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Entry tags:
Awakening
Who: Shin Tsukimi and Anyone
When: July 2nd
What: Opening Post!
Warnings: None as yet.
Shin’s arrival to Yogen is heralded by a slam as he sharply closes his locker and dizzily leans against it while two sets of memories jostle each other. He gathers himself enough to glance around, grab his jacket, and lock it, mind furiously racing as he puts it on and tries to process how he is here. The raw relief flooding through him is turning sour at the immediate possibilities that come to mind.
A: School Life (Day, Misc)
Shin… keeps going to classes he half-remembers, eyeing any non-human-looking students he sees. He feels exposed (and also mundanely chilly) without his scarf and beanie, and his hands keep drifting to the empty space of either. When classes end he returns to his locker, puts them on and pockets the items inside, before trying to leave through the front doors and finding he… can’t. Ah. So that’s how it is. You can catch him in such states as staring at the School Rules with an unreadable expression, at one of the vending machines with more of a debating one, or in one of the classrooms sitting with his elbows on a desk and his hands tugging his beanie down over his head.
B: Washing Day (Evening)
So it turns out one of the side effects of dumping a bag of dirt out inside a locker is that everything in that locker... becomes covered in dirt. So if you go into one of the bathrooms after 6PM you may see the strange sight of someone in a dirt-dusted purple jacket not-so-gently washing their clothes in one of the sinks with half his face buried into the similarly adorned scarf around his neck, because as furtive as he’s been about waiting for one to be empty it’s just a bathroom and people can just walk in. Ask him how his day is going.
C: Safety In Numbers (Night)
At this point you may see Shin file quietly into whichever room seems to have the most people in it and sit down in a corner or seat. Somewhere he has a good view of the room; if you catch him looking at you he’ll give you a polite smile and glance away, fiddling with his scarf. He’s exhausted, and his head will occasionally dip and jolt back upright as his body tries to collect the day’s debt.
Believe it or not this is him starting to try out that ‘trust’ thing again… or maybe it’s just there’s no dorm rooms he can lock. Baby steps.
When: July 2nd
What: Opening Post!
Warnings: None as yet.
Shin’s arrival to Yogen is heralded by a slam as he sharply closes his locker and dizzily leans against it while two sets of memories jostle each other. He gathers himself enough to glance around, grab his jacket, and lock it, mind furiously racing as he puts it on and tries to process how he is here. The raw relief flooding through him is turning sour at the immediate possibilities that come to mind.
A: School Life (Day, Misc)
Shin… keeps going to classes he half-remembers, eyeing any non-human-looking students he sees. He feels exposed (and also mundanely chilly) without his scarf and beanie, and his hands keep drifting to the empty space of either. When classes end he returns to his locker, puts them on and pockets the items inside, before trying to leave through the front doors and finding he… can’t. Ah. So that’s how it is. You can catch him in such states as staring at the School Rules with an unreadable expression, at one of the vending machines with more of a debating one, or in one of the classrooms sitting with his elbows on a desk and his hands tugging his beanie down over his head.
B: Washing Day (Evening)
So it turns out one of the side effects of dumping a bag of dirt out inside a locker is that everything in that locker... becomes covered in dirt. So if you go into one of the bathrooms after 6PM you may see the strange sight of someone in a dirt-dusted purple jacket not-so-gently washing their clothes in one of the sinks with half his face buried into the similarly adorned scarf around his neck, because as furtive as he’s been about waiting for one to be empty it’s just a bathroom and people can just walk in. Ask him how his day is going.
C: Safety In Numbers (Night)
At this point you may see Shin file quietly into whichever room seems to have the most people in it and sit down in a corner or seat. Somewhere he has a good view of the room; if you catch him looking at you he’ll give you a polite smile and glance away, fiddling with his scarf. He’s exhausted, and his head will occasionally dip and jolt back upright as his body tries to collect the day’s debt.
Believe it or not this is him starting to try out that ‘trust’ thing again… or maybe it’s just there’s no dorm rooms he can lock. Baby steps.
2/2
W-wait, Kanna... Is she- Did she- Is she okay?? Did anything happen to her!?
[He was so caught up in the euphoria of Kanna getting to live, that he forgot he left her unprotected in a world where the killing game was still going. And one in which the Sou Hiyori he'd taken his name from was, apparently, floormaster. ]
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He only cared about me. She wants to snap at Sou. He did everything he could to get me to react the ways he wanted. You didn't do anything about that...you were probably glad he wasn't paying attention to you. You told me we were the same kind of person, but he...he...
She'd thought Miley was bad, when she'd tormented Sara on the first floor. Why..she couldn't even remember. Midori had been worse. Every word he said just made Sara feel cold and dirty.
She tilts her head, looking at him with the sort of flat evenness she'd reserved for telling Ranmaru she didn't want her friends to kill.]
Nothing happened to Kanna. The gimmick of that floor was trying to kill him, Sou. He's dead.
