VIDEO; UN: SMOKING_BOMB (forward dated to after zombies)

[bakudan_bambino]

 [The video cuts on and it's in the arrival room. It seems that whoever has turned this device on is having a hard time focusing on it, until the camera is moved to show Gokudera. He's looking relatively well, all in one piece, but clutching at his chest. There may be smoke coming out of his mouth, which is usual considering how many cigarettes he goes through. If you watch the video long enough you may see that there is no cigarette in his hand. Maybe he put it out? Maybe he's actually exhaling smoke. He's not talking about it. Just says:]

Takeshi. I'm back.

[He's clearly struggling, but again, there seems to be no visible wounds on him. If he got attacked by the zombies, there's no evidence, there's no blood. Just a teenager looking grumpy (as usual), and sweaty. He's in a lot of pain, ok?]

@KABALLSDEEP (but still public if anyone wants to chat about death and revival)

So... I didn't kill anyone...

Just set myself on fire and I'm back. No uh... [He's hoarse. Smoke in the throat, maybe?]

Metal parts. Just me and everything I arrived on Anchor with. [He's still wearing his collar, too, even though he had Yamamoto Takeshi take it off him and carry it about after his body turned to ash.]

So, got any questions? People don't stay dead, apparently.

Comments

[video]

[bakudan_bambino]

[He seems fine now, completely back to normal. Doesn't look like he came back with any burn marks.]

I wasn't going for it, but I won't turn it away.

Yes. I set myself on fire. It was... awful.

My motive was to not allow myself to turn into a zombie after I was bitten.

[kaballin]

Wow there are about ten thousand better ways to off yourself than that.

How's the revive process? Excruciatingly painful or wake up and back at it like nothing happened at all?

[bakudan_bambino]

You know... I have a certain kind of energy in my blood that looks like fire if I focus is well enough. It's got a very destructive property, so I just... set myself on fire from the inside out with it. It sucked, but it was quick, and it destroyed all of me, which is what I was going for. Didn't want any part of me coming back.

Felt like waking up with heartburn. [Since he set his heart on fire.]

Coming back is the same as first getting here, but with pain. I wouldn't call it excruciating, though. More... persistent and then it petered out after a while. Also, I've got some marks on my body I thought I got rid of years ago. [He's been tortured. That was excruciating.]

[kaballin]

Okay that's a lot of different kinds of fucked up. I guess you're not a zombie so mission accomplished but.. eugh.

Aight that's actually not bad. Kinda figured people would come back in the same amount of agony that they died in and then it stayed like that. That's how it worked back home anyway. So this place continues to be an upgrade.

[bakudan_bambino]

Could have been worse.

People come back from the dead often where you come from?

[kaballin]

It's been known to happen. Or keep on being dead. We have a netherrealm for that shit. Full up of dead folks.

[bakudan_bambino]

Why would someone come back from the dead in your world? Does it seem like how it is here, or is that something that people do... like... resurrections?

[kaballin]

Usually cuz they're raised by a sorcerer. Or they crawl out of the underworld. I think Scorpion has died like... seventeen times now. And being raised by a shitty necromancer sucks, two out of ten stars: do not recommend.

[bakudan_bambino]

I’d say you don’t look like you’ve been resurrected, but I have never seen you.

What about it sucked, just the necromancer, or was it the process, or just that their process in particular was awful?

[kaballin]

Well I don't anymore, I did back home. Turns you all grey and your veins into fire. Which sounds metal as fuck if it's not you know.. happening to you.

All of it. Waking up dead. Being a slave to someone else. Not being able to eat while craving nachos for twenty years...

[bakudan_bambino]

How long did you stay looking like that? Yeah... sounds fucking awful.

Twenty years... and counting?

[kaballin]

About twenty years. Then I wake up here and poof back to being alive. You better believe I ate my weight in whatever I could fucking find. You know that shit about eating vegetables? It's a hell of a lot easier to choke down some broccoli when you haven't had anything in two decades.

[bakudan_bambino]

I'd imagine any type of food would be amazing to eat after not being able to eat for so long... [And there's some sympathy for you. Gokudera doesn't know what that could feel like, but he does have some pretty heavy feelings about food.]

Sounds like you're better off here.

[kaballin]

Yup, had myself a feast. All that stale shit in the vending machines was pretty great.

Probably obvious - but I'm not in a real rush to get back home to that. I dunno if this'll last. Might just be that I'm crazy far away from the sorcerer that did this shit so his magic doesn't work anymore.

In any case - this phone is yours. You won it fair and square and I'm sometimes a man of my word.. Want to come get it or I can leave it somewhere?

[bakudan_bambino]

[He chuckles at that, nodding in understanding.]

