tampered | Log: Fresh on the table

When; Day after slo-mo day
Rating; Uh. PG-13?
Characters; Gojyo

sha_jien, possibly Kougaiji

puppetedprince.
Summary; In response to Doku's questionable invitation, Gojyo decides to go meet his brother for a drink and try to see what's up.
Log;

Gojyo looked up at the massive organ pipes stretching up into the night sky and neon and bit down on his cigarette. Before coming to the City he would've thought it was weird to come across a bar that looked like it was made out of a church, but now he just catalogued it as part of the City. Heck, after his trip down to the Underworld a few days ago, Automatica looked downright normal. (Not that bashing in monster heads with that Kurogane guy hadn't done wonders for his temper, even if they hadn't found anything about the carousel.)

He didn't like having to pay Dorian anything in this place, so it was just as well he'd gotten club admission from some redheaded chick who didn't need it any more. Granted, she was creepier than some of the youkai they'd come across (those purple eyes were obviously blind but felt like they were looking right into his soul, goddammit), but he was never one to pass up free drinks. As long as he never had to run into her again.

The place was in full swing as he entered, like it always was, packed with faceless dancers obscured by the haze of a smoke machine. He wasn't sure whether these people ever stopped to sleep, and wasn't sure he wanted to ask. Edging around the dance floor, the half-kappa made a beeline for the Blue Bar, his personal favorite out of the three bars scattered across the club, and waved the barlady down for a brandy as he lit his cig. The other two bars, the Neon Bar and the Table Bar (what he liked to call the Punk Bar and the Priss Bar), were ones he wouldn't be caught dead at unless they were the last bars on the planet, so he figured his brother would be able to find him easily enough.

Exhaling on a cloud of smoke, Gojyo thanked the lady as she brought him his drink and indulged in a little flirting while he idly wondered what Jien had called him here for. It was obvious that something had the older man's back up, and in his experience that something usually tended to be Kougaiji. But he'd already said he'd keep an eye out for the Demon Prince, so what was there left to talk about?

It didn't make sense. But he'd be damned if he was going to leave until it did.

The barlady left to tend to other patrons, and Gojyo leaned back with his drink and waited for Jien.

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"Old bag?" He blinked at Gojyo for a second before--ah, right, the peddler lady, Dorian. Doku shook his head, eyebrows furrowing a little before he looked up again, wiping the confusion off his face with a smile. "Not really sure. Don't know if I'd be able to tell either way. All the important stuff's still there, that's all that matters, right?" He threw a light-hearted punch at Gojyo's shoulder, propping his elbow on the counter and leaning his weight to one side. "Hey, I still recognize you. Unfortunately, maybe."

A joke, half-cheerful, half-serious--seemed like everything to do with his half-brother was some kind of mix of the two. Bittersweet, but then, hey, so was life and everything about it: fighting, talking, memories. And that was the second thing that he'd done after leaving Dorian's--made sure that those memories, at least, were there. Kou first, of course, but Gojyo inevitably second.

Which just brought him back to why he was here...

"Don't worry about it." Doku continued, folding his arms and leaning forward over the counter. What time was it? How long was he going to have to do this? How was he going to do this? "So how'd they manage to suck you in?"

Dammit, he wished Jien would just get to the point already. Swallowing his impatience, Gojyo grinned with an embarassment that wasn't entirely feigned. "Walked into a bar's bathroom," he admitted. "The monkey got caught going into the hotel's kitchen, go fig. Hakkai drove his way in, and San--"

Right. He'd almost forgotten about that Nii bastard. The--what had Sanzo called him? Ukoko? The fact that he might be the inverted asshole of a prick who had been behind Kami-sama and what happened to Ginkaku and Kinkaku just put him even higher on his list of people's asses he needed to kick.

But on the journals, Jien had said something about knowing Nii, about keeping Kou away from him. Was that was this was about? How much could he trust to tell his brother, knowing that Jien was lying to him and Kougaiji was up to gods knew what?

Fuck it at to hell, he hated mind games. With a passion. And they weren't going to find out anything just beating around the bush.

"Sanzo actually found a way in," Gojyo finished quietly, swirling the drink in his snifter, watching Jien through his bangs. "He followed after where Hakkai went, found a piece of metal that sent him here when he touched it. He figures someone else sent us here, we just don't know why." He tossed the rest of the drink back, and decided to toss down the rest of his cards on the table, so to speak. "Plus War God Nataku's roomin' in this place too, and Kanzeon got a hold of the priest and gave him a laptop so he could find us, so we figure that's got somethin' to do with it, too." He leaned back on the bar, pinning Jien with a sidelong look that could have been mistaken as questioning if it wasn't quite so sharp.