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Shin oscillates between giving Sara too much credit and not enough and that's painfully obvious here; if he places them on the same pedestal why wouldn't she be able to hold her own. She's the weirdly powerful high schooler, who he couldn't touch at all even cosplaying Midori. A stronger person than either Shin or Kanna, in his mind.
Still, relief does settle him a bit. Kanna's fine, that's what he wanted.]
I-it can't have been that easy... can it?
[Dead. He's... well he's going to have to process that. Somehow. He has no idea what he's feeling... relief? Disappointment? Loss? Bitterness that he never got to see it, say anything? He knows Midori's little games; 'I know you can't do this, but it'll be fun to see you struggle'. 'If you win it doesn't matter to me'. At the time he'd taken them as challenges.]
It must have been impossibly close.
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[ He thinks she could handle it, and she doesn't dispute it. Doesn't mention the cost to get to that realization, the deaths of the dummies, the panic and nearly losing Keiji. Sou himself begging her to save Gin. Even this softer version of him...probably wouldn't sympathize. She tries to stop out the bitter curl of her thoughts. Its done and over, so she can stop thinking about it.
People who stand strong make better targets. And unlike Shin...Midori wasn't interested in her weakness.
She gives Sou a smile that isn't very nice. ]
He got drilled to bits in one of his own little games. I wish you'd seen it.
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[It's a bit unnerving, actually. But he's absolutely not going to complain about a leopard eating Midori's face, so to speak. He's allowed a little vicarious schadenfreude. Especially since it's his own petard that Midori was apparently hoist by.]
Aha, I'll take hearing about it.
[After all, much as he would have wanted to see it, she knows what it would have meant for him to, and that's the worser outcome for him. His tone is warm, though, before it dips into something more pensive.]
Did you... find anything that might help with escape...?
[Knowing Midori, he might have left some scattered things if he was sure they couldn't or wouldn't actually be used, like dangling a string just out of reach. But given he died, maybe that string would be more accessible than he thought. Escape's a pressing concern for Shin because otherwise... it would just continue to be a slow dwindling of numbers.]
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I'd have to start with the full story of that floor, wouldn't I? [ And she does actually, lean back against the mirror and tell him, vaguely, what happened. She skips over a lot, Ranmaru, Alice, Kanna and his AI. Words that would be rotten to say, or things she just doesn't want him knowing. What's the point, if she's already started this lie to make him like her. She tells him Q-taro sacrificed himself, that Gin put himself in danger in a game, that Keiji was missing and in trouble for a bit. She tells him Midori partnered them up with dolls of the dead participants and played tag with them, and then they played a sort of Russian Roulette with coffins. She doesn't mention most of the dolls died there, but she supposes the implication rests when she notes that they finally figured out he'd switched coffins with Hinako (who'd been with ASU-NARO apparently!) and cheated his way to his death. As dead as he could be, with his hands on Mai and so many other parts of his body unaccounted for. What an awful person.
Its sort of strange telling that last part without mentioning how Shin himself had looked begging Sara to figure something out even after swearing he'd kill her. ]
We haven't found much... [ Maybe because she couldn't work with Shin any longer, or maybe because Midori wouldn't let them alone even for a second. ] The only thing was...a confusing note? Someone named Shinobu Gokujo left a message on the back of ceiling tile. He said he didn't support the killing game and there was a way to escape it. There was a police note saying he was a person of interest. So maybe we have a real ally outside the game, after all?
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The dolls... he's putting that into the little box marked 'feelings about voting for Mishima' that's been kicked under the mental bed. Quite a lot of things are in that one now.]
Shinobu Gokujo... [He's visibly thinking. You might be having some flashbacks to when he dragged you into the computer room, rambled a bit about the password, and then kicked you out, Sara.] Maybe. He didn't say how to escape, after all... [The worst case scenario is that note's all he was able to do. Shin would like it to not be the worst case scenario. Had it been that well hidden, or did any of the floormasters know about it? When was it left? Honestly the most valuable thing about it is it reveals there's ceiling space access. He blinks, and lifts his head.]
Ahaha, what am I doing? Not like we're there, at the moment. [For once they actually have some, infinitely precious, time.]
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But hey, isn't it nice to know even if you die ASU-NARO could just copy you into a thousand grumpy little reminders? ]
Hah! [ Sara snorts into her hand. ] I guess you're right. I was here a whole month and nothing really happened...
[ It's somewhat a lie, there were two murders, but technically they'd been unrelated to Sara or anything really relevent. They'd just...happened. Like these things do. Why bring it up? ]
I guess it only matters if...whatever this is... [ She gestures vaguely. ] Ends...
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...
[If whatever this is ends, that's it for him, no matter how many doll copies of him end up running around. Not a cheery thought in either regard. He does still badly want to live.]
You've got a strange sense of normality, miss Sara. [That's right, he's heard about the once-a-month murders. He believed Legion about that but not the void dimension...] Could it be... you're just that used to death?
[It's not with the level of bite her Sou would have said it with, instead more of that infuriatingly pointed toying tone, but there is an element of the warning shot to it; letting her know that he knows that she knows about them.]
