niteo_logs | In cards and flowers on the window

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In cards and flowers on the window

Characters: Lavi (OU)

looseleafbook & Tyki Mikk (AU)

feralstorm
When: Afternoon of this conversation
Where: Tyki's room
Rating: PG
Summary: Finding out the face behind the text and just why he knows about "Red".

It had been a long day thanks to his early start, but Lavi hadn't been able to sleep or really do anything once he had stretched and gathered his and Naoto's rations for the day. He had been trying to do some of his translations for the old pamphlet idea that Allen had brought up, trying to get help from the Credintians that way. Cross at the very least could hand them out from his altar if he held a service over across the bridge. Or hand them out in part of a church's charity work, but even that had only absorbed his attention for so long and the redhead had been fiddling with the marker he had found when the idea struck. Everyone had needed an uplifting event after the last few arrivals, the air was depressing. So it had been down to Allen's room to draw on his face with a feed showing everyone his markings. Then off to the market for a long day of waiting for Naoto to finish mapping the area and then they moved on and on to different roads as the day progressed then finally sunset.

Lavi stopped by the river to wash up then went up to his room to leave his things that he customarily lugged around, having mulled over what the mysterious newcomer had said for most of the day. The part about not being an enemy bothered him the most, just who was this guy - or girl for that matter - that didn't want to be taken for an enemy. Part of him doubted that it was Rhode, she wouldn't have come back like that, not even an altered version of the girl. Tyki would have been a loud presence on that post if it had been her, then again they had said they were an Exorcist... Lavi sighed and shook his head, he'd find out when he went to see whomever it was just a few floors below him. He picked up the PDA, typing in a quick "On my way now." to the last reply he had gotten before slipping out his door. The walk down was uneventful and Akito-less thankfully, the kid still clung to him at times when it wasn't conductive to what Lavi needed to do.

When he reached the appropriate door Lavi knocked, then waited with hands in pockets.

[[ooc; Sob. It won't all be this length, prose kills me after a while.]]

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Mikk regarded the message on the device and rose stiffly from his seat by the window. He'd forgone the pain killers from his medical kit for this. Even left his shirt off to show just badly he'd been wounded. It was a risk just like the blades hung up by his sword belt along with the exorcist coat in plain view of the door when it opened. Damn, he was so tired.

He took a moment to shut his eyes and woke up to the rap on his door. Time to face the music, as the Lavi he knew would mutter. The Exorcist rubbed the soreness out of his shoulder and opened the door. This was just going to end badly. He looked a mess, from the medical tape just under his right eye to the mess of bandages and stitches along his ribs. Mikk tiredly walked back into the room and sat down in the chair by the window. Far away from the swords, the plasma pistol, and anything that could be considered a weapon. Only his braced remained on him (besides his pants).

But there were differences between the Noah and the Exorcist versions of Tyki. The Exorcist's hair was shorter, just barely reaching the base of his neck. His eyes were dark and his body was in top physical condition, muscle shifting under his skin as he moved a little restlessly. "It was almost an irony, you mentioned two Tykis." He rasped and leaned back in the chair as if that cost him some energy. "Most people at home just call me Mikk."

All of this to show one of those whom is supposed to be the most impartial to the war that you're not a threat to him? He could have at least taken the pain killers so he wouldn't hurt, that much Lavi would understand. Unless it made him sleep as well, then the lack of them in his system is also understandable.

Lavi pauses as the door opens, drawing himself up for whatever lay behind the door yet as it moves further he's surprised. Unhappily surprised as the flash of 'Noah' crosses his mind but he takes in the man's appearance, still not having stepped into the room to see everything else. He'll take those steps, just watching for now. He can tell that the supposed Exorcist is in extreme pain from all of his injuries, he should be safe even if he was fibbing, right?

A few steps inside and Lavi closes the door behind him to keep prying ears out, observing the contents of the room - the weapons, the coat - without looking like he was. Lavi's eye which had been looking straight ahead shifts to look at him when he speaks, "The one with wings never said to call him by another name, I didn't talk to him unless I had to. He was still a Noah."

Lavi turned his head toward the jacket, slightly nodding in its direction, "Mind if I check it?"

