barkonthetree

[The mask is beginning to fracture. Inuyasha feels a squeeze in his chest. Would the man cry? He has no idea how to console a sobbing man. Not a woman or child either. He's a piss poor participant for regular conversation, heaven help him when it comes to giving comfort.

Moreover, he can feel echoes of the despair ring within his own mind. He knows that sort of helplessness. Shen Qingqui carries on but he can hear his throat cinching around his words like it plans to snip them in two. And no wonder: it's a disciple.]

Someone from home? [It must be. No one has been here long enough to study much of anything, not to a degree that would illicit tears from their teacher. The man holds it together now, but he imagines on the day it was impossible to refrain. Kissing wasn't enough, medicine wouldn't have fixed anything. Too little too late, and something that could have been prevented too.

Pride could kill you here. He wonders what will happen if Sesshomaru takes another hit like he had in the match with Barbarus. Does he have someone he trusts? Anyone willing to keep him alive? Inuyasha isn't sure he could stomach much more of the job himself, but if there was no one...

He remains quiet. Thoughtful, even. He takes a sip of his tea and burns his tongue at the tip.]

It doesn't. [He sets the cup down and bites at the burn, hand over mouth. It helps to cancel the sting.] It's the same as you, I guess. You just feel when you have it or you don't.

[But this question leads into the crux of the matter. Inuyasha's ears prick forward. It made some sense, he thinks, yet begets more questions than he has mind to conjure.]

And he was the same as he was before? Is he flesh and blood, or something else? [Inuyasha removes the hand and leans in, eyes narrowed and tone conspiratorial.] I've seen souls summoned back from the dead in bodies of clay. Or those resurrected from grave soil. You can smell that they aren't living right away, but to mortal senses they might look the part.

[ He's cried once that he barely knows of for Luo Binghe, as Luo Binghe lay blind and dying. He emotions that spiderweb through his chest are there, the pain and sadness and yes, the anger too, but his eyes stay dry. Sorrow can reflect in their pitch coloured depths easily enough without the telltale watering of tears yet shed.

Someone from home? That answer is simple. ]

Yes.

[ The only person from home, and while it was not an easy thought (in fact, it was downright frightening when he first realised, and for the two weeks up to when Luo Binghe killed himself), and it's even less easy now, for different reasons.

(Points for hilarity, Inuyasha—Shen Qingqiu has offered to be there for Sesshomaru, and presumes this means they'll pretend not to be holding hands over tea sometime. He will learn how accurate this presumption is at some point or another, he supposes.) ]

Flesh and blood. I've... read the theories on similar things, but it remains his body, and there's no sign I can find that he...

[ He pauses, brow furrowing. There had been one note of concern, but a small one, and one he's not entirely sure of. He needs to check, he supposes, but that's a difficult ask in and of itself. ]

There was something strange around his heart. Not anything large, but it was... as if something like the crystal found a place there. Small, but present. I couldn't detect any change to his circulation in either blood or spiritual energy, and his heart beats strong, but that was new.

[ New means also concerning, and moreover, on a world of such inherent magic, on a world where people resurrect back into their same bodies, living and breathing as if they'd never ceased to do so... it means something.

Fuck, but what is that something meant to be? ]

[This is a solemn image but thankfully quite chaste. Please never announce you're moonlacing with Sesshomaru unless you want to herniate him.

There's other worrisome news. Inuyasha grows quite stern. A change in the body...that was to be expected. But quite often that lead to something else.]

You should be careful, you know. Most of the time when people come back from the dead, they don't come back the same. Even if their body is fine. Something is lost, or their nature has shifted. [He could tell you stories, but the last thing he wants to do is bring up Kikyo to strangers. He doesn't like talking about her with even his closest companions. Compared to them, most of Lunatia is made of strangers.

Still, there are relevant points to make, so he'll sift the bones loose of the dirt and give him just a spot of anecdotal advice.]

If they died in a rage, that rage might be all they feel when awakened again. Their memories might be gone, or altered. [Kohaku now existed as an empty-headed vessel for Naraku's bidding.] They might have their wills bound to whoever or whatever woke them. So you have to be careful.

Has he been acting strangely since waking?

[ No mentions needed! Does he look like a man who moonlaces and tells?! Fuck no! That's private (casual) business!

His expression grows all the more serious, because he both listens to Inuyasha and has his own worries on exactly these lines. Yet it's all complicated, so much more complicated by the fraught history between them, with how Shen Qingqiu had been so angry and worried and harried, dragging Luo Binghe here to clean him up, to erase the visual signs of what had happened.

Neither one of them knows how to linger comfortably in each other's space. There's too much there, and he can't read Luo Binghe's actions, his intentions, the way he wishes he could. He supposes the same might be said for Luo Binghe.

Regardless, Inuyasha speaks with such specificity, speaks without twitches or the hesitation borne out of consideration instead of experience. What is it he's had to see? What has he lived with, witnessed, in his life, that such things as he's mentioned before this were true, that what he says now has that same feeling attached? ]

I cannot say. Aside from when he first woke, we haven't been in each other's company.

[ An odd contrast, when he freely admits that Luo Binghe is important to him, but he can no more (or will no more) run Luo Binghe down than he can keep Luo Binghe away, if here is where Luo Binghe decided to be. ]

What you say are concerns I share, but to know what it means, of any ripples extending from the heart... if he doesn't recognise them, I don't know that I will. He's lived five years I know nothing of, or closer to eight, and the young man he once was is a slightly older young man I don't know half as well as I once did.

