you can't go home meme

[memeswearhouse]

You Can't Go Home Meme

❝holding on and letting go❞

For some reason or another, your character is displaced from their home — be it in the sense of homeland, home planet, home universe, or literal house — and unable to return. How they and the people around them handle that is left up to you.

Prompts
001. Exiled For one reason or another it's been decided your character is to be exiled. Pushed out of their home by force for some criminal act.
002. Run Away You have to run away. Your troubles are too great, or maybe you consider yourself a great danger. Either way, you can't stay here.
003. Destroyed the doomed hometown, up in ashes, razed to the ground. No matter how much you wish and pray, things will never be the same
004. For your own good some event has occurred, it's made living wherever you grew up impossible. You have to leave. it's the only option.
005. Adventure Out on a grand adventure, except you have a sense that you may never come back to your humble abode again.
006. Welcome Back you made it home, but things are strange. Everything is alien and strange-- and really you've realized you have returned changed. This place cannot be your home ever again
007. wildcard anyway you want it

emotions
001. Anger Bitterness and anger are the only things you can feel. How dare this happen! This was your home. That was where you belonged.
002. Depression gloomy darkness and a dim grayness.
003. Elation the chance of a lifetime, complete happiness about the possibilities! Bring on the world, you're read
004. Anxiety A brimming sense of dread, are you ready for this step? Is there any chance to reverse it?
005. Free This was your chance, for once in your life you're on your own. But is this new found freedom what you want?
006. Resignation this is what had to happen, and you will accept the consequences for what they are
007. wildcard that's the way you need it

» POST with your character
» TAG others, use RNG if you need to, or just make up your own scenario if you want!
» HAVE FUN.

Comments

<3!

[ribstearz]

[ And maybe it's in poor taste to even think as such, but the fact that Aoba isn't here might be a boon. Mizuki has spent more nights than he can count with Aoba's voice ringing from pockets of his mind that had been torn to shreds, the soft warm tenor warped into eldritch horror by hands that neither of them can control. Mizuki loves Aoba in his own way, the brother he never had, but there are some associations that only time can disassemble. He isn't yet there.

With Koujaku, it's only Koujaku. And his ridiculous ostentation, his flair for the dramatic. Mizuki pours himself three fingers of whiskey and takes his seat next to his friend again, the cool glass under his palm a welcome anchor.

There are questions still between them - why Koujaku had taken so poorly to Ryuuhou's presence, why he'd been apoplectic with anger when he's seen the spindle-fine drawings that had been left behind. Eventually, he'll ask. There are questions, and there are questions, but a thousand tomorrows stretch before them. There's time. ]

What, for my pretty face or for my cocktails? [ he's teasing in turn, falling easily back into the cadence of their friendship. ] You sure do know how to make a guy feel used, ladykiller reputation aside.

[beni_shigure]

[ Had Mizuki vocalized his thoughts, Koujaku may have been inclined to agree with him; as much as he loved Aoba and enjoyed his company, in the wake of it all, it may have been much too soon for Mizuki to be in close quarters with him just yet. Koujaku's eyes follow Mizuki as he sits next to him, his positioning in relation to the other man as natural as the sun's in an early morning sky.

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew he'd always have Mizuki by his side that caused him to fly off the handle when he had seen Ryuuhou's handiwork, plain as day, framed and given a place of honor on the counter. This, coupled with his sordid past with the damnable tattoo artist, had caused a molten pit of rage to pool in his gut, threatening to boil over and causing the tattoo splashed across his body to throb. The mere thought of that rat working his tendrils into Mizuki was enough for Koujaku to go cold with rage, tight-lipped and shaking as he struggled not to tear half of the island's slums apart with his bare hands.

He was grateful for Mizuki's silence on the matter, though he knew he must have had questions. Perhaps one day, if or when the dust regarding the entire affair had settled, he would speak on it unprompted. Until that day, however, Koujaku was content to keep it chained down, the incessant throb and pull of his tattoos known only to him and him alone. ]

Who's to say I can't be grateful for both? [ He finished off his cocktail with a swift hoist, fingertips lightly gripping the rim of the now-empty glass. This... this felt good. Natural. Almost like coming home after a long journey. ]

I see that convalescence has done absolutely nothing for your sharp tongue. [ Koujaku ribs Mizuki gently, playfully; he gives a breathy laugh to punctuate his words. ] I'll have you know that I've been known to quite literally knock men right off their feet, mind you, but you've always been so charmingly resistant to my attempts. Perhaps that's why this friendship has lasted so long, hm?