The pills made him sleepy and thus, not able to be questioned. Pain was just another part of life. And don't even joke Red, you're going to tell people and your temper control is terrible. Tyki observes Lavi's shift in attitude from how they talked in text and sighs. "Probably for the best." Then he waved his hand, giving the other all the permission he wanted to touch the jacket. "Go ahead."

The Exorcist coat was foreign, of course. It was cut and tailored for Tyki. It was battered, worn yet the materials held fast. The pockets held a few things, his cellphone, his lighter, a pack of lock picks, and three clips of ammo that went to the plasma pistol. But the stitching was distinctly Johnny's handiwork. The phone if inspected would flick on with a touch and show the usual things an iphone would.

He's been working better on controlling his temper, especially after all of the loops he's been thrown for since arriving here! All the things that have been told and kept, he can't keep acting like a damn child every time he doesn't get his way. As for telling, all he'll say for now is that there's yet another Exorcist, if Mikk wants to keep his identity hidden away that's his deal. Once Lavi's confirmed in his own mind that the older man is safe he won't hold it against him. Lavi walks over to the coat, and contrary to what he might think the redhead doesn't search the pockets.

The stitching snags his attention though, so familiar and so like home that they linger over the seam holding the arm of the jacket to it. Brief memories of that very man and Lavi turns his attention to the Rose Cross, the buttons. They aren't easy for anyone to fake, Lavi has tried in his free time with wooden ones. Yet there it is, plain as day on the back of one of them, "TYKI MIKK". Lavi lets the jacket fall back and runs a hand through his hair, turning to look at Mikk.

"So the jacket's not fake at least. What's your Innocence and what does it do?" His tone says that he doesn't need a demonstration, but he's curious like any other Exorcist might be, let alone a Bookman. All the other important questions can come after this, like how is he an Exorcist and not a Noah.

He watches Lavi do everything that he'd expected him to and got up, finally crossing the room to lift the swords. The howling wolf heads catch the light as he draws one out, the smooth curved blade leaving the sheathe. Wind Soul was composed of twin blades, one white and the other black. He'd drawn the white one, the whorls of wind etched into the blade visible in the half light. "These are, part of it. Equipment types are different in the current era. As for what they do, they call upon storms and generate the same sort of power."

He drew the other one, black then flipped both with a practiced hand back into their sheathes. "They're called Wind Soul." He added as he sat back down. "And the other half is in my blood. The United Nations took over as the patron of the Order because of the botch job the Vatican did in the previous war. Experiments with stronger connection between Exorcist and Innocence has been toyed with. Carefully controlled so as to prevent loss of life. The result is I heal faster, move faster when my Innocence is active and can take in the power of storms over head. But, that was one of many things they did to put us on par with the Noah and improved Akuma."

The redhead watches quietly from his spot near the Exorcist jacket, hand resting lightly on his own weapon as Mikk draws his. Can't say he's seen another sword like the pair, especially the black blade but something catches his attention, "Current era?"

Then he's quiet again, listening to the story and wondering. He's seen mention of this 'United Nations' in the Russian texts he had been translating but had not yet found any history of them. Books perhaps destroyed or not yet fallen into his hands, it sounds political by any means and he makes a note to search that area of the library next. "So the current war that we're in is over, is it?" He would not say a word about the experiments, but there's a subtle stiffen about Lavi. Hates the idea that more and more of those continued, hadn't they learned their lessons after what happened with Alma and Kanda? "All of your current injuries are a result of their meddling or a fight, then?"

"The turn of another century," He explained at the question and paused. How could he talk about this with an outsider? Yet, Bookmen stood like silent monoliths that held the knowledge in their hands. To no one else would he divulge the full story, not even to Allen. He gritted his teeth slightly, especially not to Allen. "The war you're in isn't over." He finally said and grabbed his jacket, fishing the cigarette pack and lighter out of his pockets. The man kept talking even as he tapped out a cig and lit it with a flick of the lighter. "The first part is, because most of us died. In the end everything was a sea of blood and which side was bleeding more didn't mean a thing. In grief, or whatever it was - maybe insanity. Allen,"

He paused. There was a feeling his chest like as if a great pressure was exerted over it. Yet he pushed on. "Allen sealed the Earl using Cross Marian's notes left behind with his own life. But the spell fueled by his life, had a second purpose. As far as I know," And how much she would tell him...

