soul_skirmish | Where Are They Now? (5 Year Edition)

[Five years from now, nineteen year-old Fabiola has gained a star or two in her Meister level and is more than likely well on her way to making Bumblebee a Deathscythe if he isn't one already. Though the war has worn down her optimism a little, she's not the type to easily give up the ghost, so she's usually the one encouraging people when they need it. She also has taken to helping out a lot more with morning training, especially when it comes to the shooting range and with sparring. Her demeanor has lightened a little, so she's not as stiff and formal with everyone, but when it comes to missions and training, she's almost frighteningly focused. And sometimes, maybe just a little too vicious with taking out Kishin and Witches.

She's still kind of a shorty though. Whoops.

Most days find her patrolling for the Watch or heading off on another mission with Bumblebee- but the days that don't, she can be found wasting a few hours at the community pool or- more and more of late- running over, around, through and across Death City's buildings for fun.

If you want to catch her doing absolutely nothing though, she makes it a point to sleep in once a week and hang around the warehouse she and Bee call 'home', usually cooking or baking up a storm to raise one friend or another's morale.]

Edited 2013-02-04 07:20 (UTC)

[ Five years, two and a half whole sweeps of sand and war and Witches. Sollux is on the cusp of his ninth sweep, and to this day he can't figure out how so much time could have passed without him noticing. Time flies when you're having fun, is the saying, and he supposes it could be true if even half of those years were anything close to 'fun'. It's been war, and battles, skirmishes that never lead anywhere and the occasional reverberating victory. (Always quickly eclipsed by a Witchy reprisal, typical.) He's been busy, involved more than he ever thought he could be, but maybe it hasn't been so bad.

He's all of nineteen years, and not all of those years since his arrival have been so bad. He has a job, has held it, beyond belief, for five whole fucking years. He has a Weapon, he's actually participated in the war himself. Moved out of the troll den and into his own Hive. (Fatality Condominiums, highest floor in the building.) Admits to having friends as more than just, well, liabilities, and he doesn't regret it. (Half the time.)

Maybe life's good. Sollux doesn't dwell on it often. He's too busy trying to maintain his crown as the arcades' top scorer on the days he's not at work.

It's where he's at that day, Death City's main shopping mall, the collection of benches and trashbins and trees that constitute as a courtyard. There's a pack of Pall-Malls in his pocket and he has the hood of his jacket pulled up and buttoned around his horns to keep the sun out of his eyes. A break from a hard round of Capcom fighting games. Six-foot-two and still growing.

He's forgotten that today is his wriggling day. ]

L Lawliet had a legacy that would stretch any man thin. 1,000 cases in 16 years, ended with the harshly truncated Kira Investigation, had strained the limitations of his clarity and fortitude, but L had endured until the bitter end. It was impressive, actually, that anyone could make it so far without fraying, with those first loose threads only appearing in the last hours he'd had alive in his own world.

In Death City, he had played his part dutifully for four years after arriving, going on missions and reaching an uneasy peace with his long-time nemesis and bitter rival as he'd watched Mello and Near's relationship blossom and thrive. He'd progressed through his twenties, celebrated four birthdays, and been cautiously hopeful. But by the time he turned 30, he was no longer fraying, he was unraveling, and it wasn't temporary or reversible. Light Yagami was both necessary and devastating to his health and his sanity, and at the end of the day, devastation prevailed. Others had covered for him at first, and then feared for him, and then, when they were at a loss and out of options, he had been quietly shelved like an outdated textbook with flawed data.

There were whispers that he had lost his grasp because he was weak. But those who actually knew him in his prime were more sympathetic; L had been strong like ten men, and then he'd lost his grasp.

He had good days and bad days, and he wasn't yet sure about this day. He was fairly sure that he was L today, and not some demented, dissociative amalgam of L and Kira. That happened sometimes, the inability to recall that they were actually two separate people, and it was jarring and frightening to be tossed back and forth between those perceptions. The mirror showed him a pale, thin face that hadn't changed much in five years, but his gaze wasn't quite the same, trading clever, eager sharpness for uneasy fatigue. Part of that was the medication, but most of it was wilting boredom and an increasing disdain for his fellow humans, suddenly so soft-talking and condescending. The fact that he recognized this actually made it a good day, but he was careful about celebrating prematurely. It could change very quickly, he knew and dreaded from experience.

He sat by the window in his private room, staring at his frail-looking hands, reflecting on what it was like to be forgotten but not yet gone.

