to recount a story like that one, if all of his memories of his important people were gone. for a moment, Akira looks apologetic]

Sorry about that. I know it's a personal question-- I didn't know it was tied to your lost memories.

[rubs the back of his neck, sheepish. and then changes course]

What's a hollow?

No, it's fine. I wish I could tell you it in more detail, but...

[He shrugs, a little helplessly - but he didn't take any offence at all. It's not like Akira would know that the whole thing was wrapped up in memories of other people.

But, he's glad he at least has something he can explain without any gaps in his memory, and he nods.]

A hollow is...well, it's a monster. But it's one that's created from a human soul.

In my world, souls are connected to their bodies by a chain of fate that attaches to them - and it's that chain that's broken when they die. I'd expect to see chains of fate here, really, but...I guess it's not the same for every world.

[He shrugs again, and continues.]

Anyway, the chain of fate just hangs there where it'd been cut - but eventually, if a soul spends too long in the living world, the chain begins to eat itself. When the chain is devoured away entirely...a hole remains where the chain once was, and a hollow gets born from it.

They're constantly feeling pain from the emptiness, so...they eat other souls in order to try and fill it. If they're strong enough, they'll even eat other hollows.

[CANNIBALISTIC GHOST MONSTERS.

Bleach is a weird canon.]

[holy shit, that's some stuff straight out of a horror movie for sure]

[but Akira is good at reading context clues, so he makes a couple of quick conclusions before asking]

As a shinigami, is it your job to fight those kinds of monsters?

We reap them.

[He winces a little - because it's an unfortunate thing to say, what with their current situation - but it's the truth.]

They're humans too - even if they're changed. The mask is to shield themselves from the world - their naked Id, is how someone described it to me - and Shinigami reap them by breaking that mask with their Zanpakuto.

But - They don't die. Because we break it, they can become whole again and go to the Soul Society, just like the other souls we send there.

[it's okay, he understands the many connotations of that word. and technically, Ichigo is a reaper? in. . . a different context. shinigamis aren't exactly reapers, but you know. close]

And the Soul Society is where all souls are supposed to gather after death, to avoid turning into monsters like hollows?

This afterlife must be throwing you for a loop, then.

[Ichigo nods at the question.]

Yeah. I never asked why, but souls don't become hollows once they're in Soul Society. They pretty much just live like normal people from what I've seen - though less modern and more like people from the meji era, I guess?

[But at the mention of the afterlife, he shrugs.]

Not really. I mean, in my world, there's the cycle of reincarnation, right? If this is standard in a bunch of worlds, it'd explain some things.

[another nod as Akira absorbs all of this. the soul society makes sense. . . don't most religions have concepts of heaven or hell, after all?]

It doesn't sound like this is a cycle of reincarnation, though. [he comments idly, tugging at his bangs as he does so] It sounds like we'll get a second chance. Return to life at the moment we died, or something similar.

....at the moment we died, huh.

[Ichigo goes quiet at that, eyes narrowing a little - and a shiver runs up his spine, remembering his body at the moment of his death.]

If that's the case...then I don't want it.

[It's quiet, but full of conviction.

But knowing that Akira probably won't want to hear this, he quickly switches topics.]

...Anyway, I think I get why you keep your bangs so long now - you like hiding your face, huh?

[uh, yeah. Akira was about ask about that, actually. but then he remembers what Ichigo said about his death (dismemberment, ritual homicide) and clicks his mouth shut. mmm. . . yeah.]

[it'd make sense that Ichigo wouldn't want to return to that. but if he was returned to life. . . then wouldn't he be returned whole? to maybe a point before his friends and family were killed?]

[mmmm]

[he swims along with the subject change, despite those thoughts]

Ah. You caught me. It's one of my very well-kept secrets.

Mmm. Kind of redundant though, isn't it?

[He reaches out and taps on Akira's lenses, smiling.]

If you wanted to hide your face, you shouldn't have gotten these. They make people pay attention to your eyes more.

[No, actually...

That's just Ichigo who pays attention more to Akira's eyes in those glasses, because -

Something about the black frames and those gray eyes just...draw him in.]

Anyway - enough about where I come from. What about you? What was your life?

[whoa, hello! that's his personal space. and Akira finds himself automatically reeling back as Ichigo's fingers tap against the glass of his lenses]

Hey. . . it's the Clark Kent effect. I'm like Superman, here.

[lol]

[he drops his joking tone to answer the question seriously, though]

It was-- well. . . [. . .] It started off pretty normally, all the way up until the day I was arrested for assault.

[oh]

Superman has more muscles, doesn't he?

[He's teasing, though - giving a grin before Akira gets more into his history, which...very quickly wipes the grin off his face.]

Assault?

[From the tone of his voice, it's obvious that he can barely believe that.]

No goddamn way. You were framed, right?

[that. . .]

[takes him by surprise. he hadn't even told Ichigo the rest of the story yet, and he's already assuming he was framed? there's no masking the way Akira's brows rise above his glasses]

. . . huh.

[huh]

Why do you assume I was framed?

[he was, but. that's beyond the point]

Because you're not the kind of person who could assault someone. Not unless it was on purpose.

[He waves a hand in the air.]

I've punched my fair share of muggers and shady assholes when I was alive - it'd all be considered 'assault', but beyond the faculty at my school treating me like crap, I've never had a record.

So...I just figured you got that because you were trying to help someone against some big shot, or...something.

[. . . . . . huh]

Who knows? I could be bad to the bone. A real violent delinquent on the inside.

[he's deflecting. truthfully. . . Ichigo's right, and he doesn't know how to feel about someone pegging him so accurately so quickly. without any shred of doubt]

[He laughs at that, shaking his head.]

Sorry, but I used to be one of those 'violent delinquents.' There's no way you're one.

[Ichigo is -

He's a lot of things, truthfully. But give him enough time with someone, and he'll be able to see through to their heart.

Akira has a good heart, that much is true - so much so that he feels guilty for even being partnered with him.

But that's something for another time.]

[hm]

You're right. I didn't assault anyone.

[ah]

I tried to stop a drunk man from attacking a woman. I touched his shoulder, he tripped, and was injured in the fall. He blamed the injury on me, and threatened the woman to back him up.

[. . .]

The courts didn't believe my story. So I was found guilty, and sentenced to one year of probation.

[but even if the punishment didn't involve jail time, the simple fact that he had a criminal record was enough to completely ruin him]

[In another time, another place?

He might have reacted with rage, with indignation - that someone could do that just for his own ego, to keep himself safe from his own concsequences and get away with it.

But now? He's heard so many things like that, seen the worst of people - that he just looks sad, slowly nodding his head.]

...That's pretty typical. People doing things like that to save themselves, not thinking about if it hurts anyone else.

[He looks...

So melancholy, for a moment.]

[the melancholy expression says a lot, Akira thinks. it's the expression of someone who knows too well what abuse of power looks like]

Yeah. It is.

[far more typical than he'd like]

Systems like that are corrupt. Those in power want to stay in power, so they'll gladly kick around anyone who gets in their way.

[there's no bitterness in his words, funnily enough. he just sounds like he's stating a universal truth]

[Week 1, Sunday: Ichigo]

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how do you put up with my slow ass

b/c ilu

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