"A sacrifice like that, freely given...reset the world. History and time moved on but we were reborn, this time with the right to choose our side. Memories return slowly, bit by bit. The Vatican didn't know what he did but, they wanted to cover it all up. They hunted down the survivors regardless of their side. Neutral or otherwise." His expression darkened and Mikk took a few heavy drags on it to cool his smoldering anger. But it burned on, hardening his voice and cutting through the pain of his battered body. "All remaining survivors were executed before firing squads."

His eyes said what he thought about the experiments himself. It wasn't something he enjoyed or thought was a thrilling thing. Yet he wouldn't exchange the nature of his weapon for anything. He still remembered the burn in Kanda's eyes when she nearly lost all control and Suman's expression as he fell and Allison's gun came up. H'd been Falling and there was no choice. It wasn't anyone's fault except Rhode's and she had been sending him a clear message through Suman.

Your defection will not go unpunished. We will find you.

He'd never forget how Allison's eyes betrayed the anguish she felt as she killed their comrade. Yet she'd showed no weakness, no fury. Just the cold precision of a killer, until they were all in the briefing away from all officials. Then she broke down among the other Exorcists as he sat numb with shock.

The present seeped back in and the Exorcist waved at the smoke. It parted before his fingers and yet it remained, lingering until it faded like his thoughts. "It was a fight. The Earl hit every major UN establishment all over the world. Akuma, and the like all came at once and nothing was hidden. The Vatican in their infinite wisdom, took this moment to destroy thousands of years of secrecy to expose the entire war.

They blamed the UN and the world leaders for generations. Then called for us to accept their rule, as only they could 'control these wild beasts' and 'defeat satan's army'." He spat the words with a fierce bitterness and stared hard at the coat in his hands. "The resulting waves of fear and hate triggered the Fourteenth's memories. He rose to power and wiped part of New York off the map before Allison, (Allen's name upon rebirth) could oppose him.

Everything went to hell and Komui ordered us to retreat. Link, that inspector defected with us and we were running for our lives when I found myself here."

As the story began Lavi folded his arms, leaning back against the wall as he listened. Absorbed to later go over at his own convenience for in the front of his mind was Mikk's statement that he couldn't handle talking for long periods of time. Yet the story being told was longer than he thought it might be and still it wasn't everything, not the details that a Bookman craved. But so long as Exorcist Mikk didn't slip out of Libitina's hold he could question him more as he got stronger.

His expression falls carefully blank as the story reaches the firing squads, he had seen too many of them growing up, public punishments that Bookman had taken a younger apprentice to. "At least in your time then it's out in the public, though I doubt it's helped them learn better not to give in to his 'helping hand' while they mourn their dead." Beset by grief most would do anything to get their loved ones back, that lost time back, that pain pushed reason and knowledge aside often at that moment.

"The United Nations is the main supporter now, you said. I suppose the Vatican isn't taking that too well if they called you such things." 'You' simply being because of the time difference, the Lavi there isn't the same as the Lavi before Mikk now. He turned his head to the side, thinking on this new information, the war was worse than it had been in his opinion, even with the advancement of weapons and its fighters.

"'Allison'... Allen is a girl in your home?" The only question this time, though he still has one more. It can wait.

"No. Before the Earl and the Order both worked through companies, shares, and different resources to hide their plans. The fight was the very first exposure the world has had to what is really going on. I didn't get to see much of the public's reaction but, it wasn't just the Vatican aiming their guns at us after the world broadcast was finished." That hadn't been any surprise to any of them. People were easily driven to mob mentality in the right circumstances. Give them a target and they'd obediently aim their sights at it.

Still. It stung.

Mikk snagged in his chair a bit, and rubbed his temples with his free hand. He nodded numbly to confirm the United Nations supported the Order in his time. And again at the mention of the Vatican. Lousy bastards. Not that their noses had ever been clean and everyone knew it. "Akuma just need someone in despair these days. Push someone deep enough and the packs will come and feed on them. You still have to form the initial body with a soul willingly bound by a loved one's cry. But the rest is just another cultivating enough despairing souls to power the Dark Matter engines."

The engines that whined like jet engines and spun on the tortured souls. Not. That he really cared about the souls. No, he wasn't the love-everyone Allison Walker with wings of flame and blade of mercy. Not his shtick.

"In this life, Allen was reborn as a girl. She used to be a boy named Allen, while now is a twenty two year old woman named Allison. Both have the same last name but hers is a bloodline thing."

