(catch-all/open) hold up, i'm invincible

[invinciblemikey]

WHO: manjiro "mikey" sano & you

WHERE: the harbors, mirth, and the hinterlands.

WHEN: november 1st till... the end of november??? probably

WHAT: mikey fixes boat things, does hella partying, has his shadow take over, and then goes for the noticeboard hinterlands quest.

WARNINGS: well. hahaha. (possible) suicide attempt mention, (possible) ideation, lack of control, dissociation, crime boss talk, death, drug and alcohol use, violence, and maybe a murder might occur. hi, he's great

Comments

[zangetsu]

（ he covers the light with a hand reflexively as the guy tries to blind himself, muttering a 'sorry'. ）

Uh... seventeen, Karakura Town. It's in West Tokyo Prefecture.

（ he's started hating giving that out, the way everyone keeps looking at him like he's crazy. karakura doesn't seem to exist for most other people, and it's sort of making him lose his mind. ）

You?

[invinciblemikey]

... That ain't a thing. Is it a thing?

(definitely doesn't exist for him, but alas. he finishes what he was doing within the machine, and he pops out from the same hole he came in.

they won't know if it works till they connect it, and it's definitely not here that they'll get that going. his work is done.)

Twenty-eight, Shibuya.

[zangetsu]

You aren't the first person to say that. Look, I'll draw you a map. But the easiest explanation is that something about my world is different, and for some reason this area got called Karakura in mine.

（ it's weird to consider that his entire life, his family, might not even exist in other versions of tokyo proper. his expression tightens slightly, thinking of his sisters, and then he shakes the unease off. ）

Shibuya's not far away. We're a little north-west of you guys. I can get on a train and be there in under half an hour.

[invinciblemikey]

No need, I believe you. Shit's crazy here. I ain't gonna lie, it's nice that there are some Japanese people here. It's less alienating that way.

(man, his bones aren't what they used to be. the stretches he does are extreme, and the flexibility shows with each, but the cracking joints give him a bit of satisfaction.)

[zangetsu]

You think that really matters when we're dead?

（ it's not like he hasn't noticed. it's nice to come across a name that's comprised of familiar syllables, to talk to people about what life was like back in tokyo prefecture. even if none of them know about karakura, it's not like he hasn't been to shibuya, or any of the other dozen places he knows of.

but if everyone here is in the same boat, what does it matter? dead's dead. there are only four soul societies in the world, souls filter to the nearest ones. you're going to have foreigners whichever way you look at it, and maybe the common tongue of stygia makes it easier. ）

I almost feel like every other person I've tripped over here is Japanese. Or American.

[invinciblemikey]

Of course it fucking matters. What are we if not the collective of our surroundings?

(and if there's someone who believes it wholeheartedly is manjiro sano. a man now, but once a boy who lived to make his deceased brother's legacy go on. who needed people like he needs air, to guide and to restrict.

who grew up in a dojo, carrying the name of it with each punch and kick.)

[zangetsu]

（ his eyebrows lift a little. ）

It's too early for philosophy.

（ he says, and then immediately follows up with: ）

But we're all still mostly human here that I've seen. Humanish. Not everyone's going to have a countryman to make this shitty place a little less shitty.

[invinciblemikey]

Does it matter whether it's early or not, we're dead.

(two can play this game. and to the top of the engine he goes, lighting a cigarette and shrugging.)

Huh. What you're gunning for? Dead rights?

[zangetsu]

Nah.

（ he tracks the guy as he shuffles himself around, lights up a cigarette. the wind changes, and the smoke carries the scent. he's never actually hated it the way some people do, so it doesn't compel him to move. ）

You can do what you want. Like you said, we're dead.

[invinciblemikey]

I'm not so sure on the dead thing, to be honest. I'm definitely dead, but I know some people who definitely weren't supposed to be.

(kazutora, age 15, and last he's seen, kazutora was as old as him.)

That doesn't matter either, I suppose?

[zangetsu]

What makes you so sure we aren't?

（ unfortunately, the outcome was an understandable one for him, and he hasn't been able to shake that melancholy. even knowing that grimmjow having no memory of it casts doubt on the entire thing — ichigo's been quick to stumble blindly into tolerance of the whole theory. ）

[invinciblemikey]

Maybe because I'm nearly thirty, and other people who were also nearly thirty last I checked are fifteen, and some other shit that I can't explain is happening, and well -, they for sure were not dead at that age, last I checked.

[zangetsu]

Could just be an alternate universe.

（ look, he watches movies. he's hip. pop-culture savvy. even if his version of pop culture is some twenty years in the past... ）

But someone I know is like that too. I'm from two years after them, and they were... definitely alive.

[invinciblemikey]

Yeah, that actually does happen. You two only?

(listen, he doesn't really dispute the idea. there are all these versions of him that definitely did happen, and he can't do much about it.

still. ain't it weird?)

[zangetsu]

（ that quincy asshole doesn't count, and ichigo refuses to let him count, so: ）

Yep.

（ this guy's throwing him for a loop. ichigo feels like he's still floundering to make any sense of this place in relation to soul society — lost and out of his depth. to hear someone else speaking so confidently... it's not a blow to his own sense of self, exactly, it's more like... fucking how? ）

[invinciblemikey]

(it's called being depressed, suicidal, and really tired. welcome to 28-year-old manjiro. when the reaper announced his departure, he had one thing only to say:

"oh, fuck, thank god.")

That a good or a bad thing?

[zangetsu]

（ okay but like... two out of three ain't bad. ）

Of course it's a good thing. I don't want any more people I know here than absolutely necessary.

（ IS THIS NOT THE SANE POINT OF VIEW??? ）

[invinciblemikey]

... Seriously, motherfucker, you're saying it's good because having people you know is bad, so it's both good and bad? Don't be confusing.

()

[zangetsu]

I'm saying it's good because there's just one!

（ DON'T OBFUSCATE THINGS. ）

[invinciblemikey]

... Why? I'd kill for some people here. Or they would, but whatever.

(the fuck that means)

[zangetsu]

So?

（ what does that have to do with him not wanting that?? the wind shifts, and ichigo shuffles himself around so he's not getting a face full of smoke in the interim. ）

The people in my life can stay right where they are back home. No one else needs to be here.

[invinciblemikey]

... Dead?

(SINCE THEY KEEP GOING BACK TO THAT. APPARENT DEATH TOPIC.)

And you do? Fuck's this, penitence?

[zangetsu]

Do I need to point out all the ways this place is shitty regardless of what it actually is, an afterlife or an alternate dimension or whatever? Because I watched that Headless Horseman guy cut down a lot of innocent people, that's not exactly the sort of environment I want my sisters dealing with.

（ he's already here, so he's not going to complain about that. but it sure as hell isn't penitence. ）

[invinciblemikey]

... You have sisters?

(watch him show zero care about the rest of what he said, not a smidge of a sour expression over watching the massacre - he's done worse.)

[zangetsu]

Yeah. Twins.

（ it's the first time he's so much as mentioned them since coming here, though they've occupied a fair amount of his thoughts. he was longer in the dangai — three months with only tensa zangetsu and white for company, and he'd missed them then. but he had a purpose in the dangai. here, he's just... listless, restless. pacing like something in a zoo.

since the guy's apparently content with his smoke-break, ichigo opts to click the flashlight off a bit belatedly, turning it over in his hands. ）

They're thirteen.