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Post by Karon on Dec 16, 2019 20:20:27 GMT -6
Karon's PL: 40,000 Zhida's PL: 5,000
The two ogres had been on Earth for a little while now, but were no further along in their search. The trail, it seemed, had run dry. They had no idea if their quarry was even still on Earth, but there was no evidence he had left, either. It was as if he'd disappeared, like a ghost. Funny, that.
Karon and Zhida currently standing outside in some tiny, dusty village in the west, leaned against the side of a building. The colorful duo had received some odd looks from the locals, but some stern return glances from Karon had them left alone. The blue ogre was slumped against the wall with his sunglasses on, which made it hard for Zhida to figure out exactly what he was doing as she peered up at him. Was he people watching? Deep in thought? Sleeping? He was remarkably good at secretly napping with those glasses on. Zhida sighed and pulled her OniPhone out of her pocket. These dead ends were frustrating, but she had to trust that Karon knew what he was doing, even though she doubted that more and more with each day.
Out of boredom, Zhida started scrolling through her messages. It wasn't long before one caught her eye. It was over a year old now, but it was the most recent from the contact: her older cousin, Daruma. He'd gone to Earth on a mission to restore the Yemma Squad, and no one in the family had heard from him since. With everything that had been going on with her internship, it had slipped her mind. Now, she was looking down at the glowing screen with the words good luck! I'm rooting for you!!! shining back at her, accompanied by a rainbow of emojis. A sheepish thank you;;; was the reply. That was no good! She had to see how Daruma was doing now. She quickly tapped a new message into her phone:
hey Daruma! Guess what planet I'm on??   lol how's the squad doing? Do you guys have a base? Let me know where ur at, I'll come visit!!!
While she waited for her phone to buzz with a reply, she tugged on Karon's sleeve. The older ogre startled and knocked his glasses askew. Yep, he'd definitely been napping. Zhida tugged on his sleeve more urgently, "Mister Karon! Since we don't seem to be...well...doing much right now, can I go visit my cousin? He's here on Earth, and I haven't seen him in ages." She looked up at him and gave her best sad puppy eyes.
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Post by Tsukibito Daruma on Dec 16, 2019 21:29:06 GMT -6
PL: 16,000 Ichi's PL: 16,000Daruma stirred from his sleep, his body caning with pain as he struggled to re-bandage and nurse the bruises that still remained, even with some healing from Chime after the incident at Mount Five Element. It had been a hell of a fight, and Daruma believed that it had given him... something. But more importantly, something had gone wrong. Ichi was indisposed of, trapped within his orb but still there. A deep crack ran up the side, and Daruma had been searching for a way to fix it. Nothing had worked so far, and after the first few days of terrible sadness, Daruma was feeling too worn out to even moap today. What a cycle he lived in. Every month it felt like something terrible happened, and sent Daruma into this spiral that inevitably led to him coming out numb for a while. A little part of him longer for his old life, the warm embrace of his mother telling him everything was okay, awkward overpopulated ogre family gatherings, Opa Jizo's stories from when he was spry and unfettered. But he couldn't go back. He had a life here now, and so much to do. So much to look after. So much to mourn. Ugh. Tightening the bandage he snapped himself out of his rumination and grabbed his phone from the table as he moved to start the day. 1 Message.That was weird. Daruma hadn't received a message from anybody in a long time! The only people who had his number were Tysco and... Nashi- but they never texted him, they usually called. Daruma thought that might have been because Nashi didn't know how to get his phone to text, but he never pushed it. Curiously, he clicked the notification and undid his lock screen, revealing it. Zhi: hey Daruma! Guess what planet I'm on??   lol how's the squad doing? Do you guys have a base? Let me know where ur at, I'll come visit!!! Woah! Daruma was a little bit flabbergasted, and the wind was knocked out of him by a sudden change of