4/24/2003
10:17
PM
Logfile
from Chase.
The
Berkley Apartments - 202
Really
nothing more than a college dorm come to life in an apartment building, 202 has
a distinct hand done feel about nearly everything in the room - from the
blue-and-white walls to the reupholstery on the couch and armchair. The perfect
example of working on a budget. Electronics are limited to the computer propped
on the desk, a small radio, and a tiny televison, while the kitchen is little
more than a niche in the wall. A second doorway leads to the bedroom, even
smaller than a dorm room because it has to share space with the bathroom as
well. Posters and photgraphs decorate the walls, and books are scattered on
every surface imaginable, often three or four deep, and all on sujects that do
not typically involve numbers: history, philosophy, psychology, world
religions, literature, politics and various languages - even some /in/ a couple
of those languages.
Hikitsu
is here.
Obvious
exits:
Exit
Chase
is actually going to seek out aniki. Yep. And so, there he is, first going to
try the doorknob to see if it is unlocked before knocking on the door.
Hopefully nobody is there, or just Ash, but... Yes, there he is.
And
apparently also on the phone. "Yes, I'm- No, I haven't-" Brice is
striding as well as he can about the small apartment, obviously working off
restless energy by picking stuff up. "Amie, would you just stop for a
second an-" Yes, it's the sister. Apparently she's the only one who can
out-talk Brice - with quite amusing results. "Look, /Amie/, I'm telling
the truth, I swear I don't-" About this time Brice spots the otouto
lurking in the doorway, and he jumps forward to haul Chase in by the front of
his shirt and shut the door behind him. "I gotta go, Chase just came- Yes
/that/ Chase, he's down here now and- Chase, /yes/, Chase, /that one/! Look,
I'll explain it all to you later I gotta go bye." *CLACK* "Good lord
she can talk." He still hasn't let go of Chase.
Chase
is drug into the apartment. Again. He should be rather used to this by now.
Actually, he was wondering if a black eye would be his greeting, but this'll do
as well. "Hey, Brice, I...." Okay, he'll just shut up while the other
man talks upon the phone. "Got anything in the fridge to eat, that I-
Okay, I'll just stay here then." Because apparently any half-hearted
struggle to get free won't work here. So, he remains, and then when Brice hangs
up, he responds with a bright smile, "That was the sister? You told her
about me?"
"Yes,
that was the sister, yes I told her about you, and Ash, and the patch, and the
whole complicated situation - she thinks I'm mental now, thank you very much.
But I didn't tell her everything." Brice's look turns to an incredibly
stone sculpture, showing no emotion - something a hell of a lot more
frightening than even his yelling. The yelling is mostly just a release of
nerves; this... plainly isn't. This is Hikitsu at his emotionless-disapproving
best, where there doesn't really seem to be hope for redemption for the one
he's looking at. He releases Chase's shirt and drops his load of junk on the
desk, going to sit on his favorite end of the couch. "Take what you
want." This time, though, there's no emotion behind it - his voice is
perfectly flat and expressionless. This is not going to be happy.
"Oh,
hey, yeah... Hopefully she just needs to sleep on it or something. Talk to her
again tomorrow. Or give her a couple of days. I'm sure you know her
best..." And now Chase will just trail off as he watches Brice. Ohhhhhh
shi- He draws in one breath, and then another before moving over to perch on
the other end of the couch, foregoing any trips to the fridge. And so, he'll
stare across to the other man. And frown, and he doesn't do all that well in
silence, especially Hikitsu silence. "So..."
This is
Hikitsu. The man is more expert at being silent than any seishi out there; when
he's like this, it defies nearly /anyone/ to be comfortable in the silence he
projects. "So..." He picks up Chase's word, still
emotionless-yet-flatlly-disapproving. "I received a phone call from Dylan
and Setsuna." The fact that he used Uruki's full name is /not/ a good
sign. "Apparently you and Kenny have decided that certain extracurricular
activities are a good way to make a living." ...Hell yeah, this is not
good.
Chase
shifts for a moment, clearing his throat, "Yeah... I'll bet you did."
And clearly his time out and away from the city didn't make any tempers wane
some. "It... it was just a thing, you know? I didn't want him to go out
alone. Hell, we just found him. And, Kenny just sort of jumped Dylan before I
could say anything. And, it was for a good cause, to pay for a new ID for
Kenny. He needed one." And now his voice will just trail off. "And
yeah, I shouldn't have gone out with him to do that. Yeah."
"No,
you shouldn't have." Brice's voice isn't quite emotionless - and not to
the point of 'I'm gonna kill you' - but it definitely has the 'I'm disappointed
in you' sound not mitigated by sadness. He sounds /cold/, is what he sounds.
