eswareinmal | Wandering Minion

Wandering Minion

The monster--not that he was aware he was a monster--came strolling out of the forest, wringing his hands and looking a bit overwhelmed at his new surroundings. He was a very large bipedal bug, one that looked somewhat similar to the illustrious Lord of the Bugmen. He was also clinging to a small fuzzy bunny that he must have found in the forest, and said fuzzy bunny looked like it would rather be literally anywhere else, even with that hawk that the big bug had saved it from.

There was a curious chirp out of the bug as he started to approach the town. What's this? Who are these people? Time to find out!

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Every now and then, Tachibana reached a point of stability in the chaos that was his life where he was fairly sure he could take almost anything in stride. After all his time Traveling after being a Rider, there wasn't much that could really surprise him anymore.

There were a few things, however, that could send that illusion of infallibility crashing down in a second.

He almost missed the figure, really, lost in his thoughts about the hydro-electric plant he and Sento were scouting locations for, but even just catching it out of the corner of his eye was enough to bring his walk to an abrupt halt.

Was... was that...?!

The Darkroach continued to wander about, looking for all the world like a rubbernecking tourist cuddling a live rabbit. He gave Tachibana a timid little wave and continued wandering, hoping to find someone or something familiar.

That.. that was definitely a Darkroach! but... with a rabbit? And not... destroying things? What? How was--

As often as both he and Hajime did their best to ignore the Bond between them, this was one of the rare moments where Tachibana reached for it. He had to know where Hajime was and that he... wasn't rampaging? Wasn't the only Joker? Wasn't spawning Darkroaches? He wasn't even sure.

Through the Bond, Hajime was actually only annoyed, because he'd just been trying to quietly cook a meal of his own and been discovered by meddling townspeople who didn't think a Cursed Knight needed to worry about cooking. Certainly nothing worth a Joker rampage.

The Darkroach continued to head in Hajime's general direction with a thoughtful sort of chirp.

The bunny continued to wish for the sweet release of death.

Annoyance was normal. Annoyance was standard Hajime. But that did not at all explain what the hell was going on here and Hajime may feel a bit of a sharp note of worried panic reaching out to try and get his attention.

The annoyance only grew at that sharp note of worried panic. What? Fine, he was going to head in that direction.

The Darkroach perked up and picked up his own pace; he could feel Hajime drawing nearer.

It was very rare that Tachibana missed the Network, but really, a single live streamed image would have done a far better job than his panicked attempts were doing. If he wasn't quite so freaked out, there were a tonne of different communication methods he could have used, but at the moment.. panic was about it.

...and yet he found himself following the Darkroach. Just. Just incase it attacked something.

The Darkroach kept ambling on towards town, and Hajime quickened his pace until he was rushing out of town, and eventually...

...yeah. The two would come face-to-face. "What the hell?!" Hajime was just as surprised to see the Darkroach as anyone, and as for the Darkroach...

...it started jumping up and down and cheering a chirpy sort of cheer, and it even set the bunny down. The bunny took off running like a bat out of hell.

"That-- that's not how they normally act..." It was the most obvious thing to say but there wasn't much else Tachibana could think of. Other than: "It's... not yours... is it?"

"I didn't have anything to do with this," Hajime insisted, looking like he might start kicking the Darkroach's ass as it approached him, chirping merrily. "...it thinks it's mine."

Also this was highly unusual Darkroach behavior, and Hajime would have expected it to be a little more rampagey and a little less..huggy. Because it was now trying to hug him.

That was a good insistence. A reassuring insistence. An insistence that was... honestly doing a lot to calm some of Tachibana's barely held back panic that there would be more suddenly emerging up from Hajime's shadow or that something horrible had happened to Kenzaki or just... something horrible had happened period.

"Is... is it from another world...?" That... was the only thing that he could think of on seeing a Darkroach acting like a small child. Because what. What.

"How should I know?" Hajime appears to be trying to keep something in check as he flatly lets the Darkroach (which is taller than he is) hug him and sort of...sobbing-chirp at him. "It's not making normal Darkroach sounds."

"If anyone would know, it'd be you," Tachibana countered, but far more befuddled than angry.

"...There wouldn't be anyone from where you and Lyall were from that would... cause someone else from that world to be turned into this, is there...?"

"No one would have been turned into this, there's not enough to a Darkroach to justify that." He could only hope, anyway.

