expiationlogs | dear fellow traveler under the moon

Entry tags:

dear fellow traveler under the moon

Who: Minato & You!
Where: All around Aldrip
What: Catch-all for the month with open prompts, maybe some closed starters too
Warnings: Injury, suicidal ideation, asphyxiation, updated as needed.

i. ball is life

[ City Hall's gardens have quickly become a spot that Minato frequented. He's often here in the early evenings, accompanied by Koromaru. It's an ideal place for the dog to stretch his legs. Aldrip doesn't appear to have any leash laws. Ergo, Koromaru roams free as Minato sits by himself on a bench.

The shiba inu trots about with a red ball in his mouth, tail held high with a pleased look on his face. He circles back to Minato who's seated on his usual bench today. Typically, Minato observes as Koromaru entertains himself, racing around the greenspace or flinging whatever toy he's brought with him that day.

Today though, Koromaru stands in front of Minato and presents the ball to him, tail wagging enthusiastically.

You WILL throw ball, Minato Arisato. Ball is LIFE. ]

ii. gardening

[ Visiting the farmhouse is a recent addition to Minato's daily routine. He greets the animals there even though he's technically not at the farmhouse to see them. He can't help but offer a friendly headpat or snoutpat to the ones that are bold enough to approach.

There's an empty field of soil just outside the farmhouse. Kotone's offered it to him, leaving Minato free to use it for his new project. He's there today wearing comfortable work clothes, kneeling in the dirt with a hand hoe to carefully loosen the soil.

It began with an off-the-cuff response, an answer to a question that's always been difficult for Minato to grapple with.

"Is there anything you've always wanted to try, but never have?" Kotone had asked as they walked side by side through City Center, a bag of peanuts in his hand that she'd pressed into his palm.

And even before that, there'd been Sha-Ming with earnest anger flaring in his eyes as he declared that all creatures should have dreams, desires, and things they wanted to do while clinging stubbornly to life.

He's not used to contemplating all the things he'd like to try, things he never got the opportunity to do. He's here now though, thanks to the response he'd given to Kotone's question. Minato decides this answer is satisfactory as he continues loosening the soil to prepare it for some seedlings.

There's some soil streaked on a cheek, and his elbows have some dirt on them too. He's content though, quietly working on his task. ]

iii. i am thou, thou art i

[ The mild breeze leaves delicate ripples along the oceanwater's surface. The shore's salty air fills Minato's lungs, clearing his mind and easing any troublesome thoughts that plague him as of late.

It's why he finds himself at the beach again today, shoes removed and socks tucked neatly in them. The sand is warm and silky under his feet, offering him something to focus on other than how, lately, his mind continuously strays to a ruined moonlit bridge.

Something brushes against his foot and disturbs his train of thought. It shifts his gaze from the horizon to the floor. There's a crab scuttling across his feet; it pauses in between them, freezing when it senses someone's attention focused on it. Then it's moving again, faster, making a beeline towards the water.

He takes a step forward to follow the trail left by the little crab. He doesn't get very far, interrupted by a sudden, agonizing pain in his head. He folds over with a gasp, pressing a hand against his forehead. He does not see the towering shadow taking shape from behind, unaware of its presence until a white-gloved hand grips his shoulder.

The creature shoves him down. He collapses like a marionette cut from its strings. And as he looks up to identify his assailant, he swiftly realizes there is nothing to truly fear. He immediately recognizes that metal mask. It's why he doesn't struggle against the hand holding him down, merely gazing back at the familiar Persona: Thanatos.

The Persona unsheathes its sword and releases an earsplitting wail, driving the weapon's sharpened tip through Minato's shoulder. But Minato makes no noise, even as it cuts through flesh and blood pools beneath him. There's no need to be afraid. After all, Thanatos must be here simply to remind him that, out of everything in the world, Death is the sole certainty. ]

iv. wildcard

[ Let me know if you're interested in a starter! You can send a private plurk to me at

alaudarum or hmu in the Discord! ]

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[ Minato grimaces. He does Not like the thought of getting Ethlyn involved, even if Toph's current course of action is completely reasonable. Of course you should take someone who just got stabbed to the local doctor. ]

...do you have to?