"This 'just a thing' could have gotten you killed." It's true -
seishi powers don't really stop a bullet or quickly-thrown knife. Brice doesn't
ask why Chase didn't stop Kenny, or why Kenny wanted to do it. Instead he goes
for something else. "Why did you do it, Chase?" It's the first time
off the phone that Brice's said the otouto's name, and on /that/ word a bit of
sadness and disappointment comes into his voice.
Chase
can handle Setsuna yelling at him, he even managed to look somewhat steady when
Travis threatened him with death, but he is simply going to melt into the sofa
when Hikitsu acts like this. As opposed to the other man's relative stoicism,
the teenager watches him with an almost frightened stare. "Because he
asked me if I wanted to. Because I wanted to."
Brice
will never, ever seriously raise a hand against Chase - though that could be
part of the problem: the reaction he gives is purely emotional, or
non-emotional as the case may be, there's no release or end in sight. "And
why did you want to do it?" The sadness has gone again, but the coldness
has retreated also - though the non-emotion that remains is, in it own way,
just as bad as either previous emotion.
Chase
drags his fingers through his hair, showing just how uneasy he is. He draws in
a breath, flickers a glance away, and then finally looks back to the other man.
"I don't know, Hikitsu. I just... I just wanted to do it. Because Kenny
was going to. Because it was something I've never done before. Because it
sounded exciting. And maybe... maybe because there was a chance that I could be
killed. I don't know."
"You
wanted excitement." Ouch. Hikitsu's voice was extra-flat on that. Oh this
is not good. "You wanted the thrill of the chase, the hunt, the chance
that you could get away with something on the edge. You idolize Kenny and don't
want to have him think you're a wimp. You want the rush of adrenaline and the
thought that you can be independent even if you've regressed." Brice's
mouth closes again, pressing into a narrow line. He's not looking at Chase -
and hasn't looked at him the entire time. The places they're sitting also
prevent Chase from seeing his one eye, finding any clues it might have.
"That's why you wanted to do it, isn't it?"
Okay,
so maybe Hikitsu knows Tomite better then even he does. He frowns across to the
other man, but it is a telling sort of frown that is a pretty good hint that
Chase is worried as anything about this. He licks his lips before nodding,
"That could be it. Possibly," he eases slowly, just a little recalcitrant.
And then the addition, "Actually, that is pretty much all of it, I'm
sure."
Hikitsu
and Tomite; they're brothers. Brothers tend to know a lot about each other, and
Tomite is even easier for Hikitsu to read then Takiko. "I don't suppose I
have to tell you how worried I was when you disappeared." That time Chase
was in Lexie's for days on end still rings in his head; he spent most of the
time after Anana called alternately blaming himself for the disappearance,
watching the news to hear of any bodies found, or out on the streets prowling
for him. Even Ash was shocked. "Or when I heard you took that car."
That time, visions of mutilated wrecks in a variety of places danced through
his head. "Or when I heard you were involved with Lexie." Then it was
pictures of Chase - or pieces of him - being tortured by various oni and
brought back to life by Reese. "Or now." And then it was pictures of
Chase being shot. Happy train of thoughts, ain't they? "I don't suppose I
have to say how disappointed I am in you now." Doesn't he realize that
Brice can arrest him for assault with a weapon? Kenny too. He's not because
he's his brother, and he cares about him, even if it doesn't exactly seem that
way now.
Chase
continues to watch Brice, a frown tending along the line of his eyebrows 'til
they knit. "Hikitsu? The last thing that I wanted was for you to be
worried. You or any of the others. I mean... damn, it's just that...." He
scowls, apparently unable to come up with just the right thing to say at this
point. "I don't want you to worry. And I can tell you are disappointed.
And I know why that is. I just don't know what else to say..." His eyes
squeeze shut and he slumps back into the sofa, feeling awfully low at this
point. And that isn't even the half of it. "I'm sorry."
"I
have to worry about you, because you don't seem to worry about yourself."
Shades of the past life - Hatsui said something eerily similar to Hikitsu about
caring, once. "I worry because you disappearing would drive me over the
edge, just like it... nearly did... last time." Yeah, Hikitsu died too
before he could really lose it. But he would have, oh, he would have.
"Anana worries about you too, and Ash, and all the rest, even if they
threaten you." It's twisted, but why else would they do it if not at least
to partially keep him safe? "We don't want to lose you. /I/ don't want to
lose you. And you doing those types of things just makes it more likely. I know
you, you won't be satisfied with muggings and joy-riding cars after a little. I
don't know where you'd go after that - probably to liquor stores or minimarts,
and then on to something else when that edge wore off. I don't want to have to
arrest you later in life, and I damn sure as hell don't want you to die."
