ellipsanet | video; un: godking | July 30th afternoon

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video; un: godking | July 30th afternoon

[The video starts in the middle of Solarpeak beach. There's a strange rocky pedestal with a strange looking statue on it. Did someone not meet the touch requirements...?

The stone statue is Hijikata. His face has been scribbled over with what appears to be a sharpie (mustache, beard, angry eyebrows and even meme angry veins #). There's also a sign hanging around his neck with the very same sharpie attached to it.]

This is Hijikata Toshirou. He did something extremely foolish and is petrified. Not because he lacks touch energy, but because of the Mystic Eyes of Petrification. A fitting punishment for a fool like him who would think to abuse Command Spells.

[Ozymandias may sound calm, but he's very angry - it shows in his expression.]

Until a cure is found, or brewed or something, I have made a "pet shaming" sign. Feel free to come around to write anything Hijikata has done so everyone can see. Maybe that would take him down a notch!

My Sphinx will be here to look after him and as a clear mark where he is - but should someone want to claim possession over this statue, feel free to tell it I gave permission. Tomorrow. Let him be like this until tomorrow. It's what he deserves.

[The Sphinx in question.]

[OOC: The Sphinx will stand guard over Hijikata statue until the next day! It is defeatable, of course, but it's player's request that Hijikata stand there for a full day for shame!

This is all related to this ongoing plot.]

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[He's standing at the beach, as explained by Ozymandias. Feel free to add list items to the pet-shaming sign or decorate him further - he isn't conscious, so he won't know who visited him until he gets unpetrified (unless you leave a signature)!]

[Adds 'mean Master who makes their Servant unhappy >|'.]

[When he, once unpetrified, finally gets around to properly sitting down and trying to figure out who left him all these notes, he can take this one in stride right away. He is a mean Master who made his Servant unhappy.

He has an inkling that this one might be from Oryou, given how straightforward it is... he once again vows to do better, assuming Medusa wants to give him that chance.]

Edited 2023-08-05 11:45 (UTC)

[ Dojima did go out to check on him.

And... sure enough, that sure was a statue of the guy, with scribbles and everything.

Dojima would... sigh. Deeply. Reaching up to tap the guy's head with his knuckle. Not hard enough to hurt himself, because it wasn't worth doing that, and despite everything, he didn't want Hijikata to break. ]

...

[ It was completely immature to do this. Really, really beyond him as an adult... ]

...

[ Added to the sign: Is a Fucking Dumbass ]

[ ...And tied around his hand was a pack of cigarettes.

He had a feeling that whenever he woke up, Hijikata was gonna need them. ]

[Adds 'x2' to Dojima's comment.]

[When he eventually stops being a rock and gets himself caught up on the situation, he really won't be able to figure out who left this comment in particular... after Ozymandias' announcement this would be what anyone would think, right? Someone even did add an 'x 2'!

He appreciates the cigarettes very, very much, though (even if he has no mana left to light them with his magic and has to use a lighter like a peaseant).]

[ Ayaka does not know Hijikata well enough, but. . . people want to shame him!! She wants to add something nice.

"He is brave! And I am sure he has other positive qualities that overshadow the other qualities he has."

(She probably is not helping, huh?) ]

[After getting unpetrified it takes Hijikata a good while before he has a quiet enough moment to actually properly look at the sign. This item, written in such neat handwriting, puzzles him more than any other. Given Ozymandias' announcement, who'd want to leave him a positive(-ish) message? Yet at the same time the person doesn't seem to know him all that well...

Ultimately he tentatively suspects that it might be from Ruby, whom he protected during the incident with the digital monsters in the mecha hangar and didn't meet again afterwards. Sorry, Ayaka! He'd be baffled to find out the truth. After all he managed to dampen even his compliments on her festival organisation skills by shitting on her animal tail game! But it seems that a compassionate heart won't be deterred by such behaviour.]

