[OPEN] cause I'm a real tough kid

[ghostmoder]

WHO: Yusuke and YOU???
WHAT: The Crossing is coming, and some pent-up energy needs an outlet
WHERE: various; pick the prompt that works best for you!
WHEN: the lead-up to the Crossing
WARNINGS: nothing for now, will update as needed!

[He feels alive again, and he hates it. That's really what all of this boils down to, in the end.

It's not as dramatic a change as it was the first time — going from weightless and useless and helpless back to flesh and blood and bone — but it feels like that anyway, which is its own special brand of bullshit. It's a reminder of how much he really misses it, the feeling of being alive; from the basic-ass shit like breezes and sunshine, down to the pain and discomfort, overstretched muscles and split knuckles and a bruised jaw.

He wants to move, feels the pull in his gut, but there's nowhere to go yet. He wants to stop falling for the stupid illusion, thoughtless moments of relishing in the feeling of being back in his body, but this place won't stop dangling it in front of him. He's frustrated. He's stressed. He's bored.

It is, unfortunately, now everyone else's problem.]

i → the city

[He doesn't particularly like spending time in the city — it's creepy and empty and, most of all, there's nothing to do — but he feels less antsy when the River is out of his eyeline, so here he is. He's found a rubber handball from somewhere, some place depressing like a room that might've once belonged to a kid younger than him, the sort of thing that's small enough to throw but dense enough to bounce.

He's set up in one of the smaller squares, away from where the lion's share of the souls have chosen to gather, and is playing catch with himself: lounged up in some corner, bouncing the ball off the stone frame above an entrance on the opposite wall.

Until, eventually, the force of his frustration finally cracks a weakness in the stone. The ball flies off at a random angle, and there's a shower of dirt and rocks, maybe or maybe not directly on your head, depending.]

Damn. [He sees you there now, whoever you are, and pops up to properly sitting. Is he going to apologize? lmao] Yo, you got eyes on where the ball went?

ii → the river

[It's difficult for him not to lean into antsyness, though. At some point he does prowl his way back down to the banks of the River, pacing restlessly along the shoreline. It has all the making's of a trap, this dragging hook bidding him to follow, but sometimes it's better to just let the trap go off and be done with it, right?

His mood is more overtly sour, if you catch him down here. He pauses his pacing only long enough to point, down the flow of the water.]

What's stopping us from just swimming it, huh? All this waiting is bullshit.

iii → wildcard

[or choose your own adventure!!]

Comments

wildcard

[hasapoint]

[Need feels it too, but she's so long divorced from her actual life that she keeps pausing and trying to disengage, let go, as she would if she was possessing a living body. She's put a lot of work into not just parasitizing off people, keeping herself from taking over all the time has become reflex. But she's not inhabiting another person's body at all. It's... strange.

She's watched Yusuke fidget and sulk and kick stones etc, expressing all the unease and nervous energy she hasn't let herself show. At last she says something.]

Boy, you're becoming especially obnoxious.

[She hesitates, and pulls a deep breath, sighing most of it from out of her mouth. Some of the lungful of air hisses from the perforations in her chest and back, where her sword had gone all those centuries ago. Can they hurt and be hurt, now? Going into the Crossing injured seems like a bad idea. But-

In the exact same casual, non-irritated tone as she might say 'You wanna talk about it?' Need goes on:]

You wanna fight about it?

[ghostmoder]

[He's ready to clapback immediately, head snapping up from where he's been restlessly hurling rocks into narrow, black tunnels to see how far the echo goes. Picking a verbal fight is almost as good as picking a physical one, except for how it isn't satisfying at all, and—

The suggestion startles him out of it before he can really get going. He looks, for a moment, the picture of a child who only just learned to be suspicious of their wants being offered on a silver platter: mid-scowl, but with an obvious, almost desperate curiosity opening up in his expression.

Yes he wants to fight about it. That's the only thing he ever wants to do about anything. What's the catch?]

You sure about that? [Testing the waters; he knows better than most that Need's age doesn't necessarily mean anything here. His eyes jump from her chest, where the air is still escaping, to her face.] It's not gonna be my fault if your lumbago acts up or something, Grandma.

