Open RP, Greenhouses (Eleventy, Kurama, River)

[eleventyrags.livejournal.com]

The Doctor hadn't always loved Halloween, but on those worlds that celebrated it (or something like it) he definitely tried to join in the fun, if there was nothing overtly intent on re-enacting a favorite horror film but with real knives instead of rubber props. He supposed at Hogwarts there was no danger of this (and even if there was, the danger was minimized) and thus strolled confidently over the grounds, rambling until he came to a pile of rather gorgeous pumpkins. He stared at them a minute, then at the door they framed. A sign read:

Pumpkins, free to a good carver.

Candy within, Trick-or-Treaters welcome.

Any tricks resulting in broken glass will be met with a boot up someone's back end.

The last bit, he noted, was scrawled rather hastily in something that his mind wanted to read as Japanese, but his eyes were registering as English. The rest was in big, spiky, dramatic handwriting, with bats, cats, and pumpkins scribbled all over the place. It very nearly covered a plaque that read 'Professor Minaminaminamino." What a name. He grinned and ducked in.



She, with brown hair all shocked out by too much curling iron, an ironic pointy black hat on her head, a very witchy dress, too much makeup, and boots that looked like they could stomp a Dalek. The other (she? No, the shoulders were too broad, but the hair just screamed girl) sat with their back to the doctor and looked like the costume of the year must be a mummified werewolf. The tail was even moving, too. Nice touch.

"Trick or treat!" He called, waving a hand. The girl looked up at him and beamed and the - yes, that face was as close to male as it was going to get - man turned around to look at him.

"What's your costume?" The girl asked, putting her head to one side. The man flapped a hand at her, and she stuck out her tongue at him.

"A time traveler," The Doctor said grinning at their interaction. They might have been bickering siblings, for all they didn't look a thing alike.

The man gestured to a cauldron on the floor next to the table. "Take your treat then, oh wanderer. You might have to forgive River her impetuousness."

The Doctor blinked at the name, but before he could say anything, the girl cut in.

"Not that River," she said, her eyes intent on the Doctor for a split second before turning back to her companion. He had the unsettling certainty that she'd just casually read his mind. People weren't supposed to be able to do that.

"And that isn't even a real word," she was saying. "Bad foxes should read more dictionaries."

The Doctor grabbed a bag from the cauldron - fun-sized jelly babies - and extended a hand to the suffering redhead. He noticed that what he first thought were bandages on his head were furry ears to match the tail. "Nice costume. Professor Minaminaminamino, I presume?"

The Professor made a face and took the offered hand. "Kurama, if you please." He shot a withering look to River, who contrived to look innocent. "I thought it had been covered."

"I'm The Doctor," he introduced himself. "I'm surprised you're indulging the tricking and treating, though. That's more of an American holiday these days, isn't it?"

Kurama shrugged, breaking the handshake with a smile to go back to what he was working on. They looked like flowers that had decided to be lanterns, all in orange and black. River was stringing them together on a long line.

"There are plenty of American students here, and it's an amusing enough tradition." Between his hands another flower seemed to appear from nowhere, and went to the pile for River to tend. It even glowed faintly.

The Doctor watched them work for a moment, munching on his jelly babies, until River completed a strand and jumped down from the table. "I'll take care of these," she said, and then stopped to look at the Doctor with a lot more knowing solemnity than a teenaged human girl should have. "Not that River. If she's the Amazon, I'm a waterfall."

And then she was gone, even grabbing a broom on her way out. The Doctor looked quizzically at Kurama, who shrugged.

"I don't even know. I stopped trying to guess months ago." He stretched, winced, and then flexed his hands. "How much of that time traveler business is the truth? In some way all of us are, at least in this place, but that bow tie is giving me some pretty specific questions."

"All of it," the Doctor replied, adjusting his bowtie with a grin. "I just happen to know that the bowtie has never not been cool."

Kurama's smile was wry. "Those Croats, pulling us all kicking and screaming out of the fashion dark ages."

"You know your history."

"I've lived my history."

They stared at each other for a beat, the Doctor half-poised to grab his screwdriver and see just what Kurama was, Kurama smirking at him and practically daring him to ask.

"Mind if I take a look around?" The Doctor asked instead; there would be other times to pry, and there was a flower one room over that was so blue it was making him TARDIS-sick. Kurama waved a hand at him in a 'by all means' gesture.

