let the sun breathe life once more [pafp, bxb]

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    [ out of curiosity, how do you feel about the truth serum trope


    >: ) ]


    Sorrel ignores Jophiel, takes as long as he damn well pleases in the shower (which is still only... ten minutes), and comes out feeling slightly less like roadkill than he had before he'd gone in. Slightly less means he still feels like someone had run him over several times without stopping, but it's hardly the worst he's ever felt.


    He swipes up Hirotsu's phone from the table he'd set it on, texting Jophiel. Keep an eye out, and not just on the girl. He pauses, then adds, Make sure she doesn't get hurt. And stay safe yourself, too, I guess. My bedside manner's not nearly as atrocious as yours but it's not great, either.


    He's about to set the phone back on the table when he gets a message from--of course. Rolling his eyes, Sorrel ignores the fact that the bright screen isn't really helping his headache, clicking on the notification from their annoying informant. Best there is, but his personality needs a lot of work.


    The text message is what appears to be a disgustingly sappy love letter to a Briar Summers, but Sorrel's familiar enough with Lynx's code to know it's something else--information. The lines are secure, now, but he still should be speaking in code.


    Text me this trash again, and I'll shove a foot up your ass.


    Aww, but I love you, Briar! Sorrel can pretty much imagine Lynx's irritatingly cheerful voice in his ear. Fucking hell. Where did Jophiel put his gun? I even bought you a new phone! Don't break it this time, honey.


    At least that's good. You've got the wrong number.


    A pause. Ah, fuck! I'm sorry! You were just as mean as my actual boyfriend. Bye!


    Sorrel, of course, knows that's bullshit, because Briar's one of the nicest people he knows, but of course, better to be safe than sorry. He shuts off the phone and settles against the couch.

    //Depends... in what context?

    /"Qǐng yòng là xiā zhēng zhēng huāyēcài." Yuna speaks to the waiter as he brought her and Jophiel two glasses of ice water.

    "Wa, fēicháng lìng rén yìnxiàng shēnkè!" Jophiel commended her, now feeling even more comfortable speaking to someone in one of his many languages of study.

    The girl only giggles embarrassed that he made such a big deal about her bilingual abilities. "Haha, thank you."
    Make that trilingual.He nearly forgot.

    "Wait," He asked her, "You work at the hotel, don't you? Why's such a young lady like you working there?"

    "Well.... no - it's my father's."

    "It's family owned? That's interesting."

    "Yes. He wasn't willing to cooperate with Hampton and Comfort Suites. Rising up through promotions only made him realize that he wanted to make his own hotel separate from the chain names.

    "I see...."

    Yuna stopped her roll to look at Jophiel, now scrolling through the messages of his phone, coming across Sorrels. "He is... okay? I remember he didn't look so good when we left."

    "He's a um.... yǎbā guā"

    The girl burst out laughing. "Hey, that's mean!"

    "He has a big head; at least that's true. It's not like he uses it for anything more than his own cynical intentions."

    They took a moment to smile silently at each other before she returned to her question. "So... why have you two come here? It's strange to see two foreigners stay on this side of the city between the two Yakuza groups."

    "Well... I'm here because of my social media activities."

    "Your what?"

    "Do you have Instagram? Snapchat?"

    "Yes, why?"

    "Look up J.Frost."

    It didn't take her long.

    "Wow! Five hundred thousand followers?! How have I not heard of you?!"

    "Well, they're US citzens...mostly."

    "Oh, I guess that makes sense." She smiled as she reached for a straw. Peeling back the paper wrapping, she made sure to leave it on the other end before she blew into the free end, making the wrapper fly across the table at Jophiel's face.

    As Yuna watched it bounce off his nose, she smiled again impishly. It reminded Jophiel of his own younger sister.

    ....Damn, now it's going to feel like incest in the bedroom... He thought about it, making the thought of spending the night with her a bit stranger than before.

    "So, what's next after this?"

    "Hmm? Oh, I was thinking we could swing by the convenience store downtown later."

    "Sounds good."

    Yeah it does.... Especially since it was right across from the third building on the map of locations.

    [ pls all this chinese is making me feel bad bc ican’t read it because my chinese skills have really deteriorated that much LMAO (haven’t been to China in at least a few years,, shit)


    就让我死了吧T_T]


    Sorrel sits there for a long while, relieved when the pain actually subsides and he doesn’t actually feel like throwing himself under the train he’d arrived here on. Well, less so. He figures that as long as he’s on this mission with Jophiel, that’s will always be a temptation.