[At some point Eva'll go check on the Hijikata statue. Seriously... how many times is this going to happen? She'll have to yell at him later for being an idiot and worrying her, but for now, after adding to Dojima's comment, she'll scribble her own down:

"Got himself killed/petrified/incapacitated on video. Twice. Aren't you supposed to be the adult here?"

...okay, fine, he did really get her out of a pinch not too long ago, she'll show him some mercy:

"But he has helped me out so he isn't all bad."]

[When Hijikata finally has the time to properly study all the messages left on the sign, this one gives him less trouble than most of the others. "Aren't you supposed to be the adult here?" indicates that a kid wrote it, and how many bratty kids does he really know?

That last part is sort of touching... if he hadn't gotten himself into such deep shit it would put a grin on his face!]

[ Reiner adds the following: ]

Needs to get his authority kink under control.

[It's not a kink, it's a lifestyle!! ~~Okay, no, it definitely is a kink... but if Reiner knew how much disrespect Hijikata gets back home, he'd understand!~~

Since Hijikata has no indication of who wrote this note, he doesn't dismiss it out of hand quite as hard and fast as he would have if Reiner had signed it... but in the end he dismisses it nonetheless. He doesn't have any kinks!! He's well-adjusted and normal!]

[ Levi doesn't check the network that often, but by some miracle, he does see this. And it leaves him... at odds, somewhat, with what he's supposed to think of it. ]

[ He doesn't understand a bunch of the words used, whether in the announcement or some of the comments, so he can't be sure what happened here. The hell are "command spells", anyway? It does kind of sound like Hijikata went on yet another power trip, though, which honestly is both unsurprising and disappointing. ]

[ Some of the elaborations allude to forcing one's will -- how would that even work, more magical bullshit? -- and he tries to imagine that kind of a situation, what the hell would it feel like, to be unquestionably under control of someone, let alone someone who would disregard his wishes. ]

[ But he can't. ]

[ "Is that an order?" ]

[ "Does it have to come to that?.." ]

[ There has never been anyone who could make him do anything, and the people he chose to follow, he did so of his own decision. They never had any real power over him but his respect, and they extended it back to him. Even if Erwin or Hange had some kind of a magical influence on him, he just can't see either of them ever using it. They were too important to each other for something like that. ]

[ So if this hypothetical is true, well. It must feel like absolute shit. ]

[ Yet another abuse of power in a long line of cop bastardry. ]

[ It sounds like Hijikata does deserve this. ]

[ ... ]

[ And yet, what the hell is imprisoning someone who (he assumes) has lost the fight, childishly defacing their remains and boasting about it in public if not an abuse of power, too? ]

[ Not to mention when it's somebody calling themselves "God King" who does it? ]

[ No, the author of this message sounds like an absolute asshole and does not have any leg to stand on here, however valid some of his points may be. Just another human shitstain to match the one currently in statue form. ]

[ Levi doesn't respond. ]

[ None of this is his business, or his conflict to get into. ]

[ But sometime at night, or maybe in the wee hours of morning -- after the last shame-giver has departed, but before any of Hijikata's friends come by to fetch him -- Levi makes his way to the beach with a bucket, cleaning solution and some rags. ]

[ The sphinx does growl at him, but he points out that its owner had given people permission to handle it, and it seems to placate the creature enough that he's allowed to approach. ]

[ He leaves the actual sign be -- he doesn't like Hijikata, and it's a perfectly valid way for him to see everyone's messages when he wakes up -- but he's going to spend the next hour or two meticulously cleaning off the scribbles that had been left on the statue itself. Maybe he needs to tiptoe a little, maybe the permanent marker will require some of the more concentrated cleaning agent that he brought -- but eventually, the statue's face and the rest of it is once again clean, unblemished stone. ]

[ And then, Levi will simply gather his things and leave, content with nobody knowing about that small act of kindness he felt compelled to in this situation. ]

[ (Although he might also wait a little to make sure somebody actually comes to get the poor bastard...) ]

