. all you have's your axe to grind . closed

[shikomizue]

Who: Takasugi Shinsuke (shikomizue) & "Friends" | Closed
What: Catch All For April-May-June
When: Over April / May / June
Where: Mostly Wyver, some Thesa and Olympia
Warning(s): alcohol + graphic violence + bang + will edit as needed

[ closed starters in the comments ]

Comments

[baguablade]

[ Cain stares at the screen for a long, long moment. Takasugi's called to... check on his plan? He's so sorely tempted to just hang up.

But he can't turn off his phone, there are other people who do actually need to be able to reach him. And knowing Takasugi, he'll manage to figure out exactly the worst possible time to call back and call then instead of now, and make everything a mess.

Cain sighs, exasperated. ]

If I tell you, are you going to come down here and help with it?

[shikomizue]

[There's a pause, as if Takasugi could potentially be considering Cain's proposition. He isn't - and he doesn't think he's fooled Cain into thinking otherwise. He's just taken a moment to repack his pipe.

Showing off how much leisure time he has, or something.]

No...

But you weren't stupid enough to make a plan that relies on my help, so that's fine.

[baguablade]

[ Even with that pause, Cain knows better than to hold his breath and hope for the impossible. He has hopes for Takasugi, but he also is very well aware of what Takasugi is like. He's an optimist, but he's not stupid. Plus, he can hear the sounds of Takasugi repacking his pipe; the Natha technology is very advanced.

In the ensuing silence, he only rolls his eyes for Takasugi's dramatics. ]

Of course I wasn't. You don't plan on lifting a single finger, let alone an entire helping hand.

[shikomizue]

[Cain's read him expertly, so well that Takasugi almost feels offended. Why? When he'd wanted the other's understanding. When he hadn't represented himself as anything other than a hardly restrained antagonist.

He just doesn't like being predictable.

His pipe is repacked, but there's no flick of a match to follow. He's stalled-]

No, I don't. [You're right. Like hell he'll ever say that.

Being anticipated is annoying, but getting eaten by a giant rampaging dragon is worse.]

But you've gotten other idiots to rally with you. So, what's your next move?

[baguablade]

It's amazing that—

[ Cain cuts himself off— or rather, he's cut off, attention distracted, by a loud roar. Takasugi can see the way Cain winces, the way red washes over Cain's pupils for a moment. Cain nearly drops the phone.

Behind him, the rock he's crouched behind shakes. No, it's not the rock, it's the very ground Cain's sitting on. Something lands with an earth-rattling thud and a shadow falls over Cain.

He doesn't even bother to offer an excuse; there's no time, only a another roar and then a wash of flame, blanking out the view before it abruptly goes black as the call ends. ]

[shikomizue]

[Even over the communicator, Ysverai's bellow imbues Takasugi with a poignant sense of uneasiness. It leaves him shivering, sight and sound registering only as ringing white.

He's only missed a second - left staring at the pristine, metallic floor - but he knows the value of time in abrupt chaos. A second is long enough to wipe out an entire army; he doesn't expect to see Cain when he drags his focus back to the video.

When he meets the man's eyes, they shake. The entire scene shakes, a disquieting sense Takasugi can almost feel in the lurching of his gut. It's so far away, through empty space and bright atmosphere untouched by the carnage below-

But he can smell the burnt flesh left behind by flame... and he knows what cut communication means.

Takasugi leans back, alone. Left cold, his senses alight and ready for a fight that isn't his. When he brings the flame up to light his pipe, his hand lingers. Until the heat singes his fingers and he flicks it away, extinguished.

Within minutes, his feet touch the planet. It trembles under them, the scene of battle not far from where he's landed. He'd used Cain's coordinates, though there's little left but ash and rot.

Expand the perimeter. Search for cover, or any signs of footsteps. Takasugi has scouted for survivors may times before. There's never anything in it but numbness, and a distant sense of awareness of the dangers surrounding.]

[baguablade]

[ Cain's not where he'd made the call — there's no cover left there, only a scorched husk of what was once an outcropping, and ruined, toxic ground. Nothing alive is left, but there's also no sign of Cain. Only the sludge that marks Ysverai's passage, ooze coating the ground, and the scent of sulphur lingering in the air.

But only a mile away, there's a small encampment. Barely anything at all, hidden beside a stream, miraculously spared from the worst of the destruction. It's there that Takasugi finds Cain, his jacket shrugged off, his shirt open and hanging around his waist, baring his chest. Showing the cuts and bruises and scorch marks he's earned during the battle.

He's trying to bandage the worst of them, one long acid-burn down his arm — he has his hand outspread, dredging up healing magic that doesn't want to come to his call when he's already used it so much on others today — when he looks up, hearing Takasugi's footsteps. His eyes widen with surprise. ]

...what are you doing here?

[ He hadn't expected Takasugi to leave the station, not for anything. For a moment, he wonders if he's been poisoned during the battle, if it's some new effect of Ysverai's proximity, if he's started hallucinating... The possibility is quickly discarded; why he'd hallucinate Takasugi of all people, he can't imagine. ]

[shikomizue]

[Reaching the edge of the devastation, the charred ground cracks under Takasugi's feet. Cracks splinter through the hardened earth, black dust clouding the tracks he leaves behind. Underneath the brittle surface of slate, the dirt seethes, eating away at the soles of his sandals if he lingers.

There's nothing to be found but blackened trees, their fallen twigs too chaotic to betray a path recently taken. He'd chosen the wrong direction-

When Takasugi crosses through the heart of the battleground again, the skin on his heels begins to blister.

Shoulders, slouched as sallow as the damaged shelters they hide among, end Takasugi's search. He approaches the few survivors, scanning them for Cain. His lips press thin when he reaches the man.

Injured, but hardly dying.

This was a waste of time-]

Me?

You were the one boasting about involving me in your plans. How is that you're already losing? A guy who can't even handle a dragon won't ever be able to be my ally.

[Admonishing, looking down at the wounded main, Takasugi could almost be taunting. But even as he crouches to look more closely at the burn on Cain's arm, he isn't smiling.]

Sorry, you can't die here. I've already decided to use that hairbrained scheme of yours.

[With no magic to offer, Takasugi can only reach out to grab Cain's wrist. His grip isn't gentle; he rises to drag his captive comrade towards the stream.]