Such interesting folk there were here. He was beginning to enjoy himself.

_{((OOC: I suck at making things short. Specify if you want River, Eleventy, or Kurama to play with, or be surprised <3 ))}

Comments

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

He hunched his shoulders not wanting to meet Mello's eyes. "Precisely. I want to purge, but I also don't want to let anything go."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I lean my chin on my knee. "Wasn't it some great warrior who said something about not being able to defeat an enemy until you have conquered yourself?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Sun Tzu," Kurama murmured, taking another piece of candy from the cauldron and tearing the wrapping to pieces. The sweet itself rolled onto the table, soon to be forgotten. "And I'd like to know how the hell I'm supposed to conquer myself. Kusuriyuri tries to help, but I don't even know who I am sometimes."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I frown a little. "Going back to Socrates, even before, self-knowledge is hailed as the ultimate goal. A lot of their methods for finding yourself involve psychoactive substances and privation." I shrug. "You could go pray under a waterfall. That does seem to be very popular in Japan."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I fail to see how giving myself pneumonia is a helpful conduit to self-discovery," he said flatly. He was skirting the subject again, and sure Mello would catch him on it: He didn't want to know.

Sure, he knew his own ego inside and out, and the arrogance he wore on his sleeve, but after the first few layers he couldn't stand to look any deeper. He couldn't find where the balance was supposed to be between human morality and demonic lack thereof, and had no idea where to start. And, despite how helpful Kusuriyuri wanted to be and how good Mello was at being an impromptu psychoanalyst, he doubted anyone else knew either.

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I shrug. "Fine, any method will work, but if you don't stop trying to bullshit your way out of it, you're never really going to be able to win against him because he'll always be there," I point at his head, "even if he's not here," I point outside. "Maybe you need to lock yourself in a room with an unbreakable mirror so you can't get away from yourself until you breakdown and really look at yourself."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I hate how right you are," he muttered, and then realized he'd said that out loud and hunched further, hiding behind his hair. He didn't need this shit, he didn't need having his faults thrown at him after what should have been a great victory. He'd killed Karasu, and everyone was giving him fucking stern looks over it.

He couldn't get a goddamn break.

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"You think I like it?" I ask. I reach over and lift his hair a little. "Listen, I know it wasn't easy for you to defeat him, but you're not done. The hardest part is still looming over you and you know it. Take it from someone who's been there." Not exactly there but close enough. It took a while to find myself once I left Wammy's and again when I got here.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I know," he muttered, taking the cue and pushing his hair back. "I feel a fool, being afraid of myself. But it just seems so necessary."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"To defeat him before facing yourself?" I ask to clarify, though I'm sure that's what he means. "My advice," I continue before he can answer, "is finish your battle before you go look at that plaque, before you find out what this place has done."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

He shook his head. "No, to be afraid of myself. Which is also why fighting Karasu was important: I could focus on how much I hated him instead of thinking about how much of myself I was trying to bury."

He drew his knees up to his chest, perching on the stool and closing his eye, twitching when he couldn't feel the other lid moving the way it was supposed to. "You're right, though. I can't be Youko anymore, here. I don't think I'm even much like I was back home, before coming here."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"Is it Youko you fear? or who you've become?" I ask. "Or are you afraid of finding a balance that no one else would like or could deal with, especially Kusu?" I probably should have left the last off, but he needs to hear it. I brace myself, though, half expecting to hit the floor for that, regardless how he looks.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Quit wincing like I'm going to hit you," Kurama growled, agitated. He rapped his fingers on the table again, trying to quantify what the worst bits were.

"About sixty percent three, twenty percent one, and twenty percent two. And..." what the hell, Mello wasn't the one he should be opening up to about this. But he was so desperately afraid of turning Kusuriyuri away with his stupid, stubborn refusal to change and his constant psychological turmoil. He sighed, though, knowing that once Mello had a bone he wasn't going to stop gnawing at it.

"It's... being Youko was idyllic because I didn't have to worry about morality or emotions. Not outwardly, anyway. Everyone was perfectly content to let me be a bastard. Later, when I died, I had to learn how to make a pretty shell so no one would realize I was doing thing deliberately to hurt them. I can't get away with that anymore, because Kusuriyuri won't let me, and as much as I love him for it, I think I resent him, too." And the thought of any emotion but love for Kusuriyuri made his skin crawl, but it was there.

