lightdriven | pretend i actually posted this with the others shhh

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pretend i actually posted this with the others shhh

WHO: Shun and whoever is around to greet the firebirb
WHAT: A very late intro
WHEN: AT SOME POINT...we don't really have a calendar yet do we
WHERE: Entering Illumina
WARNINGS: None as yet, will edit if that changes.

[In the time he's had to deal with things like severe cold and exposure, Shun's never been particularly small. That and his coat meant he usually wasn't wanting for warmth, even on nights where the Resistance's supplies ran low and they were running out of places to hide. Unless he was lending it to Ruri, but then, he'd never had trouble enduring that either.

But sitting on a glacier with numb talons and numb wingtips, empty space between the Synchro Dimension and here and what the hell happened, he's realising what a disadvantage being small is here.]

What the hell--?

[He feels his mouth move, but it clicks like a beak, and when he sees himself in the glossy glacier he does a double-take before peering back into the ice, black and yellow eyes narrowed. He's a bird, certainly, and a bigger bird than any normal one in his world, but compared to his usual self he's miniscule. Even with his scarf wrapped around most of him, he can see himself tremoring slightly in the reflection, and he knows he has to find his way out of this cold or he'll die before he even gets to ask all the questions on his mind right now. Mind flipping between suspicion, confusion and trying to find what feels natural for this creature to move, he spreads his small wings - another two wing-like forms unfold beneath them, but even the most cursory glance at the thin, overfeathered joints would show they're not fit for flight themselves. They flail and shake as he tests them, just trying to get airborne to go towards that light in the distance, but his feet are numbing by the time he heaves himself into the sky and flaps towards the lights.

The chill is biting, though, and he finds himself stalling, fluttering downwards and having to recover far too often. The little body shakes again, like the feeling of something wanting to come up, but there's nothing in his lungs and nothing in his throat, and his wings don't seem to want to support him.

As he starts to dip again, the little bird's expression hardens, and the air almost seems to spark with its determination.]

It's not that easy to get rid of me.

[The bird's wings flare into heat and fire, melting a pit where he skims the ground and rises again, suddenly full of warmth and energy despite the situation he's been thrown into. Closer and closer to the city lights, the flame fades away but the new strength doesn't, and by the time he touches down neatly at the edge of the city, the cold tremors have faded like they were never there. He folds his wings with a lengthy, dismissive blink, gives the icy wastes one last look, and then hops through into the city proper.

He'll be approaching anyone who looks like a resident with a most sour look on his little birdly face.]

Explain what this is. Now.

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[He'd almost make the comment that Yuya - or Kashiwa, he supposes he should be calling him - looks enough like a shadow if it wasn't obvious enough from the context that "shadow" means a different thing to him. Obviously more than just the state of war and peace has changed in that interim.]

What do you mean by "shadow"?

[AH-

He was all set to start floating off on an info gathering hunt when that hit.

This could take getting used to...the ghost turns back around, and tries to determine how to word his answer.] ...Ahhhh...

...You know how during the war-or I guess now, god this is confusing-you know how you could turn people into cards..?

[Don't. Torch him.] Imagine if you had one single, unique card-one tied to you...and that duel monster was real.

[Shun blinks in what might be confusion himself, trying to arrange what was just said into something legible to him. Referring to turning people into cards, but then discussing real duel monsters kind of makes a bit of a trainwreck in regards to him figuring this out, so yeah, he's a bit lost here.]

...So, what, an actual monster sealed into a card?

[He might not quite get what's being said here, but there's a pretty clear note in there of not really believing that concept anyway. Sealing into cards is one thing, actual monsters is another. When even Real Solid Vision was used for war, he'd rather not think about the potential there.]

...What? [....

Aaaaaugh he holds his head.] No, that's pretty much the opposite-

Souls. It's your soul a shadow is your soul. It's a duel monster tied to your existence-that's why you can card someone, the stuff is there.

Where-and when-I'm from, you're more likely to see someone walking around with theirs, than none at all. And for most, a shadow represents them pretty well.

