May 2026: Middle of 4th Week

[fmaj]

[Ever since the pocket dimensions started disappearing from Manhattan, Johnny has been completely absent. He hasn't been on the Murmur network proper, nor has he been out and about like he normally is during daylight hours. Even his neighbors at Devil's Nest haven't seen hide nor hair of him. It's easy to assume he's just been helping out with the reconstruction efforts, given how existentially exhausted he sounds through the Murmur, now that he's suddenly cropped back up out of nowhere. But anyone who has crossed paths with him will know that this isn't just mere exhaustion -- even when he's bone-tired, he still manages to have a bite to his words. Rather, it sounds like his mind is wholly somewhere else right now.]

Free breakfast for anyone who's been helping out with the reconstruction efforts. Devil's Nest, 9 am, on the 29th. Cuttin' it off at noon.

Stick around after for a few games of Mahjong, if you know how to play.

[Oh, right...]

If anyone knows where to source some injectable benzocaine and a bone saw, I'm looking to buy. Better yet, someone who knows how to use both. I'll make it worth your time.

Comments

[heavensnight]

Who is trusting you with a bone saw?

[fmaj]

Guess we're 'bout to find out.

[merged]

[ He sounded as exhausted as she felt. ] What're you making? [ There was a high chance she wouldn't have an appetite if the last couple of weeks are any indicator, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least try to eat. ]

[fmaj]

[Hey, you.

...actually, he really doesn't care about their beef right now.]

Got oatmeal, grits, and the stuff to make crepes. Bunch of things to make 'em savory or sweet. Plenty of drinks.

[So stuff that should be really easy to eat, even with minimal appetite.]

[dethangel]

We get breakfast???

[He was just helping out because it's nice to help and he's good at lifting stuff.

There are more things to worry about, but he knows when he's feeling not so great, maybe breakfast feels like a good thing to talk about.]

Don't know about the other stuff but it sounds brutal...

[fmaj]

Yeah. Limited time offer.

[So appreciate it while you have the chance!!!]

Don't worry about it, Toki.

[exaltruistic]

( He. Seems. ... At least intact, if he's making breakfast for folks like that. The need for benzocaine and a bone saw is concerning, but it feels somewhat appropriate for ... here.

Ko just kind of wordlessly reaches out through the Murmur, like a gentle pat on the back. Both a reminder of his presence and some sort of solidarity at the way he sounds exhausted and not entirely all here. )

[fmaj]

[There's a tiny little ping of frustration. Avoidant frustration, as if he'd been literally touched against his wishes. But it disappears just as quickly as it appears.]

Private;

Just. Need some time.

[...and a bone saw and some benzocaine.]

Feel free to give my slot to someone else for now.

[trashblaze]

[ Normally, Caelus would be all over the offer of food. He has a very healthy appetite, and sharing food is an easy way to make friends. But since he's been here longer than others, he doesn't want to take food from people newer than him, since they potentially might still be doing their best to get their bearings and secure more supplies.

And after what's happened lately, the need for supplies will be more necessary than ever. He decides not to mention food and focuses on the other topic instead. ]

I don't know anything about medicine, [ It sounds like medicine, at least? ] but I can give you a bone saw. I forged a couple since we hunt our own meat over here.

[fmaj]

You're able to hunt?

[Well. Anyone can hunt...]

...for edible meat?

[potentialman]

[ Boy, we're all existentially weary this month, huh. ]

I don't know about benzocaine. [ They probably had some at Columbia. Until this month. ] Lortel's good at finding stuff, though. She might have an idea.

...maybe I'll come by.

[ He's not doing badly for supplies, despite losing just about everything in the eruptions. Because, again, Lortel's good at finding stuff -- and she's thus been in an excellent position to make sure Megumi's got the necessities, even if what he's really missing from the destruction is something more abstract.

Maybe seeing some other people will do something for his mood. ]

Thanks.

[fmaj]

Don't worry about it.

[For either the supplies or the food.]

[sorte]

I can sell you both the benzocaine and a guy who knows what to do with it. How about it?

[athinkingreed]

Gambler.
[Said guy does not approve of this plan. The medical bag he has with him may or may not contain that medication. But it’s Caelus Ratio is here to supervise, one can never be too careful.]

[fmaj]

[Flatly:]

Sounds like he's the one I should be talking to instead.

[zauns]

How charitable of you. [He's tired. They're all tired. Silco doesn't bother being more than just a bit snide.]

A bone saw shouldn't be too difficult. You're on your own for the other - I assume that's a drug?

[fmaj]

We're fucking dead without each other, Silco. M'paying it forward.

[He hasn't been able to contribute to the actual repairs, as much as he would like to. He's been working on his own...thing...and has only now had the chance to come up for air.]

Yeah. Local anesthetic. Doesn't have to be benzocaine, exactly. Just the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

➥ Private

[nestingdevil]

[He's felt it: that seesawing sensation stuck between two, wrenching points. On one side, a pit as endless and empty as a void gone black. And on the other, a seething. A horrid, white-hot seething he knows all-too well. It isn't anger. Anger wouldn't be giving it enough credit. It's familiar in the only way he knows best. Where the weight tips, the world burns, and all the remains? All that ever, ever remains is one, simple word:]

[Wrath.]

[He's not going to do this out in the open. Honestly, he doesn't want to. No one else needs to know, nor will they ever. It isn't for them. No, this is between him and his. Him and his, no matter what Sleep or any of her bullshit has to say about it.]

