soul_logs | A soldier will fight long and hard [OPEN]

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A soldier will fight long and hard [OPEN]

Characters: OPEN
Location: Horrorspital
Rating: PG?
Time: August 23rd-August 25th
Description: A place for all those injured from the mission and frog invasion to be healed
Note: Set up is complete!

Medics/Helpers:

Winry Rockbell
John Watson
Sakura Kinomoto
China
Aerith Gainsborough
Shibuya Yuuri
Miranda Lotto
Lacus Clyne
Naomi

Patients:

Nataku
Gaara
Joshua Kiryuu
Namine
Edward Elric
Kida
Mifune

This is simply a reference chart. You don't have to participate in the log if your name is listed, and if you think you should be added/taken out, please let me now in the ooc post. If you are confused please reference the previous visitation log here

The Clinic is a fairly large, several rooms with a number of beds partitioned by curtains your muses can open or close as they see fit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gee, Josh, don't waste all those words on me, he thought sourly, analyzing and reanalyzing what little Joshua was willing to give him. Deep breaths, Sakuraba. His partner wasn't gloating or letting his prissier side to come out, so...

... so what? Erasing Souls were the same as eating them. Cannibalism on the - what, spiritual level? No different, other than he just had to ingest it. Great. Just how deep did differences run between the Game and this world?

"Why did we have to erase Noise?" he asked, fishing though he had an inkling he knew what the answer was.

"It made you stronger, the more you fought. Eating those would do the same."

Note the subtle use of the word you, rather than us. Joshua had had to power down for the long Game, after all, and fighting Noise didn't really effect him much in truth.

Sure, rub it in. Not everyone was a Composer bent on destroying his home. Neku's eyes narrowed at the distinct use of pronouns but didn't comment on it, latching on the comparison instead.

"Then why won't fighting the kishin eggs make me stronger the same way? Why do I have to..." A glance at the unappetizing souls in the jar only made him cringe. Gross. "Eat it instead?"

This is just ridiculous.

"We aren't home, how am I supposed to know? The rules are different here, the methods of battle are too, so how exactly do you expect me to know that? I can't even hear the-"

He cuts off, turns away, and proceeds to sulk. Joshua doesn't like not being all-knowing.

"Hear the... what?" He sat up straighter on his seat and stared at Joshua's profile. Was this the music again? He recalled that Joshua mentioned something like it once. He knew a lot of the names they had for the UG were music-related, but it wasn't computing yet.

"The music?" Like how Neku could hear the Noise even without touching his pin.

Joshua doesn't say a thing, just sulks like the brat he is at times. Neku may notice that he stiffens at the mention of the music, though, as though he's surprised that Neku caught on so quickly- and not entirely happy about it.

Just because Neku wasn't that perceptive didn't mean he was stupid. Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, he leaned back to fiddle with his blood-stained shirt.

Neku could out-sulk him any time.

"The music."

This is actually pretty forthcoming, considering the people involved.

He glanced up, wondering what music was to Joshua; it didn't sound anything like the way Neku defined and treated music. Noise, frequency, harmony, dissonance... Not quite conversation or the noise of the street. Music.

"What is music?" And why was it so important?

"Can't you hear it in your weapon form?" He'd heard something like it when they had tried the first time, but there was a chance that had just been nostalgia.

"You could feel the Noise, at least, back home. Music isn't much different."

Didn't he? He tried to recall scanning - there was nothing like music at all. It was just like scanning with his Player Pin. Just noisy, but no music.

Not until- This time Neku did stare at Joshua with wide eyes, everything falling into place. "... not until I went too deep."

Joshua swallows, and it's more difficult than he'd like to admit.

"There you go. Not so difficult to comprehend, is it?" Talking about the music only makes its absence more jarring, to him.

Joshua probably heard the music of peoples' souls all the time back home. All the Souls and Noise in Shibuya in a chaotic orchestra, like Shades had told him about but couldn't comprehend.

And to have all of that replaced with silence...

Unbearable. It was only instinct, almost natural to reach out and hold Joshua's hand firmly; it was perhaps the only comfort he could give.