Makes sense... I'm just happy to be back. I miss home, but it's been long enough I've been gone. Don't really need much while I'm here except knowing my family is safe.

[Gokudera hums in thought at the question.]

I'll come get it. Where can I meet you?

[kaballin]

Downside is if these constant invasions by monsters, aliens, or weird plants ever stop it'll get real boring real fast.

Down by the pond is good. I'm the one in the mask.

[bakudan_bambino]

I agree, but then you learn to find entertainment. Have you considered a hobby or learning a new skill you didn't have before coming here? Something you might have thought to never try. Even if you were terrible at it, that just means there's something to work towards?

[Like his fear of other people making him food, for example. Gokudera could learn how to cook for himself.]

Alright.

[kaballin]

I dunno man, I like swords. I'm good at swords. Swapping out to learning not-swords will probably just be frustrating.

[Also swords are cool. Kabal will head on down to meet him, because he actually is a man of his word and will hand this fancy phone over. But for now he's tossing it and catching it, eyes invisible behind the metal mask covering his face, but he doesn't seem to be looking at it while he does so.

His very cool hookswords are hanging off his back, ready at a moments notice, but his posture is pretty relaxed. Well as relaxed as a six foot five guy built like a linebacker can look.]

[bakudan_bambino]

What about... axes? Or... painting? [He thinks of strokes, trained swordsmen skilled in calligraphy. Honestly, Gokudera's just spit-balling the thought as he walks to the pond.

Kabal had said he was the one in the mask, but there's no one else around. It's not like Anchor is very crowded, so there isn't exactly a crowd for the tall man to hide in. Gokudera is not an unassuming young man, but he wouldn't have said on the network that he was wearing enough accessories to supply a 2012 Hot Topic. He's a few inches over five feet, decked in a lot of black and silver accessories, wearing a hoodie over a collared shirt over a tee-shirt, and he's wearing at least three belts, each one different. His pants are probably the most boring bit of clothing on his person, but he at least has a belt chain to make them look a little more flashy.

For as bold as his look may be, Gokudera's body language is not so bold. He notices Kabal, but approaches him wearily, eyeing the phone.]

Whose did you say that was, again? [He holds his hand out, looking at Kabal's mask as if looking for his eyes behind it...]

[kaballin]

This?

[ He tosses the phone to who he assumes is Gokudera - it's not like there's that many people around. And if it isn't him he can just kill him and take it back.]

It wasn't anyone's. Well anyone still alive that is. Found a couple of them after we broke into one of the locked generator rooms - they're pretty sweet. Lots of functions and things that beep.

[Kabal is sort of technologically challenged and hasn't used his phone to it's max potential but the description of this phone from the mods when he found it is:

A much fancier version of the sat phones with all the same features, plus ability to play games, extended emoticons, a selection of simple apps (guided meditation, additional games, photo manipulation, etc.), a music player and approximately 10 songs from various worlds, a built-in Geiger counter that works through walls allowing the user to tell whether the next room is safe. ]

Haven't found anything nearly as cool breaking into the other rooms. Mostly just found a bunch of monsters and rotten junk.

[bakudan_bambino]

Yeah.

[He catches the device easily enough and looks it over. Gokudera had never really wanted it, never really intended to die, but then... he wasn't going to let himself turn into a zombie. The boy maintains some more distance, not because he worries about Kabal potentially killing him (he always has a feeling most people want to), but because of the world he lived on prior to Anchor.]

So it doesn't matter much now. Hmmm find anything else worth exploring in the generator rooms? [He wonders if them being broken into had anything to do with the housing being available when it was not before.]

I take it the monsters are just more mutants like out in the woods of this place? [Gokudera is interested in seeing what other types of creatures this place has, and just what use they might be able to make of them.]

[kaballin]

Generators. Turned some of them on and off to see what happens and the answer is - they turn things on and off. Who knew.

Still better than the basement.. We found some flooded corridors filled with weird ass old weaponry in unbreakable cases, and believe me I fucking tried. A bunch of weird orbs that seemed to fuck people over. A room with a chair in it that makes you hallucinate.

So that's all fun.

[bakudan_bambino]

[Ugh. Nothing interesting there.]

I meant aside from the generators! [Have a dramatic teen eye-roll for pointing out the obvious, Kabal.]

What do you mean when you say they would seem to fuck people over? And how the hell does a chair make you hallucinate?

[None of it sounds good, but it's interesting, at least.]

[kaballin]

Some freaky magic? I don't fucking know, I wasn't gonna stay in there and find out. If you wanna go strap yourself in for the fucked up trip of your life be my guest. I can show you where it is, it's through some flooded collapsed shit.

[bakudan_bambino]

I said worth exploring. It really doesn’t sound like it is.

Thanks. One death is enough for me.