[It may be difficult more to grasp what moves in the heart of this student. The way he idolizes Heroes still, when he's enamored with Hijikata so much, it makes each painful learning bright and sharp, the youth's reality far less kind though far less kind is what he's used to now. Another awful, ugly truth to face... And yet he stubbornly keeps himself from sinking too much deeper into thought, his admiration fully formed by trust. However hopeless matters seem, his student's faith remains too much for starstruck eyes to lose their luster yet; his precious mentor's raised him up so well... Raised him over, at the least, he feels. When Shoto's swallowed sadness all his life—much inflicted under hands, adults—there's too much caution for him to grasp whatever stray affection finds himself. His patient teacher's never scarred him once, nor does he shout or make absurd demands, his mentor cautious not to wound, to bruise his trust... But just as true, the things the pharaoh's said—though these aren't words he pairs his Hero with. When bond's surpassed his biological blood, to him another, better, second half; more than blood, but somehow half himself.

This makes his running frantic, rushed, much too quick to allow him a thought between his own panicked footsteps; though he'd sat still and good and "calm" before, had waited well until the sunrise peeked, till brimming stress and boy's impatience snapped, tugged him up and out his gloom by force of his will's firm insistence. A steady, cold compulsion leads his steps, and soon he's making his way to the shore to find his stone human statue, only fear beneath his too-rushed pulse, his sole intent to "save" the man who stitch by stitch attempts to mend his heart, footfalls faster than his knees can keep up with. He spies the stone and sees his second death, and then there's guilt and guilt and guilt rising rapidly to claim his chest. What good's a sword that can't protect its knight? He can't defend him from himself these days, and so he rushes because there's fear that hands may find a weapon worse than ink. He doesn't slow, to claim his frozen, almost-guardian first.

He sees the "boy", and then mismatched eyes—the dirtiest look he's ever fixed to any man he's set his gaze upon—lift to graze him sharp as sword or knife. Someone else who's come to mock, he thinks, and Shoto's rapidly sharpening glare turns to mimic something cold like ice, only to drop even heavier dark and lower grudgingly with his shame instead. He sees a bucket draped with still-damp rags, the many soaps and scrubs and sprays and someone kind who doesn't vent with marks; the two and two he's pieced together, next; a very different light in eyes instead; and looking, finally, now, the way he is: an angered child, overwhelmed, scrambling mentally for what words to give. What this person doesn't know is that emotion rarely shifts his face, or that further back another year or two, how this frozen man was all he'd had, that he's never bowed as deep as angled leaning seems to bend him, now. How his kindness dries up angry tears.

He stays this way, because it's meant, because he doesn't know what to do this time. He only fumbles, whispers,]

Thank you...

[For doing what he sees he's done. Undoing so much else this way.

He doesn't lift, to thank him over again.]

[ Levi's unaware of who the young man is, or of his bond to Hijikata, but he guesses -- it seems correctly -- that anybody making it here at this hour has to be friends of the man. He's no stranger to kids looking up to him either. He's always maintained that they should find someone better to look up to -- what was he, if not a weapon, if not a rat dressed up in a hero's cape by somebody proficient at selling people hope when there was none -- but nonetheless, the responsibility was still his, and he's always tried to do right by the people who followed him. ]

[ If he did know any of it, he would probably understand. ]

[ He watches the boy bow to him, and he's uncomfortable, feeling like an imposter in the place of somebody actually worthy of gratitude. He barely did anything -- okay, so it was a little thing that took a while, sure, and maybe he stuck around just to make sure nobody decided to vandalize the statue with a sledgehammer instead of ink, but it's not like he undid anything significant. Just maybe saved the man a little of his pride... or, apparently, given somebody a bit of faith in humanity. ]

[ How ironic. ]

Sure. [ He hardly knows how to properly respond either, so this is what he opts to, waving a hand a little dismissively as if to gesture the kid back into an upright position. ] Uh, at ease, or whatever. You'll take it from here?