    He counts down the list of locations he’d give himself to check out, and wonders if the one he’d gone to yesterday has even noticed that two of their ability users are out for the count now. Sorrel won’t have to worry about them recognizing him for another day and a half, so he can still safely check it out, unless there were security cameras, which he severely doubts; judging from the fact that they only had two guards, either they’re very cocky or very understaffed. He’s hoping it’s a mix of both.


    Despite that, Sorrel wants to wait for Jophiel to finish his date—at least he’s still doing his job, and despite himself Sorrel feels a little guilty that he passed out before he could do the mission report—so they can go in on the one he’d been in yesterday. He’s almost completely certain what was going on in there was screaming and he doesn’t really like that thought.


    He stands up from the couch carefully as a quick test, relieved when the world doesn’t spin, and swipes the key card. Sorrel slides his suitcase under the couch again and checks if he still has his switchblade, which is, interestingly, cracked. He’s starting to wonder if Hirotsu has a strength ability rather than a speed one.


    Sorrel leaves the room, testing the door once he’s outside to see if it’s locked—this isn’t his own apartment, he can’t leave it unlocked—and heads out.

    aizawa wrote:

    [ pls all this chinese is making me feel bad bc ican’t read it because my chinese skills have really deteriorated that much LMAO (haven’t been to China in at least a few years,, shit)


    就让我死了吧T_T]

    //lol Wǒ huì fàngguò nǐ de. XD I like using pinyin because I don't wanna mess with Chinese characters. Much easier.

    /The wind chimes sounded as the two entered the convenience store downtown. The meal wasn't anything special, but the company was quite fascinating - it almost made Jophiel forget he was on assignment. Almost.

    Upon walking in, he had figured Yuna would find something sweet to eat, and lo and behold, she had already grabbed a bag of candy from one of the aisles, showing it to Jophiel like a child shows a parent their drawing.

    "I didn't know they sold American candy here." Jophiel mused at the sight of the bold-face Swedish Fish logo on the wrapper."

    "It's my favorite - many candies here are to floral scented."

    "I never thought about that, but, yeah, I guess so...." His eyes wandered to the window to see the building across the street.

    Yuna's gaze followed his "....You....have an interest in Yakuza?"

    "...You could say that," He admitted, though he kept his reasons vague, "It's just that there aren't many organized gangs like this back home - it's quite interesting that they are able to operate like they do."

    "Oh. Ok." She paused for a moment as they walked over to the wall fridges. As Jophiel pulled out a can of coffee, she spoke again. "Actually, I think I read about them in a police report online before - something about an underground tunnel system that connected the buildings from below.

    "Somewhere in the sewers or subway, maybe?"

    "I don't know honestly," She shrugged, "The word around is that they've just found it, nothing more; they can't really venture further because of the old entryways that have been closed off by the city."

    The of the time spent their otherwise was walking and talking, though about five minutes later, they left the store with the candy for Yuna,

    [ I can really only speak and understand Chinese passably. Not enough to pass as a local in China but Americanborn Chinese usually ask if I was born in China. I haven’t taken classes in like, three years, and haven’t been to China in that time either. I still speak to my mom in Chinese only though that’s. Very limited. And honestly I feel you with pinyin because I’ve forgotten nearly all of the characters whoops

    On an unrelated note I just realized that most of my long responses are on my phone and I’m more sure how or why


    On another unrelated note: did you watch infinity war? ]


    As he walks outside, he wonders if he should meet up with Jophiel just yet and decides against it. Sorrel figures he should get at least some fun with the girl—he briefly wonders if this one will last, but he’s not betting on it—before Sorrel inevitably ruins it.


    Anyway… while he’s walking he may as well try to make sense of the information available. Lynx’s information is probably inaccurate this time—a rarity, but it happens—because he’d mentioned a single ability user, the leader. But considering the fact that there are two hideouts with multiple ability users, it either means there’s more than one gang here, or it’s more powerful than just a rowdy group of yakuza. He’s not totally sure which would be worse.


    He’s betting on it being some gross amalgamation of both, since that just how shitty his luck is.


