#rindrxgon

🦖 for neku? lol

Neku sighs deeply as he stares out at the volcano in the distance, then turns to look at the oversized spiky lizard a few feet away, and then finally turns to Rindo

"You know, being noise wasn't that bad. You should try it one of these days." She pauses to think. "But.. maybe not by the way I was turned into it, maybe find another way to try it out, ya'know? Dying a second time wasn't all that great."

Morbid Curiosity Meme!

Shiba is silent for a moment and the way he looks at Rindo says everything. For all the pizzazz and energy Shiba likes to display at all times, not even he can keep how tired he is off his face. Rebuilding Shinjuku is a laborious task and Shiba has been pushing himself hard to see it done. He's giving it everything he has.

"Of course it does," he says, his voice quiet. Even if he hadn't been made into Kubo's pawn, there wasn't a Reaper in all of Tokyo who didn't have some sort of past. Some reason that returning to life hadn't been worth it. "Doesn't yours? I wonder just how much death you've seen with that power you'd wielded."

Death and erasure are irrevocable parts of the Reaper's Game, but Shiba can admit that his three-year stint had been... grossly excessive is perhaps putting it lightly. What he can actually remember of it, anyway. It was the parts that he couldn't remember that keep him up at night.

"So, you get to ignore my friend request for months, and now I'm the one who's supposed to pick where we go walking today? Where's the fairness in that?" Shoka rolls her eyes - which are glued to her phone - as she starts walking.

Shinjuku was not in a state that could be called habitable. It was a broken realm, the planes having shattered into each other creating something that was not quite the UG or the RG. It was fragmented into pieces, out of order, streets that led one way would take you impossibly the opposite. The sky was a sickly red hue, shining with a sunless haze. Buildings drifted impossibly through the sky like whales through the ocean.

Shiba had done this. It was his fault. But he was here to use what dissonance he could to fix it.

He was lucky that his friends had come with him to help. Being here alone… it would have been so much harder. Shiba had always hated being alone, and here among his sins…?

It would be agonizing.

Not that he can complain. Not when it was by his hand that all this happened.

Suddenly, Shiba heard something, what sounded like a yelp and then a scream. Not unusual, given the state of the remaining shades that were once people, but this voice was familiar—

Shiba’s head whips up, spotting Rindo Kanade falling through the air. His eyes widen and without a second thought, his Reaper wings manifest from his back. He beats them once before he leaps up toward the falling boy. He zips through the air like a comet, intercepting Rindo’s descent. Shiba grabs the back of Rindo’s jacket with one hand and his other arm snakes around the kid’s waist at the same time, so the younger teen ends up held under his arm like a soccer ball.

He stays there, hovering, breathing out a sigh of relief before he looks down at where he has Rindo dangling.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite sheeple. Looks like you’re burning bright as ever.”

Cosmic Horror Asks

16. How do they cope with intrusive or impulsive thoughts?

Badly.

I like to imagine that Kubo’s manipulation of Shiba took the form of basically frequent imprinting. Shiba could not escape the thoughts he was having about his friends betraying him, about him not being able to trust them, about how he was destined for greatness. It drove him to extreme paranoia and self-isolation.

These days, Shiba still experiences frequent intrusive thoughts, but most of them are thoughts about his own state of mind. He wonders if he’s the one making his own decisions now. He wonders if he can trust his own judgment.

These thoughts end up forming a feedback loop where Shiba spirals and ends up growing angry and lashing out at people he cares for. He’s… trying to get a better handle on this. Unfortunately, his fiery temper is a deeply ingrained part of him.

18. How do they handle long stretches of solitude or silence?

Also badly. Shiba is a social butterfly (haha) at his core and he loves to be with other people. Shiba values his friends immensely and becomes depressed when he has to spend a lot of time away from them.

He can deal with silence better. He doesn’t need to be talking all the time, but he likes the camaraderie that comes from having a pleasant conversation with someone. He’s an extrovert at his core.

20. How do they react when confronted with something they can't explain or don't understand?