aionlogs | that time i got reincarnated as a baby catboy.

[ For the second time in six months, he wakes up encased in crystal.

It unfolds in much the same way as the first time, a vague sense of discomfort giving way to alertness and then a spike of panic as he feels familiar walls encasing him, inhibiting his movement and the supply of oxygen being delivered to his lungs. (Has he remembered that he doesn't technically need to breathe? Not yet.)

The upside is that he knows what to do this time around, jumbled memories filtering back into his mind as he claws at the chrysalis surrounding him, ripping and tearing as best he can with what limited strength his body can afford. It feels, once again, like the whole process takes forever, each second agonizing and stretched paper thin, when in reality his escape takes maybe a few minutes at most.

He lands on the hard ground with a thud, too busy coughing and gasping for air to pay any attention at all to his surroundings, his brain frantically trying to assess his current internal condition rather than worry about any external force that might wish him harm. ]

[ Guess who's been poking at Eustace's Communion space these past few days in an effort to reach him. This isn't like when Joonghyuk had disappeared and there had been a feeling of an unreachable distance between them, so Dokja tries and tries again until one day, something gives.

He pushes a bit harder, an insistence coupled with an anxiety that's been persisting ever since the return from the raid. ]

Eustace? You there?

The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

[ No, just kidding (again), he's finally here this time, some four or five days after the raid on Achamoth concludes. He sounds tired (but when hasn't he in the past two weeks) but his (mental) voice is clear and alert. ]

I'm here. What is it?

[ Get smacked in the face with this massive wave of relief coming from Dokja's end. He tries to reel it in, but imagine being in control of your emotions.

There are so many questions he wants to ask, but he thinks he knows the answer to some of the more pressing ones, so. He'll save them for later. ]

I have your gun.

[ It's not that hard? Just practice for a decade and you'll get it right?? Haven't you been alive for 22k years now, buddy???

He doesn't think any of that, too busy both being smacked in the face by a wave of relief and also startled enough by the news that his own (smaller) wave of relief also floats out. Whatever other thoughts he might have been occupied with before get immediately tossed away, his attention now fully on Dokja. ]

How?

[ He used to have a wall in his head that did all of that for him but it's been gone.......

And really, Dokja wants to be the one asking how this had happened. ]

One of the Pleroma had it. She said she got it from Syrlya. [ A hesitant pause. ] What happened? Did you let him borrow it?

[ Because he fucking died with it, bruh. ]

[ Who the fuck is Syrlya?

But he sets aside that question for later, his short-lived relief morphing into something moodier and more hesitant. He hasn't forgotten the parting words Dokja had flung at him before splitting ways - don't die - and while he'd never promised such a thing, he hadn't actually intended on giving his life up so immediately anyway.

The silence that stretches between them for a second too long is probably enough of a sign that the words that follow aren't the whole of the picture. ]

It was taken from me by one of the Kenoma. I wasn't able to get it back.

[ For.....reasons. ]

[ Ah... He's putting together the picture he hadn't wanted to put together now. Eustace's absence, the way it had felt like the other man was asleep when Dokja had tried to Communion with him, the gun going through a number of hands...

They can't dance around this topic forever and so he has to ask. ]

... Did you die?

[ After Dokja's specific instructions NOT TO? ]

[ you're not the boss of him!!!!!

But.........ah, how is he supposed to avoid the subject when he's asked point-blank like that? There is a long, long silence before: ]

Yes.

[ He will not be elaborating unless asked. ]

[ There it is. A ripple of distress shoots through their connection, but it's quieter. After all, Eustace is back now and that's what should matter.

But Dokja's still annoyed. ]

Where are you right now?

[ He's going to take this gun and beat Eustace with it. ]

[ In next week's episode: watch Eustace hatch out of an egg for the third time in six months because people won't stop fucking killing him!

It's a valid question to ask, presupposed by the assumption that Dokja is asking in order to return his gun back to him, but a flare of alarm spikes up inside him at the thought of exposing Gray in her unattuned state to anyone he doesn't implicitly trust.

If he were alone, it wouldn't matter. But Gray's safety is the most important thing to him right now, and he's not about to compromise that just so he can feel a little more secure. ]

If you need to talk to me in person, pick a place and I'll meet you there.

[ There's a halting hesitance on Dokja's end. He's in Greentruth now and while he knows Eustace is no longer aligned with the Kenoma, he's not too certain if he can just invite the other man in. Is there a probationary period? He's never dealt with anything like this before...

And while he's not too keen on returning to Godsblood, he'd at least (finally) been taught how to use glamours in order to change his appearance. That should hide him from the citizens who might recognize him. ]

If you're near Godsblood, I can meet you there. Outside of where I used to live?

[ He has no idea where Eustace is, but it seems like a safe enough place to meet up. ]

[ Godsblood...

He'd planned on heading there anyway, both to lose himself in anonymity as well as meet up with Ernesto and Dextera, but there's no way he can make it there in any reasonable amount of time. The sooner he gets his gun back (and has some sort of weapon with which to defend himself with), the better. He can't really afford to dawdle. ]

The Artisan shrine. I can meet you there.

[ And then he can pick up some of Dokja's ants and Dokja can see him in hideous pink heart capri pants. ]

[ Ugh, he just spent two days in that shrine having the worst time of his life and now he has to go BACK?

Wait a minute. ]

What the hell are you doing all the way out there?

[ But he's starting to grab his things and Eustace's gun and heading out that way now. ]

[ :)

:)

:)

:)

There's nothing but radio silence as Eustace HANGS UP like the rude little binch he is. See you at the shrine, Dokja!! ]

[ WOW.....