[ His hands tighten around his cup, cradling it, supporting it so absolutely that he feels the heat from the tea seeping through the ceramic and into his hands. ]

I wish I had a definite answer. For all our sakes.

So there's no way to be sure, then. [The sun blazes outside. Mid-summer heat radiates in from the glass panes, but Inuyasha frowns at the blue skies as if they were swaddled in storm clouds. His jaw is locked tight.] There's nothing to do but wait and see.

[He doesn't know the man that's passed. But if it turned into a question of his life or Shen Qingqui's, he must defend the living. It's an ugly thought, but no different than his dilemma with Sango. If Kohaku can't be saved, he will not let family kill family. He'll take that hideous duty from her if he has to beat her down first.

It would be the same here. He hopes it won't come to such a thing.]

Be wary. He might be more susceptible to obeying whatever force brought him back. His will may not stay his own. If he changes, find me straight away.

[He takes another gulp of tea. Mannerless cretin that he is, he finishes it in one go and wipes his mouth with his sleeve.]

Did he smarten up about his Chroma?

Edited 2019-08-05 20:42 (UTC)

[ Such a personal weight there. He studies Inuyasha, and it's eventually why he asks: ]

Who was it that etched this onto your heart?

[ Not because he expects an answer, because it's too blunt of him really, but this has all been too blunt to him in ways he's still coping with. Because these are so many things that are worries and fears he has, but even if Binghe hadn't died, even if, he isn't stable in the way that Shen Qingqiu might have wished for him to be. For Binghe's sake.

There are harms etched deep on his disciple's heart, and Shen Qingqiu is one of the many who carved their marks here. His lessons were, perhaps, some of the most hurtful. Those heartbreak points from years ago may have been exactly what they sounded like, to a seventeen year old abandoned by the shizun he'd looked up to for years.

It's kinder to be jolted out of those thoughts by the way Inuyasha consumes tea like one drinks shots of alcohol, then wipes his mouth like a toddler. No, that's unfair. He's just wiping his mouth like the concept of doing so with something he wasn't presently wearing didn't even occur to him. Don't do that, Inuaysha Bro! Please! Unless you wash that regularly?!

And he's asking a question that: ]

I don't know, but I won't allow the same mistake in judgment to affect him twice if I can help it.

[ Yet he's just as aware that if is the keyword there. He's not going to turn around and leash Luo Binghe, even if he thought an idea like that wasn't spectacularly stupid. But he doesn't know that he can trust Luo Binghe not to try and find his end again, and he still does not know why he did it in the first place. ]

[His frown only deepens.]

Tch! Who said anything about me? I've just seen these things happen. It's not uncommon when there's asshole youkai about.

[Especially when they're imbued with the power of the sacred jewel. That's a story he has no interest in relaying now. Though this friend of Shen Qingqui's friend has been through something quite similar the parallels don't line up that neatly. The jewel and all its fragments are back home, and hold no bearing on his life here.

Whatever effect his manners have on the older man, he doesn't care. The sleeve remains unattended. It will dry in the sun, and the same magic that keeps the robes healing itself will swallow all traces of the tea soon enough.]

Do that. [He puts a hand to his knee and begins to rise.] If he doesn't listen to you I'll beat sense into him.

[A serious offer, tragically. Were you expecting reasonable solutions?

Inuyasha's returning to the window, examining the sky for a quick moment. It might rain later, from the looks of things. Damn.]

What's his name? I'll keep watch for him.

[ He's not sure beating anything into Luo Binghe has improved... anything, but he appreciates what Inuyasha means, if not his choice in execution.

Just as he has no way to have a greater understanding of the experiences that lead Inuyasha to issue the warnings he's issued, but he still believes it's personal: something Inuyasha has seen, had to deal with, to feel this strongly about it.

Regardless, as he approaches the window, Shen Qingqiu answers the question. ]

Luo Binghe. [ No bothering with titles, when he's not even sure which ones would be most appropriate. ] It would have been his blood you scented in here, if you scented anything remaining. And... thank you, Inuyasha. For the kindness of that offer.

[ Keeping watch for him. Not so much for beating Binghe up for being an idiot about moonlacing, though yes, he's somewhat tempted by that too, if only he thought that would change anything. ]

[Funny, usually people did what he said after he kicked them in the pants. We'll just have to see about this "Luo Binghe"...

Inuyasha nods.]

Got it. [The scent was faint and overshadowed by the stench of his brother, but not to be overlooked. Blood was the most powerful scent to track. If he needed to, he's confident he could find this man at once.]

Don't thank me. It's what's gotta get done.

[And he hasn't even done anything worth thanking for. Words were just words until actions followed suit. He puts a foot to the sill and leaps free. Sesshomaru flies, but Inuyasha bounds between buildings with ease.]

[ ~~So basically, they're like the earliest version of Superman vs later iterations of Superman....................... very clever, Rumiko Takahashi~~

He closes the window after watching Inuyasha's departure, wondering just where these two brothers will end up... and also what possible meetings Luo Binghe might have with either one of them. It's hard to say, and without talking with him where both of them consent to hear what the other says... difficult to even say what he'll think.

Still, it is what it is, and he'll be here for whatever fallout comes from either situation in the future. ]

Inbox

"not even kissing" maybe you should have aimed lower

now waiting for the event where "spontaneous fellatio" is the how you save a life

YOU JOKE NOW......

LOOK............. if it comes true I'll be the first to start laughing

I'll be weeping blood probably...also on mobile so a short one 4 u

alsjfd hands you a handkerchief for this future.... and you are strong on mobile!!!

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