mood. An awkward excitement filled him to the brim. He hadn't heard a thing from his family since he'd left Otherworld. He always assumed that they just forgot to text, but after a while he'd started to only really send updates to his mother, who never responded. It was one of the few things the blue Ogre didn't take personally - she was very tired, and it was a shame, so he knew she would respond if she could. It was okay. But- but! Today, he'd gotten a text from one of, if not, his favorite cousins! And she was here, on Earth! He nearly jumped in joy, before he realized he was still a little battered and worse for wear. "Shit, uh. What should I say, Ichi-" He asked, before realizing he was quizzing an empty room. Looking at him, he frowned, and lingered on the damaged orb. "I'll... get you back buddy. Don't worry." Clicking the little box to write his reply, Daruma spent the next ten minutes fretting over it to make sure he didn't come across any way other than he meant to. Daruma: Hey Z!! It's been a long time!  The Squad? It's complicated- I can tell you when you visit. I have a different job now, which I think is pretty cool. If you want to visit, you can find me at the Timeless Lookout! It's near the Karinga Tribe in Fukurou. I can meet you at the bottom if you'd like! It'll be good to see you!! <3 With a hesitant thumb and bated breath, Daruma clicked the send icon. His message popped off into the ether that was telecommunications, and hopefully would arrive at the other end in any moment. As he awaited a reply, he slowly got dressed to keep himself distracted.
-Karon |
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Post by Karon on Dec 20, 2019 22:57:51 GMT -6
To his credit, Karon had only been dozing, not dead asleep. Zhida's sudden enthusiasm was still startling all the same. The older ogre pulled his glasses off as he rubbed at one eye and looked down at her, "What're you talking about? Start over. A cousin?"
Zhida nodded, still buzzing with excitement, "Yes! My cousin Daruma, the last I heard of him, he'd come here to Earth. I just messaged him to-- Oh!" She jumped a little when her phone vibrated with a reply. That was fast! She completely forgot her conversation with Karon in exchange for reading Daruma's message and tapping out a reply of her own. okay!!   I'll meet you there soon!! Karon watched her, totally engrossed in her phone and seemingly oblivious to the fact he was still there. He sighed. Damn kids. At least she looked happy.
"Kid." He said, and when she didn't look up he barked a little louder, "Kid!" That got her attention, she startled and looked up at him, wide-eyed.
"Oh! Uh, sorry. That was him. ...Do you know where Fukurou Forest is?" Zhida asked. There was that hopeful smile again. Karon held her gaze for a moment before he looked off to the side and groaned. In truth, he didn't care about going to visit a cousin, but he figured he should at least seem put out by it, so the kid wouldn't get the idea she could do whatever she wanted. "...Yeah, I do," He began, "I can show you, but only if you promise to work extra hard after this, okay?" What counted as working 'extra hard'? Karon didn't know, but he assumed it would motivate Zhida somehow. Sure enough, she was nodding eagerly, a determined look in her eye, "Yes, of course! I promise. I swear on both my horns."
Karon held back an amused smirk and gave her a slow nod, then hopped up into the sky, "It's not far from here. Come on."
They were almost to the forest by the time Zhida figured out where they were going. They had been to Fukurou before, she just hadn't known the name of the place at the time. She was glad to return under less violent circumstances, it was pretty here. Hovering over the treetops, she turned to Karon, "He said he was at a lookout, do you know what that means?" The blue ogre shrugged. The word tickled something in the very back of his mind, some story he might've heard long ago, but he didn't really remember, "No, but if I had to guess, it'd be that big obnoxious pillar over there." Zhida followed his gaze to where, sure enough, a very tall, very old looking pillar was rising out of the forest, into the clouds, and out of sight. Whoa. "Well, it's a landmark at least."
Once at the bottom of the strange pillar, Zhida shot off another text to Daruma: heyyy we're at the bottom of this tall pillar thingy?? I dunno if this is the right place. U here???