Of course, the reason Doku wasn't getting to the point in the first place was that well, once they got to the point, only two things could happen and both were bad. One, he might succeed, detain and drag Gojyo's somehow to the Warehouse like Kougaiji had ordered, and possibly never actually be able to see Gojyo again. The other, he'd fail Kou. Neither were very tempting options. Agh, but damn, did he hate all this lying and circling around the point...

And he wasn't very good at it, either, and he knew it--hiding his emotions and worries and all that had never been a strong side of his. When he was down, everyone knew it. When he was tense, it was obvious. When he was angry, it was all over his face, even if he kept silent. And at the mention of how Genjo Sanzo had arrived, it was with the a mixture of that same anger and surprise that he met it.

"That bastard!" It was out of his mouth before he could stop himself. Doku turned his head, pounding a fist on the table and slurring his words into a curse, but it was already too late. And from the expression on his half-brother's face? Gojyo wanted an explanation. Doku figured that it didn't matter now, telling Gojyo all he knew about the man: he was a mutual enemy, after all. Hey--maybe Sanzo-ikkou could help them take him down? But Kou and his pride would never bend that far... Dammit. Too much to think about. He'd deal with all that later.

"If anyone wanted all of us in here, it's Nii. Nii Jianyi. I don't know where he came from, but he was working for Gyoukumen before we all left. A scientist." Doku frowned at the memory, anger still apparent in his expression. "He did... something, to Kou, before. Messed with his mind. Kou broke free last time we saw you, but I think it's been happening again... he ran in here like that."

That certainly wasn't a memory he wanted to bring back. And neither were the ones that tagged along with it, of how he'd practically handed Kou over to Nii. But even now, a hint of a smile lifted the corner of Doku's mouth as he pointed a finger at Gojyo. "Stay away from him. Got it? The only one allowed to kill you is me."

"Fair enough," Gojyo quipped, tipping his empty glass in acknowledgement. "But he's screwing around with Kougaiji's mind . . . and working with Gyoukumen? The Lady Gyoukumen? Fuck, I'm liking this guy less and less."

He thumped the snifter down on the bar and propped his chin in his hand, brooding. "So if you hate this Nii bastard so much, and he's doing . . . whatever, to Kougaiji, then why are you still listenin' to the prince? You might as well be doing whatever the hell Nii wants you to."

"He tried to do... something to Ririn, too. I like him less than you. I'd kill him if I could..." Doku's eyes narrowed slightly, but he held the rest of his anger back and drained his own glass, ordering another before turning to Gojyo again. Kidnap Gojyo or get Gojyo blindly intoxicated or not, there was no reason that he couldn't get pleasantly drunk himself. Hell, it'd probably help his head.

But the mention of his loyalty to Kou, even if it were a question of it, lifted Doku's mood a little. Besides, it didn't suit Gojyo, looking all broody. "If you hate that monk so much, why're you still listenin' to him?" he shot back, letting a grin slide back onto his face--one that fade slightly into a smile at his next words, but remained in place. "I do what he tells me to do. Figure that even if it is Nii using him, if I don't do it, Nii'll do something worse..."

Something worse, that was worth trading his brother in for? Yeah, yeah, okay, not thinking about that...

Gojyo winked at the barlady as she brought him another drink, then turned back to his brother with a smirk. "Who said I ever listen to him? I do whatever the hell I like, whether the bastard likes it or not. I only listen to him when he's makin' sense." Which was more often than he'd ever admit out loud, but hey, details.

"But yeah, Nii's bad news. Sanzo seems to know him too, said he was a heretical Sanzo or something. Ukoku Sanzo. Sounds weird that a Sanzo'd turn to science," he mused, watching the patrons bump and grind on the dance floor.

Nii, a Sanzo? That's the first Doku had ever heard about something like that. As far as he'd known, the scientist had just appeared one day out of nowhere, but... Yeah, Ukoku Sanzo, Kou was definitely going to want to know about that possibility.

"Never seen him with a Sutra, but I wouldn't know. All I know is he wants us all dead, you first, us second. Not that Kou'd just let him have the Maten Sutra, but..." But that went without saying. They'd been on opposing sides for long enough to know what the other would do. A three-sided fight. Wasn't anything ever simple any more?

He followed Gojyo's gaze out onto the dance floor, watching with an eye more worried than interested. "Man, I just keep wishin' Yaone was here to kick my ass into figuring out what the hell to do."

Log: Fresh on the table

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