Opinions without 3.1415 are just Onions (Week1 post trial)

[ghostricked]

After everything, the house seems almost too still and too mundane. At least as long as the doors to that room remain closed. One by one those covered in what was once their teammate are lead to the showers or change in silence. There is no warm meal waiting for them. No words of encouragement.

Life goes on, regardless.

Comments

[dreamshielder]

[He'll pause for a moment, then chuck a mangled fragment of finger at the basin. The finger lodges itself neatly between splintered ribs.]

He said they were meant purely to attract attention. Meaningless otherwise. Don't do him the favor of looking in death.

[dreamdispersal]

[ Zabuza laughs, briefly, not sure if at Haku's good throw or at his pettiness. ]

Not even ritual? Now that's boring.

[ Zabuza is no stranger to body modifications, obviously, but he's carrying some amount of pride in his Swordsman past along with him in his teeth.

He does look away from the bucket though, and then lazily picks a piece of gut off a couch and flings it into it as well. ]

Everyone's already tripping all over one another now. We're going to have a busier time watching them all.

[dreamshielder]

Mm.

[He retrieves a shattered femur with bits of muscle and skin sloughing off the sides of bone, then tosses that into the growing pile.]

It would almost be easier to incapacitate some of them instead. [Is he serious? Who knows. His tone is very mild and quiet there, lips hidden from camera by the sweep of his hair. .... Though really. Even the cameras lenses are probably enjoying their little gore bath.]

But you needn't dirty your hands for this.

[dreamdispersal]

[ There is another amused huff at this. It's just like Haku to say this and be concerned with it, but the idea that he's some sort of delicate creature that shouldn't be confronted with guts is funny to entertain for a moment. ]

These hands haven't been clean in a long long time.

[ And there goes a bit of meat that looks conspicuously like it could be edible. Zabuza has no sincere commitment to helping, but casually flicking pieces here and there gives him something to do with his hands. ]

And you're right, a senbon to the neck would fix a lot of issues for now. We need to halt any moves until we see what Todd's successor is like though. That one's whims and aesthetics might be different.

[dreamshielder]

He is unworthy.

[Stated like that's patently obvious, though Haku merely flings a piece of flesh impaled on a lampshade into the basin where it lands with a wet squelch. Sounding as impressed as ever, he continues.]

Do you think the rules will change?

[dreamdispersal]

[ Unworthy and very very dead. It's not like Zabuza is doing this for Sho or pleasing him in any way by doing it, so he doesn't really care about matters of worth here, but he simply shrugs and leaves the rest of the body well alone. Offending Haku's sensibilities isn't what he's after and he really has no investment in touching more intestines and the like. ]

The base rules? No. The new vessel is part of the same collective, so they're presumably following the same objective. But Todd had enough individuality left to get offended on his own behalf, so I'd wager he had some freedom in how to dish out punishment as well.

[dreamshielder]

[That finally gets Haku to stop and wrinkle his nose in disgust.]

Ugh. Troublesome even when dead.

[Then grabbing another strip of flesh from the couch, he gives it a firm crush between his hands to pop brittle cartilage like it's bubble wrap before tossing it into the basin.]

[dreamdispersal]

[ Zabuza, now banned from touching any meat himself, just watches intently Haku desecrate the piece of a corpse. He doesn't dislike this side of him, not at all. The sharp anger and violence. ]

Like everything on this damn mission. I'm bored out of my mind half the time.

[dreamshielder]

Are you?

[...Heh. Another unrecognizable hunk of flesh with severed blood vessels is getting flung to the top of the pile.]

You make it sound as though I should use you for target practice more often.

[dreamdispersal]

[ Zabuza huffs at that. Offended? Amused? Yes. ]

If we didn't run too much danger of destroying parts of this stupid house, I'd even take you up on that. That's how bored I am. Your sass is starting to sound appealing.

[dreamshielder]

I'm only trying to help, Zabuza-san. When you're bored, you get so grumpy.

[A beat.]

And it would be quite a shame if those muscles were to atrophy....

[dreamdispersal]

You wound me, assuming I'm not still doing training.

[ As if he'd let anything happen to these precious muscles, sheesh. They're his life's work! Unrelated to how nice or not nice they might be to look at.

AND YET... ]

We should brush up on hand-to-hand combat when we run little risk of being seen.

[ He may or may not actually want to spend time with Haku, shut up. ]

[dreamshielder]

Taijutsu only?

[Damn, man, Why you gotta give him a handicap like this....]

All right. But only if you promise not to leave any marks. These people seem to like forcing people to strip at these trials. I don't want anyone getting the wrong impression if someone else tries something stupid next week.

[dreamdispersal]

[ ........ He closes his eyes in exasperation for a moment, heaving a deep sigh. The wrong impression....... Haku. ]

That's a given already. We have a facade to maintain here.

[dreamshielder]

[He continues in an entirely serious tone.]

Yes. But I'd also prefer not to be interrogated or blamed for a murder just because I bear signs of having been in a fight on my body, Zabuza-san.

[dreamdispersal]

I know.

It's not as if the idea of us having a serious fight is unbelievable given our cover story, but I'm not taking chances.

[ YOUR DELICATE BODY WILL BE FINE. ]

[dreamshielder]

A careful demon!

[AS YOU SHOULD BE.]

But very well, I look forward to it.