Brice turns to face Chase for the first time since he sat; it's fairly hard to
tell exactly what his expression means, but it's plain he isn't frowning fit to
split a brick any more. Perhaps there's even a little bit of entreaty there?
"So if you want to do something hair-brained, tell me. I'll take time off
and we'll go bungee-jumping or something. Find some place to give you flying
lessons in a Cessna. Just don't, /don't/ go out and commit crimes for a lark.
All right?"
Chase
finally looks back up to Brice as he begins talking again, watching the other
man with barely restrained ache. "Hikitsu, I..." No, suppose they
never did discuss that before. "The last thing I wanted was for you to
follow me then." And the guilt at that as well nearly eats him alive. But
his voice stills once more, listening to the man continue to speak. He shifts a
bit where he sits, looking almost as though he is about ready to leap off of
the couch. "You know you'll be the first one I'll ask.... and as soon as I
got back, I was going to ask you..." He trails off though, frowning,
almost not quite sure if he should continue. "There is something though
that I need to do on my own first. I have to do it. On my own. It's important
that I do it."
"I
followed you of my own choice; I just happened to be killed as I did it."
Brice has long gotten over dying last time - his guilt, instead, is not
realizing what Takiko meant to him and not being able to protect Tomite. But
both Brice and Hikitsu have had so much guilt in their lives that it's almost
routine; he can function through it, although it leaves him emotionless. And
where would he leap off the couch to? The room's tiny. "Going to ask me
what?" he asks in the pause of Chase's speech. "What do you have to
do?" Leave the 'alone' bit out of it until you know what it is, Brice.
Chase
frowns across to Brice, shaking his head slightly, but he doesn't comment
further, knowing that it is pretty useless to do so. "I was going to ask
you to go oni hunting with me as soon as I got back. I fully intended to. Mina
wouldn't let me go and I promised her that I wouldn't just leave, but now that
I'm back here, I was going to ask you to come with me and kill some, but
now..." He hesitates, shaking his head from side to side. "I've got
something else I have to do. Hikitsu, nobody trusts me now. They don't think
that I'm with the rest of you. And as much as that hurts, I have to do
something to fix that. On my own, to prove myself."
Brice
blinks, emotion plainly showing on his face again - though it's surprise.
"Oni hunting?" He takes that in for a second, then shakes his head.
"I can't do it. I have to be the responsible one here for all of us-"
he's the eldest now after all "-and with the job and all..." He
doesn't have the time now to go traipsing around the city, and he doesn't have
the protection of job security if he does indeed manage to kill one. "If
they attack, I'd be more than happy to help of course." Morals don't stop
him from that. "I trust you, you know that, though I can't and won't deny
that certain recent actions of yours have been... pretty strange. But
Chase..." Brice pauses, not sure if he'll like the answer. "What do
you have to do?" There goes that worry again. It's setting off massive
alarm bells in his head.
Chase
nods his head slowly, "Lexie is dead. Their gods killed her. First they
forsake her and then they killed her. When I found that out I had every
intention to come back here and kill more of them. If they so wanted to kill
their own, I'd be happy to help them along. And I wanted you to come with me."
He swallows before continuing, flickering a glance back to him.
"Hikitsu... if I tell you, you have to promise to leave me to do it. You
won't argue, you won't try to stop me, you won't say anything to anyone else
about it. You won't tell a soul. I have to do this. I /have/ to."
"/What/?
Lexie's /dead/?" He never much liked the woman (or at all), but... that's
no reason to want somebody dead. They're on opposite sides and he thinks her
opinions are bad (to put it diplomatically), but dead? "Oh my god..."
That floors him. Initially leaning forward to make his point to Chase, Brice
sinks back against the couch, dazed. "Good lord... Genbu above, killed by
her own gods?" He could never, never picture any of the Yang gods, even
Seiryuu, doing that. But then Chase is getting emphatic again, and Brice snaps
to attention, liking the sound of this even less. "... Tell me. I won't
tell anyone." He wants to know where to look for Chase if something goes
wrong.
Chase
nods his head in silent affirmation to Brice's outburst. He has already
wrestled with that demon quite a bit since learning of it. "Yeah. Mina
told me out there. And... she stopped me before I could come back and... well,
you know." He sighs for a moment, eyes aniki, and then adds. "I'm to
hunt down and kill Reese." Sounds simple, doesn't it. "And
soon."
"She
stopped you before you could come back and go on a rampage." Chase would
have done that. Just a fact. He's... impetuous - which is pretty much what got
him in this mess to start with. But Brice can't blame him this time; if
something happened to Ash... gods no. "You're going to kill Reese."
It's not a question. He'd ask why, but he knows. "When is soon, and where
will this be happening? I won't follow, but... in case something goes wrong, I
want to know where to go." To save his life or... something else.