[ He has to try one last time, even if he knows it's a losing battle. Suddenly, his shoulder doesn't hurt as much compared to the headache that intensifies at the thought of trying to explain what had just happened to Ethlyn. Trying to come up with answers to Toph's perfectly reasonable questions aggravates the pounding behind his eyes. ]

I don't know. I don't -- I don't think so.

[ Minato knows he doesn't sound particularly persuasive. However, there is one thing that's probably safe to say. ]

...I don't think I have enough energy for Thanatos.

[ At least the Persona won't cause anymore trouble. ]

That's something, at least, [ she mutters to herself under her breath, one notch of tension releasing that she doesn't have to try to guard against a reappearance while they're traveling or he's being healed. She's actually not sure how good Ethlyn is as a combatant since they've never fought together, something Toph realizes she'll need to amend. ]

Have your bleed out pity party on your own time. I'm not letting a friend hurt themselves right in front of me. Now shut up while I get us there.

[ Toph's voice is tight, revealing a layer of genuine concern and fretfulness. It was a disturbing image and she's worried about what it might mean for Minato, so she tries to cover it up with bluster, only somewhat successfully.

She focuses intently on earthbending them as fast as she can to the clinic, and when they rumble to a graceful rockslide halt outside, she yells loudly, ]

Ethlyn!

[Ethlyn is having a nice cup of tea in the kitchen, enjoying the sight of bees buzzing around the windowbox in spite of their urban surroundings, when she hears the rumble of rapidly shifting earth outside.

If she didn't already know the sound she'd be quite alarmed--earthquakes are rare things in Jugdral--but instead, she grabs the kitchen's first-aid bag, ducks into the closet for her staff, and rushes outside as Toph bellows louder than a rockslide.

Minato. He is covered in blood, but it's his shoulder where everything looks fully saturated. Far paler than normal, but conscious, which is a mercy.]

She touches Toph on the shoulder and hands over her staff.]

Hold this, please. [Her voice is crisp and calm; this is work she's done too many times to count.] What is your name, sir?

[Because Minato might be conscious, but she doesn't yet know how conscious. She sets the bag down on the convenient new table in front of the clinic, pulls on a pair of nitrile gloves, and starts to cut his shirt away to get a better look at the wound.]

[ He winces as Toph hollers for Ethlyn. It's perfectly reasonable for her to lug him to the local doctor, but there's a part of Minato that's embarrassed to be here. He should be healing himself. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult after being drained of SP, and on top of that, he'd already been struggling with Persona summoning.

Minato doesn't resist as Ethlyn cuts away at his shirt, vision a little unfocused but not yet dazed. He recognizes Ethlyn's voice and bright pink hair. Not quite understanding why she's asking for his name, he blinks at her for a moment with a puzzled expression.

He does respond even though her voice sounds distant. ]

It's Minato.

[ And because he's too tired filter himself, he adds: ]

...it's okay. I'll be okay.

Of course you will. And what is my name?

[With his clothes out of the way, she can see the wound better--a puncture, right through his shoulder. Someone has run him clean through on either a sword or a spear. She uses a pad of gauze to wipe the majority of the blood away so she can see it better. It looks like a fairly clean hole, not complicated by ragged edges or more gashing.

Did someone really attack him and run him through with a sword? She looks up at Toph again, running her eyes up and down over the girl. She doesn't appear to have been hurt, at least not on the outside. She looks harried and upset, of course, and there's always that fine patina of dirt, but there isn't any blood, she's not standing as though she's in pain.

But that might not mean much. A body can do a lot of things to shut up its own warning signals until it can save someone else.]

Toph, are you all right?

[ Between Katara at home and her work with the Arztenritter here, Toph knows what to do when a healer gets on scene and gets out of the way with alacrity. She is humming with adrenaline, keeping an ear out for new threats even though she knows logically there probably won't be any. She believes Minato when he says he won't be summoning Thanatos again.

