interstellar5555 | A bird in hand

Who: Ankh & YOU (rescuers especially)
What: He and Nia has been saved by the not-so dashing pair of Shingo and Eiji but at the cost of Shingo getting caught. Ankh is dealing with it in the fashion that he deals with everything - snarl and mope about and eat ice cream.
When: April 22nd to 25th
Where: various high places since staying low is not in his vocabulary and maybe a bar or two
Warnings: Ankh isn't the nicest of guys so mild snarling, swearing and manhandling. Prose below but will match style of any replies

A - Rescuers down under
His Cores flashed with some heat and memories as he sat on his perch, fingers digging into the side of his head as he tries to shake off the programming. It helped that he knew that he wasn't meant to be in this fleshy body, that whatever he was wasn't even born to be human, but it still was worked into this shallow copy of himself. It wasn't going to go away until he fully and completely got the rest of his Cores.

No, not the rest of them. There will always be some missing, wouldn't there?

Feet drumming on the edge of the windowsill, he looked out at the city and chewed on an ice candy. Someone had told him to stay low and hidden, but he didn't care, not really. His human was out there, that stupid cop that he spent moths trying to piece back together (the memory was still jumbled but he held the man together instead of letting him die so the details were not important) who just tossed it away to get him and Nia out from Virgo. He was going to hurt someone for taking Shingo, for drowning out his own self again, and the memory had his arm twitch, his fingers grabbed the edge of the sill hard enough to make his knuckles white.

If he was normal, if he could reclaimed his form, the wood would have splintered, but as it was, it looked almost like he was going to fall out of the window. Someone also might want to stop him as his mutterings grow louder; after all a yelling guy hanging out of a window might be noticed.

B - I've got a pile of coconuts
Just because he wasn't under the influence of Blanche as much any more doesn't mean that he was completely cured. The music was still there, it was still humming under his skin and Ankh needed a way to work it out. It didn't help that it seemed to blend in with the fire under his skin, with the calls and cries of the birds in his mind and the far-off languages spoken only in silence of time and dust. He spent some time to cover the marks left on his skin using a cheap air brush tool and makeup and then got some worn jeans a little too big for him and a ratty shirt borrowed from Eiji. He shoved a hat down over his hair, which he also did not style that day, and paused.

If he was normal, if he had his form again, he could easily shift into someone else and wear their skin for the night, but he was still trapped, still this meatbag and he was not happy about it. But he at least could make himself look a little less like the rockstar and a bit more like just some kid looking for a party. The thought of his other being in his place made his fingers curl and a long dead language falling from his lips in a string of curses and then he shoved all that aside. He had music still sparking in his head and he needed to work it out before he did something weird in this place.

So he banged out the door and out the building and into a crappy little club in which he just let himself dance. There was a machine for singing as well but he decided against that, instead just let the music sweep him up. After a bit of time, he was over at the bar, ordering something that sounded good and stepping on toes as he does so. If the person was lucky, he might even apologize for doing so.

C - got any requests?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You're not a monster."

Once upon a time, Eiji might have thought that but not now. Not after everything they had been through.

"I know enough that I caused you a lot of pain and annoyance."

There was the roll of the arm and a slight tsk to that, Ankh glancing over at Eiji and away again. He had conflicting memories of being nothing but some kind of coin creature, of hurting people, and yet there was the wings, he gave Eiji wings, right? His wings. He couldn't remember just like the crawling feel of the music still in his head.

"I practically held that cop ransom against you."

"Mm. Yeah, you did."

There's no bite or anything remotely accusatory in his voice. It was just a simple statement of a time during the beginning stages of knowing each other. It was an uneasy alliance; he had been trying to help Shingo who had been on Death's Door and Ankh was using him to collect Medals and combat the other Greeed because he wasn't strong in the state he had been at that time.

"How much do you remember?"

"Just pieces."

He held up his arm again, looking at it with the Cores on their stupid bands. He wished he remembered how they merge back where they belonged, but then remembered that they didn't, not really. It wasn't like... It wasn't...

Snarling, he kicked at the arm of the couch as the thought ran out like a lot of the thoughts and memories did. He couldn't remember enough only pieces and he was so tired of it.