Edited 2013-02-04 07:19 (UTC)

[ You will find Matt in his office. Well, it’s not actually an office; it’s like a mini arcade for those who work for (with) him. Being an electronics technician in a time when technology is at its peak and developing is good job. It pays well, too. He is currently pressing the buttons of his DS and grumbling something about how he won’t get killed.

He is 24 years old, still smokes like a chimney, has nearly every single game that has came out in the past 5 years, and spends too much time surrounding himself with electronics. He is still cynical regarding the world, and cares little for it except for the people he cares for. Eats two meals a day but only because he sets the timer up, and mostly he buys food made by someone else. He still forgets to sleep, but at least his room isn’t as messy as before.

Overall, Matt didn’t change. He didn’t change one bit. And maybe that’s a good thing, maybe that’s a bad thing. Who would know?

But he learned he enjoyed the sound of the rain.
And he learned he enjoyed the early sun, after all.
And he learned he is overall grateful for things he didn’t know he was grateful before.

And that is definitively a good thing. ]

[Need a partner- Weapon, Meister, or Romantic? Having a relationship issue you need worked out? Need a liaison to another branch of Shibusen? Or what about just a sympathetic ear? Then Cupid is probably your lady. Though perpetually seventeen, she acts a lot more mature than she did when she arrived and she's expanded her 'relationship assistance' from just people to political, acting as a go-between for Death City and the European branches. Most days, it seems like she can do it all, and that's the way it usually is- though she does her best to make it seem like it is when things aren't going so well.

Much like the irony that was her canon love life, Cupid can't seem to keep a Meister to save her life- mostly because she decides they're a better fit for someone else a little ways into the partnership. She's always right. And trying to find out anything conclusive about her love life is a Herculean Labor in and of itself, so unless she trusts someone to know about it, she's probably not talking.

Also, Gods help you if you come up against her during morning training. Cupid trains like she does everything- more or less like it's for keeps. She's a total sweetheart after though, and is likely to spend the rest of training apologizing to whoever spars with her.

Generally though, she can be found working out of her apartment or running back and forth between Shibusen and the other branches in a whirl of now-long pink hair and precise, professional cell-phone conversation punctuated by the staccato click of her heels. Every once in a while though, she does pop out to visit her friends when she knows they'll be free. Every once in a while, if someone's lucky or knows where to look, she can even be found lounging inside a small, hole-in-the-wall cafe and enjoying a cup of tea and a cupcake or two.]

[ She didn’t change a thing.

Honestly, if all those years on Earth before didn’t change her, why would these 5 years be any different?

She still wants to take over this world and rule it. Turn it into the new Alternia. Get her hands on BREW and use it to make her own wishes. Still reading herself for when Lord English arrives, if the fucker ever will.

The difference might be that she has her own bakery now – Betty Crocker – and she is slowly getting richer. Go figure, seems like her cakes are REALLY DAMN GOOD after all. And apparently, she has also been getting her hands in some technological development, but those are just rumors, very much like everything else.

She apparently also has few human suitors after her. Uh.
Go figure how that happened.

She is currently walking through town, hoping to buy glitter. Because there is never enough glitter in her life. ]

[Five years for a bot go by in the blink of an eye. Five years is barely a drop in the bucket for how long he has been functioning. Had Bumblebee still been on his home planet, these years could have gone by without him knowing. But in a city filled with people, you can't help but become aware of the passage of time.

You get to watch those that you know grow and change. Some could become almost completely different people in those years. Though, Bee would hope those closest to him wouldn't change too much or if they did then not for the worst.

Bee was nearly a Deathscythe by this point. But in the way his meister wielded him, you'd find it hard to believe that his strength was anything less. Even after all of these years, Bee could still be found doing the same things that he always did. Roaming the city and helping out where he could. That was if he wasn't spending time with Fabiola.]

[Most days, Meenah gets antsy.

Really, that's the nicest way to put it, is 'antsy'. The not-so-nice ways are manic, overbearing, intrusive, demanding and generally far too difficult to deal with. Five years wouldn't be much if she'd had the kind of long life the Condesce had- and really, five years for a tyrian isn't really that long at all, all things considered. But she'd still been a teenager when she'd arrived, and while she was twenty-four by her human year count, she hadn't so much 'matured' as learned when and where to be her loudest to be the most effective. Otherwise, the only thing five years has done is make her stronger, more dangerous, put her higher on the ladder as far as Meister level goes. And despite having a good partner and a pretty decent life and really not missing out on very much, it's still not what she wants, and she makes that much obvious every chance she gets.

Because what she wants is out- she wants her (after)life back, she wants her powers back, she wants her goals back. She wants to bust out of this stupid city and this stupid dimension and she wants to go wreck Lord English and make the rest of Paradox Space her bitch.

