cartographie | inbox for golden peacock

[ That's.

Huh.

There's a tour of barely noticeable, barely repressed microexpressions that make their way across her face, her eyes creasing at the corners while she tries to decide why he's choosing to lie to her. If the smile didn't make her sure of it, the lightness in his voice as he waves the ghostly whispers off would.

Can't bullshit a bullshitter, after all. He doesn't know anything about her, and the rising sense of confusion masked as indignance wants to point that out. She didn't know what to make of him before, and now– ]

I told you. [ Nami answers quietly, exhaling a measured breath as she gets a grip on herself and starts to head further down the corridor. ]

Most pirates are assholes. [ Her tone is as flat as it ever was, but there's something to it, an underlying gentleness rooted more in a newfound appreciation for Ichigo and his decision to go the complete opposite route than she expected, rather than some latent affection for pirates. Most pirates can go fuck themselves, actually. ]

This happen the last time you were down here?

Well, not that.

（ hahaha, anyway... ）

I was in a place before. Uh... not like this one, but... you know, people from different worlds and times all that bullshit. It was supposed to be the afterlife, if you can believe it. Now I'm here, but there's one person I knew back in that other place that's here too, and they remember me... so I was pretty preoccupied last time I was here with just catching up with that person.

The afterlife? [ It's good to have a new topic to be slightly confused by. It distracts from all the other ones she doesn't want to think about. ]

So, you're dead? That's why you help other souls out?

[ He doesn't seem dead, but it's a sad thought. ]

Most of my crew ended up in this place. [ Curious as she is, she decides to push on, granting him the amnesty of yet another subject change, should he not want to answer her about being dead. There's a lot about her life Nami wouldn't talk about if it could be avoided, and while she isn't dead personally, it's not difficult to imagine wanting to leave that out of polite conversation if she was. He did her a favor, she'll do him one. ] A few people from back home actually. One's a pirate who's already made it to the Grand Line, where our ship was heading before this happened. [ Has this tipped into babbling? Probably so. ]

Edited 2024-01-14 21:34 (UTC)

Nah, I'm not dead.

（ it's one of the ones he doesn't really mind answering. it also sounds like certainty, not denial. he gestures to take the flashlight back from her, and transfers it to the hand that's holding the pipe up on one shoulder so he can keep his left free. this results in an awkward management of items one-handed, fingers crooked in a stubborn dual grip. ）

Shinigami are usually spirits who've passed on. I'm not. It's complicated. I'd know if I was, though.

（ and normal people wouldn't... be able to see him. even in stygia it had felt weird to consider, and he'd almost believed it there. but now...

well, he's never been one to give up that easily. death is waiting for him one day, at the end of a long road — but it won't take him without a fight, and yhwach wasn't it. ）

So you've got friends with you, I bet that's a double-edged sword. How are they coping with this place?

Good. [ Oh what the fuck? What kind of a thing is that to say? It is good, of course, but, who meets the news that somebody's not dead that casually? ]

Is that... Do you like that work?

[ Maybe he's been tethered to this calling somehow. He said it was complicated, didn't he?

The question about her crew makes her laugh quietly, giving a slight shake of her head in response. ] You've got somebody here too. You should know that it is. [ A beat, a shrug. ] They're coping, I think. Luffy, my captain, he's with the threes but already stealing food, Sanji's a six, right above me, and probably having the time of his life, and Zoro is a ten. [ Translation: two she doesn't have to worry about, one she does. ] What about your friend?

（ do you like that work? the question hits him harder than it should, if for no reason other than the fact that no one else has ever asked it of him before. physically, the only reaction is a slight start that could just as easily be explained away by the fact he just walked into a spiderweb that he bats aside, but mentally his mind is racing.

he is what he is. he wouldn't change that now. a melting pot of impossible things, quincy, hollow, shinigami, fullbring — he shouldn't exist, but does. he'd thought, after those long months in the dangai, after aizen, after having his powers ripped away that maybe he could just be normal. that he'd see rukia and renji and the others in the afterlife, and that would be enough for him.

but he remembers how fucking empty he felt, watching her fade. how awful those long months were, watching his friends come to school beaten and battle scarred in a war he could no longer participate in. he remembers training in his old dojo until his hands bled, until he'd fractured his knuckles so many times he barely felt the pain, how time blurred together. how the crumbs of hope meeting xcution had driven him to push himself harder and longer than anything he'd done before, a desperate bid to just be useful, be useful.

he needs to be what he is so he can protect his family. his friends. it goes beyond karakura now, beyond seireitei. hueco mundo is his place, too. the remaining arrancar his allies. the remaining quincy his family. it would be selfish, to just wish it all away, because someone else would step up. they'd have to, because he had to. and he can't put that on someone else. who'd do it? rukia? ishida? chad? karin, like him, sees ghosts. does that mean in another few years it's going to be her hand on a sword? he could never be that cowardly.

but does he like what he does?

no, he realizes.

he opens his mouth, closes it again. finally: ）

I like being strong.