...Most at least.

[He frowns glancing to the side.] Mine's just an ass...

[That still doesn't make much sense, but it's more believable than actual monsters, at least. Souls he can relate to, and though it's not quite as direct as this "shadow" thing seems to be, he can understand the idea of one monster that represents you, and is the one you're most closely tied to.]

Souls manifesting as monsters? You'd think something like that wouldn't be restricted by time. [Unless they need technology to manifest, but surely it wouldn't be too difficult to create something like that if souls can already be drawn out and sealed.] People keeping monsters with them constantly doesn't sound like a mark of peace to me, but it's your time, not mine.

[He squints a bit at the little murmur that ends that description, though.] Yours isn't Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon?

[...Yeah, he's still conflating shadows and ace monsters a bit here.]

Eugh, I wish... [Well that's a bad sign.]

The only thing time restricts is when they started waking up; someone I know actually studies that stuff, it's happened a few times before!

...In ancient history though. It figures...but the exact things we drew the cards off of in modern day, were the things people knew about in the past! Pretty full circle huh?

Shadows manifest as a different kind of card though, [he adds, crossing his arms.] Like a field spell, and a monster at the same time; so it'd have to be a different card. For both of us, [He adds with a shrug.]

But hey hey now~ You know there was dueling for peace before don't you? Having living breathing soul monsters doesn't make that any less likely!!

[The first thought Shun jumps to there is probably a bit of an obvious one.] So they're like an advancement of Pendulum Monsters - a Field Spell and a monster instead of a Continuous Spell and a monster. [He can't help but wonder how that manifests in a duel, though...how could something be both a monster and the playing field?

He gets distracted by the last comment though, and resists the temptation to roll his eyes even if it's hard to tell with the colour the bird's eyes are.]

I'm not saying it isn't, but Real Solid Vision was already abused to hurt and maim innocent civilians. I don't see how having actual monsters walking around with you would make that any less likely.

Sort of...They can be summoned from the Field zone-for a cost.

[He seems rather content to explain this whole matter of shadow battling though.] Naturally anything can be abused as a weapon..! But there's two things working in favor here!

First; shadows have their own will. They won't blindly follow orders, and that includes one to attack. Second...

Even a child could have a god on their side; between the justice system in place by my point, and the general nature of things, it's if anything less violent than it was in your own day.

[He snorts, adding another mutter-] ...definitely better than someplace like Synchro...

[Shun still looks dubious, but he has to admit that sort of thing being commonplace does make it more likely there'd be rules in place to handle it. And while a group like Academia could certainly abuse it, people like them would abuse any weapon that comes to their hand.

The shadows having will thing explains why Kashiwa seems so dissatisfied with his own, but his brow furrows a little at the mention of gods.]

Didn't you say these things are souls? How could someone have a god as their soul?

[And more importantly, how the hell would whatever "justice system" was in place work against something like that?

He has to concede that last point, though, with an almost amused huff.] If you were doing worse than Synchro, I wouldn't call that a successful rebuild.

Hah! You didn't think things like 'Ra', 'Thor', and the like came from nowhere right?

Those were shadows! I actually met the kid with Sekhmet, even!

[Anyway, he smirks.] Exactly!

Don't worry yourself over this alright, it'll turn out fine..! At the least, the most you'll be worrying about is average street crime.

[This is not improving Shun's attitude about shadows any, and it shows in the little bird face.] So anyone could have a god as their shadow? That much destructive power in anyone's hands seems like something your system wouldn't be able to deal with consistently.

[He can't help making the worst assumptions of behaviour here - dealing with Academia has made him believe in the ability of most anyone to do awful things under the right circumstances.]

I'm not so much worried as trying to work out how any of this translates to peace rather than more war.

Got it a bit mixed up there actually.

Sekmet's a lion cub~ [What.] I don't know how it works totally, [Lies.] but according to Souryuu, even though it's happened before, shadows were still fairly rare in older times...so anyone who had one could have been a 'god', really!