[It is a "little thing", but this a boy unused to kindness. How little it takes... He sees a second, kindly thoughtful boy. And rat or not, it hardly discounts the "boy's" intent, his showing a kindness regardless. Shouldn't that count for something, too? Doesn't his sensei seem as flawed himself? Uncouth, unmannered, his fiery temperament ill-equipped to soothe a hurt, and too-much-saddened heart. And still, Shoto looks to the stone behind as if the mass itself contained his sun. All soft gratitude in his eyes and hope the very thing he holds to now.

Eyes find Levi's when he straightens, blinks.

And could Shoto hear his thoughts, he'd softly explain how being flawed's "enough", how Hijikata's worst attempts were better care than what he's known, the things he's lived, what he's used to. His simplest act to extend his voice, say—should he die—he'd simply "bring him back". Should anything horrible ever occur: trade a second soul for his, life by any means, by every means. "Another half of me", he'd called him once; and it's no spell that keeps him close as any squire, shield, apprentice, knight; having been his father's weapon once, made aggressively just for that, without a sense of how to live or self. How he's struggled to find himself... And starved of love in every sense, trailing this "demon" of a man who—encouraging violence in the boy at worst—took him camping under the stars, kindly gifting him a bear as if torn between seeing a child or not; training a soldier but raising a boy, never misusing but stitching him up, somehow salvaging his kindness left. Their habit sitting back-to-back, shining up weapons and sharing their thoughts, only for Hijikata to rise and gift him cookie jars or chocolate treats.

He wants to say his commander's kind. Dispel the things he might have read, the words around them, the rumors.

Now, staring at Levi a good long time, trying to say to him things he can't, things he keeps, and keeps buried. Impress the gravity of what he's done. How, in this life, this boy loves no one more. How serious a thing it is. How after years of hands, abuse, he's safe. That his mentor needn't be the best. And plainly his looking means to convey how much he knows of Hijikata, too. How he's a bloodied, hard, unruly man. His knowing well that "better men" exist. But this is the man who took him in; gave him home and warmth and skill and choice. And look how care's convinced his hand to reach... Fingers wrapped around stone-stuck palm to say this flawed and human man's enough. Eyes on Levi in meaning to say, You, yourself, have done enough tonight. You will never know how much this means.

He is so grateful; beyond it.]

Yeah. You've done enough. You could've easily taken advantage here.

[Condeming others; trying to be kind, and not sour...]

I don't know who you are, but thanks. This man's my sensei, so it's fine. [He will take care of this.]

[ It was always like that, wasn't it? Those barely scraping by on slivers of affection, or freedom, or necessities, always so eager to follow anybody who would offer a ray of light, a hope, a purpose. They didn't need to be "better", didn't need to be "flawless"; being there was enough, being the sun for someone less fortunate's existence was enough. And oh, doesn't Levi know that. ]

[ Levi could easily introduce himself here, but he thinks it feels too much like seeking recognition, which he had just insisted is unnecessary. So he stares at the boy for a while longer, awkward, tired, dark circles under his eyes betraying his age even if he might be mistaken for a "boy" from behind, at a distance. ]

Then I would be no better than the shitstain who left him here.

[ He says it mildly, without inflection, as if it's just boring fact and nothing else. Let it never be said he has any respect for Ozymandias after this, even if he certainly has his grievances and differences with Hijikata too. ]

[ Of whom he may be witnessing an entire new side here. He's not really ever one to judge, and he certainly knows his own thuggish bedside manner doesn't exactly scream "mentor material" either, but he had not been expecting this. ]

Is he? [ He seems to think it over and then just accept it, though apparently he does want to double check something; ] He treating you well?

[ Since apparently this whole mess started with him being... none too kind to someone he had authority over. But with any luck, hopefully, this boy has been different. ]

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video; un: godking | July 30th afternoon

Hijikata Statue

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(re)action; sometime after everyone else has left;

Sorry, this is so late... and so much [cw: brief mention of abuse]

no worries <3

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Shoto 😭