（ it's a moment of breath-taking honesty, and he's too wearied by the sentiment to care what she takes away from what he says. what she says about her friends mostly just slips through his fingers, the sudden darkened miasma of his mind, but he pays it enough attention to answer that, too. ）

They're a two. And you should tell your captain not to steal — who knows what the consequences are if they get caught? I can get him whatever he wants.

（ presumptuous, given that the guy clearly has more friends in this place than ichigo does, but he can't not offer. ）

Edited (redundancy jail) 2024-01-14 22:48 (UTC)

[ There's a shift in the air between them, or something, for all intents and purposes he appears to be thinking but there's something about his expression that keeps Nami watching him out of the corner of her eye.

They both walk similarly evasive roads.

Before he finally comes out with his answer, Nami's already decided to leave it alone, seeing him open his mouth to speak, thinking the better of it, and trying again cements that decision. ]

Yeah. [ Doesn't everyone? Doesn't everyone have to be strong, regardless of the world they came from? Nami sighs, lips twitching, caught between a smirk and a scowl. ] That pipe didn't stand a chance.

[ Turning her attention back to the relative safety of her notebook, she scoffs under her breath, sticking an elbow out to nudge his arm, trying to get him to adjust how he's holding the flashlight. ]

I can't tell him to do anything, but if he knows he can get food off you, he won't ever leave you alone. [ Kind of like her, and her newfound penchant for enjoying the amenities of higher-ranking friends. ]

Are you always like this? Generous to strangers? [ Why did he lie like that? ]

Not always.

（ he says that almost contemplatively, as he adjusts the light according to her direction. ）

But there's enough cruelty in the world, I don't want to be the guy that adds to it. I'd rather be nice to a stranger that stabs me in the back than an asshole to someone who didn't deserve it.

[ His choice of words brings the fading echoes of the ghostly whispers back to the forefront of her mind, making her lips tighten into a firm lip as she stares determinedly down at her book, debating with herself. ]

Good that we met here. Somebody like you would have been a really easy mark for someone in my old line of work. [ She's teasing - sort of, doing what she's done so many times since this casino landed her in situations where it would be far too easy to let herself feel overwhelmed and in over her head. Improvising as she goes. ]

Next time I pick the floor.

（ he realizes the misstep the moment her expression flickers and changes, in the dim halo cast by the flashlight. he didn't mean to, even inadvertently, reference what he heard — and now he just feels like a jackass for it.

he rubs awkwardly at the back of his neck with his free hand, and then: ）

We could always try having lunch like normal people. My treat.

What? [ She chuckles, ducking her head as she turns to look up at him, the weight hanging in the air between them lifting, at least on her end, momentarily. ] Hang out someplace well lit and not haunted? Sounds kinda boring.

[ Leafing to a clean sheet of paper, Nami retreats back to the safety of her notes. It doesn't sound boring. At all. Which isn't troubling, precisely, but if she thinks about it too long it might become as much. ] We can. Whenever.

I think we could all use a little more boring around here...

（ it's said with a sort of playful lilt, like maybe he has a sense of humour he's a bit rusty on using. ）

Just between you and me, anyway.

Going to assume that means the pipe isn't coming next time.

[ After the last few minutes of walking, and the things they both talked around, poking fun at him feels like someone opened a window and let in some fresh air. ]

We can go up to the roof after. [ Her hands move fast, flipping back a few pages from her note-taking to give him a look at the map she's already finished of the forest that's up there. Areas marked 'asshole birds' included. ] It's not normal, but, it's not terrible by this place's standards.

You want me to give up my emotional support pipe? Just like that?

（ look, most of his friends are trash talkers. he knows the type, and how to lean into it. growing up ginger in japan made him more-or-less immune to being teased by the time he was ten, but he also knows better than to take it any amount of personally, and the look he gives her — mock-stern, but with a faint lift of his eyebrows that belies amusement — probably says as much. ）

I'll take asshole birds over this bullshit any day, though. （ famous last words... ）

I knew you were full of shit. [ She counters abruptly. ] Couldn't stick with the normal act for three minutes.

[ Then she's laughing without thinking about it, rolling her eyes at him as she flips back to the right page in her book. ]

With you around they probably won't chase me up a tree. [ It's how she found the time to finish the map in a day, don't ask. ]

I'm the normalest guy you'll ever meet.

（ haha, haha... ha.

anyway, moving right along — there's an ominous puddle of water ahead of them blocking off most of the corridor, too broad to jump. he just sort of gives her a sideways look, mostly to see what she'll do. does he... offer to carry her??? what is the correct move here.

awkward, thy name is kurosaki. ）

You really got chased up a tree?

