[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]

You invited half the city over with your post, didn't you?

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Only the sane ones.

And it's just us right now, what does that tell you?

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

That you're more picky about sanity than I thought, or they were all here earlier.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Of course I'm picky. You saw my brother; I've only got room for one of him in my life at a time.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether I should be insulted or not.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

[That gets a laugh]

Don't be. You're not the 'him' of the moment.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

Good enough. Though you must be fairly desperate for company if you invited me.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Harsh! Be your own best friend now, Kurotsuchi. You ought to apologize to yourself for that.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

It's just a realistic observation. I'm not social, you approach me when you want to be dissected, not to have a conversation.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

[He just shrugs] I like difficult people. Besides, you and I have been conversing since you got here and I've rather enjoyed it.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

Then you'd be one of the first. Also, you're drunk. [Points out.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Unrelated. I'm drunk because I haven't been sober since...since Merlin left, I think. By now I'm so used to it I may as well be sober.

But I've spoken to you when clean many a time, and at no point did I want to do something drastic to escape the conversation.

And I would wager you're fairly tipsy now, too, besides.

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

That's a strange reaction to have to someone leaving. [Grief, what's that?]

And... possibly, yes. [Agrees when he realizes he can't really counter that.]

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? It beats my last reaction, apparently. [Horst has no desire to jump into the sun again, no, but he thinks it's funny people approve more of this slowly destructive behavior than overt suicide.]

Have you ever lost someone, Kurotsuchi?

[law-of-reason.livejournal.com]

The other was a lot quicker. [Doesn't really understand either reaction.]

And no, not that I've noticed.

[ahandsomedevil.livejournal.com]

Not that you've noticed? I suppose loss is different for-- [For shinigami? No, look at Hitsugaya and Unohana.]

Were you born a death god?

[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.]