A doctor with one would have gone down as a god of medicine. A warrior with one would have gone down as a god of war. Like that, right?

Sekhmet? She's tied to a kid duelist who likes tinkering with Gloves. [~~What is a glove.~~] So how's that translating to 'more war' now?

[So first there are god shadows, then being shadows makes them not really gods because they're too weak - this is going around in circles a bit much for Shun's liking, and the rather disillusioned look he's wearing does not help.]

Decide what you mean, then. If the shadows are gods, if the people are gods, if the gods as shadows are too weak to be gods - pick one or at least stay with it long enough to explain it more than on the surface. Hell, with what you just said about our "gods" just being people with shadows, you sound like you're saying those people become shadows to later people by virtue of being "gods".

[Are the shadows representative of that god, or does some random shadow just pop up that's not really a god but took on the name of one for what it's done? This is ridiculous and it's barely relevant to him anyway, so he's not even sure why he's arguing it.

Still, the point of war is one he'll stick with.] Assuming a "glove" means something different as well, giving some prodigal kid a god seems like something that could backfire easily. Would you even want to imagine someone like Akaba Reiji at that age with something like that?

Yeesh, aren't you sunny as ever, [He grumbles.]

I'm saying 'God' is figurative; deities in some countries were pretty much just magic cats and dogs in some cases, it's all about what you want to think.

[.........And.........................] Pffff....

PHHHHHAHAHAHAHA I just told you it's a lion cub, what's he going to do charm the world with her face?! He spends more time getting that thing out of trouble than building towards it..!

Gloves are basically the duel disks of the day; more compact, fit on your arm 'like a glove', that kind of thing. He's trying to make them more action duel friendly.

[If Shun had the fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose (beak?), he'd be doing that right about now.]

I'm not talking about the cub specifically, I'm saying if you're talking about handing gods to anyone, that's not going to go smoothly if you give them to certain kinds of people.

[Still, the point about the duel disk technology is a bit more interesting to him.] They must have progressed a lot if there's something that advanced in wide use in your time. [Shun's guessing from the behaviour and the sound of this guy's voice that he's from ten years in the future at most.]

Eugh, 'handing'?

What part of the soul did you miss? You don't pick your shadow. Your shadow picks you-do you honestly think anything godly is going to come out of someone like who you're afraid of?

Shadows don't wake up for no reason! They wake up because they're needed.

You know what I mean. And gods aren't only benevolent. [If there's powerful good shadows, then there has to be powerful bad ones. It's not even some balance of the universe thing here, it's just Shun refusing to believe that a bad side to this doesn't exist. Personal experience and all.

He's still not looking terribly swayed by this argument.]

Being needed isn't exactly a hard condition to fulfil.

With how many still die in accidents every year, I'd disagree.

Is it really that hard to figure we might not be on the brink of war or destruction any more?

Yes. [The answer is short and curt, and says exactly what needs to be said about the whole situation. From Shun's point of view, the idea that he could be so easily convinced of peace when he's only known war for the last three years is laughable. He's fighting for peace, yes, but Academia's given him too much taste of what can be done with innocent invention for him to take this future society at face value, even if some part of him does hope it's as true and as peaceful as it sounds.

Maybe it's best they just discard the topic entirely.]

Do you want to get information on what this place is or not?

Of course I do!

You asked me questions first you know. [That does not make this situation better for you sir.]

Then there's not much point continuing this argument, is there? [And with that, he turns his back on the plant to head deeper into the city. He's not really paying attention to whether Hatsu is following or not, but he assumes if the guy wants information that he'll be ghosting him, so to speak.]

Nah...there really isn't, is there? [You would think he'd follow-but apparently Hatsu has other ideas for info gathering, an odd glint in his eye.]

...I'll see you later, Kurosaki. [With that, he floats off in another direction instead.]

[Shun watches him change direction, shrugs in a way that looks more just like he's fluffing his wings, and hops off the way he was going anyway.]

Likewise. [It's the kind of tone that holds an unsaid "if I have to".]

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pretend i actually posted this with the others shhh

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