isleofavalon | September Catch-All

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September Catch-All

🧙 WHO: Mary and various
⚔️️ WHAT: Hot Knights, Fizzy Drinks, and A Very Heavy Conversation
🕒 WHEN: September
🗺️ WHERE: Various
⚠️ WARNINGS: Hot Knights is likely to have some nsfw conversation/atmosphere going on; closed thread with Juzo is going to have massive spoilers for the No Guns Life manga as well as discussions of death, body horror, prison, war, and all that happy sort of stuff

I. Hot Knights

[While Mary's not unfamiliar with the concept of a strip club--she grew up in the slums, after all--she has no idea what to expect inside of one. She's never had much inclination to check them out, busy with her work and the absolute insanity of her life recently. And also just not really wanting to go. If other people are into it that's their business, but it's not really her thing.

However, there's a rescue to be performed, so here Mary is dressed in a black minidress with a jacket covering her shoulders. She even bothered to put on some lipgloss. (She was also going to wear mascara, but she poked herself in the eye with the wand and decided fuck that.) In the name of not breaking her ankles by wearing heels, she's in the same boots as always.

Those who know her will notice that she's also seemingly more... erm, blessed in the chest area than usual.

Right now, she's sitting near the bar stirring some blend of liquor and juice. She turns to whoever is closest by.]

So I hear they just got a whole bunch of new people. Used to be knights, apparently.

[No one ever said she was subtle or good at this undercover thing.]

II. Fizzy Drinks

[In the name of SCIENCE, Mary has decided to check out this bubble bar thing. There's certainly no shortage of options for flavors (scents? she's breathing it in, not drinking it...), and she finds herself almost immediately taken by decision paralysis. Several of them sound good, and having to pick just one feels a bit impossible.]

Hey, which of these would you recommend?

[When in doubt, get opinions from other people!]

III. A Very Heavy Conversation (closed to Juzo)

[Now that Mary's settled into life in Avalon and has been able to get at least a rudimentary setup in the corner of Juzo's office, it's past time for her to get a good look at him. Mostly, she's curious (and concerned) about other changes to his physiology brought about by his arrival here. As hilarious as the confetti cannon in his head is, if they had discovered it while in peril it could have had disastrous results for him. That's not acceptable.

She's already declared her intentions to Juzo before getting everything together, putting on a smock and gathering tools. There's a lot that she's lacking, but she has enough to make due. It's not like she's not used to shortages and having to piece things together on a shoestring.

Once ready, she puts on a pair of gloves with a snap that is probably much more ominous to Juzo than she realizes.]

Ready for ya.

IV. Wildcard!

If you want to do something with Mary, feel free to write your own starter or hit me up at

asondeiru or asondeiru #9009 to plot! ♥

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[Nothing about Juzo's words or behavior is helping to relieve the tightness in Mary's stomach. If anything, it spreads up to her chest and adds an unpleasant pressure there that makes it harder to breathe.

She sinks onto the couch when he sits up on the table, watching his every movement like a hawk.]

So that's what you were hiding from me when I first got here.

Why didn't you just say so?

[She knows she's not going to like his answer, but it's too late to back out of this conversation now.]

[ One hand comes up to scrub awkwardly at the back of his neck. Her eyes on him is like a physical force, something that makes him uneasy in a way he doesn’t know if he’s ever felt before.

She deserves to know, she of all people especially, but… damn, he’s going to hurt her, and that’s the last thing he ever wanted to do. ]

A lot… a lot happened since the whole deal with Seven. To me, to you… and… Victor, too.

[ And there it is. The biggest reason of all for him to hold his tongue when she first arrived. ]

[Victor's name hits her like a truck, causing her blood to run cold. If something's happened to him, and Juzo's so reluctant to tell her about it... it can't be good news.

It takes a moment for her to find her voice, and when she does there's a bit of a break in it when she speaks.]

Tell me everything. I can handle it.

[She's almost certain that she can't. But as he said, the cards are on the table. She needs to know.]

