reveilation | IC INBOX

[ Despite all those years and whatever he spent during canon update, there's no way to get rid of the buffer that's usually stuck with pinpointing. That's why he still spaces out when he attempts to find Kido. In all honesty, he's scared and really nervous to meet with her again despite how it's been years for him, it's probably... not even a week for her. It's not even for the fact that his Shadow killed her once, but he did too, with his own hands. He's been pretty guilty about that for many millennia after the war died down, but he eventually settled on writing letters that he'd never send.

I should have known better.

You didn't deserve that.

I'm sorry.

I miss you.

I hope you can be happy without me.

And among other self-pitying sounding one-liners with a bunch of his feelings mushed into papers that will never be read by anybody. He runs through the rain and everything else to get to where Kido is, wherever she is, but then he suddenly finds himself tumbling into the flood waters. He lets out a yelp of surprise, that turns out to be a puppy's squeak.

What.

What the fuck.

Someone is doggy paddling through the insanely high flood and the scent of cinnamon mixes in with the air. ]

[ Why write things down when you never plan on sending them? For Kido, it's incomprehensible, just like every other thing about Terry is incomprehensible. Everything is incomprehensible. It's still raining. There are times where things feel so familiar but she can't remember why. It's cold all the time and it won't stop raining and she can't stand being around so many people and that's why she was headed for the shrine when she hears that splash and squeak behind her. It's the edge of town so the flooding isn't as terrible as it is around the lake where the ground level sinks a bit, but it's still pretty high, almost up to Kido's waist and definitely too high for a small dog, no matter how good they are at doggy paddling.

It takes a while to wade through the water, limbs heavy and held back by the drag, but she makes it over to the dog eventually, cautious in approaching because stray dog bites are scarier than stray cat scratches. ]

Don't worry, I got you...

[ It's a dog... Wow, so they do exist. Kido hasn't seen a dog in like 60 years. ]

[ It's Kido! When she approaches, he just doggy paddles straight to her and when he touches her hand, he nearly stops moving because that's really cold?! Was Nekogami acting up again? Terry is worried, but tries to paw at her arm because swimming as a small dog is difficult when all the supposedly puffy fur is only weighing him down. He whines and his entire body is trembling. ]

[ Yeah, sorry, her hands and everything is sort of cold and she knows it, pulling the sleeves down to cover her hands so it's not so uncomfortable picking the dog up and holding him close to her chest. ]

Shh, it's okay. What are you even doing out here...?

[ She looks around, trying to find someplace at least a little dry, but there's not much to choose from. One of the storefronts will have to do, which has an awning to hide from the rain under, and what used to be crates stacked up in front of it, now tied to the pillars holding up the awning so they don't get carried away in the floor, but they'll have to do for seating.

Kido wades her way over to the crates, letting the dog go on top of them once she's there, and then hauling herself up afterwards. She doesn't have much in the way of a towel, and it's kind of stupid because the dog's just going to get wet when they leave anyways, but she pulls her hoodie off and puts it over the dog. It's kind of damp, but the inside is drier and despite how cold her hands are, it's warm inside the jacket. ]

Alright, now hold still.

[ Terry can enjoy that for two seconds before Kido rubs the jacket over his fur, trying to get him dry. ]

[ Here we see a pom in his natural habitat. When Terry gets on top of the crates, he resists the urge to shake in an attempt to get the water off. He does that when he's humanoid anyway... but for some reason, he feels like Kido wouldn't like that so when she tells him to stay still, he does so. The jacket is warm and it smells like Kido aaaaa he really missed this... but then he's snapped out of it when Kido attempts to dry him.

He whines and puts a paw on Kido's leg. ]

[ ...Kido is a fool who should have just let him shake before she got up there on the crates. But it's too late now, so the dog's just got to endure this. ]

Sorry, sorry. I'll be gentler. [ Only a little. ] But you'll get sick if you stay wet, so just let me do this, okay?