[It's obvious from their tether that he's somewhere in the basement. A lurking thing, inhaling through the pinched-butt of a cigarette that soaked tarry an hour or more ago. The pockets had been enough to put him in a mood. Not that he hadn't gotten a chance to burn off some steam, but coming back: the situation couldn't be clearer. Nor are his convictions.]

[If he has to tear his own crests in blood, he'll do it. No matter how long it takes, or what the price ends up coming to at the end of it.]

[Greed exhales from the whole of his chest, letting the ribbons of smoke thin themselves blue from his teeth.] Silver. [He starts, and a flutter of something tickles along their line. A touch, like a nail tentatively testing a guitar's single string.]

Make sure there's extra. Have a few more I had to bring back. [Johnny can read between the lines. They have refugees in their midst. Some he ordered south and others who just happened on the spot all their own.] Got some more supplies in the basement. Can't imagine it'll feed 'em all, so I'll head out in a bit to see what I can find.

[The Sin pauses before taking another, long drag off his smoke. No point beating around the bush. At this point, they may very well be looking at the first hints of war on the horizon. He hopes it won't be the case. But considering One's lashing and Sleep's sweet nothings of promising to set everything straight (as long as they give themselves to her, at least), it's his only conclusion.]

[Today, tomorrow, a year from now. Eventually, they're going to come to a head.]

[So, he asks. A simple question:]

What happened?

perma-private;

[fmaj]

[Oh, fuck. Greed. Johnny had been so stuck in his own head this whole time that he hadn't considered that he might still have an audience to the internal machinations of his mind, even with all of the effort he's put into trying not to be perceived. A pang of guilt follows, especially when Greed calls him by his pet name, plucks the tether.]

I'm ready for them.

[His conviction about his mission isn't weakened by his emotional state.

And then, Greed asks. The seesaw teeters again, rapidly, but with less extremes than it had been. He just doesn't have the capacity to feel it as strongly anymore, but on top of that? He has a finish line in sight, cracks in a breakthrough, so close it hurts.

Greed is one of only three people he could explain himself to succinctly, on account of already having laid out so much of his history to Greed already. It would be hard to explain to anyone else.]

Those pockets of our worlds. Snippets of history.

[He pauses. Opens his mouth mind to keep talking, say something more verbose. Another seesaw interrupts. Johnny has to stop and gather himself to say it. Just rip off the bandage.]

...Arasaka rewrote my memories, Greed.

[athinkingreed]

[Since Aventurine mentioned him, the lurking professor actually bothers to post.]

No transaction will be necessary if their usage is medically necessary to treat the patient’s condition.

[sorte]

[ DAMN IT NO THAT'S NOT THE CORRECT THING TO SAY.

Still... ]

...Since he's one of Greed's, and I have a long standing deal with him, I'll go along with your choices.

[snaggletooth]

I know you! [ A simple greeting... Unbothered, moisturized, happy in his own lane of not knowing what benzocaine is. ] My first-ever armed combat instructor.

[fmaj]

[please wait.

loading...|

dialup_modem.mp3]

Oh. Ivan.

Shit, been a minute. You do okay out there?

here, not here.

[opheliac]

[ this may be a familiar sensation to him or maybe not. but it's that pesky bird again—that crow who glanced down below at him with nosiness some time ago. except now, this fowl is not curious, nor is it perched to listen or observe.

it's equivalent to it being in its nest high up in a tree or tucked away between a door frame. he may feel the bird raise its head briefly, only to roll over and burrow deeper into its feathers. it's too tired to play, too tired to squawk for food or water, or to ask for company. just don't make a big mess in the kitchen. but even if he did, she kinda doesn't care. ]

[fmaj]

[Oh, no you don't. Not this time.]

You should come, Jinx. I'll carry your sorry ass down the stairs if I have to.

[salaryman]

Mahjong and a free breakfast... you're always full of surprises.

[ Should he be worried about him? Maybe - but there is a suffocating feeling that comes from worry and concern; he wonders if Johnny would not choke under such a sensation. So he offers him something else. ]

[fmaj]

I knew there would be at least one person who knows how to play.

[Still missing two other people for a proper game...

Worry or not, if Yuuto asked if Johnny was okay, the answer would be "no". But he's here anyway.]

[guidingbookworm]

[As a fellow Nester Sirius had also been absent from the Devil's Nest lately. As a wraith he didn't need to sleep and he was putting that to the test as he helped with the reconstruction efforts.]

Do you need help with breakfast? I'm afraid I don't know much about cooking but I'm told I'm a fast learner. Although I've been banned from the kitchen before, but that was more by association. Bellatrix was the one who almost burned down the kitchen.

[If he wasn't so exhausted he would have quieted the rest of his thoughts better but they slipped out.]

I'm no medic but that sounds like a ominous combination.

[fmaj]

I don't want anyone under foot.

[Hell has no wrath like a military veteran running a kitchen.]

But I could use someone taking orders and bussing. Front of house type shit.

[That would free him up so that he could just keep his head down and focus on cooking.]

If you're not going to get involved in the procedure, then you don't need to worry about it.

[hallowedly]

Ah. I suppose I've used a bone surgically. But... you must see how a civilian request for one seems at least a little strange.

[fmaj]

No, dumbass. A saw for getting through bone, not a saw made out of bone.

[Technically Johnny already has a knife made out of bone! Among other gruesome ingredients.]

[jiangjun]

Mahjong?

If you have room for another player, I'm interested in joining.

[fmaj]

And here I thought I was going overboard by grabbing two sets.

[Which is to say, yes, there's room.]