OVERFLOW POST

[whiteofcrime]

For the sole purpose of keeping overflow threads together.

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Quick links:
[ryslig] Apollo (magic sparring)
[ryslig] Shulk (welcome message)
[ryslig] Stocke (possession)
[ryslig] Frank (NPC, bullet runes)

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[whiteofcrime]

He shifts his weight and looks aside. "Of course I do," he grates out. "That's why I made this stupid thing in the first place. I don't get why everyone's so sensitive all of a sudden. First they don't like me scaring them, now people don't like this..."

Kaito kicks at a puddle of water, splashing the drenched street. Thankfully for Shulk, it's not in his direction. The magician turns a churlish look at Shulk this time. Stubborn dislike wars with a vague sense of guilt. This is the guy who shared his ideals. Surely that meant he should understand him?

Shaking the wet out of his eyes, he switches tack with a terse, "Did you come here to lecture me or to help? They're not getting any less wet in this rain."

[engage_the_enemy]

Shulk watches Kaito quietly, a dim figure in the rain, coming back to life when, no, no, he's here to help. Of course! That's why he came at all, whether Kaito wanted to listen or not.

"Sorry, sorry. You're right."

The harpy sets to work, gently prying people apart, straightening their clothes, sloshing in the puddles riddling the ground. His muscles bunch under feathers when he has to move a few citizens that dwarf him. No one's too heavy for a monster, but he's amazed that Kaito had all the energy to do this. No wonder he seems a bit sore about being asked to take it down.

But it's the principle of the thing that matters, here.

"...I wasn't trying to lecture you, by the way. I just wanted to...understand, I guess. I do now, a little. That doesn't mean I don't think you were wrong, in this case."

The frustration is understandable, it really is. And he's seen bits and pieces of Kaito's sense of humor, from the meeting before and the acts he'd witnessed at the Triple T. The magic seems to be missing here, however.

[whiteofcrime]

Kaito, for his part, works quietly. It had been a lot of work to set up as Shulk correctly guesses. But what hurts more than having to take it down so soon is the fact that his attempt at humour has fallen flat. He just wants to hear and see laughter.

Arms wrapped around the torso of a man, he shrugs off Shulk's apology. Annoyed as he feels, he isn't offended. He sets his burden down without bothering to fix their clothes, flicking droplets off his sleeves.

"Who's ever completely right though?" he mutters, just audible beneath the rain. "Who decides what's wrong? Do you? No. Then who?"

He turns back to move a woman this time. She's bent double, arms arranged in a way that tests the limits of human flexibility. Kaito eases them back into a saner position while refusing to meet Shulk's gaze.

[engage_the_enemy]

Hadn't Kaito done enough to earn smiles and laughter when he put together Tanabata? That, at least, was something Shulk felt had a lasting impact. It certainly did on him. But this, it did little for new monsters besides offer a spectacle. Where was the good in that?

Maybe as a relatively shy guy, the idea of grandstanding in the name of monsters is lost on him.

Shulk's ears are sensitive enough, but Kaito's question just makes him feel unsure. He really doesn't have the moral high ground, as much as he's tried to preserve it. The harpy moves closer, pulling a shirt down over a man's abdomen that Kaito had left, taking his eyes off the goblin and the woman.

"...Well, think about it. If we were right all the time, we wouldn't make mistakes. I know I've done many things I thought were good and right that were no help at all."

He smooths the man's collar.

"Maybe it's not even about what's right, but what's smart. We're outnumbered by humans, so it's not a good idea to act like they've got nothing on us."

Surely Kaito hates being underestimated himself, yes?

crawls back to this super late

[whiteofcrime]

"I guess so." Kaito affects unconcern but he's thinking about Shulk's words. He thought about his previous actions, all the mistakes he'd made in his professional or personal life which he'd believed good at the time but hadn't panned out as expected. Nothing so disastrous as life and death though. Except that one time, he thinks.

While he can look at those events in hindsight and regret them, it's a struggle to do the same for his recent actions here. Ryslig forces your hand whether you like it or not.

Yanking a little harder than he needs to on the woman's arm before shifting her aside. Crowding his wings over his head, he shakes off further rain from his hood again. Droplets flick off the ends of his hair. "But they're really... So many of them are just stupid. They don't think at all. I haven't found anyone who comes close to me," he grates out, frustrated.

Yes, he hates being underestimated, but he has his own bias where he frequently underestimates other people. That's the peril of being a genius.