[ Just endure it. You've endured so much already, Terry, what's a little more? ]

[ There's a quiet whine before Terry lies down on his stomach so that he doesn't fall over while Kido is drying him. His short tail wags all the while though.

But then he remembers that he left a lot of stuff in the Velvet Room, and he forgot to bring his omamori. He was just that nervous for the meeting and he kinda wishes he brought it, but you can't see anything on that charm anymore... it's completely painted over with dried blood. It would have been useless anyway.

So for now, Terry is a stray pom. ]

[ Thanks for not bringing anything bloody with you, Terry.

She does dry him more gently once he settles down, though, careful not to pull his ears or poke him in the eye or anything, and it's less than a minute in the end, the same amount of time one would use to dry their hair, and then left to air dry the rest of the way. ]

There. Feels better now, right?

Since her hands are cold, she just picks Terry up with the jacket wrapped around him, and then tries to shake the dog out onto her lap, her t-shirt getting wet in the back where she's leaning against the wall to the store, but the front is dry and it's warm and she hopes that's enough to keep the dog there with her instead of running away. He's cute... ]

[ Terry the pom gives a quick nod after being plopped onto her lap. The warmth is nice, but he stands on his hind legs while holding himself up by putting his paws on her stomach. It doesn't look like the dog will run away, because, well, Terry wants to stay with Kido, even when he's like this. He whines and paws at her stomach more. His tail is never going to stop moving. ]

[ What a weird dog, nodding like that. But he's cute and so Kido forgives everywhere about him, smiling a little more when he stands up like that. It'll just be uncomfortable for him if she pets him with her hands, so instead, she puts her arms around him and brings him up higher, hugging him close to her chest.

The dog smells like cinnamon... Kido lets out a watery laugh when she realizes that she must miss Terry so much, she's starting to imagine cinnamon everywhere. Pathetic. Bowing her head, she presses her face against the dog's back like she had done with Ami before, tears warm when they soak into his fur. When she breathes in, it's this weird combination of wet dog and apple pie. ]

[ He can't tell if it's because his fur was wet or if he's still feeling the dampness of the air. Either way, he remembers her doing this before to a cat, whose name escapes him at the moment. He whines and turns his head to lick the side of her face with a dry tongue. He whines again, his tail no longer wagging. ]

[ Kido swallows down the lump in her throat when she feels him lick the side of her face, and she turns her head to look at him without lifting her head. You're a pillow now, Terry.

Like the way cats sit on you and purr when you're sad, dogs are pretty amazing too. Though maybe Kido is more obvious than most, with the tears in her eyes and the way she struggles to smile, even at a really cute dog. ]

Sorry. There's just somebody I really miss... It feels like no matter what, everywhere I look, something's going to remind me of him.

[ And then there's that feeling again that she's been through this before, but she can't remember when or why. It feels like grief. It feels like loss, of people she'll never see again and will always be reminded of them, but she can't imagine who that would be. Everybody back home, they'll be alright now, after all. They'll all be saved. ]

[ He'll be your forever pillow, Kido... he whines some more, pawing at her arm before giving a tiny puppy howl.

He doesn't want her to be sad, but there's only so much he can do as a puppy like this. ]

[ She's been telling him this time and time again: all he ever has to do is be himself. And even if that self is a small dog, it helps. The solidarity in that howl helps. He's doing fine.

It's always just her who's like this, who latches onto people because she has so few in her life, and when they're gone, it tears holes in her heart that's already had to be patched up so many times already. This dog too will probably find his owner when she takes him around the school and the inn, but for now, she can pretend that he's hers, and that she's not alone. ]

...Yeah. I also want to yell at him for a lot of stuff. I really want to talk to him again... I want to hear his voice.

[ She can't even take comfort in the audio diaries even though the voices are the same, because all the Original says is mean and concerning things. ]

[ Yeah, honestly... he doesn't sound truly happy in any of them either. Genuine happiness is so hard to come by.