[ribstearz]

[ Instead of reaching over to make Koujaku another cocktail, Mizuki simply plucks the sake bottle from behind the counter and fills the glass tumbler again, not waiting to be prompted. He's never needed alcohol to grease conversation between them, but it always helps.

Especially when Mizuki's still not quite himself. There's laughter crowded into the creases by his eyes, but not all of it is as natural as it might have been. Sometimes, to slip back into normalcy, a bit of effort must be applied. Mizuki is a hard worker; he's always been. The effort is no object. ]

Nice try, buddy, but there's a fundamental law at play here. Dry Juice is all above being proactive, you hear?

[ He's grinning, drinking down the last of his drink with a tip of his head back. ]

—he who does the tumbling will never get unduly tumbled himself. Confucius, I believe.

[ Mizuki himself is about as accomplished as one can get, when it comes to bedrooms and their various uses, but teasing or otherwise, Koujaku - and Aoba, incidentally - have always been offlimits. Koujaku's knee-deep in vaginal fluids most days, anyway, and Aoba -- well, maybe once there could have been opportunity there, but Mizuki's a wound spring and it was Aoba who wound him up tight. No opportunities to be found there, not any longer. ]

[beni_shigure]

[ Koujaku nods simply in thanks in Mizuki's direction as he fills his glass, taking a short sip before turning his gaze back to the other man's face out of the corner of his eye. Everything came so easily with Mizuki: laughter, conversation, companionship. Koujaku supposed he hadn't really realized just how much he'd missed him.

He knows that the other man had to be struggling, though he was doing a bang-up job of hiding it. Placing his glass back onto the counter with a soft thunk, Koujaku's eyes flickered back to the wall behind the counter, laughing. ]

I suppose so.

[ Koujaku's romantic prospects were almost exclusively of the female persuasion, and while he had of course entertained romantic thoughts about a certain mutual friend of theirs, said thoughts had never gone anywhere. Koujaku was grateful for Mizuki's friendship, and as far as he was concerned, any romantic inklings towards the other man were nonexistent... and would cheapen their relationship, anyway. There was something sacred about friendship, just as there was something sacred about a romantic bond; while crossing the streams sometimes worked, Koujaku was quite happy with the way their bond was as it stood.

After a few minutes and another swig, Koujaku's voice dips low as he speaks. ]

So, really. How are you holding up?

[ It was a question that he knew part of the answer to, but he wanted to hear the answer from Mizuki himself. ]

[ribstearz]

Well enough.

[ Mizuki has never been the type to sugarcoat reality, but neither does he enjoy talking about himself and his own neuroses overmuch. There's a reason he'd resorted to trusting in the likes of Virus and Trip to buoy his family-come-rib-team rather than taking a more open and oollaborative approach to the problem.

Especially now, after he's realized that much of what he believed in the past was wrong, misguided, and/or a nebulous combination of the two. Making Rib more interesting wouldn't keep his friends and family close.

That's why he's here now, resting his chin in his palm and looking over at Koujaku with a faint smile. ]

Better than many of the others, at least. I've been getting a lot of work done to get the parlor and the bar back to what they were - everyone has such negative things to say about the insomnia, but it's what I'm least bothered by, can you believe that? [ his grin is wry. ] I marathoned an entire season of that new show - you know, American cover ops, the lead guy kind of looks like Scrap's old leader? - last night. I know you're more for the old-fashioned samurai crap, but you should check it out.

[ Because that, too, is Mizuki's way. Drop a vulnerability, roadroll over it with good humor. How else could he have survived this long?

Koujaku will understand. Mizuki doesn't know what happened to Koujaku in the past, and he's never asked - but he recognizes kindred. Sometimes it's easier to slough off old skin rather than learn to live with it. ]

[beni_shigure]

[ Here, in the dim light of the bar, Koujaku finally realizes that he has nothing to worry about. Mizuki's answer to his question about his well-being is as succinct as ever, but to Koujaku, it's enough. He knows that it isn't Mizuki's style to talk overlong about his afflictions.

He exhales softly, a low chuckle rumbling at the back of his throat. ] I can. Insomnia does have its virtues; I remember hearing somewhere that sleep is death's cousin, after all. [ He takes another sip of sake before giving a bark of laughter. ] I assure you that it's far from crap, but to each their own. I'll give your trash television a shot, but only because I've known you long enough to not mind when you shove your shitty taste down my throat.

[ His tone is affectionate, though far from gentle. He's willing to roll right along with Mizuki exactly because he understands. Tragic backstory aside, Koujaku surmises he would have always approached life in this way, and he's glad that he's found good company in Mizuki's coinciding worldview. ]