But more than that- she just wants to win, because a war this long if nothing but not an insult to her pride, and she's not quite sure how much more of it she can take before she starts doing things in a way that Shibusen really won't like.

If Meenah's not on a mission, she's probably bothering Kid or whoever is in charge now to let her mess with BREW, or to let her take over. If not, she's probably practicing her stabs on something. And if she's really bored? She's probably somewhere with a lot of noise and a lot of air-conditioning- so either a club, a bar, or an arcade- it's anyone's guess which.]

Five years have passed and yet Obito still sometimes felt like a child, despite being eighteen. Nineteen if he counted the first birthday he had here, though he wasn't sure if he should. Either way, the idea of being a legal adult was a little frightening sometimes, especially when he considered the truth about his life and "death" back home.

He knew the truth now. It was only a matter of time for that to get back to him. After a few years of fighting with himself on the matter, he had finally come to terms with it. That person who had started the war back home, the one viciously killing off thousands of shinobi all for some endless dream of a world... that person, "Tobi," was not this Obito. It was a separate world and Obito had never wanted to go back. With the end of the war with the Witches nowhere in sight, he figured he didn't even have to worry about ever getting that option, assuming BREW kept him around. Luckily, the little device seemed intent on keeping him if his five plus year track record was any indication.

As for his time in Death City, Obito had not frittered away all of his days idly. He had taken several jobs in that time, broadening his range of skills until he felt well-rounded. Currently, he was a photographer; a hobby first steeped in his desire to capture memories that would last that evolved into a true passion for him. His skills with his camera had improved and while he primarily did freelance work for the daily news and sometimes Shibusen, he also had a small studio that he rented out so he could offer professional portrait photographs to any customers willing to pay a reasonable fee.

As a Meister, Obito had less success. His ability to keep a partner had never been all that strong and with his constant bouts of melancholy over his other life's infamous future, very few people had managed to make good connections with the Uchiha. However, that didn't mean he hadn't made any lasting relationships.

Obito was glad to know that he still held a strong friendship with Eve and Keroro. He had always gotten along well with Yuri Petrov, and even his relationship with Kerrigan had improved, though he wasn't sure if they would ever consider him a friend. He was on strained relationships with most other shinobi from his world, and for good reason. The only one he had a full positive relationship with was Hanabi and, well, that was a private matter.

All in all, Obito was satisfied with his life. Things could be better, but hey, they could also be so much worse.

[OOC: Cool with prose or action spam-type replies!]

[Somehow, Takuto has managed to make his way into his twenties without getting killed by any monsters or significant others. Not that there hadn't been any close calls, of course.

Takuto is stronger, slightly taller, and he doesn't bother bleaching his hair galactic blond anymore. He drinks responsibly, and has become an expert at making pizza from scratch. Having your first kiss or losing your virginity doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore, and he can even admit that without blushing (too much). But in the last year or so, he's actually felt older, or more mature. It's not that he's any less or more confident than he was as a teen, but something about the quality of his confidence that has changed.

As something much more like an adult, Takuto now teaches at morning training, and he's surprised himself by being rather good at it. He can finally control his meister ability, and rather enjoys being so dazzling, much to the chagrin of any weapons he's wielding. As for missions, he's been everywhere and helped several weapons halfway to Death Scythe status. Some stayed, and some left. But he's much better at accepting it when people close to him return to their worlds. That's where they belong, after all.

Takuto doesn't miss home. Death City is home.

Firecracker has grown into an incredibly chill dog. The labrador sleeps on a cushion in the living room (only sharing Takuto's bed when he doesn't have other company, which is usually never). The dog seems to have that canine sense for knowing good guys from bad guys, and also for rolling in horrible smelling things.

Takuto has somewhat reluctantly given up on the idea of ever properly getting married. It's too confusing to figure out how that would even work, given that he is, in every sense of the word, a dual-wielder. The actual institution of marriage isn't really that important to him, other than he wants to be able to have a ceremony--well, let's be honest, he just wants the party and a bride in a fancy dress.

Takuto still spends quite a bit of time with his friends doing relatively mundane things like having dinner or going to movies, and trying to help them sort through their lives. He still works for the Watch, though he moved to an afternoon shift a long time ago. He still takes Firecracker for long walks into the park and around the city. At night, he still watches the stars.]