Could be. [ She doesn't know any guys that are normal, and hasn't yet assessed the full scope of his particular brand of crazy. ] A flock of them. They ran at me, and they sounded like guns going off.

[ Stopping when he does, Nami frowns at the puddle, stashing her notebook back into the back strapped across her front while she sizes up the situation. Nami looks from him to the pipes, adjusting her bag before reaching for one of the long heavier looking pipes testing its solidity before she pulls herself up, keeping her feet light on another pipe running beneath them and climbing across. ]

Come on. It'll hold you too.

（ well.

okay then.

he just sort of watches her do that effortlessly, and then immediately snaps his attention elsewhere because he was looking just a little too intently, a little too long at the flex of her back muscles and then that's enough of that! thank you! and he is suddenly very invested in the floor, shoulders hunched up around his ears. ）

Uh.

（ yes, so eloquent. he is the king of it, thank u. ）

Yeah, all right.

（ but he waits until she hops down before he tries it. he could just use shunpō, but even he's self-aware enough to realize that would look too much like showing off, so. climbing it is. when he's not reeling awkwardly from the teen boy realization that Girls Exist And He Likes Them Actually he's actually pretty graceful, managing the walk across the pipes without difficulty. ）

Like... they were just loud? Or actual guns?

（ metaphor translation is sometimes a little janky, that he's noticed, so... ）

Did you think I was going to jump over it or something?

[ His bewilderment, or whatever it is, doesn't go unnoticed, but it's also not something Nami recognizes either - probably best for both of them. Some realizations are better kept for later when she'll inevitably be eyeing her watch, wondering if she should say something and firmly telling herself not to.

While he climbs she catches up on her notes, sparing a wary glance at the puddle they've bypassed, like she doesn't quite trust it not to move, or sprout a hand, or something on par with what these tunnels have tossed at them so far. ]

Actual guns. Here, look. [ Nami does not know how to work her watch at all, but through a hit-and-miss system of smacking and swiping, can get herself where she needs to be on the thing. Like now, when she pulls up the photos she's stored on it, showing him one of the birds that chased her. Shoebill storks are harmless and flighted, which makes her choice of a tree even more stupid, but she's never seen one before, and after hearing their highly disconcerting noise, it felt like a smart choice. ]

I had no idea what you were going to do.

（ jump? wade? fly?? stranger things have happened. at least he's smart enough to keep the, i would have carried you comments to himself. look,,,

he hops down off the pipe, and comes to investigate the images on her watch. he recognizes the birds, native to africa, but he has no idea what the hell they sound like. ）

They kinda look like dinosaurs... were you near their nest or something?

I'm not sure. I wasn't going to hang around and see.

[ Nami makes a face, smacking her watch until the picture disappears and the screen goes dark again. ]

There's a lot of birds I've never seen before up there. [ Pausing, she purses her lips together again, looking from him back down the corridor. ] Sometimes the dimensions of this place don't add up. It's... [ Weird. The word of the day, the theme of their entire acquaintanceship thus far. ]

Yeah, I've felt the same.

（ it feels a little bit like hueco mundo, with those distant fixed points that never got any nearer no matter how far they went, how much they walked. an impossible liminal space. ）

What do your maps say? I mean... so far, anyway.

（ a pause. then, in a smaller voice: ）

Do you need help with the Watch, or...?

What's wrong with my watch? [ Glancing down at it then over at him, she squints skeptically. ] It works fine.

[ Screens aren't exactly a thing, never mind ones that respond to touch. She's doing her best.

Getting back to the more pressing issue, she turns back toward the tunnel ahead of them. ] They don't add up, exactly. If I take this place floor by floor, most of it makes sense - the forest up on the roof did, but when you put it all together it... [ Can't fit like it does, which she feels out of her mind for even saying. That's not how space works! ]

No, it's just... you don't have to hit it. Here.

（ he steps in a bit closer and holds his own hand up to demonstrate the feature she was trying to access, in... markedly fewer smacks. look, he's no luddite — and his dad's clueless about all things tech, so he's been the impromptu kurosaki tech support since he was a kid. programs a mean VCR. #86baby. ）

And that makes sense. There's some weird supernatural shit going on here, it wouldn't surprise me if this is a unique plane of existence. Those places don't always play by the rules.

[ Maybe smacking the watch is how she's venting her frustration at being stuck here. Watching Ichigo get to the same place on his watch so easily makes her scowl just a touch - she's not used to not being the smart one of the group, after all, but after giving her own watch a few experimental taps and swipes, she can't deny it's a lot easier doing it his way. ]

Thanks. [ She means it, she's just huffy. There's no time for indignance, however, when he's distracting her with an idea that's beyond anything she's considered - or even thought was possible, leaving her frowning for a different reason. ]

Are those common? [ The term 'unique planes of existence' implies they might not be, but that Ichigo seems to know something about them gets her worrying all over again. ] Does this seem like it's one to you?

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