Joshua is surprised by the gesture, so much so that he isn't even struck by the need to get away, to scare Neku off. What on earth is that boy thinking?

"Neku? What exactly are you doing?" He may not be consciously pulling away, but he's still Joshua.

"Shut up," he muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up. "Can't you take comfort without being an ass?" Even if the rest of his sentence came out as a mumble, his body's automatic response was to squeeze his fingers.

He's not letting go yet, much to his own mortification, but if Joshua shut up about it, then there was no need to worry, no need to even think about what he's doing.

Joshua actually listens to Neku for once, or rather, ignores him enough that he doesn't bother to be contrary. He lets his eyes slide shut and squeezes back, savoring the remembered music from the touch.

He can't really hear it, but his memory is good, and he knew Neku's music almost as well as Shibuya's and his own. It's a complex song, but a beautiful one. It's probably different by now, too, shaped by this new place not-Shibuya, and his hand tightens again in sudden irritation.

Small blessings, he thought to himself, glad that Joshua was being... okay, not malleable, but agreeable, with a stretch. It takes a lot of effort for them to... whatever it is that they're doing.

He frowned at Joshua's sudden agitation and slipped his fingers between Joshua's own. He's here, he's here and they have to stick together; that's what partners do, right?

Even if things change and Joshua picked him only out of a whim and killed him maybe he really has no other choice but to go into things blind and wondering when it was going to end and how and why. He was still going to be here, until the time that he couldn't- can't- and hope that trusting Joshua wasn't going to... to what?

He doesn't object to Neku's fingers lacing between his own, merely moves his accordingly. Joshua almost seems peaceful, like this, irritation or not. He isn't being prissy or pissy, just possessive. And Neku isn't complaining yet.

"I can hear something like it, when you're in your weapon form. I did the first time, and last time too." He says quietly, not bothering to open his eyes, loosening his grip slightly.

Selfishness was an ugly, human trait. Withdraw or not withdraw, and could he, when Joshua was being just as possessive as he?

"I can..." He begins softly, eyes lowered and staring as Joshua let go and takes a deep breath as he changes forms. Perhaps he couldn't do partial transformation because of how simple his weapon was, or maybe it was because he was the type to give it his all, if at all.

Joshua just holds Neku's weapon form for now, finally opening his eyes to give his Proxy an almost serious look.

"You don't have to."

"You're my partner," the phrase alone was, had been used until it was raw and painful. A simple platitude for what can be more, or perhaps only an understatement of what's already there.

He takes comfort in the familiarity, they both do. And Joshua was familiar, someone he knew like he did the streets of Shibuya.

Joshua takes the statement for what it means, and cautiously settles Neku over his ears. He has his defenses, deeper down in his mind, but he's not entirely cut off this time, much of him is open for Neku. He's really only hiding things about the game, and deeper, darker things about himself.

This time, he lets in whatever it is that Joshua lets him hear. Now that he's actually aware of it, he can hear music from their connection. Beautiful, familiar, comforting, almost nostalgic that Neku knew he could listen to this without ever losing interest. Or maybe... maybe, he's been listening to it all his life.

It takes a lot more effort not to delve too deeply, to put more of himself into the music than he should. The last time was a pretty good deterrent.

Neku is far too open, he muses, as the boy's music filters through his mind. The temptation to dig deeper, but the sting of what happened last time is keeping him from it, and Joshua can't quite find it in himself to be amused. So he lets his own music twine with Neku's, both sets of sound more like Shibuya itself than anything, when together.

He feels the tug, though it wasn't really, was it? Just... closing the gap, leaving no space unoccupied and he could hear it, louder than ever and he reaches out if only to keep this in place, to keep Joshua from leaving this moment. He wants to keep listening, to keep basking into warmthcomfortfamiliarity and he closes his eyes - well, the feeling is there - and lets himself be buoyed by this.

Whatever this is, though he wasn't complaining.

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watch me as I default to run-on sentences - also, playlist says Not Falling Apart

Sob, that playlist. Birds come flying from the underground if you could see it then you'd understand

/turns playlist off, for own sanity

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