[five years is a long time for any human, but for someone who demands action and change like Rose it's an eternity. five years of pointless battle and repeated defeat, five years of incompetent leaders making boneheaded decisions that the guests had to pay for.

five years, and her friends never appeared again.

in that time she's grown and watched others grow up around her (she never got much taller than when she was thirteen, something which kills her inside). she continued to be a disappointment to her mother and couldn't even manage to inherit her curves, instead having to rely on emphasizing willowy grace to distract others from the way her body was composed of sharp angles. she's nineteen now, practically and functionally an adult.

she's also a lot more dangerous now. five years is plenty of time for her to boil over emotionally, and she's likely spent a little time in Shibusen's jail for one crime or another. never severe enough to expel her from the city, but enough of them that they keep an eye on her comings and goings.

and oh, does she go. Rose can't stand to be in the city anymore, is constantly on the move trying to gather more information or do something productive for the war effort herself. she doesn't care who wins anymore, she just wants this fight over so she can return to the one that matters. her ability as a Meister has grown, although she never managed to open her mind or find a constant partner. it didn't matter, really. she could use whatever was available to her.

sometimes, though, she can be found returning to the city. after all these years she still resides in that same lonely apartment, working feverishly while surrounded by murals put up by friends whom she's begun to forget the faces of. some things are difficult to let go of.

if you're particularly lucky (or unlucky, depending on your opinion) you might see her stalking through the streets like a ghost, the rainbow scales on her necklace flashing in the sunlight as she turns the corner. there's nothing for her here, never has been, but sometimes she can't resist the urge to return to old habits and purchase a dessert at Death By Pastry.

old habits die hard.]

[Di, who now goes by Meulin all the time, has really come to consider Death City her home. In the five years that she has been here, she has gotten married, gotten a home of her own, started up a tea shop that has weekly book club meetings. There had been a point in which she had really even wanted to go as far as to adopt, but after consideration it seemed best not to. The war was still going on, and BREW was still active which meant the possibility of her and Kankri being sent back was a viable one. She didn't want to risk the chance of their child being abandoned, were they to go through with adoption.

Meulin is happy with her life, and more than ever she hopes that the war can end so she could try and convince Kankri and Mituna into saying--and seeing if there was a way to return Porrim here. Her heart still ached for their missing companion, for they felt incomplete without her. Of everything in her new life, that was the only lasting complaint she had.

Right now she is in the tea shop, sitting behind the counter, reading for the book club. It's a nice, rainy day which is keeping customers out but she doesn't mind. Quiet is definite appreciated every now and then.]

[It likely comes as a shock to exactly no one that Mello and Near are practically married by now. What might be surprising is that Mello will admit it.

Twenty-five now, and he never did get any taller, much to his private chagrin. His hair's long enough that he usually pulls it back into a messy ponytail, and there are reports that people have occasionally spotted him wearing a color other than black.

So gradually that he didn't notice he was changing, he's approached something like contentment. He still rails against BREW, of course: what the hell kind of wish-granting machine lets a war drag on six years when it has every world at its disposal? But he's found that, somehow, the quality of the people it chooses has increased dramatically, in his opinion. He's a Watch zone leader now, and at one point, running the whole show was his for the asking, but he found, to his own surprise at the time, that he preferred to have less public credit and more latitude of action, and unofficially maintains an information network much like what Mustang used to have.

He and Near are one Witch soul away from Death Scythe status, and Mello's doing some errands around Death City, preparing for the surprise party he means to throw for Near after they get there.]

[Five years isn't that long, for someone who lived for thousands, but this particular five years is close runner-up for most tumultuous of Psii's life. Things were very, very bad for little while. Pretending you don't have issues has a way of only working for so long, and then they explode. Psii's sure is only thanks to love and patience of family and friends that he isn't locked in containment center for glitchy humans.

Took a lot of patience, too, he knows, most of all when inability to acknowledge emotions except in most factual terms swung alarmingly into inability to keep from expressing all of them. For them, must have been like being on wrong side of dam that had burst.

But Psii's okay now. Mostly. He can use personal pronouns, just... doesn't always. Force of habit. And has learned to catch self before mood swings go out of control. Usually.

He did finally learn to eat foods that aren't full of sugar. It took intense debate with BR and coaxing from SS, but between efforts of two of them, Psii couldn't stay stubborn, and now grudgingly eats weird Earth vegetables. But he still eats cream out of cream puffs with claws.]

[Five years later and Near still wears the same clothes and plays with the same toys, although he has focused almost exclusively on his dozens (or is it hundreds?) of tarot card decks and jigsaw puzzles. He is now 27 years old, one Witch soul short of becoming a Death Scythe, and has grown taller (not by much, but certainly enough to become slightly taller than his partner), but despite the more angular features and the slightly longer hair, he still looks far younger than what he actually is.