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I relax a little. "It's not like you haven't before when I've stepped over your lines," I say. "And, screw morality. Most morality is bullshit that's used to coral people into behaving a particular way within a group, usually imposed with religion or by those who believe the world has to be black and white with no middle ground and yet act against those morals constantly." I gnaw on my lip a moment, considering the rest of what he said. "And, I think, in some way, you've tried to make Kusu your conscience, which is why you resent him. You're dodging responsibility, or trying to, for making decisions that go against what your id wants you to do." I take a bite of chocolate. "Freud gets a lot of crap, but he did have a lot of good ideas or he wouldn't have been plagiarized so much."

I tilt my head and look at him a long moment. "Maybe what you're suffering is more an identity and honour crisis than a moral crisis. You've got a very strong id, the 'Youko' part of you, and your superego is well developed, but your ego, not the pride part of it, but the identity part of it, the part that balances the id, the basic drives, the superego, the approval-seeking part, and the real world. I think that because Kusu's ego is so well-developed, that might be why you resent him and part of what draws you to him." I shrug. I'm sure there's more to it, but that's enough to start with for now. Unless he's going to tell me I'm completely off base, but I think he's receptive now, so...

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama was quiet for a very long time, filtering and placing the information, matching with what he already knew (and didn't want to admit) about himself. He realized he was digging into the poor table with a claw and stopped, folding his hands.

"You're right. Or at least mostly right. He's too easy to depend on because being dependable is what he does." Which is probably why Kusuriyuri never stayed in the same place for long; he'd find people basing their own morals and consciousness on what he would do.

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"So, what are you going to do about it? Because if you just try to ignore it, it's going to fester worse than any of those," I wave my hand at him, "and make everything worse in the end." I look at his face, trying to look him in the eye. "I also think Kusu expect you to be able to make a good decision on your own and find your own feet, mentally, even if he doesn't actually say so aloud." I pause and then add, "He trusts you. That's something to start with. The rest is up to you."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama sighed and put his chin on his knees. "Things were easier when I could pretend I didn't need anybody." But no one could keep that on and stay sane. "I want to be worth the trust he puts in me. I'll have to... I don't know, pray maybe. I've never been good at meditation because it brings me too close to Inari." He blinked. "Which... admittedly might be part of the problem."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"I can't tell you exactly how to do it," I say, "since your way is likely to be different form mine. All I can tell you for sure is that you're going to resent your lover and have Karasu looming over you until you do. You've gotta figure it out. But, if you need someone to talk to, you know how to find me."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I'll try to find my own way," he promised, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Though I can't promise I'll succeed right away. I'll take you out for dinner once I have my brain unscrambled, deal?"

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I give him a half smile. "It's not easy, and it'll probably be harder for you since you're such an old man, but you'll get there. And, I expect you to take me somewhere good." I stand. "I mean it, though, if you need me, let me know."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I thank you for not making a joke about old dogs and new tricks," he said blandly. "But, I promise. If I can't get my head around the issue, I'll go to you. I... don't think going to Kusu would be right, in the circumstances." No matter how deep and desperate that love was, he had to get past his own hangups without his lover's help. He'd burdened Kusuriyuri with so much already, this could be the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back.

"So, are you going to take some candy, or what? I got the nice chocolates, since I knew you'd be around eventually."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

I raise an eyebrow. "I've avoided getting hit so far. I'd like to try and keep it up." I'm not entirely sure exactly what other issues he has with Kusu, but I'm pretty sure that getting his head on straight will help. "And, how could I turn down good chocolate?" I ask.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama actually managed a genuine laugh at that, and gestured to the candy cauldron. "Go ahead, take what you like. It'll fill itself later, or so I'm told." His smile stayed; he felt better, knowing that he had a goal, and someone to bounce ideas off of in case it fell through.

"So, enough about my stupid hangups. What have you been doing with yourself lately? I saw you practicing with Ryuuzaki a while ago, but nothing since."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear him laugh and not just that fake one he uses to bullshit people. I shrug. "Teaching that samurai every trick I've learned here and learning more so I can still beat him at something." Though, some of what he wants me to teach him is creepy, given what I use the spells for and that damn bat.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"And, how often can you beat him?" Kurama doesn't ask the obvious question of 'and how much does he like it,' but it hangs in the air because he's obligated to tease Mello. Mostly because it's easy, but also because he loves to see that look on his friend's face when the blond has to think too much about what others do in their free time.