"Humans freak out at anything unknown to them or strange, sort of how the people here react to us. Scared and want nothing more to do with us than to end us or keep us out of their sight. 'Out of sight, out of mind' as the saying goes." Regardless that it never worked, it never had for him. But then again Lavi was different than most, he wasn't allowed to forget or to put things out of his mind.

"I'll bet the Earl is happy with those advancements to his machines," a sarcastic, angry tone. He hates the Akuma for the wreckage they do to families already mourning one person and leaving them to mourn another, but to find they've now come up with a way to just find you if you're depressed and in anguish. The world hadn't needed that. Not with what he had gleamed from Credinta papers.

"And you? Why did you choose our side this time?" Of course Lavi himself was removed from the 'our' but so long as he wore the coat and bore the weapon he was an Exorcist.

"They do, they do. It's just one of those things." He was too tired to get into a discussion of humanity and its many flaws. Mikk still would bitch about it. It frustrated him even if life got all the more interesting thanks to everyone trying to kill him. The Earl's emotions however, were an old subject that he winced every time it came up. "He's looney. I'm not sure what he feels anymore." He meant it seriously, and there was bits of regret there. Like there always was with his Noah ties. ...former ties.

Mikk almost didn't hear the question. Yet his ears knew he did and refused to let him dodge around it. His thoughts turned to the people he grew up with. The Science team, Lenalee, Lavi himself (only when he transferred to schools in Britain), Kanda too, but most of all Allison. How many times had they argued about fate, choice, and all the things in between? He'd had power as a Noah. Yet, in the end who had respected his choice?

Not the Noah - who he regretted turning from. But the ragtag group of misfits with a loud, infuriating, and oddly likable leader. "Too many reasons to fit into a box. Or explain in one night. The short of it is - this is my life now and I'm looking to keep it that way. And Allison is a mouthy woman who refuses to shut up about choices."

Lavi was even more tired and frustrated with it, having grown up surrounded by nothing but wars and loss of human life. It was senseless to him and incredibly stupid, building only to destroy. But he catches the bit of regret, the Noah were Family and even if Lavi lacked the understanding himself he knew that most families missed one another when estranged from each other.

He tilted his head thoughtfully to the side, considering the answer and the tone that carried it. Then at long last Lavi nodded, he could accept that answer, especially about Allison (or the Allen that he knew and followed) saying there was always a choice, never decided until they made it. "I'll let you get back to resting then," a quiet and reserved tone himself. Lavi would trust him for now but anything that looked like backsliding despite Mikk's saying he'd wish to remain an Exorcist and he'd be watching him like a Hawk.

Pushing off the wall Lavi moved to the door, "Most days I'm with Naoto mapping but if you need anything let me know. Have to stick together here."

Mikk had lived two lifetimes now of war. His last life had ended in a rainy morning before a firing squad while Apocryphos used Judgment to kill him. Prehaps it measured up to the same level of exhaustion about the subject. But he would prove his sense of regret did not mean sympathy or mercy. It meant a vicious policy of crushing the clan members that stood in his way. He nodded to Lavi and got up, offering him his hand. "Thanks for listening."

Lavi paused at the door, staring at the offered hand then back up to Tyki before he finally walked over. Still, it was warily that he took the hand before him and shook it, "Thanks for explaining, yeah? Didn't have to, but it makes things here a lot less tense."

Tyki's eyes shut and he shook his head. "No, It was necessary. I still have to talk to the general. Unless I want a second life ended in a spray of bullets. There's more to explain but, for now we have time." His grip was steady but while firm, wasn't crushing. It spoke however briefly, of control. Then he let go and stepped back. "As long as the storms keep hitting like this, and support in a fight I can offer will be at full capacity despite my injuries. ...if you were comfortable with my aid."

"Can't say he's my favorite person to talk to but I can tell him everything you told me if you want, that way you won't have to end another day with a sore throat." Lavi makes note of that firm handshake, the one of equals just testing the waters and returns it. "Storms have been hit or miss really but I've never been in Russia long enough at home to say if it's typical summer weather." He nods, "Like I said, we need to stick together. Libitina is the enemy before each other." Even if the Noah version of Tyki still got on his damn nerves.

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In cards and flowers on the window

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/str-struggles out from under wall

skdsj /helps

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