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[ She doesn't step back or flinch, but there is a pause in her words as she delicately taps her fingers on the sink behind her. ]
There aren't votes here... [ Her tone isn't toying, but it is lighter, like a delicate half step around a pothole, a twist of the heel to dodge in kendo. There aren't votes here, and nobody who died was anyone Sara knew. She couldn't even tell you their faces, beyond the girl she investigated on the stairs. The one who had sounded like a bit of a jerk. There aren't votes here, and if people died it wasn't Sara's fault. There weren't votes here, so of course anyone could just hurt you whenever they wanted, and you had to deal with that. ]
...Just avoid someone named Komeada, okay? Everything should work out if we're careful.
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That's right, people are more direct about it here aren't they, aha.
[In the end a vote's just murder with extra steps, isn't it? There's an ever so slight strained break to the laugh that speaks to someone who'd thought: at least it's over. He's going to have to do this again.]
...If we're careful, huh? I'll take your expert advice.
[No he won't. He just wants to avoid talking or thinking about Komaeda right now, because otherwise the two sides of his brain will start screaming at each other yet again. Despite this basically being a bald-faced lie, its not entirely dismissive. Underneath the skepticism there's a tacit, tentative attempt stemming from the slightest stress on that 'we're', because Sou can't ever be directly clear about these things when he means them. Making alliances, Miss Sara?]
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I really mean it. We should work together.
[ Remember when you cornered her with the whole reconcile, thing? The Karma for that is back. She catches that glimmer in his eye and holds it, beseeching. Everything about this conversation is fleeting, and full of lies, and Sara doesn't want to dance around it anymore. She doesn't want him to slip away. ]
People are more direct about it here so...there's no harm in being allies, Sou. [ She tries to think, what could she even offer him. Not much. Information? He'd take it as a threat? Mentions of friends? He'd just assume she'd twisted people around again. What did Sou ever want from her. ] It could be just like...that time.
...I don't want to fight you anymore.
[ It might be the most honest thing she's said to him yet. ]
*sou voice* hang on i have to do some psychic surgery on myself real quick
[He does remember those euphoric moments working together where escape seemed so close, that he's since kicked himself for falling for. Twice over now. Would the third time really be the charm? Escape really is the only option, though. And...
He wants to. That's the thing. He wants to, he genuinely does. There's times when the layers of shell he's constructed around himself feel natural, a part and extension of him, and times, like now, where they feel suffocating and as much of an enclosing as the situation he made them for. Prying it open feels like it's attacking him, or he's attacking himself, fighting over every centimeter of held, exposed air. He looks away from her, because he can't look at her.]
Ahaha... all that... let's call it water under the bridge.
[Bundle things up nice and neat and pretend they didn't happen. He's done that for advantage before, hasn't he? It's fine. First main game? What's that? Looking at it that way, this is a massive opportunity, and not a mistake. It's all about how you see it.
She's right in that directly offering anything would put the guard and hackles he's struggling to keep down back up again. Despite the proffered facade of a cleared slate for both of them, the resume of her past actions is what's speaking for her now, and, well... she saved Kanna.
That's a big weight to put on one side of the scales.]
I look forward to working with you, Miss Sara. [He says, like this is a job interview.] I'd ask if you want to shake on it but... [THAT RECONCILIATION KARMA] Why don't we just high-five instead.
[Something about that same customer service grin is more genuine, clear-eyed when he holds up his hand. He half expects her to just leave him hanging.]
they did surgery on (a grape) dis mans trauma
[ She saved Kanna...Oh if only you knew. He'd spit in her face and leave her right here, for what she let happen to Kanna. ]
So formal...
[ She doesn't leave him hanging at all. The high five is pretty gentle (Sou is a delicate guy, so he probably wouldn't like the type of all out high fives she'd once shared with..), but it happens. It feels warm. ]
Haha...! Now you're the chipper one!?
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Even with her being gentle it still stings a bit, ow. But that's just him. He shakes it out and returns the hand to it's customary place on his scarf.]
That's my line! Don't expect this kind of energy often, though...
[YOU REALLY GOT HIM WITH THE OL BUDDY OL PAL UNO REVERSE CARD THAT TIME THANKS FOR REMINDING HIM. AGONY. SHAME. HE TAKES IT ALL BACK.]
Aha, since we're doing this... Well, a hallway's a bad place for a strategy meeting. [That's right Sara, you get ~strategy meetings~ now. You have unlocked this social link rank. Outside the immediate concern of a death game the nerdery of it is a little more clear.] I'm sure you know more than I do, as it is...
[The whole thing with the void proved it. The hand in his jacket pocket stings. It's a vulnerable feeling, knowing everyone else knows far more than you, stuck playing catchup in a world you don't understand. An unpleasantly familiar one. Revealing it doesn't feel great either, but what's that saying Sara's so fond of? Distrust to trust? Tip your hand to get more cards or something. Maybe. It worked with Legion. It's... painfully obvious anyway. Still, he's in good humor.] I'll keep looking around but... In the meantime... is there anyone else I should know about? [He's fishing, just a bit. He wants to see if she'll mention Natsume as well.]