-o0o-

Encore

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No one knew from whence he came but when he did come he came carrying loads of emotional baggage and what could best be described as a multiple personality disorder.

He'd been about eight years of age, supposedly, as there was no real way of telling for sure.

He came carrying no last name and with no recollection of any family or previous place of residence whatsoever and he wasn't featured in any missing child reports either and no one ever came looking for him at the temple he had on his own decided to take up residence in, even before the old man in charge had officially taken him in.

He came in completely without a record, but with a mind like a trap and likely a photographic memory at that, although it was painfully clear to anyone that had actually met him that he held little or no interest in putting his intelligence to much use in the future as he in general seemed to prefer living simple and easy rather than exert himself in order to accomplish anything. The old man had labeled him a lazy good-for-nothing for that and he supposed that such an observation could be considered reasonably correct.

He was Lavi, but at the same time he was also many others.

He was Lavi, or LaVI, the lazy one.

He was also Deak, the notoriously cryptic one.

He was also Lav, the overly affectionate one.

He was also Laiv, the lively one.

Last but not least he was also Lai, the liar who had never once spoken a single word of truth.

Essentially they were all him, just different versions of him that had been around for so long that all of them had forgotten who the real one was, if there had ever been a real one in the first place. The one mentioned in psychology books, the original personality which he had somehow displaced at some point.

Since it had seemed like he had just turned up seemingly out of nowhere as if he'd been dropped from the sky itself, sharing the same body as four other "people", Lavi sometimes mused that it didn't matter if all others ignored him or despised him and that he didn't seem to have a purpose in the world as he'd created his own purpose instead, continuing to exist simply because of his own reasons to do so.

Meeting Kanda Yu had been a turning point for him. A meeting, although insignificant in itself, had made him realize that there was so much more to life than to simply be acknowledged by others.

"I acknowledge myself," he said, sitting in his usual spot in the cemetery. "That is enough."

A lone emerald eye watched as a flock of birds took flight from a tree nearby, sticking together and moving in swarm as they went elsewhere, looking for food or shelter for the night or just having been stirred up by something… He honestly didn't know which and with all due honesty he didn't care either.

With practiced ease he snatched a black feather out of the air as it slowly floated downwards and he studied it with a keen eye to see if it was anything remotely special, anything remotely worth keeping or at least worthy of remembering.

After a few moments he let it go, allowing it to continue its descent down to the ground where it landed right next to a newly placed bouquet of flowers, white lilies of all things.

He leaned his head backwards, studying the sky yet again.

"I'm so bored."

-o0o-

Allen might've been suicidal but he was far from stupid; possessed instruments and psychotic family members aside he had always known, at least instinctively, that there was something beyond the usual, something absolutely extraordinary, about those that were taken into the Noah family.

Now, the wind rushing past him at a seemingly accelerating pace as he made his descent down below he could still feel something shift in his immediate surroundings and although he had his eyes closed and wind rushing past his ears he still heard it, the very distinct sound of wing beats drawing closer to him at an accelerating pace.

Suddenly he wasn't falling anymore, having come to a sudden stop as he was caught in a pair of arms that were somehow very familiar to him. His eyes snapped open, but he didn't stare at his "savior" with anything aching to surprise or shock, but rather in a deep sense of dismay.

"Tyki, I can't help but feel very disappointed in you."

Tyki said nothing until he'd somehow managed to latch himself onto a conveniently located corporate sign, still managing to keep a firm grip around Allen's waist as he did so, resting the black appendages that had somehow sprouted from his back.

"Your opinion has been duly noted," Tyki dryly replied, throwing a lazy glance at the assembling masses down there that were all pointing and shouting and taking pictures with their cameras and stuff. "Do you have any idea how much trouble we're in right now?"

Allen eyed the feathery appendages sprouting from the other's back.

"Well, I was trying to off myself in an absolutely spectacularly epic way and I would have succeeded had you just minded your own fucking business," he remarked, glancing up from whence he had fallen and spotting Kanda standing there, though the latter was too far away for him to see what kind of expression he was wearing. "So don't you dare blame this one on me, Tyki."

The older man, or whatever he was in reality, opened his mouth to say something but before he was able to say anything there was a loud voice cutting in on their conversation.

"Okay, CUT, CUT, CUT!"

They both looked up in surprise and turned their heads towards the sound of the voice, spotting Devitto standing in an open window in the building from across the street holding onto this big megaphone. Next to him stood an apparently furiously giggling Jasdero next to something which looked suspiciously much like a high-tech video camera strapped to a camera support.

"Okay!" Devitto shouted again, his voice amplified several times through the megaphone. "Tyki, you did a great job with the wing attachment; they looked pretty real on the collected footage so we won't have to edit anything out but the safety line..."

Allen and Tyki both exchanged a look of utter confusion. What safety line?

"And Allen, your performance still needs some work overall but in this shot you pretty much nailed it!" Devitto announced. "Am I right, Lulu?" he continued, indicating towards one of the lower rooftops where Lulubell stood with another video camera, flashing them a thumbs up although her facial expression was anything but joyful.

"Oooh, so they're shooting a movie," was the response from the people who'd assembled below and numerous fan girls, of Tyki mostly, squealed at how cool it was and that Tyki really fit the role of a fallen angel and so on.

Meanwhile, the unfortunate pair who'd up until that point been the main attraction simply stared at each other, confusion written on both of their faces until slowly a sense of realization started settling in.

"He made one of my suicide attempts into a public spectacle to promote his latest project?" Allen dryly remarked, a bit ticked off but by no means surprised. "Earl… if I wasn't already so head bent on offing myself then I would seriously find you and kill you in the most spectacular way possible…"

"That makes two of us," Tyki responded through grit teeth, feeling rather annoyed at the fact that his heroic coming to the rescue had been taken advantage of by the man.

-o0o-

Kurozaia: Okay! Hands up anyone who actually saw this coming? No? Okay good, because neither did I (although I did know that it would be coming eventually it did kind of sneak up on me)… Anyways, my translations assignment is so far only about half-way finished and I also have a book to read, important keywords to pick out and analyze, linguistics to read, questions to assess and a job (or several) to apply to, so… Catch you later? ^^

Zaia: *rereads chapter and facepalms* You have got to be kidding me…