video > text; un: white_lotus

[pummelling]

[Happy.... approximately.... 1 in the morning, Team Ophelia. The video greeting the network is tough to make out, but the faint cries of insects in the dark, otherwise still night seem to indicate that Kung Jin's outside. A small oil lantern near his feet bathes him and the farmhouse he's sitting in front of in a faint orange glow.

Anyone looking carefully will also spot a young boy in his mid-teens, head bobbing occasionally into the side of the frame as he nods in and out of sleep. Jin glances over at him, rolling his eyes.]

Hey, team.

[Jin settles forward in his seat, fiddling with his robe and continuing in a low whisper.] Some ronin geniuses, on both sides, are trying to overtake farmhouses in the Flowerlands and convert them into makeshift bases. If you're still up and not too far, I'm gonna need some help keeping watch out here.

[Jin's shrugging out of a sleeve, now; the fabric slips from his shoulder to hang loose at his waist.]

The farmers aren't exactly equipped to deal with this alone.

[Right on cue, there's a rustle of definitely not cicada-noise in the background. Jin's eyes narrow. On his way to notching an arrow, he swats the kid beside him in the shoulder with the longbow. (He comes to with a snort, looking around wildly and brandishing the farmer's scythe he has gripped tightly in both hands.)

He pulls his arm back, muscles taut and steady as the bowstring that's a second from letting loose--

annnnd he switches, abruptly, to text.]

And you might want to make it snappy.

Comments

[moneyballer]

i'm bringin it

[The armor, he means.

Guess who's on his way?]

[pummelling]

what, now???

Wait how far are you from the farms

[moneyballer]

I'm already here

[Asher is not one to sit idly by either, not when there's work like this to be done.]

l8er

action

[pummelling]

[The feed cuts, and before he can stop himself Jin whispers into the night--]

Asher...?

[moneyballer]

[True to his word, Asher does show up, if only a couple of hours later.

The coat of armor that Sieglinde had gifted him for his birthday has been tucked under his shoulder, now covered with soot from his excursions through the smoke. It appears as though he's gotten sidetracked, cheek bruised only slightly.]

You douchebag!

[Asher's huffing and puffing is interrupted by a few coughs here and there,
seeing as the air quality is absolute shift.]

Next time, say somethin' before you head out all crazy like that! I know this is probably the little leagues for a guy like you, but seriously...

[grumble grumble complain complain]

Why you gotta be goin' up against knives 'n swords with your left nipple out, like...? Bruh.

[pummelling]

[Jin, of course, promptly misses most of what Asher's said in favor of hurrying over to dust him off. and, helpfully,
put his nipple away smh]

I didn't exactly have time to plan ahead for surprise raids, you know.

[His fingers reach for Asher's cheek, tracing the perimeter of the bruise gently.]

I told you I'd be fine. The hell happened to you?

[moneyballer]

[wHAPS that gentle hand off bc he is ANGRY and full of white man rage]

You don't get to ask me that question-

[yes u do lmao he's just bein testy, like a doughy lil testycle and breathin heavily, bc he loves carbs is bad at running and sweats a lot]

Need I remind you that I happened to be there when you almost took the last L of your friggin' life?

[pummelling]

I know! I know.

[How could he forget being an inch from death?]

I should've had more people with me from the start. But I did call for aid, didn't I?

[Jin at least has the decency to look guilty about it. He's too exhausted to bicker about this proper, and it shows:
there's dark circles under his eyes, and he's standing a little less tall. Some bit of shame pulls his gaze away. Asher,
at least, is allowed to see that in him.]

I'm glad you're safe too.

[moneyballer]

[That shred of doubt is what makes Asher take pause, that and the dark bags under the eyes.]

Yeah.

[More gently, after kerfluffling just a tad-]

No, yeah.

[Calling for help is hard for Jin, and if anyone would know, it'd be Asher. This is progress even if it is more of a step than a leap, and for that,
he is thankful.]

Long-haired vampy dude showed up, didn't he?

[pummelling]

Mm. Few others, too. Mostly the newbies.

[He'll never admit to having pegged them wrong from the start.... but he definitely did just that.]

Where'd you get this-- [a yawn]--this thing...?