But... there's nothing for her to directly do anymore, so she stands nearby, tense, expression pinched. ]

Me? [ She jerks her head from gazing sightlessly at Minato, monitoring his breathing. ] Yeah, I'm fine, [ she says shortly. ] He almost got me, but I knocked him on the head before I got hit. His Persona were running haywire.

[ Toph is so not keeping any part of this secret. That would be extremely stupid. ]

[ It's true. In fact, should Ethlyn choose to examine Minato's head, she'll find that there's a small welt where Toph knocked him unconscious. ]

You're Ethlyn.

[ He flinches a bit as the woman wipes away blood at the edges of his wound. The initial shock of injury's worn off, leaving the skin near his injury especially sensitive.

Otherwise, Minato's making a pointed effort to avoid looking at either Ethlyn or Toph. He can't exactly recall what happened after Thanatos was replaced with Barong, but he knows he'd lost control of his Personas altogether. The newly-revealed knowledge that he'd almost hurt Toph weighs on him. ]

...sorry.

[ Guess all that training against Personas really paid off after all. ]

All right. I'm glad you were so quick to defend yourself. That isn't always easy.

[Ethlyn already knows a little bit about Personas. She witness Kotone's rampaging once, though from a great distance, the year before, and Kotone had been kind enough to explain it afterwards.

Minato is still lucid enough not only to keep names straight but to feel guilty for losing control. That's a relief. It probably means he hasn't lost too much blood. Ethlyn holds a clean pad of gauze in her hand to keep from getting blood on her staff as she takes it back from Toph. With a touch, she awakens the healing magic that is contained in the stone at the top. It lights up with a brilliant glow.

The magic knits from the inside out--first stitching Minato's blood vessels back together, then the severed fibers of muscle, and finally the skin to close the wound. The magic in the staff is designed to get soldiers up and back in fighting form right away, but Ethlyn knows (partly from her own experience) that the body will want its rest as soon as it's allowed to stop,.]

There. How does that feel?

[ Ethlyn's tacit approval honestly startles Toph, who wasn't expecting anything of that nature -- maybe especially not from Ethlyn -- and it throws her for a moment. Still on edge and with no way to vent her restless energy from being in danger, it makes her gruff in her response. ]

I warned him a couple times and it seemed like he wasn't in control -- I wasn't gonna just stand there. [ Practical and down to earth to a fault, that's Toph. ]

I don't want an apology, [ she snaps huffily at Minato, inadvertently interrupting Ethlyn's attempts to actually check on her patient. She's seen it enough times by now to basically ignore the magic healing and get right to the point. ]

I want you to stop being an idiot. How did this even happen?!

[ Could this really just come out of nowhere? From working with Shinjiro, Toph would think this kind of thing can be anticipated and worked on. Has Minato just been keeping issues with his Persona to himself, silently, expecting them to go away? She doesn't appreciate being put in danger from a friend without warning and she especially doesn't appreciate any resulting attempts to wave it off with a simple sorry. ]

[ Were he less exhausted, Minato might ruminate on how Ethlyn's healing magic felt compared to his own. It soothes the wound and relieves any pain associated with it. Indeed, if necessary, he probably could back up right away. ]

Better. Thanks, Ethlyn.

[ There's no fight for him to return to. Minato stays on the table as his eyes drift shut. He can feel the way his body demands rest, and he'd give in if Toph wasn't standing right there demanding answers.

He teeters on the brink of consciousness while doing his best to collect his thoughts. It was different from the times when Shinjiro lost control of his Persona. When that happened, Castor was left rampaging without a care about who was caught in the crossfire. Thanatos, on the other hand, seemed more targeted, as if the Persona were trying to communicate something to him.

The "what" and "why" of it escapes Minato. Toph isn't going to like that. ]

...I don't know.

[ On the upside, there is one thing he feels fairly confident about. ]

But... I don't think it will happen again.

