Body of Three || Kasey & Setsuna

you're in the city of light

or two she'd said to the woman at the front.  For two!  What a silly joke Bones was telling that, to all the rest of the world, would seem like nothing to take notice of.  She loved that sort of play.  Was it even intentional?  It was hard to read Bones' face when she herself was wearing it, but Byeol-Su could feel little changes to it.  The feeling of her tongue moving with speech, how her eyes blinked, and--oh, the unpleasant feeling of something sawing into her back.  It hurt.  Not painfully, not like when she was cut from wrist to elbow, but still not something she liked.  That must be the other one doing that.  He could act from within Bones' body.  She was envious.  All she could do was be a voyeur, eyes behind their own.

She could act, but only in little ways.  She could not hurt her host from the inside-out.

Why would she do that anyway?  All it would do was hurt herself.  Not them.

Ah, and it seemed that had been noticed.  Byeol-Su could not hear Bones' thoughts, and thus did not hear the lead-in to her other passenger's statement, but she could gather a little from the lone sentence.  She knew that sort of phrasing.  He'd used it a few times in warning.  Warning and care.  It was bad to let oneself be pushed to the limit, but to do so when you could not feel that limit...

She walked--Bones walked--to their table and sat down in a spot behind sheer curtains--enough for them to see a figure coming close, but not for someone to see inside.  It wasn't too far from the pretty lights, however, and she loved that.  She couldn't wait another moment.  As soon as they were alone, together alone, she moved, her self pushing through Kasey's veins towards the fresh wound upon her shoulder.  She could feel it, thin but deep enough for her to access it.  The feeling was, once again, strange.  Especially since she was doing so from inside Bones' clothing.

It was slightly awkward, and much less graceful than it had been previously.  Her self was not liquid enough to seep into Bones' clothing, and she could move herself to not drip down the woman's spine and wind up in a strange situation.  Instead Byeol-Su flowed against gravity, up through Bones' clothing to where the collar of her shirt was, and moved up and out from there like a cold, clammy worm.  Feeling would return to Kasey the moment the last piece of her was gone.  The feeling of pain from her, to Byeol-Su, however, would not leave her for some time.  As it was.

Once free of Bones' clothing Byeol-Su formed a puddle on the floor besides her, and much like before, took a moment as her body reformed from it, pulled up like she'd been laying there as a person rather than, well, a puddle.  She shook her head twice as her facial features reformed upon her face, the color of her hair, eyes, mouth, and even her pretty dress came back from gray.  She then drew in a deep breath.  It was odd breathing with her own lungs after breathing through somebody else's.  Especially when you weren't sure if you had "lungs" in the first place.

"Am here!  Just needed hole.  Sorry for not convenience."  Byeol-Su giggled, taking the seat besides Bones with a bright, beaming smile.  She was small enough that her feet did not touch the floor while sitting in it, but she could still see over the table well enough.  He'd teased her about needing a booster seat once or twice before, but now she didn't need one!  Except when driving.

Unless he was her host, which he usually was when driving, so it didn't matter.

"Is strange, feeling your bone move.  Never felt like that before.  Is them, right?  Other one."  She was entirely casual as she spoke, picking up the menu and looking it over with hungry eyes--both for food, and simply for the newness of this whole experience.  "He wrong.  Am not dangerous."

Not in the way she believed he meant, at least.

you're in the city of light

ing was a curious name for a creature like her.  One she couldn't relate to.  How could he be a king when he needed somebody else to inhabit to survive?  The same as her.  Maybe Bones gave him that name because she was his host.  Maybe because she was Queen, he was King.  That made more sense.  He, too, could make a form that existed outside of somebody, though his did not look human the way she did.  Instead he looked like a puppy.  Byeol-Su giggled, hiding her mouth behind her menu for a moment.  Puppy parasite.

She could only do that with a puppy.  It wasn't as fun from the other side.

"My quirk?" the word felt funny on her tongue.  What was it?  What did it mean?  Was it a word that didn't have a translation?  She clicked it on her tongue a couple more times and in the meanwhile a server approached.  Byeol-Su eyed her, expression unnervingly blank and body completely still, until she left.  Byeol-Su looked up at Bones, lip pursed in a small frown.  "She saw me, Bones.  Is safe?  Is she not to tell?  Can't let many person know, Bones, or  █Ø will worry..."

The word--or sound, rather--apparently made her throat itch enough to bring a dry cough up from it.  She hated that.  If she said it too much the feeling mounted.  Itched.  Scratched.  Even for someone with no real throat it did not feel good.  She reached for a cup of water to take a sip and soothe it.  Her wet skin pressed into the condensation around the glass and turned it the same gray as her skin, but when the water touched her lips it didn't take any of the color, or skin, with it.