[Glancing over at the armor Asher's brought along with him. (It's perfect, actually: lighter than his shoulder pauldrons, but still portable enough for him to move around in.)]

[moneyballer]

[Asher understands that there are more of them as of late, newbies, and it leaves him with an air of discomfort. On one hand, these people are here of their own accord and not trapped by some blip of an intergalactic time machine, but they are not the individuals he fought hard alongside. They are not the friends who loved him despite his ugliness or encouraged him in his darkest hours, they are just people.

Asher does not know for sure how he feels about that.]

Uh, a friend made it for me.

[His fingers click along the top of it. It is well crafted piece by piece from a material that glistens, one that neither of them will recognize.]

I was gonna make you wear it, cause y'know, I didn't want any arrows to pierce your big dumb heart or nothin'.

But I got here kinda late. Shit happens, bro.

[pummelling]

I'll wear it next time. And I'll tell you about when the next time is. Swear on my big dumb heart, Ash.

[He smiles wearily... and leans forward, resting a head on Asher's shoulder.]

Sorry you didn't make it out here till the action was over. We caught n' interrogated a guard... didn't get much.

[moneyballer]

[His arm waves around Jin naturally, brows furrowing at the thought of it. Jin looks more exhausted than injured, and yet he still has to ask-]

He didn't try to hurt you, did he?

[A snort.]

Or, uh, she?

[pummelling]

Mountain Clan. [Jin mumbles into Asher's shoulder.] No men allowed in the guard.

[He's all too pleased to settle into Asher's embrace, even as his words begin to slur together a little: he's been up for.... nearly a full 24 hours, now, and it's beginning to hit him hard.]

She tried to stab me. People keep trying to stab me here. It's not great.

[moneyballer]

[SIGHS LOUDLY TBH tho watch out jin he's def pickin up on that sleepy-headedness and tightening his grip]

Which is why you probably shouldn't go out like this.

[Alone.]

I get that these aren't the big leagues, and you're probably used to this stuff...

But I dunno, I kinda like my man all in one piece.

[Not entirely true. Just alive will do- Whatever happens to Jin, if he is here, if his heart and joy is safe-]

And I'm pretty sure he does too.

[pummelling]

[There's a (somewhat delirious) chuckle, and Jin presses a kiss to Asher's collarbone.]

What's this about you wanting a piece...?

[Jin's arms wrap around Asher too, but his grip's loose, and slowly loosening further.]

Okay, babe. I'll be careful.

[moneyballer]

[LAUGHS and gives jin a big damn smooch on the cheek tbh, that's really cute]

Dummy.

[he loves u look at this face in this icon it is adoration]

So, you gonna let me take you home or what? C'mon.

[He takes Jin's arm and raises it above his head, thus securing his own hold on his boyfriend's body.]

I'll carry ya.

[Asher shrugs casually.]

No one's lookin'.

[pummelling]

[Jin just lets Asher move his arm around, because--]

Mm.

[bitCH............ HE DID IT........ HE IS ACTUALLY ASLEEP STANDING UP.]

[moneyballer]

[Asher bends his knee as Jin falls, all the muscles in the shaolin's body going slack at once. He knew this was coming, somehow, and braces himself to bear the brunt of the other's weight.]

Jin?

[The name is whispered quietly.

When he receives no answer, next pausing to look at the other's face, he inhales sharply. It appears as though after hours of fighting, Kung Jin has finally fallen asleep. Asher resists the urge to touch him or caress his cheek no matter how badly the impulse burns in his beating heart, because he knows the shaolin to be a light sleeper. Instead he merely shifts Jin's body over and onto his back, positioning the arms so that they drape over his shoulders and around his neck. They look silly, probably, with one grown man carrying the other larger one piggy-back style, but the chaos is largely over and Asher is content to carry Jin all the way home.]

[pummelling]

[Asher's careful enough that Jin drifts out of sleep only once or twice, through the world moves around him with each of Asher's careful steps.

He'd have stayed up all night if he could've. For a moment, halfway to waking, there's some part of him that tries to make his way back into action -- there's too much work to be done for him to buckle under something as silly as sleep just now.

But he doesn't. The warmth of Asher's body, the faint scent of the cologne at the base of his neck, lulls him right back to sleep.

(They're both gonna be so sore tomorrow lmao.)]