After his eyesight deteriorated enough that the nearly constant headaches started to annoy him significantly, Near had no other choice but to to wear glasses, which are-- shockingly-- black rimmed. Or perhaps it isn’t really that surprising, given that Mello has rubbed off on him in more ways than one, but that does tend to happen when you are practically married to your partner.

Near remains one of the Agency co-heads, and the one responsible for Death City’s surveillance system; he’s often called in for his input in battle strategies, as well, although some Shibusen members have frequently manifested their distaste for his ruthlessness and cold approaches to battle. He owns a private security/surveillance company, under a different name, which allows him to have access to nearly every surveillance camera in Death City if he so wishes, even though customers aren’t aware of this tiny little detail in their contracts. Near has created different fake identities, as well, all under the wing of one single phantom individual, solving the few cases he finds interesting: mostly serial killers and rapists that the news mention once or twice, just enough to pique his interest.

While he hasn’t denied his emotions in a long while, Near still hasn’t let go of the habit of compartmentalizing everything-- he never will be able to shake that off completely, and neither does he want to-- but it happens less frequently, as he learns how to handle feelings he was unable to deal with, before. He gets bored far too easily and often grows restless, at times, because most things seem boring when you have already been the greatest detective alive. But Mello keeps him on his toes, and he keeps him grounded, as well, shifting Near’s focus into things that actually matter in Death City.

But not everything is srs bsns about this particular toy addict. While Near used to be an absolute disaster in all things related to cooking, he has taken an interest in particularly complicated dishes and desserts over the years, like soufflés or macaroons, which he excels at, surprisingly enough… even though he still doesn’t know how to fry an egg.]

Edited 2013-02-05 02:39 (UTC)

[Edgeworth, now thirty-two, has seen his fair share of trials and cases, and far, far more than his fair share of battle, death and magic.

As if he weren't old enough and didn't act old enough, he has become more pensive as the years came and went, more serious, and less prone to outbursts of temper. His logic and his wit are sharp as ever if not sharper, and over time he has actually learned a thing or two about understanding others and making friends. Well, everyone has to grow up sometime; Edgeworth may act old but he was actually still growing in other aspects. In fact, his more mellow demeanor may come off as...almost fatherly to some. But again, he still has a smart remark or ten up his sleeve especially if you're slow on the uptake, and still loses patience with the persistent and the impertinent, and the downright dull.

But don't let his mellower attitude fool you. Five years of faithful, diligent training has shaped Edgeworth into one of the most formidable swordsmen of Death City (truly befitting his name), and one of Shibusen's three-star Meisters. He has fully embraced his role as a soldier in this war, a war that had to end before more innocent lives were lost. Because of this, he has since become more active on the combat scene both as a fighter and a top strategist, now also known for having mapped out and plotted various battle tactics to whittle away at the witches' forces. Of course, Edgeworth's battles in court and in investigation do not go unnoticed. He remains one of the Agency's co-heads, and continues prosecuting. His search for the truth and his duty to the courts remain his top priorities, after all.

Some things never change, however. Five years later, Edgeworth is still the type to wear a suit and a cravat everyday, to make sure he is presentable in court, or for whatever appointment he may have, only dressing down to train or to embark on a mission. What has changed is how he carries himself; he has always confidently held his head up high and paid attention to his posture, but now there is a certain edge to his steps and his stance, a more deliberate pace, a thoughtful grace. He is less tense and clipped in his movements than before, thanks to the intense training he has subjected himself to.

And his fears? Earthquakes still send him to his knees, but he has slowly but surely been working on his fear of elevators. Now he can take an elevator ride up six floors (which is how high up his unit in the Fatality Condominiums is) without much issue - although he will still break into a sweat, tremble a little, and grip the railings. And be eternally grateful when the ride is over.

You may either run into him in the Agency, doing work as usual; in court, handling cases and making sure the guilty are punished; on the training grounds, concentrating on his routine and well aware that he still has much to learn about combat; or basically anywhere, living the good life, being the filthy rich prosecutor he has always been and will be. He may or may not have forged Genesis Rhapsodos into a Death Scythe by now.]

Fabiola Iglesias ⚜ Black Lagoon

Sollux Captor | hamsnacks

L Lawliet

Matt | Desu Noto

C.A. Cupid ♥ Monster High

Condesce | Lemme tell ya aboat Homestuck

Bumblebee | Transformers

Meenah Peixes ☠ Homestuck

Uchiha Obito | Naruto

Takuto Tsunashi | Star Driver

Rose Lalonde | Homestuck

the disciple | homestuck | ota

Mello | Death Note

Psii | that one webcomic