[ He can almost see the physical affect Victor’s name has on her, the way it slams into her, and the mounting dread in her eyes. Unlike him, her face has a tendency to give her away – and not just to a select few.

Whether she can handle it or not isn’t in question. She lived it – or will live it, he supposes – and though it wrecked her, there’s no doubt she survived. ]

Where do I even start?

[ There’s… a lot to cover. He leans over to the arm of the couch where he’d left his things, fishing out a cigarette and a match. ]

I started followin’ leads on my old partner, from the war. Edmund said he had a source, a whistle-blower from Beruhren. I was supposed to meet with ‘em but instead I walked into a trap, and got my core torn out for my troubles.

[ His barrel tilts up to meet her gaze. One bombshell at a time, because he does have a lot to unload on her. ]

Tetsuro’s not the only one with Harmony. Beruhren’s got a whole squad of ‘em - the kid’s “siblings”. Not sure if they’re clones or genetic experiments or the real deal, but they’re a force to be reckoned with.

[The first bombshell goes off, and it hits Mary squarely in the chest.]

Your core?! You're lucky you didn't die!

[At least... she's assuming he didn't die, given that he's sitting across from her now. But the very thought of it turns her insides in a way that's too painful to consider any further. She'll never admit it out loud, but at this point in her life losing Juzo would be about as bad as losing Victor. Same with Tetsuro. They're family, for better and for worse, and she cares about them, dammit.

Juzo keeps talking, and Mary keeps listening, and things just keep on sounding weirder and worse.]

So... these "siblings" did that to you? And what does the kid think about all of this?

[If she were in his position, she'd be freaked out to say the least.]

… One of them did that to me.

[ Just one. He doesn’t elaborate any further, figuring those implications will speak for themselves. They’re not here to discuss the finer points of Io Arahabaki’s abilities, anyway. ]

Hard to say what Tetsuro thinks. I was out of commission for the most part – you had to put me back together usin’ whatever you could get your hands on, but even the military-grade stuff wasn’t enough for this body.

That’s when we figured that if anybody would know how to fix me up, it would be your brother.

[One of them. Mary can't even wrap her head around the idea, honestly--the kind of power and ability required to pull off such a thing is unfathomable from even a crowd, let alone one individual. And the work required just to get him functioning is even more incredulous. She supposes she should be impressed with her future self for pulling off, but there's no satisfaction in it. It's a do-or-die situation, and "die" isn't an acceptable outcome.

Juzo wouldn't lie, especially about something like this, so she ultimately decides to take him at his word and not dwell on the whys and hows. She'll learn soon enough once all this Avalon business is over, apparently.]

...that's the right call. He knows that body of yours better than anyone.

Where did we find him? How did we find him?

[ Like before, he watches her work through everything she’s been told. Reconciling the first point before she travels to the next to unravel that as well. Even with all he’s telling her, there are a great many details left out – things that he’s forgotten or that don’t feel relevant, or that he was unconscious through. She’ll still have to live it to get the full scope of what happened. Or will happen, or whatever.

He quietly puffs away on his cigarette until the next set of questions come to the forefront. ]

Remember Shimazu?

[ He turns his head to exhale, smoke drifting up and away. ]

The Spitzbergen lady that tried to do me in. She’d heard some rumors, whispers about somethin’ especially special to Victor. Knew where it was bein’ kept.

His body. It was in Wunder Bender. Which of course meant callin’ in one hell of a favor from Olivia.

[ After all that, even saving her from Io’s avatar doesn’t feel like enough to repay her. He owes her, and she probably knows it. ]

I could barely keep my own feet under me, so you ended up comin’ along for the ride.

[Oh, she remembers Shimazu. The woman tried to kill Juzo, and he proceeded to hand her off to Mary to make sure she lived to tell the tale. For all of his bluster and insistence otherwise, he's a pretty soft guy.

It's a trait the two have in common, in a way. She, too, tends to play it cool rather than openly admit how much she cares about her patients and the people around her.

