Genji.

北風。

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

“𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦.”

‣ independent shimada genji rp
‣ narrative-driven/flexible timeline
‣ #OWRP | 18+ | non-lewd

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 Genji purses his lips in a moment of quiet contemplation, squinting at the billboard across the way.

" ... Are you asking because I seem bored or was a job the only reason you reached out?"

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 “It is a fine time. And I do not have ‘angst hours’. I just was not expecting you.”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 “Not as busy as I would like to be. Why reach out now?”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 “I… am confused.”

Genji breathes out a chuckle, reclining back onto his hands.

“The point is you are speaking to me with a voice. It has been a while.”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 “Well, you are sentient. Or very good at pretending to be? So yes?”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 “But there is a person on the other side of the data. Controlling the data. Yes?”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 Makeup ads, a new action thriller coming out soon, good old neon commercialism.

“Can it be both?” he asks. Then, tilting his head, “Well, I think mine is, actually.”

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 That much is obvious and expected. He looks at the digital billboard as he replies, the closest thing to an entity to address in the present situation.

"I suppose? I can tell it is not quite real. Are you masking your own voice, or is it entirely artificial?"

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 Genji visibly startles at the sound of her -- someone's? -- voice.

"You-- ! You talk now?"

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 She has been in Genji's 'head', so to speak, before. Never bad company, but certainly not the sort of company he can bring home to meet the family. It's always been the same, for the most part -- nonverbal, crawling text, like a one-way voice call.

+

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 Okay, now that's a little amusing. Genji idly wonders if he should feel desperate or not as he scans the code and says aloud, "I would not do this if it were not you, for the record."

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 It's been a long time, he thinks, and he straightens up as he processes what he's being asked.

A huff of a laugh, almost a scoff.

"I'm not--," Warbling static at first, voice laden with disuse. Try again. "I'm not /brooding/."

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

@digitaltrace404 It's for that reason that when he does, he almost thinks he's imagined it, that his eyes are playing tricks or his HUD has distorted.

But it's there, and Genji knows this pink text. As much as one can know the unknowable, in any case. +

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

Reckless driving or stumbling down the sidewalk arm-in-arm with friends or lovers or both, laughter on his lips, trouble to be found.

Now he haunts the scaffolding, watches from afar, longs to be needed.

'Restless', he realizes, doesn't quite cover it. He's lonely, too.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

He sits in the scaffolding of an empty construction site across from one of Kanezaka's expressways, legs dangling over the edge. His palms are braced against the wooden board beneath him as he reclines, idly watching the taillights streak by in time with the whir of lev-rims.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

The light pollution is such that he can't see the stars. Instead, it's all vehicles and billboards and neon LEDs, flickering lights below and a smattering of still-lit flats in towers on the opposite side of the overpass.

He used to thrive on nights like this.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

Very proud, and very touched that she's kept her hair green, and very conflicted over the distance he keeps.

He very much wants -- needs -- to do more. It's a familiar old itch beneath his skin, restless, restless, restless.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

No, in fact, he's been in something of a slump, finding himself with less of a purpose here than he'd necessarily expected.

Which is good -- it's very good, the Yōkai are doing good work and Kiriko, who he watches from afar now and again, is a fine leader. He's proud of her.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

Lingering humidity left in the wake of a late-noon summer shower faded with the sun, and Genji no longer feels quite so sticky beneath the plates of his armor, which is a welcome reprieve. Not that he was particularly busy during the day.

[Genji. @OfNorthernWinds]

Kanezaka is nice this time of year, at this time of day -- which is, judging by the moon's position overhead, shortly before midnight. It's around now that the unseasonably warm weather of the day gives way to the comfortable chill of night.