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Post by Tsukibito Daruma on Dec 22, 2019 2:49:20 GMT -6
PL: 16,000 Ichi's PL: 16,000As Daruma finished squeezing into his almost-too-tight-but-just-right GHOSTHUNTERS TV shirt, his phone buzzed and beeped. Great, she responded! He practically leaped across the room, forgetting his injuries and taking a sharp breath in as he clambered to read the message. Zhi: heyyy we're at the bottom of this tall pillar thingy?? I dunno if this is the right place. U here??? Awesome, she was here! Well, not here, but at the bottom of the Korin's Tower. He could be there in like three minutes flat, two if he let himself drop and just hoped to catch himself gracefully at the bottom. He flicked out a quick response as he headed to the edge of the bowl he called home. Daruma: Oh yeah, that's the Lookout! I'll be down in a minute to show you up. You can fly, right? Slipping his phone into his pocket, he moved to the edge and dolphin dived off into the sky, plummeting down toward the earth with all the grace of a beaver in a sandpit. In around two minutes, he found himself near the ground and saw two figures, one red and one blue, at the base of the tower. Swimming his way through the air, he flipped forward near the ground and pushed up with his ki to catch himself. Hitting the ground and landing with bent knees and grit teeth, Daruma shook for a second before standing up in front of his cousin. "Hey cuz! It's been forever!" He moved, ignoring the pulse of pain running up his already injured legs from the ungracious drop. As he moved to hug his cousin, he spied another familiar face. "Karon, how've you been? Haven't seen you since, uh... the apartment ghost?"
-Karon |
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Post by Karon on Dec 29, 2019 22:06:32 GMT -6
of course I can fly!! Do you want us to meet you halfway or something? Zhida quickly wrote another reply to Daruma as they waited at the bottom of the tower. "We might need to go up," She told Karon aloud, without looking up, "I don't know how tall this thing is, we could need to meet him partway."
"Nope," Karon replied dully, looking into the sky above them. A figure was falling down, diving through the air like it was a pool. That had to be him, "Here he comes."
Daruma landed flat on his feet in a way that had to hurt, earning a snort from Karon. Zhida, however, didn't even seem to notice her cousin's graceless landing. She shrieked with joy and ran forward to wrap her arms around his neck in a tight hug, "Darumaaa! I missed you!" She put a hand on each of his shoulders and held him at arm's length to look at him, "How are you? What's Earth been like? Have you made friends? You said you have a different job, what're you doing now-- oh, uh." Zhida suddenly realized she was machine-gunning questions at him and stepped back, rubbing the back of her neck, "Ah, heh, sorry. Too much. I'm just happy to see you. Oh!"
She turned back to Karon, a surprised look on her face, "You two know each other...?"
Karon had been frowning at Daruma through that whole exchange. The other blue ogre did look familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on why. Apartment ghost...? He wracked his memory, and the other two could practically see the light bulb go off above his horned head, "OH! Right! You're that kid. Long time no see. To think I'd be saddled with your cousin as my intern, huh? Small universe." |
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Post by Tsukibito Daruma on Dec 29, 2019 22:29:38 GMT -6
PL: 16,000 Ichi's PL: 16,000Daruma happily embraced the hug, listening to the hasty tyrade of questions. The way she threw them out one after the other with literally no break in between reminded him of Tysco's nerdy tangents, which was sweet. She'd always been a bit like that though, and now that he thought about it that was probably why he had so much practice to understand lightning-speech Tysco nowadays. He figured he'd address the questions one by one as soon as she hit her stop button, which as she stepped back was... now. One final question was out there, and Daruma watched the old codger take a minute to register where they knew each-other from. Daruma almost felt a little offended at how long it took to click, but he figured Karon must have been a busy guy and that one ogre team up wasn't as eventful for him as it was to Daruma. "Yeah, small universe indeed! She's not too much of a handful, is she? She's always been a bit much." Daruma said snarkily, a light jab at his cousins shoulder as he snickered before straightening himself up to answer some of her questions. Reeling his mind back to process everything she'd asked, he set out to cover each topic one after the other. "Okay! Now to your questions, you Mez-mouth." He laughed, gesturing with his hands moving fast in a mouth-like mimicry, something he'd done when she'd acted this way at family gatherings in their youth. "I'm doing fine! It's been uh... a bumpy ride to say the least lately, but I'm doing good. Much better. And Earth? Earth's been great! There's so many things here that never got to make their way up to the Other World! Like Hetap! Have you tried that stuff? It's like, a tornado in a can! Actually, that doesn't sound good at all, haha. But I promise, you gotta try it. Anyway, uh. Third thing's third, yeah, I've got friends! Half of them live with me up there," He gestured upwards. "Which brings me to the last thing, actually. So, this is gonna suck but. The Yemma Squad didn't really pan out down here. But I've got something way important going on instead! I'm the Tsukibito, which is like a demi-god assistant to the Guardian of this Planet, who just so happens to be my best friend in the whole world, and it's crazy cool."Daruma looked up and then back to his guests. "I can show you around the Lookout, if you want! It's got a bit of a sacred vibe if you're into that, but we've done our best to make the first floor as home-y as we can."