Okay, it's going to take him some time to get there. While he can fly and use the wind to aid him on his travels, it's still a good distance away from Greentruth? The portal to the valley is also no longer there? This is so out of the way!!

When Dokja finally gets there hours later, he's exhausted. It doesn't help that he hasn't had a proper moment to rest since the raid, and he looks like he's in desperate need of sleep when he shows up, rifle strapped to his back as he makes his way toward the shrine.

Where's Eustace... Dokja has so many bones to pick with him at this point. ]

[ Bro just use a teleportation spell like the rest of them?? How do you think the normies of the world get anywhere???

Actually, the fact that Dokja shows up hours later (rather than the expected thirty minutes he's accustomed to) means Eustace is extra on edge by the time this touching reunion starts to unfurl. He's leaned against one side of the monument at the center, shoulders even more tense than usual, and he's quick to bolt upright as soon as he catches sight of Dokja, the deep frown on his face a mix of annoyance and concern. ]

Did something happen on the way here?

[ Yo, why did it take so long. ]

[ He's been using teleportation spells for days now he's tapped OUT. Also, sometimes I just think he should suffer for the hell of it.

Anyway, check out how exhausted he looks... He's going to hand this gun to Eustace and just knock out for three days straight in this shrine because he deserves the break, holy shit. ]

Had to... [ wheeze ] fly here...

[ Give him a second to double over to grab his knees and suck in some much needed breaths and then they can go on with their merry exchange. ]

[ you know what, that's fair

Eustace will not comment on Dokja's OOCly inflicted suffering, though he does file this particular maneuver away under the evergrowing list of Stupid Shit Dokja Has Done. Still, he's not unappreciative of what Dokja's put himself through by coming all this way just to return something, and his voice softens as he stares down at this sad pathetic man. ]

Sit down.

[ This is just painful to watch. ]

[ It's been a long few days. Gray knows how to wait, and she waits well. When Gen leaves her alone with Eustace's shard, it doesn't feel especially foreign or frightening for her to sit alone with Add, becoming lost in the hours and the dispassionate drone of nature. It's even nostalgic, and she has plenty of time to reflect on how much has changed, and how much she has changed since she last kept watch over a silent and solitary corner removed from the rest of the world.

The only blip, more like a catastrophe in her terms, comes when Add stops responding to her. So comes a deep and mind-seizing panic, and soon afterward she also finds that her ability to hold communion with other Aions has severely deteriorated. But those are crises she can do nothing about, and she holds it together, quietly fretting until Gen returns to the shrine soon afterward.

Gen's return is a balm to her anxieties, but there's a high tension in her posture as the two of them continue to play the waiting game. It's only when she hears a crack behind her that her tension fractures, and she moves quickly to the crystal Eustace emerges from with a cascade of emotions to speed her there.

There are some things they prepared for his arrival, but Gray forgets them completely as she hovers anxiously, waiting for him to catch his breath. In the back of her mind, she worries that somehow he may not be completely intact in body or mind, her one green eye nervously reflecting the light of the chrysalis. The other is still covered in clean bandages running over a large corner of her face. ]

Mr. Eustace...?

[ She tests the waters gingerly, waiting to see how he'll respond. ]

[ Unlike Gray, Gen is bad at waiting.

But that's not too surprising, is it? She might have gotten an inkling of it from the moment Gen had crashed for exactly one night at the Seeker's shrine before declaring that, now that Gray was settled in to the shrine and Eustace was on his way to being revived, he was leaving for a bit. To keep an eye on things in the surroundings, to make sure they weren't being pursued. And while he'd returned in a hurry the moment he hadn't been able to contact Gray through her shard, his time spent away from the shrine hasn't done that much to temper his restless demeanor. While Gray spends her time patiently attending to Eustace's burgeoning chrysalis, Gen wiles away the hours constantly on the move -- sleeping for a few restless hours curled up in a corner, pacing around just inside the shrine, doing a round of the immediate surroundings before returning to skulk around at the periphery of Gray's field of vision.

By the time Eustace begins to stir, he's slumped over near the entrance to the shrine, leaning against a small cluster of rocks as he nurses one of his carefully-rationed remaining cigarettes --

and he jerks to his feet the moment he hears that rustle of movement and the quiet sound of Gray's voice. ]

-- is he waking up?

[ It's a matter of such importance that he doesn't even pay attention to his cigarette slowly burning away between his lips as he stumbles over, gaze fixed intently on the twitching chrysalis. And while he does give a slight flinch at the sound of the harsh crack and the slop of viscous fluids as Eustace spills from within that strange cocoon ... he can't bring himself to look away, either. His entire focus is on watching the rise and fall of Eustace's shoulderblades with each breath -- that concrete proof that Eustace is alive once more. It's only once Eustace has finished hacking up that fluid that he manages to find his own voice, his words emerging uncharacteristically small and breathless: ]

... Eustace. Are you ... [ alive? well? okay? ] ... yourself?

[ No, he will NOT sit down! In fact, he inhales rather sharply at the demand and straightens himself out, finger already pointed and ready to jab itself into Eustace's chest. He's got a whole spiel ready, mostly about how dumb Eustace was to have died at the hands of his former allies, but then

he stops. ]

[ His mouth, which had been open and prepared to start yapping, clamps shut.

And he stares at Eustace for a beat longer than he means to. ]

[ ... Sits down.

Glares at the ground the entire time.

Why did he have to remember what happened the last time they met face to face. ]

that time i got reincarnated as a baby catboy.

gray, gen — rebirth (round 2)

communion!!

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vague handgestures at timelines

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