Bones' next question was interesting.  Byeol-Su looked down at Skeleton King, who was chewing on the table.  Could he host her?  Could one parasite host another?  It didn't sound right, just like the word he'd said before.  "Does he bleed?"  she asked innocently, eyes returning to Bones' own, "Can't host if not blood.  Must bleed.  Animal, person...have not tried bird or fish, but must have blood.  If Skeleton King have blood, could be host.  If not could not be.  Does he bleed?"

you're in the city of light

yeol-Su's frown deepened in confusion, unsure what Bones meant by a difference between what the server saw and what she would remember, until the sight of claws growing from her finger-tips explained what she was implying clearer than her words.  Bones was very much like him.  He was much better at making people keep their secrets and only remember certain things; though he could do so in a much more literal way than what Bones was speaking of.  Dead people could still speak to some extent.  Or at least their corpses did.  He could keep even the living quiet.  Maybe Bones would like that about him.

"Is sharp.  Would be messy, if used sharp," she kicked her feet a few times back and forth, back and forth, while never taking her eyes off of Bones' hand, even though the claws had retracted, "Know ways to keep wetne--witness from remember, or from talk.  Less messy, too.  Later?"

He would not like her lending out his gift like that.  But it would be okay.  They needed friends.

That King did not bleed didn't surprise Byeol-Su nearly as much as it may have another person.  After all, she did not bleed, and she and King were the same.  So it wasn't very weird.  "Am the same, but not like bone.  I don't think...I have bone?  Not like normal."  She paused and raised her hand, wiggling her fingers.  Their movement indicated that there was some solid core in them, keeping her form bending them backwards or flopping them around like loose rubber gloves, but as she'd shown earlier she could dissolve her whole body with ease.  To call them 'bones' would be as accurate as calling what King bled 'blood'.  "Too bad.  Would be funny, parasite in a parasite.  Or parasite in parasite in host.  Like nest doll.  Maybe could find other like, someday, and do so!"

Reminded of what they'd really come to the restaurant for Byeol-Su swiped the menu from the table and opened it, pouting at the sight of all the characters.  Of course it would be in Japanese.  They were in Japan.  It was not helpful in deciding what to eat, though, when she could only read simpler words than that the ones on the paper.  "Hhnn...not know if on menu, but want to try new food.  Very Japan food!  New, not like something from home.  Which one is that?  Reading...hard."

Though at least it encouraged her to learn these words for future ventures, frustrating as they were now.  If she could remember them she could ask him for it at a later date, or even share it!

She would like that.  He would, too, most likely.

"If lot of those, then something not hot?  Some hot is okay, but not like wash a bee.  Or...what word?  Green food that is hot, see in food shops.  Smells bad.  Like burning and gross."

you're in the city of light

f they all like food from home, won't be as fun.  Want something new!"  Byeol-Su's brow knit tight in concentration, thinking hard about what she would want to try based on things she'd seen on the television or the shop windows when out with him as her host.  It had mostly been bright, colorful things that she noticed.  Candy made of clouds dyed all colors of the rainbow, clear balls with flowers inside--that you could eat!--and sweet smelling juice in big glass bottles.  She wasn't sure if any of those were on here.  Everything Bones listed off was a dinner food, not a dessert.  That was okay.  Byeol-Su liked dinner food, too.

But she was bored of the food that he kept buying for her.

"No pig," she said frankly, and raised a finger like she was about to start a little list, "No pig, or hot...no fish.  Have fish that isn't cooked a lot at home.  Is there...streak?  Steak!"  She looked up at Bones with a bright, gooey grin, "That steak that was cut so easy!  That was on the tee-vee, said it was special!  Is on the menu?  Never ate special steak before, could try that?  Please, Bones?"

She couldn't quite remember the name of it, but she remembered him mention it once before.  He said that it was expensive.  It would give them away if he ate it every night.  That was why he hadn't been ordering it and instead getting some other kind.  What was the difference?  It had to be special if it cost so much money.  Everything that was special cost more money than the rest.

Why was that, anyway?  Why did people care so much about money, when they had gifts that could take it away so easily?  The only good thing it did was get her new things, or bring them to new places...though he did say one that it made the world go around.  Maybe that was important.

you're in the city of light

agyu?  Kobe?  What were these words and what did they mean?  Were they just the names of the steak, or were they something she just didn't know?  Byeol-Su watched Bones with the intensity only a curious child could muster, not looking at the waitress as she approached in favor of keeping her eyes on her host.  The waitress wasn't a problem.  Bones said so.  And she was going to trust Bones because she was nice, and was buying her food, and had a friend who was just like her.  A host would be kind to parasites like her.  He was nice to her, too.  The difference was that King looked like a pet instead of a person, but...