[ He blinks blearily. His head throbs. He feels, as the kids say, like complete shit. ]

You can't say fairer than that.

[Minato's Persona is probably lucky that it even got the warning from Toph.

She does look up at Toph when she starts asking Minato how it happened. Now that Ethlyn has closed the wound, she's more worried about finishing the job of stabilizing him and then letting him sleep. It is important to know why exactly his own summoned partner attacked him and how to keep it from happening again.

But now isn't a good time for an extended question and answer session on the matter. She looks back down at Minato with a smile.]

I certainly hope it doesn't. I don't think one of those Personas will fit very well into any of the examination rooms.

Toph, is it possible for you to lift the stone over the floor? If not, it would be helpful if you fetched a couple of nurses so they can get Minato inside on a stretcher. We can ask more questions after he has some time to rest.

[She's seen Toph hurl things through the air, but she doesn't know how far that control goes.]

Edited 2024-07-28 03:05 (UTC)

[ Toph was truly worried about Minato, so the frustrated questions just spilled out unprompted, but she knows Ethlyn is right that he should rest first before she starts nagging him for a heart-to-heart. He's not getting away without one, though; Toph isn't allergic to having real conversations, she just saves it for her friends.

And Minato is a friend. ]

I got it.

[ She lets out an audible huff, a big gust of air, at the mild question regarding her abilities. Toph never misses a chance to show off, so maybe her earthbending is particularly sharp and precise as she flicks hands and fingers. A perfect stretcher-shaped rectangular slab of rock pops out of the ground around Minato and lifts smoothly into the air like it's hovering. Maintaining it steadily is a lot more challenging that she makes it seem, but that's kind of the whole point, to her.

She keeps her hands raised in a defensive posture and strides ahead confidently, Minato floating on the stone slab ahead of her. ]

Don't think you're getting out of explaining this later, buddy.

[ Thanatos almost certainly wouldn't fit in one of the clinic's examination rooms.

Minato blinks as he feels the ground lift into the air. It jostles him a little more awake, only to realize that, ah, the floor must be shifting due to Toph's earth bending. He exhales. Bringing him to Ethlyn at Willow Clinic was a perfectly reasonable course of action conducted by Toph. But now that he's here, it seems he'll have to disclose why his Personas were acting unusual to both Toph and Ethlyn.

That can be a problem for future Minato Arisato. ]

...I know.

[ He's come to learn that Toph doesn't let anything slip past her, and given that Ethlyn's treated his shoulder, it only seems fair to discuss things with her too. ]

Later though. ...tired.

[ And those are the last words that leave Minato's lips as his eyes finally drift shut, falling asleep on the table. ]

[It's still strange to see how Toph can make a slab of rock that would take multiple men to lift just float through the air like it's no heavier than a piece of paper.

But it's a strangeness that will only fully register later. Ethlyn gestures to one of the nurses to help her get Minato off the rock and onto the bed. Normally the next thing would be to get him out of his blood-soaked clothing into a patient's gown, but even though Toph is blind, Ethlyn is still a little hesitant about disrobing him in front of a young girl.

She can get his shirt off, at least. Not wanting to pull him around more than needed, it's time for a quick wash of the hands and the clothing shears.]

He'll sleep for the rest of the day, and probably for quite a while into tomorrow. Then he'll need a lot of water. [And iron. And vitamins.] But the wound is clean and you got him to me quickly enough to stop the bleeding and prevent infection.

I know you said that the Persona didn't get you. But I want you to think for a moment--is anything hurting? A lot can happen to you in a fight that doesn't hurt until it's over.

[ Transfers are not nearly so simple for Toph, and she's glad to have the nurse's help in getting Minato safely into a real bed. It seems like a safety hazard to leave a big slab of rock in the clinic, so while Ethlyn is working on Minato, Toph escorts the slab back outside.

Funnily enough, Toph doesn't mind the disrobing for more reasons than being blind. Culturally, and especially in a medical context, it's just not a big deal to her.