[hasapoint]

[An open book, this kid. Rather than crossing her arms over her chest as if she's got to hide that wound, Need undoes her belt and removes the heavy deerskin apron that was covering her front and back. Under that she's got a long-sleeved wool tunic, decorated with embroidered square-knot patterns, that falls to below her knees. There is, distinctly, a burnt hole in it and in the padded pourpoint and the linen undershirt beneath it. Yusuke's of a height that he's barely got to look down, but with the light and how fabric lies the holes aren't lined up all that well and there's just a suggestion of a gap.]

It'll be better if we pause here and there, you know. By the time I died I got tired more quickly than back when I was a lithe fiftysomething. You'll have more endurance than me, and I know you're more agile.

[Even in her physical prime, she'd had a broad, powerful build that didn't lend itself to acrobatics, Need thinks. She'd like to get the tunic off too, if she has another moment.]

Think you can do that, or are you too young for any kind of patience?

[ghostmoder]

[His eyes narrow, evaluative. Without his aura to boost his baseline, he's more or less working with a handicap. And Need carries herself like a warrior, like someone who knows more about fighting than just cracking skulls in a seedy bar. It could balance out, maybe.

But even so, with an edge of bitter incredulity, as if something about this offends him to his core:]

You askin' me to go easy on you?

[hasapoint]

[Need's better with weapons, particularly the sword. Still, she's not ignorant of unarmed fighting. It's got its charms too. And she has some advantages as well as the disadvantages she'd pointed out - greater reach, greater weight, sturdy build. She was still pretty strong when she died, even if nothing like she'd been at her peak.

She gets her tunic off, one sleeve turning inside out and sticking to her wrist in the process. Need is absolutely going to throw it in his face first chance she gets. Under it the dark blue pourpoint is like a close-fitting vest, padded for warmth and to imply a slightly more feminine shape than nature had sought to give her, over a long-sleeved linen shirt. On the skin over her collarbones her tattoo's faded eyes glower unimpeded.

Yusuke gets a derisive look, even though that absolutely had been something she was asking.]

I'll note that for later. 'Walking talking baby can't conceive of restraint as anything but condescension.' Do you actually want to do this or hesitate some more?

[ghostmoder]

[He glowers back, stubborn. He doesn't like holding back; it makes him feel collared, or smothered, like a high-energy dog squeezed into a studio apartment. But he's not interested in hurting someone just to make a point either, dead or not.

Well... not under these circumstances, anyway.]

Y'know what, fine. [He straightens out of his sulk, rolling his shoulders and adjusting his footing.] But if you're gonna keep tapping out, don't blame me when I get even more pissed off.

[because it will also make him more annoying, you see. even he knows this about himself.]

[hasapoint]

[She smiles like an angry horse, with wide bright eyes and bared teeth, an expression she carefully hasn't used among all these kids and peaceful types who she's trying not to scare.]

I'll make soothing noises when you cry about -

[Mid sentence Need flings her wool tunic at his head to try and blind him, and follows up by trying to hook one of his feet out from under him. She'd taken him changing his stance as "I'm ready to start".

The Crossing hasn't started yet and so they can't be hurt, but impact still feels like impact, and it's close enough to sting.]

i

[reflashed]

[When a ball comes flying at his face, Katsuki reaches out to catch it with instinctive reflex. Of course, that instinct means that he moves his dominant right hand, far too scarred and stiff to move quickly enough to grab the ball.

It bounces off his knuckles and goes bouncing off into the rubble.]

Somewhere back over there.

[He jerks his chin to indicate a place somewhere over his shoulder.]

[ghostmoder]

[Yusuke arches his neck where he's sitting to try and see, obviously reluctant to get up and go fetch the thing himself, since Bakugo's clearly not about to. He thinks about it, for maybe a beat or two — and then gives up with a groan.]

Dammit. What a pain in the ass. [He flops back down to his elbows, glaring at the ceiling.] This place is so boring.

[reflashed]

Yeah.

All been doin' is running, training, like I'm tryin' to keep my body in shape even though not a damn thing changes here. [He laughs softly, bitter but resigned.] Can't even hone my Quirk since I ain't got it anymore. But it's somethin' to do.

[ghostmoder]

[He lifts his head back up, interest rekindled -- and gives Bakugo an evaluative once-over. He doesn't know what a Quirk is, but the rest is relatable enough.

deciding:]

Hell, I'll fight you. [spar. he means a spar. um, probably.] It's weird without my aura. Like re-learning how to ride a shitty bicycle.