![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
GRAVEYARD
Graveyard
Reflexively, you curl tighter. Just another minute. Just another minute of sleep is all you need, but the sun waits for no one. Wait. The sun? After many days and nights with only moonlight to guide you, your eyes snap open and your pupils contract at the light.
It's been a while, hasn't it?
Bask in this euphoria for however long it lasts, until your memory snaps back against your mind like a rubber band. Weren't you dead? No matter how you met your end, you certainly remember dying in vivid detail. The pain that corresponds to the last moment's of your life chooses then to make itself known, trying to wriggle free from your skin almost literally. That mark on your skin wasn't there before either.
Take a moment to breathe and get your bearings, and really take everything into focus. The warm rays of sun that dance upon your skin are colorful and fragmented like a kaleidoscope, the effect of being filtered through stained glass. Of all the places to wake up, it seems you're inside a church that's no stranger to you, St. Mary's Basilica. While the odds are good you've woken up with company somewhere near by, the glint of gold from the altar will likely catch your attention regardless—embedded deep in the altar stands a golden staff, two sculpted wings draped down its sides.
While some things are the same, and some things are different, there are still more questions than answers. But the inscription engraved into the roof of the ceiling of the Church, now visible in proper lighting seems rather apt: Welcome to Krakow (again).
no subject
Maybe he's admiring the handywork of Dazai's desk shattered on the ground or just thinking of home. He's humming something to himself really quietly. ]
no subject
But he probably passed the shattered desk on the way up here, and so should have expected company, as little as he really wants it.
So for the moment, he goes neither forward nor back and instead stays in the doorway and away from the sunlit edges of the place.]
I didn't think to find you here.
[There's a faint emphasis on the subject, but that's all. He's not surprised that there's people, but he is raising an eyebrow at the. All of this.]
no subject
It figures you'd come to your usual haunt. Is it disappointing, not being where you thought you'd be?
no subject
[It seems that he was at least partially expecting just. Literally ceasing to exist, despite their interactions with the dead prior -- maybe it's because he was never close to any of the dead, but ironically he is only now bothering to take this notion of day and night and the split between them with more weight. It's just doubly ironic considering what he is that the afterlife here apparently is some kind of news to him.
Ulquiorra stays back where he is, though he shifts to lean against the door. Upgrading from wall-leaning to door-leaning, why not.]
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Ulquiorra utterly ignores the dramatical sighing. He's been dealing with the Lady and Rembrandt and the living-side circus for four weeks, you ain't shit, Hyoubu.]
... Am I to take it that you've made this your area as well, or did you simply come here to destroy furniture on a whim?
no subject
... By the way, are there demons in your neck of the woods?
no subject
[He's not thrilled about sharing the clocktower, but there are enough floors here that he can probably ignore Hyoubu the way he ignored Ango and whoever else ever turned up there despite the creepy roosting bat staring at them like a bug.
Anyway.]
... Define 'demons' in this dimension.
no subject
Oh right! You fought remmy-wemmy. How was that?
no subject
[So it might not be directly related to Rembrandt's presence there, but the fact that objects clearly travel between the two sides (other than themselves, which he's at least accepted with remarkable alacrity given the whole being a Hollow thing) would be a huge pain in the ass if he were actually invested.
As it is, it's just kind of mildly irritating. He's used to having a good grasp of information, or at least being able to see everything he's working with. Terrible. The nickname is also terrible, which his deadeyed stare communicates.]
Similar to when I fought him the first time. [why is he just out here dueling the guy all the time] He is not human, but without my original senses, I can only guess as to what he truly is.
no subject
Trying to ascertain if he is one or not is one step, but also why is he doing this. I'm guessing a contract of some sort. But what he gets out of I can only make wild stabs at. That woman doesn't have much to give of her own accord.
Ojou-san says demons aren't real here but they might be in other dimensions, hence why I'm asking you.
1/2
[Of course he's going to judge, of course he's going to be skeptical, but at this point he's not really bothering to hold anything back. Today is truly a day where Ulquiorra has given up on his previous silence -- controlling information is only useful as long as you have the ends to the means.]
The one who calls himself Rembrandt Meijer is supposedly the seventh of that woman's assistants, and they share a common world of origin. He has exhibited powers such as super strength, teleportation or high-speed movement, some sort of defensive reinforcement on his physical body, and memory reading.
There was wild speculation that he or that woman were able to use our collective powers, but I would call that simple hysteria at this point.
As for talk of a contract, there is no evidence of that.