"I know about the king. I know about the Cores being me, about your stupid underwear story and that the cop was convenient. But I don't know enough."

Edited 2016-04-24 04:43 (UTC)

He had stayed silent when he saw Ankh lift his arm up and kick the couch in frustration. That... wasn't a lot. Though Eiji smiles a bit at the underwear story part. The way Ankh said it was just so like him.

"So you don't remember Hina-chan or anyone else..."

"Hina..?"

He scrunched his nose and twisted so he can look a little at Eiji, eyes narrowed as he thought about it. He had only asked to know what he was, not to know about his past or anything, only to know why he kept on thinking about humans being different then him. So he didn't remember much of the other pieces, but, that name seemed familiar.

"Was that the strong girl I hung over the river because she wouldn't give me my Core?" He at least remembered that much about his Cores.

Eiji pauses for a bit before nodding his head.

"Yes, that's Hina. She's the detective's little sister."

"She was really a freak."

Because that's all he remembered, trying to pull the Core out of her hand and she just wouldn't let it go no matter what. It hurt too that he couldn't remember more because... He was important to these people? But why? He still didn't get it. Why?

What was he missing?

"Is it because of my power? Of these?" Ankh covered the Cores, felt their heat and warmth and the slight heartbeat that was his and his alone. "Like the king?"

"No!"

Eiji pauses a bit before repeating in a softer voice, "No, not like him."

The Cores were important but only because they were a physical anchor for Ankh. His thoughts turn to the Broken Core Medal and he has to stop himself from moving his hand to cover its resting spot, instead curling his fingers to grip the fabric of his shirt.

"It's... you. You're the one who is important."

That had him nearly jumping, turning to give Eiji a wide-eyed look. He had been quiet and sort of just puttering around but even mentioning the king made him shout. He didn't expect that, not one bit.

"You know about him?"

Yeah, no, he was not going to see just how much Eiji knew and what he could do to piece together a better idea of what he was. Maybe it would help ease out more memories for him to play with.

"Yes. Only a little bit but I do know about him."

He only knew what Ankh had decided to tell him at the time; that he had helped the King and what OOO had been made for. Anything more detailed than that wasn't known to him.

If Eiji expected Ankh to not react too badly by the admission, he was dead wrong. He could tell that he wasn't desiring anything outside the general low 'want to save Shingo' hum, but it still didn't mean that Ankh was going to just let everything else slide by. So Ankh got up and was across the room to grab Eiji by the face, the move feeling so normal, so right that he paused a second, getting an almost double-image and an echo of trying to not cut at his skin with his claws.

But he didn't have claws, not even his fingerpicks and Ankh could feel the headache growing again. Who he was, what he was, and what he was doing.

"Do you have the Driver? Other Cores? My Core?"

Unlike at the Fairy Tale Trials Eiji doesn't make a sound when he's grabbed this time. But there's still a wide-eyed expression on his face, especially when Ankh asks about his Core.

"Er, I do. The Driver and the Medal Case are in my bag."

"Show me!"

Even as he said that, Ankh was pushing Eiji to the side and going straight for the bag to dig out the case and take a look at the Cores. Of course there was hardly in the case, though he did see the one that was his. He touched it, but it didn't have a heartbeat like the ones he wore on his arm.

He knew he couldn't absorb them, that there was a missing last piece to being the Ankh in his memories but it was tempting to take the Cores. He could wear them like he did with the others, but no. It wouldn't work. It didn't feel like it was normal. Ankh wanted to scream but all that was coming out was a sharp hiss.

Everything happened fast and left Eiji still sitting where he was, just pushed to the side by Ankh who had made a beeline for his bag after he mentioned the location of the Driver and Medals. He watches Ankh bring out the case and open it up. They were there like he had said they were. At least the ones that were whole.

His fingers curled and he turned back to Eiji, taking the case and pushing it at him. It looked as if there should be more in there - there were more at one time, a whole rainbow of Cores but these were a start. He wasn't sure who he was mad at, Eiji or himself, especially since it felt like there was something more here.

Something other then these Cores, something else.

"Is this all you have? How can you fight?"

A bird in hand - [OPEN]

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