In this case, it's a lucky coincidence if it managed to lead them to Victor's body. The reveal that it's in Wunder Bender, of all places, doesn't come as nearly as much of a surprise as it should. It makes sense to hide something so precious in one of the most fortified places in the world. She has no idea how he could have pulled that off, but she imagines that either Juzo will tell her or he also doesn't know. That's not the important part, anyway.

Mary leans forward, trying and failing not to feel too hopeful at this new piece of information. There has to be a catch, another shoe to drop. Juzo wouldn't have hesitated this much if there wasn't.]

What happened in Wunder Bender? Tell me everything, Juzo.

[ Up to this point, everything has been difficult to put into words simply because it’s so much. A lot has happened since last Mary remembers, and even explaining the bare bones of it all feels like he’s asking much of her.

Now, though, they’re getting into the truly difficult stuff - the things that affect her and her brother directly, and Juzo has gaping holes in his memory where he wishes he had answers, for both of their sakes. ]

I’ll catch you up on as much as I can. We got separated pretty early on, and I ended up unconscious for a good chunk of the rest.

[ He finishes off his current cigarette with a deep inhale and gets up to snub it out in the ashtray on his desk. This is definitely a multiple cigarette kind of story, so he fishes out a new one to light up as he speaks. ]

The Warden of Wunder Bender is an old classmate of Olivia’s, name of Violet Valentine. Her dad’s a real big deal, so she never wanted for anything her whole life. Guess her way of dealin’ with that is wanting the things she can’t have, namely…

[ He just. Motions to himself. Yeah, another one of those. ]

[Ah, there's the catch. She supposes she should appreciate the heads up that he only knows bit and pieces of what happens (happened?) at Wunder Bender, but all she can manage is a cold sense of disappointment. It's not Juzo's fault, and honestly he's doing a lot just telling her this much. She does her best to keep her feelings to herself, although surely he sees the way it plays across her features.

Human faces are too expressive, and Mary's especially.

She's given a quite reprieve in her frustrations when he begins the story in earnest, and she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes in disgust even if she wanted to.]

How do you keep finding these kinds of people?

[Seriously, it's uncanny how often he winds up in that kind of situation. Even once would be bad enough, but it keeps happening.

If the conversation were lighter, she'd follow this up by making fun of him for being a creep magnet. But neither of them are in the mood for it, and the urge to tease him never comes.]

I really wish I knew.

[ He sounds so tired. He could handle Olivia’s advances, even if they often sent him through the roof with embarrassment, but Violet had crossed so many lines. Thinking about her just makes him angry, and it shows in the lines of his body before he wills it away.

Much like Mary, there are some things he just can’t hide. He’d like nothing more than to be able to recount the full tale of what happened between her and Victor in that prison, but the only person who knows that is Mary herself. ]

Anyway… Violet had a private collection in the prison, Extended who caught her eye that she kept strung up like some kinda sick puppet master. A museum of things she can’t have.

Twelve was one of ‘em. I thought he was dead, but there he was, half-blown apart and barely clinging to life.

[ “He told me some war stories,” Violet had said. Stories about a peculiar GSU he’d encountered at the end of the war. Without thinking, Juzo’s hand comes up to his chest as something wrenches painfully. ]

We were separated on our way down there, and I ended up havin’ to fight off another one of Tetsuro’s siblings who followed us down. You’d cooked up a cigarette to fool my sub-brain into workin’ at full capacity. It worked like a charm, but I blacked out pretty soon after.

I dunno what happened to you, but I assume you ran into Victor – the other Victor.

[Mary watches him quietly as he works through the feelings that this Violet Valentine person digs up. What Juzo doesn't say speaks volumes more than what he does, which is saying something considering how damning the words actually. Everyone knows that Wunder Bender isn't a place anyone wants to end up, but the characterization of it like a collection of curiosities makes Mary's skin crawl.

Extended aren't things. They're people. That's a hill she'll die on, every time.

Juzo's recollection of events cuts off much, much sooner than she wants it to, but... well, he'd warned her it would. And it's not like he still doesn't have one last bombshell to drop regarding Violet's collection of bodies. That explains where the GSU core came from, at least. And if Mary had found Victor, then that answers how it was installed.