    Judging from the fact that Lynx has sent him more updated information, from a different number this time, Lynx is probably pissed as hell for the faulty information, both at himself and the technopath girl, because if Sorrel has to guess who’s been causing it, it’s her. He has no idea what the extent of her powers are but what little Sorrel has seen was pretty powerful. He can see why a gang would scout her out, though he’s more concerned as to why she’s with them in the first place. Lynx must’ve capitalized on her being out and done as much as he could.


    The mission still hasn’t changed, however. They’re still here to apprehend the ringleader; but now, if able, they’re to clean up any of the other ability users.


    Sorrel huffs. Long mission gets even longer, he thinks, resigned.

    They had made it to the park in the center of the city on their way back uptown. By then Yuna had finished her snacks and Jophiel had seen all that he'd wanted to see from the small building in front of the convenience store.

    It was a fake, the whole thing; no one had lived there in years. And that got Jophiel wondering, though the organization had info on these locations, it seems that wherever they got the info from, be it a suspect or physical evidence, whoever knew the location of the real gang hideouts took extra care to plant a few false leads to throw off anyone suspicious. He guessed that now was probably the time to return to the hotel.

    And it was probably a good idea too - it looked like Yuna had her own plans.

    Yuna, though sitting across from Jophiel upon a park swing, eventually had to end her fun little date, getting up from her seat.

    "Busy?" Jophiel asked her.

    "Yeah, sorry" She smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck, "I really did want to hang out with you today, but I've also got exams to study for; applied microbiology isn't a walk in the park."

    "I guess not. Alright, you're free to go."

    She only laughed with a wave goodbye as she left Jophiel, heading back to what Jophiel assumed to be the direction where her apartment complex was.

    Getting up himself, he made his way back to the hotel. Hopefully Sorrel was in a less trashy state by the time he arrived.

    The other locations are clean, so Sorrel figures he'll return to the hotel room now, tilting his head up to see the sun slipping behind the mountains again. The sunset looks nice, he supposes, but he really has no particular interest in that kind of thing, so he pays it no more mind than a brief thought and moves on.


    When he returns, he spots Jophiel outside the door to the hotel. Huh. So he'd gotten back before Sorrel did. Sorrel doesn't even bat an eye, only cocking his head slightly. "Hey," he says, voice flat and neutral like how he talks to most people, which is to say much calmer than he usually talks to Jophiel, but more flippant and detached. Sorrel figures he owes him that much. "So. What do you think about checking out the hideout I went to yesterday?"


    Sorrel points to the door with his thumb nonchalantly. "Bring a gun. I'm sure it'll be useful. And ear plugs."

    "Sure, why not?" He shrugged; honestly, there was nothing else to do other than tag along today.

    Besides, it gave Jophiel a chance to see the ability users who gave Sorrel such trouble. That way, he could thank them for agitating his partner...

    right before he killed them.

    Then again, if he wasn't allowed to do that, then he'd just make sure they were incapacitated for the rest of the mission, as boring as that sounded.

    The introduction of earplugs was a new one, which raised an eyebrow from Jophiel. Those useless little nubs were rarely used in their arsenal of equipment, so much so that he'd almost considered leaving it behind at the agency. But, with his better judgement, he was glad he did, otherwise he'd have to find some from some commonplace store, which sold trash as quality when it came to those types of things. Literally, they were just nubs of rubber or foam.

    "Whenever you're ready, cap'." He told Sorrel, walking back into the hotel to get those earplugs.

    “Been ready,” he says, shutting the door when Jophiel’s outside again and locking it. “Did you get any information from your date, or was it more pleasure than business?” Sorrel inquires offhandedly, voice as apathetic as usual. No judgment. That’s reserved for his internal musings.


    He wonders what the staff think the two of them are doing—so far, he’s come and gone several times today, and yesterday he’d stumbled in like he was drunk off his ass, which he would never be willingly because anyone who knows him knows he hates alcohol with a burning passion. Sorrel can’t imagine it’s anything good, especially about himself, but doesn’t care too much, more mildly curious than anything.

    "Eh, little info, some effort, all pleasure. Figures, right?" Jophiel smiled at Sorrel's prediction; there wasn't much to hide from Sorrel in terms of what Jophiel was about. But it wasn't that Jophiel had been a lazy bum. On the contrary...

    "A few of those locations are dead; our informant heard wrong - I wonder how that was possible..."

    But both of them knew, in all honesty, that the sarcasm was well placed.

