pc catchall for souji.

[agleam]

aki give me a shitpost

Comments

[illomened]

[Saizo is absolutely going to abuse his power to make sure he is the most spoiled round pig that ever graced the face of the earth. He will happily butt his little piggy nose against Rupert's hand!]

Hah, goodness... I can imagine so. [Literally why is Rupert and his sweet fiance just a much, much healthier version of Souji and Hijikata.

BUT ALSO HUH???]

Eh? Oh... Like in a storybook! [Grimm has prepared him for this specifically.] What sort of curse were you up against?

[agleam]

[he will continue to give saizo pets as he tells this story, as is saizo's right.]

Ha... Yeah, we've talked a little bit about how it felt like a fairy tale. [soft... gross... he smiles before he moves on.] Oh, the forest I mentioned - it was full of monsters and the only plants that grew there were either, like, monster plants on account of what I mentioned a second ago, or trees that didn't bear any fruit. So the more it spread, the more it overtook our fields and stopped us from being able to grow food or hunt, and people were starting to starve.

[illomened]

[KING SAIZO RULES BENEVOLENTLY.

That is very soft and gross and also very cute though help.]

Hm... That's certainly not a good thing. People do tend to get very desperate and very violent when there isn't enough to eat. [The cannibals were on the way to Rupert's canon.] I assume that you took care of it, yes? Did you have to fight something?

[agleam]

Yeah... It wasn't great.

[he shakes his head, though.]

No. That's what everyone thought we'd have to do, but the answer turned out to be much more peaceful than that. It was nice.

[illomened]

[Starvation usually isn't especially since it goes hand in hand with WAR!! Neither of which Souji likes, both of which he's familiar with.]

Oh! Really? Goodness, that's some good news, then. [Finally after 500 years, something NICE TO HEAR.] These things do always seem to be solved by fighting in the stories and whatnot... In real life too, I suppose. May I ask how you fixed it, then?

[agleam]

[nodding, with a grin.]

Sure! By getting engaged.

[what the fuck]

[illomened]

[Souji just sitting here listening to that like "it might as well happen, I GUESS."]

—Congratulations! I have never heard of a curse being lifted by such a thing, but it sounds like a very good first-time-for-everything situation.

[agleam]

Thanks! There was more going on than just that to make it work as a solution, but - I'm glad it worked out like that.

[tilting his head, though.]

Okay, your turn now.

[illomened]

Very "the kind of storybook story that you'd want to be in if you had to", you know?

[He just nods... But then:]

What sort of story would you like to hear in return?

[agleam]

[thinking, thinking... and then:]

The one that makes you happiest to think about!

[illomened]

Ah! There are far too many to choose from! [Said with a little GLEAM IN HIS DEMON EYE...]

But, hm... One of the happiest - let's see. One summer when I was much younger, after I had just finished practicing in the dojo, Kondo-san said that we could take the rest of the evening off to celebrate the work I'd done. Normally I would clean after I had finished, so it was quite a treat, you see! That day, instead of either of us doing any more work, he took me out into town. We bought so many sweets that I got a toothache, hah... Taiyaki and dango, and my favorite brown sugar candies. He carried me on his shoulders all the way back home, after, and we stopped to watch the sun rise in a field.

[agleam]

I'm glad to hear that.

[having too many happy memories to choose from seems like a good thing! and he smiles as souji continues.]

The sunrise? Jeez, you must've been out pretty late for a kid... It sounds like it was a good night, at least. Memories like that are always really important.

[illomened]

[He thinks he's very lucky to have an abundance of happy memories to cling to as he dies, yes.]

Mm, it was quite late, but I've gone to bed late in the night and woken up before the sun for as long as I can remember... So it wasn't all that different, really. Except that time, I had good snacks and I was able to try catching fireflies in a field with Kondo-san! It was a wonderful thing... And I agree. [A little nod.] If you have memories like that, then you can take them with you wherever you go, you know?

[agleam]

[i'll kill you]

Wow... You're pretty disciplined!

[amused... he nods, though.]

It's a way to keep people close even if they're not there, right? So you're never really alone.

[illomened]

[ME, INNOCENT AKI???]

Hah - goodness, do you think so? I've just always hated feeling like I'm wasting time that I could be using doing other things, you know?

[Is he disciplined or is he a busybody on a time limit...]

But that's exactly what I think, too. It's a nice comfort, isn't it?

[agleam]

[:unamused:]

Well... I guess it depends on what you consider wasting time!

[he nods, though.]

Yeah. It's nice to have something like that to carry with you, no matter where you are.

[illomened]

Sleeping.

[Sleeping is wasting time. That is TIME he could be using on OTHER THINGS, that instead he's just using on BEING UNCONSCIOUS!! He also feels like he has a right to say this after spending seven weeks KO'd.]

--Will you tell me another story? Whatever comes to your mind first!

[agleam]

[after a moment of pause:]

No, you should definitely sleep...

[concern!! but.]

Oh - sure! About him?

[illomened]

[He just

IGNORES THE FIRST PART.]

Yes! Or about anything else that comes to your mind, I suppose. I'd love to get to know you a little better!

[agleam]

[SQUINTS..... his expression very clearly says that will remember that!! but.]

I do, too! So you owe me another story after this.

[hmmmmm]

Well, I talked a little bit about it earlier, but - I could tell you more about how I got engaged?

[illomened]

[He can't see anymore wow, he has no idea what expression Rupert is making, how strange...]

Mm, a trade is fair! But certainly, that sounds like a good story.

[agleam]

Sure! So, backstory, I guess... The reason that the forest I mentioned was cursed was because our fathers started a war right before we were both born. They got punished for it, and once they were stopped, there was this prophecy - essentially, that one of our kingdoms was going to have to prevail once and for all to stop it from spreading any further.

[pausing to make sure he's following this fairy tale nonsense...]

[illomened]

[That is some fairytale nonsense but fortunately he's from Grimm, so he just nods.]

Mm. So a prophecy that sounds as though one must finish what they started, essentially?

[agleam]

Kind of. Or... That our families would have to do that even if we didn't start anything ourselves.

[something something sins of the father]

So for a long time, when both of us were growing up, everyone around us thought the same way. That it was about finishing the war they started, and one of us was going to have to kill the other to get rid of the opposing kingdom's heir to the throne. Which - obviously didn't turn out to be the case, thankfully. There was a certain place we had to go for what we thought would be the fight, and it took us a while to travel there together, so we were a lot closer by the time we arrived than we had been when we started. And neither of us wanted to go through with it any more.

[illomened]

[Just nodding along as he explains...]

--A bit like these places, hm?

[Having to be in such close proximity with people you're supposed to FIGHT OR KILL or people who might eventually kill you really does just crank up the bonding levels somehow. Wild.]

What happened, then? Did you say that you had no mind to follow through?