2/2
no subject
A common origin would explain her knowing how to summon him, but then... she needed to research it if those books are in fact hers. So, possible but questionable.
[ He frowns at the powers that remmywemmy is using. ] Teleportation, psychokinesis, psychometry. [ He remembered it being brought up in a meeting before but he dismissed it since he hadn't seen the man use powers like his. He can't tell if it is his ESP though unless he sees it. Though maybe the man just has powers... ] It's possible, but I can't confirm. For all we know, she let him have the powers in paym-- gah it's all speculation right now! Irritating.
Anyway, she's not that capable. What we survived is the manifestations, which hunger for souls and native to this land. And surviving them is what gave us the powers. The ones who stupidly take those dumb "hints", she's not experimenting on them. You've already seen what she does. She just feeds them to the manifestations again. That's what happened to Pin in front of everyone, right? And that's what happened to Pizza too. She just takes credit for these things.
[ At the mention of "ojou-san" he brightens up considerably. ]
Oh, She won't give her name yet. She's a resident here. Though she says this place of "Twilight" shouldn't really exist. She goes to and from Day to here freely but she can't access the Night right now. But we can look into it using her fire. [ He takes out her bit of fire that she let him borrow. ] Here, you can see what's going on over there right now.
1/2
If he had any crises about the current situation, they've either been left behind in the church or in the shadows of his ridiculous poker face.]
I suppose it would be too much to expect names of any of these people. [it's only mildly exasperated because like, eh] I recall the mention of Twilight, Night and Day from the last time we used the arcade. How much do you know about the Day itself?
2/2
If the woman in that body only needed to understand the rituals secondhand, it may not matter what she had to offer him.
[Something about fossils. He'd dismissed it at the time, but either way there are too many possibilities here and he certainly hasn't bothered dealing with their erstwhile wardens quite enough to get through the cracks.
That's not his specialty, nor does he want it to be. Hyoubu gets another Look for the next ridiculous nickname, but Ulquiorra doesn't bother to ask after it. As long as he can tell from context, he'll refuse to acknowledge the nicknames exist.]
The manifestations. They are very Hollow-like, and if they are interacting directly with the souls of those brought here, then it is no wonder that we can be restructured, modified, or torn apart at a whim. That, too, is a feature of Hollowfication or the corruption of souls.
1/3
Also, as ones baring the mark of manifestations [ He touches his forehead where his own mark is; a stylized 7 intwined with a P and danced with symbols of his former powers. ] we can harm the manifestations with either the powers endowed to us or using our bodies, or if we have a weapon that's enchanted. You'll have to ask her for that though.
Also, if you want to try to use your original powers here, feel free. But you'll cease to exist. It seemed very painful for Noelle. [ A fleeting sadness crosses his eyes before he turns to the next matter. ]
2/3
... You'll have to ask ojou-san for the specifics about the manifestations though. Last time she said something about our vessels in a "zero-state" but then we died so it should really be a "double zero-state" and etc. [ Boy was he suuuure looking forth to the back and forth between all these foreign terms. ]
3/3
Right, you were here a lot zombieman. There's something missing in the clocktower. [ He hops off from the ledge to the safety of the room to look at everything around. ]
Care to tell me what it is?
1/2
[This place is nothing like Karakura Town, but if the Day version of it is to the Twilight and Night versions what the living world is to Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, that would explain it a little more. The comparison is likely not a perfect reflection, but it doesn't need to be for the moment.
His expressions stiffens (a little more) at the mention of the marks, and one hand drifts towards his chest before he forces it back into a pocket. He doesn't address that part.]
That what you call manifestations are creatures of the Night or adjacent to it... I suppose that fits with what I've observed. I recall the warning about abilities from the last communication with the Twilight, but I have no intention of asking anything of this girl. If she knows anything about our vessels, however, she may be useful.
If that woman is planning to leave her vessel soon, then understanding how these forms interact with the Night may be key to understanding her weaknesses.
2/2
It's certainly a pretty familiar room, even if there are unfamiliar shadows to it in the light. Next, Hyoubu gets an extra flat look. This nickname he won't let go I guess because why are you all insistent on giving him -man epithets!!!!]
My name is Ulquiorra.
1/2
Someone should just throw the lying coward to the shadows, I swear. They only seem to be scared of remmywemmy anyway. But I guess if her "original" is elsewhere it won't matter. Annoying.
2/2
....
Something easier, if you please. [ You can't possibly expect him to remember that. ]
1/2
2/2
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)