    "Wherever they got the info from, it was obviously to throw us off. Seems like they're evacuating more hideouts now too... like they're regrouping for something."

    Sorrel shrugs. "Despite how he acts, our informant's not a god, and he doesn't know everything," he points out evenly. He doesn't like Lynx much himself--not many people do, really, given his... eccentric personality--but Sorrel gives credit where it's due. "I told you about the technopath, didn't I? I imagine she's been screwing with communications and shit before I put her to sleep." That sounds... awfully morbid, but Sorrel can't bring himself to care. Jophiel knows what he means, anyway.


    "I'm more curious about how much power she has," Sorrel muses. "If she'd been able to control so much of the city, she's got to be ridiculously powerful."


    He comes to a stop when they arrive at the hideout. The illusion's still up, but Sorrel can see a ton more guards this time--probably because of his little intrusion yesterday. Judging from the security and the fact that they hadn't moved, Sorrel figures this is a huge operation. "Here we are," he says, tugging up his hood. It's hardly adequate for stealth but it goes a long way for Sorrel. Having bright red hair is practically asking for someone to notice you, not that it works when you want it to. "You might want to use your earplugs right before we go in. It's loud."

    Technopaths... blech. All of these conditional abilities are too underwhelming. In comparison to Jophiel's own ability(though he could say the same for Sorrel's), any other user with an ability that relied upon some environmental factor just seemed lackluster. Though almost every ability was conditional, some were better than others. Sorrel's, in particular, excelled in the presence of something or someone he could put to sleep, provided that that thing was present of course. But, given that they made contact with other human beings every day, there wasn't much of an issue. A technopath has their strengths, but without anything to interact with, their power was as useless as the trashed equipment at a garbage dump. Jophiel knew he was just being arrogant again, but he had every right to be - it was just a matter of keeping that arrogance to himself.

    Strangely, though he talks highly of his own power, Jophiel hadn't actually recalled what it exactly was. Sure, he knew it gave him the reflexes and strength of a jungle cat, but other than that, its applications were lost to him, the last time he had ever used that power being before his agency days. So, in other words, though Sorrel and the other agents didn't know what his true power was either, he was still a very concerning case because of the fact that they didn't know what he was capable of. However, with how much time has passed during his stay in the agency, many of his fellow agents have already gotten past his unknown and possibly otherworldly power and have seen him for what he truly is: a devilishly handsome, yet naughty playboy.

    Putting his earplugs on, he adjusted the volume of his voice, knowing very well he had no need to shout. Instead, he would talk as he normally would, whilst reading Sorrel's lips for the response - a talent Jophiel had acquired after many... many missions.

    "We can kill these pricks, right?" He asked out of the blue.

    Sorrel shoves the earplugs in—much better than the horrid music technopath girl had been playing on her headphones. He turns so he can properly read Jophiel’s lips, and knows Jophiel can do the same so he doesn’t bother raising his voice above a whisper.


    “Let’s try and avoid any deaths,” Sorrel responds, casting another glance towards the group standing around. They’re an even mix of men and women, all experienced fighters, evidently. “Not that anyone would miss them if they died, but deaths are messy.”


    There’s that, and the fact that Sorrel’s never been comfortable with the concept of taking lives. He gives off the impression that he’d absolutely enjoy ripping someone’s heart out and then eating it, but his ability seems to reflect the opposite, giving him the ability to put people to sleep instead of killing them.


    “That’s a lot of people,” Sorrel comments, knife already dropping into his palm. “You’re probably right about the regrouping.”

    "It's fine," Jophiel dismisses what little praise was in the statement, "At least they're going to be all in one place."

    That being said, he didn't know what the final details of the missions were, considering all they had to do was bring in the ringleader. He wondered how the agency would round up the rest of the followers once the leader was captured. The extra bodies would be difficult though, which led Jophiel to believe that if a few of them died, the agency would turn a blind eye. That, of course, was conditional on how they were handled. Sorrel's power was of great use here, but with the way it drained his stamina(though honestly, Jophiel always found Sorrel to be quite lacking in physical stamina anyways), his power was limited.

    In that case, Jophiel would be in charge of making sure each one counted, a job which probably included incapacitating quite a few of these gang members.

    He knew Sorrel would prefer the stealthy route, which was understandable, but that didn't entail a successful round up. There was always the possibility that a handful of members would escape and carry on the gang's standard.