"Ramen is noodles, and...bento is like dolsot?  That is so much food!"  She giggled ecstatically,  clapping her hands together rapidly, making multiple little wet noises.  Somehow nothing splattered off of her body in the process.  "What is third one?  And can get a sweet, too??  Love sweets!!  What is mochi?  Is it new?  What tastes does it come in?"  The idea of so many new foods was so exciting.  He might make fun of her when she got back, if she was so full up that she could barely move.  It didn't matter though.  He told her to have fun and she would have fun!

Or, well, he told her to make friends, but you made friends by having fun, so it was the same thing.

She was even making two in the body of one.

She started kicking her legs back and forth under the table.  Every time her heel hit the bottom of the chair there was a small squilch sound.  Byeol-Su tilted her head back to look at the lights.  Everything was so pretty, so alive.  Maybe he would take her here again.  Or maybe he would let Bones take her out again if they became friends.  They were friends, right?  She could ask.  "What should do while wait?  Game?  Talk?  Want to be friends, if okay with you.  Yous.  Both you."

you're in the city of light

ifferences didn't need to be so great that the things being compared would be unrecognizable to one another.  Byeol-Su didn't feel this way, though.  She preferred having experiences--food, travel, toys, anything--so different that she had nothing to compare them too.  Yet there were only so many combinations of certain foods one could make that tasted well before similarities happened.  Oh well.  At least it was something new in the sense that she'd never had this particular meal before, even if it was similar to one at home.

Her already bright smile grew even wider, her visible eye practically sparkling in the low light of the restaurant.  "We are?!  Am so happy!!  █Ø will be so happy too!  Keeps wanting me to make friends.  Friends are important!  And now have made two!  I can't wait to--" her exuberance was cut off by the sight of King growing in size, becoming larger and more humanoid in nature until he was the same size as Bones.  Which meant he was taller than her now.   "Ahh,  wish could do that without host.  Now King bigger...am feeling small here!"  She stuck her tongue out playfully.

Mostly playfully.

Questions and games were a good way to pass the time, so he said.  It also helped to get to know people better, and make friends faster.  Of course his games were always kind of boring when repeated over and over again.  It wouldn't be as boring with new friends.  "Play 'end word continue'?  Or...is called shiritori, in Japan?  Word game where match last letter with first letter.  Play on planes when hosted a lot.  █Ø using to help me learn Japanese!"  Byeol-Su nodded in a most serious manner, then paused, pondering King's question.  "Said before?  Am from Korea.  Born there, grow there, live there.  Just visit Japan and other places a lot for important work."

Assuming her suggested game wasn't turned down, she considered which word she should start with.  The point was to get someone to end a word with "N" in the Japanese version.  She could remember which words ended with "N" in Korean, but was still getting used to which ones were different in Japanese.  It was a good game for learning the language.  He was very smart.  Byeol-Su looked around for inspiration, spotting a painted tree with pink blossoms to the side

"Will start with...cherry!"

you're in the city of light

ing's ability to grow and shrink in size was enviable.  Byeol-Su was always the smallest one wherever she went, even though nobody would know while she was being hosted.  She was still so little in person.  He never said anything about it when she complained, though, and would only tell her that she would grow taller in time.  But would she really?  She didn't remember her parents very well, but she remembered them as being very big.  It might all be in her head, though.  They could have been short, and her just even smaller--too small to really understand the concept of "height".  Maybe he remembered how tall they were and was giving her confidence.  Or building her up without any grounds to.  That would be mean.

He wasn't mean to her.

"Young...G...um..." Byeol-Su placed a finger to her chin, not quite noticing King had muffled Bones for some reason as she concentrated on her next word.  "Goon" came to mind but it ended in an "n".  "Green" too.  Shoot.  After a few seconds she turned her head and spoke, with a small burst of energy, "Grape!  Grape is right word?  The round small fruit that grow in groups?  AH!  More G words!  But still pick grape.  Like grapes.  Not red grapes, green grapes.  Taste sweeter than red."

And of course the green grapes being sweeter made them far more superior than the red ones.  Anybody with a sense of taste would know that.  He disagreed and said they tasted the same, but that one she knew was him teasing her for her tastes.  He would call it "predictable".  How come?