Right?]

How long were you unconscious for?

Long enough to wake up with a new backbone.

[ He really, really wishes he knew more about what happened in those moments where he was stranded in the dark. Just what happened between Mary and Victor? What kind of twisted deals was Violet was making to save her own life? ]

When I came to, the alarms were blaring. All manner of people were comin’ down on the place, and I’m pretty sure Violet sprung the prisoners to cover her tracks.

You filled me in a little. The other Victor brought you to the real thing, to his body, hidden in one of the Extendeds in Violet’s collection. Another one of Tetsuro’s siblings cropped up and he’d stayed behind to fend her off. Lefty vanished, too. No idea where.

[ He falls quiet then, because he knows what’s coming, and the knowledge sits heavy in the pit of his stomach. His fingers work, curling and uncurling while that terrible, horrible sense of loss and injustice hits him again. He almost wants to turn away, but he doesn’t. When he does speak, however, his voice has gone quiet. ]

I’m so sorry Mary, I really am. Violet… killed your brother and took his sub-brain. Used it as her bargaining chip with Beruhren. We found his body.

[It's clear that everything went top absolute shit while Juzo was unconscious. And Mary knew this story was building to some bad news, just from how Juzo's gone about it. She's been bracing herself for it, whatever it is, this entire time that he's been talking.

Nothing could have prepared her for the reality of hearing that Victor's dead. Not just dead--killed in cold blood and robbed of the very sub-brain he had wanted destroyed. The knowledge sits like an icy dagger in her heart, and it feels like the world is ending. The only sensations she's aware of for several moments are the pounding of her heart in her ears and the walls closing in.

As Juzo expected, she starts to cry. But at least there's no keening wail to go with it. (Not yet.)]

I-

[The thought evaporates before it's even fully formed. What is there even to say? A large part of her wants desperately to deny it, to pretend it isn't real, but that's not fair to Juzo and what he's putting himself through to be honest with her. She briefly considers if she can use the information to her advantage, to take advantage of this gift of foresight he's given her to find a way to stop it from happening at all. But that would require an understanding of how timelines works that she doesn't have, and the details he's provided are so few and scattered that it's unlikely she'd be able to do anything. Or maybe she'd simply make things worse. Juzo was critically injured in Wunder Bender, and messing with things risks losing him, too.

There's no escaping the reality of her future and Juzo's past. Despite their best efforts, Victor is going to die. That's all there is to it.

So she buries her head in her hands, cries harder, and says nothing.]

[ Of course he remembers the moment they found Victor, sprawled out and cooling in a pool of blood in the middle of the ruins of Violet’s precious collection. That image, and the moment that followed where Mary broke down and absolutely refused to leave her brother’s side, will be burned into his memory for the rest of his life. Right alongside the image of his brothers, barrels turned toward him, stunned and betrayed as he gunned them down from the top of the clock tower.

Anger flares up first, the sharp desire for revenge clawing at his breastbone, but Violet isn’t here. He can’t make her pay for what she did now any more than he could in the moment. Wherever she is, she’s Olivia’s bargaining chip now.

But the more Mary cries, the louder her sobs become, he realizes that he can’t just sit here. He’d tried so hard to talk to her about it back home, but she put on a brave face and acted like nothing was wrong until she could break down on her own. Now, however, he’s right here, and he doesn’t want her to have to deal with this by herself, not again. He couldn’t save Victor, couldn’t even avenge him, but this? This he can do.

He gets up from his seat and moves over to where Mary sits curled over, her small body shaking with the force of her grief, and for a second, now that he’s here, he’s not quite sure what to do. He’s never been good at this. Another sob wracks her and he thinks suddenly, fuck it, and drops to one knee to curl his arms around her. He doesn’t say anything – what could he even say right now? Nothing that would help, certainly – and instead simply holds her. ]

[Juzo's embrace doesn't lessen the grief she feels. There's nothing that could. But it does provide comfort all the same, helping to ground her and serve as a reminder that she's not alone in this. She hasn't been alone for quite some time now--despite both of their best efforts, they've formed something of a family of their own. To think that it all started with Victor hiring Juzo to keep an eye on her. A job.

