[Video]

[whatwas]

[The PCD clacks and the view shakes a bit, but finally centers on Horst's happy face. He's up on a roof, with four bottles of liquor and a chair.]

Right, you bunch of nutters, I'm going to sit up here and watch you all run about.

Tyki, you want a drink? I'm up here in the sane corner of the world.

Comments

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I'm not sentimental like the rest of you. And when I was alive I was human, though I don't remember it. I've always been a shinigami.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Don't be arrogant, of course you are. Think how annoyed [that's the word Johannes would use] you'd be if Yuca were gone.

[There's that nausea again.]

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

...I suppose I would be. If he goes back, I'll never find a way to kill him.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Sentimental like the rest of us.

[Lots of drinking now.]

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

It's not sentimental.

[Barely picks up on Horst's increased drinking. Especially not when he's doing it himself.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Don't lie. What is it with you devoted scientists?

[Just the faintest note of disgust and frustration.]

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

What are you talking about?

[A touch frustrated himself, though mostly through confusion and defensiveness.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

You shut off your emotions. Or you think you do; in reality you stuff your heads in the sand and pretend not to feel a bloody thing. When you do, you deny it and you grasp at these ridiculous excuses for why it's not what it is.

[He's drunk, and annoyed, and--well frankly he's not as honest about his feelings as he pretends he is, either. He's scrambling for some hard denial in the bottom of that bottle.]

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Not great at hiding his anger at the best of times, though for once there's not much violence to it. Icy. And completely at a loss to understand why he was reacting that way, though the drinking certainly didn't help.

Kurotsuchi never had much in the way of emotion. Rage and fascination, and little between it. Anything else he couldn't comprehend, and either didn't exist to him, or was ignored, forced away into something that was explicable.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

You bloody well do, stop and look at yourself right now.

[Horst tosses the empty bottle. It sails out of sight, and when it lands it's too far away to be heard, thanks to that irritating vampire strength.]

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

[Unintentionally, he does. Alright, he was out when it was less safe for him than usual, he was drinking, had lost blood, and was having a rather irritating conversation that he didn't really understand.

And he still didn't like thinking about it.]

There's nothing that out of the ordinary.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Don't be obtuse.

[It's sad that, even now, it's like talking to a much friendlier version of his brother. Much less dense, too.

Scientists. Really.]

What are you working on currently?

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

[It's a bad day when Kurotsuchi counts as 'friendlier' than anyone. Bad life, even.]

I'm not. And why are you so concerned about what I'm working on, or anything else?

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. Where's your productive spirit?

[But he can't keep that smile up for long. He pushes a hand through his hair--it's hard to look messier than he usually does but he manages it.]

I'm one of the things you're working on, so there's cause for concern, don't you think?

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

So you're one of the things, and you're here. You already know the part that concerns you. Visit when the event's over and I'll dissect you.

[His tone almost makes it sound like he's doing a favor for once, rather than making a threat, or a pseudo-cajoling order.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Yes. And I will.

But Yuca concerns me as well.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I'm always working on him.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

I guess that makes two of us.

[He gets yet another drink, but he's slow to drink this one. Now that he's fed he's not so insatiably thirsty.]

What have you come up with?

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you were a scientist.

[Sighs a bit.]

A lot, and not nearly enough. If it weren't for the Animus I could probably find a way of killing him properly- or at least be able to gather enough certain information that he could use it himself down the line, if I couldn't manage it in my lifetime.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, no one can fathom I've got the mind for it, but I helped my brother discover how to raise the dead so I think I deserve a little credit.

[He tilts his head]

Your lifetime? I thought you were a deity of some sort.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

Then do you have the skills to permanently settle the living? But dead raising... do you still know the method to it? ...And I'm not immortal. If we're not killed by something, shinigami can live for a few thousand years, but we die eventually.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Not yet. I've got a few theories. But...yes. It's not--I mean, it isn't something just anyone can do. I know how but that doesn't mean I can do it if that makes sense?

[He nods once, though.]

Well, if we don't figure it out before you die, I am immortal and I told him I'd stick around until he's dead. For whatever that's worth, which isn't much to him, but there we are.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

It does. Having the knowledge doesn't mean being able to perform it. If you don't have the right tools, or an innate ability- some things are impossible.

[Glances sideways at him in silence for a few moments before adding.]

You could change your mind. That's eternity, Horst. Yuca doesn't have a choice; you could let a stray bit of sun hit you and be done with it.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

I could. But he doesn't have a choice--that's precisely why I won't.

[He purses his lips, thinking about changing the subject.]

I don't want to live forever either. I love Yuca [there, he can say it, he's been nagging at Kurotsuchi about honesty enough] but even if I didn't, I wouldn't condemn someone to eternity alone.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I doubt anyone who's experienced forever would want it.

[The mention of love didn't pull anything but a shrug from him; people said sentimental things like that all the time, it didn't mean anything.] And you say that, but have you seen what that's like? What eternity is like? Even if you think you have the option, when every bit of daylight is an accident waiting to occur- you're deluded to think some petty sentimentality will last.