Terry's screaming in his head that he wants to talk to her too!! But he can't!! Puppy vocal chords are hard. He lets out another tiny puppy howl anyway. The small tail wags again and he keeps his head turned so that he can keep looking at Kido's face. ]

[ Kido nods at the howl, because yeah. Terry sucks and this dog knows it too.

But it makes here smile a little, and she brings him closer and plants a kiss on his forehead because she will only ever love cute small animals from now on. They would never break her heart. ]

I think he'd really like you. I can imagine the dumb face he'd make if he saw a dog.

[ It's this face ]

[ What dumb face!! Terry huffs, but nuzzles Kido's face after the forehead kiss and licks her cheek. He's still affectionate as ever...

Then he'll look around for Kido's omamori. Does she have it on her? Wrapped around her wrist like before? He sniffs the air, but that doesn't help. ]

[ The dumb face is the default. Kido settles for hugging the dog and stays quiet, but her omamori has been moved to her upper arm— both of them, actually, on a band side by side and wrapped around her upper left arm— poking out under her short t-shirt sleeve sinch her jacket is off and loosely wrapped around Terry.

The reasoning was that she'll still be in direct contact with them for easy summoning, but they'll also be covered by one or two jackets and less likely to get damaged that way. It's also too little too late, though, because the old one is still burnt and the new one is soaked through with dried blood. That's what happens when she kept it in her front pocket and then gets stabbed multiple times in the stomach, but she did her best to clean it up despite it being torn in places and stained in others. It's hard to tell which is worse off, her previous omamori or the new one. ]

[ Maybe they all need new omamoris again... Terry reaches over to paw at it. Kido can feel the pawpads on her arm as he does that. She's so cold... Terry is worried, since this was a problem before he left. He remembers that much because it stumped him for the longest time. ]

[ Whoever's making the omamoris is tired of everybody's shit. If they want nice clean omamoris, they'll just have to stop killing and dying.

But yeah, even her arms are cold now, when before it was only up to her wrists, but being out in the rain in short sleeves doesn't help that either. Kido looks down when Terry paws at the omamoris, and reaches over with her right hand to slide her fingers in between the paws and the charms so they don't get any more damaged than they already are. ]

Sorry, these aren't for playing with. They're kind of gross, huh? It's hard to get blood out if it sits for too long, and you don't have soap and cold water on hand to wash them out.

[ They don't smell so strongly of death anymore, but it's still there, in a band holding together the same arm that Terry had sawed off. ]

If you could smell that, though, I wonder if you could help me find someone? I don't think he's around anymore, though, and I don't have anything of his that you could use to know him.

[ Yeah, that's... definitely blood... Terry whines and turns to look at Kido with sad eyes. Then he yaps. If it's him, he's right here!! Right here!! He can't really point to himself and he can't draw on the ground. But he'll keep looking down as if to point his head at himself and keep looking up at Kido. ]

[ Kido gives him another forehead kiss because she has absolutely no idea what he's trying to say. ]

It's okay. Knowing you want to help makes me happy, even if it doesn't work out. Besides, getting around town is impossibly slow now...

[ There's so much water... when will it stop raining... if the daitengu doesn't die, everybody's going to drown for real. ]

I was headed for the shrine, though. Do you want to come with me? Or I can take you back to the school, and you can find your family.

[ But you are my family!! He wants to scream oh my god. Terry nods again and barks once. He definitely wants to stay with her instead of being given to strangers. He nuzzles her face again and makes cooing noises.

To the shrine, Kido. ]

[ Kido nods and eases herself off the crates before holding her arms out so she can carry Terry with her instead of having him doggy paddle all the way.

She starts wading through the water towards the school, because in her mind, it isn't "bark once for option 1, or twice for option 2," it's just the dog barking happily because yeah! family! anybody would be glad to be reunited with their family. ]

[ This... This isn't to the shrine! Kido!! Ahhhh!!! Terry growls towards the school but when you're a tiny dog, it's hard to take you seriously. He also holds his paw up to the shrine's general direction. ]

10/25, action

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