She waits silently nearby while Ethlyn works and is grateful for the summary report afterwards. ] He used mental effects on me, so it's not physical, [ she answers crisply. ] We've been practicing with those. It's just going to make me more emotional for a little while. [ The whole point of the practice has been to learn how to withstand that and keep her cool, so Toph is informing Ethlyn of this factually, not looking for sympathy. ]

... Thanks. I know this is what you do, but knowing where to bring people when they need help... makes it a lot easier.

[ Toph is very clear that she can't heal and whatever basic first aid she's picked up from assisting with the clinic is not adequate to emergencies. ]

[Mental effects. Well, that is a piece of information Ethlyn is glad to have now. Just what everyone needs--a monster that can reach into your mind and affect your judgment.

...It would actually be very useful if pointed at an actual enemy. But if Minato's Personas are escaping from his control, not so much.]

You're welcome to stay around here until the aftereffects wear off.

[With Toph having gone out to put the rock back where it came from--or at least somewhere not in the way, Ethlyn hopes--she and her attendant have had time to get Minato into a gown and under a blanket.]

I'm glad. This kind of thing is why I started the Arztenritter in the first place.

[Not for giant forest beasts or corrupted king cephalopods--although it's come in handy for those--but for the single incidents, the sudden, terrible catastrophes that no one expects on a sunny day.]

... Yeah, alright.

[ Might as well. Toph is feeling overly antsy, revved up and like the fight isn't over or they might be attacked again at any moment. Normally she isn't so on edge, so she probably is still feeling the effects.

She takes a seat, folding her arms and slumping. ]

When all the snakes were around, the miasma really affected me, so I've been trying to get a handle on that kind of thing. Pretty lucky I have been -- I knew something was wrong with Thanatos, and how to deal with it.

[Gods, the snakes. Or, for Ethlyn, the Week of No Sleep, apart from a few catnaps, curled up in the bathtub with a pillow and a duvet.]

Very fortunate. [She's busy hooking up an IV to Minato so that he can get some fluids back in his body, but she makes sure she has an eye on Toph as the girl sits down, looking like the stress and exhaustion of battle might be starting to catch up to her.] Did he mean to summon it and it got away from him, or did it just... get out of him on its own?

[She's seen his Evoker and she knows how it works--unfortunately--but she also knows that they can somehow rampage.]

No idea. I showed up and Thanatos was stabbing him through the shoulder. Minato tried to tell me it was no big deal.

[ Toph sounds miffed and even a little offended. She hates when people try to tell her outright falsehoods, no matter if they believe them themselves. ]

But what I know from working with Shinji is that if a Persona's acting up, it's because the Persona-user is having issues. [ She emphasizes issues. Once again, the Toph Beifong summary of Persona. ]

[Ethlyn smiles a little at Toph's indignation. It's one she experienced herself when she began healing injuries for real.]

You'd be surprised how common it is for grievously injured people to tell you that they're all right. Sometimes, of course, they're being martyrs--but it's possible that he really wasn't in that much pain when you found him like that.

[Issues with a capital I. Hm. Ethlyn has mentioned to Claude how she feels a need to worry about Minato without quite knowing why. Now it seems like she has a reason. Unfortunately, that reason also seems to have a hidden reason behind that.]

...It sounds like we'll have to talk to Minato about that when he wakes up. We can't have this happening again.

That's messed up, [ Toph answers a little incredulously, genuinely inexperienced with serious injuries beyond what she's seen working with Ethlyn. ] Good thing I don't listen when someone's being completely stupid.

[ And she'd reacted in her best judgment anyway, she means -- knocking him out and hauling him over to the clinic. ]

No kidding. Why is everybody around here so bad at control? [ she complains, petulant. The after-effects of the status ailments are making her a bit more openly childish than normal. ] You can't just worry about it after something big happens, you have to work on it all the time.

[ Spoken like someone who teaches children how to warp metal. ]

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dear fellow traveler under the moon

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