The Darkroach tilted its head this way and that at this line of questioning, shrugged, and went right back to chirping at Hajime.

"They usually buzz."

More chirping.

"I don't know what's wrong with this one."

More chirping.

"It wants a cookie."

"... a cookie....?" Tachibana repeated, utterly bewildered.

"A cookie," Hajime said flatly. "He won't shut up about one." He said something to the Darkroach in the Undead language, and the big bug visibly flinched back and whimpered before Hajime said something else, and it perked up again. "And it really doesn't want to fight anything afterwards." He sounded very uncertain about the whole thing.

"...it doesn't..." Tachibana repeated, blinking. "...like it was actually spawned from you and not just from the Stone...."

"If it had spawned from me," Hajime pointed out, "it would still want to fight. Ryo wants to fight sometimes. This one just panics at the thought." He scowled. "And I would have known if I spawned anything."

"But you didn't want to, when you won," Tachibana pointed out. He was there, Hajime. It was the reason that he didn't seal you, remember?

"And I haven't won anything here," Hajime pointed out.

The Darkroach gave a sympathetic sort of chirp at that. Keep trying, you can win someday!

"This place runs on stupidity and rumor, you could have won a baking contest or something stupid, I don't know!" Tachibana returned, starting to get a little frustrated. "There has to be some reason it's here!"

There was a bit more chirping at that.

"He says he got lost."

"...Lost?" Tachibana repeated.

"Lost." Hajime sighed. "I think he's from a different world, and he got...lost from there, somewhere." There was a pause. "Maybe we can send him back."

Blink. Blink blink.

"...how?"

Hajime's scowl just intensified. "I don't know, some magic bullshit or something like that, there's plenty of that here. Maybe magic shoes--he could click his heels together three times and wish for no place like home"

A small snort escaped. "If either of us knew how to work that sort of thing, we'd be somewhere else," he pointed out.

"...it could work differently with more, I don't know. Childlike innocence at play." Come on, work with him, Tachibana.

Kenzaki was minding his own business, having himself a lunch at a charming tavern where the locals mostly didn't pester him to regale them with tales of his 'heroic deeds' when he felt something. Something strange, something familiar, something almost like Hajime, but... not. Very not. His head shoots up, he drops his sandwich, and he springs suddenly to his feet. "That's..."

He's just going to bolt on out into the street without paying for his lunch. Sorry, nice tavern owner. There's an Undead around.

The Undead in question is actually getting kind of hungry, and it is actually rooting around in the trash out behind the tavern, because maybe there's food there!

But there is something kind of alarming in the air as far as it is concerned--a Joker that is not Joker--and so he is on high alert.

Kenzaki bursts around the corner and into the tavern alleyway, following his intuition... then stops short. Is it... is it digging in the garbage? Why is it digging in the garbage? ...what is it with strange-but-familiar creatures digging around in the trash looking for snacks? No, no, wait. Focus! That is not the most important issue at hand, here.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing here!?" He's just going to shout to be really sure he's got that thing's attention, even as he assumes a ready-to-transform stance.

Oh dear, it's the other Joker! He can sense it! The Darkroach chirps a chirp that might be described as a yelp, drops its garbage, and starts shaking. It is a very scared Darkroach!

"Darkroach!" Bakura exclaimed, giving a huge wave before all but bounding over. "Aaaa, I didn't expect you would get pulled here too!"

There is a bit of friendly chirping and waving at Bakura and more chirping and more waving and several pathetic sounding chirps and one buzz, and he is so happy to see a friendly face!

"Still pretty lost, huh?" Bakura guessed. "Did you find Hajime yet? He's a little different than the one you know, but he's still Hajime!"

Darkroach's antennae drooped, and there was a lot of gesturing and chirping. He had! But Hajime was very different! Everyone was different! There weren't as many fuzzy ducks here!

"Mmm.. it is pretty hard when people don't remember you..." Bakura agreed. "But he's still the same Hajime, right? Even if a little different. So what's important is that he's here, right? And maybe we can make a spell this time, so that you can speak real words, since what we tried back in that place didn't work. That way you can make friends more easily, right?"

This gets a lot of clapping and chirping out of Darkroach. Hooray, understanding!

"So have you looked around yet? There's not as many ducks here, but there's a field of sheep just outside the walls of town you can pet!"

He hadn't found many ducks, but he found a bunny that ran away, but sheep sound good! There is some chirping and clapping at the mention of pettable sheep.

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Wandering Minion

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