But then again, that's how a lot of things start with Juzo. Look at how close he and the kid have gotten. He has too much heart not to get invovled in the people near him, even if he insists otherwise.

In some kind of sick, poetic way, their relationship is Victor's final gift to her, more profound than anyone could have imagined it being. As much as she desperately wishes it doesn't have to end this way, at least she has that much. She'll cherish it.

She cries it out a bit longer, sobs eventually subsiding to sniffles before quieting altogether. In the silence that follows, Mary feels a nudge against her hip. When she looks, Lefty is standing on the couch next to her, tilted up toward her as if waiting expectantly for acknowledgement. It's a bittersweet sight, knowing what she knows now, but not wholly unwelcome.

If her time with this fragment of her brother is limited, then she'll cherish it too while she can. She pulls the small Extended into her lap, where it immediately settles like a cat trying to comfort its owner.]

Thanks, Juzo.

[For telling her, for being here, for everything.]

[ Looking back, he’s not sure when he started to see this little group of oddballs he’d gathered as family, but they certainly were – despite his best efforts to keep each and every one of them at arm’s length. He’d practically declared it to Spitzbergen’s lackeys, and again to that bastard Avi when he put a bullet through Mary’s boot. All of this, a rag-tag little found family, all because Juzo took a couple of jobs, and deep, deep down just didn’t know when to leave well enough alone.

He's awkward as hell about it, and maybe he always will be, but he learned his lesson about being there – for Mary, for Tetsuro, any of them. When Mary broke away to sob and scream and cry on her own, his heart broke for, and he wished like hell that there was something he could’ve done. He has the chance now, and he doesn’t squander it. He stays still, sure and steady, as Mary cries it out. It’s good for the both of them, probably. Even if Mary has yet to experience it for real, this feels better than it had back home. A little more like closure.

Juzo draws back a little as Lefty settles into Mary’s lap. He still doesn’t know how this little slice of Victor managed to follow her here, or even how it’s still functioning so far from the main unit, but he won’t question it. The little guy’s presence is a gift, however it happened. ]

You don’t need to thank me for up and makin’ you cry.

[ His voice comes out a little thick in spite of himself. Juzo doesn’t cry, he can’t, but perhaps in that moment if he could have, he would have. He clears his throat. ]

In any case, that’s pretty much all I know. We can talk about it again sometime if you want, but I understand if you need to take some time.

[Mary wipes at her face with the heel of her hand and takes a few deep breaths, forcing herself to stay steady and not let the way Juzo's reacting have her start crying anew. This whole interaction has become uncomfortable and vulnerable, and neither are especially adept at navigating those kinds of emotions. Despite that, this feels... okay. As "okay" as the topic allows, in any case.

It feels right.]

I don't think I'll want to talk about it again, but thanks. There's nothing more to say. [And god forbid they just talk about their feelings for the sake of it. One heartfelt moment isn't going to change their personalities that completely.] I'm going to go for a walk and try to clear my head.

[With that, she scoots away from him, scoops up Lefty to relocate him to her shoulder, and gets off the couch. She gets about halfway to the door before she stops and turns back.]

When I get back, you wanna grab dinner or something?

[It's an olive branch, of sorts. A sign that she's not running away for long.]

[ The air between them does feel a little lighter. Things aren’t okay, and how could they be after that kind of news? But having it out in the open… it helps. Still, Mary is ready for some time alone, and Juzo can’t argue.

She makes sure to tell him, in her way, that she’ll be back. Maybe a normal person wouldn’t be able to see the soft smile he casts her way, but she surely can. ]

Yeah, I’d like that. See you in a bit, Mary.

[Mary does see that smile, and she returns it in kind despite herself.

Yeah, this feels right. It's good to know he's there for her, through thick and thin.]

Later, Juzo.

[With a small wave, she heads out the door to get the fresh air she desperately needs.]

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September Catch-All

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sure did have to make a new icon because I didn't have one sad enough :(

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