-Karon |
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Post by Karon on Feb 4, 2020 19:56:12 GMT -6
Now that he remembered who Daruma was, Karon gave the younger ogre a lopsided grin. He chuckled and gave Zhida a hearty pat on the back, hard enough to almost knock her forward into her cousin, "Yeah, she's the worst." He replied, obviously teasing, "But I've managed to keep her in line."
Between that and Daruma's Mez-mouth line, Zhida huffed, cheeks puffed out and arms crossed. "You're both terrible. I can see why you'd get along." Despite her expression, she wasn't really upset. Daruma was family, they were allowed (expected, even) to tease each other a bit. And Karon...was just Karon, she was slowly getting used to him. Still, she felt like she had to seem offended, for pride's sake. She couldn't keep up that facade for long though, not with all the interesting news Daruma was throwing her way.
"Hetap? I've never heard of Hetap, no. Is it like a weapon, or...?" Zhida asked him. A 'tornado in a can' wasn't much to go off. Karon snorted beside her, "No, it's a drink. It's like coffee but ten times worse." He explained, with the knowing tone of someone that had experienced such a thing before. Whether he actually liked it or not was harder to tell.
The news that the Yemma Squad didn't actually work out was disappointing to Zhida, visibly so. Her whole posture sagged. She'd been looking forward to meeting them, maybe even joining them after she graduated. But her demeanor picked back up again when Daruma said he'd done something else instead. She was excited again, but also puzzled, "A demi-god? You look like the same old Daruma to me. Er, no offense, it's just..." She reached out to tug at his sleeve, "You don't seem particularly Kai-ish, you know? But, uh, I'm glad you're happy down here!" Zhida smiled at him. Though she was still obviously confused by the whole thing, she didn't want to dampen his spirits on this 'Tsukibito' business.
"Oh, yeah, I'd love to see!" Zhida nodded eagerly when Daruma offered to show her the Lookout, "It'll probably make more sense seeing it than just talking about it. Unless...?" She looked up at Karon, unsure. Would he really want a tour of whatever this Lookout was?
But Karon was already hovering a couple of feet off the ground, hands in his pockets. He shrugged, "Don't look at me, this is your thing, kid. Just think of me as the tag-along." |
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lol how's the squad doing? Do you guys have a base? Let me know where ur at, I'll come visit!!!
The Squad? It's complicated- I can tell you when you visit. I have a different job now, which I think is pretty cool. If you want to visit, you can find me at the Timeless Lookout! It's near the Karinga Tribe in Fukurou. I can meet you at the bottom if you'd like! It'll be good to see you!! <3
I'll meet you there soon!! Karon watched her, totally engrossed in her phone and seemingly oblivious to the fact he was still there. He sighed. Damn kids. At least she looked happy.
